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-
- The UK Phreaks and Hackers Usenet News Group
-
- alt.ph.uk FAQ
- Version 0.5e (08/09/96)
-
- (Note: This is an unfinished Beta version, please treat it as such. I welcome
- *any* contributions to this FAQ to the address below. - Cheers, J.)
-
- -= phuk@madrab.demon.co.uk =-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Section 1 Introduction
- 1.1 About alt.ph.uk
- 1.1.1 What should and shouldn't be discussed?
- 1.1.2 Who reads alt.ph.uk?
- 1.2 Anonymous Remailers/PGP
- 1.3 Acknowledgements
- 1.4 New this revision
- 1.5 Where to get copies of this FAQ
-
- Section 2 Phreaking
- 2.1 Boxing
- 2.1.1 Which boxes work in the UK?
- 2.1.2 What are the UK DTMF tones?
- 2.1.3 What are the UK Red Box tones?
- 2.2 War-Dialling
- 2.3 Loops
- 2.4 How are 0800/0500 numbers used?
- 2.4.1 What are the 0800 89xxxx numbers for?
- 2.5 What is voicemail and what can I do with it?
- 2.6 Are there any UK CNA numbers?
- 2.7 Are there any UK numbers that always ring busy?
- 2.8 What is caller ID and what can I do with it?
- 2.9 Are there any 'interesting' operator/test numbers?
- 2.10 What is PBXing?
- 2.10.1 I am on a cable phone, can I get busted for PBXing?
- 2.10.2 Can I get busted for using international PBXs (ie. outside
- the UK)?
- 2.10.3 Intent to Pay
- 2.10.4 I dial through one PBX to another before I use it, so am I
- safe?
- 2.11 How do UK phone cards work?
-
- Section 3 Hacking
- 3.1 About UNIX hacking
- 3.1.1 How do I crack UNIX passwords ?
- 3.2 About VMS cracking
- 3.3 About PC cracking
- 3.3.1 How do I crack bios passwords ?
- 3.3.2 How can I crack the windows screen saver password ?
- 3.4 Where can I find out about hacking other systems ?
- 3.5 About Hacking TCP/IP
- 3.5.1 How do I do TCP/IP spoofing/packet seq prediction ?
- 3.6 About Novell Hacking
- 3.7 What is JANET?
- 3.8 I don't have a POP in my local area!
- 3.9 Are there any internet outdials in the UK ?
-
- Section 4 Misc
- 4.1 What does xxxx stand for ?
- 4.2 What is and isn't illegal ?
- 4.3 What should I do to avoid getting caught ?
- 4.4 Where can I meet other hackers / phreaks ?
- 4.5 What all this Kewl d00dz and 3l33t business ?
- 4.6 Where can I get warez ?
- 4.7 Are there any 'famous' UK Hackers/phreaks ?
- 4.8 What about hacking cable/satellite TV?
- 4.8.1 How do I build a cable TV descrambler?
- 4.8.2 So how do I decode the channels?
- 4.9 Who are British Telecom Security?
- 4.10 How do I find out my phone bill before it comes?
-
- Section 5 Resources
- 5.1 On the Internet
- 5.1.1 Newsgroups
- 5.1.2 Web Pages
- 5.1.3 FTP
- 5.1.4 Mailing Lists
- 5.1.5 Mags-EZines
- 5.2 In Print
- 5.2.1 Magazines
- 5.2.2 Books
- 5.3 Phone Numbers
-
- Section 6 Questions I would like answered in the next version of
- this FAQ - help!
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Disclaimer & Legal Status of this document and its authors
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- It is not the intention of this FAQ or its authors to encourage people
- to break the law. If you hack or phreak, you may get caught and you
- could get fined or jailed. The author and contributors of this faq don't
- endorse or encourage the use of any of the information in this document.
-
- This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranties.
-
- While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
- information contained in this article, the author and it contributors
- assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages
- resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
-
- I disclaim everything I can. The contents of this article might be
- totally inaccurate, inappropriate, misguided, or otherwise perverse.
- Much of this FAQ is based on the personal views of its contributors.
-
- Copyright (c) 1996 by Glenn Pegden and Joel Rowbottom, all rights reserved.
-
- This FAQ may be posted to any USENET newsgroup, on-line service, or BBS
- as long as it is posted in its entirety and includes this copyright
- statement.
- This FAQ may not be distributed for financial gain.
- This FAQ may not be included in commercial collections or compilations
- without express permission from the author. If you find it on any such
- collection please mail phuk@madrab.demon.co.uk telling us where you
- saw it.
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section 1 - Introduction
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- 1.1 About alt.ph.uk
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- alt.ph.uk was originally formed to discuss issues relating to phone
- phreaking, hacking (and other related 'underground' activities) in the
- UK, given that the traditional hackers newsgroup alt.2600 had
- degenerated to such an extent as to be virtually useless and very US
- dominated. It was given birth on Thursday 26th January 1995, at 1:45am
- by 2600@otaku.demon.co.uk.
-
- PH is formed from the initial letters of -P-hreak and -H-ack.
-
- This FAQ is intended to reduce the bandwidth taken up with people asking
- the same questions over and over again. It is intended to complement
- other FAQs (eg. alt.2600, uk.telecom) and not replicate them.
-
- If anyone tries to ban it, it is obviously a group for the discussion of
- alternative philosophy in the UK.
-
-
- 1.1.1 What should and shouldn't be discussed in this group?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- This group is primarily used to discuss the technical matters
- surrounding hacking and phreaking in the UK and closely related topics.
