hacking

	==Phrack Inc.==

	Volume Three, Issue 29, File #11 of 12

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	PWN P h r a c k W o r l d N e w s PWN
	PWN ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ PWN
	PWN Issue XXIX/Part 2 PWN
	PWN PWN
	PWN November 17, 1989 PWN
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	PWN Created, Written, and Edited PWN
	PWN by Knight Lightning PWN
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	Offensive Message Flashes At Busy City Corner October 25, 1989
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	by Linda Wheeler (Washington Post)

	An offensive message that mystified the owners of an electronic information
	board was flashed Monday, October 23 at Connecticut Avenue and L Street NW, one
	of the city's (Washington DC) busiest intersections.

	A Georgetown University law student, Craig Dean, said he saw the message;

	"HELP STAMP OUT A.I.D.S. NOW: KILL ALL QUEERS AND JUNKIES"

	It flashed five times in 25 minutes. Minutes after seeing the message, he
	called the city Human Rights Office and the Washington Blade, a gay community
	newspaper.

	Doug Hinckle, a staff photographer for the Blade, saw the message flash once
	and photographed it.

	Judith Miller, president of Miller Companies, which own the building at 1101
	Connecticut Avenue NW and the message board, said she did not know how the
	statement got onto the board. She refused to believe it had appeared until she
	was shown of the photographs.

	Her company has complete control of the board and does not accept any paid
	messages or advertisements, Miller said. "I would never do anything like
	that," she said. "There is no way I would allow such a statement to appear."

	Yesterday, Keller, a five-year employee of the Miller Companies, said he did
	not write the statement and does now know how it became part of the normal flow
	of headline news.

	Miller said she believes her computer system may have a "virus" and will have
	experts search to find where the unauthorized statement originated. "How
	absolutely awful," she said of the message.
	_______________________________________________________________________________

	"WANK" Worm On SPAN Network October 17, 1989
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	>From The Computer Emergency Response Team

	On October 16, the CERT received word from SPAN network control that a worm was
	attacking SPAN VAX/VMS systems. This worm affects only DEC VMS systems and is
	propagated via DECnet protocols, not TCP/IP protocols. If a VMS system had
	other network connections, the worm was not programmed to take advantage of
	those connections. The worm is very similar to last year's HI.COM (or Father
	Christmas) worm.

	This is NOT A PRANK. Serious security holes are left open by this worm. The
	worm takes advantage of poor password management, modifies .com files, creates
	a new account, and spreads to other systems via DECnet.

	It is also important to understand that someone in the future could launch this
	worm on any DECnet based network. Many copies of the virus have been mailed
	around. Anyone running a DECnet network should be warned.

	R. Kevin Oberman from Lawrence Livermore National Labs reports:

	"This is a mean bug to kill and could have done a lot of damage.
	Since it notifies (by mail) someone of each successful penetration
	and leaves a trapdoor (the FIELD account), just killing the bug is
	not adequate. You must go in an make sure all accounts have
	passwords and that the passwords are not the same as the account
	name."

	The CERT/CC also suggests checking every .com file on the system. The worm
	appends code to .com files which will reopen a security hole everytime the
	program is executed.

	An analysis of the worm appears below and is provided by R. Kevin Oberman of
	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Included with the analysis is a DCL
	program that will block the current version of the worm. At least two versions
	of this worm exist and more may be created. This program should give you
	enough time to close up obvious security holes.

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	Report on the W.COM worm.
	R. Kevin Oberman
	Engineering Department
	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
	October 16, 1989

	The following describes the action of the W.COM worm (currently based on the
	examination of the first two incarnations). The replication technique causes
	the code to be modified slightly which indicates the source of the attack and
	learned information.

	All analysis was done with more haste than I care for, but I believe I have all
	of the basic facts correct.

	Here is a description of the program:

	1. The program assures that it is working in a directory to which the owner
	(itself) has full access (Read, Write,Execute, and Delete).

