Derek Meier

Quick DOS batch file to turn on or off the Windows firewall.

2010-11-01T11:47:37-05:00:00

Another quick post!

I am a frequent traveler, and as such I like to be able to turn on (or off) my Windows firewall quickly. The Windows firewall in Windows XP isn't perfect, but I would suggest using it or something else whenever connecting to public WIFI.

Here is the script I use, which simply prompts you if you want your firewall on or off and uses NETSH to accomplish the task:

@echo off color 0a cls :local_question echo. echo Do you want to enable or disable the firewall? echo. echo ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» echo º A. Enable º º B. Disable º echo ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ¼ ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ¼ echo. set localchoice= set /p localchoice= Press A for enable or B for disable: if not '%localchoice%'=='' set finalchoice=%finalchoice:~0,1% if '%localchoice%'=='A' goto start if '%localchoice%'=='a' goto start if '%localchoice%'=='B' goto stop if '%localchoice%'=='b' goto stop @ECHO. @ECHO "%localchoice%" is not valid please try again goto local_question :stop netsh firewall set opmode disable goto end :start netsh firewall set opmode enable goto end :end echo The End. ping 127.0.0.1 > nul exit

Have a good start to November!

-Derek

Using netsh to script IP changes.

2010-09-15T12:46:45-05:00:00

Greetings! Short one today. Over the last week I have had to change a set of IP addresses for a new project repeatedly.

To save time I decided to quickly make a batch script to do it for me! The premise is that there are two computers being used for a specific task and are connecting to a real time emulator. The software being designed assumes that whatever computer it is on the local IP address is always the same (192.168.1.2).

The users simply have to double click on the batch file to set the IP, or when they're done they double click on a second batch file to reset the network connection back to dynamically allocated (dhcp).

Batch script one:

netsh int ip set address name = "Local Area Connection" source = static addr = 192.168.1.2 mask = 255.255.255.0

Batch script two:

netsh interface ip set address name "Local Area Connection" dhcp

Very short, very simple, but saves me a ton of time! That's all for now!

Thanks,

Derek

Secure wipe of a hard drive using WinPE.

2010-06-02T17:03:55-05:00:00

The wiping of a hard drive is typically seen as fairly trivial. There are tons of applications out there that will do it for you. Point-->Click-->Global-Thermo Nuclear War.

However, these applications are typically expensive or unreliable. Plus, if you have a laptop or lack a secondary computer to put the hard drive into – how on earth do you wipe it quickly and easily while still conforming to a 7 pass rule (this means that every possible bit on the hard drive is set to 0 and then to 1 seven times in a row)? Yes, one pass should be enough – as turning every bit from a 1 to a zero will wipe the data from existence. But, we’re dealing with tinfoil hat wearing types here people. DOD standards dictate at least 3 passes, and typically 7 is the preferred amount. I’m not going to argue about data recovery. I have been told to use 7 passes, and so I will. So say we all!

Quite some time ago I used to make a BartPE XP-based boot cd for the original purpose of securely wiping data. I loved BartPE and integrated so many plugins into my builds that I could do pretty much anything directly from CD. Reset passwords, uninstall security updates, wipe drives, chkdsk, remove spyware, install Windows, etc. However, with the newer multi-core systems and new chipsets coming out from vendors, I found that BartPE was rather difficult to keep up to date.

I have since switched to WinPE 3.0 (Windows Preinstallation Environment). http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748933(WS.10).aspx

It is fairly simple to create your own CD, and I have made a few helpful scripts to easily integrate drivers and rebuild the ISO file for you. I’ll cover making your own boot CD utilizing WinPE 3.0 in a later post – I can talk about WinPE forever and need to collect my thoughts!! My wife loves talking about WinPE almost as much as talking about Doctor Who. Wait, did I say loves? Hmmmm, I may have meant loathes.

The topic at hand? Right. Wiping a drive! I must have drunk too much coffee this morning. I like to use a simple batch script that calls a combination of diskpart.exe from Microsoft® and Sdelete.exe created by our friend Mark Russinovich. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx

All of the following files are located within the same directory on my WinPE boot CD.

Here are the contents of wipe_me.bat, script.txt and sdelete.reg.

Wipe_me.bat:

@echo off echo. echo I will completely wipe the local hard drives using echo 7 individual wipes. The data will NOT echo be recoverable. I will begin after you pause echo. echo Preparing to partition and format disk. Diskpart.exe /s "script.txt" REM I was annoyed by not having a completely automated script – and Sdelete wants you to accept the license agreement. So, I added a registry file to skip doing that. regedit /S sdelete.reg rem sdelete options selected are: -p (passes) -c (zero free space) -s (recurse through subdirectories, if any) -z (clean free space) [drive letter] sdelete.exe -p 7 -c -s -z c: echo. echo Pass seven complete. echo. echo Wiping complete. Pause exit

script.txt:

list disk select disk 0 clean create partition primary select partition 1 active format FS=NTFS LABEL="New Volume" QUICK assign letter=c exit

*Notes: This script assumes one local hard drive – change the script as you see fit for your environment. The clean command will overwrite the master boot record and any hidden sector information – so be careful!

sdelete.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sysinternals\SDelete]

"EulaAccepted"=dword:00000001

With a combination of WinPE, sdelete.exe and your friendly neighborhood text editor you can begin wiping drives as quickly and easily as possible! I hope this helps, I get asked this a lot in my line of work.

Best of luck,

Derek