Cisco ASDM is quirky in the sense that if the right Java version is not found it will just puke with errors that make no sense. This is what my java log looks like:
Application Logging Started at Fri Aug 01 11:01:11 EDT 2010
---------------------------------------------
Local Launcher Version = 1.5.41
Local Launcher Version Display = 1.5(41)
Cannot read profile file C:\Documents and Settings\abcdef\.asdm\data\deviceinfo.conf.
OK button clicked
Trying for ASDM Version file; url = https://www.example.com/admin/
Server Version = 6.2(1)
Server Launcher Version = 1.5.41, size = 476672 bytes
Launcher version checking is successful.
invoking SGZ Loader..
Cache location = C:/Documents and Settings/abcdef/.asdm/cache
Exception in thread "SGZ Loader: launchSgzApplet" java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: b
at dac.setLevel(dac.java:65)
at dac.(dac.java:44)
at gd.(gd.java:78)
at f5.a(f5.java:117)
at com.cisco.dmcommon.util.DMCommonEnv.(DMCommonEnv.java:38)
at com.cisco.pdm.PDMApplet.updateProgress(PDMApplet.java:300)
at com.cisco.pdm.PDMApplet.init(PDMApplet.java:63)
at com.cisco.nm.dice.loader.r.run(DashoA19*..:409)
It happens because the ASDM launcher is not capable of running on newer JVMs. Since I had older JVMs, I went into Control Panel -> Java. Click on the Java tab, followed by clicking the “view” button. This will show you the current JVM being used. If you have older JVMs click on Find (you will have to select the folder where you suspect older JVMs to be…which in my case was c:\Program Files). If you don’t find an older JVM then just install an older version and it will work.

Last night I was trying to get a VeriSign issued SSL certificate installed on my ASA using Cisco ASDM 6.2. I installed the Intermediate CA and the CA certificates all installed. I then imported the SSL certificate into the “Configuration -> Device Management -> Manage Certificates -> Identity Certificates” but it did not seem to work. I kept getting an error “Failed to parse or verify imported certificate”. The certificate was in the .p7b form. Changing the format of the certificate to X.509 Base64 Encoded format resulted in acceptance of the certificate.
I sincerely hope that Cisco alters its error messages to accurately reflect that .p7b is not a format supported by them.

Update: This link has the information on how to install SSL certificates on ASA:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6120/products_configuration_example09186a00809fcf91.shtml

In the past few days, coincidentally I’ve been thrown into situations where packet forgery has been required. So I thought it’ll be a great moment to enumerate some good options that network or security professionals have. The basis for most of these tools lies in libnet and libpcap which are some of the most wonderfully functional libraries out there.

• Packetforge-ng – On the wireless side this utility allows you to capture wireless packets and create legitimate packets with a pre-determined payload that can then be replayed using tools such as aireplay-ng
• Scapy – This is a python based tool and can be extended to write custom Python scripts to custom create packets. This library has great functions to form packets layer-by-layer and other functions such as fuzz() that allow fuzzing of packets out of the box. The greatest utility comes by the use of python language to create custom tools. Imagine creating custom thick clients just by using simple python scripts. The capabilities with this library are endless!
• TCPReplay – Just convert your pcaps into traffic by replaying them. An excellent tool but be careful if you’ve sniffed some ARP packets. You could end up corrupting the ARP table entries (unless that’s exactly what your intentions is 😉
• file2air – An excellent tool by Joshua Wright to replay packet contents.
• Packit – A really easy to use and functional linux based packet injection tool.

If this is the error you are getting then one of the solutions is to reset your root password on the MySQL database server.

$ pkill mysql
$ sudo mysqld --skip-grant-privileges
$ mysql

At this point you get the mysql command shell. You will need to update the root password and flush the table when you reset the password.

mysql> set UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('YOUR_NEW_PASSWORD') WHERE User='root';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Now that you’ve flushed your passwords, just restart your mysql daemon.

$ sudo pkill mysqld
$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysqld start
$ mysql -u root -p
Enter Password: YOUR_NEW_PASSWORD
mysql>

You should be all set now!

This was my first hope conference (The Next HOPE Conference)despite being in New York City for more than half a decade. Always it seemed that work would send me out of town just before the con. However, this time around I had the good fortune of being in the city during the conference.
There were a few good talks some of which were not so technical but kindled the questions for privacy fanatics.
The talks I attended included Alessio Pennasilico’s talk about DDoS attack on Bakeca.it, Modern Crimeware and Tools talk by Alexander Heid, Steven Rambam’s talk on Privacy is Dead, Blaze Mouse Cheswick et. al’s talk which was abstract but awesome. I did attend a few more talks and it was fun. All in all a great conference.