How to create secure passwords you can remember | Security Central - InfoWorld

So I decided to take a little hiatus for the holidays... and for the beginning of the semester.  Can you blame me?  I am still working on my blogging rhythm, and how it fits into my life.  When you work with technology, sometimes (or most of the time) there is so much to do that time just flies by.  I did have some thoughts to share today, however.


Today I read an interesting article about passwords. 
How to create secure passwords you can remember | Security Central - InfoWorld

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I will admit that I am that first person to comment on the article.  I thought that this article raises some good points.  Most of the time when you are confronted with a password-creating situation, it's hard to really think of what you want to use.  It's much easier when you think about what you would like to do ahead of time.  I had posted in the comment section that what I like to do is commit a new password to muscle memory.  Someone responded to my comment saying that some corporations have a password changing policy to be so frequent that muscle memory would be useless.  We are working on a password changing policy in our organization, but I don't think it will be as frequent as I believe the thirty-day default is in Active Directory.  Still, I can see where committing passwords to muscle memory would have its uses.

I also like the tip number 4, of using a password based on a favorite song or movie phrase.  I have been using that idea for years!  You want something that means something to you, without it really being connected to personal information about you.  That's a good way to think about inspirations for passwords.

One final note is that I know for web passwords, I like to use a handful, with different security levels based on the usage.  If the site has a lot of personal information and credit card information, I like to use a more secure password.  If a site needs a password so that you can just access the content, without really having much information about you stored, then I use one of my less secure standbys.  Aviod using plain words, especially with personal information, at all costs.  At least these are my thoughts on passwords.  What are yours?

VBScript for changing a computer's name

I am working on some scripts that will help us check and make sure our computer names in Windows are consistent with our computer names in DNS. Included here is a script that just changes the name of a computer to one that you specify in an input box, after also telling you the current computername in Windows. Then once you put in the new name, it asks you if you want to restart so that the change takes affect, and then restarts your computer. This script was written for 32-bit Windows XP. I will admit that I got a lot of the ideas from books and the web, but pretty much wrote this myself. I hope this will be useful to some folks.  I also have to apologize for some of the formatting; some of the lines were longer for my code than the blog editor here can take. 

' This program is written to find the existing computername of a Windows Computer, display it to the user, and then ask the user for a new computername.

' Then the script changes the computername to the one entered by the user and reboots Windows.

'we define our variables here

option explicit

dim strComputerName

dim wshShell

dim vInput

dim vResult

dim sReg1

dim sReg2

dim vInputU

dim vMsg

'These are the registry keys used to change the computername later on

sReg1 = "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName\ComputerName\"

sReg2 = "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\ParameterS\"

'These lines get the computername from Windows

Set wshShell = WScript.CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" )

strComputerName = wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings( "%COMPUTERNAME%" )

'And here we get the computername registered in DNS

'Here we ask the user for the new computername

vInput =  InputBox("The current computer name in Windows is  " & strComputerName & ".  Please enter a new name:","Computer Name")

'If the user enters "Cancel"

If vInput = -1 Or vInput = "" Then

    vMsg = MsgBox ("You have canceled operation.", 16, "Good Bye")    'this message appears

Else ' IF the user did not cancel

    vResult = MsgBox("You have entered " & vInput & ". Is this correct?", 292, "Computer Name") 'We verify what the user typed

    If vResult = vbNo Then        'if the typed computername is not verified by the user

        vInput =  InputBox("The current computer name is " & strComputerName & ". Please enter a new name:","Computer Name")    'we ask for the user's input again

            If vInput = -1 Or vInput = "" Then    ' and if the user clicks "cancel" this time

                vMsg = MsgBox ("You have canceled operation.", 16, "Good Bye")    'this message appears

            Else    ' The user clicks "OK"

                vResult = MsgBox("You have entered " & vInput & ". Is this correct?", 292, "Computer Name") 'we ask for the user to verify again

