Updated : Proxmox pve 5.2-5 (and Proxmox 6.x) disable subscription nag

In Proxmox pve 5.2-5 (and Proxmox 6.x) the location of the file that renders the subscription notification has changed.

It is now '/usr/share/javascript/proxmox-widget-toolkit/proxmoxlib.js'

To disable the message locate the line

" if (data.status !== 'Active') { "

 and comment it out, then add the line

"  if (false) { "

 directly below the one you just commented out.

The section will look like this 

var data = response.result.data;
               //if (data.status !== 'Active') {
               if (false) {
                   Ext.Msg.show({
                       title: gettext('No valid subscription'),

This will not magically give you a full subscription, but it will stop the message popping up

Samsung Android 8.0, How to disable Bixby

Finally after having to use 3rd party apps to suppress Bixby for many many months, I have found a way of disabling it which :-

A > does not need a Samsung account
B > does works even on the latest update (as of 22/4/2018)
C > persists across reboots
D > does not require a 3rd party app
E > does not need root access

the process is as follows,

1> connect to the device over adb from your computer (note you need adb tools for this https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html)

2> access the device shell (adb shell)

3> disable the apps with the following commands
      pm disable-user com.samsung.android.bixby.agent
      pm disable-user com.samsung.android.bixby.es.globalaction
      pm disable-user com.samsung.android.bixby.wakeup
      pm disable-user com.samsung.android.bixby.plmsync
      pm disable-user com.samsung.android.bixby.voiceinput
      pm disable-user com.samsung.systemui.bixby
      pm disable-user com.samsung.android.bixby.agent.dummy

Bixby should no longer open when pressing the button on the side of the phone

Windows server 2008 R2 and OSCP

So I was working on cleaning up some CAs and subCAs recently and came across this interesting bit of info.

An Online Responder can be installed on any computer running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, or Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

so whilst a CA won't stop you / warn you about enabling OSCP links in the AIA section, it will only work if the specified http:// link defined in the AIA section is hosted on a ENT or DC version of server 2008 R2, and if you enable OSCP via the link then various systems will take that as preferred then fail if the responder service is not running.

ref https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725937%28v=ws.11%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

UniFi / Ubiquiti Networks - How to set managment VLAN for switch

Ever wondered how to configure a UniFi switch to use a different VLAN (1 is the default) for its management interface ?

Well today I ran into that exact problem, the existent management VLAN was 16 so obviously having the switch's management interface on VLAN 1 was no good.

After a fair bit of searching google and the Ubiquiti Networks forums I was beginning to lose hope! , it seemed no one knew how to change it, there was even a feature request post asking for the very feature I was now in need of.

However I persevered and dug through both the CLI of the switch and the cloud key management controller interface until ....... I found the needed option, tucked away under the services heading of the configuration tab of the switch.

so here is an image of it 

I hope this helps some of you out in the future.

Remote reboot over IPC

Rebooting remote systems can normally be done using ' shutdown /i ' however this runs in your locally logged in user context.

So what if you want to use a username and password that is not understood by your local system. I came across that issue today and the solution is quite simple ... but you have to know it can be done.

first establish a IPC connection to the target system

NET USE \\<TargetSystemIP/Name>\IPC$ <UserPassword> /USER:<Domain>\<UserName>

then issue the reboot command via that

shutdown /r /t 3 /c " <comment for reboot> " /m \\<TargetSystemIP/Name>

wait a moment and the target system will reboot

Azue MFA web SDK, server 2008R2 and TLS 1.0

In my last post I mentioned that IIS remote manager does not work if you turn off TLS 1.0.

Well now I've found another, the azure MFA WebSDK and MAF mobile app server both need TLS 1.0 to make them work.

Ref https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/documentation/articles/multi-factor-authentication-get-started-server-webservice/

note how MS say nothing about TLS 1.0 being needed on the install page, however it turns out you have to keep both client and server TLS 1.0 protocols enabled on the servers to make it work.

I'm not sure if this is the problem with MFA affects server 2012 R2 as well, but given that the IIS remote manger bug affects all IIS versions up to 8.5 at a minimum I would not be surprised if it did.

IIS remote managment and TLS restrictions

Recently I came across a strange problem with IIS remote management and TLS/SSL protocol restriction.

I was setting up some IIS servers for use with Microsoft Azure MFA and thus after the basic setup was done I looked to hardening the web interface (well it is for an authentication system) so I turned off all the SSL protocols and also TLS1.0 as they have known vulnerability.

That done I moved on to other tasks and never tried to access the systems via IIS remote manager, until a few days back, when I wanted to check some settings on the MFA webSDK web app I had just added to the systems (note the servers run 2008R2 core thus have no GUI IIS manager on them).

As you can imagine I was some what perplexed that the IIS remote manager would not connect. RDP, powershell, remote mmc connections all worked so why did IIS manager not ?

After quite a lot of searching and getting the correct search terms in line, I found this forum thread.

http://forums.iis.net/t/1230207.aspx?IIS+8+5+Management+Services+and+disabling+TLS+1+0

and it turns out that disabling TLS1.0 breaks IIS remote management, so if you ever get a message like

The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred

then it may be an idea to check what TLS options are enabled on the server you are trying to connect to.