| ==Phrack Inc.== | |
| Volume Three, Issue 29, File #12 of 12 | |
| PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN P h r a c k W o r l d N e w s PWN | |
| PWN ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ PWN | |
| PWN Issue XXIX/Part 3 PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN November 17, 1989 PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN Created, Written, and Edited PWN | |
| PWN by Knight Lightning PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN | |
| The Cuckoo's Egg October 18, 1989 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by By Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (New York Times) | |
| "Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" | |
| It all begins with a 75-cent discrepancy in the computer complex's accounting | |
| system. Clifford Stoll, the new man in the office, is assigned to reconcile | |
| the shortfall. | |
| Although an astronomer by training, Stoll has recently seen his grant money run | |
| dry and so has been transferred from the Keck Observatory at the Lawrence | |
| Berkeley Lab down to the computer center in the basement of the same building. | |
| No wizard at computers, he thinks he can pick things up fast enough to get by. | |
| So he sets out to look for the 75 cents. | |
| He quickly discovers that no glitch in the accounting programs has occurred. | |
| No, what seems to have happened is that an unfamiliar user named Hunter briefly | |
| logged on to the system, burning up 75-cents worth of time. Since there is no | |
| account record for Hunter, Stoll erases him from the system. The problem is | |
| solved, or so it seems. | |
| But almost immediately, an operator from Maryland on the same network that the | |
| Lawrence Berkeley Lab uses complains that someone from Stoll's lab is trying to | |
| break into his computer. When Stoll checks the time of the attempt, he | |
| discovers that the account of someone named Joe Sventek, who is known to be in | |
| England for the year, has been used. So he guesses that the user calling | |
| himself Hunter has somehow activated Sventek's account. But who is this hacker | |
| (as Stoll begins to refer to him), where is he operating from and how is he | |
| getting into the system? | |
| Next Stoll sets up systems to alert him every time the hacker comes on line and | |
| monitor his activities without his being aware of it. He watches as the hacker | |
| tries to lay cuckoo's eggs in the system's nest, by which of course he means | |
| programs for other users to feed -- for instance, a program that could decoy | |
| other users into giving the hacker their secret passwords. He watches as the | |
| hacker invades other computer systems on the networks the Lawrence Berkeley Lab | |
| employs, some of them belonging to military installations and contractors. | |
| The mystery grows. Telephone traces gradually establish that the hacker is not | |
| a local operator, is not on the West Coast and may not even be in North | |
| America. But of the various three-letter organizations that Stoll appeals to | |
| for help -- among them the FBI, the CIA and even the National Security Agency | |
| -- none will investigate, at least in an official capacity. | |
| By now a reader is so wrapped up in Stoll's breezily written account of his | |
| true adventure in "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of | |
| Computer Espionage" that he is happy to overlook certain drawbacks in the | |
| narrative -- most conspicuously the lack of consistently lucid technical talk | |
| and the author's dithering over whether appealing for help to the likes of the | |
| FBI and CIA is selling out to the enemy, a qualm left over from the 1960s | |
| mentality that still afflicts him and his friends. | |
| The only truly annoying aspect of the book is that an endpaper diagram gives | |
| away the location of the computer spy. Readers are advised not to look at the | |
| endpapers, which do little but spoil the suspense. | |
| Unfortunately, the narrative, too, eventually helps dissipate the story's | |
| tension. The officials who finally take over the hunt from Stoll are so | |
| reluctant to tell him what is happening that all the suspense he has created | |
| simply evaporates. Even Stoll seems to lose interest in the identity of his | |
| mysterious antagonist, judging by the limp and haphazard way he finally does | |
| give us the news. | |
| Instead of building his story, he allows himself to be distracted by a banal | |
| domestic drama centering on his decision to stop being afraid of emotional | |
| commitment and marry the woman he has been living with for seven years. And he | |
| continues limply to debate the need of the state to defend the security of | |
| communications networks against wanton vandalism, as if there were room for | |
