Category: Software

Main features

The main characteristics of this program is that it will allow us to perform a network forensic analysis with PCAP traffic captures, although we will also have the possibility of sniffing all the traffic from the wired or WiFi network card, however, it is compatible with WireShark because it is the world’s most widely used protocol analyzer. Other important features are that it allows you to extract passwords from data captures directly in plain text, without the need for us to have to inspect all traffic in detail, it is completely automatic. We can also build a map of the network, rebuild TCP sessions, we can extract the hashes of the encrypted passwords and even convert them to Hashcat format to later try to crack them with this program, carrying out a brute force attack or offline dictionary.

The primary goal of this BruteShark program is to provide a comprehensive solution for IT security researchers and network and system administrators to identify potential problems, weaknesses, threats on the local network, and other security flaws that could lead to a future attack. This program is available in two clearly different versions, we will have a version with a graphical user interface for the Windows system, and we will also have a command line version (we will run in a terminal) that is compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems. Of course, this program can be used to analyze the network traffic of Windows, Linux or macOS computers without any problem.

This program is capable of extracting and decoding user names and passwords from protocols such as HTTP, FTP, Telnet, IMAP, SMTP and many others, that is, all protocols that do not have end-to-end encryption such as HTTPS, FTPES, SSH and many others. This program is also capable of extracting the hashes and transforming them into Kerberos, NTLM, CRAM-MD5, HTTP-Digest formats and more, of course, you will be able to create a visual network diagram with the users and the different network devices, it is also capable of extracting all DNS queries that have been made (as long as DoH or DoT is not used, which is encrypted), it also allows rebuilding TCP and UDP sessions, carving files and even extracting VoIP calls if SIP protocols are used and RTP.

Once we know all the features of this program, we will see in detail how it works.

Download and installation on Windows

If you are interested in installing this program on Windows, you can download two versions:

The only prerequisite is to have WinPcap or NPcap installed, we must remember that, if you have WireShark installed, you will have installed one of both drivers. You must also install the .NET Core Runtime in order to run it.

If you are going to install this program on Linux systems, you will need to have libpcap installed, then we will execute the following commands:

find /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -type f | grep libpcap | head -1 | xargs -i sudo ln -s {} /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpcap.so

wget https://github.com/odedshimon/BruteShark/releases/latest/download/BruteSharkCli

./BruteSharkCli

Once installed, we proceed to execute it, we must remember that we will only have a graphical user interface in Windows operating systems, in Linux we will have to execute commands by console.

How BruteShark works

This program works in a really simple way, the first thing to do is upload a PCAP file to analyze, and then analyze the file or files that we have uploaded. We also have the ability to build TCP and UDP sessions, and even start with network data capture. If you do not have any capture to analyze, you can use this program instead of using WireShark, export the capture in PCAP and later import it in this program. In this way, we can do it much easier with a single program.

In the left part of the program is where we can see the user credentials that are in the network traffic, they will show us both the passwords in plain text (if protocols without encryption have been used), and it will also show us the hashes if we do use of Kerberos, NTLM and the other protocols that we have discussed previously. In this section we will also be able to see the network diagram, the sessions carried out, the DNS requests, and finally we will find the possible files that it has captured and the VoIP calls if we have made any.

If we want to capture network traffic from any of the network interfaces, it is absolutely necessary to run BruteShark with administrator permissions, otherwise, we will not even get the wired and WiFi network cards that we have on our computer.

We must also bear in mind that, if we are going to use WireShark, we must export the captures in PCAP format and not PCAPNG as it happens by default, because we will get the following error. We will have two options, either use WireShark and save as PCAP, or use the tshark program through the command line.

When we open a PCAP compatible capture, then we must click on “Analyze Files” and it will begin to analyze the capture, this can take from a few seconds to a few hours, depending on the size of the capture that the BruteShark program has to analyze.

In our case we have always used DNS and HTTPS connections, therefore, it has not captured any password or password hashes by not using Kerberos or NTLM. What we can see is the network map of all the requests made.

We can also see all the sessions that have been made from our computer, with their corresponding source and destination IP address, as well as source port and destination port.

Finally, we can see all the DNS requests that have been made during the data capture, for example, our website, American Express, Interactive Brokers and many others that you can see below:

As you have seen, using this program to extract credentials, DNS requests, view the network map, sessions and even view files or information on VoIP calls is really easy to use, this same information would be obtained by viewing the capture of WireShark data, but it will take longer if we don’t use the proper filters, so BruteShark makes this a lot easier for us.

Main features

Advanced IP Scanner will allow us to scan the entire local home network where we are, and also all the subnets to which we have access. This program integrates the possibility of connecting via HTTP / HTTPS to a web server that we locate in the local network, we can also connect to an FTP server and even an SSH server, this program does not incorporate clients to enter the different services, but rather they can be “linked” with other programs to facilitate connection to these devices, but the program itself will not.

In the event that you make use of remote control programs such as Radmin, this program integrates a Radmin client and we can also install the Radmin server so that other devices can access our equipment. Also, if you don’t use Radmin you can always make use of RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) because this is integrated. Other interesting features of this free tool is that it will allow us to turn on local network computers through WoL (Wake On LAN) and many other basic networking tasks. Finally, this program will be able to export all the information in CSV format for later study or to store the information.

Installation or commissioning

One feature that we liked a lot is that it is not necessary to install it on our PC. When we download the installer and select the Spanish language, it will allow us two options: install or run the program. In other words, this program includes both the installer for our Windows computer, as well as the possibility of running the portable version without having to install it. Finally, it will tell us that we must accept the license agreement.

If we are going to use this program a few times, it would be ideal to use it directly in portable mode without having to install it, in this way, we will not need to have more and more programs installed on our PC, saving disk space.

This is how Advanced IP Scanner works by scanning the local network

This program is very easy to use, the first thing we will see when executing this program is a very large green button that indicates «Explore». By default, the program will be able to detect all the local subnets of the different physical and virtual network interfaces installed on our PC, for this reason, we have different subnets that the program can verify. Our physical local network corresponds to the 10.11.1.1/24 addressing, the rest of the addressing is the VMware and Virtual Box interfaces respectively.

Once we have entered the program, and we have automatically set the IP addressing range, we can click on “Explore” and wait a few minutes for the process to finish.

