More Zonkyness

Blog

  • Around Portsmouth

    Just a few more random photos from around Portsmouth :-

    #1: The Reflected Tower

    The Reflected Tower

    #2: The Lighthouse

    The Lighthouse

    #3: Looming Out Of The Mist

    Looming Out Of The Mist

    That strange looking thing sitting on a cushion of mist is a ferry arriving.

  • More Guerilla Knitting In Portsmouth

    From quite some time ago :-

    Guerilla Knitting 2

  • Offline Web Application Scanners?

    This is at least partially an appeal for information – if anyone knows of a web application scanner that does what I describe here, please let me know!

    All the web application scanners I have come across so far seem to only try “online” scanning where the work is done by connecting to a web server using the same method as someone with a web browser would use. Or in other words the scanning tools replicate what an attacker might do. Hardly the wrong thing to do – it is probably the best method given that so much can only be determined by going through the web server.

    In addition, there are also tools to scan the source code of web applications that you have written yourself. These pick out bits of the application that could do with looking at. Fair enough for a web developer, but I’m after something a bit different.

    What I want is a tool that will when given the directory containing the website, will go through it looking for weaknesses like the following :-

    1. Look for problems with the permissions – such as directories and files writeable by the web server owner.
    2. Look for common applications and components – such as WordPress – and identify them, and indicate whether they’re out of date or not.
    3. Look for signs of exploits – PHP ‘shells’ and the like.
    4. Look for content that isn’t linked to as an indication that it shouldn’t be present.

    Of course most people could think of a few more things to add to that list! It would be a handy additional source of information when it comes to securing a website.

  • Gay Marriage? Why Not?

    Given that I’m not exactly a fan of state-sanctioned marriage and in the unlikely event of me marrying someone, it is not going to be a man (sorry guys!), I’m pretty disinterested in if gay marriage becomes legal or not. Just like anyone else who is heterosexual, the only effect that legal homosexual marriage has on me is that I might just find myself attending such a marriage as a guest.

    But given that it makes no great difference to me, I’m in favour of the recent plans of the UK government to legalise gay marriage – if something has no harmful effects on anyone else, why should it be illegal? If two people want to make the public commitment of marriage, what right has anyone to forbid that?

    The religious conservatives are up in arms about the plans of course – anything that sanctions anything to do with homosexuality is going to cause them to come out of the churches up in arms, and frothing at the mouth.
    Of course they have a perfect right to protest against this. And they have a perfect right to forbid homosexual marriage amongst their own congregations.

    But they do not have the right to impose their views on the rest of us.

  • House Of The Rising Sun: Frijid Pink Or Sinead ?

    Is it :-

    Or :-