Free of charge web-based photo geo-location - Exif data cleaning

Digital photo files contain exif data. Typical items within exif data are camera model, date and time of the picture, and, if taken with a GPS-enabled device, also the GPS coordinates where the photo was taken. If that is the case, how can we geo-locate a picture?

The Exif Firefox Add-on is an easy way to read exif data. Once you have access to the GPS coordenates, the process is easy. Here we present the steps to geo-locate free of charge (and web-based) a photo:

From GPS coordinates to a real physical location:
- Go to tomtom routes and add the GPS coordinates as shown below,

For the reverse process, from a real physical location to GPS coordinates:
- Go to gpscoordinates.eu and enter the physical location as shown below,

A quick way to delete exif data in your pictures is opening them with GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, and saving them again unticking the advanced option of "save exif data".

Happy geo-location!

Sound in Ubuntu 10.04 - Security videos and podcasts

Willing to enjoy security videos or podcasts such as the following ones?

Videos
- irongeek
- owasp
- schmoocon

Podcasts
- pauldotcom
- risky business
- eurotrash
- social engineer

... and, for whatever reason, your new installation of Ubuntu 10.04 does not provide you with sound in your laptop or desktop? Try this one:

user@machine:~$ sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer
user@machine:~$ gnome-alsamixer

This alsa-related sound app offers you a way to, usually successfully, control your speakers and micro in an easy manner. Pay special attention to the PCM control feature.

Happy listening!

By the way, does your machine enter into power saving mode while watching security videos? That is annoying. Try caffeine, a little python app.

Itsecuriteer in twitter

Starting IT security and IT tweets here
Happy following ;-)

Decrypting AES-encrypted zip files

7-Zip, available here with a GNU LGPL license, is capable of encrypting and decrypting with AES while compressing and decompressing files.

Once you install 7z in a Linux box (e.g. with the command line $ sudo apt-get install p7zip-full), the entire documentation on how to use the tool can be found locally in the path

/usr/share/doc/p7zip-full/DOCS/MANUAL/index.htm .

Some examples of command lines:

- to decrypt all docs while decompressing a zip file:
$ 7z e Zipfilename *.doc -r
- to create an encrypted zip file (or to add to an existing one):
$ 7z a Zipfilename -ppassword file.tozip
- to extract an encrypted zip file:
$ 7z x Zipfilename -ppassword

Happy 7z use!

Security Bloggers Network

Dear readers,

This blog is now reachable from the security bloggers network. If you go to their site, the link appears on the right hand side, in the list of contributors.

Thanks to Alan Shimel, Chief Executive Officer of The CISO Group.