After waiting a few minutes, we can see the status of the different devices found, the name (hostname), the IP address, the manufacturer if known, the MAC address of the device and some comments that we can put ourselves to identify the different devices.

Something that especially catches our attention is that it is capable of detecting shared folders via Samba from our QNAP NAS server, making use of the PC’s own credentials to enter it.

If we right-click on each of the computers, we can exploit the computer, make use of “Radmin” if we have it installed on the remote computer, and run different basic external networking tools that we can use, such as :

• Ping
• Tracert
• Telnet
• SSH
• HTTP
• HTTPS
• FTP
• RDP

In the case of ping or tracert, it will automatically open a console (cmd) in Windows to use the destination IP address, for example, if we use HTTP or HTTPS it will launch the default web browser on our computer. In the case of using SSH or FTP, it will launch programs specifically dedicated to this, in addition, then we can select which programs it should launch when using these instruments. Finally, we can also copy the information, rediscover it, add to favorites, change the name, modify the “Comment” section and we can even use the built-in Wake on LAN, turn it off or cancel the shutdown.

Below, you can see what happens when launching an FTP session and also the typical ping to a remote computer, as you can see, the Advanced IP Scanner itself does not integrate these functionalities but uses external programs.

At the top of the program we will be able to access the “File” section to explore all the equipment from a file, load the favorites, save the information and even print the information. We can also configure the “View” by expanding everything, collapsing everything, and we can even show the active, inactive or unknown.

Regarding the “Configuration” section, we can enable the possibility of exploring resources such as HTTPS, NetBIOS group, RDP and more, in addition to those that already come by default (shared folders and printers, HTTP and FTP). In the «Others» section we can load the different SSH, Telnet, FTP and HTTP clients to launch them when we need them. Finally, in the “Help” section we can see a small tutorial, install Radmin Viewer directly and even the server as well.

In the event that we look for IP addresses that are in a different subnet than ours, and if the firewall allows it, we will be able to see the list of devices that are up at a certain moment, as you can see below.

As you have seen, Advanced IP Scanner is a really useful program that will allow us to see all the devices that are in the domestic local network and also in other networks, in addition, we have the possibility of making use of different external programs to use the ping , tracert, launch the web browser or an FTP and SSH client among many other options. This program is very simple but effective, and will allow us to have a complete list of devices connected to the local network easily and quickly.

Finally, a feature that we liked a lot about this program is the possibility of running it in portable mode, without having to install it, in this way, we will not need to install another program on our PC.

Main features

Manage Wireless Networks is an application from NirSoft that is completely free, it works with Windows Vista or higher operating systems, including Windows 10, in addition, it is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. It does not need any type of installation because it is a portable program, ideal for not having to install anything else and simply run it whenever we need it. This program is capable of displaying a large amount of information about all the wireless profiles of our computer, even if the WiFi network adapter is not activated, because it obtains the information directly from the operating system with all the details.

For each WiFi network profile that we have saved on our computer, we are going to obtain all this information:

• Profile name, which is always the name of the SSID
• SSID (WiFi network name)
• Connection type
• Connection mode
• Authentication
• Encryption
• Key type
• Auto switch
• Hidden SSID?
• Profile position in terms of priority
• Creation date and time
• Modification date and time
• And other display options

This program will also allow us to edit all the profiles we want easily and quickly, by editing an XML file and using the correct syntax so that it does not return an error, this is only recommended for advanced users because you could damage the profile and you will have to delete it and create it from scratch with Windows. We could also quickly change the form of manual connection to automatic and vice versa, in addition, we could change the different authentication and encryption modes, change the profile name, SSID and even copy the wireless profiles to import them into another computer easily and quickly. Some of these changes are necessary with the WiFi network card activated, otherwise they cannot be applied.

To download this program we simply have to go to the official website, click on “Download Manage Wireless Networks” and unzip the ZIP file that will automatically download, once unzipped, we can see the following files:

We will be able to execute the ManageWirelessNetworks.exe file as a user or as an administrator, we will simply double click and it will load the program to read all the profiles of the WiFi networks stored in the operating system.

Operation and available options

In the main menu of the Manage Wireless Networks program we can see all the profiles that we currently have on this computer, and we can also see the configuration of the different WiFi networks regarding:

• SSID (WiFi network name)
• Connection type
• Automatic or manual connection
• Authentication “Open”, “WEP”, WPA of different versions, even WPA3 SAE is recognized correctly.
• Encryption used in the WiFi network
• Position in connection priority
• And other display options

If we click on any WiFi network with the right mouse click, we can view it in detail and make different configurations. For example, we can configure the automatic or manual connection mode of a certain WiFi network, as you can see here:

We also have the possibility of modifying the encryption available in WiFi networks, in case of changing the encryption in the router or in the access point, we can do it directly from here without any problem, among the available options we have the following:

• WPAPSK-TKIP
• WPA2PSK-TKIP
• WPAPSK-AES
• WPA2PSK-AES
• WPA3SAE

The most normal thing today is to find WPA2PSK-AES and WPA3SAE networks, because the rest of the protocols are not secure and are canceled by the WiFi Alliance.

In the «File» section we can make these same configurations, but later we will have to select the profile or SSID to edit. While before with the right click we choose the WiFi network to modify, in this section we first choose the action and then the SSID that we want to edit.

In the “Edit” section we can search for a specific profile that we have in the system, we can also copy the chosen profiles and even select or deselect all of them to perform different actions.

In the «View» section we can sort the different profiles according to the name of the WiFi network (SSID), type of connection, data encryption used and others. From here we can also show a QR code with the profile that we want, to easily connect with our smartphone. We can also show lines as if it were an Excel file, export an HTML report of all the WiFi networks or only the selected ones, the possibility of choosing which columns we want to show, if we want to modify their size or refresh the display of all the networks.

In the «Help» section we can run this program as an administrator, but we will have exactly the same options available.

One of the most interesting parts is to be able to see the password of the WiFi network, or go directly to the Windows profile of a specific WiFi network, in order to edit it through the operating system itself and not use the XML editor that is much more professional and “manual” than doing it with Windows. If we right-click on any profile and choose “Edit Wireless Profile” we can go directly to the profile saved in the Windows 10 operating system.

