Ahmed Musaad

Thesis

Writing The Master Thesis

Writing a master thesis is an exciting journey, no matter the topic. To share my "excitement", I am writing this public journal to document most (if not all) of my research journey.

Personal

500 Pictures

There is something unique about being able to scroll through a chronologically-ordered feed of your memories, along with your friend's comments and reactions.

WeeklySecurityTip

Weekly Security Tip: Review Apps On Your Phone

Phones are an integral part of our life; we use them to take pictures, write journals, browse social media, work on our tasks, and even have important work meetings or edit sensitive documents. In this post, I share with you one useful habit I developed over the years when it comes to phone hygiene.

HOWTOs

Convert DMG To PKG

Many macOS applications come in DMG format, which is perfectly fine until you need to deploy one of these applications using your enterprise MDM solution. Most MDMs only work with PKG files so you must convert the application from DMG to PKG before you deploy it.

WeeklySecurityTip

Weekly Security Tip: Use Authy

With Authy, you can configure two-factor authentication on all of your accounts fully knowing you will have access to these codes across devices and at worst, backups of them.

MDM

The Mystery of Random Kernel Extension Alerts

One day, some users started getting annoying popup warnings telling them macOS has blocked a kernel extension that's used by specific software. This post is a rough account of how we investigated and found a possible solution for the root cause of this issue.

Personal

OnePlus 8 Pro

The latest phone from OnePlus™️, the OnePlus 8 Pro, is my new personal phone. It has a great processor, an ample amount of ram, a magnificent 120 Hz display, a 4510 mAh battery, and an OS that's as close to stock Android as we can get.

TIL

TIL: Sysdiagnose

Sysdiagnose is a diagnostic tool available on all Apple products. It collects information and logs from various parts of the systems to provide a full image of the system state at a certain point in time. The data collected is quite comprehensive and covers a wide range of aspects.

HOWTOs

Collect CPU & Memory Usage Information Using psrecord

A few days ago, I found myself needing to collect the CPU and Memory usage information of applications over an extended period. In this post, I share with you a brilliant tool that can assist you in collecting this data and plotting it in an easy-to-consume graph.

HOWTOs

Examining Google Chrome Extensions Using Crxcavator

Chrome extensions have grown to be a genuine part of the web browser we use every day. Security is paramount when reviewing an extension and Crxcavator is here to help you do that.

Tools

Essential Extensions For Safe Web Browsing

The internet is an integral part of our life, we can’t stop using services or browsing websites but we need to protect ourselves while doing so. In this article, I share some useful web extensions that will improve your online security and privacy.

HOWTOs

Self Hosting Monica

Monica is an open-source web application to organize the interactions with your loved ones. Think of it as a CRM for your friends or family. In this post, I share a simple, easy to follow guide for those who want to self-host Monica.

Tools

Setapp, A Must-Have for macOS Users

Setapp is a paid software subscription service that gives users access to a wide range of applications geared towards the Apple ecosystem. If you have a MacBook or an iPhone, Setapp will provide you with superb selection of applications for the price of a coffee.

Privacy

Setting Up A Privacy-Respecting Analytics System

Web Analytics is a useful tool for website owners; it allows them to improve their websites and fix issues. I implemented Fathom Lite to collect useful statistics while respecting the privacy of my visitors, and so could you.

HOWTOs

Self Hosting Firefox Send

Firefox Send is a great file sharing service with E2EE and automatic deletion. In this post, I walk you through the steps to self host your own instance.

Lists

My 2020 Reading List

This year, I am trying to get back to my old reading habits and repair a fractured relationship with books. If you are looking for something to read, here is my reading list. I hope you find a book that intrigues you.

HOWTOs

Add Google Authentication to any Website using Nginx and Oauth Proxy

It can be frustrating to find out your favourite self-hosted application doesn’t support authentication of any type. Not to worry, in this post I will walk you through the steps to add simple authentication to any website using a simple and easy to configure Oauth proxy.

HOWTOs

Downloading A Website from The Internet Archive

I was working on recovering some lost websites through their cached copies on the Wayback Machine. I needed a much faster (and more offline) way to access these cached copies of websites. Hartator's Wayback Machine Downloader to the rescue.

HOWTOs

Connect to RDS using Python & SSL

Are you trying to connect to an RDS instance from a Python script while maintaining SSL encryption? If so, then you are in luck, the following script provides a simple example of how to create and use such a connection.

HOWTOs

Find the Team and Bundle IDs of a macOS Package

Want to create a PPPC profile that whitelists a macOS application and approves its extensions without the need of user approval? You will need the bundle and team IDs of the app.

HOWTOs

Find the Public Key of a ProtonMail User

I realised I needed an easier way to provide my PGP key to readers without putting the key itself on the page (for several reasons). I thought this information could be useful to others, so here we go.

Tools

Useful Tools (1)

Every day I come across a multitude of tools that do this or that, and while a lot of them are overrated, there are many useful tools that help me enhance my productivity. In this series of posts, I share these tools with you.

Knowledge

On Scapegoating CISOs

After a major breach, it's often the CISO that falls on their sword and finds themselves looking for work. Do you think this a good display of accountability, or a damaging form of scapegoating?

Tools

iVerify Security App for iPhone

Trails of Bits recently released a new security app for iPhone (iVerify). An easy to use the app with great user experience and informative guides that helps you improve the security of your iPhone in a few minutes.

Knowledge

Paul Graham on Schedules

A meeting in the morning can ruin any chance of doing something productive before lunch, and the same thing goes for meetings after lunch, they reduce the possibility of completing bigger tasks in the afternoon.