Freaks Macintosh Archive/Freaks Macintosh Archive.bin/Freaks Macintosh Archives/Phreaking⁄Wardialers/Phreaking texts/FieldPhreaking.txt

Text File | 1999-01-28 | 21KB | 360 lines

                               -/\-/*\-/\-/*\-/\-
                                The Third Cartel
                               -\/-\*/-\/-\*/-\/-

                                   Presents:

                                Manuscript III
                              Field Phreaking II
                              -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Introduction:  The purpose of this manuscript is to introduce useful phreaking
-------------  techniques.  These techniques have been developed by the Third
Cartel and have proved to be convenient and reliable.  This manuscript is a
continuation of Manuscript II: Field Phreaking.


Pay Phone Hacking:
==================

The safest way to get phreaking codes is by hacking them on a pay phone.  The
chances of getting caught are extremely remote, especially if you switch pay
phones every few minutes.  One problem with hacking codes is that when you find
a code by dialing it randomly, you often forget what code you dialed.  To
prevent this, we print out a sheet filled with 6-8 digit random codes on the
computer.  Then we start testing each of these codes off of a 950 number.  This
works great, especially since 950s are not charged!  Cross off each code on the
paper that doesn't work, and mark the ones that do work.  This technique takes
a lot of patience, but it's worth it if you have a terrible short-term memory.


Telco Boxes:
============

This is our prime focus in Manuscript III.  Every field phreaker worth his
weight in dung should at least know the basics about phone boxes.  There are so
many different types that we can only cover the major groups.  But once you
learn about a few boxes, it'll be easy to learn about others.  Be sure to
bring a test phone with you [see Manuscript II] so you can connect up to phone
lines.

Small Boxes:  Small telephone boxes typically contain 1 to 20 different phone
------------  lines.  They are usually in convenient and safe locations.  They
are easy to open, and can be closed quickly.

Home Boxes:  Unless you live in an apartment complex, your home box shoud be
very easy to locate.  It is small box located on the side of your house;
usually a foot or two off the ground.  Many times it will be beige colored
and may require a ratchet [Usually 3/8"] to open.  If you have more than one
line in your house, your box will probably be fairly large and light gray.
You'll need a ratchet and a screwdriver to open a two-line box.  In the
one-line box there will be five terminals or screws.  The top two screws should
have red and green wires leading to them.  If you connect your test phone clips
to these screws, you'll be on the line.  Usually, the two screws below contain
the same phone line.  The very bottom screw, in the middle, is the ground.  In
the two-line boxes, you should be able to figure out how to hook up to the
lines rather easily.  They even have a modular plug jack that you can plug a
normal phone into.  There are also several terminals that you can hook the
clips up to.

Aluminum Multi-Line Boxes:  These boxes are usually found behind business
buildings and shopping centers.  Some condominium complexes also have these
boxes hooked up to walls on a few units.  Each box contains five or more phone
lines.  The boxes are rectangular and made of aluminum, are very easy to open
and close, and often say "Western Electric" on the front.  Once you get the box
open, you will see several pairs of terminals grouped diagonally.  Simply
attach your phone clips to a correct pair, and you'll be on a phone line.  Run
an ANI on the phone line to find its number.  If your phone happens to be
polarity sensitive, and you get no dial tone when hooked up to terminals,
reverse the alligator clips and you'll be on the line.

Small Distribution Boxes:  These boxes, usually either light green, or a very
dark green, are not very common, and can be found behind shopping centers,
houses, and other buildings.  You'll probably need the ratchet to open it,
and a knife to strip some wires.  The top of the box pulls off if you loosen
the screws enough.  Inside, there will be several wires.  Two different sizes
of wires are found in distribution boxes.  The larger wires lead to nearby
buildings.  The smaller wires lead to another distribution box where they are
spliced into larger wires and sent to buildings.  These boxes take the most
time to use because they have no terminals and you have to find the correct
wire pairs.  It's easiest to find the large wire pairs, so start out with
those.  Once you find a phone line, you might want to tape together or label
the wire pair for future reference.  Use the same procedure for the smaller
wires.  If you find a good box, and are willing to take the time, these boxes
can be very worthwhile!

Medium Boxes:  Medium boxes carry more lines than small boxes but are usually
-------------  found in somewhat risky locations.  Most of them require a
ratchet for access, and they usually open on a hinged door.