| serious discussion of the question. | |
| Still, nothing can expunge the excitement of the first two-thirds of "The | |
| Cuckoo's Egg," particularly those moments when the author hears his portable | |
| beeper going off and bicycles to his lab to read the latest printout of the | |
| hacker's activities. | |
| Nothing can relieve our discouragement at the bureaucratic runaround that Stoll | |
| got. Had a million dollars worth of damage occurred? the FBI kept asking him. | |
| "Well, not exactly," he would reply. Then there was nothing the FBI could do. | |
| And so it dishearteningly went, although some points should be conceded. | |
| Certain individuals in government agencies were extremely helpful to Stoll. | |
| The entire issue of computer-network security was after all a new and | |
| unexplored field. And the agencies that the author was asking for help | |
| probably knew more about the security threat than they were willing to tell | |
| him. | |
| Finally, nothing can diminish the sense of the strange new world Stoll has | |
| evoked in "The Cuckoo's Egg" -- a world in which trust and open communication | |
| will determine the quality of the future. Whether such values will prevail | |
| will prove a drama of momentous significance. Even if this book finally | |
| dissipates that drama, its very presence makes these pages worth dipping into. | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Digital's Hip To The Standards Thing October 10, 1989 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| NEW YORK -- During a creative session at a major public relations firm to | |
| formulate a new corporate message for Digital Equipment Corporation that | |
| reflects the company's new direction promoting and supporting computing | |
| industry standards, the shopworn phrase "Digital has it now" was replaced by a | |
| new tag line that is more contemporary and tied to DEC's adherence to | |
| standards. | |
| DECrap by Rapmaster Ken | |
| "Digital's Hip to the Standards Thing" | |
| I heard some news just the other day | |
| It sounded kinda strange and I said, "No way!" | |
| But I heard it again from another source | |
| It mighta made sense and I said, "Of course!" | |
| Now computer biz has a lotta confusion | |
| 'Cause operating systems abound in profusion. | |
| But there's a whole new wave in data processing | |
| Now that Digital's hip to the standards thing. | |
| (chorus) | |
| Digital's hip to the standards thing! | |
| Digital's hip to the standards thing! | |
| Way back when a long time ago | |
| IBM owned the whole show. | |
| But other dudes saw this proprietary mess | |
| And formed committees to find out what's best. | |
| Some went their own way and built their own software | |
| But users were perturbed, "It's just a different nightmare." | |
| So they got together to look over the picks | |
| Put down their money on good 'ol UNIX | |
| (chorus) | |
| Digital's hip to the standards thing! | |
| Digital's hip to the standards thing! | |
| Now Digital always kept their users in mind | |
| And pushed VMS as the best of the kind. | |
| A lotta folks agreed but kept askin' for | |
| UNIX support, "We gotta have more!" | |
| Soon DEC saw the light and decided to give | |
| UNIX to the masses, (sorta live and let live). | |
| So DEC's ridin' the wave ahead of the rest | |
| On a backplane boogie board on top of the crest. | |
| No doubt about it DEC's sprouted its wings | |
| 'Cause Digital's hip to the standards thing. | |
| (chorus) | |
| Digital's hip to the standards thing! | |
| Digital's hip to the standards thing! | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Hacker Publications November 12, 1989 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Here is a general overview of a pair of the more popular hardcopy hacker | |
| magazines. | |
| 2600 Magazine: The Hacker Quarterly | |
| Volume Six, Number Three | |
| Autumn, 1989 | |
| The cover on this issue features a scene from the Galactic Hackers Convention | |
| that took place in Amsterdam, Switzerland, last August. Although it is not | |
| explicitly stated or implied, it would appear that the comic illustration | |
| portrays the hacker "Shatter" being run over by a bus bearing the label "2600 | |
| XPRESS." | |
| The articles featured in this issue include: | |
| The Nynex Strike | |
| Grade "A" Hacking: What Is UAPC? by The Plague | |
| Galactic Hacker Party (GHP) | |
| British Telecom's Guilty Conscience | |
| The Death Of COSMOS? | |
| What's Going On | |
| - Technological Marvels | |
| o U.S. Sprint Billing Problems | |
| o U.S. Sprint Voicecards | |
| o Other Voiceprints | |
| o Surveillance | |
| - Hacker Spies (Chaos Computer Club, KGB Hackers discussed) | |
| - Nynex Bigotry (Gay And Lesbian Organizations) | |
| - Dial-It News (Pacific Bell 900 Services) | |
| - Payphone Choices (AT&T, Sprint, MCI, AOS) | |
