Anatomy of an XSS Attack: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Stop It
Manny FernandezA practitioner's breakdown of cross-site scripting: the five attack stages, the three flavors, a break-it-and-fix-it lab, and a layered defense...
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FortiGate DDNS: `config system ddns` Actionable Configuration
Manny FernandezFortiGate DDNS: config system ddns Explained No fluff. Just the config that works. FortiGate DDNS keeps a stable hostname pointed...
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Lua Primer for Security Engineers: The Language Behind Nmap, Wireshark and Snort 3
Manny FernandezExecutive Summary Objective: Get you from zero to writing useful Lua in one sitting. This Lua primer covers the whole...
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How SSDs Work, How They Perform, and Why SSD Secure Erase Overwrites Are Obsolete
Manny FernandezNAND cells, the flash translation layer, SLC caching, TRIM, and the right way to sanitize a solid state drive in...
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FortiGate SD-WAN Debugs: The Diag Commands That Actually Find the Problem
Manny FernandezExecutive Summary Objective: Give you a repeatable, layer-by-layer workflow for troubleshooting FortiGate SD-WAN from the CLI. Each command answers one...
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Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE): From One-Liners to Your First Custom Script
Manny FernandezNmap Scripting Engine (NSE): From One-Liners to Your First Custom Script Executive Summary Objective: Use the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE)...
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Deploying Cisco TRex: A Line-Rate Traffic Generator for Your Firewall Lab
Manny FernandezStand up TRex on Ubuntu, wire it through a FortiGate, and get real throughput numbers without a six-figure test chassis...
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nftables Firewall: The Modern Linux Packet Filter, and Every GUI Worth Using to Manage It
Manny Fernandez1. Executive Summary Objective: Get a working, persistent nftables firewall on a Linux host, then pick the right graphical tool...
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OPNsense on a Raspberry Pi: A Step-by-Step Guide
Manny FernandezExecutive Summary Objective: Stand up a working open source firewall on a Raspberry Pi 4, with a routed WAN and...
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Legacy Protocols Must Die: FTP, Telnet, HTTP, and Their Secure Replacements
Manny FernandezExecutive Summary Objective: Identify every cleartext and unauthenticated legacy protocol still running in your environment, replace each one with its...
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FortiGate and EntraID: Renewing an Expiring Entra ID SAML Signing Certificate Without Breaking SSO
Manny FernandezExecutive Summary Objective: Roll an expiring SAML signing certificate on a Microsoft Entra ID enterprise application to a new certificate,...
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FortiGate PCP NAT: Letting Clients Request Their Own Port Mappings
Manny FernandezPort Control Protocol server, pools, pcp-outbound SNAT and pcp-inbound DNAT on FortiOS Executive Summary Static VIPs are fine when you...
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APIPA Explained: The 169.254.0.0/16 Address Space, When It Is a Problem, and When It Is by Design
Manny FernandezExecutive Summary Objective: Explain exactly what the 169.254.0.0/16 address space is, how a host ends up with one of its...
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What Is That Process Touching? Finding the Files a Running Process Uses on Linux, macOS, and Windows
Manny FernandezA practitioner guide to executables, libraries, mapped files, handles, and sockets, with the exact commands for all three operating systems....
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Graylog Open 7.1 on Ubuntu 24.04: Install and Configure a Core Cluster
Manny FernandezExecutive Summary Objective Stand up a working Graylog Open 7.1 Core cluster (Graylog + MongoDB on one node, Data Node...
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Deepfake Readiness: 16 Best Practices to Stop a Cloned Voice From Moving Money or Access
Manny FernandezThe Tuesday Afternoon Call It is a quiet Tuesday afternoon. The HR director's video flickers to life on Zoom, or...
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TLS 1.0 vs 1.1 vs 1.2 vs 1.3: What Actually Changed and What to Disable Today
Manny FernandezA practitioner breakdown of every TLS version: handshakes, cipher suites, the attacks that killed the old ones, and the exact...
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Windows Event Types for Forensic Investigations
Manny FernandezThe event IDs, log channels, and audit settings that actually solve cases In this post Executive Summary How Windows Event...
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Anatomy of a SQL Injection Attack “SQLi”
Manny FernandezAnatomy of a SQL Injection Attack Executive Summary Objective: Walk a SQL injection (SQLi) attack from first probe to...
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FortiGate ACME Beyond Let’s Encrypt: ZeroSSL, Sectigo, and Internal step-ca
Manny Fernandez1. Title and Executive Summary Objective: Configure a FortiGate to enroll and auto-renew its public-facing certificate from an ACME certificate...
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