TAP YIPL/TAP_and_YIPL_Collection_CD.iso/PHREAK/BOXES/BOXREVW4.TXT

Text File | 1998-04-08 | 26KB | 569 lines

                               The Fixer
                                Presents

                             Colored Boxes
                             a 1998 Review

                              File 4 of 4
                Other Kinds of Boxes, Non-Phreak Boxes,
                           Jokes and Parodies



   .---------------------------------------------------------------.
   |                             Others                            |
   `---------------------------------------------------------------'

                         Blast Box and Loud Box
                         (Phone mic amplifier)

   The "Blast Box" and "Loud Box" are mouthpiece amplifiers.  The Blast
   Box is intended to make the called party's receiver so loud that it's
   more like a loudspeaker.  I was called by a few telemarketers using a
   device like this back in the early 1980's, so I know it existed once.
   Also, my local phone company once experimented with extremely loud
   "You left your phone off the hook, please hang up now" recordings.

   The Loud Box is the same thing, only less obnoxious - its function is
   simply to make your voice more audible to the other party on analog
   conference calls, long distance calls, and other times when your
   signal might otherwise come through poorly.

   These devices were invented back in the old days when a phone call
   created a direct analog connection between the caller and callee,
   giving almost unlimited dynamic range and thus happily passing
   extremely loud signals when desired.

   With today's digital switches, the voice is digitized, which limits
   not only the frequencies but the volume levels that can be passed
   through the phone system.  Below a certain level, the switch will
   pass no signal at all, and above, it will "clip".  "Normal" speech
   levels fall between the extremes.  On the upside, digital switching
   also eliminates a lot of the problems that would have made a
   legitimate mic amplifier desirable - today, long distance and
   conference calls are loud and clear.

   Plausibility: Largely real with a significant bullshit factor.  The
                 concept has been put to commercial use on an
                 experimental basis.
   Obsolescence: Nearly 100 percent obsolete now.
   Skill:        Not much.  You could likely use an off-the-shelf
                 amplifier to boost the mic signal.
   Risks:        You could only get in trouble if you damaged your line
                 or pissed off the wrong person.




                                  Busy Box
                      (Makes a line busy all the time)

   If you short a phone line, anyone who calls it will get a busy signal.
   This is a basic truth and is the only thing the Busy Box text file has
   to offer you.  It's yet another example of an adolescent effort to get
   recognition in the virtual underworld by writing a text file about
   *something*.

   Plausibility: Real but VERY pointless.  The busy condition will last only
                 as long as it takes to call repair service.
   Obsolescence: Still current.
   Skill:        Zero skill needed.
   Risks:        Only of being caught in the act.




                               Chartreuse Box
                   (Steals DC power from the phone line)

   The Chartreuse Box is another exercise in lameness.  It purports to give
   free electric power from the phone line, but the phone line's DC power
   can only supply a small current, above which you'll trip circuit
   breakers.  Never mind that as soon as the phone rings, whatever you
   happen to be powering will be fried.

   Plausibility: None at all.
   Obsolescence: N/A.
   Skill:        You need more skill than the textfile author, that's
                 certain.
   Risks:        You are certain to draw the phone company's attention with
                 this thing.




                                 Chrome Box
                          (Change traffic lights)

  This is not a phreak box.  It claims to be able to change traffic lights
  by emulating those flashing strobe lights you sometimes see on fire
  engines.  A lot of cities aren't using that system anymore, and I don't
  think that the timing needed is as critical as the textfile claims.

  There IS such a thing as a Chrome Box, however.  I once rode in a taxicab
  that used to be a police car, and the cabbie showed off a button under
  the dash that flashed the headlights.  INSTANTLY the lights at the
  intersection we were at changed.  If the sensor that changes the lights
  can be tripped by flashing headlights, then there's probably no need to
  build an elaborate box.

  Plausibility: Real but with a significant bullshit factor.
  Obsolescence: Increasing as the optical system is phased out.
  Skill:        Depending on how critical the system in your area is with
                respect to timing, this could be an easy headlight flasher
                or an elaborate hidden strobe lamp arrangement.
  Risks:        If you are spotted manipulating the traffic lights by
                police, you can count on being arrested and treated poorly.
                After all, you're stepping on their turf.  And, the device
                carries with it a risk of causing an accident, possibly
                involving you.