- This includes the UK phone system, hacking UK systems, issues relating
- to the UK underground etc, the main thing to remember is this is a UK
- group. Things to be avoided are those that can be dealt with better in
- other groups (especially the kind of questions that alt.2600 is plagued
- with such as sending fakemail/news, out of date boxes, IRC scripts, and
- 'where do I get kewl warez').
-
- Check the newsgroups listed in section 5 of this faq for closely related
- newsgroups which may be more appropriate. Always try find the answer
- yourself first (see the list of references at the end of this FAQ),
- mentioning where you have looked for info often helps too.
-
- Other things to avoid to save you getting flamed are questions such as,
- How do I get free phone calls, Can I have a list of underground BBSs,
- How do I get an address for a phone number, How do I re-chip my mobile,
- how do I get root on a Unix box and other such lame questions. Try to
- avoid posting anything too juicy that would damage the community too
- much (If you've got hold of such info, then you'll probably know where
- to distribute it).
-
- The contributors to this FAQ are not omnipotent, we are capable of being
- wrong. Please tell us if we are.
-
- Newbies please take note, people in this group aren't generally receptive
- to private mail asking questions like 'How can I get free calls, re-chip
- my moby, or hack my Uni's Unix boxes' Don't waste your time or theirs; go
- and try to find out yourself then ask for help, not the other way round.
-
-
- 1.1.2 Who reads alt.ph.uk?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- It is beyond the scope of this document (as well as being downright unfair)
- to name names in this document, but it is well known that aside from being
- read by phreaks, hackers, etc. the newsgroup is also read (and has been
- written to) by such people as BT Security as well as journalists and many
- sysadmins.
-
- Generally it is to be presumed that the group is read by people who are
- actively involved in prosecuting hackers and phreaks, and thus if you *are*
- going to post sensitive information, it's a good idea to use an anonymous
- remailer if you're going to post the information at all (see the next
- section, 1.2).
-
-
- 1.2 Anonymous Remailers and PGP in newsgroups and mailings
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- As mentioned in the previous section, there's a lot of people out there
- who want to give phreakers and hackers a hard time. To make their life
- that little bit harder, some people prefer to be 'anonymous' on the news-
- groups and maillists.
-
- 1.2.1 Anonymous eMail
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Remailers:
- Contrary to the popular belief, there are stacks of anonymous remailers
- out there.
-
- Remailers work by taking incoming messages from you, stripping off the
- headers and sending them on, although this is good enough for most of the
- time, the truly paranoid tend to string several remailers together to avoid
- the possibility of traffic analysis giving away their identity. Other
- options include PGP [see section 1.2.2] relay, random delays, random message
- size alteration, and so on.
-
- More info can be found from:
- http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-list.html
- (List of reliable remailers)
- http://www.c2.org/~raph/premail.html
- (info on Premail privacy tool)
- http://www.c2.org/anon.phtml
- (info on setting up alpha.c2.org pseudoanonymous account)
- http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm
- (info on Private Idaho privacy tool)
-
-
-
- 1.2.2 Anoymous Newsgroup Posting
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- There are a few ways of doing it properly, and thousands of ways of
- doing it wrongly.
-
- The Right way:
- Anonymous remailer -> Newsgroup
- At time of writing, three anonymous remailers support posting to
- newsgroups. For a current list, finger remailer-list@kiwi.cs.berkley.edu
- and look for the entries with 'post' beside them.
-
- Anonymous remailer -> Mail2News gateway
- Any one of the high quality remailers can be used to send mail to
- a mail2news gateway. There are a large number of these gateways,
- finding them is left as an exercise to the reader. (or to put it
- another way, I can't be bothered making a list!).
-
- Fake Mail -> Mail2News gateway
- Possible, but too much hassle for most, remember to test how 'fake'
- your mail is first by sending a message to yourself.
-
- The Wrong way:
- There are stacks, heres a few.
- Changing your 'From: ' field in your news reader.
- Changing all the 'Identity' details in Netscape.
- Making a post through the IHAVE protocol using a news host that adds
- the 'NNTP-Posting-Host: ' header line (almost all)
- And so on...
-
- If you want to remain anonymous, make the effort, or suffer the ridicule of
- your peers.
-
-
- 1.2.3 Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The whole PGP concept it too large to discuss in this document, so
- heres a short summary from the docs that come with it.
-
- "PGP (pretty good privacy) is a public key encryption package to
- protect email and datafiles. It lets you communicate securely with
- people you've never met, with no secure channels needed for prior
- exchange of keys. It's well featured and fast, with sophisticated
- key management, digital signatures, data compression, and ergonomic
- design."
-
- The latest versions of PGP are usually available by ftp from
- ftp.ox.ac.uk in /pub/crypto/pgp. Most internet service providers
- carry precompiled versions for various platforms on their ftp servers also.
-
- For more info read:
- alt.security.pgp* and sci.crypt on Usenet
- http://www.mit.edu/people/warlord/pgp-faq.html on the Web
-
-
- 1.3 Acknowledgements
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- So far, most of the info in the file has been cribbed from the FAQs for
- the newsgroups listed at the end, and from postings to various
- newsgroups. Additional stuff was added by ColdFire, Slam-Tilt, Daemian,
- Micah, Per1com/Xer0, Arny, jrg, john@wine-gum.demon, Iain@kechb.demon,
- shin@dios.demon, V0mit, and gus@bmsysltd.