                If vResult = vbNo Then        'if the user does not verify again

                    vMsg = MsgBox ("Sorry.  Try running the program again.", 48, "Good Bye")    'then the program exits with this message

                End If

               

            End If

'at this point vResult should now be 6 if verified above and the following else clause should kick in

    Else     'if the typed computername is then verified by the user

        If vResult <> "" Then    'and if we don't have a null computername

            vInputU = UCase(vInput)    'we put the new computername into upper case

            wshShell.RegWrite sReg1 & "ComputerName", vInputU ' and modify the appropriate keys in the registry

            wshShell.RegWrite sReg2 & "NV Hostname", vInputU

            vMsg = MsgBox ("The computer name has changed.  Would you like to restart?", 36, "Success!") 'this tells you the naming was successful and asks if you want to restart

                If vMsg = vbYes Then            ' if the user wants to restart and clicks "Yes"

                    wshShell.Run "C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -r -t 0"        'then the computer restarts

                End If

        Else ' if we have a blank username entered

            MsgBox "Invalid input.  Run program again."        'this message appears

        End If

    End If       

End If

VB Script Update

Well, this won't have a lot of detail, but I felt like posting something.

I found that it was indeed feasible to add an extra WINS server to DHCP, so that scripting idea was scrapped. However, I am now working on a project to allow you to check what a computer's name is, and then change it through a text box. We will see how it will work out...

Why my head sometimes wants to explode

I found out the following the hard way today.

Right now we are in the middle of an Active Directory migration. I have Windows computers in our classrooms that authenticate to the old SunONE LDAP using an open-source product called pGina. The computers are joined to the domain, but most users don't have domain accounts yet.

A faculty member could not log into the classroom computer. A pGina error spit out "An unknown error has prevented your account from being created.\n\rThis may be due to policy or security settings as well as other machine configuration.\n\rPlease consult your administrator." Remember that no user object exists in AD for this user, so there are no password policies set in this case. He is also authenticating to SunONE. When I tested his username and password on a computer running pGina but not joined to the domain, I had no problems.

What we found is that the logins didn't like the dollar sign at the end of his password. We temporarily changed his password and found it worked, and then changed it back where it had problems again. I suggested to him that he change his password permanently.

It's weirdness like this that makes technology interesting. Or difficult. Take your pick.

VB Scripting N00b

Back when I was in college, a few years back, I studied a lot of computer programming (C, C++, Java, and yes, COBOL!) but I decided to work in tech support and later systems administration. With the kind of work I've had to do, I will have to admit that my coding skills are rather rusty. Due to some changes in my job, I have come to the realization that I really have to work on my scripting skills.

In the Windows world, I understand that it is preferable to learn Powershell and not bother with VBScript if you aren't really familiar with a scripting language. However, I have a task that I want to accomplish and all the client computers are running Windows XP. It's impractical to install Powershell on hundreds of XP clients just to run a script! Therefore, I will be working with VBScript.

I have decided to use Notepad++ as my editor, and have been reading VBScript, WMI, and ADSI Unleashed: Using VBScript, WMI, and ADSI to Automate Windows® Administration, Second Edition by Don Jones.

What is my main task? I would like to add three IP addresses to the list of WINS servers for the active ethernet adapter on a computer. Once the WINS servers are set, I have another .vbs script I would like to run, calling on a third-party program. I have already tried doing this using a batch file with a netsh command, but my concern is that the active network adapter won't always be "Local Area Connection" and I want the end user to be exposed to as few errors as possible. The Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration WMI class looks like it has some promise, but right now I'm not totally sure how to make it work for me. I guess I have some more reading to do!

Hello!

Hi, I am trying again this blogging thing. It seems like most folks who are serious about technology have a blog. I would like to be considered serious about technology, so therefore here is my blog.

In my work I take care of such a wide variety of technologies, it's staggering! I am definitely a jack of all trades, and master of none. This means that I am one of you, those people who are trying to figure things out to keep the technology running, instead of an "expert" (although my users sometime think otherwise, lol!)

Thanks a lot for reading this! I hope to really get something going this time!