I have been meaning to write up a short post about this for a while, but thanks to the start of a new school term I have been a bit busy.
If you have seen the security news in the last month or so you will know that RSA-768, a 768bit or 232 decimal digit asymmetric key, has been broken (factored). This has important security repercussions for all of us because it is these public key algorithms like RSA, or ElGamal, that guard our online transactions, and e-mail conversations.
I honestly don’t remember how I came across this awesome project but I am certainly glad I did! XMLVM is a software toolchain which is designed to take cross-compilation to a whole new level. Rather than just offer OS portability, XMLVM is able to actually offer OS, hardware and programming language portability.
Here’s how it works: you write a program in a programming language of your choice, say .NET. Once compiled you send it through the first step of XMLVM which analyzes the produced CIL and creates an XML document out of it.
Well GPG to be more accurate 😉
As my existing key was set to expire at the end of this year I have issued myself a brand new one! After much though I finally decided that creating a new key from scratch was the best idea, rather than simply adding a new subkey, because I wanted to move away from DSA/ElGamal toward RSA primarily because of the weakening of SHA1. If this all sounds like gibberish to you then don’t worry, the details aren’t nearly as important as the security provided by my new key.
That’s right an update to your favourite hash verification program! 😛
This update includes a few new features that some of you might find useful. It also includes help documentation which walks you through how to use it!
New Features
Menu strip for even easier use Export features allows you to automatically write all of the hashes to a single file About dialog that provides information about the program Help documentation Requirements:
As someone who has recently begun to experiment with the Linux operating system I have also been introduced to .NET’s Linux’s cousin Mono. This has made me question what the best cross-platform program language to use is. I am familiar with both Java and various .NET languages (Visual Basic & C#) so I decided to run a few tests to see what the resource usage on my Linux laptop is like between these two competing platforms.
Well its almost time for me to create a new PGP key. My current key for tyler at tylerburton dot ca is set to expire at the end of the year and I am trying to determine what the best way to migrate to a new key is. Some people suggest simply adding a new encryption sub key and then changing the original signing key’s expiry date so that individuals wishing to verify your signatures can continue to do so uninterrupted.
Some of you may remember an old Windows program of mine called Hash Verifier. It was a graphical utility that allowed people to generate hashes of their files, and then compare those to known hashes, ensuring that their files had not been corrupted. Well in recent months my foray into the world of Linux has finally taken me into the realm of programming on that platform. Being primarily a .NET developer on Windows I have found the Mono project on Linux to be an absolute breath of fresh air.
As a long time Windows user I have had my fair share of dull, gray toolbars, buttons and controls. Prior to Windows Vista, Microsoft’s first real attempt to pretty up the system – sorry XP, making the taskbar blue just doesn’t cut it – I even looked to Mac OSX with some jealousy.
Flash forward to The Linux Experiment and I have been introduced to a whole new set of environment graphics.
Over at The Linux Experiment we have decided to shake things up a little bit by forcing a change of desktop environments on everyone. Whatever we have been using thus far as to go for at least two weeks. If you care to follow along you can start by reading about how my transition from KDE to GNOME went below.
Check it out here: The road to GNOME