-
-
- 1.4 New this revision (0.5d)
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Maintainence taken over by Joel Rowbottom, phuk@madrab.demon.co.uk, as of
- 1/8/1996. I'll do it properly when I get a spare couple of hours ;-)
- - Updated section 1.2 to remove anon.penet.fi.
- - Updated sections 4.7, 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 6
- - Added section 2.11
-
-
- 1.5 Where to get copies of this FAQ
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- This FAQ is posted every 21 days to the newsgroup alt.ph.uk. It may also be
- retrieved from the Madrab mail server by sending a message to:
- phukfaq@madrab.demon.co.uk
- This address is an autoresponder and you should receive the FAQ within a
- short while. Don't email phuk@madrab.demon.co.uk with requests, they will
- be ignored.
-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section 2 - Phreaks & Phreaking
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- 2.0 Phreaking
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Phreaks are people who enjoy learning about the phone system,
- especially the technical details, and the unpublished details that phone
- companies would rather we didn't know about. Phreaks are also
- interested in the workings of the phone company, and trying find ways
- around the system, often the billing and accounting procedures.
-
- A major part of Phreaking is attempting to obtain phone calls for free
- or below the rate at which the phone company would like to charge. The
- alt.ph.uk news group is not here to teach people how to defraud phone
- companies though, and most of the discussion is likely to be of purely
- technical interest.
-
-
- 2.1.0 Boxing
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Phreaks may also be interested in 'boxes', there are many types of boxes
- which have varying degrees of success, boxes are usually categorised by
- colour and offer a variety of facilities from seizing operator control
- of the line, and hence calling for free (Blue Box) and stopping calling
- party being billed (Black Box) to a charging ni-cads with your phone
- (Chartreuse Box), also various other add-ons such as amps, hold buttons,
- in-use lights etc.
-
-
- 2.1.1 Which boxes work in UK?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- This list of boxes stolen from the alt.2600 FAQ and converted for the uk
- (this is just an 'educated' guess of what will or will not work in the
- uk, this is only in *theory* and any which I say will work will probably
- need a lot of modification to work, that's if you can find a schematic
- thats half way readable :) )
-
- Acrylic Steal Three-Way-Calling, Call Waiting and programmable
- Call Forwarding on old 4-wire phone systems NO!
- Aqua Drain the voltage of the FBI lock-in-trace/trap-trace NO!
- Beige Linemans handset YES
- Black Allow callers to dial in for free NO
- Blast Phone microphone amplifier YES
- Blotto Supposedly shorts every fone out in the immediate area JOKE
- Blue Take operator control of a line (phone for free) NO
- Brown Create a party line from 2 phone lines YES
- Bud Tap into your neighbors phone line YES
- Chartreuse Use the electricity from your phone line YES
- Cheese Connect two phones to create a diverter YES
- Chrome Alter traffic lights NO
- Clear A telephone pickup coil and a small amp used to make free NO!
- calls on Fortress Phones
- Color Line activated telephone recorder YES
- Copper Cause crosstalk interference on an extender ???
- Crimson Hold button YES
- Dark Re-route outgoing or incoming calls to another phone NO!
- Dayglo Connect to your neighbors phone line YES
- Divertor Re-route outgoing or incoming calls to another phone NO!
- DLOC Create a party line from 2 phone lines YES
- Gold Dialout router ???
- Green Emulate the Coin Collect, Coin Return, and Ringback tones NO!
- Infinity Remotely activated phone tap YES
- Jack Touch-Tone key pad YES
- Light In-use light YES
- Lunch AM transmitter YES
- Magenta Connect a remote phone line to another remote phone line NO!
- Mauve Phone tap without cutting into a line ???
- Neon External microphone YES
- Noise Create line noise YES
- Olive External ringer YES
- Party Create a party line from 2 phone lines YES
- Pearl Tone generator YES
- Pink Create a party line from 2 phone lines YES
- Purple Telephone hold button YES
- Rainbow Kill a trace by putting 120v into the phone line (joke) JOKE
- Razz Tap into your neighbors phone YES
- Red Free calls from payphones YES
- Rock Add music to your phone line YES
- Scarlet Cause a neighbors phone line to have poor reception YES
- Static Keep the voltage on a phone line high YES
- Switch Add hold, indicator lights, conferencing, etc.. ???
- Tan Line activated telephone recorder YES
- Tron Reverse the phase of power to your house, causing
- your electric meter to run slower ???
- TV Cable "See" sound waves on your TV ???
- Urine Create a capacitative disturbance between the ring and
- tip wires in another's telephone headset ???
- Violet Keep a payphone from hanging up NO!
- White Portable DTMF keypad YES
- Yellow Add an extension phone YES
-
- Any of the above the generate tones will have to be modified (see below).
-
- Box schematics may be retrieved from these FTP sites:
- ftp.netcom.com /pub/br/bradleym
- ftp.netcom.com /pub/va/vandal
- ftp.winternet.com /users/nitehwk
-
-
- 2.1.2 What are the UK DTMF tones?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- 1209Hz 1336Hz 1477Hz 1633Hz
- 697Hz 1 2 3 A
- 770Hz 4 5 6 B
- 852Hz 7 8 9 C
- 941Hz * 0 # D
-
- (See the comp.dcom.telecom FAQ for an explanation of the ABCD tones)
-
- 2.1.3 What are the UK Red Box tones?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- [ Note: I have not tried these, they are rumoured to work - anyone got them
- to work OK? - J. ]
-
- 10p Length 200 milliseconds, Frequency 1000Hz.