                                 Clear Box
                (defeats audio muting on postpay payphones)

   The Clear Box takes advantage of pay phones where you are supposed to
   dial first and pay when your party answers.  The phone mutes the
   mouthpiece until you put in the quarter (or whatever the call costs).
   However, the earpiece is still active, and while you are fishing in your
   pocket for that quarter, you can hear your called party going "Hello?
   Hello?".

   The Clear Box is basically an amplifier and an induction coil that
   lets you speak into a microphone, amplifies your voice, and feeds it
   into the coil, which then transfers the voice signal directly into
   the phone line by electromagnetic induction, bypassing the muted
   microphone.

   The *concept* is sound, but if you can even find the phone line
   itself, it is very well shielded with metal piping that will
   beautifully (and inconveniently) absorb any magnetic induction signal
   you try to impart through it.  And if you had easy enough access to the
   line to successfully do this, you would likely do better just to bud box
   your calls in the first place.

   A version of this file suggests putting the induction coil near the
   earpiece, and your voice would then enter the phone line that way,
   presumably by way of crosstalk.  The problem with this is that if you
   used a strong enough induction signal to be heard, you would also
   oscillate the earpiece's cone, resulting in loud feedback and the
   deafening sound of your own voice.  I don't think so.

   I strongly suspect that clear boxes really did exist, but the text
   files most of us see about them are based on conjecture and second
   hand reports.  Perhaps the original clear boxers found an
   electromagnetic weak spot in the phone or some point on the line
   where they could inject an electromagnetic signal.  Perhaps the
   mouthpiece cutoff relay was near the outside of the phone, in which
   case a strong magnet would have defeated it.

   Postpay phones have one more problem that the clear box files never
   mentioned.  Not all phone calls require you to speak.  On a postpay
   phone you can call up the local sports scores line or whatever and
   just listen - the phone might even let you use its keypad!  If you
   live near a postpay phone, try it some time.  Try local, long
   distance, even 900 numbers.  Try everything till you find a weakness,
   that's what real phone hackers do!

   Plausibility: Not terribly likely.  As I said, the concept is sound,
                 but I doubt the file authors actually did it.
   Obsolescence: Moderately high, increasing.  Postpay Phones were
                 widespread in Canada and the rural U.S. in the 1980s
                 but here in Canada they are disappearing.
   Skill:        Expert.  You'd have to build an amplifier and an
                 induction coil, and probe for the best EM weak spot on
                 the phone, an artful venture.
   Risks:        Low if there's no one around to see it, which is likely
                 in the kinds of out-of-the-way places these phones were
                 used in.  Any kind of payphone phreaking that involves
                 gadgets carries the risk that someone will see you
                 acting suspiciously.




                               Copper Box
       (Creates a loop in the long distance system, crashing it)

   This isn't a phreak box but it once may have worked.  Everything
   about this idea reeks of urban legend, so I'm giving it a low
   plausibility rating.

   Here's how it's supposed to have worked.  Call an 800 number with an
   extender.  From that, you get dialtone and call the same 800 number
   again.  Repeat a few dozen times until the toll network is filled up
   with your calls, and it crashes.

   I really don't think this could ever have worked simply because the
   toll free system as a whole will not run out of lines before the 800
   number you are using runs out of extenders.  It may even have only
   one!

   Plausibility: Very implausible.  You'd have to show me a newspaper
                 clipping or something before I'd believe it ever
                 happened.
   Obsolescence: Almost certainly, if it was ever done it happened
                 decades ago when the toll free network was far less
                 capacious than it is today.  As implausible as it was
                 back then, it is a virtual impossibility today.  The worst
                 you can do is tie up the extender owner's switchboard
                 temporarily.
   Skill:        You'd have needed an extender and to know how to use it.
   Risks:        If you did it from home and succeeded, you'd have some
                 very angry telco security dudes at your doorstep toot
                 suite.  Remember, 800 subscribers have ANI.




