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_______________________________________ _______________________________________ __ __ __ THE BASICS OF HACKING: INTRO __ __ __ _______________________________________ __ Uploaded by Elric of Imrryr __ _______________________________________ _ _ _ THE FIRST OF A SET OF ARTICLES: _ _ AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF THE _ _ HACKER. BASICS TO KNOW BEFORE DOING_ _ ANYTHING, ESSENTIAL TO YOUR CONTIN- _ _ UING CAREER AS ONE OF THE ELITE IN _ _ THE COUNTRY... _ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ THIS ARTICLE, "THE INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF HACKING" IS MEANT TO HELP YOU BY TELLING YOU HOW NOT TO GET CAUGHT, WHAT NOT TO DO ON A COMPUTER SYSTEM, WHAT TYPE OF EQUIPMENT SHOULD I KNOW ABOUT NOW, AND JUST A LITTLE ON THE HISTORY, PAST PRESENT FUTURE, OF THE HACKER. _______________________________________ WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF HACKING! WE, THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE OUTSIDE OF THE NORMAL RULES, AND HAVE BEEN SCORNED AND EVEN ARRESTED BY THOSE FROM THE 'CIVILIZED WORLD', ARE BECOMMING SCARCER EVERY DAY. THIS IS DUE TO THE GREATER FEAR OF WHAT A GOOD HACKER (SKILL WISE, NO MORAL JUDGEMENTS HERE) CAN DO NOWADAYS, THUS CAUSING ANTI- HACKER SENTIMENT IN THE MASSES. ALSO, FEW HACKERS SEEM TO ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT THE COMPUTER SYSTEMS THEY HACK, OR WHAT EQUIPMENT THEY WILL RUN INTO ON THE FRONT END, OR WHAT THEY COULD DO WRONG ON A SYSTEM TO ALERT THE 'HIGHER' AUTHORITIES WHO MONITOR THE SYSTEM. THIS ARTICLE IS INTENDED TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME THINGS NOT TO DO, EVEN BEFORE YOU GET ON THE SYSTEM. WE WILL TELL YOU ABOUT THE NEW WAVE OF FRONT END SECURITY DEVICES THAT ARE BEGINNING TO BE USED ON COMPUTERS. WE WILL ATTEMPT TO INSTILL IN YOU A SECOND IDENTITY, TO BE BROUGHT UP AT TIME OF GREAT NEED, TO PULL YOU OUT OF TROUBLE. AND, BY THE WAY, WE TAKE NO, REPEAT, NO, RESPONCIBILITY FOR WHAT WE SAY IN THIS AND THE FORTHCOMING ARTICLES. ENOUGH OF THE BULLSHIT, ON TO THE FUN: _______________________________________ AFTER LOGGING ON YOUR FAVORITE BBS, YOU SEE ON THE HIGH ACCESS BOARD A PHONE NUMBER! IT SAYS IT'S A GREAT SYSTEM TO "FUCK AROUND WITH!" THIS MAY BE TRUE, BUT HOW MANY OTHER PEOPLE ARE GOING TO CALL THE SAME NUMBER? SO: TRY TO AVOID CALLING A NUMBER GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC. THIS IS BECAUSE THERE ARE AT LEAST EVERY OTHER USER CALLING, AND HOW MANY OTHER BOARDS WILL THAT NUMBER SPREAD TO? IF YOU CALL A NUMBER FAR, FAR AWAY, AND YOU PLAN ON GOING THRU AN EXTENDER OR A RE-SELLER, DON'T KEEP CALLING THE SAME ACCESS NUMBER (I.E. AS YOU WOULD IF YOU HAD A HACKER RUNNING), THIS LOOKS VERY SUSPICIOUS AND CAN MAKE LIFE MISERABLE WHEN THE PHONE BILL COMES IN THE MAIL. MOST CITIES HAVE A VARIETY OF ACCESS NUMBERS AND SERVICES, SO USE AS MANY AS YOU CAN. NEVER TRUST A CHANGE IN THE SYSTEM... THE 414'S, THE ASSHOLES, WERE CAUGHT FOR THIS REASON: WHEN ONE OF THEM CONNECTED TO THE SYSTEM, THERE WAS NOTHING GOOD THERE. THE NEXT TIME, THERE WAS A TREK GAME STUCK RIGHT IN THEIR