My server settings are Apache2 and Ubuntu 9.x

sudo a2enmod SSL

3. Create the server SSL Key

sudo bash

On Ubuntu this changes you to the root user as you cannot access the directory on the next step.

cd /etc/ssl/private

openssl genrsa -des3 -out myserver.com.key 2048

Make sure its 2048 and not 1024 bit as this would be required later on GoDaddy.
Enter keyphrase

5. Create the CSR (Certificate Service Request) to be entered on GoDaddy

openssl req -new -key myserver.com.key -out myserver.com.csr

Upon enter it will ask you for several things but make sure that under Common Name you put your website url (myserver.com). (GoDaddy will throw an error if it is not a correct website)

6. View the CSR and Copy. Paste it later to your GoDaddy SSL Certificate Management

7. On GoDaddy SSL Certificate Management make a Request and choose Third Party, Web Server no Control Panel. And Paste the CSR code.

a. Upon Submit you would get the approval. It would check that your domain registry and administrative contacts to verify.
b. If it cannot be verified via the domain registry, you will be emailed a code that you need to create as a file and upload to your server instead.

8. Install your certificate gd_bundle.crt and myserver.com.crt to your server. Upload them to the server and install. Back to shell

mv gd_bundle.crt /etc/ssl/gd_bundle.crt
mv myserver.com.crt /etc/ssl/certs/myserver.com.crt

9. Edit the default Apache2 values at /etc/apache2/sites-available/default. Create a new virtualhost

NameVirtualHost *:443

DocumentRoot /var/www/
SSLEngine on
SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth +ExportCertData +StrictRequire
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/myserver.com.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/myserver.com.key
SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/ssl/gd_bundle.crt

10. Make sure Apache2 to listen on port 443, edit the /etc/apache2/ports.conf
Under

Listen 443

10. Restart Apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

If all went well you should be able to access https

For EC2 make sure Port 443 is enabled as well on the AWS Console

11. Then to force redirect users to https create an htaccess file and upload to your root www folder

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.myserver.com/$1 [R,L]

# ln -sf ../usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Dubai /etc/localtime

3 Workaround solutions gathered are the following.
1. Set Time Zone per connection

eg. SET time_zone = ‘Asia/Dubai’;

2. MySQL convert_tz function per insert

insert into table (timestamp) values (convert_tz(now(), ‘GST’, ‘Asia/Dubai’));

3. Manually getting timezone by code

$date = date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’);
insert into table(date) values (‘” . $date .”‘)

Another issue I have is to update old timestamp records in my database to adjust it by 4 hours. If you have a table with old records and want to update the timezone by adding/minus (x) hours to adjust you can try this query.

UPDATE table SET datefield= DATE_ADD(datefield, INTERVAL 4 HOUR);

index.php?page=news

script-kiddies and hackers love this, make sure you sanitize the variables before you do a select query on your database, a simple index.php?page=news&1=1 could expose your db.

a. First turn off magic_quotes, you should stop using this as its deprecated and causes a bit of confusion from addslashes/stripslashes.

b. To sanitize here are a couple of functions you can use, strip_tags() and mysql_real_escape_string() functions, use them on your passed variable before you use in a select or insert statement.

c. Learn how to use apache_mod_rewrite, you can rename your query strings plus its a good SEO tool so from

index.php?page=news to something like /page/news/

2. If you have users in your system make sure their passwords are strong enough. Use uppercase, lowercase, characters etc.. If a hack was able to do an SQL Injection and got hold of your database info and users, they can reverse md5 a weak password in seconds.

NOTE: For testing I used a tool to try SQL Injection on a copy of the website on my localhost, I was able crack it in less than 5 minutes. Thats how fast a hacker can compromise your system if security is weak.

3. WYSIWG CKEditor is a great tool but it opens alot of vulnerability, without properly sanitizing the input you can put in malicous javascript codes. Test your editor by entering

alert(“Test”)

If you see the alert box your very susceptible to XSS attack.

Since CKEditor outputs HTML you can’t do strip_tags as it will strip away your HTML unless you pass it some parameters. A better way is to install HTMLPurifier, its free and opensource. Using it will dramatically reduce the chances of getting an XSS attack on your editor.

4. If you are using CKFinder you must properly set the CheckAuthentication function, simply stating true will allow anybody who knows the location of the file to upload any file to your system. Good thing CKFinder upload is disabled for files with .php extensions or the renamed shell script from (file.php to file.php.pdf) would have compromised my server further.

