PKI is an initialism for public key infrastructure. The context I typically see it used in are TLS or PGP. Don’t worry if you don’t know what those are. To understand PKI, you need to understand some basic cryptographic concepts. There is no math required. For a more complete introduction to cryptographic concepts, I wrote… Read More »
Linux setuid and setgid programs allow a regular user to alter the user or group it runs as. Below, I provide a program written in C to demonstrate the concepts. Don’t worry if you aren’t a programmer or have good grasp on C. I will walk you through how the program works. I am assuming… Read More »
Discussing mebibytes vs megabytes can easily segue into other topics, but I’ll keep this short and to the point. The short answer is a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes while a mebibyte is 1,048,576 bytes. Mega is the SI prefix for 1,000,000. Mebi is the IEC prefix for 220. The IEC versions of the other SI… Read More »
On Linux and UNIX systems, there are two types of links. Both types are created with the ln command. They function similarly but have some differences. First, you need to understand a little bit about how filesystems work. Filesystems store meta data such as permissions, modification times, and the location of the file’s data on… Read More »
Unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t use drive letters to distinguish storage devices. It uses a single hierarchy starting at /. Storage devices are associated with directories within this hierarchy through a process called mounting. I’ll cover mounting and mount points more later on. The term Linux filesystem hierarchy refers to this tree structure. The Root Directory… Read More »
In computing, you will come across various numbering systems such as binary and hexadecimal. These systems are known as positional notation, but with different bases. This guide will explain positional notation and show you how to convert from one system, such as hexadecimal, to another. Positional Notation You probably learned this in elementary school, but… Read More »
When you start seeing terms such as octal, binary, sticky bits, set UID, set GID, and ACLs, learning how UNIX file permissions work may sound confusing. Its not so bad after a bit of practice. In my opinion, it is easier than Windows permissions. You don’t need to understand octal and binary. It could possibly… Read More »
This overview’s target audience is those without a math or computer science background. It should leave you with a basic understanding of some of the basics of what cryptography is all about. This is barely scratching the surface of the topics mentioned. There are some links at the bottom of the page for those wishing… Read More »