WAY! THEY PROCEDED TO PLAY SAID GAME FOR TWO, SAY TWO AND A HALF HOURS, WHILE TELENET WAS TRACING THEM! NICE JOB, DON'T YOU THINK? IF ANYTHING LOOKS SUSPICIOUS, DROP THE LINE IMMEDIATELY!! AS IN, YESTERDAY!! THE POINT WE'RE TRYING TO GET ACCROSS IS: IF YOU USE A LITTLE COMMON SENCE, YOU WON'T GET BUSTED. LET THE LITTLE KIDS WHO AREN'T SMART ENOUGH TO RECOGNIZE A TRAP GET BUSTED, IT WILL TAKE THE HEAT OFF OF THE REAL HACKERS. NOW, LET'S SAY YOU GET ON A COMPUTER SYSTEM... IT LOOKS GREAT, CHECKS OUT, EVERYTHING SEEMS FINE. OK, NOW IS WHEN IT GETS MORE DANGEROUS. YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE COMPUTER SYSTEM (SEE FUTURE ISSUES OF THIS ARTICLE FOR INFO ON SPECIFIC SYSTEMS) TO KNOW WHAT NOT TO DO. BASICALLY, KEEP AWAY FROM ANY COMMAND WHICH LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT DELETE SOMETHING, COPY A NEW FILE INTO THE ACCOUNT, OR WHATEVER! ALWAYS LEAVE THE ACCOUNT IN THE SAME STATUS YOU LOGGED IN WITH. CHANGE _NOTHING_... IF IT ISN'T AN ACCOUNT WITH PRIV'S, THEN DON'T TRY ANY COMMANDS THAT REQUIRE THEM! ALL, YES ALL, SYSTEMS ARE GOING TO BE KEEPING LOG FILES OF WHAT USERS ARE DOING, AND THAT WILL SHOW UP. IT IS JUST LIKE DROPPING A TROUBLE-CARD IN AN ESS SYSTEM, AFTER SENDING THAT NICE OPERATOR A PRETTY TONE. SPEND NO EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF TIME ON THE ACCOUNT IN ONE STRETCH. KEEP YOUR CALLING TO THE VERY LATE NIGHT IF POSSIBLE, OR DURING BUSINESS HOURS (BELIEVE IT OR NOT!). IT SO HAPPENS THAT THERE ARE MORE USERS ON DURING BUSINESS HOURS, AND IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO READ A LOG FILE WITH 60 USERS DOING MANY COMMNDS EVERY MINUTE. TRY TO AVOID SYSTEMS WHERE EVERYONE KNOWS EACH OTHER, DON'T TRY TO BLUFF. AND ABOVE ALL: NEVER ACT LIKE YOU OWN THE SYSTEM, OR ARE THE BEST THERE IS. THEY ALWAYS GRAB THE PEOPLE WHO'S HEADS SWELL... THERE IS SOME VERY INTERESTING FRONT END EQUIPMENT AROUND NOWADAYS, BUT FIRST LET'S DEFINE TERMS... BY FRONT END, WE MEAN ANY DEVICE THAT YOU MUST PASS THRU TO GET AT THE REAL COMPUTER. THERE ARE DEVICES THAT ARE MADE TO DEFEAT HACKER PROGRAMS, AND JUST PLAIN OLD MULTIPLEXERS. TO DEFEAT HACKER PROGRAMS, THERE ARE NOW DEVICES THAT PICK UP THE PHONE AND JUST SIT THERE... THIS MEANS THAT YOUR DEVICE GETS NO CARRIER, THUS YOU THINK THERE ISN'T A COMPUTER ON THE OTHER END. THE ONLY WAY AROUND IT IS TO DETECT WHEN IT WAS PICKED UP. IF IT PICKES UP AFTER THE SAME NUMBER RING, THEN YOU KNOW IT IS A HACKER- DEFEATER. THESE DEVICES TAKE A MULTI- DIGIT CODE TO LET YOU INTO THE SYSTEM. SOME ARE, IN FACT, QUITE SOPHISTICATED TO THE POINT WHERE IT WILL ALSO LIMIT THE USER NAME'S DOWN, SO ONLY ONE NAME OR SET OF NAMES CAN BE VALID LOGINS AFTER THEY INPUT THE CODE... OTHER DEVICES INPUT A NUMBER CODE, AND THEN THEY DIAL BACK A PRE-PROGRAMMED NUMBER FOR THAT CODE. THESE SYSTEMS ARE BEST TO LEAVE ALONE, BECAUSE THEY KNOW SOMEONE IS PLAYING WITH THEIR PHONE. YOU MAY THINK "BUT I'LL JUST REPROGRAM THE DIAL-BACK." THINK AGAIN, HOW STUPID THAT IS... THEN THEY HAVE YOUR NUMBER, OR A TEST LOOP IF YOU WERE JUST A LITTLE SMARTER. IF IT'S YOUR NUMBER, THEY HAVE YOUR BALLS (IF MALE...), IF ITS A LOOP, THEN YOU ARE SCREWED AGAIN, SINCE