Recently my personal hosting account with bluehost got renewed and I’m not really utilizing the server that much I figured to try installing subversion on Bluehost to make my hosting more useful. As far as I have tried I can only connect via svn+ssh and not through http as I dont have access to apache to add mod_dav_svn.so on my shared hosting account unless I upgrade to a dedicated host which is not what I want. I documented the steps I took just in case someone will find them useful on setting up theirs.

1. First is you need to enable SSH access on your account. Login to your account and request to enable SSH if not yet enabled. (The SSH option is disabled by default you need to submit a ticket to have it activated) Got mine activated within an hour.

2. Once enabled you should be supplied with a hostname, login user and password

3. Download the following applications: Putty and PuttyGen from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

and TortoiseSVN from http://tortoisesvn.net/

4. Using putty connect to your host by entering the hostname and default port 22, enter your username and password on the command prompt type window.

5. Next is to create src directory and download the latest subversion package.

that should install subversion on your server
6. Create a svn directory and then the repository folder

7. If you have an existing website under public_html you can import it now to your repo

8. Edit your .bashrc file in vi and add the following then exit and save.

9. Next test out if all is working

10. Next is for setting up your subversion client to connect to the repo URL for Windows. Create a keypair on the server, this is going to be used for authentication.

11. Download the key to your computer using your FTP client.
12. Convert the key in puttygen, open up puttygen then on Conversions menu load the key and click on Save Private Key and save it as mykey.ppk

13. Test the key
open putty and create a new session like this:
Session->HostName: www.yourdomain.com
Session->Protocol: SSH
Session->Saved Sessions: yourdomain
SSH->Prefered SSH Protocol version: 2
SSH->Auth->Private Key file for auth: browse and select mykey.PKK
Go back to Session node and hit “save” button. You will see “yourdomain” in the list of available sessions.
Click “open” and you should see a telnet login prompt.
Use your username and if everything is ok, you don’t have to provide a password to your system.

14. On Windows 7 go to config file and edit with notepad.

Look for the section [tunnels] and add the following line

15. Finally checkout go to the folder you want to store the files and, if you already installed TortoiseSVN you should have a right click option SVN Checkout. For the URL of the repository simply enter the svn+ssh URL you tested earlier.

That should get you up and running on your Windows machine.

Now for your Mac machine, first download the scplugin, this is the mac counterpart of TortoiseSVN. Currently the contextual menu and icon badging is not working right on Snow Leopard or on Lion.

1. First launch Terminal from the Utilities and create a key, leave passphrase as blank

2. Next is SCP the key to your server using the username, domain name and password

The key should be uploaded successfully to your server

3. Next login to your server

4. That should be it you should not be prompted to enter your password when you login to your server either from SSH or SCP and even on the scplugin.

5. Open up Finder and browse to the folder you want to Checkout for your files. On the Finder Toolbar if you installed it right you should see the scplugin toolbar, click on that and choose Checkout, then enter your svn+ssh URL.

That should be it, you should be up and running.

Resources:
http://www.tabruyn.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55:tortoisesvn-subversion-and-bluehost&catid=36:digital&Itemid=58
http://www.bluehostforum.com/showthread.php?12099-Setting-up-Subversion-on-Bluehost
http://blog.macromates.com/2005/subversion-support-and-ssh-key-pairs/

So you got Eclipse(Helios, Indigo) 64 bit running on your 64-bit machine and definitely you have Java SE Development and Jave Runtime Environment in check. But when you run the Andriod SDK installer you get this error.

Java SE Development (JDK) not found.

Android SDK relies on Java SE Development Kit(JDK)
Go to http://java.sun.com > Downloads > Java SE > JD to download and install a JDK before continuing.

Note: A Java Runtime (JRE) is not enought to develop for Android.

Well its a bug in the installer, for a simple solution simply hit the Back button and click on Next. Your JDK should be detected.

I’m using Eclipse PDT 32-bit which at the moment the only current all in one version. Can be downloaded here.

1. The first option needs a bit of work which is to
download the 64 bit JRE and Java SDK then
download Eclipse Classic 64 bit version and manually add the PDT. Check tutorial here.

2. Second option is download the Eclipse PDT 32 bit version and then download 32 bit JRE and JDK. You should not mix eclipse 32 bit with 64 bit java, it wont work as I found out the long way. See my screenshot below, it cannot find it since my Java is 64 bit.

Following option 2 which is the option I took.
Download the 32 bit version of JRE and Java SDK here .

