| ==Phrack Inc.== | |
| Volume Four, Issue Forty-One, File 2 of 13 | |
| [-=:< Phrack Loopback >:=-] | |
| By Dispater & Mind Mage | |
| Phrack Loopback is a forum for you, the reader, to ask questions, air | |
| problems, and talk about what ever topic you would like to discuss. This is | |
| also the place Phrack Staff will make suggestions to you by reviewing various | |
| items of note; books, magazines, software, catalogs, hardware, etc. | |
| In this issue: | |
| Comments on Phrack 40 : Rop Gonggrijp | |
| Fine Art of Telephony (re: Phrack 40) : Inhuman | |
| Question & Comment (BT Tymnet/AS400) : Otto Synch | |
| BT Tymnet article in Phrack 40 : Anonymous | |
| Phrack fraud? : Doctor Pizz | |
| Remarks & Warning! : Synaps/Clone1/Feyd | |
| One Ron Hults (re: Phrack 38 Loopback) : Ken Martin | |
| Hacking In Czecho-Slovakia : Stalker | |
| Phrack 40 is Sexist! : Ground Zero | |
| Phrack 40 is Sexist!? (PC Phrack) : Shit Kickin' Jim | |
| Misunderstood Hackers Get No Respect : The Cruiser | |
| Hackers Should Land In Jail, Not In Press : Alan Falk | |
| Anonymous Usenet Posting? : Anonymous | |
| Anonymous Mail Poster : Sir Hackalot | |
| Phrack On The Move : Andy Panda-Bear | |
| Computer Underground Publications Index : Amadeus | |
| Pirates v. AT&T: Posters : Legacy Irreverent | |
| Ultrix 4.2 Bug : Krynn | |
| PumpCon Hosed : Phil "The Outlander" | |
| 2600 Meeting Disrupted by Law Enforcement : Emmanuel Goldstein | |
| Two New Hardcovers : Alan J. Rothman | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Letters to the Editors | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| From: rop@hacktic.nl (Rop Gonggrijp) (Editor of Hack-Tic Magazine) | |
| Date: August 14, 1992 | |
| Subject: Comments on Phrack 40 | |
| My compliments! You've put out one of the best issues to date. If you keep | |
| this up I'll have to get jealous! | |
| Rop Gonggrijp (rop@hacktic.nl) Dangerous and capable of making | |
| fax: +31 20 6900968 considerable trouble. | |
| ---------- | |
| From: Inhuman (Sysop of Pentavia BBS) | |
| Date: August 18, 1992 | |
| Subject: Fine Art of Telephony | |
| I just wanted to let you guys know that the article titled "The Fine Art of | |
| Telephony" was one of the best articles I've seen in Phrack in a long time. | |
| I hope to see more information on switching and general telephony in the | |
| future. | |
| Thanks, | |
| Inhuman | |
| ---------- | |
| Date: October 22, 1992 | |
| From: Otto Synch | |
| Subject: Question & Comment | |
| Hello, | |
| Reading your (huge) Phrack issue #40, and noticing that you were accepting | |
| comments and questions, I decided to post mine. First of all, please forgive | |
| the English. I'm French and can't help it :-) | |
| My comment: When I saw in the index that this issue was dealing with BT | |
| Tymnet, I felt very happy because I was looking for such information. And when | |
| I read it, I felt really disappointed. Toucan Jones could have reduced his | |
| whole article with the following lines: | |
| -> Find any Tymnet number. | |
| -> Dial and wait for the "Please log-in:" prompt. | |
| -> Log as user "help", no password required. | |
| -> Capture everything you want, it's free public information. | |
| I must say I was a bit surprised to find this kind of article in a high-quality | |
| magazine such as yours... | |
| My question: I'm currently trying to find out everything about a neat AS/400 | |
| I've "found," but I never saw any "hack report" on it. Do you know if there | |
| are any available? | |
| OK - Let's see if you answer. We feel somewhat lonely here in the Old | |
| Continent...but Phrack is here to keep the challenge up! | |
| Regards, | |
| > Otto Sync < | |
| ---------- | |
| From: Anonymous | |
| Date: August 19, 1992 | |
| Subject: BT Tymnet article in Phrack 40 | |
| Dear Phrack Staff, | |
| The BT Tymnet article in the 40th issue of Phrack was totally lame. I hate it | |
| when people enter Telenet or Tymnet's information facility and just buffer all | |
| the sh*t that's in there. Then they have the audacity to slap their name on | |
| the data as if they had made a major network discovery. That's so f*ck*ng | |
| lame! | |
| Phrack should make a policy not to accept such lame sh*t for their fine | |
| magazine. Is Phrack *that* desperate for articles? Crap like commercial dial- | |
| up lists is about as lame as posting a few random pages from the front of the | |
| white pages. The information is quickly outdated and easily available at any | |
| time to anyone. You don't hack this sh*t. | |
| Regards, | |
| Anonymous (anonymous because I don't want to hear any lame flames) | |
| [Editor's Response: We agree that buffering some dialup list is not hacking, | |
| however, in this specific case, a decision was made that | |
| not everyone had ready access to the information or even | |
| knew of its existence. Furthermore and more relevant to | |
| why the article appeared in Phrack, an article on Tymnet | |
| was appropriate when considering the recent events with | |
| the MOD case in New York. | |
| In the future, you may ask that your letter be printed | |
| anonymously, but don't send us anonymous mail.] | |
| ---------- | |
| From: Doctor Pizz | |
| Date: October 12, 1992 | |
| Subject: Phrack fraud? | |
| I recently received an ad from someone who was selling the full set of Phrack | |
| back issues for $100.00. I do believe that this is a violation of your rights | |
| to Phrack, as he is obviously selling your work for profit! | |
| The address I received to order these disks was: | |
| R.E. Jones | |
| 21067 Jones-Mill | |
| Long Beach, MS 39560 | |
| It seems he is also selling the set of NIA files for $50, a set of "Hacking | |
| Programs" for $40, LOD Tech Journals for $25, and lots of viruses. It sounds | |
| like some sort of copyright violation, or fraud, as he is selling public domain | |
| stuff for personal profit. At least you should be aware of this. Anyway, I | |
| look forward to receiving future volumes of Phrack! Keep up the good work. | |
| Good luck in stopping this guy! | |
| Thank you, | |
| --Doctor Pizz-- | |
| [Editor's Note: We look forward to hearing what our Phrack readers think about | |
| people selling hardcopies of Phrack for their own personal | |
| profit.] | |
| ---------- | |
| From: Synaps a/k/a Clone1 a/k/a Feyd | |
| Date: September 2, 1992 | |
| Subject: Remarks & Warning! | |
| Hi, | |
| I've been a regular reader of Phrack for two years now and I approve fully the | |
| way you continue Phrack. It's really a wonderful magazine and if I can help | |