Medium Distribution Boxes:  These are identical to the small distribution
boxes, but carry far more phone lines.  Many times, after taking off the cover,
there will be a flat access plate you can open with a ratchet.  Use the same
procedure for this box as outlined in the small distribution box description.

Flat Peg Boxes:  Flat Peg boxes are frequently found behind grocery stores,
shopettes, and other businesses.  Sometimes they can be found in an office
phone room or in the back halls of shopping malls.  They are typically big,
square boxes mounted to a wall and are opened by a handle on a hinged door.
Sometimes, they are mounted away from a building.  We've seen some that are
double sided and require a ratchet to open.  Inside, the terminals will be
grouped in approx. 10 X 3 inch columns.  The terminals are long flat pegs.
There are four terminals per row.  It is sometimes difficult to hook up to a
line since the terminals are so close together, but you'll get the hang of
it after a few tries.

Large Boxes:  These boxes sometimes contain hundreds of phone lines.  They are
------------  found along busy streets and in business areas or apartment
complexes.  You'll need a ratchet to open one.

Wire Box:  The wire box is about three feet tall and has two doors opened by
one latch.  The wires lead into long, plastic, rectangular grouping stations.
There should be a tool attached by two screws to the side of a door.  Connect
your phone clips to these screws.  Now connect the tool to a plastic grouping
station.  If you connect the tool correctly, you will be on a line.  There are
several different lines contained in a single grouping station.

Terminal Boxes:  In our opinion, the terminal box is the king of boxes.  A
single box may contain up to eight hundred lines.  You can't miss these boxes
because of their size.  They stand at least four feet tall and have the
characteristic light green color of most boxes.  After opening a box, you will
see many red and white numbered terminals pairs on each side.  On the inside of
each door, there are two screws to connect your test phone to.  Leading out
from the screws is a double current alligator clip that can easily connect to
any pair of terminals.  This easy connection tool makes this the most
convenient box to use, and the most profitable.

Helpful Tips:  Now that you know how most major boxes work, you will be able to
-------------  figure out how other boxes work.  By now we're sure you have
thought of some interesting things to do with boxes.  Here are some tips you
might find helpful.

The Perfect Box:  The most tedious step in field phreaking is finding "The
Perfect Box."  This box should be located away from streets and hidden from the
view of homes.  When working on this box, there should be no worry of being
caught or observed.  Finding this box might take quite a while, but don't give
up hope; it's well worth the time and effort.  Try looking around waterways
such as creeks, lakes, and ditches.  If you have easy access to wilderness
areas, such as the mountains, try looking for Perfect Boxes around there.

Beige Boxing:  We're not sure exactly who invented the beige box, but it can be
extremely useful for surveillance and blackmail purposes.  The only materials
you need for a beige box are two wires and your test phone.  Connect the wires
to the ring and tip of the line you want to tap.  Make sure your wires are
hidden, and lead them to your house or other location.  You then can connect
your phone to the wires and listen in on conversations or use their phone line
however you want.  Make sure that you don't use a boxed line when the victim
is likely to pick up his phone and hear you.

Safety Tips:

o  Well, first of all, be extremely careful when choosing a box to work on.
   Two of us got arrested for using the wrong box at the wrong time.  Make
   sure that nobody will see you when you're working on it, because you're
   putting your record at risk.  Of course, if you're under 18, you don't have
   to worry quite as much, but going to court is not K-Rad.

o  Try wearing gloves when working on phone lines.  You don't want to get
   shocked or leave fingerprints around.

o  If you ever open a box that has huge cables in it, it's probably a power
   box.  The power box is usually dark green and stands a few feet in height.
   Don't even think of messing with one unless you want to risk having a
   painful death.  If you absolutely *must* disconnect someone's power, then
   use *EXTREME* caution when disconnecting the cable.  Wear heavy duty gloves,
   make sure that you aren't wet, and don't use metal tools.

o  Always look for your boxes at day, and work on them at night.

o  Have a getaway bike or car ready in case of an emergency.

o  If anyone catches you, act cool and calm.  You don't want to say "uh, well,
   umm...well I was just uh...," because that makes you look suspicious.
   *Always* have a story ready *before* you start opening boxes!  This has
   saved us a couple of times.

o  You might want to incorporate your fake I.D. card into the scheme so people
   think that you work for the phone company.  Remember, this won't work on
   telco employees.  Only attempt to fool average citizens.  If they call the
   cops or telco, take off.