THOSE LOOPS ARE _MONITORED_. AS FOR MULTIPLEXERS... WHAT A PLEXER IS SUPPOSED TO DO IS THIS: THE SYSTEM CAN ACCEPT MULTIPLE USERS. WE HAVE TO TIME SHARE, SO WE'LL LET THE FRONT- END PROCESSOR DO IT... WELL, THIS IS WHAT A MULTIPLEXER DOES. USUALLY THEY WILL ASK FOR SOMETHING LIKE "ENTER CLASS" OR "LINE:". USUALLY IT IS PROGRAMMED FOR A DOUBLE DIGIT NUMBER, OR A FOUR TO FIVE LETTER WORD. THERE ARE USUALLY A FEW SETS OF NUMBERS IT ACCEPTS, BUT THOSE NUMBERS ALSO SET YOUR 300/1200 BAUD DATA TYPE. THESE MULTIPLEXERS ARE INCONVENIENT AT BEST, SO NOT TO WORRY. A LITTLE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF HACKING: HACKING, BY OUR DEFINITION, MEANS A GREAT KNOWLEDGE OF SOME SPECIAL AREA. DOCTORS AND LAWYERS ARE HACKERS OF A SORT, BY THIS DEFINITION. BUT MOST OFTEN, IT IS BEING USED IN THE COMPUTER CONTEXT, AND THUS WE HAVE A DEFINITION OF "ANYONE WHO HAS A GREAT AMOUNT OF COMPUTER OR TELECOMMUNICATIONS KNOWLEDGE." YOU ARE NOT A HACKER BECAUSE YOU HAVE A LIST OF CODES... HACKING, BY OUR DEFINITION, HAS THEN BEEN AROUND ONLY ABOUT 15 YEARS. IT STARTED, WHERE ELSE BUT, MIT AND COLLEGES WHERE THEY HAD COMPUTER SCIENCE OR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENTS. HACKERS HAVE CREATED SOME OF THE BEST COMPUTER LANGUAGES, THE MOST AWESOME OPERATING SYSTEMS, AND EVEN GONE ON TO MAKE MILLIONS. HACKING USED TO HAVE A GOOD NAME, WHEN WE COULD HONESTLY SAY "WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING". NOW IT MEANS (IN THE PUBLIC EYE): THE 414'S, RON AUSTIN, THE NASA HACKERS, THE ARPANET HACKERS... ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN CAUGHT, HAVE DONE DAMAGE, AND ARE NOW GOING TO HAVE TO FACE FINES AND SENTANCES. THUS WE COME PAST THE MORALISTIC CRAP, AND TO OUR PURPOSE: EDUCATE THE HACKER COMMUNITY, RETURN TO THE DAYS WHEN PEOPLE ACTUALLY KNEW SOMETHING... _______________________________________ A PROGRAM GUIDE: THREE MORE ARTICLES WILL BE WRITTEN IN THIS SERIES, AT THE PRESENT TIME. BASICS OF HACKING I: DEC'S BASICS OF HACKING II: VAX'S (UNIX) BASICS OF HACKING III: DATA GENERAL IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO WRITE AN ARTICLE ON IBM, SINCE THERE ARE SO MANY SYSTEMS AND WE ONLY HAVE INFO ON A FEW... _______________________________________ THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY: THE KNIGHTS OF SHADOW _______________________________________ THE BASICS OF HACKING II: VAX'S UNIX UNIX IS A TRADEMARK OF AT&T (AND YOU KNOW WHAT _THAT_ MEANS) Uploaded by Elric of Imrryr _______________________________________ WELCOME TO THE BASICS OF HACKING II: VAX'S AND UNIX. IN THIS ARTICLE, WE DISCUSS THE UNIX SYSTEM THAT RUNS ON THE VARIOUS VAX SYSTEMS. IF YOU ARE ON ANOTHER UNIX-TYPE SYSTEM, SOME COMMANDS MAY DIFFER, BUT SINCE IT IS LICENCED TO BELL, THEY CAN'T MAKE MANY CHANGES. _______________________________________ HACKING ONTO A UNIX SYSTEM IS VERY DIFFICULT, AND IN THIS CASE, WE ADVISE HAVING AN INSIDE SOURCE, IF POSSIBLE. THE REASON IT IS DIFFICULT TO HACK A VAX IS THIS: MANY VAX, AFTER YOU GET A CARRIER FROM THEM, RESPOND=> LOGIN: THEY GIVE YOU NO CHANCE TO SEE WHAT THE LOGIN NAME FORMAT IS. MOST COMMONLY USED ARE SINGLE WORDS, UNDER 8 DIGITS, USUALLY