You guys sent in a ton of ideas for Windows optimization tools after one of my earlier HakTips. I’ve listed some of my favorites!

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#1 is Revo Uninstaller. Matt says, like the name says, it’s a program that uninstalls programs, but it goes beyond that too. Before you uninstall anything, it creates a restore point, scans for files and registry entries that the program uses and launches the program’s uninstaller. When it’s all done uninstalling, Revo checks again for files and registry entries. If it finds them, it asks you if you want to delete them. This program also comes in a portable version.

#2 is DiskMax. Andre says, one thing that killed a lot more useless files and somehow speeded up more than the others, I think is “”DiskMax”" by Koshy John, which I use on every pc in the family, because they are getting ugly slow.

#3 is SmartDefrag. Francisco writes in with this one and says, I would like to recommend SmartDefrag as another utility to keep your computer optimized for optimum performance. That was redundant.

#4 is sent in by Bryan and also comes from the iobit.com website. He says, another great free utility is Advanced SystemCare 4 (which was also sent in by Alex). Iobit has free Malware Remover, Free Defrag, Free File Shredder, etc. All are great and free. Or you can go old school with Diskcleaner for a quick and easy clean.

#5 is another cleaner sent in by Pete. He states I think I found a few tools that can belly up to the competition the first is a cleaning tool called Fcleaner. I found it to be a better tool so far compared to CCleaner. It seemed to speed up my computer a considerable amount.

#6 was sent in by Nick. He says, just wanted to recommend Soluto to speed up start up, it’s a time brilliant program. Sean also sent this in, stating: This is an optimization software which gives you insight on the internal processes of your windows PC. With this program you are notified of which programs, plugins, and services that are slowing your PC’s boot time and your browser. It has a fresh interface and shows promise in future releases.

BenjaminD says use msconfig! Personally, I find msconfig to be one of the best (and only) good tools that Windows has built into their machines for as long as I can remember. With it, you can choose what programs can startup on boot, and you can control the programs that are running in the background.

Another simple tip sent in by William is Open a DOS prompt and delete the temp files. Type cd\ del *.tmp /s – It is a great way to clean out the junk, or you can create a scheduled task to do it for you.

A lot more were sent in by you guys, like Auslogics boostspeed, Ultimate Windows Tweaker, Tweak Now Power Pack 2011, and Network Utilization just to name a few! But alas, my time is up and I must bid you farewell.

Until the next HakTip I want to hear your feedback. What program or command is giving your PC a boost? Let me know what you think or what program you use by emailing me — tips@hak5.org or send me a note in the comments below.

And be sure to check out our sister show, Hak5 for more great stuff just like this.

This demonstration Mubix joins us to add persistance to our penetration testing with a little Metasploit, Microsoft, and IP version 6.

Bind shells went to the wayside with the dawn of firewalls and NAT, but IPv6 was nice enough to bring them back. With the help of some built in tools from good old Redmond and our trusty Meterpreter, we can now connect to our shell any time we please. Based on his Revenge of the Bind Shell presentation we dive into the tools and techniques required to traverse firewalls and maintain persistence.

Shannon after hijacking someone else’s set brings us the Stoned Bootkit.

The Stoned Bootkit resides ing the windows Master Boot Record and will work on Windows versions from 2000 up to 7. It has integrated file system drivers, automatic Windows pwning, plugins, boot applications support, essentially being a frame work for some sweet windows hacks.

This week Shannon taps into a hidden Kindle serial port using a inty bitsy ribbon cable, a USB to Serial TTL cable and some jumpers in an attempt to hack root and finds herself upon the bootloader and nearly at a bash prompt. Darren guides you through the installation of VPN servers on Windows XP, Windows Server and Linux so you can keep your traffic secure in an encrypted tunnel while on untrusted networks.

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Hacking into the Kindle Bootloader Part 1

This week, I’m introducing the bootloader Kindle 1st gen hack.

Equipment:
Kindle 1st Generation
A computah!
USB to Serial TTL Cable
20 pin 0.5 mm flat cable
1 pin Jumper cables

Programs:
Putty

Igor Skochinsky explains how to hack into the bootloader of the Kindle very nicely on his blog, Reverse Everything. He includes screenshots, photos, and descriptions of everything you need to know to do this hack.
Part 1
Part 2

If you have any questions, you can email me at snubs@hak5.org!