                               -/\-/*\-/\-/*\-/\-
                                The Third Cartel
                               -\/-\*/-\/-\*/-\/-

                                   Presents:

                                 Manuscript II
                                Field Phreaking
                              -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Introduction:  The purpose of this manuscript is to introduce useful phreaking
-------------  techniques.  These techniques have been developed by the Third
Cartel and have proved to be convenient and reliable.


Field Phreaking Kit:
====================

The Field Phreaking Kit is a neccessity for the serious phreaker.  Some
so-called phreaks get all of their information including codes from BBSs and
have an ego big enough to call themselves phreaks.  The real phreak acquires
knowledge on his own through perseverence and ingenuity.  Following is a list
of useful items for your Phreaking Kit:

o  Backpack:  Get a nice one to hold all of your materials.
o  Test Phone:  Very Handy.  We'll tell you how to get one or make one.
o  Ratchet Set:  Usually, you'll only need 7/16 and 3/8" size ratchets.
o  Screwdrivers:  Get medium and large screwdrivers, and a phillips head.
o  Wire Cutters:  Just in case you want to wipe out some lines.
o  Pliers:  For misc. stuff.
o  Xacto or Pocket Knife:  To strip or cut wires.
o  Penlight:  Nice and small; very useful for night work.
o  Flashlight:  If you need lots of light and have enough room in your pack.
o  Gloves:  Make sure you don't get shocked or leave your fingerprints around.
o  Pencil and Paper:  Write down locations, notes, numbers, etc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 The Third Cartel carries the following optional materials in their Field Kit:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
o  Walki-Talkies:  For communications when yelling isn't possible or smart.
o  Battery Operated Camara Flash:  Good for flashing in someone's eyes at night
                                   Will blind a telco guy for a few seconds.
o  Mace/Dog Repellant:  Spray in someone's eyes if they give you trouble.
o  Smoke Bomb:  Helpful to divert attention or scare. [drop in telco car]
                [Mix 3 parts potassium nitrate with 2 parts sugar and melt]
o  Matches:  For smoke bomb or anything that is flammable.
o  Bandana/Surgical Mask:  Manholes are dusty; Wear these for easier breathing.
o  Marker:  Mark your "territory" on phone boxes.
o  Fake Telco ID Card:  Will make some people think that you work for telco.

Organize your kit so you know where everything is and can get something quickly
when needed.  You don't want to be fumbling for your mace when the gestapo is
about to get you.


Test Phone:
===========

The Test Phone is the most useful piece of equipment for Field Phreaking.  You
can try to sneak into a telco Plant Department [truckyard] and get a real test
phone out of a truck like we did.  If you'd rather not do this, don't worry;
making your own test phone is ultra-easy.

First, get a telephone for your own purposes.  Find the wire coming out of the
phone that is supposed to go to the wall's modular jack.  It should be at least
three feet long for convienience.  Cut off the modular jack at the end of the
wire.  Strip the wire, and there should be two or four small  wires inside.
Hook the two middle wires to alligator clips [preferably insulated]. You now
have a test phone!  Very easy, indeed.  Now let's see if you hooked everything
up ok.  First find your phone box.  It'll probably be on the outside of your
house.  It's farly small, and you might need the ratchet to open it up.  Once
you get it open, you should see some screws.  These are the terminals for your
phone line.  Hook the alligator clips to the two top terminals.  If your phone
is ok, you should get a dial tone.  Once you know that your phone is working,
a whole new world opens up to you!  You can hook the phone up to your
neighbor's terminal and call long distance or yell at the operator on their
line.  Be careful, though.  You don't want to be talking to Sue in L.A. when
your neighbors are home and awake.  If they pick up the phone when you're
already on, you could get into serious trouble.  Of course, you could always
listen in on them!  If you want, you can hook wires up to your neighbor's
terminal and lead them to your house.  In case you didn't know, this is called
Beige Boxing.  You can then hack computers on their line, call Dial-A-Prayer,
etc.  Make sure to hide the wire well so that it won't be traced to your
house!


Manholes:
=========

One way to get access to an abundance of phone lines is by getting into telco
manholes.  You don't want to accidentally get in a sewer manhole, so the first
thing to do is find the differences between sewer and telephone manholes.  If
you have trouble with this, here's a few tips that might help:
o  Telco manhole covers are usually larger and heavier than other covers.
o  Telco manholes are scarce compared to sewer manholes.  So if there are
   a lot of checkered manhole covers in your area, those are probably sewer
   manholes.  If there are only a handful of unmarked manhole covers in
   your area, those probably contain phone lines.
o  Go to your local telco Central Office [CO] and find out what the manhole
   covers look like there.  Find manhole covers that look the same in other
   areas, and pick a convenient/safe manhole to explore.