Something that has caught our attention about this program is that it has been able to detect the WPA3-Personal protocol without any problem, for example, in the two networks of “RedesZone” we use WPA3-SAE only, and it has detected it perfectly and without problems.

If we right click on a specific SSID and choose «Properties» we will be able to see in detail all the available display options, except the WiFi password that appears in white. As you can see, it has correctly detected the WPA3SAE with AES encryption that we have configured in our wireless router.

Thanks to this Manage Wireless Networks tool from NirSoft we will be able to view all the profiles of the WiFi networks that we have configured on our computer, in addition, we can easily edit them in an advanced way through an incorporated XML editor, however, our recommendation is that you click In “Edit Wireless Profile” to get the Windows configuration menu and you can edit the profile easily and quickly through the system.

Main features

This totally free program will allow us to create a container for files and folders, the configuration wizard gives us the option of incorporating all the files and folders that we want into an encrypted container, with the aim of encrypting all the information on our PC. Of course, this encrypted container can be copied to the typical Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive synchronization folders, in addition, a very interesting feature is that it allows self-extraction easily and quickly, entering the decryption key without having to perform complicated tasks actions to decrypt our files. An important detail is that in order to decrypt the data in a Kryptel container, it is necessary to have the software installed on all the computers where we want to read the information, and not only on the one where we are going to encrypt the information.

This program incorporates the possibility of creating a context menu in Windows to add all files and folders to this encrypted container easily and quickly, however, our recommendation is to make use of the encrypted container configuration wizard itself in order to go adding all the elements one by one. Once we have created this container, we can add or remove elements whenever we want, and all this easily and quickly.

Although in the professional paid version we have many additional configuration options, by default in the free or “Free” version, we have symmetric AES encryption of 256 bits in key length, one of the most secure that we can use. This Kryptel program is similar to Silver Key in that it is developed by the same company, but it has clearly different objectives. This Kryptel will allow us to easily modify the encrypted container, adding, deleting or editing the encrypted files, something that Silver Key does not allow, we would have to create it from scratch. This program must also be installed to decrypt the files, therefore, if you are going to send the encrypted container to a recipient, you will also need to have the program installed. Finally, this program is capable of verifying the integrity of the files, and we can even recover the data from a container that is corrupted for some reason, in addition, it is capable of erasing all the sensitive information that is stored in RAM memory as soon as the data encryption / decryption operation ends.

Once we have seen the main features of this Kryptel program, we are going to download it, install it and we will show you all the available configuration options.

Download, installation and commissioning

The first thing we will do is download the Kryptel program From its official website, we will have trial versions for 30 days, and also the completely free “Free” versions that we can use without limit, although we will not have all the configuration options available in the full paid version. We are going to download the version Kryptelite (Kryptel Free Edition).

Once downloaded, we run the installer and proceed to install it with the installation wizard by clicking on «Next».

Once we have installed it, we can run a short Kryptel configuration tutorial that will show it to us in the web browser.

Once we have installed it correctly and we have seen (optionally) the tutorial, we are going to teach you how to encrypt and decrypt files and folders using this very interesting program.

How Kryptel works to encrypt files

This Kryptel program is very simple, in fact, when we run it we can clearly see two options: “Encrypt” and “Decrypt”, to encrypt files and folders and to decrypt previously encrypted files and folders. We also have the possibility to configure some available options and add the license of the professional version.

To create an encrypted container it is as simple as clicking on «Encrypt», a small configuration wizard will appear where we will have the name and the folder to be encrypted, we click on «Add» and a file and folder explorer will appear, we choose all the files that we want and click on «Next» when we have it. Once we click on «Next», we will have to indicate the location of this encrypted container, and we will get to the last step where we will say «Finish».

By clicking on “Finish” it will ask us for the password to encrypt all the data with AES-256 bits that comes preconfigured, we enter it and click on “OK”.

In the case of wanting to re-enter the key, we have several policies as you can see, in this way, we will not make any mistake when entering the key correctly. We can modify this policy directly from the “Options” panel.

Once the password is entered, we can see the encrypted container and that the encrypted files have “disappeared”, basically what it is doing is “moving” these files to the encrypted container.

In these moments we will have all the data (files and folders) in the encrypted container that we have configured.

Decrypt container with folders and files

To decrypt the container we can do it through the same program in the «Decrypt» section, however, you could also double click on the encrypted container and it will automatically extract all the files and folders. Of course, in order to decipher all the information we will have to enter the password, as you can see:

We will see that the two encrypted PDF files have appeared in the current directory, and the container has already disappeared because we have extracted everything:

In the case of having clicked on the «Decrypt» button of the application itself, it will ask us to enter the full path of the encrypted file that we want to decrypt, and it will automatically decrypt it in that path. If we want to decrypt it in another route we will have to choose the option “Decrypt to an alternative location”.

As you can see, this program is really easy to use, we can encrypt and decrypt the data really quickly without having to make complicated settings.

All configuration options

Regarding the configuration options, we can configure the language and also the Windows context menu options when we right-click with the mouse.

In the “icons” section we can change the icon of the container that will be shown in the Windows 10 explorer.

In the “Encryption” section we can see other configuration options, such as not deleting files and folders when we encrypt the information, we would also have the possibility of not deleting the encrypted container after data decryption. These two options are the most interesting and recommended if you use this program continuously.

In the section “Passwords and keys” we can see the policy to enter the key twice when encrypting the data.

In the «Explorer» section we can configure the recognition of the different containers.

In “Shredder” we can see the policy for removing files when we encrypt the data, if we have decided to delete the originals.

We hope that this Kryptel program will help you to protect your files and folders from prying eyes, we must remember that AES-256 bits is one of the safest symmetric encryption algorithms in the world.

AxCrypt main features

Before we start talking about AxCrypt, we must point out that this project was born many years ago with the first version of the program, and at that time it was completely free. The last version of this first version was AxCrypt 1.7 and it was compatible with Windows Vista, however, it is very likely that it will also work on the latest Microsoft operating systems. Our recommendation is that, if you are going to use AxCrypt, use version 2.X as it incorporates all the improvements in security, performance and compatibility with different operating systems.

The AxCrypt 1.X version does not currently have any support, so you should not use it unless you want to decrypt data that you already have encrypted with this program. Of course, AxCrypt version 2.X allows decrypting files encrypted with version 1.X, that is, it is backwards compatible, but we will not be able to encrypt data in version 1.X with version 2.X.