                                DNA Box
                          (Cellphone Hacking)

   The "DNA Box" is not a box.  A few years ago, a group called DNA
   released some cell hacking files and called the series "The DNA Box".
   Cellphone Hacking is a pretty big subject in itself, and with new
   technologies emerging, it's still a developing set of methods, and
   beyond the scope of this series.

   Plausibility: Quite.  DNA's files are pretty credible but quite basic.
   Obsolescence: The files are old.  A lot of the phones from those days
                 are no longer in service, none are still sold new
                 today.
   Skill:        Varies with technique.  Generally high.
   Risks:        Still low, for now.  Stay mobile and low profile to
                 stay free.




                                  Grab Box
                         (Radio Antenna Extension)

   The Grab Box is frequently found among phreak box files but it's not
   a box at all.  All it is is a long wire antenna for an AM radio.
   Everyone who owned a shortwave receiver back in radio's golden age
   knew that for long distance reception, longer is better when it comes
   to wire antennas.  And now, someone has come along and called the
   wire antenna a box.

   Plausibility: Nothing more than an ego trip.
   Obsolescence,
   Skill,
   Risks:        All N/A.




                                  Neon Box
                        (Direct Audio to phone line)

   The Neon Box text file is just instructions for how to connect an audio
   source, for example a sound card, directly to the phone line.  You risk
   frying your audio source if you do it, because most tape recorders/sound
   cards are not designed to cope with the 90 VAC ringing voltage on the
   line.

   Get an FCC Part 68 interface if you're serious about sending direct
   audio into the line from an arbitrary source.  Or hack up an old phone
   and use the mic line as your audio input.

   Plausibility: Perfectly plausible until someone phones you, then your
                 tape recorder starts smoking and stops working and the
                 whole idea fades into fantasy.
   Obsolescence: N/A
   Skill:        Very basic.
   Risks:        You're likely to wreck your equipment, and probably your
                 phone line.




                                 Phuck Box
       (Uses call forwarding to exploit overlapping toll free zones)

   This isn't really a box.

   Most areas have overlapping toll-free calling zones (A and C), where
   two areas that may be a long distance call between them have, in
   common, a geographical area that is not long distance to either point
   (B).

   So, (A) must pay LD to call (C) and (C) must pay LD to call (A) but
   (A) and (C) can both call (B) for free, and (B) can call (A) and (C)
   for free.  Sometimes there are one-way exceptions, check your local
   calling rate sheet.

   Anyway, if someone in (B) forwards their calls to someone in (C) then
   anyone in (A) could call (B) for free and get forwarded, toll free,
   to the person in (C).  This is the idea behind the Forwarding Phuck
   Box.

   BBS Operators have used this trick for years to allow more people to
   call them toll-free without the high cost of a regional 800 number,
   but the textfile authors suggest having Call Forwarding turned on for
   an unwitting mark and then beige boxing the mark's house to set the
   forwarding destination.  Only thing is, if you can spend the gas
   money to drive to (B) everytime you want to call (C) from (A), you'll
   probably find it cheaper just to pay Ma Bell for the call instead.

   I think a Gold Box would be a better solution, especially one
   installed in a business where the phone is never used after hours. As
   long as only local (to the box) calls are made, it should last a very
   long time.  You could do this at work, and call BBSes and ISPs
   downtown from the suburbs without having to pay for optional extended
   local service or LD!  And it's only when you start charging LD calls
   that eyebrows would get raised in Accounting.

   Plausibility: The BBS version of this is real, but I think the textfile
                 is full of shit.
   Obsolescence: Only works where the forwarding party pays for forwarded
                 toll calls and the forwarded does not pay for forwarded
                 toll calls.  This is the norm and is actually getting more
                 common, not less.
   Skill:        Very little skill involved.
   Risks:        If you do as the text file suggest, you're beige boxing
                 and therefore prowling and therefore at risk of being
                 seen.  Not good.