| - Overseas Access (AT&T Calls To Vietnam) | |
| - News From The U.K. | |
| o Directory Assistance Operators | |
| o British Telecom To Buy Tymnet From McDonnel Douglas | |
| o Chat Lines Banned | |
| - One Less Choice (The Source and Compuserve) | |
| - Privacy? What's That? | |
| o Bulletin Board User Information | |
| o Illegal Aliens Database | |
| o Scotland Yard Database | |
| o Wiretapping | |
| o Bell of Pennsylvania (giving out confidential information) | |
| o Personal Smart Card | |
| - Hackers In Trouble | |
| o Kevin Mitnick | |
| o Robert Morris | |
| - Hacker Fun | |
| o Friday The 13th Virus | |
| o Speed Limit Alterations | |
| o Delray Beach Probation Office | |
| - Telco Literature (FON Line Newsletter) | |
| - Calling Card Tutorials | |
| - Another Telco Ripoff (C&P Telephone) | |
| - Technology Marches Back | |
| o French Computer Mixup | |
| o New York Telephone Repairman Sent On Wild Goose Chases | |
| - And Finally (Bejing Phone Calls) | |
| The Secrets of 4TEL | |
| Letters | |
| - Moblie Telephone Info | |
| - A Southern ANI | |
| - ROLM Horrors | |
| - A Nagging Question (by The Apple Worm) | |
| - A Request | |
| - Another Request (by THOR <claims the Disk Jockey story was a lie>) | |
| - The Call-Waiting Phone Tap (Alternative Inphormation) | |
| - Interesting Numbers (1-800-EAT-SHIT, 800, 900 numbers) | |
| - UNIX Hacking (Unix security, hacking, TCP/IP) | |
| - Intelligent Payphones | |
| - Retarded Payphones | |
| REMOBS by The Infidel | |
| Gee... GTE Telcos by Silent Switchman and Mr. Ed | |
| Voice Mail Hacking... by Aristotle | |
| Punching Pay Phones by Micro Surgeon/West Coast Phreaks | |
| Touch-Tone Frequencies | |
| 2600 Marketplace | |
| Carrier Access Codes | |
| Lair of the INTERNET Worm by Dark OverLord | |
| Timely Telephone Tips (from a Defense Department Phone Book) | |
| There were also plenty of other interesting small articles, pictures, and | |
| stories about hackers, telephones, computers and much more. All in all, this | |
| is the best issue of 2600 Magazine I have read in several issues (despite the | |
| fact that some of the material had appeared in Phrack Inc., LOD/H TJs, and/or | |
| Telecom Digest previously). Let's hope they continue to be as good. | |
| Are you interested in 2600 Magazine? | |
| 2600 (ISSN 0749-3851) is published quarterly by 2600 Enterprises Inc., | |
| 7 Strong's Lane, NY 11733. Second class postage permit paid at Setauket, New | |
| York. | |
| Copyright (c) 1989, 2600 Enterprises, Inc. | |
| Yearly subscriptions: U.S. and Canada -- $18 individual, $45 corporate. | |
| Overseas -- $30 individual, $65 corporate. | |
| Back issues available for 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 at $25 per year, $30 per | |
| year overseas. | |
| Address all subscription correspondence to: | |
| 2600 Subscription Department | |
| P.O. Box 752 | |
| Middle Island, New York 11953-0752 | |
| 2600 Office Line: 516-751-2600 | |
| 2600 FAX Line: 516-751-2608 | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| TAP Magazine | |
| Issue 94 | |
| 1989 | |
| The new TAP Magazine is a smaller publication in comparison to 2600. The | |
| "outer" cover of this newsletter was a "warning" from The Predat0r concerning | |
| the nature of the material inside. The true or "inner" cover of the newsletter | |
| had the following: | |
| The Information You've Requested Of TAP Publishing Society | |
| A Unit Of The Technological Advancement Party | |
| Presents... | |
| "...a family of people dedicated to the advancement of home computer systems | |
| and electronic technology, the study and duplication of related communication | |
| networks and the subsequent utilization of one's own ingenuity in today's | |
| fast-paced world of creative logic." | |
| The articles in this issue of TAP included: | |
| TAP RAP: News From The TAP Staff by Aristotle | |
| Small Tags Protect Big Stores (continued from TAP 93) | |
| Ozone (concerning American Telephone & Telegraph's plans for 1994) | |
| Telephone Wires In New York In 1890 | |
| Mercury Fulminate by Dark OverLord | |
| How To Hack Stamps | |
| Hoffman Worked To Help All Of Mankind | |
| Police Raid 3 Jefferson Homes In Search For Computer Hackers by Calvin Miller | |
| SummerCon '89 by Aristotle (includes a copy of the official SummerCon '89 | |
| poster and button, although an error stating that the poster was | |
| shown at 1/2 size when in reality, the original was 8 1/2" by | |
| 14"). | |
| There were a few other interesting "tid bits" of information scattered | |
| throughout the four loose pages including the new TAP logo (that was made to | |
| resemble CompuTel) and other pictures. | |
| The staff at TAP also included a postcard that contained a reader's survey. It | |
| asked all sorts of questions about how the reader liked certain aspects of the | |
| publication... I found the idea to be potentially productive in improving the | |
