How to reset Raspbian forgotten password if you still have SSH login

There’s bunch of instruction talking about how to reset password on raspbian. But they all require physical access to the raspberry pi and take out the SD card and need keyboard and monitor the reset the password.

My case is I forgot my password of course. There’s many reasons: The system is seldomly used. Forgot to put the password into password manager app. The login credential is remembered in SSH client. However, because the credential is kept in SSH client which means I can still log into the raspbian, only thing is I don’t know the password now, and no way to change it.

I tried all possible ‘dictionary attack’ to my pi but no success. Then at the last resort, I figured out something works.

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Security Trends Forecast 2025

The IT technologies are changing from closed on premise infrastructure to cloud platform. Security is no longer segregated trusted zone but more zero trust approach. What will happen in 2025 of Information Security industry? Any focusing areas and new opportunities? Here’s my point of view.

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Force kids device to Google SafeSearch and Safe Youtube

Leveraging Pi-Hole, you can force kids to redirect google search traffic to google safesearch, safe youtube and etc.

Here’s the script I use in Pi-Hole dnsmasq configuration.

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Use Siri to control FAAC C720 slide gate

Background:

I have a FAAC C720 slide gate which is controlled by 433Mhz remote. Due to the fact I only have two sets of the remotes, it is not that convenient to have every home members to control the gate easily. I have to keep one remote at home and the other one on the car. So, this comes to my needs.

Scope:

  1. Control the slide gate through WiFi network
  2. Integrate into Smart Home automation platform

Solutions:

Attempt 1: Clone the remote 433Mhz signal by sending through Raspberry Pi and controlled via WiFi network.

My plan was to leverage Raspberry Pi RF 433Mhz receiver and transmitter to capture the remote signal then replicate and send it out by Pi. In this case, once the correct RF signal can be generated by Pi, I can play with it into any Smart Home automation platform. After couple attempts, I successfully sniffed and captured the signals, but still failed. Because I didn’t realize the FAAC 433Mhz remote signal is encrypted by rolling code. It is almost impossible for me to decode the code. I have to give up this path.

Attempt 2: I searched a lot on Internet looking for successful case of FAAC gate / door automation, but not really helpful. However, there’s one product comes into my sight. It is called Gogogate2. It meets all my requirement and more. It is also compatible with FAAC C720 gate. On their website there’s also a connection diagram guide you how to connect Gogogate2 to FAAC C720 control board. Very nice, but a little expensive for me.

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Use SNMP to monitor your home network by LibreNMS

Recently I spent some time tried different solution to monitor home network and systems. Initially, I tried Cacti on Raspberry Pi but not working really well together with Pi-Hole. So I moved Cacti into a docker container on Synology NAS. But Cacti eats up lot of NAS resources and itself is not that user-friendly. So many issues with poller, and the performance is not good.

Then finally, I found LibreNMS which surprised me with easy deployment and very nice look and feel. So go straight to the deployment guide of LibreNMS to monitor home network via SNMP.

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Mikrotik RouterOS Dynamic Update Script for OpenDNS

There is a need to provide some level of parent control and kids safe Internet access at home. Using OpenDNS is a easy and cost free solution.

To customize the web security filtering policies for your own case, you need to update home Internet public IP to OpenDNS so that the customized your policy will be applied. In a dynamic IP situation, it is essential to keep telling OpenDNS the latest correct Internet IP. Instead of install OpenDNS updater client on MAC/WIN/LINUX, we can use Mikrotik RouterOS scripts to update the IP directly.

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Mikrotik RouterOS work with Cisco Aironet AP

Background:

I have a spare Cisco Aironet 3702i but I do not have Cisco Wireless Controller to manage it. But I do like its wireless capability and I want it to replace ASUS RT-AC68U as home main wireless access point.

I also have a Mikrotik hex POE 960PGS router to provide both connectivity and power to surveillance camera.

I want to fully utilize the gears I have and just use a cost effective solution to achieve secure home wireless network.

Target:

  • Multiple SSIDs with different VLANs, different encryption and authentication methods
  • Each SSID network needs to be segregated with others
  • One SSID needs to be in the same subnet of local wired network

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Synology Letsencrypt DNS-01 cert issue and install

Install the acme.sh Client

  • SSH to Synology DiskStation.
  • sudo -i to root login.
  • Install acme.sh manually. 
    $ wget https://github.com/Neilpang/acme.sh/archive/master.tar.gz
$ tar xvf master.tar.gz
$ cd acme.sh-master/
$ ./acme.sh --install --nocron --home /usr/local/sbin/acme.sh

Logout and login back again. so install is done :)

  • next step is to do the configuration:
    $ cd /usr/local/sbin/acme.sh

export CF_Key="sdfsdfsdfljlbjkljlkjsdfoiwje"
export CF_Email="[email protected]"
  • Issue and install the certs. The code below to reflect your own path and domain name.
./acme.sh  --issue -d YOURDOMAIN.TLD --dns dns_cf --certpath /usr/syno/etc/certificate/_archive/PATH/cert.pem --keypath /usr/syno/etc/certificate/_archive/PATH/privkey.pem --fullchainpath /usr/syno/etc/certificate/_archive/PATH/fullchain.pem --capath /usr/syno/etc/certificate/_archive/PATH/chain.pem --reloadcmd "/usr/syno/etc/rc.sysv/nginx.sh reload"
  • Configure Crontab for root
$ vi /etc/crontab
Add the following line to the crontab. Remember to use tab for spacing.
0    10    2    *    *    root    root /usr/local/sbin/acme.sh/acme.sh --cron --home /usr/local/sbin/acme.sh/

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