                                Scarlet Box
                       (Creates very bad connection)

   The Scarlet Box was written by someone who never tried it.  All it
   does is short out the victim's phone line, when its purpose is
   supposed to be to create line noise.  If you use a direct piece of
   wire the phone company will be around shortly to fix the problem as a
   dead short is very undesirable to them.  If you use a resistor the
   line will just stay open all the time.  Whoop-de-doo.

   Plausibility: None.
   Obsolescence: N/A
   Skill:        None to speak of required.
   Risks:        You still have to prowl around the victim's house to
                 install it.



                                  Snow Box
                  (micropower UHF television transmitter)

   The Snow Box is not a phreak box, it's a TV transmitter.  It belongs in
   the Pirate Radio file section of underground boards, and is only
   mentioned here because (a) it's called a Box, and (b) it appears so
   often among phreak boxes.

   Unless you are planning on doing your own version of the Razor and Blade
   show, and have been turned down by your cable community access channel,
   the Snow Box is of very little use to you as a phreak.

   Plausibility: 100% real, pirate TV is a well documented phenomenon.
   Obsolescence: Works wherever there are UHF TVs to receive your signal.
   Skill:        Successful pirate TV requires advanced skills.
   Risks:        Pirate TV and Radio stations are busted all the time.




                         Power Box and Tron Box
                              (Free Power)

   The Power Box is nothing more than stealing electric power by
   bypassing the meter.  The power company WILL notice this, if you
   don't kill yourself in the attempt.  Remember, the voltage through
   the meter is 220 volts, not 110.  It will kill you twice as dead.

   The Tron Box is a series of capacitors which supposedly slow the
   meter using the reactance of the box's circuit.  The claim is that
   the more power you use, the slower the meter will run.  If
   constructed and plugged in, in fact a Tron Box will explode.
   Literally - the capacitors are rated at 50 volts, your line is 120.
   And they are electrolytic, meaning polarized, meaning unsuitable for
   use in an A.C. circuit.  Ever see a big filter cap go foom?

   Plausibility: Zero.  Both were written by idiots who knew not what
                 they were talking about.  The Tron Box probably came
                 from The Anarchist Cookbook or some similar publication
                 which is widely suspected of being produced by the U.S.
                 Government with deliberate misinformation so that
                 would-be American neo-Revolutionaries kill themselves
                 in the attempt to overthrow The Man.  Certainly no one
                 in the boardroom of Con Ed would be upset at the news
                 of a college communist who electrocutes himself
                 frying... err... trying to get some free juice.
   Obsolescence: N/A.
   Skill:        The Man is counting on your lack of skill...
   Risks:        Electrocution, fire, arrest for attempted theft of
                 service.  On the upside, you risk being nominated for
                 the coveted Darwin award.




   .---------------------------------------------------------------.
   |                       Jokes and Parodies                      |
   `---------------------------------------------------------------'

                              Assassin Box
                      (Zap your enemies by phone)

   This is along the same general lines as the Spike Box, but with some
   adaptation might actually do something.  Unlike the Spike Box, this
   is connected directly to your victim's phone line.  The victim picks
   up the phone and gets electrocuted.  The plans given in text files
   tell you to connect a battery but the problem is that phone lines
   actually operate on a higher voltage than the battery they prescribe.
   Now, if you changed this to a power source that kicked out a few
   dozen kilovolts, you'd have something useful.

   Plausibility: None to speak of.
   Obsolescence: N/A.
   Skill:        You need better electrical skills than the guy who
                 wrote the text file, that's for sure.
   Risks:        You have to prowl around outside your victim's house
                 for a prolonged period, your chances of not being
                 caught aren't good.




                        Blotto Box and Spike Box
      (A bad joke that went too far, supposed to shut down an area
                         code with overvoltage)

   It amazes me that even today, from time to time, someone still posts a
   serious question as to whether the Blotto Box works.  This started out
   as a parody years ago, and has been worked into serious textfiles by
   several writers who mostly just want to "see their name in lights".

   The Blotto Box purports to cause such grievous damage to the phone
   company that an entire area code would be taken out.  This is done by
   sending high voltage down the line.

