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Imagine that you are an administrator for an organization that has a fleet of Windows devices. You do not want to set the local administrator password to the same on all device due to security concerns, therefore you disable the local administrator accounts. The device loses its trust with the domain controller and you are unable to get connected, what would you do in this instance? Reinstall Windows? Factory reset? If you have LAPS installed you have the local administrator password saved in AD.

Local administrator accounts can be helpful in allowing an administrator to manage a machine if a trust relationship fails with the domain. It could be viewed as a back door into the system that allows emergency access.

Benefits of using LAPS

• Passwords are stored in the active directory schema
• Passwords are rotated on a regular basis
• Each machine will have a different password
• It can update the account password even if you decide to rename the account
• Passwords are protected

I had a project that was being worked on that required the code be written in PHP. The code would end up on a Linux machine which resulted me in wanting to code in an environment that was close to what production would be. This would allow to quickly debug and figure out what could go wrong once the code was pushed to production. There are several routes that I could have taken. Install Ubuntu on the host, I could have ran a virtual machine or even setup a server and sync files one way or another.

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 to the rescue!

WSL2 provided all the features that I wanted. To be able to debug with no internet connection, Lightweight and fast.

Time to install

Launch the bash shell.

PHP Installation

#Install PHP
sudo apt install php7.2 php7.2-cli php7.2-mysql php7.2-fpm
#Check the version
php -version

Nginx Installation

# Install Nginx
sudo apt install nginx

# Start Nginx server
sudo service nginx start

wsl 2 & Network

Sandboxie is a tool that separates programs and prevents unwanted changes from happening. For example, you could run your browser in isolation mode and download malware and your primary OS will not be affected. This is assuming that there is an exploit for Sandboxie and the malware doesn't take advantage of this.

I do not recommend purposely downloading malware and testing the boundaries. This is a layer in defense that will help increase your security for when you are visiting unknown websites or running unknown applications. Sophos has recently made the application free. If you are running Windows, I recommend checking it out. Visit the link here to visit the site https://www.sandboxie.com/.

Other Options

Windows 10 is introducing a sandbox mode that is essentially a virtual machine running on your machine. It will allow you to open suspicious files and visit suspicious websites without much concern.

The other option is to run a full v

Without the Domain Name System(DNS) the internet would not be what it is today. DNS maps a physical address to a remember-able address. For example if there was not a protocol for mapping the physical address to remember-able address, you would need to know 161.170.230.170 vs. Walmart.com

DNS was designed and implemented in a time that privacy and security was not a high priority. For the most part the original specs of DNS is still in use today. Your computer will ask another computer where Walmart.com can be found. The computer talks to each other in a language that anyone can ease drop on the conversation. There are several problems with this in today's society. Your Internet Service Provider(ISP) likes to watch what sites you visit and sell that information to third parties. If you are at Starbucks, it will allow others on the same network to collect information about you that could be used against you or help them phish you.

The future of DNS

A few compa

Android version Pie 9 has a new feature called Private DNS that allows you to permanently force the DNS to a secure DNS provider. If you are not on Android version 9 or newer there may be apps that allow you to accomplish the same thing.

DNS over TLS versus DNS over HTTPs

The biggest difference between DNS over TLS and DNS over HTTPS is there is a dedicated port for DNS over TLS, which is 853. This brings in concerns as your DNS queries are unable to hide itself as regular web traffic.

There are arguments against DNS over HTTPS in that it is harder for network administrators to monitor DNS traffic. There are tools that help protect organizations by preventing certain domain names being resolved and comparing the domain query names against threat communities.

Enabling Android Private DNS (DNS over TLS)

This is the easiest method to permanently change your DNS settings on Android 9 and newer devices. Navigate to Settings -> Network & Internet- > Advanced. Once you are