Please help by providing comments/ideas for improvement/thanks/death-threats in the comments section below.  Ok, maybe not the death-threats.

Download and License

The current version of this script is v1.03, released under the GPL license.  Click here to download it.


This software is licensed under the CC-GNU GPL version 2.0 or later.

What it can do/Features:

• Keep track of changes (IP addresses, status: existent/gone) to a list of specified domains
• Resolve many many many domains into a greppable format for you!
• Multithreaded in Python
• Does logging to a logfile, and to console at the same time
• Configurable to a certain extent

How to get and use:

• Install the PyDNS library found in the Python Package Index, hosted at SourceForge
• Grab a copy from the download section above and extract the script out
• Configure the script if you need to (see below)
• Create a text file named dns-list.txt in the same folder as the dns_tracker.py script, list the DNS hosts that you want to track in the dns-list.txt file, one host per line
• Run the script from command line: python dns_tracker.py.  The log file written to would be called dns-track.log
• Profit!
• You can stop the script by pressing Ctrl-C in the console ONCE.  It will attempt to kill off the waiting threads and exit gracefully.

What you can configure:

• All the editable options are in the section marked ##Editable options.  Some of the options are...
• Use system configured resolvers: set 'use_server': False,
• Use a DNS resolver of your choice: set 'use_server': True, and also 'server': '<your resolver>',
• The logfile name can be changed too 'logfile': 'dns-track.log',

Changelog:

• v1.03 (15 Aug 2010)

fixed logging hierarchy!  now we can control console and file log levels!

• v1.02 (10 Aug 2010)

added SERVFAIL to recognise as possible status

changed DNS resolving fail behaviour: retry 1min later

changed monitoring start behaviour (faster by using threads)

orphaned threads will also stop themselves if the main thread's killed

• v1.01 (3 Aug 2010)

demarcated editable options section ("##Editable options")

changed logging to append instead of overwriting existing log

remember that CNAMEs are also extracted for comparison of changes

added in minimum delay checks to account for CNAMEs' TTL being 0

adjusted logging levels for logfile, console still outputs everything

• v1.00 (2 Aug 2010)

initial release!

TODO:

• Perhaps migrating configurable options out to command line parameters
  or a separate config file?

SecureMe is a project I started to try out and get some experience from running an operational combination like this, and I have been using it without much issues for the past quarter year to date.

I'm opening this as a service to people who'd like to make use of this service too, and for no minimum cost! I only ask for the following:
1. feedback/suggestions/complaints/compliments!
2. (if you're feeling generous) donations to help me upkeep my server at least (I don't intend to strike it rich with this anyway)

If you wish to use this, email me at secureme{@T}rayfoo[dot]info to enquire on availability. Alternatively you could tweet or FB me...

I'll support this as much as possible where time/resources permits, but for now I'd suggest that (at least) the slightly more technically inclined try this.

For those who do use public WiFi, here's a good chance to protect your web traffic from sniffers at ZERO MINIMUM COST!

For more details contact me at secureme{@T}rayfoo[dot]info or you could read another really lengthy post here.

(Heh, it's pretty fun to be typing this from outside whilst using SecureMe.  But that's not the point.)

If you're ok/familiar with installing + basic configuration of software (namely an OpenVPN client) and know how to configure your browser to use proxies, you're the guys/gals I'm looking for!

Let me know if you wish to have a VPN + proxy + DNS resolver service for no minimum cost (read: donorware should you feel like it).  Am limiting this offer to the first two people for now.  (The same offer still stands for those who've responded to my earlier call for helpers, so don't worry.)

The only things I need of you:

1) you need to be savvy enough to at least know how to install stuff on your computer, and to configure your browser

2) also, it would be good if you can help me in my efforts to make his easier for the less technically inclined.  Not a requirement though

So...let me know if you want to try this out for free!  I promise to keep it free/donorware for these two respondents as long as I can run this service

You can contact me via Twitter or Facebook (you should be able to find the links at least), or if you're paranoid enough not to use these services you could alternatively email me at secureme{@T}rayfoo[dot]info and I'll get back to ya asap.

THE game eagerly awaited by many! Since 1997...

Looking at the insane amount of free time I have now, it seems that my projects could be well completed faster than Duke Nukem Forever (or DNF in short).

For those who don't already know, DNF is THE classic example of vaporware: games/apps that are publicised and are anticipated by (many) people to be released, only to never make it to the stores.

So yeah, comparing my projects to DNF is a bad thing.  Really really really bad...

Am thinking of starting out small, and then slowly add refinements to the SecureMe project.  That way things move along, albeit slowly, but better than nothing.

In order for everyone to be on the same page, let's call this project "SecureMe", hopefully this would increase the basic protection you'd get when surfing from a public hotspot.

I can't (and won't) guarantee that you will be 100% safe from all those bad guys out there, but with this it would make it a lot harder for any Tom, Dick or Harry to sit down in the same cafe/MacDonalds/BK/your-favourite-hangout-place and start looking into your Facebook account and whatnot.

If your machine has been compromised with a virus/malware/adware/botnet, all bets are off.  This would require a cleanup before you can trust what your machine does (unfortunately).

This is a simple VPN tunnel + HTTP proxy + DNS resolver, so that your traffic will not be modified, or listened to by the fellows mentioned above.  As such, no anti-virus screening/protections for now.  One thing that might help is that I'm using OpenDNS to help resolve the DNS queries, and it automatically comes with a certain amount of protection against phishing sites

You won't be totally anonymous with this service: I won't hesitate to turn over information if you have been found to be using this service to do nefarious deeds against other people/servers, of if you use it to access stuff that's illegal anyway.

I'll be using this project to learn, so I will need to keep some logs for my own analysis and accountability (see above).  But I will not use this to infringe on your privacy (duh!), not as if I'd want to anyway.

Lastly, though this is workable, it's not perfect yet.  I'll be changing things here and there from time to time if needed to improve this service, so no promises that you won't ever have to change anything ok?  It's a free(/donor) service anyway, so no one has to be obliged, ok?

Hope this helps you whoever you are, and pleaseeee do give me feedback ok?  Have fun!

PS: Signups are still available for now, for those who wish to help trial this free service

Using a combination of easily available/open-source/free tools, it would provide pretty good basic protection against network sniffers/attackers for thse folks.

Why free/donor-ware?  I'm not looking to earn big bucks (if at all) out of this, probably just enough to cover the running costs would be nice.  And this project would be more of a learning experience for me rather than a business opportunity.

More details to be released soon, thanks to those who've responded to my initial call for trial helpers!

CodeIgniter is really easy to learn and use, I'm thinking of adding OWASP's ESAPI's functionality as a plugin (if it's worth the effort) in the future, so that more people will come to hear of it, and use it

Meanwhile, have been stuck with a redirect loop problem when I test out my (test) codes with Aptana's built-in Jetty server, for reasons unknown. I guess I'll have to try nginx + PHP-FPM to see whether the source of the problem is really Jetty, or something else...