- 20p 2 * The Above.
- 50p Length 350 milliseconds, Frequency 1000Hz.
- 1ukp 2 * The Above.
-
- Note that it is a 1000hz tone alone, and not dual tones etc. Also, for it to
- work, you must get the operator to connect your call. When told to insert the
- money, send your tones.
-
-
- 2.2 War-Dialling
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- War-Dialling (aka scanning) is the practise of repetitively dialling
- phone numbers, to find out what is on the other end. These are mainly
- voices, although sometimes you may find trunks, carriers (modems), VMBs,
- FAXs, and other strange stuff. 'Tone-Loc' is a highly acclaimed package
- to aid scanning. Normally you scan a block of numbers (the most common
- scans are of 0800 / 0500 because they're free) and keep a log of
- anything interesting you find for later attention. Scanning may be
- illegal under the Computer Misuse Act [see Section 4.2].
-
-
- 2.3 Loops
- ~~~~~~~~~
- See the alt.2600 FAQ for an explanation of what loops are and how the
- can be used. There are virtually no known loops in the UK, mainly
- because if the do exist, no-one scans for them (because unlike the US,
- BT don't offer free local calls, so scanning is limited to 0800/0500
- numbers).
-
-
- 2.4 How are 0800/0500 numbers used?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- You pickup the phone, dial the number, and wait for them to answer :-).
- Other than that they're used in blue boxing, using calling cards,
- finding modems and voicemail/PBX abuse. The reason the get a lot of
- attention from phreaks is they are FREE!
-
-
- 2.4.1 What are the 0800 89xxxx numbers for?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- They are direct overseas lines (known as country direct numbers), most
- will ask you for pin numbers. BTs originally lumped all it direct
- overseas lines in this area, but it has now realised this wasn't such a
- good idea and is distributing them more evenly
-
- Mercury's country direct numbers are evenly distributed through out the
- 0500 xxxxxx range.
-
- Country direct numbers are numbers which forwards calls to a regular
- number in the remote country. I believe these numbers are arranged with
- your local Telco, who rent a number of 0800/0500 lines from BT/Mercury
- and pay BT/Mercury for incoming calls over them. The remote telco then
- resells these numbers to company's requiring a toll-free number from the
- UK. You are not charged for the call, the company you reach is paying
- for the call, as with all 0800/0500 numbers.
-
-
- 2.5 What is Voicemail (vmb) and what can I do with it?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- VMB (Voice Mail Boxes) are used by company to help manage internal phone
- systems. They offer a range of services from personal answer phones to
- internal routing of calls. One facility often abused is the ability to
- get an outside line.
-
- Try reading ColdFire's guide to Meridian Mail, the address of his web
- page can be found in section 5. Details of other VMBs are around, but I'm
- not sure where to find them on the net.
-
-
- 2.6 Are there UK CNA Numbers?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- CNA stands for customer name and addresses. A CNA number is a phone
- number for telephone company personnel to call and get the name and
- address for a phone line BT do have their own internal service, but
- AFAIK there are none available to the public (unlike the US).
-
-
- 2.7 Are there any UK numbers that always ring busy / never answer?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- [ More info on this would be appreciated ]
-
-
- 2.8 What is Caller-ID and what can I do with it?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- On modern exchanges BT sends the phone number of the number that called
- you (when possible), just before the first ring. BT will sell you a
- device to read these (approx 50quid at time of writing). Home-brew (obviously
- non BT Approved) are around. You *may* also have to pay BT for the recieving
- the data. Caller-ID modems are now also available which will transmit the
- data packet to a serial port of a computer.
-
- You can block the sending of your phone number you are dialling by
- prefixing it with 141. Your also have the number of the last person who
- called (from a phone that supplies caller ID) by dialing 1471 (on some
- exchanges this number can be automatically redialled by dialling 1474).
-
-
- 2.9 Are there any 'interesting' operator/test numbers?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The following is from a list posted to alt.ph.uk a while back. If any have
- changed then please let me know (and any new ones too!). I admit that the
- term 'interesting' is used *very* vaguely here ;-)
-
- The numbers are:-
- 100 - Operator Assistance
- 112 - Emergency services (Euro standard number)
- 1170 - Sprint DMS100 test message
- 123 - Speaking clock (at the third stroke...)
- 131 - Mercury (Test pin - 1234567)
- 132 - Mercury
- 133 - Mercury Calling Card
- 141 - Withold Number.
- 144 - BT Charge card.
- 1470 - Release CLI
- 1471 - Number of last person who called
- 1474 - Access Withdrawn (Formerly callback)
- 150 - BT customer service (What customer service ? :)
- 151 - BT Faults (Home)
- 152 - BT Customer Enquiries
- 153 - International Directory Enquiries
- 154 - BT faults (Business)
- 155 - International Operator (Con em into dialing inwards :)
- 1571 - Call minder (Urghhh..)
- 1619 - Energis Card Service (Voice recognition)
- 1620 - Energis
- 1621 - Energis
- 1630 - NSS Metrocall (0800 376 7766)
- 1631 - NSS Metrocall
- 1639 - NSS metrocall
- 1656 - Telia
- 1660 - Worldcom (0500 20 3000)
- 1661 - Worldcom
- 1666 - Worldcom
- 1670 - Sprint
- 1678 - Sprint
- 17070 - ANI Test Number - Press 1 for >Ringback and hang up
- 17099 - Emergency services back door
- 175 - On updated exchanges will timeout for 190 seconds
- 176 - Line status Dial area code + Number (Works only on local exchange)
- 1810 - Telstra.