	2. The program checks to see if another copy is still running. It looks for a
	process with the first 5 characters of "NETW_". If such is found, it
	deletes itself (the file) and stops its process.

	Note: A quick check for infection is to look for a process name starting
	with "NETW_". This may be done with a SHOW PROCESS command.

	3. The program then changes the default DECNET account password to a random
	string of at least 12 characters.

	4. Information on the password used to access the system is mailed to the user
	GEMPAK on SPAN node 6.59. Some versions may have a different address.

	5. The process changes its name to "NETW_" followed by a random number.

	6. It then checks to see if it has SYSNAM priv. If so, it defines the system
	announcement message to be the banner in the program:

	W O R M S A G A I N S T N U C L E A R K I L L E R S
	_______________________________________________________________
	\__ ____________ _____ ________ ____ ____ __ _____/
	\ \ \ /\ / / / /\ \ \| \ \ \| \| \| \| / / /
	\ \ \ / \ / / / /__\ \ \| \|\ \ \| \| \| \|/ / /
	\ \ \/ /\ \/ / / ______ \ \| \| \ \\| \| \| \|\ \ /
	\_\ /__\ /____/ /______\ \____\| \|__\ \| \|____\| \|_\ \_/
	\___________________________________________________/
	\ /
	\ Your System Has Been Officically WANKed /
	\_____________________________________________/

	You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war.

	7. If it has SYSPRV, it disables mail to the SYSTEM account.

	8. If it has SYSPRV, it modifies the system login command procedure to
	APPEAR to delete all of a user's file. (It really does nothing.)

	9. The program then scans the accounts logical name table for command
	procedures and tries to modify the FIELD account to a known password with
	login form any source and all privs. This is a primitive virus, but very
	effective IF it should get into a privileged account.

	10. It proceeds to attempt to access other systems by picking node numbers at
	random. It then used PHONE to get a list of active users on the remote
	system. It proceeds to irritate them by using PHONE to ring them.

	11. The program then tries to access the RIGHTSLIST file and attempts to access
	some remote system using the users found and a list of "standard" users
	included with the worm. It looks for passwords which are the same as that
	of the account or are blank. It records all such accounts.

	12. It looks for an account that has access to SYSUAF.DAT.

	13. If a priv. account is found, the program is copied to that account and
	started. If no priv account was found, it is copied to other accounts
	found on the random system.

	14. As soon as it finishes with a system, it picks another random system and
	repeats (forever).

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	Computer Network At NASA Attacked By Rogue Program October 18, 1989
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	by John Markoff (New York Times)

	A rogue computer program attacked a worldwide network of the National
	Aeronautics and Space Administration on Monday, October 16, inflicting no
	damage but forcing officials to disconnect the network from sensitive military
	and space systems.

	Security experts speculated that the program was written by someone who opposed
	Tuesday's (October 17) scheduled launching of the space shuttle Atlantis, which
	was to carry a nuclear-powered satellite into orbit. The launching was
	postponed because of bad weather.

	NASA officials said the rogue program attacked an academic and research
	network, the Space Physics Analysis Network, which is not used for space
	shuttle mission control.

	But a NASA official said the agency felt compelled to disconnect several links
	between the network and an operational space shuttle network as a precaution.

	Computer security experts at several national laboratories said the Department
	of Defense had also severed the connection between commercial and research
	networks and nonclassified network that connects United States military
	installations and contractors around the world.

	The program was designed to copy itself secretly and send unwanted, sometimes
	vulgar messages to users of the NASA network. It also tricks users into
	thinking that data have been destroyed, although no data are damaged.

	Like similar programs that have been sent into computer networks by pranksters
	and saboteurs, it exploited a flaw in the security system designed to protect
	the computers on the network.

	Computer security experts said Tuesday that they knew of about 60 computers
	that had been affected by the program. A NASA spokesman said the program was
	still spreading.