Windows VPN Servers

In this segment I demonstrate setting up a VPN server in Windows XP which is rather limited at 1 concurrent connection. I also demonstrate building a Routing and Remote Access VPN server in Windows Server 2003.

Open Source VPN Server

I’m a big fan of open source. I’m also an overwhelmed systems administrator that likes easy. And when it comes to VPNs in Linux, OpenVPN is the go to solution. That’s why I’m excited about OpenVPN Access Server — an set of installation and configuration tools that simplifies rapid deployment of a VPN solution.

In this segment I demonstrate setting up this nifty, lightweight and powerful server in a typical home user scenario. I also speak to the fact that it can integrate with Active Directory via LDAP or even a RADIUS server for authentication. The web based backend makes administration a breeze and the web frontend makes client setup even easier. All the clients have to do is login to a website and download a prepackaged and configured connection app for Windows, Mac or Linux.

This package makes it incredibly easy to deploy a VPN server. But it comes at a cost. OpenVPN-AS requires a license key for each concurrent connection. Two are provided for free and additional licenses are $10 ea. Still a far cry from a windows Client Access License!

In future segments we’ll be getting our hands dirty with OpenVPN standard as well as some other interesting VPN technologies so be sure to send your feedback, requests and flames to darren@hak5.org

In this first episode of ’09 Dave Randolph joins us to geek out about all things video. Darren whips up a Password Cracking Cocktail and shows off a wicked fast MD5 brute force tool that harnesses the power of your Nvidia graphics card. Shannon saves the day by recovering her sisters Windows password with Ophcrack Live. And Evil Server gets his evil on while we were away on holiday.

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Show Notes

MD5 Brute Forcing with your graphics card

Since Nvidia released the CUDA API for Windows, Mac and Linux a number of advances have taken place in the world of brute forcing. In this episode I feature a tool by Svarychevski Michail Aleksandrovich that claims to be the world’s fastest MD5 cracker — BarsWF

Using the brute forcer with a couple Nvidia 8 series or newer graphics cards you’re able to achieve unprecidented speeds. I’ve seen claims of nearly 4 billion hashes per second with quad SLI.

CUDA has also spurred other developments, such as this NTLM brute forcer for Linux.

In my segment I go into the very basics of password cracking theory and MD5 hashes with some simple scenarios. My aim is to provide a fundamental understanding of the concepts. If you’re interested in reading more I suggest starting here.

–Darren Kitchen

Windows Password Recovery with Ophcrack Live USB

Recovering Windows Passwords coulnd’t be easier with Ophcrack Live on USB. Whether it’s your sister’s forgotten XP account or [insert other legit reason] a little USB booting and Rainbow Table loving’s got you covered.

Preparing an Ophcrack USB key is as simple as formatting your drive for FAT32 with the HP USB format tool. Downloading and launching USBOphcrack.exe and running the included batch file. The program will download a small set of rainbow tables and prepare your USB drive.

For even higher password recovering accuracy I recommend finding a larger set of Ophcrack compatible rainbow tables. Or if you’re feeling adventerous why not try out the Hak5 community rainbow tables — a whopping 120GB of NTLM goodness.

–Shannon Morse

Be sure to follow one of us on Twitter if you’ll be at CES this week. We’ll be there finding all the best hackable gadgets!

In this episode of Hak.5 Wess builds a mini arcade cabinet for under $100, Harrison attacks SSL with Whoppix, Darren defends himself by setting up a VPN server on XP, and Jon & Harrison take on buffer overflows with beer. Plus an interview with a Goldeneye Source developer, exclusive in-game video, and more Microshaft than you can wave a rounded IDE cable at. Special guest intro by Jenn Cutter from OpenAlpha and new theme music by Ashley Witt.

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Length: 34:30

In this episode of Hak.5 we show you how to install a 12-volt accessory outlet in your case, add a webcam to the light script, keep your taskbar clean with a free utility, manage the Windows XP firewall from the command line, create a leet external hard drive case, and install a unix-like disk image over a network. Plus a special interview with an Internet Icon.
 

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Length: 32:30