- 1812 - Telstra.
- 190 - BT Telegrams (Changed to 0800 190190)
- 192 - Directory Enquiries
- 195 - Directory Enquiries (for the blind)
- 198 - Operator Assistance (for the blind)
-
- The following are ones which are still seeking descriptions:
- 1431 1601 1602 1611 1616 1636 1637
- 17094 17095 1811
-
- Of course, the best way to find your own is to scan for them using ToneLoc
- or a similar utility... or of course using a payphone and your fingers!
-
-
- 2.10 What is PBXing?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- PBX stands for Private Branch eXchange and is the term used to describe
- in-office telephone systems (eg. Meridian). You mustn't get PBX confused with
- VMB (although one can involve the other).
-
- A good dose of paranoia is always healthy when using such systems. If you do
- insist on using a PBX, diverting is better than nothing, and when you connect
- wait a few minutes before placing an outgoing call.
-
- Henceforth follow some common misconceptions about PBXing:
-
- 2.10.1 I am on a cable phone, can I get busted for PBXing?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Yes! Cable companies have to co-operate under the law. Some cable companies
- actually have stricter policies than BT themselves.
-
- 2.10.2 Can I get busted for using international PBXs (ie. outside the UK)?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Yes! Prosecution is a different matter though. But people have got in trouble
- for using 89/96x PBX's etc. in other countries.
-
- 2.10.3 Intent to Pay
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- If I'm not in England (ie. Scotland/N.Ireland) therefore am I not covered by
- the 'fraudulent abstraction of electricity' and 'computer misuse' laws? I
- heard they have to prove 'intent not to pay?'
- WRONG! In fact, in these cases it might be worse, as they might choose to
- charge you under general fraud laws.
-
- 2.10.4 I dial through one PBX to another before I use it, so I am safe?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- No. Whilst it's much better than 'dialing direct' BT can trace things on
- their own network fairly easily. Things just take more time. If they trace
- you, they will put a monologue on your line.. It then doesnt matter how many
- things you dial through, as they'll have every DTMF you dial!
-
-
- 2.11 How do UK Phone cards work?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By now Mercury has probably phased out all their old Payphones which used
- magnetic stripe cards.
- Some of their street sites have been taken over by the Italian company Inter
- Phone
- who have reverted to coin operations.
-
- The Green BT cards use an optical system. The apparently black plastic is
- translucent in the infrared - hold a card up to a 60watt light bulb and you will
- see
- the purple stripes either side of the charge band on the printed side.
-
- The mechanism , by Landis & Gyr shines an infrared laser onto the underside
- ("black") side of the card. The charging strip has a diffraction grating pattern
- moulded into it
- which back scatters the light to a detector set at a certain angle. The
- angle is different for each Telecom operator. Once the call units have been used
- up
- a heating element melts the plastic on the printed surface sufficiently to leave
- a visible
- mark and enough to destroy the diffraction pattern at that point. The mechanism
- then
- makes a verifying read to check that this has worked and will not physically
- release
- the card until then. Any ideas about nail varnish etc making any difference are
- fiction.
-
- Simple, cheap, and hackproof so therefore the telecoms companies are rushing
- away to
- use smart cards instead !
-
- The new BT smart cards have both an expiry date and a serial number, with
- presumably
- some sort of anti-fraud database lookup. Therefore, in principle, there is
- an audit trail of all the calls made using a particular card - will all
- bomb hoaxers, drug dealers and obscene callers remember not to use the same card
- to
- call home as well ?
-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section 3 - Hacking
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- 3.0 Hacking
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- In the sections below I frequently use the terms hackers and cracker,
- the actual meaning of the words will always be debated, but here is how
- I am using them. A Cracker is someone who breaks passwords, often
- without the need for a great deal of knowledge of the systems they are
- breaking into, just a few tools and techniques. A hacker on the other
- hand will take a great deal of time to learn about the system (s)he is
- hacking. A hacker will read all the manuals and documentation possible
- and newsgroups such as comp.security.misc.
-
- To learn about cracking read alt.2600 and sit on various irc channels,
- to learn about hacking RTFM, read everything you can get your hands on,
- have a desire to understand the machine you are hacking.
-
-
- 3.1 About UNIX hacking
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Unix is a fully multi-tasking multi-user operating system written in
- C; one of its strengths being its ability to network. There are versions of
- Unix for most systems from DEC AXPs to 386 PCs. A very large proportion
- of the hosts on the internet are running UNIX or Linux (the public-domain
- flavour of Unix).
-
- The net is full of unix security info, but a good starting point is
- Arny's UNIX hacking page (see section 5).
-
-
- 3.1.1 How do I crack UNIX passwords?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- On some systems /etc/passwd contains and encrypted copy of your passwd
- Cracking programs (Alex Muffits 'crack' for UNIX, and CrackerJack for
- OS/2 and DOS are just two) try to *guess passwords by encrypting each
- word in a dictionary and comparing each encrypted word against each
- entry into /etc/passwd
-
- On other systems /etc/passwd doesn't store the password. It can be
- stored in a shadow file (that is not normally readable to normal users).
- To obtain the (encrypted) passwords you have to have a special program
- to read it. The source for a program to do this is obtainable from the
- alt.2600 FAQ.
-
- A third method is to use NIS (which again may or may not be shadowed).
