[MLUG - DISCUSSION] The Blackdog

["Mike808" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Subject was "good gift for your favorite geek..."
Shawn Parker wrote:
> http://www.projectblackdog.com/index.html

Yes it is wikkid cool. I have had mine for about two weeks now.

I got the 512MB model, since you can't add more.
The removable storage is MMC (*NOT* SD).
I've found the 2GB cards for about $130+.

It is a full Debian PowerPC distro.
The Windows SDK even has a qemu ppc emulation so
you can develop on Win, and simply scp your debs over
or add your Win repository to your BlackDog and apt-get update.

How does it work? Pretty simply, actually.

1. It tells Windows you have just plugged in a USB CDROM.
2. When windows loads the driver, it does an autorun (unless
   you've wisely disabled this "feature") on that "CD".
3. The BlackDog people have conveniently provided the "CD"
   with a pre-installed image.
4. This image launches a Windows application (from the "CD")
   that tells windows to "re-inspect" the USB bus. This application
   is *NOT* open source (at least I haven't come across it).
5. The BlackDog senses the probe and tells Windows that you
   have just plugged in a USB networking card.
6. Windows goes through its "auto-configure" of the networking
   card, which conveniently finds a DHCP server running,
   and it assigns Windows its IP on the BlackDog.
   I think there is some participation of that windows app
   (realm-networking.exe I think) to broker this, and it may
   be the DHCP server that sets things up.
7. It then launches the MingW X server in memory on the
   Windows host from the "CD" that is connected.
8. The X server uses a loopback DHCP client address that
   it received to talk with the "network card" that is the BlackDog.

The blackdog then just fires up a simple "app picker" GUI x client app.
Click the button and you're running whatever you've configured on the "menu".

And as for the blackhat applications, yes, there are quite a few scenarios
I have already discussed with some folks. But there is some good news:

1. Windows CDROM AutoRun feature must be enabled. In most corporate
   settings, this is a routine, basic security procedure that is already in place.
2. It doesn't work with Windows2K (currently). Works great with XP.
   But they may resolve that, as it appears to be an issue with the MS APIs being
   different between XP and 2K in their realm-networking application. It's an
   easy OS version check and use a different function call.

But, for under $300, it is one sweet linux box.

And the primary usage we can see would be for secure, portable email and
browser clients.

The fingerprint authentication is very, very interesting from a two-factor
authentication point of view. And I know that Realm (the manufacturers of
the BlackDog) is very interested in getting a GINA shim that would let
you authenticate to Windows by authenticating to the fingerprint device
in the BlackDog.

It also makes a nice place to put certificate keys, so if someone were,
to say, put a FIPS-140-2 Level 2 framework around such a device, then
ya8#%9pS^&&*UD99DqA8r5pW... NO CARRIER
   

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