THE PERSON'S NAME. THERE IS A WAY AROUND THIS: MOST VAX HAVE AN ACCT. CALLED 'SUGGEST' FOR PEOPLE TO USE TO MAKE A SUGGESTION TO THE SYSTEM ROOT TERMINAL. THIS IS USUALLY WATCHED BY THE SYSTEM OPERATOR, BUT AT LATE HE IS PROBABLY AT HOME SLEEPING OR SCREWING SOMEONE'S BRAINS OUT. SO WE CAN WRITE A PROGRAM TO SEND AT THE VAX THIS TYPE OF A MESSAGE: A SCREEN FREEZE (CNTRL-S), SCREEN CLEAR (SYSTEM DEPENDANT), ABOUT 255 GARBAGE CHARACTERS, AND THEN A COMMAND TO CREATE A LOGIN ACCT., AFTER WHICH YOU CLEAR THE SCREEN AGAIN, THEN UN- FREEZE THE TERMINAL. WHAT THIS DOES: WHEN THE TERMINAL IS FROZEN, IT KEEPS A BUFFER OF WHAT IS SENT. WELL, THE BUFFER IS ABOUT 127 CHARACTERS LONG. SO YOU OVERFLOW IT WITH TRASH, AND THEN YOU SEND A COMMAND LINE TO CREATE AN ACCT. (SYSTEM DEPENDANT). AFTER THIS YOU CLEAR THE BUFFER AND SCREEN AGAIN, THEN UNFREEZE THE TERMINAL. THIS IS A BAD WAY TO DO IT, AND IT IS MUCH NICER IF YOU JUST SEND A COMMAND TO THE TERMINAL TO SHUT THE SYSTEM DOWN, OR WHATEVER YOU ARE AFTER... THERE IS ALWAYS, *ALWAYS* AN ACCT. CALLED ROOT, THE MOST POWERFUL ACCT. TO BE ON, SINCE IT HAS ALL OF THE SYSTEM FILES ON IT. IF YOU HACK YOUR WAY ONTO THIS ONE, THEN EVERYTHING IS EASY FROM HERE ON... ON THE UNIX SYSTEM, THE ABORT KEY IS THE CNTRL-D KEY. WATCH HOW MANY TIMES YOU HIT THIS, SINCE IT IS ALSO A WAY TO LOG OFF THE SYSTEM! A LITTLE ABOUT UNIX ARCHITECHTURE: THE ROOT DIRECTORY, CALLED ROOT, IS WHERE THE SYSTEM RESIDES. AFTER THIS COME A FEW 'SUB' ROOT DIRECTORIES, USUALLY TO GROUP THINGS (STATS HERE, PRIV STUFF HERE, THE USER LOG HERE...). UNDER THIS COMES THE SUPERUSER (THE OPERATOR OF THE SYSTEM), AND THEN FINALLY THE NORMAL USERS. IN THE UNIX 'SHELL' EVERYTHING IS TREATED THE SAME. BY THIS WE MEAN: YOU CAN ACCESS A PROGRAM THE SAME WAY YOU ACCESS A USER DIRECTORY, AND SO ON. THE WAY THE UNIX SYSTEM WAS WRITTEN, EVERYTHING, USERS INCLUDED, ARE JUST PROGRAMS BELONGING TO THE ROOT DIRECTORY. THOSE OF YOU WHO HACKED ONTO THE ROOT, SMILE, SINCE YOU CAN SCREW EVERYTHING... THE MAIN LEVEL (EXEC LEVEL) PROMPT ON THE UNIX SYSTEM IS THE $, AND IF YOU ARE ON THE ROOT, YOU HAVE A # (SUPER- USER PROMPT). OK, A FEW BASICS FOR THE SYSTEM... TO SEE WHERE YOU ARE, AND WHAT PATHS ARE ACTIVE IN REGUARDS TO YOUR USER ACCOUNT, THEN TYPE => PWD THIS SHOWS YOUR ACCT. SEPERATED BY A SLASH WITH ANOTHER PATHNAME (ACCT.), POSSIBLY MANY TIMES. TO CONNECT THROUGH TO ANOTHER PATH, OR MANY PATHS, YOU WOULD TYPE: YOU=> PATH1/PATH2/PATH3 AND THEN YOU ARE CONNECTED ALL THE WAY FROM PATH1 TO PATH3. YOU CAN RUN THE PROGRAMS ON ALL THE PATHS YOU ARE CONNECTED TO. IF IT DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO CONNECT TO A PATH, THEN YOU HAVE INSUFFICIENT PRIVS, OR THE PATH IS CLOSED AND ARCHIVED ONTO TAPE. YOU CAN RUN PROGRAMS THIS WAY ALSO: YOU=> PATH1/PATH2/PATH3/PROGRAM-NAME UNIX TREATS EVERYTHING AS A PROGRAM, AND THUS THERE A FEW COMMANDS TO LEARN... TO SEE WHAT YOU HAVE ACCESS TO IN THE END PATH, TYPE=> LS FOR LIST. THIS SHOW THE PROGRAMS YOU CAN RUN. YOU CAN CONNECT TO THE ROOT DIRECTORY AND RUN IT'S PROGRAMS WITH=> /ROOT BY THE WAY, MOST UNIX SYSTEMS HAVE THEIR LOG FILE ON THE ROOT, SO YOU CAN SET UP A WATCH ON THE FILE, WAITING