- This may be readable by using the ypcat command. Again, see the alt.2600
- FAQ again.
-
-
- 3.2 About VMS cracking
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Compared to UNIX, very little has been written about VMS security
- (security via obscurity ?). The password file is in
- sys$system:sysuaf.dat, but isn't normally readable to users. There are a
- couple of vms crack programs around if you can get you hands on sysuaf.dat
-
-
- 3.3 About PC cracking
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- PCs running single users OS's aren't normally passworded, the most
- common passwords are bios passwords. Sometime systems will run some
- software when they booted these can sometimes be halted (Under MSDOS try
- ctrl-C, also F5/F8 on DOS 6 onwards). Other things to look for are
- options to run software packages that often have a 'shell' option. Also
- try booting from a floppy and manually mounting remote disks.
-
-
- 3.3.1 How do I crack BIOS passwords?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- This depends on what BIOS the machine has. Common BIOS's include AMI,
- Award, IBM and Phoenix. Numerous other BIOS's do exist, but these are
- the most common.
-
- Some BIOS's allow you to require a password be entered before the system
- will boot. Some BIOS's allow you to require a password to be entered
- before the BIOS setup may be accessed.
-
- Every BIOS must store this password information somewhere. If you are
- able to access the machine after it has been booted successfully, you
- may be able to view the password. You must know the memory address
- where the password is stored, and the format in which the password is
- stored. Or, you must have a program that knows these things.
-
- The most common BIOS password attack programs are for Ami BIOS. Some
- password attack programs will return the AMI BIOS password in plain
- text, some will return it in ASCII codes, some will return it in scan
- codes. This appears to be dependent not just on the password attacker,
- but also on the version of Ami BIOS.
-
- To obtain Ami BIOS password attackers, ftp to oak.oakland.edu
- /simtel/msdos/sysutil/.
-
- If you cannot access the machine after if has been powered up, it is
- still possible to get past the password. The password is stored in CMOS
- memory that is maintained while the PC is powered off by a small
- battery, which is attached to the motherboard. If you remove this
- battery, all CMOS information will be lost. You will need to re-enter
- the correct CMOS setup information to use the machine. The machines
- owner or user will most likely be alarmed when it is discovered that the
- BIOS password has been deleted.
-
-
- 3.3.2 How can I crack the windows screen saver password?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- [ I haven't had chance to check either of these
- Can someone please confirm / disprove them please ]
-
- To remove the password all together (presuming it hasn't locked already)
- edit control.ini, edit the line that says PWProtected=1 to =0 and in the
- [ScreenSaver] section, where it says Password=12345 (where 12345 is the
- encrypted password) change it to Password=
- Now when prompted for a password just press return
-
- If it is active, drag the window prompting you for the password around with the
- mouse (making the active window). Then press ctrl-alt-del (having 3 hands would
- be a help :). This should then give you the option to quit active application.
-
- [ You may have to put something in control.ini to enable this ? - Info
- anyone ]
-
-
- 3.4 Where can I find out about hacking other systems?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The alt.2600 FAQ is a good place to start looking. As are the comp.security
- newsgroups.
-
-
- 3.5.0 About Hacking TCP/IP
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- TCP/IP is the protocol used for hosts to communicate on the internet,
- understanding TCP/IP is often as useful (if not more useful) than understanding
- the individual operating systems
-
-
- 3.5.1 How do I do TCP/IP spoofing/packet sequence prediction?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Learn low level TCP/IP. Basically with IP you can pretend to be
- any machine you want to be, i.e. you dont *have* to put your own IP
- address as the 'source address' in the datagrams (or packets) that you
- send out. Unfortunately though, any reply to your faked packets will
- normally go to the real machine, which kinda makes it difficult to use
- TCP since TCP envolves a two way flow of IP datagrams both to and from
- your machine. However you can to some extent get round this by guessing
- some of the contents (ie. the sequence numbers) of the lost datagrams
- that were sent to the real machine.
-
- If anyone has had any success with this, plaese tell us :)
-
-
- 3.7 About Novell Hacking
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- (Glenn writes...)
- "I know next to nothing about Novell hacking, other than the passwords file is
- stored in the bindery and older versions of Novell had a system call called
- VerifyBindaryObjectPassword that when given an account and password wouth say if
- they matched. This was very useful for knocking up quick Novell versions of
- Crack. I believe also something clever can be done when you run Netware Lite
- over the top of normal Netware."
-
- I'll write something when I get chance to confirm some things, but if anyone
- has anything to add here please get in touch!
-
-
- 3.6 What is JANET?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Janet is the UK academic backbone, it was once an X25 network that was only
- connected to the internet via a few (over worked and oftern hacked) gateways,
- but now SuperJanet is a genuine internet backbone. JANET is managed from
- machines at ukerna.ac.uk. A lot of hackers use university machines for several
- reasons (lack of security, no phone bills, fast links, being at Uni, etc)
-
- JANET stands for Joint Academic NETwork.
-
-
- 3.7 I don't have a POP in my local area, what can I do?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Get a better ISP! ;-)
-
- Universities are often very good at giving away accounts, and simply asking
- often works (especially if you're unemployed, an ex-student, or a student at
- another Uni). Universities are getting more paranoid now though, so choose
- carefully where you want your account to be.
-
- A (not too recent) list of University dial-ups can be found on ColdFires Web
- Page. Many hackers uses 0800 pads / trunks / VMBs to hack from.