| its development in France, I'll do as much as I can! Anyway, this is not | |
| really the goal of my letter and excuse me for my English, which isn't very | |
| good. | |
| My remarks are about the way you distribute Phrack. Sometimes, I don't receive | |
| it fully. I know this is not your fault and I understand that (this net | |
| sometimes has some problems!). But I think you could provide a mail server | |
| like NETSERV where we could get back issues by mail and just by MAIL (no FTP). | |
| Some people (a lot in France) don't have any access to international FTP and | |
| there are no FTP sites in France which have ANY issues of Phrack. I did use | |
| some LISTSERV mailers with the send/get facility. Could you install it on your | |
| LISTSERV? | |
| My warning is about a "group" (I should say a pseudo-group) founded by Jean | |
| Bernard Condat and called CCCF. In fact, the JBC have spread his name through | |
| the net to a lot of people in the Underground. As the Underground place in | |
| France is weak (the D.S.T, anti-hacker staff is very active here and very | |
| efficient), people tend to trust JBC. He seems (I said SEEMS) to have a good | |
| knowledge in computing, looks kind, and has a lot of resources. The only | |
| problem is that he makes some "sting" (as you called it some years ago) | |
| operation and uses the information he spied to track hackers. He organized a | |
| game last year which was "le prix du chaos" (the amount of chaos) where he | |
| asked hackers to prove their capabilities. | |
| It was not the real goal of this challenge. He used all the materials hackers | |
| send him to harass some people and now he "plays" with the normal police and | |
| the secret police (DST) and installs like a trade between himself and them. | |
| It's really scary for the hacking scene in France because a lot of people trust | |
| him (even the television which has no basis to prove if he is really a hacker | |
| as he claims to be or if he is a hacker-tracker as he IS!). Journalists take | |
| him as a serious source for he says he leads a group of computer enthusiasts. | |
| But we discovered that his group doesn't exist. There is nobody in his group | |
| except his brother and some other weird people (2 or 3) whereas he says there | |
| is 73 people in his club/group. You should spread this warning to everybody in | |
| the underground because we must show that "stings" are not only for USA! I | |
| know he already has a database with a lot of information like addresses and | |
| other stuff like that about hackers and then he "plays" with those hackers. | |
| Be very careful with this guy. Too many trust him. Now it's time to be | |
| "objective" about him and his group! | |
| Thanks a lot and goodbye. | |
| Synaps a/k/a Clone1 a/k/a Feyd | |
| ---------- | |
| From: Ken Martin <70712.760@compuserve.com> | |
| Date: November 17, 1992 | |
| Subject: One Ron Hults...(Phrack 38 Loopback) | |
| Dear Phrack Staff: | |
| This letter is concerning the letter in the Phrack Loopback column (#38, April | |
| 20, 1992) written by one Ron Hults. It suggests that all children should be | |
| disallowed access to a computer with a modem. | |
| The news release to which it is attached attempts to put an idea in the | |
| reader's mind that everything out there (on bulletin boards) is bad. Anyone | |
| who can read messages from "satanic cultists, pedophile, and rapists" can also | |
| read a typical disclaimer found on most bulletin boards which have adult | |
| material and communication areas available to their users, and should be able | |
| to tell the SysOp of a BBS how old he/she is. | |
| A child who is intelligent enough to operate a computer and modem should also | |
| be able to decide what is appropriate for him/her to read, and should have the | |
| sense enough to avoid areas of the BBS that could lead to trouble, and not to | |
| give their address and home phone number to the Charles Manson idols. (It is a | |
| fact that all adolescents have thoughts about sex; nothing can change that. | |
| The operator of a BBS also has the moral responsibility to keep little kids out | |
| of the XXX-Rated GIF downloading area.) | |
| One problem with that is BBSes run by the underground type (hack/phreak, these | |
| usually consist of people from 15-30 years of age). The operators of these let | |
| practically anyone into their system, from my experiences. These types of | |
| BBSes often have credit card numbers, telephone calling card numbers, access | |
| codes to credit reporting services, etc., usually along with text-file | |
| documents about mischievous topics. Mr. Hults makes no mention of these in his | |
| letter and press release. It is my belief that these types of systems are the | |
| real problem. The kids are fascinated that, all of a sudden, they know how to | |
| make explosives and can get lots of anything for free. | |
| I believe that the parents of children should have the sense enough to watch | |
| what they are doing. If they don't like the kind of information that they're | |
| getting or the kind of messages that they're sending to other users, then that | |
| is the time to restrict access to the modem. | |
| I am fifteen years old, and I can say that I have gotten into more than my | |
| share of trouble with the law as a result of information that I have obtained | |
| from BBSes and public communications services like CompuServe. The computer is | |
| a tool, and it always will be. Whether it is put to good use or not depends on | |
| its user. I have put my computer/modem to use in positive applications more | |
| than destructive ones. | |
| I would like Mr. Hults to think about his little idea of banning children from | |
| modem use, and to think about the impact it would have on their education. | |
| Many schools use computers/modems in their science and English curriculums for | |
| research purposes. | |
| Banning children from telecommunications is like taking away connection to the | |
| outside world and all forms of publication whatsoever when one takes a look | |
| around a large information service like CompuServe or GEnie, and sees all of | |
| the information that a service like this is capable of providing to this | |
| nation. | |
| Thanks, | |
| Ken Martin (70712.760@compuserve.com) | |
| a.k.a. Scorpion, The Omega Concern, Dr. Scott | |
| ---------- | |
| From: Stalker | |
| Date: October 14, 1992 | |
| Subject: Hacking In Czecho-Slovakia | |
| Hi there! | |
| I'm student from Czecho-Slovakia (for some stupid person who doesn't know, it's | |
| in middle Europe). Call me Stalker (if there is other guy with this name, call | |