| quality of the newsletter all around. | |
| The cost of TAP is rather cheap... it is free. For an issue send a self | |
| addressed stamped envelope to: | |
| T.A.P. | |
| P.O. Box 20264 | |
| Louisville, Kentucky 40220-0264 | |
| :Knight Lightning | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Phrack World News QuickNotes | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| 1. 911 Improvement Surcharge in Chicago (October 16, 1989) -- Monday morning, | |
| October 16, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced that he would submit | |
| to the city council a plan to increase city telephone taxes by 95 cents per | |
| line per month, earmarked for improvements to 911 service. Currently there | |
| is no such flat charge, simply a percentage tax rate on local telephone | |
| service. | |
| Daley's spokespeople commented that 911 service here has been a mess for | |
| years, and that many of the suburbs charge $1.00 per line per month, so 95 | |
| cents should not be unreasonable. There were no details about what is | |
| currently wrong or about what specific improvements Daley has in mind. | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 2. Hacker Caught by Caller-ID (October 9, 1989) -- MIS Week reported the | |
| apprehension of a 15-year old hacker who used his Amiga personal computer | |
| to tap into two minicomputers at Grumman. The youngster was from | |
| Levittown, Long Island and stumbled into the computer by using a random | |
| dialing device attached to his computer. Grumman security was able to | |
| detect the intrusions, and the computer's recording of the boy's telephone | |
| number led police to his home. | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 3. 14-Year-Old Cracks TRW Credit For Major Fraud (October 18, 1989) -- A | |
| 14-year-old Fresno, California boy obtained secret "access codes" to the | |
| files of TRW Credit from a bboard and used them to pose as a company or | |
| employer seeking a credit history on an individual whose name he picked | |
| randomly from the phone book. From the histories, he obtained credit card | |
| numbers which he then used to charge at least $11,000 in mail-order | |
| merchandise (shipped to a rented storeroom) and make false applications for | |
| additional cards. He also shared his findings on computer bulletin boards. | |
| Police began investigating when TRW noticed an unusual number of credit | |
| check requests coming from a single source, later found to be the youth's | |
| home telephone number. The high school freshman, whose name was not | |
| released, was arrested at his home last week and later released to his | |
| parents. His computer was confiscated and he faces felony charges that | |
| amount to theft through the fraudulent use of a computer. | |
| "Here is a 14-year-old boy with a $200 computer in his bedroom and now he | |
| has shared his data with countless other hackers all over the nation," said | |
| Fresno Detective Frank Clark, who investigated the case. "The potential | |
| (for abuse of the information) is incredible." Excerpts provided by | |
| Jennifer Warren (Los Angeles Times) | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 4. Computer Virus Countermeasures Article (October 25, 1989) -- Readers of | |
| Phrack Inc. might be interested in an interesting article in the October | |
| 1989 issue of DEFENSE ELECTRONICS, page 75, entitled "Computer Virus | |
| Countermeasures -- A New Type Of Electronic Warfare," by Dr. Myron L. | |
| Cramer and Stephen R. Pratt. | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 5. Computer Viruses Attack China (November 6, 1989) -- The Ministry of Public | |
| Safety of People's Republic of China found this summer that one tenth of | |
| the computers in China had been contaminated by three types of computer | |
| virus: "Small Ball," "Marijuana," and "Shell." The most serious damage | |
| was found in the National Statistical System, in which "Small Ball" spread | |
| in 21 provinces. In Wuhan University, viruses were found in *ALL* personal | |
| computers. | |
| In China, three hundred thousand computers (including personal computers) | |
| are in operation. Due to a premature law system the reproduction of | |
| software is not regulated, so that computer viruses can easily be | |
| propagated. Ministry of Public Safety now provides "vaccines" against | |
| them. Fortunately, those viruses did not give fatal damage to data. | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 6. More Phone-Card Fraud (October 31, 1989) -- Two men were convicted by Tokyo | |
| District Court on Monday, October 30, for tampering with Nippon Telephone | |
| and Telegraph calling cards to increase the number of calls they could | |
| make. The court ruled that they violated the Securities Transaction Law. | |