   There are lots of things wrong with this, not the least of which is
   that the outside plant (i.e. all that copper overhead) is riddled
   with circuit breakers, fuses, gas discharge devices, etcetera.  And
   this makes sense, because if a 220 volt Honda generator could bring
   an area code to its knees as the Blotto Boxers claim, then the first
   lightning strike would destroy the whole system.

   Second, the file suggests using a Honda portable generator.  Depending
   on the model you'll either get 110 volts or 220, which you can get from
   household outlets anyway.  Why waste the money to rent a generator?

   And it amazes me that the authors never thought of instead hooking up a
   Tesla coil, which typically would be over 100 kilovolts - and due to its
   high frequency, might actually jump a blown breaker and cause damage a
   little further down the line than your local loop!  HellO!!!  The
   kicker is, someone else did think of this.  They called it the "Spike
   Box".  The claim there is that you can electrocute a dialled victim,
   burn their house down by phone, etc.  Suuuuuure.

   If you want to get the phone company's attention, a parcel full of
   manure sent to their security department would be more effective than
   blowing out one subscriber loop.

   Plausibility: Zero.  Just writing this was a waste of my time.
   Obsolescence: N/A - it never worked anyway.
   Skill:        Duh, two jumper wires, it's too compelcated fur me, George.
   Risks:        You'll just get in shit for nothing.




                                 Mauve Box
                              (No-contact tap)

   Let me start by saying that the Mauve Box is pure unfiltered bullshit.
   It claims to be able to tap distant phone lines by using a "magnetic
   field" which you generate by running your phone line through a bucket of
   mixed soil and iron filings.  No way is given as to how to direct it to
   tap a particular line.

   Anyone who's taken Grade 7 science knows the Mauve Box is a joke file,
   and I think a lot of people who would have flunked elementary school
   would also hold a pretty big suspicion about it.  It's that obvious.

   Plausibility: Zero.  The file tries really hard to make itself look
                 plausible but the total disregard for scientific reality
                 gives it away anyway.
   Obsolescence: N/A
   Skill:        You'd have to have a skill level below zero and an IQ to
                 match to think of following the Mauve Box instructions.
   Risks:        You might hurt your back shoveling the soil, otherwise
                 none.




                              Paisley Box
        (Bad joke, supposed to sieze a TSPS operator's console)

   The "Paisley Box" is just a parody file.  Its file description on
   BBSes implied that you could sieze a TSPS operator's console, but
   what you actually get is a file which will get you drunk and
   electrocuted (and it says so).

   This parody is mentioned only because even to this day, the Paisley
   Box is still described in file lists everywhere as a serious phreak
   box.

   Plausibility: None.  It was a joke.  Enough already!
   Obsolescence: N/A.
   Skill:        How much skill does it take to drink a keg of beer?
   Risks:        Electrocution, alcohol poisoning.




                              Rainbow Box
                      (Destroy enemy's phone line)

  This is another joke file.  It's supposed to take out your enemy's
  phone line and everything around it by simply plugging 120 Volts AC
  into it.  In fact, the *worst* that can happen is you'll set off a
  circuit breaker.

  Plausibility: None.  The file acutually says you have to have an IQ of
                2 or less to use it.
  Obsolescence: N/A.
  Skill:        Almost none.
  Risks:        Electrocution.




                                 Urine Box
                        (Kill/Maim Enemies by phone)

   The text file for this box starts off seeming pretty normal, until you
   get to the part where it tells you what it does.  That's where the file
   takes a sharp left turn into the Horseshit Zone.

   It claims to create a "capacitive disturbance" in the victim's phone
   line.  By remote, from your line.  Turn up the "disturbance" enough and
   you can melt the victim's phone or make his body explode.

   Probably the most glaring error with this is that even if this were
   possible, the same conditions would have to exist on your line too,
   meaning you'd be lying there dead and/or gibbed while your intended
   victim is still going "Hello?  Hello?".

   But even that isn't going to happen.  The Urine Box is just another
   adolescent grab at notoriety and nothing else.

   Plausibility: None whatsoever.
   Obsolescence: N/A.
   Skills:       Irrelevant.
   Risks:        If you're dumb enough to believe it works, you will
                 probably screw up the construction and damage your phone
                 line.