	While the network is widely available to academic researchers with personal
	computers, the rogue program was designed to attack only 6,000 computers
	manufactured by the Digital Equipment Corporation.

	The flaw in the security of the Digital Equipment computers had been widely
	publicized over a year ago even before a similar rogue program jammed a group
	of interconnected international networks known as the Internet. NASA officials
	said the program was only able to attack computers in which the necessary steps
	had not been taken to correct the flaw.

	Among the messages the program displayed on all infected computers was one that
	read: "Worms Against Nuclear Killers. You talk of times of peace for all, and
	then prepare for war."

	Computer scientists call this kind of program a worm, a reference to a program
	first described in the novel "Shockwave Rider" by a science fiction writer,
	John Brunner.
	_______________________________________________________________________________

	Virus Controversies Again October 6, 1989
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	by John Markoff (New York Times)

	"The issue has also sparked interest among computer scientists."

	Harold Highland, editor of Computers & Security, a professional journal, said
	he had received two research papers describing how to create such anti-virus
	programs.

	He has not decided whether to publish them.

	"No one has raised the obvious ethical questions," he added. "I would hate to
	see a virus released to fight viruses. Until it's tested you don't know
	whether it's going to do more damage than the program it is designed to fight."

	A number of these programs have already been written, computer researchers
	said.

	The one that destroyed the data on business and governmental personal computers
	in the United States was reportedly designed by a Venezuelan programmer. How
	many computers were affected and where they were is unclear.

	That program is called Den Zuk, or Search. It was intended to attack a
	destructive program known as the Brain Virus that was distributed in 1986 by
	two brothers who owned a small computer store in Pakistan.

	Errors in the design of the program illustrate the potential danger of such
	viruses, critics say. Fridrik Skulason, a microcomputer specialist at the
	University of Iceland in Reykjavik, who has disassembled the program, said the
	author of Den Zuk had failed to take into account the different capacities of
	disks available for IBM and IBM-compatible machines.

	Because of that simple error, when the program infects a higher-capacity disk
	it destroys data.

	"They probably wrote with good intention," he said. "The only problem is that
	the programmers were not able to do their job correctly."

	At least two other anti-viral viruses have already been devised, said Russell
	Brand, a computer security researcher at Lawrence Livermore.

	He said programmers at one company, which he would not identify, had written
	the programs to combat the Scores virus, a program that infected Macintosh
	computers last year.

	He added that even though the programs were designed so they could not go
	beyond the company's own computers, there had been a heated debate over whether
	to deploy the programs. He said he did not know how it was decided.

	Brand said a group of computer researchers he works with at Lawrence Livermore
	had written several self-replicating programs after the appearance of the rogue
	program that Morris of Cornell is accused of writing. But he added that the
	group had never given permission to release the programs.

	The debate over vigilante viruses is part of a broader discussion now taking
	place among some computer researchers and programmers over what is being termed
	"forbidden knowledge."

	"There are ethical questions any time you send something out there that may
	find itself invited on to somebody else's computer," said Pamela Kane, author
	of a book on computer virus protection.

	In California this month a group of computer hackers plans to hold a forum on
	"forbidden knowledge in a technological society."

	While the role of the computer hacker has been viewed as mischievous in a
	negative way, hackers have consistently played a role as innovators, said Lee
	Felsenstein, a Berkeley, California, computer expert who designed several early
	personal computers.

	"Computer hacking was originally a response to the perception of a priesthood's
	control over immensely powerful technological resources," he said. "Informed
	individuals were able to break the power of this priesthood through gaining and
	spreading the body of forbidden knowledge."

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	Dreaded Personal Computer Virus May Be Only A Cold October 6, 1989
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	by Don Clark (New York Times)

	It won't be much of a plague. But the hysteria anticipating it has been
	world-class.

	Those observations come from computer-security experts as they await Datacrime,
	a virus program set to attack IBM-compatible personal computers starting
	Thursday, October 12, 1989.