-
- It's also worth checking your phone book, BTs 'local' areas can be surprisingly
- large.
-
-
- 3.8 Are there any internet outdials in the UK?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Yes, but with local calls not being free in the UK these are obviously not made
- public.
-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section 4 - Miscellany
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- 4.1 What does xxxx stand for?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Get the alt.2600 faq for an excellent list of acronyms. Also try the jargon
- file (see Section 5).
-
-
- 4.2 What is and isn't illegal?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- I'm no legal expert, so this may be rubbish... ;-)
-
- [***********************************************************************
- If a legal expert -would- like to clarify these points, please please do so
- There is a general feeling that nobody knows what they can and can't be
- prosecuted for. I would be pleased to listen (in confidence if required)
- to anyone who can be of help.
- *********************************************************************** ]
-
- Unfortunately, unlike the US you may be liable for information you give out, so
- you should be careful what you post to the group. See section 1 for info on
- anonymous remailers and PGP.
-
- Unauthorised computer access (or simply attempting it) is now illegal under the
- Computer Misuse Act 1990. (See Coldfires Web Page for more info)
-
- It has been mentioned that Criminal Justice Act and Public Order Act may include
- legislation on possession of material explaining illegal acts. This will include
- hacking text files. That is why this file doesn't tell you how to hack !
-
- Telecom law is less specific, in general defrauding an phone company is
- illegal, connecting un-approved devices to a BT network is 'unlawful' and
- 'prohibited'. I am unsure whether this includes sending tones from a hand-held
- dial or personal-stereo. Using BT test codes may not be illegal, but is probably
- in breach of your contact with them
-
- The following is ColdFires interpretation of the legalities of War-Dialling
-
- All the following is my opinion, as I have no legal qualifications DO
- NOT rely on it to be the case. Until wardialing is tested in court no
- one will know for sure, now, who wants to be the test case :)
-
- Quote from the Computer Misuse Act (1990) Section 1:
-
- 1(1) A person is guilty of an offence if
- a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to
- secure access to any program or data held in a computer
- b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorised
- or
- c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform
- the function that this is the case.
- 1(2) The intent a person has to commit an offence under this
- section need not be directed at
- a) any particular program or data
- b) a program or data of any particular kind
- or
- c) a program or data held in any particular computer.
- 1(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be
- liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not
- exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the
- standard scale or both.
-
- As you can see, causing a computer to perform any function with intent
- to secure unauthorized access to a computer is illegal. If you are
- wardialing to find carrier, and then intend to gain unauthorized
- access, then war dialling IS illegal (In my opinion)
-
- As most voicemail system can be classified as computer systems war-
- dialling for VMB's with the intent of gaining unauthorized access to
- the VMB system is illegal. The same applies to PBX's
-
- I believe, from my interpretation of the law, that war-dialling is
- illegal under the Computer Misuse Act (1990). Of course to prosecute
- you under this law it would have to be proven that you intended to
- gain unauthorised access to a computer (note: computer is not defined
- under the act).
-
- Obviously this only applies to automated wardialing, dialling by hand
- is not covered by this :)
-
- Another comment that he made was on the use of system logs as evidence
-
- Log files make crap evidence, for a start they're easily forged, and
- you're reliant upon computer generated evidence. What jury will
- believe a computer over a human ?
-
- At best log files are supporting evidence, in most cases they only
- show logins, connections and other impersonal evidence, no log can say
- *BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT* that someone did something, if in doubt deny
- everything, after all its the job of the prosecution to *PROVE* you
- are guilty.
-
- Things to check out are
-
- The Computer Misuse Act (1990)
- Telecommunications Act (1984)
- Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (1994 ?)
-
-
- 4.3 What should I do to avoid getting caught?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Basically don't break the law! You can't be prosecuted for -knowing-
- how to do things (can you?), but if you do hack/phreak, follow this advice,
- don't get greedy, don't use any dodgy number / account for too long, don't go
- boasting to your mates (especially on alt.ph.uk), when phreaking, try to route
- your call so you are harder to trace, never dial direct from your own home. When
- hacking, again try to cover you tracks, the more accounts / nodes you use the
- harder you are to trace.
-
- Another piece of sound advice came from the editor of Phrack Chris Goggans.
- Don't hack on your own door step, prosecuting someone in another country is
- such a problem it's often not worth the effort.
-
-
- 4.4 Where can I meet other hackers / phreaks?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- 2600 meets are held on the first friday of the month all over the world. After
- the initial meeting they generally move to a local pub/pizza hut/Phone Exchange
- :). UK meets happen in -
-
- London Next to the VR machines in The Trocadero. Starts 7:00pm-7:45pm.
-
- Bristol The payphones near the Almshouse pub (part of the Galleries).
- Starts 6:45pm to 7:00pm; Pay phone numbers are +44-(0)117-929-9011,
- 929-4437, 922-6897. Email an306079@anon.penet.fi for more info.
- (Not sure if this meeting is still going - can someone confirm
- this for me please?).
-
- Manchester Meet at Cyberia Cafe, Oxford Road, at around 7pm.
- Email chase@webspan.net for more info.
-
- Hull Meet in the Old Grey Mare, Cottingham Road, at around 7pm. The
- meeting dates change for this, as it depends on when the Uni is
- in session, so check before travelling.
- Email hph@madrab.demon.co.uk for more info or check out the
- hackHull web page (URL in section 5.1.2).
-
- Leeds Meet on the second Friday of each month outside the payphones
- on Leeds Train Station (next to John Menzies).
