The Curious Engineer

All blogs / Security

Michael Altfield's Tech Blog

tech.michaelaltfield.net

Technology, Science, and the pursuit of Enlightenment

SecurityLinux / UnixNetworkingSoftware / engineering practice

’10’15’20’25
Posts
89 from 1 Aug 2007 to 3 Mar 2026
Posting
now and then (4 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
Feed
https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/feed/

2026 2

  1. The Banality of Artificial Intelligence
  2. Persistent, Sandboxed, Single-Site Browser (firejail and proxychains)

2025 3

  1. Techlore Interview (BusKill, Interdiction, and OpSec)
  2. Check if Tor Onion Service is alive (python stem get_hidden_service_descriptor)
  3. Why I was banned from GrapheneOS by Daniel Micay

2024 4

  1. Make Vector Topographic Maps (Open Street Map, Maperitive, and Inkscape)
  2. Manually Downloading Container Images (Docker, Github Packages)
  3. 3TOFU: Verifying Unsigned Releases
  4. Nightmare on Lemmy Street (A Fediverse GDPR Horror Story)

2023 2

  1. Guide to Finding Lemmy Communities (Subreddits)
  2. Trusted Boot (Anti-Evil-Maid, Heads, and PureBoot)

2022 2

  1. Crowdfunding on Crowd Supply (Review of my experience)
  2. WordPress Profiling with XHProf (Debugging & Optimizing Speed)

2021 4

  1. Detecting (Malicious) Unicode in GitHub PRs
  2. Monitoring Tor .onion Websites (uptime alerts)
  3. WordPress Multisite on the Darknet (Mercator .onion alias)
  4. We’re on the Darknet! Visit this site at our tor .onion

2020 5

  1. Continuous Documentation: Hosting Read the Docs on GitHub Pages (2/2)
  2. Continuous Documentation: Hosting Read the Docs on GitHub Pages (1/2)
  3. Introducing Coviz
  4. Hardening Guide for phpList
  5. Introducing BusKill: A Kill Cord for your Laptop

2019 4

  1. Mitigating Poisoned PGP Certificates (CVE-2019-13050)
  2. Ephemeral Firefox as a Site-Specific Browser (3/3)
  3. Ephemeral Firefox with Extensions (2/3)
  4. Ephemeral Firefox in Ubuntu (1/3)

2018 7

  1. Auditing Android Security (Investigating Unauthorized Screenshots)
  2. How to check Whonix version in Qubes
  3. fix phplist 500 error due to random_compat
  4. Detect outgoing port blocking with nmap and portquiz.net
  5. Detecting Censorship or ISP Network Tampering with OONI
  6. Bypassing Check Point firewall DPI Tor-blocking
  7. New Thumb Drive Encryption Procedure

2017 5

  1. GPG Key Transition Statement
  2. How to check the Public Key Algorithm used for a given gpg key (ie: RSA vs DSA)
  3. HPKP Best Practices for Let’s Encrypt
  4. Howto Guide: Whole House VPN with Ubiquiti + Cryptostorm (netflix safe!)
  5. Using uBlock Origin to Whitelist

2016 1

  1. Let’s Encrypt!

2015 2

  1. Tor->VPN in TAILS to bypass tor-blocking
  2. pycurl through Tor without leaking DNS lookups

2013 1

  1. Eavesdropping Analysis of PGP Metadata

2012 2

  1. Browsing without being tracked via Fingerprinting
  2. Custom Synapse Shortcuts

2011 5

  1. Github
  2. UCF Wifi in Ubuntu
  3. UCF Wifi Rant
  4. RegEx 2 DFA in Python
  5. My Search for The Best MP3 Player

2010 5

  1. Package Manager Search Commands
  2. Welcome Back!
  3. Extend GPG Key Expiration
  4. My Cycling Blog
  5. Plausibly Deniable File Encryption

2009 18

  1. gcc Optimizations for Arithmetic Operations using Bit Shifts
  2. Automatic Timestamped ZFS Snapshots with Cron
  3. Iterative MITM Packet Sniffer
  4. Google Chrome in 64-bit Sabayon Linux
  5. Finding and Killing Processes Blocking Alsa Devices
  6. Rockbox – Sansa e260v2
  7. Cheap PCI Sata Card – XWT-RC040
  8. xen hung at “Checking for hardware changes”
  9. Enabling SELinux strict on RHEL5
  10. *Cheap*, Redundant, Multi-TB, Storage Solution
  11. Install “build-essential” on RHEL/CentOS and OpenSolaris
  12. Clone Xen RHEL5 (CentOS 5.2) VM
  13. Sabayon, KDE, and Evolution
  14. HP tx1000z dies–not suprisingly
  15. kmhssoccer.org Update
  16. New GPG Key
  17. Resolved: OpenVPN
  18. Smoothwall Update

2008 14

  1. xpdf Supremacy
  2. FreeBSD Perils
  3. New Look!
  4. Ipv6
  5. Study Software
  6. Smooth Wall
  7. Thermite
  8. eHome — are you home?
  9. ext3 journal recovery
  10. `ps` fail with sys-process/procps
  11. Re: The problem with wikipedia
  12. Blog Moved & Upgraded
  13. Grown-up Security
  14. Gutsy Upgrade

2007 3

  1. WebCollage screensaver
  2. Gnome & Slow Keys
  3. The test of three antennas