The Toshiba laptop that was assigned to me under the Security and Crypto Project is now being returned to the IMSc Computer Centre.
Report on usage of the laptop
These are the activities for which the laptop was used:
Activities related to the project:
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Preparation and delivery of course material on a Course on Number theory and Cryptography 2004.
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Preparation and delivery of course material on a Course on Operating Systems 2003.
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Study and deployment of the following security tools:
- Host security audit tools: tcpdump, ettercap, dsniff ethereal, nessus, nmap.
- Network security audit tools: router-audit-tool, snort, arpwatch, macchanger.
- Host security hardening tools: tcp-wrapper, iptables, iproute, cryptofs, cryptoloop, cryptdm, socks, tor.
- User security hardening tools: ssl, openca, ssh, lsh, gnupg, srp, sasl.
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Development and deployment of read-only root systems.
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Examination and participation in various support mechanisms for Free and Open Source Systems. Such mechanisms include mailing lists, IRC and bug-tracking systems.
Activities related to IMSc but not directly to the project:
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Preparation and delivery of course material on a Course on Algebraic Geometry 2005.
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Preparation and delivery of course material on a Course on Commutative Algebra 2004.
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Maintenance of Debian GNU/Linux package for "tex4ht" a system for generating hypertext documents using TeX.
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Study of 3D graphic image generation and single-image stereogram generation.
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Preparation of Logo for IMSc.
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Study and preparation of article on Knight's Tour and its solution using Python and Ocaml programming languages.
Aspects of the system that remained unutilised:
A. Windows XP operating System.
B. Smart-card reader.
Current status of the Laptop:
C. The system boots into a read-only installation of Debian GNU/Linux with root password xxxxxxxx
D. ACPI support is enabled. In particular, Fn-F3 can be used to suspend the laptop, Fn-F5 can be used to switch displays and Fn-F6/F7 can be used to make the display dimmer/brighter.
E. The laptop uses DHCP to discover an IP address automatically.
F. The battery is behaving erratically.