| me what you want). If you think that computers, networks, hacking and other | |
| interesting things are not in Eastern Europe, you're WRONG. I won't talk | |
| about politicians. They really make me (and other men from computers) sick! | |
| I'll tell you what is interesting here right now. | |
| Our university campus is based on two main systems, VMS and ULTRIX. There's | |
| VAX 6000, VAX 4000, MicroVAX, VAXStation and some oldtimer machines which run | |
| under VMS. As for hacking, there's nothing interesting. You can't do some | |
| tricks with /etc/passwd, there's no main bug in utilities and commands. But, | |
| as I know, VMS doesn't crypt the packets across the network so you can take | |
| some PC and Netwatch (or any other useful software ) and try to see what | |
| is interesting on the cable. You can grab anything that you want (usernames, | |
| passwords, etc.). | |
| Generally, students hate VMS and love UNIX-like systems. Other machines are | |
| based on ULTRIX. We have DECstations (some 3100, some 5000) and one SM 52-12 | |
| which is something on VAX-11 :-(. It is a really slow machine, but it has | |
| Internet access! There's many users so you can relatively easily run Crack | |
| (excellent program) since passwd is not shadowed. Another useful thing is tftp | |
| (see some other Crack issues). There was a machine with enabled tftp, but | |
| after one incident, it was disabled. | |
| I would like to tell you more about this incident but sysadmins are still | |
| suspecting (they probably read my mail). Maybe after some months in other | |
| articles. Now I can tell you that I'm not a real UNIX-GURU-HACKER, but the | |
| sysadmins thought that I was. Someone (man or girl, who knows) has hacked one | |
| (or two) machines on our campus. Administrators thought that I was this | |
| mysterious hacker but I am not! He/she is much better than I and my friends. | |
| Today no one knows who the hacker is. The administrator had talked to him/her | |
| and after some weeks, gave him/her an account. He/she probably had root | |
| privileges for some time and maybe has these today. He/she uses a modem to | |
| connect. His/her login name is nemo (Jules Verne is a popular hero). I will | |
| try to send mail to him/her about Phrack and maybe he/she will write | |
| interesting articles about himself. | |
| And some tips. Phrack is very interesting, but there's other interesting | |
| official files on cert.org (192.88.209.9) available via anonymous FTP. This | |
| is the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) FTP server. You can find | |
| interesting information here about bugs in actual software, but you will see | |
| only which command or utility has the bug, not how to exploit it. If you are | |
| smart enough, there's nothing to say. | |
| If you are not, you must read Phrack! :-) | |
| Bye, | |
| Stalker | |
| ---------- | |
| From: Ground Zero | |
| Date: August 25, 1992 | |
| Subject: Phrack 40 is Sexist! | |
| Hi, just a quick comment about Phrack's account of SummerCon: | |
| I don't think your readers need to know or are really interested in hearing | |
| about the fact that Doc Holiday was busy trying to pick up girls or that there | |
| were some unbalanced teeny-boppers there offering themselves to some of the | |
| SummerCon participants. Also, as a woman I don't care for your | |
| characterizations of females in that file. | |
| I'm not trying to nitpick or be politically correct (I hate PC), I'm just | |
| writing because I felt strongly enough about it. Ciao. | |
| Ground Zero (Editor of Activist Times, Inc./ATI) | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| From: Shit Kickin' Jim | |
| Date: September 11, 1992 | |
| Subject: Phrack 40 is Sexist!? (PC Phrack) | |
| Listen here woman. I don't know whut yer big fat butt thinks Phrack wuz tryin' | |
| to insinuate. Lemme tell yew a thang er two. First of all, Phrack ain't run | |
| by some little pip-squeek faggot ass pansies. Ah mean wut are you sum kinda | |
| hOmOsexual? Here's what ah mean. NOW here iz a real story 'bout me and one a | |
| my bestest friends: 4x4 Phreaker. | |
| See 4x4 Phreaker come down to Texas fur a little hackin adventure. Even though | |
| he lives up there in Yankee-land, 4x4 Phreaker iz a pretty good ol' boy. | |
| Whuddya think real manly hackers do when they get together? Go stop by Radio | |
| Shack and buy shrink wrap? | |
| HELL NO! We fuckin' went to Caligula XXI. Fur yew ol' boys that ain't from | |
| 'round here er yer a fauygut out there that might be readin this, Caligula XXI | |
| specializes in enertainmunt fer gennelmen. | |
| Now, me and 4x4 Phreaker didn't go to hawk at some fat nasty sluts like you | |
| might see at your typical Ho-Ho Con. We went with the purpose in mind of seein | |
| a real movie star. Yup Christy Canyon was in the house that night. 4x4 | |
| Phreaker and me sat down at a table near the front. At that point I decided | |
| that I'd start trollin for babes. Yep that's right I whipped out an American | |
| Express Corporate Gold card. And I'll be damned if it weren't 3 minutes later | |
| me and 4x4 Phreaker had us 2 new found friends for the evening. | |
| So anywayz, yew can see we treated these two fine ladies real nice and they | |
| returned the favor. We even took em to Waffle House the next mornin'. So I | |
| dunno where yew git off by callin us sexist. Yer just some Yankee snob big | |
| city high horse woman who expects to be a takin care of. | |
| God bless George Bush and his mistress Jennifer whutz her name. | |
| :Shit Kickin' Jim (Madder than a bramer bull fightin a mess of wet hornets) | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Misunderstood Hackers Get No Respect August 10, 1992 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by The Cruiser (ComputerWorld)(Page 24)(Letters to the Editor) | |
| I just read the replies to Chris Goggans' "Hackers aren't the real enemy" | |
| [ComputerWorld, June 29], and I thought I'd address a few of the points brought | |
| up. I'm a hacker -- which means that I'm every system administrator's | |
| nightmare. | |
| Hardly. Many hackers are politically aware activists. Besides being fueled by | |
| an obsession for mastering technology (I call it a blatant disregard for such), | |
| true hackers live and obey a strict moral code. | |
| All this talk about the differences between voyeurism and crime: Please, let's | |
| stop comparing information access to breaking into someone's house. The | |
| government can seize computers and equipment from suspected hackers, never to | |