FOR PEOPLE TO LOG IN AND SNATCH THEIR PASSWORD AS IT PASSES THRU THE FILE. TO CONNECT TO A DIRECTORY, USE THE COMMAND: => CD PATHNAME THIS ALLOWS YOU TO DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH THAT DIRECTORY. YOU MAY BE ASKED FOR A PASSWORD, BUT THIS IS A GOOD WAY OF FINDING OTHER USER NAMES TO HACK ONTO. THE WILDCARD CHARACTER IN UNIX, IF YOU WANT TO SEARCH DOWN A PATH FOR A GAME OR SUCH, IS THE *. => LS /* SHOULD SHOW YOU WHAT YOU CAN ACCESS. THE FILE TYPES ARE THE SAME AS THEY ARE ON A DEC, SO REFER TO THAT SECTION WHEN EXAMINING FILE. TO SEE WHAT IS IN A FILE, USE THE => PR FILENAME COMMAND, FOR PRINT FILE. WE ADVISE PLAYING WITH PATHNAMES TO GET THE HANG OF THE CONCEPT. THERE IS ON-LINE HELP AVAILABLE ON MOST SYSTEMS WITH A 'HELP' OR A '?'. WE ADVISE YOU LOOK THRU THE HELP FILES AND PAY ATTENTION TO ANYTHING THEY GIVE YOU ON PATHNAMES, OR THE COMMANDS FOR THE SYSTEM. YOU CAN, AS A USER, CREATE OR DESTROY DIRECTORIES ON THE TREE BENEATH YOU. THIS MEANS THAT ROOT CAN KILL EVERY- THING BUT ROOT, AND YOU CAN KILL ANY THAT ARE BELOW YOU. THESE ARE THE => MKDIR PATHNAME => RMDIR PATHNAME COMMANDS. ONCE AGAIN, YOU ARE NOT ALONE ON THE SYSTEM... TYPE=> WHO TO SEE WHAT OTHER USERS ARE LOGGED IN TO THE SYSTEM AT THE TIME. IF YOU WANT TO TALK TO THEM=> WRITE USERNAME WILL ALLOW YOU TO CHAT AT THE SAME TIME, WITHOUT HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT THE PARSER. TO SEND MAIL TO A USER, SAY => MAIL AND ENTER THE MAIL SUB-SYSTEM. TO SEND A MESSAGE TO ALL THE USERS ON THE SYSTEM, SAY => WALL WHICH STANDS FOR 'WRITE ALL' BY THE WAY, ON A FEW SYSTEMS, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS HIT THE <RETURN> KEY TO END THE MESSAGE, BUT ON OTHERS YOU MUST HIT THE CNTRL-D KEY. TO SEND A SINGLE MESSAGE TO A USER, SAY => WRITE USERNAME THIS IS VERY HANDY AGAIN! IF YOU SEND THE SEQUENCE OF CHARACTERS DISCUSSED AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THIS ARTICLE, YOU CAN HAVE THE SUPER-USER TERMINAL DO TRICKS FOR YOU AGAIN. PRIVS: IF YOU WANT SUPER-USER PRIVS, YOU CAN EITHER LOG IN AS ROOT, OR EDIT YOUR ACCT. SO IT CAN SAY => SU THIS NOW GIVES YOU THE # PROMPT, AND ALLOWS YOU TO COMPLETELY BY-PASS THE PROTECTION. THE WONDERFUL SECURITY CONSCIOUS DEVELOPERS AT BELL MADE IT VERY DIFFICULT TO DO MUCH WITHOUT PRIVS, BUT ONCE YOU HAVE THEM, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING STOPPING YOU FROM DOING ANYTHING YOU WANT TO. TO BRING DOWN A UNIX SYSTEM: => CHDIR /BIN => RM * THIS WIPES OUT THE PATHNAME BIN, WHERE ALL THE SYSTEM MAINTENANCE FILES ARE. OR TRY: => R -R THIS RECURSIVELY REMOVES EVERYTHING FROM THE SYSTEM EXCEPT THE REMOVE COMMAND ITSELF. OR TRY: => KILL -1,1 => SYNC THIS WIPES OUT THE SYSTEM DEVICES FROM OPERATION. WHEN YOU ARE FINALLY SICK AND TIRED FROM HACKING ON THE VAX SYSTEMS, JUST HIT YOUR CNTRL-D AND REPEAT KEY, AND YOU WILL EVENTUALLY BE LOGGED OUT. _______________________________________ THE REASON THIS FILE SEEMS TO BE VERY SKETCHY IS THE FACT THAT BELL HAS 7 LICENCED VERSIONS OF UNIX OUT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, AND THESE COMMANDS ARE THOSE COMMON TO ALL OF THEM. WE RECOMMEND YOU HACK ONTO THE ROOT OR BIN DIRECTORY, SINCE