In the main menu of this program we can see its main characteristics that we will detail:

• It allows you to encrypt files and folders quickly and easily.
• We can encrypt files and folders with 128-bit AES and 256-bit AES.
• There is no limit when it comes to encrypting files and folders.
• It is integrated into the Windows context menu by double clicking from the operator, to greatly facilitate the encryption and decryption of data.
• We can share the files and folders with any contact that we want, sharing our own decryption key for the files.
• Multi language, it is available in Spanish and also other languages.

Thanks to this program we can put the files and folders in the public cloud of Dropbox and Google Drive, being fully encrypted to prevent anyone from reading the information. Furthermore, it also incorporates a password manager that, logically, will be encrypted with a master key. Finally, thanks to the compatibility with Android and iOS smartphones, we can carry files and folders with us to encrypt and decrypt them at all times.

We must bear in mind that this software is a paid program, we will have a “Premium” subscription for users, and another “Business” version for companies. However, we have a completely free version for 30 days for new users, thanks to this, we will be able to test the software completely free of charge, although we will not have all the program’s functionalities available, only the most basic ones such as file encryption and decryption. .

In the case of exhausting the 30 days, we can continue using the program in its “Free” version, which has many limitations, such as AES-128-bit encryption, file encryption and decryption, backup of the account key, and open shared keys.

Once we have seen the main features of this AxCrypt program, we are going to see how we register on the web and install the program.

Registration on the web and installation of the program

It is absolutely necessary to register on the official website of this program to later log in to it. In order to register, we will have to go to the «My AxCrypt ID»And click on«Sign up«, Once we are in the registration menu, we will choose between« Private »or« Business », in our case we have chosen« Private ». We will put the registration email and they will send us a confirmation email, later we can put the access password that we want, this ID and password we must remember because we will have to enter the credentials in the program.

As soon as we log in, the web invites us to buy the Premium or Business subscription of this program, with AES-256 encryption features, the ability to share keys, protect folders and more.

This program is priced at € 4.60 per month or € 3.63 per month if you buy a one-year subscription. However, we will have the possibility to buy the Premium subscription and have a month completely free.

Once we have successfully registered, we download the software to proceed with the installation in our Windows 10 operating system. All we have to do is double click on the executable, click on «I agree with the terms and conditions of the license ”, and click on“ Install ”. Then we wait a few seconds and we will have the program installed. Once installed we can click on «Launch» or «Close».

Once we have installed it, we can start encrypting and decrypting files. We also have a “Portable” version for Windows on the official website, this will allow us to use the program without having to install it on our computer, just by double clicking we will execute it and we will have all the available options at our disposal, but of course we will not the ability to encrypt and decrypt files and folders from the context menu.

How to encrypt and decrypt files

The operation of this program is really simple, the first thing we must do is enter the email and password with which we have previously registered on the official website, we will have to use the AxCrypt ID created. We must also choose the language we want to use, we have chosen Spanish.

The first time we register, it will tell us that we do not have a paid subscription, therefore, we can start a 30-day free trial, and that when it ends, we can continue using this program in its Free version, as we have explained to you previously. We click on “Start” to start using the program to encrypt and decrypt files.

If we click on “Protect” we can select any file that we want, in this case, the “Free” version does not allow to encrypt folders, but the process would be exactly the same. Once we click on protect, we go to any file and it will encrypt it by putting the extension “axx”, as you can see here:

When we have encrypted it, it will appear in the list of recent files. If we want to decrypt this file, we will have two options, either click on “Open Protected” or simply double-click on the file from Windows Explorer. If we do the latter, the program will tell us that it is performing the decryption without asking for the password again, because we have logged in with the AxCrypt ID.

If we right-click on the encrypted files in «Recent files» we will have several options available:

• Open the file
• Remove it from the list, but keep it encrypted
• Decrypt it and remove it from the list
• Share keys
• Show in Folder
• Rename to original
• Delete recent files

When we have encrypted files, we can see all the files with an AXX extension, but if we double-click we can open them easily and quickly.

If we click on “File” we will be able to access different configuration options, specifically we will be able to:

• Open protected
• To protect
• Stop protecting
• Protected files
• Rename anonymous
• Rename to original
• Add protected folder
• Safe disposal
• Invite a friend
• Additional options
• Sign off
• Leave

All the options that appear with a red circle are not available in the free version, we would have to buy the Premium version of the tool.

In the “Options” section we can see all this:

• Idiom
• Change Password
• Upgrade files encrypted with AxCrypt 1.X to version 2.X
• Always offline and force to enter credentials
• Include subfolders for encryption and decryption of information
• Hide recent files
• Automatic logout due to inactivity
• Debug
• Clear all settings and restore the program
• Key management (passwords)

If we go to the “Key Management” section we can import someone’s shared public key, export my public key to share it with other users, and we can even export the AxCrypt ID and the shared key pair.

As you have seen, this program is very easy to use to encrypt and decrypt files in its free version, if you need to encrypt or decrypt folders and subfolders, you will have to buy the Premium or Business version. If you want a multiplatform program (except for smartphones) to encrypt and decrypt files and folders, our recommendation is to use VeraCrypt.

Main features

This program will allow us to create a data package with files and folders inside, this package can be sent over the Internet by non-secure methods, because the recipient will have to enter a private password to be able to decrypt all files. One aspect that has caught our attention is that it allows self-extraction without having to install the program on the destination computer, only the user who creates the encrypted container to put files and folders will have to have this program installed, otherwise , it is not necessary to install Silver Key on each and every computer.

This program allows you to create an encrypted “plot” from the Windows contextual menu, or by directly using the program’s own creation wizard, which is really intuitive. By clicking on «Create parcel and upload» we can create this encrypted container to later send it by email, upload it to Dropbox, Google Drive or anywhere. This program offers support for cloud storage services such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and also Dropbox, in addition, we can use drag and drop to encrypt and load data in a transparent way. Silver Key is also available as an app for Android operating systems. Another interesting feature is the incorporation of a secure password manager, therefore, we can use it to keep all our keys under lock and key.

The data encryption used by this program is AES in its 256-bit key-length version, making use of the CryptoAPI encryption engine, in addition this encryption is the default that the program will always use, to provide the best security by default . Another advanced aspect is that Silver Key has a command line interface that can work as part of our script that automates certain actions, ideal for not requiring user intervention to encrypt and decrypt the information.

