In April 2016, I got bored and created a second crypto trail on www.bentasker.co.uk. Unlike the first this trail wasn't confined to a single domain, or even to just the clearnet.

However, in order to follow the trail, you needed to be able to access a site served using a V2 Onion. However, V2 onions have since been deprecated and are no longer accessible.

The trail is now broken.

But, it is still possible to complete the challenges, so this post will begin by presenting the challenge and then will provide the solution.

Read more…

My recent migration from Joomla! to Nikola has come at the cost of partially breaking one of the cryptotrails hidden in the original site.

I first added this cryptotrail into www.bentasker.co.uk in August 2014.

The trail was designed to test across a range of skills that all self-respecting hackers should work to develop - not just technical knowledge, but observation and fact-finding skills.

This post details how the trail could be followed, and how to resolve each step of it.

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This page serves as the GDPR Privacy Notice for www.bentasker.co.uk.

The controller of the data collected is Ben Tasker.

You have the right to object to processing, either by objecting to a specific mechanism as described below, or by Contacting Me. If you feel your objection has not been appropriately handled, or that the processing does not have a lawful basis, you also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority.

As an overall summary of the policy - I collect some data in order to run and improve the site, but will not share that data with third parties unless I'm legally compelled to do so.

Where I'm performing a service for you (i.e. you're a customer rather than simply visiting the site), our contract will include sections as needed to cover any additional elements I may encounter whilst working for you.

Read more…

This page serves as the GDPR Privacy Notice for www.bentasker.co.uk.

The controller of the data collected is Ben Tasker.

You have the right to object to processing, either by objecting to a specific mechanism as described below, or by Contacting Me. If you feel your objection has not been appropriately handled, or that the processing does not have a lawful basis, you also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority.

As an overall summary of the policy - I collect some data in order to run and improve the site, but will not share that data with third parties unless I'm legally compelled to do so

Where I'm performing a service for you (i.e. you're a customer rather than simply visiting the site), our contract will include sections as needed to cover any additional elements I may encounter whilst working for you.

Compliance with a Legal Obligation

The following data is processed/retained in order to comply with Legal Obligations - GDPR Section 6(1)(c)

Tax Records

If you purchase a product or service for me, then you will have been issued with an invoice containing some or all of the following personal data

• Your Name
• Your Address
• Your Email Address
• Your Telephone Number

A copy of your invoice will be filed with my Tax records, which in order to fulfil HMRC's requirements must be retained for up to 7 years.

Because this data must be available in order to comply with a legal obligation, the GDPR rights of erasure and objection cannot be exercised for this data.

The data is retained on isolated systems with very strong access controls, and will not routinely be passed to any third party. In the event of an audit by HMRC, however, the data may be provided to them when formally requested.

Legitimate Interests

The following data is processed/retained based upon the Lawful Basis of GDPR Section 6(1)(f) - Legitimate Interests. In accordance with GDPR, all have been subjected to a Legitimate Interest Assessment (LIA) in order to balance your rights with the legitimate needs.

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Subsequent write-up published here

Video showing queries being resolved by PiHole via DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) to a VM running on the internet.

The DNS server was set up as detailed in MISC-27and Building and running your own DoH Server.

Video showing how to dis-assemble a Saab door locking unit in order to gain access to the actuator motor's contacts.

This locking unit is from a 2010 Saab 93 1.9 TTiD Saloon

This page serves as the GDPR Privacy Notice for www.bentasker.co.uk.

The controller of the data collected is Ben Tasker.

You have the right to object to processing, either by objecting to a specific mechanism as described below, or by Contacting Me. If you feel your objection has not been appropriately handled, or that the processing does not have a lawful basis, you also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority.

As an overall summary of the policy - I collect some data in order to run and improve the site, but will not share that data with third parties unless I'm legally compelled to do so

Where I'm performing a service for you (i.e. you're a customer rather than simply visiting the site), our contract will include sections as needed to cover any additional elements I may encounter whilst working for you.