	Analyses of the program, also called the Columbus Day Virus, show that it is
	indeed destructive. It just hasn't spread very far.

	"It's going to be the week of the non-event," predicted John McAfee, a Santa
	Clara, California, consultant who serves as chairman of the Computer Virus
	Industry Association. "You have more chance of being hit by a meteor than
	getting this virus."

	McAfee Associates, which acts as a clearinghouse for virus information, has
	received just seven confirmed reports of Datacrime in six months -- compared
	with three to 50 reports per day about another virus that originated in Israel
	in 1987. He thinks only 50 copies of Datacrime exist, and 40 of those are in
	the hands of researchers.

	"It's gotten more publicity than it deserves," agreed Russell Brand, another
	virus expert, who advises Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

	Brand expects to find just 20 copies among the 75,000 computers he monitors at
	1,000 sites.

	Such projections are disputed by some. They are based on how often Datacrime
	has been detected by computer users using special software that scans their
	systems for the virus.

	The virus could have infected many users who have not bothered to scan their
	systems, McAfee concedes.

	Fears have been whipped up by the news media and computer managers at companies
	and government agencies. Companies promoting products to eradicate viruses
	also have played a role -- understandably.

	Staid IBM Corporation this week took the unusual step of offering a program
	that checks systems for viruses. The company hasn't detected the virus in its
	own operations, but concedes that many customers are worried. "They are asking
	us how we protect our software-development operations from viruses," said Bill
	Vance, who was appointed a year ago as IBM's director of secure systems.

	Bank of America, a huge IBM customer with 15,000 PCs, recently put out a
	company-wide notice advising users to make backup copies of their computer data
	by Wednesday, the day before the virus is programmed to strike.

	Three different government agencies have panicked and sent out multiple
	versions of incorrect advice," Brand said.

	Worried calls have deluged McAfee's office, which has just three lines for
	computer communications and three for voice.

	"We put the phone down and it's 30 seconds before it rings again," he said.

	Computer sleuths detected Datacrime -- and have detected other viruses -- by
	looking for changes in the size of data files and in the way programs operate.
	The underlying code used to write the program, once disassembled by experts,
	indicates when the program will activate itself.

	The identity of Datacrime's author isn't known, although some reports have
	linked the virus to an anonymous hacker in Austria. It first began showing up
	in March, McAfee said, and gained notoriety after it was discussed at the
	midsummer Galactic Hackers Conference in Amsterdam.

	It appears to be relatively prevalent in the Netherlands and other European
	countries. Dutch computer users have reportedly bought hundreds of programs
	that are said to detect and destroy the program.

	Like other viruses, Datacrime rides along with innocuous programs when they are
	exchanged over a computer network or computer bulletin board or through
	exchange of infected disks. Unlike many viruses, it has been designed to later
	insert itself in data files that users don't often examine.

	If one of the programs is executed after the target date, Datacrime proceeds
	with its dirty work -- destroying the directory used to keep track of files on
	a computer's hard disk. The crime is analogous to destroying a card file in
	the library.

	"By destroying this one table you can't find where any of your data is," said
	Brand.

	But no one should really be in a fix if he makes backup copies of data, experts
	say. The data, once safely stored on another disk drive or on magnetic tape,
	can be restored by computer professionals even if the virus has infected the
	backup files.

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	"Vaccines" To Hunt Down Rogue Programs October 6, 1989
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	by John Markoff (New York Times)

	Ever since a rogue program created by a graduate student jammed a nationwide
	computer network last year, the rapid spread of such disruptive software, often
	known as viruses, has caused growing alarm among computer users.

	Now, to fight fire with fire, some companies, individuals and even a government
	research laboratory are crafting a new breed of what have been called
	anti-viruses to hunt down intruders.

	The trouble is, some computer security experts say, the problem of viruses may
	be exaggerated -- and the new crime fighter may do even more damage than the
	criminal.