This Silver Key program is similar to Kryptel, but it is not the same, this program is specifically designed to share the encrypted containers with other people and facilitate the extraction of the files and folders contained within it. On the program’s official website we will find a small comparison between the two softwares, Kryptel and Silver Key, where we can have the answer to the most common questions about their differences.

Once we have seen the main features of this program, we are going to download it, install it and test all its configuration options.

Download, installation and commissioning

The first thing we will have to do is download the Silver Key program From its official website, we will have trial versions and also completely free versions, both of the Kryptel program and Silver Key. We are going to download the version Silver Key Free Edition normal, although we could also use the portable version that is indicated as Silver Key Free Edition USB.

Once we have downloaded it, we will have to run the installer that will guide us through the different configuration options of the installer. As in almost all installers for Windows, we will simply have to click on «Next» to correctly install this software that does not have any complications.

Once installed, it will automatically open a small Silver Key operating tutorial that we have on its official website, and it will also launch the Silver Key program itself to start creating an encrypted container.

Once we have installed it correctly, we are going to run it and see all its possibilities.

How Silver Key works to encrypt files

The operation of the Silver Key program is very simple, we will have a configuration wizard to encrypt or encrypt new files and folders. We will also have other additional options, but they are for the paid versions of this program. Regarding the decryption options, we will have the possibility to decrypt the content of the container on our PC, analyze it to know if everything is inside the container or if a file is missing, and we can even verify the integrity of the container to know if we have received it correctly or not.

To create an encrypted container it is as simple as clicking on «Encrypt» and a new window will appear with a small configuration wizard, what we will have to do is select the files or folders to encrypt, and click on «Next» to continue with this setup wizard.

When creating the encrypted container we will have to give it a path and also a name, in addition, we can create a self-decrypting container so that everything is much easier when the receiver receives it via email or the shipping method you use. In this container we will have the possibility to add a description that will be public, and also a message that will be private (it will show it to us after entering the decryption password). Finally, we will be able to carry out a secure deletion of the files and folders that we are going to introduce into the encrypted container, thanks to this functionality, we will not have to safely delete all the information, but the program will do it directly. This secure deletion option is optional, we can keep the original files on our PC without problems.

Once all the options have been chosen, we will have to enter the encryption password, which will be the same as the decryption key, since it uses symmetric AES-256 encryption.

It will tell us how we want to manage the introduction of the password in case of having to enter it more than once.

Once done, we can see the encrypted container where we have configured it, and with the name that we have configured.

As you have seen, it is very easy to create an encrypted container with this Silver Key program, now we are going to show you other very interesting options of the program.

Check that the container is well created

The program itself will allow us to “analyze” the encrypted container to check the files inside it and also to check the integrity of each and every one of the files. We will choose the «Analyze» option, it will show us the message that we have configured publicly, and then we will have to enter the password to decrypt the information. Finally, it will show us all the encrypted files and folders that are in the container.

Once we have verified that all the encrypted files are inside the container, we are going to show you how to decrypt it and extract all the files and folders.

Decrypt the container and show the encrypted files

To decrypt the container we can do it through the Silver Key program in the “Decrypt” section, or simply by double-clicking on the container in Windows 10. The first thing that will appear is the public description of the encrypted container that we have configured.

We will look for a folder or directory where to decrypt all files and folders.

Now we will have to enter the password.

Once entered, the private comment that we configure will appear, which will only show us once we have entered the password.

As you can see, it has successfully exported the encrypted folder with all the content inside.

One of the aspects that we liked the most about Silver Key is the ease with which all the data encryption and decryption processes are carried out, it is much easier than other programs, especially the decryption process.

All configuration options

Regarding the configuration options, we can configure the interface language and the container language, we can also configure what commands are available when right-clicking from Windows explorer.

In the “icons” section we can select the icon for the “Silver Key Parcel” file, as you can see here:

Regarding encryption, we can create a self-decrypting container by default, verify the data after encryption, delete or not the source data, allow double extensions so as not to delete the original and create a combined file during encryption.

In the “Passwords and keys” section, we can ask that the entered key have to be entered twice when encrypting, to ensure that the key is correct.

In the “Explorer” section we can configure the behavior of the program to recognize the different containers.

In “Encryption code” we will be able to see the symmetric encryption configured by default, we will not be able to modify it in the free version but in the paid version. We have 256-bit key length AES.

Finally, it will show us the “Shredder” configuration to safely delete or not the source files, in this way, we can encrypt the data and erase the originals by performing different “passes” to make it difficult for forensic analysis programs to recover. .

We hope you liked this Silver Key program, it is a really interesting program to encrypt and decrypt data with AES safely and very easy to perform, without having to choose complicated settings, the truth is that it is one of the simplest, fastest and most efficient that we have tested so far.

We know as remote desktop software that which allows us to connect remotely to our computer and control it with a keyboard and mouse as if we were sitting in front of the monitor itself. There are several protocols and various applications that allow us to use this function. Remmina is one of the main alternatives to have remote desktop software on our Linux operating system.

Remmina main features

This program is completely free, it will allow us to connect remotely to our Linux computer or server, using different protocols for this, and without the need to install additional software on the client computer. We will only have to install Remmina and we will already have everything we need to remotely connect to other computers, as long as they make use of RDP, VNC or SSH servers, among others. Remmina supports the following protocols:

• RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol): we can connect remotely with other computers, customizing the color depth, shared folders, quality, sound and many other parameters.
• VNC: we can configure the color, quality, the listening port, authenticate with username and password, deactivate or activate data encryption and many other characteristics.
• SSH and SFTP: we can control a remote server or computer by SSH, and it also includes an SFTP client to transfer data in an encrypted and authenticated way.
• NX
• XDMCP

Other features of Remmina are that it will allow us to remember the last client configuration, allow double click, scale the image quality, allow screen folders, configure screen resolutions, configure the tab, configure a local port to make a tunnel SSH, configure the SSH logging level, change the terminal font to properly manage computers, and much more.