| One man, Kawai, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, and another, Sakaki, | |
| was given an 18-month suspended sentence. | |
| Two presiding judges ruled that using falsified telephone cards in pay | |
| phones is tantamount to using securities. | |
| However, another judge ruled in a separate case last September that | |
| tampering with a telephone card does not constitute use of a security, so | |
| legal observers say it will be up to the Supreme Court. | |
| According to this most recent s ruling, Kawai changed about 1,600 telephone | |
| cards, each good for 500-yen worth of telephone calls, into cards worth | |
| 20,000 yen. He sold the altered cards to acquaintances for as much as | |
| 3,500 yen. | |
| Sakaki also sold about 320 tampered cards for about 2 million yen. | |
| One of the presiding judges ruled that using tampered telephone cards on | |
| public telephones is the same as misleading Nippon Telegraph and | |
| Telephone Corporation into believing the cards -- false securities -- were | |
| genuine. Taken from The Japan Times | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 7. Computer Virus Hits Japanese Quake Data (October 30, 1989) -- Tokyo; A | |
| computer virus has destroyed information at the University of Tokyo's | |
| seismological and ocean research institutes, a university official and | |
| local reports said yesterday. | |
| An official of the university's Ocean Reasearch Institute said the virus | |
| was detected earlier this month in five of the center's 100 computers, | |
| but was believed to have first infected the computers in September. | |
| The virus was found only in personal computers being used by researchers | |
| and not major computer systems, the official said, requesting anonymity. | |
| He said the damage was not serious. | |
| He declined to discuss further details, but a report by the Japan | |
| Broadcasting Corporation said a virus had also been found in the computers | |
| at the university's Earthquake Research Institute. Thanks to Associated | |
| Press news services. (Related article follows) | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 8. First Virus Attack On Macintoshes In Japan (November 7, 1989) -- Six Macs | |
| in University of Tokyo, Japan, were found to have caught viruses. Since | |
| Since this September, Professor K. Tamaki, Ocean Research Institute, | |
| University of Tokyo, has noticed malfunctions on the screen. In October, | |
| he applied vaccines "Interferon" and "Virus Clinic" to find his four | |
| Macintoshes were contaminated by computer viruses, "N Virus" type A and | |
| type B. He then found ten softwares were also infected by viruses. A | |
| Macintosh of J. Kasahara, Earthquake Research Institute, University of | |
| Tokyo, was also found to be contaminated by N Virus and Score Virus. These | |
| are the first reports of real viruses in Japan. | |
| Later it was reported that four Macintoshes in Geological Survey of Japan, | |
| in Tsukuba, were infected by N Virus Type A. This virus was sent from | |
| United States together with an editor. | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 9. Hackers Can Tap Into Free Trip (October 1989) -- Attention Hackers: Here | |
| is your chance to break into a computer system and walk away with a grand | |
| prize. The "hacker challenge" dares any hacker to retrieve a secret | |
| message stored in a KPMG Peat Marwick computer in Atlanta. | |
| This challenge is being sponsored by LeeMah DataCom Security Corporation, a | |
| Hayward, California, consulting firm that helps companies boost computer | |
| security. The winner gets an all-expense paid trip for two to either | |
| Tahiti or St. Moritz, Switzerland. | |
| Hackers with modems must dial 1-404-827-9584. Then they must type this | |
| password: 5336241. | |
| From there, the hacker is on his own to figure out the various access codes | |
| and commands needed to retrieve the secret message. | |
| The winner was announced October 24, 1989 at the Federal Computer Show in | |
| Washington. Taken from USA Today. | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 10. Groaning Phone Network Survives Millions Of Calls (October 18, 1989) -- | |
| The nation's telecommunications network was flooded Tuesday (October 17) | |
| night by an estimated 20 million attempted telephone calls from people | |
| around the nation concerned about friends and family after the earthquake | |
| in the bay area. | |
| Except for brief failures, the system did not break down under the record | |
| load in the areas damaged by the earthquake. | |
| AT&T officials said that as many as 140 million long-distance phone calls | |
| were placed Wednesday (October 18), the highest number for a single day in | |
| history. Excerpts thanks to John Markoff (New York Times) | |
| >--------=====END=====--------< | |