Ward Christensen - 1945/10/23 - 2024/10/11 (78 years)

Ward Christensen was a pioneer whose contributions laid the foundation for much of the online world we know today. His passing on October 11, 2024, marks the loss of a visionary who, alongside Randy Suess, helped create the first bulletin board system (BBS), a groundbreaking innovation that connected people in ways never before imagined.

Back in 1978, when the idea of communicating with others via a computer was still in its infancy, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess saw an opportunity to leverage their technical knowledge to build something transformative. They created the CBBS, or Computerised Bulletin Board System, in Chicago during a particularly harsh winter. That vision not only pioneered what would eventually evolve into today’s online forums, message boards, and social media platforms but also helped foster a sense of community among early computer enthusiasts.

Scaling Up: Migrating Our Mastodon Media Storage to DigitalOcean Spaces

Hello again!

It’s been a few months since launching our Mastodon instance, and I’m delighted with how well everything has been going. Our community has grown, and the interactions have been engaging and meaningful. I am thrilled to see such vibrant conversations and connections blossoming in our space.

However, with this growth came a pleasant challenge: our local storage quickly filled up with all the media files shared by our users. Photos, videos, and other media-rich posts were becoming increasingly difficult to manage with the limited local storage we initially set up.

Join the Conversation: Launching Our Mastodon Instance

Hello there!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our very own Mastodon instance! For those unfamiliar, Mastodon is a decentralised social network where users can post, follow, and interact in a space that prioritises privacy and community control. Think of it as a breath of fresh air in the social media landscape, offering a more personal and secure way to connect with others.

Introduction:

In our previous blog post, we explored how to use the getcap command in Linux to identify binaries with dangerous capabilities that could potentially be exploited for privilege escalation. In this follow-up post, we will delve into leveraging the power of GTFOBins (Get The F**k Out Binary) to escalate privileges using these identified binaries. GTFOBins provides a curated list of Unix binaries and their abuse potential, opening up avenues for privesc. Let’s dive in!

Introduction:

Privilege escalation is a critical concern in Linux system security. One common avenue for achieving privilege escalation is through exploitable binaries. In this blog post, we will explore how to utilise the getcap command in Linux to identify binaries that possess dangerous capabilities, providing potential opportunities for privesc.

What is getcap?

The getcap command is used to retrieve the file capabilities of binaries in Linux systems. File capabilities are a feature introduced to enhance security by providing specific permissions to execute certain operations without requiring full root privileges. However, if misconfigured or utilised improperly, these capabilities can become security vulnerabilities.

Here are the JBucks (J$) stats for users in MRC

UP qUAntUm RaDio! Internet radio station UP tqwNet UK HUB tqwNet UK echomail hub/primary hub UP tqwNet AU HUB tqwNet AU echomail hub UP tqwNet CA HUB tqwNet CA echomail hub UP thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE The BBS that started all of this UP dYslExIc dOnkEy My Enigma 1/2 learning UP tqwKDX thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE KDX Server UP tqwKDX Tracker thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE KDX Tracker UP SearxNG tqwNet’s own search engine (not google) UP qUAntOdOn tqwNet’s own fediverse instance UP

Current tqwNet Service Status

(Updated: 2023-01-01 00:00:00)

The 8-Bit Revolution: How We’ve Been Doing It All Wrong

It’s time to admit it, folks. We’ve been sold a lie. The so-called “progress” of technology that has led us from 16-bit computers to 32-bit and now 64-bit machines has been nothing but a giant step backwards. The future of computing lies not in more bits, but in fewer. That’s right, I’m talking about the glorious return of the 8-bit computer.

RISC-V: The Future of Computing?

Are you tired of being held hostage by the monopolies of ARM and x86? Well, fear not my friends, because the future of computing is here, and it’s called RISC-V.

You may be thinking, “But wait, I’ve never heard of RISC-V before. What is it?” Well, let me tell you, RISC-V is a revolutionary open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) that is taking the tech world by storm.

TQW Goes Dark!

Today I have added a tor address for thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, that you can now use for connecting to via telnet or ssh. The address to use is this; tfrsgnjhf4lywcl34qrcwiqvybuq46lhs5pltzkwlsghziumcsbfeoyd.onion