Installation and commissioning

Remmina, like most Linux software, already comes in the official repositories of the different distributions, so we can easily install the tool by simply typing a line in our terminal. To do this, we must execute the following commands in the terminal of our Debian-based distribution:

sudo apt install remmina

As you can see, the package manager will automatically detect all the dependencies of this program and ask us if we want to install it. Furthermore, remmina is designed by plugins, so if we simply install “remmina” it will automatically install all the plugins to have all the functions of Remmina without having to install it later.

This software is not limited to connecting to other identical systems (in this case, to other Linux systems) but also allows the connection between different operating systems as long as they comply with the protocol standards, for example, although Linux by default does not have From an RDP server, we will be able to connect to a Windows computer from this Linux software.

Operation and connection to servers

Once we have installed Remmina, we are going to run it on our operating system. Simply put the name “remmina” in the search bar and it will automatically give us several options, we choose the first one to run the program on the computer.

In the main menu of Remmina we can see at the top the possibility of connecting to RDP, VNC and SSH servers quickly, just by entering the IP address and it will use the default ports of these remote connection protocols.

If we click in the upper left part «Create a new connection profile» we can create different connection profiles to connect quickly without having to enter anything, we will simply configure this profile, then double click and proceed with the connection easily and quickly .

In this menu we must indicate the following:

• Name: the name of the profile
• Protocol: the protocol to use for the connection, we have the possibility to choose RDP, SSH, SFTP, VNC and VNCI.
• Previous order: if we want to execute an order before connecting, the normal thing is to leave it empty.
• Subsequent order: if we want to execute an order after connecting remotely, it is normal to leave it empty.
• Basic, advanced and SSH Tunnel: depending on the chosen protocol, different configuration options will appear in this menu.

We must remember that the most important thing is to choose the correct connection protocol, if we have an RDP protocol remotely and we choose VNC, the connection will give us an error because we will not be using the same protocol on the server and on the client.

For example, if we choose RDP protocol, in the advanced tab we can configure the image quality, sound, security, type of transport, gateway, etc.

We can also put different advanced settings such as the name of the printer and many other parameters that the RDP protocol uses.

Finally, we can define different options at the bottom, such as printer sharing, deactivating clipboard synchronization and much more.

One feature that has caught our attention is the SSH Tunnel tab, and that is that this Remmina program will allow us to perform SSH tunnels to forward all network traffic through said SSH tunnel. If we enable this functionality, we must make sure that the remote SSH server to which we are going to connect also supports the SSH tunnel, specifically enabling it in the configuration.

If we want to make a fast connection with the SSH protocol, for example, we simply enter the IP address and it will use port 22 by default, if we use another port, we can use the IP: PORT syntax to connect. The same would happen with the RDP and VNC protocols, by default it will use the default ports if nothing is specifically indicated.

As soon as we enter the IP and the port, it will indicate that we must authenticate in the SSH server using our credentials. We enter the username and password and click on “Accept”.

When we connect to the SSH server, the console will automatically appear. On the left side we can see different actions to perform, such as screenshots, capture all keyboard events, copy and paste, select everything, minimize window and disconnect.

As you have seen, the Remmina tool is a fundamental program today to remotely manage different servers, be it RDP, VNC or SSH servers, among others. Thanks to the intuitive graphical user interface that this tool has, we will be able to create advanced profiles of each of the hosts that we want to control, to execute commands remotely once we have connected, and all this in a completely automated way without the need for perform any action on our part, only preconfigure it when creating the profile.

If you need a client program to remotely connect to Windows or Linux computers, and that make use of RDP, VNC or SSH protocols, this tool is one of the best options that we have available today.

Wavemon is a program with which we can know instantly and updated all the details of our WiFi wireless network, in addition, we can monitor the wireless network from anywhere in our home, to see the power values ​​and received signal that we have from wireless routers, WiFi access points or WiFi Mesh systems. Thanks to this program, we can place the different equipment of the WiFi Mesh system in the ideal place in our home so that they provide us with homogeneous coverage. Next, we are going to explain the installation of Wavemon and also how this program works.

Installation and commissioning

The installation of this Wavemon program is very simple, it is installed directly from the terminal through the package manager of your Linux distribution that you use. It could also be installed from the package manager through the graphical user interface.

Console installation

For example, in our case we have used a Debian-based distribution, therefore, we can install it with the popular “apt”. To install it through the console we type:

sudo apt install wavemon

Or you can also install it in the following way:

sudo apt-get install wavemon

We must bear in mind that Wavemon is in the repositories of the Debian distributions, therefore, the installation is really easy and fast.

If you use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system, or CentOS or derivatives, you must install it as follows:

sudo yum install wavemon

If you use operating systems based on Fedora or similar, it is also in the official repositories:

sudo dnf install wavemon

Finally, if you have operating systems that use pacman as a package manager, you must install it as follows:

sudo pacman -S wavemon

Once we have installed the program through the console, we would be ready to run it for the first time.

Installation via graphical user interface

To install it from the package manager, we go to “System / Administration / Package manager”. In this section we must put “Wavemon” in the browser and click on “Install”, once installed and confirm that it has been installed correctly, we can run it normally and without problems.

If you are using an operating system oriented to servers, you will not have a graphical user interface and everything must be done through the terminal, therefore, the most normal thing is to install it through the console because it is the fastest, as it is incorporated into the vast majority of Linux repositories.

How Wavemon works

Wavemon is a program that must be executed through the Linux terminal or console, it does not have a graphical user interface as such, but will “paint” everything through the console when we execute it. To run this Wavemon program, we just have to open a shell in Linux and type the following command:

wavemon

If the resolution of our screen is too small, we will get an error, we must take it into account since it is necessary that the console screen is from a certain size.

Once we have made the console screen larger to perfectly adapt to the program, we run the command again in the terminal, and it will automatically monitor all the values ​​of the Wi-Fi link to which we are currently connected. The information that will appear in the console when we execute Wavemon is the following:

• Name of the WiFi interface that we are using to connect to the router or wireless access point.
• SSID or name of the wireless network to which we have connected
• Quality level of WiFi signal received
• WiFi signal level received, in dBm and also in mW.
• Link statistics, with data transferred, received, deleted, retries and failed
• MAC address of the access point or router, connection time.
• Frequency of the WiFi network next to the channel, it will also show us the width of the WiFi channel.
• Synchronization speed, both in download and upload, and it will even show us the MCS to which it has synchronized, and if we have the Short Guard Interval enabled or not.
• Number of beacons, losses, average signal.
• Transmission power of our network card.
• RTS / CTS status and fragmentation
• Encryption (security of the WiFi network).
• IP address of the network card.