They will be installed on the C:\Program Files (x64)\Java\ folder.

Next download Eclipse PDT and extract this your C drive like C:\eclipse. If try to run it you will likely get this error.

A Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK) must be available in order to run Eclipse. No Java virtual machine was found after searching the following locations:
c:\Program Files\Eclipse\jre\bin\javaw.exe ‘javaw.exe’ in your current PATH

To resolve this
1. Create a shortcut to your desktop

2. Right click on the shortcut and choose properties

3. Edit the target path to

C:\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm “C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_26\bin”

Dont forget the quotes as spaces in the target path returns strange results in Windows 7.

That should be it you should be up and running.

On Mac it kinda needs a bit of work but basically you have to configure PHP, download-install MySQL and phpMyAdmin.

I wrote a short tutorial below to cover the installation.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard includes PHP 5.3.x version by default, you simply need to enable it to start using it.

You can use a text editor or use the Terminal, I prefer to use the latter.

a. To launch Terminal go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal

b. On Terminal change directory to /etc/apache2

# cd /etc/apache2

c. Use your favorite editor, I use Vi, open up httpd.conf

NOTE: The file has write permission, so you need to sudo in order to make changes, if you haven’t created a password yet for your account, this is the perfect time to create one.

Go to  System Preference > Accounts > Set the password for your account. Once done continue with the terminal

# sudo vi httpd.conf

If prompted for your password enter the password.

d. Do a search for .php and uncomment the line

#LoadModule php5_module        libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

To do a search type /.php on the vi editor and hit Enter

e. Exit and Save

Hit the Esc key and type to exit and save

2. Start Sharing by opening System Preferences, clicking on “Sharing” under Internet & Wireless and then check  “Web Sharing”.

Congrats PHP is enabled.

2. Install MySQL

a. Download the package from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.1.html#macosx-dmg

b. Pick the 64 bit version.

c. After mounting, go over the readme.txt for more information.  Install the mysql-5.1.56-osx10.6-x86_64.pkg, go through the wizard.

d. Then also install the startup package which will start the MySQL server when you start your Mac.

e. You should be able to connect to the MySQL server, byrunning `/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql’ on the command line

3. Next for managing your database with a GUI

a. Go ahead and download phpMyAdmin from

http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/downloads.php

b. I extracted the folder inside my local folder.

c. Read the documentation for ways on how to setup authentication for phpMyAdmin either by cookie or config.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['socket'] = ”;

e. To find out where it is located type the command ‘status’ on the Terminal when logged in to Mysql.

Connection id: 36

Current database:

Current user: pauloorquillo@localhost

SSL: Not in use

Current pager: stdout

Using outfile: ”

Using delimiter: ;

Server version: 5.1.56 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

Protocol version: 10

Connection: Localhost via UNIX socket

Server characterset: latin1

Db characterset: latin1

Client characterset: latin1

Conn. characterset: latin1

UNIX socket: /tmp/mysql.sock

Uptime: 7 days 2 hours 30 min 9 sec

f. You should see something like above note the UNIX socket and edit your phpmyadmin config file

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['socket'] = ‘/tmp/mysql.sock’;

That should be it you should be up and running. Happy coding.

user.MYI
user.MYD
user.frm

Download this mysqlusertables. Unzip the file, copy the 3 files inside.

Go into your C:\wamp\bin\mysql\mysql5.x.xx\data\mysql directory and paste, click yes to overwrite.

Restart All Service on your WAMP. Then you are good to go.

I’ll keep you posted soon on why these tables easily gets corrupted.

*Update*

Digging deeper to the culprit I found out the tables for users in the mysql db has warnings, meaning they are corrupt. So to avoid doing the steps above while your MySQL and phpMyAdmin is still working. Go to phpMyAdmin, access mysql db, then select users table then click on operations then under “Table maintenance” click on Repair Table. Viola!!!

RENAME TABLE old_table TO new_table

Update On phpMyAdmin select a table then go to Operations, Under Table Options you would see Rename Table to feature.

First upload the .sql file on your server using an FTP client and remember the path.

eg.
For Linux
/home/lopau/mydump.sql

for Windows
C:/wamp/www/lopau/mydump.sql

Login to your server using an SSH client like Putty.

On the command line access MySQL
$> mysql -u username -p password

replace username and password with yours.

On the MySQL client command line access and use your database.
$> use lopaudb;

Now to import your dump;
$> source /home/lopau/mydump.sql;

If successful you should see
Query OK, 13 rows affected (0.00 sec)

That easy.