A comprehensive example showing how to use the Python client with a service account to access Google Drive API v3
Service account credentials with the Python client for the Google Drive API (v3) Read More »
“MySQL Server has gone away” is a cryptic error that can be hard to troubleshoot (look at all the various responses on Stack Overflow!) Many problems can cause this error; I would like to document one specific case. In this example, the client is a PHP app using the Phalcon framework: [Mon, 09 Apr 18
General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away Read More »
StackDriver Logging is a great feature of Google Compute Engine (GCE). You pretty much need a centralized logging solution if you are taking maximum advantage of the features offered by GCE. For example, most production applications will run on a cluster of web servers. If you set up the cluster as a managed instance group
Viewing logs for a cluster of instances on Google Stackdriver Logging Read More »
“Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is an attack that forces an end user to execute unwanted actions on a web application in which they’re currently authenticated” (OWASP definition) CSRF is related to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), but does not require the execution of Javascript or any other front-end code. In fact, APIs are increasingly vulnerable to CSRF
Protecting a RESTful JSON API from a CSRF attack Read More »
On October 15, 2017, security researcher Mathy Vanhoef announced the discovery of KrackAttacks, a serious flaw in the WPA2 encryption protocol that encrypts most WiFi connections. Using this method, an attacker can decrypt traffic from almost any wireless access point (WAP) and clients. Every WiFi access point will need to be upgraded with patch that prevents
Upgrade Ubiquiti UniFi Access Points (WAP) now to avoid KrackAttack Read More »
When you run yum upgrade on a CentOS/RedHat 7 instance, you will be upgraded to 7.4. If you have a FreeRADIUS server, you will be upgraded from version 2 to 3, and your server will likely stop authenticating! Good times! Fortunately, the solution was not complicated for us, because we had good documentation. Symptoms Your
Warning: CentOS/RedHat 7.4 installs FreeRADIUS 3 with breaking changes Read More »
It can confusing when you have multiple persistent disks on an instance running on Google Compute Engine. For example, a server may have separate disks for the filesystem root, MySQL data, logs, and /tmp. Once you’ve created the Compute Engine disks and attached each one to the instance, how do you know which Compute Engine
Managing persistent disks on Google Compute Engine Read More »
I’ve migrated my blog from GoDaddy to a paid plan with WordPress.com. I decided to trade flexibility for simplicity, since I don’t want to spend time fiddling around with the administration of this site. When I spend all day on IT, doing IT for a blog is no longer on my list of hobbies. With
Migration from GoDaddy to WordPress.com hosting Read More »
The Historical Answer With Windows NT, prior to the advent of Active Directory, there was one Primary Domain Controller (DC) per domain, and every other DC was a Backup. The Modern Answer When Active Directory was introduced with Windows 2000, domain controllers became fully multi-master. There is no primary domain controller. However, there are two
Is there a “Primary Domain Controller” in Active Directory? Read More »
Assumption: You have SELinux Enforcing on your database server. If you’re still solving problems by permanently setting SELinux to Permissive, I don’t think you can really call yourself an IT professional. Here are the commands to set the SELinux context of all text MySQL log files to var_log_t so that they can be rotated by
MySQL/MariaDB, logrotate, and SELinux Read More »