| return it, without even charging a crime. I will not sit back and let Big | |
| Brother control me. | |
| The Cruiser | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Hackers Should Land In Jail, Not In Press October 19, 1992 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by Alan Falk (ComputerWorld)(Page 32)(Letters to the Editor) | |
| The letters you get from avowed hackers seem to glorify the virtues of hacking. | |
| I find this very disturbing for a simple reason: It completely ignores the | |
| issue of private property. | |
| The computer systems they hack into (pun intended) and the databases they try | |
| to access, as well as the data in the databases, are private property. | |
| An analogous argument might be that breaking and entering a jewelry store and | |
| taking off with some valuables is really a way of testing the security controls | |
| at the jeweler's establishment. They're really just doing it for the | |
| excitement and challenge. | |
| Would they promote voyeurism based on the "logic" that "after all, if they | |
| didn't want me to look, they'd have pulled the drapes closer together?" | |
| The fact that there's challenge or excitement involved (or even commitment, | |
| intellect or whatever) does not change the issue. | |
| I suggest that hackers who gain entry to systems against the wishes of the | |
| systems' owners should be treated according to the laws regarding unlawful | |
| entry, theft, etc. | |
| Alan Falk | |
| Cupertino, California | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Anonymous Usenet Posting? | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Date: August 19, 1992 | |
| From: Anonymous | |
| I've read in Phrack all about the different ways to send fake mail, but do any | |
| of the readers (or Mind Mage) know anything about anonymous newsgroup posting? | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| Anonymous Mail Poster August 4, 1992 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by Sir Hackalot | |
| Here is some C source to a simple "anonymous" mail poster that I wrote a LONG | |
| time ago. It's just one of many pieces of code I never gave to anyone before. | |
| You may find it useful. Basically, it will connect to the SMTP port and | |
| automate the sending. It will allow for multiple recipients on the "To:" line, | |
| and multiple "To:" lines. | |
| From: sirh@sirh.com | |
| ------ Cut here for fm.c ----- | |
| #include <stdio.h> | |
| #include <string.h> | |
| #include <sys/types.h> | |
| #include <sys/socket.h> | |
| #include <netdb.h> | |
| #include <netinet/in.h> | |
| #include <arpa/inet.h> | |
| #include <signal.h> | |
| #include <fcntl.h> | |
| #include <errno.h> | |
| int openSock(name,port) | |
| char *name; | |
| int port; | |
| { | |
| int mysock,opt=1; | |
| struct sockaddr_in sin; | |
| struct hostent *he; | |
| he = gethostbyname(name); | |
| if (he == NULL) { | |
| printf("No host found..\n"); | |
| exit(0); | |
| } | |
| memcpy((caddr_t)&sin.sin_addr,he->h_addr_list[0],he->h_length); | |
| sin.sin_port = port; | |
| sin.sin_family = AF_INET; | |
| mysock = socket(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,0); | |
| opt = connect(mysock,(struct sockaddr *)&sin,sizeof(sin)); | |
| return mysock; | |
| } | |
| /* This allows us to have many people on one TO line, seperated by | |
| commas or spaces. */ | |
| process(s,d) | |
| int d; | |
| char *s; | |
| { | |
| char *tmp; | |
| char buf[120]; | |
| tmp = strtok(s," ,"); | |
| while (tmp != NULL) { | |
| sprintf(buf,"RCPT TO: %s\n",tmp); | |
| write(d,buf,strlen(buf)); | |
| tmp = strtok(NULL," ,"); | |
| } | |
| } | |
| getAndSendFrom(fd) | |
| int fd; | |
| { | |
| char from[100]; | |
| char outbound[200]; | |
| printf("You must should specify a From address now.\nFrom: "); | |
| gets(from); | |
| sprintf(outbound,"MAIL FROM: %s\n",from); | |
| write(fd,outbound,strlen(outbound)); | |
| } | |
| getAndSendTo(fd) | |
| int fd; | |
| { | |
| char addrs[100]; | |
| printf("Enter Recipients, with a blank line to end.\n"); | |
| addrs[0] = '_'; | |
| while (addrs[0] != '\0') { | |
| printf("To: "); | |
| gets(addrs); | |
| process(addrs,fd); | |
| } | |
| } | |
| getAndSendMsg(fd) | |
| int fd; | |
| { | |
| char textline[90]; | |
| char outbound[103]; | |
| sprintf(textline,"DATA\n"); | |
| write(fd,textline,strlen(textline)); | |
| printf("You may now enter your message. End with a period\n\n"); | |
| printf("[---------------------------------------------------------]\n"); | |
| textline[0] = '_'; | |
| while (textline[0] != '.') { | |
| gets(textline); | |
| sprintf(outbound,"%s\n",textline); | |
| write(fd,outbound,strlen(outbound)); | |
| } | |
| } | |
| main(argc,argv) | |
| int argc; | |
| char *argv[]; | |
| { | |
| char text[200]; | |
| int file_d; | |
| /* Get ready to connect to host. */ | |
| printf("SMTP Host: "); | |
| gets(text); | |
| /* Connect to standard SMTP port. */ | |
| file_d = openSock(text,25); | |
| if (file_d < 0) { | |
| printf("Error connecting to SMTP host.\n"); | |
| perror("smtp_connect"); | |
| exit(0); | |
| } | |
| printf("\n\n[+ Connected to SMTP host %s +]\n",text); | |
| sleep(1); | |
| getAndSendFrom(file_d); | |
| getAndSendTo(file_d); | |
| getAndSendMsg(file_d); | |
| sprintf(text,"QUIT\n"); | |
| write(file_d,text,strlen(text)); | |
| /* Here we just print out all the text we got from the SMTP | |
| Host. Since this is a simple program, we didnt need to do | |
| anything with it. */ | |
| printf("[Session Message dump]:\n"); | |
| while(read(file_d,text,78) > 0) | |
| printf("%s\n",text); | |
| close(file_d); | |
| } | |
| ----- End file fm.c | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| From: Andy Panda-Bear | |
| Date: September 25, 1992 | |
| Subject: Phrack on the move | |
| To Whom It May Concern: | |
| I love reading your Phrack articles and find them very, very informative as | |
| well as helpful. I was wondering in you've ever or plan to put together a | |
| compendium of related articles. For instance, you could make a Phrack guide to | |
| telephony and include all telephone/telecommunications articles. Perhaps a | |
| "Phrack Guide to UNIX" or "Phrack Guide to Internet" could be produced. It | |
| could have reprints of past articles along with commentaries by individuals who | |
| care to share their knowledge. Anyway it's just something to think about. | |
| Thanks for many megabytes of useful info and keep it coming. | |
| Later, | |
| Andy Panda-Bear | |
| ---------- | |
| Computer Underground Publications Index | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by Amadeus | |