	Much like an infection, a well-intended but badly designed program to stop
	viruses can run amok, knocking out thousands of computers or destroying vast
	amounts of data.

	Indeed, one of the anti-virus programs intended to defeat a known virus has
	already destroyed data on business and governmental personal computers in the
	United States.

	The issue has touched off a heated debate over whether the creation of these
	high-technology vigilantes is a responsible action. "The risks are just
	enormous," said Peter Neumann, a computer security expert at SRI International,
	a technology research center in Menlo Park, California. "It's an unbelievably
	unsafe thing to do."

	But Chris Traynor, a programmer at Divine Axis, a software development company
	in Yonkers, New York, argues that anti-virus programs can be contained so that
	they do not spread out of control, reaching and possibly damaging data in other
	computers. His company is now trying to design such a program.

	Computer researchers at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, a federal weapons
	center in Livermore, California, have designed similar programs that patrol
	computer networks in search of breaches through which viruses could enter the
	system.

	Viruses, which got their name because they mimic in the computer world the
	behavior of biological viruses, are programs, or sets of instructions, that can
	secretly be spread among computers.

	Viruses can travel either over a computer network or on an infected disk passed
	by hand between computer users.

	Once the infection has spread, the virus might do something as benign as
	displaying a simple message on a computer screen or as destructive as erasing
	the data on an entire disk.

	Computer security experts have been concerned for several years by the
	emergence of vandals and mischief makers who deliberately plant the destructive
	programs.

	But in recent weeks international alarm has reached new heights as rumors have
	spread that a virus program will destroy data on thousands of computers this
	month, on Friday the 13th.

	Computer security researchers said the virus, known as Datacrime, was one of at
	least three clandestine programs with internal clocks set to destroy data on
	that date.

	As is usually the case, no one knows who wrote the program, but U.S. military
	officials have mentioned as possible suspects a European group linked to West
	German terrorists and a Norwegian group displeased with the fame of Christopher
	Columbus, who is honored next week.

	Largely in response to customer concerns, IBM said on Monday that it was
	offering programs for its personal computers that would scan for viruses.

	But several computer security experts say public fears are largely exaggerated.

	They note that there have been fewer than a dozen reported appearances of the
	Datacrime virus in the United States, and contend that the whole issue is
	overblown.

	Still, in the personal computer world, where many users have little knowledge
	of the technical workings of their machines, concern over computer viruses has
	become widespread.

	The issue got the most attention last November, when, it is charged, Robert
	Morris, a graduate student at Cornell, unleashed a rogue program that because
	of a small programming error, ran wildly out of control, copying itself
	hundreds of times on thousands of computers, overloading a national network,

	As a result of the mounting concern, a new industry has blossomed offering
	users protective programs known as vaccines, or anti-viral software.

	These programs either alert users that a virus is attempting to tamper with
	their computer or scan a computer disk and erase any rogue program that is
	detected.

	These conventional programs do not automatically migrate from computer to
	computer, but now some experts are exploring fashioning programs that graft the
	powers of the vaccines onto viruses in order to pursue and stop them wherever
	they go.

	Designing and spreading such programs was proposed in August by several people
	attending an international gathering of computer hobbyists, or "hackers," in
	Amsterdam.

	They suggested that it was a good way for members of the computer underground
	to make a positive contribution.

	But many researchers believe the idea is dangerously flawed because of the
	possibility of accidentally doing great damage.

	Some computer security researchers worry that writing an infectious program to
	stop viruses may be taken as an intellectual challenge by hackers who are well
	meaning but do not grasp what problems they could create.

	"One of the questions that the hacker community is now addressing is what you
	do about young hackers," said Stewart Brand, a writer in Sausalito, California,
	who is working on a book on outlaw cultures and high technology.

	"They don't have a sense of responsibility; they have a sense of curiosity.
	These are deliciously debatable issues, and I don't see them going away."

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