THEY HAVE THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF PRIVS, AND THERE IS REALLY NOT MUCH YOU CAN DO (EXCEPT DEVELOPE SOFTWARE) WITHOUT THEM. _______________________________________ THIS ARTICLE WRITTEN BY: THE KNIGHTS OF SHADOW _______________________________________ Description: Hacking DEC's (Knights of Shadow II) File Date: 6-21-87 File Time: 6:31 am *************************************** *************************************** ** ** ** Hacking : DEC's ** ** ** *************************************** *************************************** Welcome to Basics of Hacking I: DEC's In this article you will learn how to log in to DEC's, logging out, and all the fun stuff to do in-between. All of this information is based on a standard DEC system. Since there are DEC systems 10 and 20, and we favor, the DEC 20, there will be more info on them in this article. It is also the more common of the two, and is used by much more interesting people (if you know what we mean...) Ok, the first thing you want to do when you are receiving carrier from a DEC system is to find out the format of login names. You can do this by looking at who is on the system. DEC=> @ (the 'exec' level prompt) YOU=> SY SY is short for SY(STAT) and shows you the system status. You should see |he format of login names... A SYSTAT usually comes up in this form: Job Line Program User Job: The JOB number (Not important unless you want to log them off later) Line: What line they are on (used to talk to them...) These are both two or three digit numbers. Program: What program are they running under? If it says 'EXEC' they aren't doing anything at all... User: ahhhAHHHH! This is the user name they are logged in under... Copy the format, and hack yourself out a working code... Login format is as such: DEC=> @ YOU=> login username password Username is the username in the format you saw above in the SYSTAT. After you hit the space after your username, it will stop echoing characters back to your screen. This is the password you are typing in... Remember, people usually use their name, their dog's name, the name of a favorite character in a book, or something like this. A few clever people have it set to a key cluster (qwerty or asdfg). PW's can be from 1 to 8 characters long, anything after that is ignored. It would be nice to have a little help, wouldn't it? Just type a ? or the word HELP, and it will give you a whole list of topics... Some handy characters for you to know would be the control keys, wouldn't it? Backspace on a DEC 20 is rub which is 255 on your ASCII chart. On the DEC 10 it is Ctrl-H. To abort a long listing or a program, Ctrl-C works fine. Use Ctrl-O to stop long output to the terminal. This is handy when playing a game, but you don't want to Ctrl-C out. Ctrl-T for the time. Ctrl-U will kill the whole line you are typing at the moment. You may accidently run a program where the only way out is a Ctrl-X, so keep that in reserve. Ctrl-S to stop listing, Ctrl-Q to continue on both systems. Is your terminal having trouble?? Like, it pauses for no reason, or it doesn't backspace right? This is because both systems support many terminals, and