| I just finished the new edition of the Phrack Index, now called the Computer | |
| Underground Publications Index since it now includes the issues of the Legion | |
| of Doom Tech Journals and Informatik. | |
| You can get it from ftp.uu.net as /tmp/CUPindex | |
| I have already sent it to da folks at CUD so that they may enter it into their | |
| archives. | |
| The CUP has been updated to included all the Phracks up to 40. | |
| C'ya | |
| Amadeus | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Pirates v. AT&T: Posters August 8, 1992 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by Legacy Irreverent (legacy@cpu.cyberpnk1.sai.com) | |
| On May 24 1992, two lone Pirates, Legacy of CyberPunk System, and Captain | |
| Picard of Holodeck, had finally had enough of AT&T. Together, they traveled to | |
| the AT&T Maintenance Facility, just west of Goddard, Kansas, and claimed the | |
| property in the name of Pirates and Hackers everywhere. They hoisted the Jolly | |
| Roger skull and crossbones high on the AT&T flagpole, where it stayed for 2 | |
| days until it was taken down by security. | |
| This event was photographed and videotaped by EGATOBAS Productions, to preserve | |
| this landmark in history. And now you can witness the event. For a limited | |
| time we are offering a 11" x 17" full color poster of the Jolly Roger Pirate | |
| flag flying high over AT&T, with the AT&T logo in plain view, with the caption; | |
| "WE CAME, WE SAW, WE CONQUERED." These are $5.50 each and are laminated. | |
| Also available, by request is a 20" x 30" full color photograph, and a cotton | |
| T-shirt with the same full color picture on the front, for $20 each. | |
| If you are interested in purchasing any of the above items, simply send check | |
| or money order for the amount to: | |
| CyberPunk System | |
| P.O. Box 771027 | |
| Wichita, KS 67277-1072 | |
| A GIF of this is also available from CyberPunk System, 1:291/19, 23:316/0, | |
| 72:708/316, 69:2316/0. FREQ magicname PIRATE | |
| Any questions, send them to Legacy@cpu.cyberpnk1.sai.com | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Ultrix 4.2 Bug | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| By Krynn | |
| A bug was discovered in Ultrix 4.2 upgrade version. It involves npasswd, and | |
| root. It is quite simple, and a patch/fix is available. Here is a description | |
| of the hole: | |
| Sys Admin's username: mradmin | |
| Any user's username : mruser | |
| Okay, mruser has forgotten his password, which isn't good. Mruser goes to | |
| mradmin and asks mradmin to change his password to newpass. Mradmin does so. | |
| Mradmin now will su to root, and npasswd mruser. He will enter mruser's new | |
| password, newpasswd. It will appear in the /etc/passwd that mruser's password | |
| is a "*" (shadowed), and that it has been changed, but it hasn't. | |
| The password changed was root's, meaning root's password is now newuser. | |
| A fix is available via anonymous ftp at: | |
| black.ox.ac.uk /src/npasswd.enhanced.shar.Z | |
| The original is there as /src/npasswd jpl.tar.Z | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| PumpCon Hosed November 5, 1992 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by Phil "The Outlander" | |
| PumpCon '92 was held this past weekend at the Westchester Courtyard by | |
| Marriott, and was shut down in spades. | |
| It began like any typical hacker/phreak/cyberpunk's convention, with lots of | |
| beer, lots of shooting the bull, and lots of people from around the country, | |
| except that the guests got sloppy, stupid, noisy, and overconfident. | |
| The manager of the hotel, accompanied by three town of Greenborough police | |
| officers, entered the room at approximately 10pm on Saturday. The manager had | |
| received complaints about noise and vandalism from some of the hotel's other | |
| guests. She claims to have tried to call the room several times before | |
| physically entering, but the room's telephone line was consistently busy. | |
| The police officers noticed the multiple open (and empty) beer bottles | |
| scattered around the room and were gearing up to make some arrests for | |
| "Unlawful Possession of Alcoholic Beverages by Underage Persons" when one of | |
| the policemen spotted an Amiga, connected to a US Robotics modem, which was in | |
| turn connected to the suite's phone line. The "stolen" calling card was all | |
| the probable cause necessary to upgrade the charges to "Wire Fraud." | |
| Everyone in the suite was detained for questioning. Standard investigation | |
| procedure was followed. The entire case was handled by local authorities, | |
| including the Westchester County DA. To my knowledge, the FBI and Bell | |
| Security people were not called in (or if they were, it was after I was | |
| released). | |
| Each detainee was body-searched for diskettes, hand-written notes about credit | |
| and computer services, autodialers, and the like. The suite where PumpCon had | |
| taken place was also searched. Hardware seized includes at least two Amigas | |
| with monitors, modems, and diskettes, and one AT&T dumb terminal with modem. | |
| Each of the detainees was interviewed in turn. Just before dawn on the morning | |
| of Sunday, November 1st, the police began making the actual arrests. Four to | |
| eight people were arrested and taken to the local jail. | |
| The rest of the detainees were released with no charges or arrests filed. | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| And now on a personal note to anybody who is new to the world of hacking: | |
| Many of the attendees to PumpCon '92 were just like me. I was aware of the | |
| possible consequences of an arrest, but the full enormity of the possibilities | |
| hadn't sunk in. Getting busted can really ruin your life, and I am unwilling | |
| to sacrifice my liberty and get a criminal record just for the thrill of | |
| hanging out with the "eleet." | |
| I was personally terrified out of my skull and went right off any dreams I had | |
| of being some kind of big-time cyberpunk. The law had us outgunned ten to one | |
| (literally and figuratively) and I as I write this on Monday night I still | |
| haven't stopped shaking. | |
| To anyone who hasn't considered what it would be like to get seriously busted, | |
| I want you to try and picture the scene that night, and comes the dawn, a lot | |
| of the people you were partying with just twelve hours earlier are carted away | |
| in handcuffs to face an uncertain future. | |
| The attendees of PumpCon, including myself and with few exceptions, were utter | |