Getting into a manhole is a different story.  Here in the Denver area, it takes
at least three people to get a manhole cover off.  Hopefully it'll be easier
to do in your area.  To open the manhole, you'll probably need at least two
crowbars [You could try using a pickaxe].  Get a group together to open the
manhole, using 2 or more people with crowbars to slide the cover off.  You
might want to get a strong guy to push the manhole cover while the other people
with crowbars support it.  If you know of a tool that was made specifically
for opening manholes, we'd appreciate it if you contacted us on some local
Denver boards and told us about it.  Likewise, if you have a better system for
opening manholes, we'd be grateful for the information.

Once you get the manhole cover off, shine a flahlight down to see if there's
a ladder going to the bottom.  Try a different manhole if there's no ladder.
If you want to go down a manhole, don't forget to wear a bandana or surgical
mask over your mouth so that you don't choke on dust.  Also bring a flashlight
so you can see what you're doing.  Many times, there'll be a few inches of
water at the bottom, so you might also want to wear boots.

Down in the manhole, you might find some equipment or manuals.  Go ahead and
take them if you want; you deserve it!  There should be some very large ABS
plastic tubes going across the "room" you're in.  The phone lines are inside
these tubes.  Attached to this tubing there will be some short, wide plastic
cylinders.  There'll be screws holding these cylinders on to the tubing.
You'll need either a screwdriver or a ratchet to open a cylinder.  If you
happen to get a cylinder open, congratulations!  You now have access to
countless phone lines!  We'll leave it to you to figure out what to do with all
of those wires.  Surely you'll figure something out!  [snip, snip!]


Exploring Telco Building Sites:
===============================

One of the best ways to get information about telco is by going to a Central
Office near you, exploring the trucks in a Plant Department, or "visiting"
other telco buildings.  The phone company is careless in many ways.  They
leave important, yet unshredded documents and computer printouts in their
open dumpsters.  Their cars, vans, and repair vehicles are almost always left
unlocked.  Inside their vehicles one can usually find manuals, test phones,
computer cards [usually for mainframes, almost never for personal comuters],
nice tool sets, etc.!  It's almost as if they *want* to be ripped off!  They
deserve bad treatment just for their negligence.  If possible, we like to be
courteous to individual employees of telco.  Most employees are fairly amiable
and don't deserve trouble.  It's the beuracracy of telco that deserves to be
manhandled.  Cheap practices such as monopolizing and the overpricing of
services is the general reason why we phreaks do what we do with such
determination.  On with the show.

Exploring Dumpters:  Looking inside telco dumpters is probably the easiest way
to acquire useful information.  Typycally, dumpters will be found outside a
Central Office.  They are usually left open for the world to see.  It's a good
idea to check a dumpster near you every day or two.  You want to get your
printouts and such before they go to the garbage dump.  Make sure that you
aren't pulling stuff out of the dumpster when the employees get out for the
day!  If possible, check the dumpster after closing hours just to be safe.  But
it's usually ok to get stuff out of it during working hours.  You should find a
lot of useful information, including computer numbers, if you consistently
check the dumpsters.

Exploring Plant Departments:  Plant Department is just a strange name telco
made for a truckyard.  You might need your 'ol wire cutters for this job.
Plan to stay up late for this mission, too.  Around here, at least, the Plant
Department doesn't close until 11:30 to 11:45 p.m.  If your local Plant
Department isn't bound by barbed-wire fences, you're lucky.  If, unfortunately,
it's like ours, you'll have to find a way to get in.  First, try to find breaks
in the fence where you might be able to slip through.  If this isn't possible,
and you can't climb over the fence because there's barbed-wire at the top, get
out the [gasp!] wire cutters.  Cut the barbed-wire and climb over the fence.
Quietly move around the truck yard, opening various trucks, taking whatever you
want.  Although it might be hard, try to control yourself.  Only take one item
per truck so that the fools don't get suspicious.  You don't ever want them to
get suspicious, or you'll never be able to go back without fearing that they
might be watching the truckyard for intruders.  Just take a testphone and a few
handy manuals.  The testphone is usually in the back behind the passenger's
seat.  Manuals should be in the glove compartment or between the two front
seats.  The rest of the gadgets in the trucks have little or no practical uses
for phreaks.  Too bad.  Be cool and don't take anything you don't need.