Raspbian Support

As I was exploring the configuration details for the DHCP Server daemon on Raspbian, to be used on my Raspberry Pi I discovered that there is a line between the hardware (Raspberry Pi) and the operating system (Raspbian).  They are not developed or supported by the same organization.  So if I buy a Raspberry Pi I can presume that a portion of that money proceeds to the Raspberry Pi Foundation (http://www.raspberrypi.org/about/ visited 2/25/2015).

If I choose to proceed with the Raspbian distribution, which is my first choice as it is “a free operating system based on Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware” (http://www.raspbian.org/ visited 2/25/2015) then how does this development get funded?  By donations, of course.  So this post documents where I can send those donations:

http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianDonate visited 2/25/2015

I’ll probably make my first donation tonight, so as to get things started.

Laboratory Goals & Objectives

A large part of the reason for this blog is to chronicle progress of my laboratory activities.  Another part is to support the grimoire<1> that I’m building which details the lessons learned (how to do a specific task) and the specific configuration details of the laboratory, charity, & home environments.  The first step is to define the things I want from the experience, so here goes.

  1. Setup services on a Raspberry PI for use as a home / laboratory server
    • DHCP Addressing, with reservations
    • DNS Resolution, with caching and forwarding to OpenDNS
    • Syslog Log Management, with retention & removal of aged logs
  2. Learn Python, especially for scripting (i.e.:  a script to remove aged log files)
  3. Setup time-ranges on a firewall (control outbound traffic in conjunction with DHCP reservations)
  4. Setup VPN access to the firewall from the Internet (including hairpin provision of HTTP services)
  5. Learn Security Onion for intrusion detection
    • Workstation
    • Sensors (perhaps deployed on Raspberry PIs
    • Server (to collect data for future review) – Maybe
  6. Use Git to manage configuration files, scripts, and documentation.  Especially formats and reusable items.
  7. Use FreeRADIUS to manage authentication to network devices.  Maybe even wireless authentication someday.
  8. Setup a blog to share and provide high-level documentation of everything (here we are!) [Blog exists on 2/16/2015, lots of details to fill in]

At this point I have a Cisco ASA 5505 firewall and one Raspberry PI.  As I accomplish the objectives in the list I’ll italicize them and smile at my progress.  Once they are complete I’ll build a new list.  Which probably means I’ll need to setup a location for potential future items, watch for a future post on that topic!

 

1.  See the article Why you need a Grimoire – How to use technical “black magic” in your hacking sessions.  by Leviathan, published in 2600 The Hacker Quarterly, Volume 27 Issue 2, Summer 2010.  http://advancedphotosolutions.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-you-need-grimoire.html