| and complete fools. They thought that they could act like jerks, bust up the | |
| hotel, and phreak off the room lines without bringing down the heat like a jet | |
| of molten lava. They thought they were too smart to get caught. They thought | |
| that they were immortal. They thought wrong, and now some of them are going to | |
| pay for it. | |
| I got lucky. I was released, and I learned some invaluable lessons. | |
| I can't stress enough to anybody out there who is treating the state of the | |
| Hack like it's a big game: You aren't going to get your marbles back when the | |
| night is over. The stakes are real. Ask yourself if you can deal with the | |
| possibilities of ruining your life before it's even begun. | |
| Everyone must make their own decision. You are only given this one chance to | |
| bail out now; any others that come along are blessings from on high. | |
| If you do decide to live in the computer underground, I can only offer this | |
| advice: Cover your a$$. Do not act foolishly. Do not associate with fools. | |
| Remember that you are not immortal, and that ultimately there are no safety | |
| nets. Intelligence can't always save you. Do not, in your arrogance, believe | |
| that it will. My time as a cyberpunk has been short and undistinguished but it | |
| has taught me this much. | |
| I'm not saying that you should not become a hacker. If that is truly your | |
| wish, then I'm not one to stop you. I'm just warning you that when the fall | |
| comes, it can come hard, and there's nobody who can help you when you've gone | |
| far enough past the line. | |
| Phil "The Outlander" | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| 2600 Meeting Disrupted by Law Enforcement December 12, 1992 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by Emmanuel Goldstein (Editor of 2600 Magazine) | |
| The following is a letter I wrote to the Washington Post in response to their | |
| article about the incidents at the Pentagon City Mall on November 6, entitled, | |
| "Hackers Allege Harassment at Mall" (dated November 13, page A1). Their | |
| article failed to focus on the startling revelation of federal government | |
| involvement and the ominous implications of such an action. The article also | |
| does little to lessen the near hysteria that is pumped into the general public | |
| every time the word "hacker" is mentioned. | |
| Let us take a good look at what has been confirmed so far. A group of computer | |
| hackers gathered at a local mall as they do once a month. Similar meetings | |
| have been going on in other cities for years without incident. This gathering | |
| was not for the purposes of causing trouble and nobody has accused the hackers | |
| of doing anything wrong. Rather, the gathering was simply a place to meet and | |
| socialize. This is what people seem to do in food courts and it was the | |
| hackers' intention to do nothing more. | |
| When mall security personnel surrounded the group and demanded that they all | |
| submit to a search, it became very clear that something bizarre was happening. | |
| Those who resisted were threatened with arrest. Everyone's names were written | |
| down, everyone's bags gone through. One person attempted to write down the | |
| badge numbers of the people doing this. The list was snatched out of his hand | |
| and ripped to pieces. Another hacker attempted to catch the episode on film. | |
| He was apprehended and the film was ripped from his camera. School books, | |
| notepads, and personal property were seized. Much of it has still not been | |
| returned. The group was held for close to an hour and then told to stay out | |
| of the mall or be arrested. | |
| This kind of treatment is enough to shock most people, particularly when | |
| coupled with the overwhelming evidence and eyewitness accounts confirming no | |
| unusual or disruptive behavior on the part of the group. It is against | |
| everything that our society stands for to subject people to random searches and | |
| official intimidation, simply because of their interests, lifestyles, or the | |
| way they look. This occurrence alone would warrant condemnation of a blatant | |
| abuse of power. But the story doesn't end there. | |
| The harassment of the hackers by the mall police was only the most obvious | |
| element. Where the most attention should be focused at this point is on the | |
| United States Secret Service which, according to Al Johnson, head of mall | |
| security, "ramrodded" the whole thing. Other media sources, such as the | |
| industry newsletter Communications Daily, were told by Johnson that the Secret | |
| Service was all over the mall that day and that they had, in effect, ordered | |
| the harassment. Arlington police confirm that the Secret Service was at the | |
| mall that day. | |
| It is understood that the Secret Service, as a branch of the Treasury | |
| Department, investigates credit card fraud. Credit card fraud, in turn, can be | |
| accomplished through computer crime. Some computer hackers could conceivably | |
| use their talents to accomplish computer crime. Thus we arrive at the current | |
| Secret Service policy, which appears to treat everybody in the hacker world as | |
| if they were a proven counterfeiter. This feeling is grounded in | |
| misperceptions and an apprehension that borders on panic. Not helping the | |
| situation any is the ever-present generation gap -- most hackers are young and | |
| most government officials are not. | |
| Apart from being disturbed by the gross generalizations that comprise their | |
| policy, it seems a tremendous waste of resources to use our Secret Service to | |
| spy on public gatherings in shopping malls. It seems certain to be a violation | |
| of our rights to allow them to disrupt these meetings and intimidate the | |
| participants, albeit indirectly. Like any other governmental agency, it is | |
| expected that the Secret Service follow the rules and not violate the | |
| constitutional rights of citizens. | |
| If such actions are not publicly condemned, we will in effect be granting a | |
| license for their continuance and expansion. The incident above sounds like | |
| something from the darkest days of the Soviet Union when human rights activists | |
| were intimidated by government agents and their subordinates. True, these are | |
| technology enthusiasts, not activists. But who they are is not the issue. We | |
| cannot permit governmental abuse of any person or group simply because they may | |
| be controversial. | |
