Posted on 4 Comments on Quickly find AD user password expiration date

Quickly find AD user password expiration date

Knowing when a password should expire is sometimes useful information.
To find out all users password expiration date, open up powershell on the DC and run:

Get-ADUser -filter {Enabled -eq $True -and PasswordNeverExpires -eq $False} –Properties “DisplayName”, “msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed” | Select-Object -Property “Displayname”,@{Name=”ExpiryDate”;Expression={[datetime]::FromFileTime($_.”msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed”)}}

It will output for you a human readable list such as in the above post screenshot.
I have tested and can confirm that the above script is working on Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016 & 2019.

Posted on 3 Comments on WPBakery Page Builder not working in chrome and shows console errors

WPBakery Page Builder not working in chrome and shows console errors

Just a quick one, hoping it will help someone,

If you have a wordpress site with WPBakery Page Builder running on it, and find the frontend builder is not working, and if you also happen to use cloudflare – Rocket Loader™ is your issue.

Go to cloudflare and under speed –> Optimization –> turn off Rocket Loader™

Go back to WordPress and within a few mins, or the time your cache takes to update – your visual composer/WPBakery Page Builder will be working again.

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Posted on 5 Comments on Force Active Directory replication on a domain controller

Force Active Directory replication on a domain controller

To force Active Directory replication, on the server which needs forced to update, run using elevated CMD:

repadmin /syncall /AeD

A = All Partitions
e = Cross Site (Enterprise)
D = Show server name in output.

This will initiate a pull replication.

OR if you are already on on your main DC, and need to update any other servers in the AD, you can do a push replication:

repadmin /syncall /APeD

A = All Partitions
e = Cross Site (Enterprise)
D = Show server name in output.
P = Push

The technet article with further info can be found here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/cc770963(v=ws.11)

Perhaps, you like me are trying to move away from the old CMD comandlines, and migrate into PowerShell – if that is the case, bad news -currently there is no update alternative for repadmin in powershell – the Get-ADReplication commands are great for troubleshooting but offer no easy interface for updating AD.

Posted on 4 Comments on Find VPN Log Unifi USG

Find VPN Log Unifi USG

Ubiquiti kit is great, and Unifi is by far the best value for money WiFi kit out there. However once you get beneath the beautifully crafted UI and you’ll soon struggle to find CLI info and configuration help.

Yow to find your VPN log Unifi

SSH into your USG, using your site specified SSH credentials, or if you have never set any, then ubnt/ubnt.

Then simply type:
show vpn log

or:
cat /var/log/charon.log | tail -n 100

Simple.

Posted on 2 Comments on Block users from logging on to an RDS Server [SOLVED]

Block users from logging on to an RDS Server [SOLVED]

Do you need to block users from logging on to an RDS Server

Problem:
You are updating an RDS server, or an application on the RDS server, but another users process is stopping your install. You need to stop access to other users to the RDS server but still be able to work on it yourself. but how?

Solution:
Open up administrative CMD
Change Logon /Disable
Then log all other users off using Task manager (users tab)

And when you are finished simply revert:
Change Logon /Enable

Sorted.

Posted on 1 Comment on Install Kali tools on Debian

Install Kali tools on Debian

So you have a fresh install of Debian? You want to be able to install kali tools on your new setup, or at least some of them?

Enter Katoolin:

sudo su
apt install python-pip
git clone https://github.com/LionSec/katoolin.git && cp katoolin/katoolin.py /usr/bin/katoolin
chmod +x /usr/bin/katoolin
sudo katoolin
Then either select which tools you wish to install, or press 0 to install them all.

Simple.

Posted on 2 Comments on Remote Web Workspace not working [Solved]

Remote Web Workspace not working [Solved]

Remote Web Workspace breaks. Alot.

In all versions of SBS (now end of life) Microsoft graced us with the ability for remote users to remote into the server to then hop accross to their own PC’s via RDP.

This was great in theory, and worked for a while, until updated servers broke this feature. The root cause was an update to .net framework, starting at version 4.5.1 which included memory checking to make sure you have at least 5% free memory.

Ok, so why the issues. Well anyone who knows Exchange, knows that the information store will use as much free memory as possible – which in turn often caused the Remote desktop Gateway service to crash, due to not having 5% free memory.

Here is the quick fix if you only have 5 mins;

– Restart the MS Exchange information store,
– Then restart/start the Remote Desktop Gateway Service

Here is the proper fix:

– Run adsiedit.msc
– Connect to: Select a well known Naming Context : [Configuration]
– Expand the following:
Configuration\Services\Microsoft Exchange\ (First Organization) \Administrative Groups\ (Exchange Administrative Group) \Servers\ (Server Name)
– Right click on CN=Information Store and click properties
– Update the values of msExchESEParamCacheSizeMin and msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax to something below 94% of your servers max ram capacity – i is in KB’s divided by a 32byte page so…

Basic maths is ==> Target Cache Size in GB = (# * 1024 * 1024) / 32

There is an excellent table over at meridian.ws which is much easier than doing the maths:
http://meridian.ws/wordpress/?p=239

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Posted on 4 Comments on Adobe reader on Server 2016

Adobe reader on Server 2016

Adobe have been rather silent recently when it comes to running reader on server 2016

Adobe reader is used by many professions, and in many capacities. It used to be one of the most commonly installed applications on business PC’s by anyone in any sector. However, Server 2016 is not supported.

https://helpx.adobe.com/reader/system-requirements.html

This makes it a nightmare for modern portable apps, RDS servers(Terminal servers) or even just file servers.

So there is a work around, however it is not recommended. The best fix for this is to scrap Adobe, and move to one off the other large PDF Vendors out there to cater to your PDF viewing needs.

Three that i have personally verified as working and are supported on server 2016 are:

  • Nitro Pro
  • Abby PDF reader
  • TinyPDF

There will however be a small percentage of us admins or superusers, that have to get this Adobe based software working.

Workaround to get Adobe reader on Server 2016

Start by using the latest installer for Windows 10,
Once installed, you may find that it will work for a while, but eventually as it updates you will no longer be able to open PDF documents using it.
To get around this you have to unfortunately turn off protected mode.

Now, i shouldn’t really need to preface this, but i will. This is not supported, nor recommended – Reader has a protected mode for a reason, disabling it is opening you to all sorts of vulnerabilities.

If you do wish to continue, open up Adobe Reader – go into Edit –> Preferences –> Security (enhanced) –>

Turn Protected mode off, and untick ‘ Enable protected mode at startup’

If you like I could not even get to the preferences panel in order to change these settings then all you need to do is open adobe reader by accessing via compatibility mode. Set this as XP (which itself does not support protected mode) – then change settings, and then change compatibility mode back off.

Let me know in the comments if this has helped you.