In addition to all these features, at the bottom we have a small program configuration menu that is controlled with the F keys on our PC keyboard. We must highlight the following keys:

• F2: by pressing this key, we can see a history of the signal received on our computer by the router or AP.
• F3: pressing this key will show us the list of available access points.
• F7 is the configuration preferences.
• F8: help.
• F9: about the program.
• F10: exit the program, although we can also exit the program by pressing Ctrl-C.

This Wavemon program is really simple, but it will allow us to see all the details of our WiFi wireless network very quickly and intuitively. Thanks to this program, we will not only be able to see the quality of the received WiFi signal or the received WiFi signal, but we will also be able to see in detail all the characteristics of the wireless connection that we have established. Without a doubt, the most interesting thing is the latter, because we can see at a low level the synchronization speed, the average of the received signal, and many other advanced parameters.

A very important detail is that if our WiFi network card also supports the connection to the 5GHz band, then we will be able to have all the information related to this frequency band with its corresponding channels and unique characteristics.

Main features

This program offers us a large amount of information about the WiFi networks around us, it is a program that will help us manage our Wi-Fi connection, from which channel to choose to avoid interference with neighboring networks, to know data of our connection and of the other connections that we have within our reach.

It is an easy-to-use program and the navigation menus are not elaborate and are very intuitive. Here is a summary of everything that Wirelessmon can do:

• Check the 802.11 network settings are correct.
• Wi-Fi hardware test to see if the devices are working properly.
• Check the signal levels of your local Wi-Fi network and nearby networks.
• Help to find sources of interference on the network.
• WirelessMon supports MetaGeek Wi-Spy (2.4i, 2.4 and DBX) is useful for finding interference-free transmission 802.11a / b / g / n devices on the same frequencies.
• Check for hot spots in your area (no cord).
• Creating a signal map of the region (also known as heat maps).
• Maps can be made with or without a GPS unit.
• Check the security settings for local access points.
• Measure network speed and performance and view available data rates.
• Help test Wi-Fi and wide network coverage.

As you can see, it is a very complete program. Regarding the heat map or using a GPS, we must add that for now the unique Compatible USB GPS is the Garmin.

Installation and commissioning

The first thing we have to do is download this program completely free from the official website, we currently have the WirelessMon v5.0 version, which is the latest version, and is compatible with the Windows 10 operating system. The first thing we will see is to accept The license agreement, a very important detail, is that this program is paid, but we have up to 30 days of use completely free and without limitations.

Once the agreement is accepted, we select the destination location that we want, although by default it will be in “Program Files”, as you can see:

We can also create the corresponding shortcuts to easily access the program from our desktop.

We can also configure a desktop icon:

Once everything is done configuring, click on “Install” and the program will install completely automatically.

The installation of this program will take just a few seconds:

Finally, we click on «Next» and the program will run automatically on its own.

When we run this program for the first time, it will indicate that we do not have a software license, we can directly access the purchase of the software from the program itself, in addition, if we have already purchased the license we can enter the username and password to legalize the software and be able to use it for more than 30 days.

In case you do not have the license and you want to try the software during the 30 days that you indicate, we can do it, click on «Continue» and we will not have to do anything else.

Testing the WirelessMon Program for Windows

This program has a very simple graphical user interface, in the upper part is where we have to select the wireless network card of our equipment, in case we have more than one. Logically, this program will not work if we do not have a WiFi network card in our computer. If we are not connected to any network, we will not get the specific information for this specific network, but we will be able to see the rest of the WiFi networks located at the bottom of the program.

The information of the WiFi networks that we can see are the following:

• Condition
• SSID
• RSSI
• Channel
• Channel width
• Safety
• Theoretical maximum speed
• MAC address, or also known as BSSID
• Network type (standard used)
• Infrastructure
• Seen for the first time
• Last seen
• Dropouts
• Maximum RSSI of the WiFi network
• Latitude and longitude
• Maker

As you can see, we found a lot of information thanks to this WirelessMon program.

If we select any of the WiFi networks, we will have the option of connecting to it through the program itself. We can also see the use of the channel and other important information to optimize our WiFi network to the maximum.

At the top in the «File» section, we have different options:

• Save the project
• Load previous projects
• Save a picture of the signal level of the Wi-Fi connection
• Print the image of the signal level of the WiFi connection

In the «Configuration» section we can go to the general options, everything related to the logging, the map, reset to factory settings, and even select the type of signal graph of the WiFi wireless network.

Finally, in the «Help» section we can see the help, enter the license key, see the software version, visit the official website and even check if we have a new version.

In the «General Options» section we can see options for the program itself, such as starting it when the operating system starts, calibrating the WiFi card, the transparency of the software and other settings related only to the appearance of the program.

In the “Logging” section we can put the summary of the program log, exporting all the information to a .txt text file, we can also see the log of the connected nodes, save the project automatically and we can even put a filter list SSID.

In the «Map Options» section we will have the possibility to load an image to later locate the WiFi networks that we have located around us.

In the “Configuration / Signal Strength Graph” section we can define what type of signal graph to show us, whether it is radar, triangle, vertical bars, etc.

In the event that you choose vertical bars, we will have the same graph as in Windows operating systems in the lower right section.

If we connect to one of the WiFi networks, we will get all the connection details in the upper left, as you can see.

We can also see the statistics of the WiFi connection.

The different channels in very easy to understand graphics, both for the 2.4GHz band and also for the 5GHz band.

In the “IP Connection” section we can see everything related to the connection, it will indicate the IP address, mask, gateway, DHCP server, synchronization speed and much more data.

Finally, if we have loaded a map it will show us here, otherwise it will give us an error because we have not uploaded a map yet, and we should upload it if we want to take advantage of this functionality.

As you have seen, this WirelessMon program will allow us to see all the WiFi networks around us easily and quickly. We can change the broadcast channel of our WiFi network to have less interference and achieve the best possible wireless performance.