| Why do hackers evoke such controversy? Their mere presence is an inconvenience | |
| to those who want so desperately to believe the emperor is wearing clothes. | |
| Hackers have a tendency of pointing out the obvious inadequacies of the | |
| computer systems we entrust with such a large and growing part of our lives. | |
| Many people don't want to be told how flimsily these various systems are held | |
| together and how so much personal data is readily available to so many. | |
| Because hackers manage to demonstrate how simple it is to get and manipulate | |
| this information, they are held fully responsible for the security holes | |
| themselves. | |
| But, contrary to most media perceptions, hackers have very little interest in | |
| looking at other people's personal files. Ironically, they tend to value | |
| privacy more than the rest of us because they know firsthand how vulnerable it | |
| is. Over the years, hackers have gone to the media to expose weaknesses in our | |
| credit reporting agencies, the grading system for New York City public schools, | |
| military computer systems, voice mail systems, and even commonly used push | |
| button locks that give a false sense of security. Not one of these examples | |
| resulted in significant media attention and, consequently, adequate security | |
| was either delayed or not implemented at all. | |
| Conversely, whenever the government chooses to prosecute a hacker, most media | |
| attention focuses on what the hacker "could have done" had he been malicious. | |
| This reinforces the inaccurate depiction of hackers as the major threat to our | |
| privacy and completely ignores the failure of the system itself. | |
| By coming out publicly and meeting with other hackers and non-hackers in an | |
| open atmosphere, we have dispelled many of the myths and helped foster an | |
| environment conducive to learning. But the message we received at the Pentagon | |
| City Mall tells us to hide, be secretive, and not trust anybody. Perhaps | |
| that's how the Secret Service wants hackers to behave. But we are not | |
| criminals and we refuse to act as such simply because we are perceived that way | |
| by uninformed bureaucrats. | |
| Regardless of our individual outlooks on the hacker issue, we should be | |
| outraged and extremely frightened to see the Secret Service act as they did. | |
| Whether or not we believe that hackers are decent people, we must agree that | |
| they are entitled to the same constitutional freedoms the rest of us take for | |
| granted. Any less is tantamount to a very dangerous and ill-advised precedent. | |
| Emmanuel Goldstein | |
| Editor, 2600 Magazine -- The Hacker Quarterly (516)751-2600 | |
| (NOTE: 2600 Magazine coordinates monthly hacker meetings throughout the | |
| country.) | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Two New Hardcovers November 24, 1992 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by Alan J. Rothman (New York Law Journal)(Page 5) | |
| During the opening sequence of the classic English television series "The | |
| Prisoner," the lead character known only as Number 6 (brilliantly played by | |
| Patrick McGoohan) is abducted and taken to a secret location called "The | |
| Village." He desperately pleads with his captors "What do you want?" Their | |
| grim response is "Information." Through 17 thrilling episodes, his kidnappers | |
| staged elaborate high-tech ruses to find out why he quit work as a spy. | |
| Had this story been set in the 1990s rather than the 1960s, all The Village's | |
| proprietors would have needed was a PC and a modem. They could have assembled | |
| a composite of Number 6's movements by cross-referencing records from any of | |
| the commercial data bases containing the details of nearly everyone's daily | |
| activities. Then with a bit of ingenuity, they could have tried to steal even | |
| more information by hacking into other restricted data systems. | |
| No longer fiction, but common fact, the billowing growth in the computers and | |
| telecommunications networks everywhere is generating urgent legal issues | |
| regarding the content, usage and ownership of the data coursing through them. | |
| Dilemmas have also surfaced concerning the responsibilities of the businesses | |
| which gather, sift and repackage such information. Indeed, a critical juncture | |
| has now been reached where the basic constitutional rights of privacy and | |
| expression are colliding with the ever-expanding reach of modern technology. | |
| Two well-crafted books have recently been published which together frame the | |
| spectrum of relevant individual rights issues in these areas with uncanny | |
| symmetry. Fortunately, neither degenerates into a "computers are bad" | |
| jeremiad. Rather, they portray an appropriate balance between the virtues of | |
| computerization and disturbing cases of technological misuse for wrongful | |
| commercial and governmental ends. | |
| Presenting array of new forms of electronic encroachment on personal privacy is | |
| Jeffrey Rothfeder's alarming new book, "Privacy for Sale: How Computerization | |
| Has Made Everyone's Private Life an Open Secret" (Simon & Schuster, 224 pages, | |
| $22). He offers the chilling thesis that anyone can find out nearly anything | |
| regarding anybody and there is nowhere left to hide. He convincingly states | |
| his case in a concise and insightful exploration of the trends and abuses in | |
| the mass processing of personal data. | |
| The fascinating mechanics of how and where information about virtually every | |
| aspect of our lives is gathered and then computerized are extensively | |
| described. The most productive fonts include medical records, credit | |
| histories, mortgage applications, subscription lists, phone records, driver's | |
| licenses and insurance forms. Yet notwithstanding the legitimate commercial | |
| and regulatory reasons for providing these facts, the author carefully | |
| documents another more deeply hidden and troubling consequence of volunteering | |
| such information: It is constantly resold, combined with other sources and | |
| reused without your knowledge or permission for purposes entirely different | |
| from those you first intended. | |
| Mr. Rothfeder alleges the most perilous result of these activities is the | |
| growing and highly organized sales, integration and cross-matching of | |
| databases. Businesses and government entities now have sophisticated software | |
| to generate complex demographic profiles about individuals, populations and | |