Compliance with a Legal Obligation

The following data is processed/retained in order to comply with Legal Obligations - GDPR Section 6(1)(c)

Tax Records

If you purchase a product or service for me, then you will have been issued with an invoice containing some or all of the following personal data

• Your Name
• Your Address
• Your Email Address
• Your Telephone Number

A copy of your invoice will be filed with my Tax records, which in order to fulfil HMRC's requirements must be retained for up to 7 years.

Because this data must be available in order to comply with a legal obligation, the GDPR rights of erasure and objection cannot be exercised for this data.

The data is retained on isolated systems with very strong access controls, and will not routinely be passed to any third party. In the event of an audit by HMRC, however, the data may be provided to them when formally requested.

Legitimate Interests

The following data is processed/retained based upon the Lawful Basis of GDPR Section 6(1)(f) - Legitimate Interests. In accordance with GDPR, all have been subjected to a Legitimate Interest Assessment (LIA) in order to balance your rights with the legitimate needs.

Read more…

This page serves as the GDPR Privacy Notice for www.bentasker.co.uk.

The controller of the data collected is Ben Tasker.

You have the right to object to processing, either by objecting to a specific mechanism as described below, or by Contacting Me. If you feel your objection has not been appropriately handled, or that the processing does not have a lawful basis, you also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority.

As an overall summary of the policy - I collect some data in order to run and improve the site, but will not share that data with third parties unless I'm legally compelled to do so

Where I'm performing a service for you (i.e. you're a customer rather than simply visiting the site), our contract will include sections as needed to cover any additional elements I may encounter whilst working for you.

Compliance with a Legal Obligation

The following data is processed/retained in order to comply with Legal Obligations - GDPR Section 6(1)(c)

Tax Records

If you purchase a product or service for me, then you will have been issued with an invoice containing some or all of the following personal data

• Your Name
• Your Address
• Your Email Address
• Your Telephone Number

A copy of your invoice will be filed with my Tax records, which in order to fulfil HMRC's requirements must be retained for up to 7 years.

Because this data must be available in order to comply with a legal obligation, the GDPR rights of erasure and objection cannot be exercised for this data.

The data is retained on isolated systems with very strong access controls, and will not routinely be passed to any third party. In the event of an audit by HMRC, however, the data may be provided to them when formally requested.

Legitimate Interests

The following data is processed/retained based upon the Lawful Basis of GDPR Section 6(1)(f) - Legitimate Interests. In accordance with GDPR, all have been subjected to a Legitimate Interest Assessment (LIA) in order to balance your rights with the legitimate needs.

Read more…

Read more…

Bearing noise from the alternator of a Volvo S60

openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -a -salt -in input-file

Read more…

I occasionally like to build puzzles, particularly ones where - even having designed the underlying mechanism - it's a challenge for me to sit and write out a code snippet to automatically solve them.

For the keen eyed, there are at least two crypto trails hidden within bentasker.co.uk. This page lists standalone puzzles I've created, some were intended to be part of a trail but weren't included (because they were too easy, or too hard), others were created just because.

When browsing my site, you should be aware that;

• Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website.
• Google's use of the DART cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to our sites and/or other sites on the Internet.
• Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the advertising opt-out page. (Alternatively,  users can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.)

Apart from my use of Google Adsense, I keep no detailed record of who visits and when apart from server access logs. These consist of;

• IP Address/Hostname
• Date/Time
• Page/Resource Requested

Thanks

B Tasker

Welcome to www.BenTasker.co.uk the home of Ben Tasker!

I have a wide variety of interests including writing and photography, my main passion though is computing. Ultimately, I enjoy problem solving, whether through software development or when managing servers. The more complex the problem the happier I am, leading to a real feeling of ambivalence whenever I'm asked to investigate a compromised server - it's terrible news for the customer, but presents me with a new challenge to sink my teeth into.

I've a pretty broad range of skills, all built up through experience, but I decided quite a long time ago not to take my memory for granted. As a result, the predecessor to this site was born, largely as a documentation project, something I continue to add to regularly. If any of that documentation is of use to others, then that's great!

For more information see About Me