Acrylic Bluetooth main features

This program is capable of view all the Bluetooth devices around, we will be able to see detailed and advanced information of each and every one of the Bluetooth BLE devices, thanks to the sniffer that we have integrated. In addition, we can see the content provided by the device, both in hexadecimal and in ASCII. We can also see signal graphs of the different devices, in the purest Acrylic WiFi style, in this way, we can see in the graphs signal intensity (RSSI) received by the different BLE devices around us, and check, depending on their signal, if they are near or far from us.

Another interesting feature is that we can configure the visualization of the graphs filtering by time and intensity, and we can even register an inventory to manage our devices. We can also capture all information in a pcap file, and later visualize this data capture with the Wireshark program, in addition, we will be able to export complete reports in HTML, CSV and also in TXT formats. One feature that we really liked is that we will have a new filter and grouping system, in such a way that we will see the devices grouped by name, type, manufacturer and UUID. In addition, we can geolocate the signal of the Bluetooth BLE device through GPS, and export it to KML files to use it with Google Earth.

What is a program like Acrylic Bluetooth good for?

Today a large number of IoT (Internet of Things) devices incorporate Bluetooth connectivity without our knowing it. Thanks to this program, we will be able to identify potential security or privacy problems, seeing which devices that we did not know use Bluetooth. For example, today most Smart TVs, laptops, smoke detectors, and other devices make use of Bluetooth. We will be able to visualize the data in graphs easily and quickly, where we can see the signal strength, the manufacturer of the device, distance (estimated) at which the device is located and much more.

We will be able free download Acrylic Bluetooth from the official website, in addition, we will have a completely free trial period to use all the options of the program, otherwise only the most basic options will be available (detect Bluetooth devices, detect proximity iBeacons and the signal strength display). The rest of advanced options such as packet analyzer, device grouping, inventory, advanced filters, report export, PCAP file support, GPS geopositioned captures and more, will not be available if you do not acquire the license.

The price of the one-year license is 45 euros, and the price of the lifetime license is 100 euros. Without a doubt, it is worth buying this latest version directly, which will have future updates and we will not have to pay for the same license again.

Once we have seen in detail the main features of Acrylic Bluetooth, we are going to install the program and see all the display and configuration options.

Acrylic Bluetooth installation and commissioning

The Acrylic team has launched a small suite from where we can download and update all the company’s programs, such as Acrylic WiFi Home, Acrylic WiFi Professional, Acrylic WiFi Sniffer and also Acrylic WiFi HeatMaps. This installer takes up very little, and we can run all the programs centrally without having to go one by one, and we can even update them without having to open the different programs.

The first thing we have to do is accept the terms of use, and click on accept. Next, we will choose the installation path and click on accept. Finally, we can create shortcuts on the desktop and also the Windows 10 quick bar. Once we click on “Accept”, we can see all Acrylic programs, and we can even perform the update from here and also run them.

If you regularly use several of these programs, Acrylic Suite will be very helpful to run and update them centrally, without having to go one by one.

Once we have installed Acrylic Bluetooth, we will execute it, and the first thing it will indicate is that we have a completely free trial period with a duration of 5 days. These days we will have all the display and configuration options available, then, if you want to keep all the functions, you will have to buy the license.

In the main menu of Acrylic BLE Analyzer we can start the capture of all the Bluetooth devices around us. The program is very similar to Acrylic WiFi Home and Professional, in the upper part we can switch between seeing devices or the packet analyzer, and in the lower part we will see the signal strength of all Bluetooth BLE devices and also the information of a device specifically. If we click on “Start Capture” the Bluetooth of our equipment will begin to scan all the devices around us automatically.

It is absolutely necessary to enable Bluetooth on our computer, as if we were going to use it. Otherwise, you will not be able to scan absolutely anything, in addition, you cannot currently activate Bluetooth by yourself, therefore, we will have to activate it ourselves manually, and verify that we do not have airplane mode on our computer.

Once we have activated it, the program will start working and scan all Bluetooth devices.

All Acrylic Bluetooth display and configuration options

In the Acrylic Bluetooth main menu we can stop the data capture at any time. In the central menu we will see all the Bluetooth BLE devices that it has detected, we can sort them by MAC address, RSSI, type, name, manufacturer, UUID, and also by the date and time that it has been detected for the first time and for the last time. This is where we will see all the information about the different localized devices.

At the bottom is where we can see the signal (RSSI) received by us at a certain moment. We can see if the signal is good, weak or bad. If we click on a specific device, we can see all the information about it in the “Device information” section, we can see the specific information of this equipment, with its MAC, the first and last time it has been seen, if it is in inventory, the number of packages sent, RSSI, type, name and manufacturer, as well as the UUID. We can also see a specific graph with its signal level (RSSI) and even the distribution of the signal as a function of time.

If we scroll, we can see the raw device attributes, with information in hexadecimal and ASCII, in addition, we can see the «Distance meter» if we have a captured iBeacon (Proximity Beacon), to calculate the distance approximately. Not all Bluetooth devices provide this information, so you may not have captured it.

In the upper right section, we can enable the packet viewer, this is like a Wireshark integrated with the information that interests us from Bluetooth.

We will be able to see the time of the captured packet, MAC address, RSSI, type and name, in addition, we will be able to see in detail the content of each packet, both classified and in ASCII and raw in hexadecimal format.

Other options that we have available are the possibility of creating an inventory and adding the different devices in our home, to have them permanently located, we can also export all the information in a text report, CSV and even in HTML for further study and treatment . This program allows us to show or not show different parameters of Bluetooth networks, specifically, we can show or not the following:

• MAC address
• RSSI
• Kind
• Name
• Maker
• UUID
• Seen for the first time
• Last seen
• Latitude
• Length

Finally, we can group the different Bluetooth devices, both by type, name, manufacturer and UUID. By default, BLE devices are not grouped.

In the event that you capture a «Proximity Beacon (iBeacon)“, in the section of “Device information»We will be able to see the estimated meters of distance to that specific device. In this case, we have received an iBeacon and it calculates a distance of 22.4 meters.

As you have seen, Acrylic Bluetooth is a really complete program to see all the Bluetooth BLE devices that are around us, and have located which devices are broadcasting via Bluetooth without us knowing it. For example, IP Cloud cameras, smoke detectors, Smart TVs, sound towers and other home devices emit Bluetooth continuously or under certain circumstances.

We hope that this Acrylic Bluetooth analysis will help you to see what devices with Bluetooth BLE you have in your home, and turn off Bluetooth if possible.