| geographic areas. In turn, these computer-generated syntheses are increasingly | |
| used for invasive and discriminatory purposes. | |
| Numerous examples of such misuse are cited, ranging from slightly annoying to | |
| purely horrifying. The astonishing breadth of this roster includes the sale of | |
| driver's license information with height weight specifications to clothes | |
| marketers for tall men and thin women, purchases of credit histories and | |
| workmen's compensation claims reports by prospective employers who believe this | |
| material is indicative of a job applicant's character, and the creation of | |
| "propensity files" by federal agencies to identify people who have not | |
| committed any offense but might likely be criminals. | |
| Two additional problems pervade the trafficking of intimate information. | |
| First, there is little or no federal legislation to effectively protect people | |
| from certain problems presented in the book. For example, the release of | |
| medical records thought to be "confidential" is virtually unprotected. | |
| Second, it can be extremely difficult to have false entries corrected before | |
| they have a ripple effect on your other data. Beyond the common tales of | |
| frustration at clearing up a faulty credit report, Mr. Rothfeder relates the | |
| case of a man denied any health insurance because his medical records contained | |
| an erroneous report he was HIV positive. | |
| JOURNEY IN CYBERSPACE | |
| Turning to a much more accurate account, author Bruce Sterling takes readers | |
| into the ethereal realm of "cyberspace" where computers, networks, and | |
| electronic bulletin boards systems (BBS) are linked together by phone. In his | |
| first non-fiction work, "The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the | |
| Electronic Frontier" (Bantam, 328 pages, $23), he chronicles the U.S. | |
| government's highly visible efforts in 1990 to prosecute "hackers" it suspected | |
| of committing crimes by PC and modem. However, Mr. Sterling distinguishes this | |
| term as being more about active computer enthusiasts, most of whom have never | |
| committed any wrongdoing. The writer's other credits include some highly | |
| regarded "cyberpunk" science fiction, where computer technology is central to | |
| the plots and characters. | |
| The "crackdown" detailed by the author began with the crash of AT&T's long- | |
| distance phone system on January 15, 1990. Although it has never been proven | |
| that hackers were responsible, this event served as the final catalyst to spur | |
| federal law enforcement agencies into concerted action against a suspected | |
| underground of computer criminals. A variety of counter-operations were | |
| executed. Most notable was Operation Sundevil the following May when agents | |
| around the country seized 42 computer systems, 23,000 diskettes, and halted 25 | |
| BBS's where the government believed hackers were exchanging tips of the trade. | |
| Some of the government's resulting prosecutions through their nationwide | |
| efforts were moderately successful. However, the book's dramatic centerpiece is | |
| the trial of Craig Neidorf (a.k.a. Knight Lightning). Mr. Neidorf was a | |
| contributor to Phrack, an electronic magazine catering to hackers, available on | |
| various BBS's. | |
| In January 1989, another hacker named "Prophet" transmitted a document he | |
| pilfered from BellSouth's computers regarding the 911 emergency system to | |
| Neidorf. Together they edited the text, which Neidorf then published in | |
| Phrack. In July 1990, he was placed on trial for federal charges of entering a | |
| fraudulent scheme with Prophet to steal this document. The government alleged | |
| it was worth $79,499 and that its publication threatened emergency operations. | |
| To the prosecutor's dismay, the case was dropped when the defense proved the | |
| same material was publicly available for only $13. | |
| With insight and style, Mr. Sterling uses this and other events to cast | |
| intriguing new spins on applicable civil liberties issues. | |
| Are the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and assembly fully | |
| extended to BBS dialogs and gatherings? What degree of privacy can be expected | |
| for personal data on systems which may be subject to surreptitious entry? Are | |
| hackers really breaking any laws when merely exploring new systems? Is posting | |
| a message or document on a BBS considered a "publication"? Should all BBS's be | |
| monitored just because of their potential for illegal activity? What are the | |
| responsibilities of BBS operators for the contents of, and access to, their | |
| systems? | |
| The efforts of Mitchell Kapor, the co-developer of Lotus 123 and now chairman | |
| of ONtechnology, are depicted as a direct response to such issues raised by the | |
| crackdown. Mr. Kapor assembled a prominent group of fellow computer | |
| professionals to establish the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), dedicated | |
| to education and lobbying for free speech and expression in electronic media. | |
| As well, EFF has provided support to Craig Neidorf and others they consider | |
| wrongly charged with computer crime. | |
| Weighty legal matters aside, the author also embellishes his story with some | |
| colorful hacker lore. These denizens of cyberspace are mostly young men in | |
| their late teens or early twenties, often fueled by junk food and propelled by | |
| macho. Perhaps their most amusing trait is the monikers they adopt -- | |
| Bloodaxe, Shadowhawk, and of course, Phiber Optik. | |
| Someone else, a non-hacker involuntary given the pseudonym "Number 6," knew his | |
| every act was continually being monitored and recorded against his will. As a | |
| manifestation of resistance to this relentless surveillance, he often bid | |
| farewell to other citizens of the Village with a sarcastic "Be seeing you." | |
| Today, the offerings of authors Rothfeder and Sterling provide a resounding | |
| "And you" as a form of rejoinder (often uttered by The Village's citizens as | |
| well), to publicize the ironic diversity threats wrought by information | |
| technology. | |
| Number 6 cleverly managed to escape his fictional captivity in The Village | |
| during the final (and mind-boggling) episode of The Prisoner. However, based | |
| on the compelling evidence presented in these two books, the protection of | |
| individual rights in the reality of today's evolving "global village" of | |
| computer networks and telecommunications may not be so neatly resolved. | |