you haven't told it what yours is yet... You are using a VT05 (Isn't that funny? I thought i had an apple) so you need to tell it you are one. DEC=> @ YOU=> information terminal or... YOU=> info ter This shows you what your terminal is set up as... DEC=> all sorts of shit, then the @ YOU=> set ter vt05 This sets your terminal type to VT05. Now let's see what is in the account (here after abbreviated acct.) that you have hacked onto... SAY => DIR short for directory, it shows you what the user of the code has save to the disk. There should be a format like this: xxxxx.ooo xxxxx is the file name, from 1 to 20 characters long. ooo is the file type, one of: exe, txt, dat, bas, cmd and a few others that are system dependant. Exe is a compiled program that can be run (just by typing its name at the @). Txt is a text file, which you can see by typing=> type xxxxx.txt Do not try to=> type xxxxx.exe This is very bad for your terminal and will tell you absolutly nothing. Dat is data they have saved. Bas is a basic program, you can have it typed out for you. Cmd is a command type file, a little too complicated to go into here. TRY => take xxxxx.cmd By the way, there are other usersout there who may have files you can use (Gee, why else am i here?). TYPE => DIR <*.*> (DEC 20) => DIR [*,*] (DEC 10) * is a wildcard, and will allow you to access the files on other accounts if the user has it set for public access. If it isn't set for public access, then you won't see it. to run that program: DEC=> @ YOU=> username program-name Username is the directory you saw the file listed under, and file name was what else but the file name? ** YOU ARE NOT ALONE ** Remember, you said (at the very start) SY short for SYSTAT, and how we said this showed the other users on the system? Well, you can talk to them, or at least send a message to anyone you see listed in a SYSTAT. You can do this by: DEC=> the user list (from your systat) YOU=> talk username (DEC 20) send username (DEC 10) Talk allows you and them immediate conferencing. Description: Hackign Data General (Knights of Shadow IV) File Date: 6-21-87 File Time: 6:36 am *************************************** *************************************** ** ** ** Hacking III: Data ** ** General ** ** ** *************************************** *************************************** Welcome to the basics of hacking III: Data General computers. Data General is favored by large corporations who need to have a lot of data on-line. The Data General AOS, which stands for Advance on of bastardized UNIX. All the commands which were in the UNIX article, will work on a Data General. Once again, we have the problem of not knowing the format for the login name on the Data General you want to hack. As seems to be standard, try names from one to 8 digits long. Data General designed the computer to be for businessmen, and is thus very simplistic, and basically fool proof (but not damn fool proof). It follows the same login format as the unix system: DG=> login: DG=> password: YOU=> password Passwords can be a maximum of 8 characters, and they are almost always set to a default of 'AOS' or 'DG'. (any you know about