Linux References

A running guide of Linux commands focused on Red Hat Based Distros that I often forget.

SSH Control Characters

As with all SSH control characters all commands must follow a return character.

• ~.
  Kill the current SSH connect. Great for when something hangs and you’re waiting for a timeout.

• ~#
  List all forwarded SSH connections.

Logging

• journal --since 9:00 --until 12:00
  Show system logs between those times

• journal -u postfix --since yesterday -f
  Show all postfix logs since yesterday and follows logs

• journal -k -n 20
  Kernel messages since last boot limiting to 20 messages

tmux

• <c-b> :setw synchronize-panes (on/off)
  Synchronize text input on all panes.

sysstat

• sar -d -f /var/log/sa/sa15 -s 19:00:00 -e 21:00:00
  Get diskstats on the last 15th of the month between the hours of 7pm and 9pm.

nmap

• nmap -sP -oG scan-results.txt 10.0.0.0/24,10.0.1.0/24
  Quick ping scan of two subnets with greppable outputs written to a file.

• nmap -sA -F -Pn <host>
  TCP ACK scan common ports without an initial ping scan. Good for mapping out a stateful firewall.

• nmap -sU -A -v <host>
  Scan all UDP ports with an additional service discovery scan and with verbose output. Can be combined with a TCP scan using the -sS flag.

• nmap --iflist
  Wrapper around ifconfig and ip. Very useful for quick access to important info.

• nmap --script ssl-enum-ciphers -p 443 <hostname>
  Cycles through all the ciphers the webserver will respond too on port 443. Ensuring vulnerable SSL protocols aren’t used.

tcpdump

• tcpdump 'host 10.0.1.2 and (dst port 80 or 443)' -w dump.pcap
  Capture traffic destine for 80/443 for host IP 10.0.1.2 writing raw output to a file. src and net can be used as well.

Git

Merging in other’s changes

git fetch                       # Checkout repo metadata
git checkout <feature/branch>   # Change working HEAD to branch to be merged
git fetch                       # Fetch branch to be merged
git rebase master               # Flatten branch and set master as base. Use -i squash or delete commits.
git checkout master             # Change head to master branch
git merge <feature/branch>      # Move master branch up to HEAD
git push origin master          # Push new rebased master to origin server

Rebase onto master

git checkout -b <feature/new_branch>    # Create new feature branch
... Do Some Work ...
git pull --rebase origin master         # Shortcut for fetch + rebase

Often Forgotten Linux Utilities

• lsof -c ssh -i TCP:22
  Filter to TCP port 22 and command strings with ssh.

• lsblk and findmnt
  Tools for finding hardware block devices and filesystems.

• dmesg -n 1 or dmesg -D
  Suspend logging to console until next reboot. Change can be made permanent in rc.local.

Related References

• Selinux Guide

  How to manage Selinux at scale