businessmen...) A word about control characters: Ctrl-O stops massive print-outs to the screen, but leaves you in whatever mode you were. (A technical word on what this actually does: It tells the CPU to ignore the terminal, and prints everything out to the CPU! This is about 19200 baud, and so it seems like it just cancels.) Ctrl-U kills the line you are typing at the time. Now for the weird one: Ctrl-C tells the CPU to stop, and wait for another ctrl character. To stop a program, you actually need to type Ctrl-C and then a Ctrl-B. Once you get on, type 'HELP'. Many DG (Data General) computers are sold in a package deal, which also gets the company free customizing. So you never know what commands there might be. So we will follow what is known as the 'ECLIPSE STANDARD', or''ctory like. To find out the files on the directory you are using, type => DIR To run a program, just like on a DEC, just type its name. Other than this, and running other people's programs, there really isn't a standard... *** HARK, yon other system users *** To see who is on, type => WHO remember?). This shows the other users, what they are doing, and what paths they are connected across. This is handy, so try a few of those paths yourself. To send a message, say => send username This is a one time message, just like send on the DEC 10. From here on, try commands from the other previous files and from the 'HELP' listing. superuser: If you can get privs, just say: => superuser on and you turn those privs on! By the way, you remember that computers keep a log of what people do? type: => syslog /stop and it no longer records anything you do on the system, or any of the other users. It screams to high heaven that it was you who turned it off, but it keeps no track of any accounts created or whatever else you may do. You can say=> syslog /start to turn it back on (now why would you want to do something like that?????) To exit from the system, type=> BYE and the system will hang up on you. Most of the systems around, including DECs, VAX's, and DG's, have games. These are usually located in a path or directory of the name games or <games> or games: Try looking in them, and you might find adventure, zork, wumpus (with bent arrows in hand) or a multitude of others. There may also be games called 'CB' or 'FORUM'. These are a sort of computer conference call. Use them on weekends, and you can meet all sorts of interesting people. If you would like to see more articles on hacking (this time far more than just the basics), or maybe articles on networks and such, then leave us mail if we are on the system, or have the sysop search us down. We call a lot of places, and you may just find us. *************************************** *************************************** This completes the series of articles on hacking... The Basics of Hacking: Introduction The Basics of Hacking I: DEC's The Basics of Hacking II: VAX's (UNIX) The Basics of Hacking III: DG's *************************************** *************************************** This and the previous articles by: The Knights of Shadow *************************************** ***************************************