-
-
- 4.5 What all this Kewl d00dz and 3l33t business?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- One explanation offered is ...
-
- "It all stems from warez, warez d00dz 'traffic' warez (pirated software). The
- practice of intentionally miss-spelling words and changing letters for numbers
- etc come partly from the necessity to 'hide' files. So if someone (especially a
- sysadm) decides to search the entire disk for a known software title, they
- wouldn't be found"
-
- ...others claim its just sad kiddies who think it cool (or is that kewl :-) )
-
-
- 4.6 Where can I get warez?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Sunday markets seem to be doing a roaring trade in Blobby/Ghost/Playdoh/Tango
- CDs, and asking where to get them on the alt.ph.uk probably wont get you a
- sensible reply. Try hanging around on #warez on irc (and its many derivatives,
- although I believe you need to know the name of someone already on to get an
- invite) and alt.binaries.ibm-pc.warez. There are also many Warez BBSs in the
- UK.
-
-
- 4.7 Are there any 'famous' UK Hackers/phreaks?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Steve Gold and Robert Schifreen were the first hacker/phreaks to
- become well known in the UK (other than those in the old Bailey trail
- but that was long before). They were responsible for hacking prestel
- in 1984 and gained notoriety for hacking the Prince Phillips mailbox
- through gaining system manager status on the prestel system. They were
- raided on 10th April 1985 and were charged with forgery, there being
- no anti-hacking laws in the UK at that time. Found guilty Schifreen
- was fined 750ukp and Gold 650ukp, with 1,000ukp costs each. On appeal they
- were acquitted of all charges :) Neither continue to hack and are now
- freelance journalists. Robert Schifreen was also known as Hex and
- Triludan the Warrior
-
- Nick Whitely specialized in ICL mainframes, he committed his first hack
- around January 1988 breaking into an ICL at Queen Mary College, going
- on to hack Hull, Nottingham, Bath and Belfast Universities, always
- ICL's. He was raided on 6th July 1988, charged with Criminal Damage
- and released on Bail. In 1990 he was tried for Criminal Damage and
- cleared of criminal damage to computer hardware, but found guilty of
- two charges of damaging disks. He was given 1 Year, 8 months
- suspended and served 2 months. His appeal was dismissed.
-
- Paul Bedworth, member of 8lgm, was arrested in June 1991 and has the
- privilege of being the first person to be tried under the Computer
- Misuse Act 1990. He was acquitted of all charges in March 1993 after
- successfully proving his 'addiction' to hacking after a 15 day trial.
- Bedworth when on to do a degree in artificial intelligence at Edinburgh
- University. His handle was Wandii.
-
- Neil Woods and Karl Strickland, were and still are the main members of
- 8lgm (8 legged grove machine). As far as I know they were arrested
- around the same time as Paul Bedworth, June 1991. But didn't stand
- trial till May 1993. They both (I think) pleaded guilty, and were
- convicted for six months each. They were the first people to be jailed
- under the Computer Misuse Act (1990). They publish the 8lgm security
- advisories, and act as computer security consultants. Neil Woods is
- certainly an active security consultant. Neil Woods was also known as pad
- and Karl Strickland as Gandalf.
-
- This is what 8lgm say about themselves :
- "[8lgm] was created in early 1989 by several individuals with a common
- interest in computer security. Up until 1991, [8lgm] members actively
- used vulnerabilities to obtain access to many computer systems
- world-wide. After this period, any results of research have been
- reported and passed onto vendors."
- See section 5 for details of the 8lgm WWW page
-
- Eddie Singh was first arrested in (approx) 1988 for breaking into the
- University of Surrey terminal rooms. He used the nickname Camelot and
- was arrested very soon after the Computer Misuse Act came into operation
- for hacking the Ritz video chain. There is a book about him: "Beating the
- System (Hackers Phreakers and Electronic Spies)" by Owen Bowcott and Sally
- Hamiliton (ISBN: 7475 0513 6 published by Bloomsbury Press, 1990)
-
- Michael J Bevan - Fuji (?) and Richard Price are currently being prosecuted
- for alledgedly breaking into US Airforce computers from the UK. Next hearing
- in November. Serious Government Security interest in this case !
-
- Coldfire seems to have had his computers, phones, etc. seized (including a new
- Sun Sparc). This could be because press attention was focused on him and his
- home page (no longer online).
-
-
- 4.8 What about hacking cable/satellite TV?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- V0mit has the following to say on this subject:
-
- 4.8.1 How do I build a Cable TV Descrambler?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- There are many different types of Cable box in use in the UK. This deals
- with Jerrolds (The most common type), But also generally covers most
- boxes (Like Scientific Atlanta etc). If anyone has any more specifics
- on other types, please feel free to e-mail phuk@madrab.demon.co.uk
- with updates, corrections etc. to this..
-
- Firstly though, MANY cable companies only scramble SOME of their channels
- (usually Premiums) and some apparently scramble NONE at all! (Though this
- is becoming less and less common). However, these signals are usually
- sent well out of the range of frequencies that your average TV can pick
- up. All the cable box is there for in cases like this is to 'convert
- down' these frequencies into something that most TV's can tune in to.
- TV's vary wildly in what freq. range they can pick up. So the best bet
- is to disconnect the cable from the box, plug it directly into the back
- of your TV, and 'tune around' and see what you find!.. and try all your
- TV sets if you have more than one. You should find a few unscrambled
- channels if you're lucky.. 'The Box' (A music channel) is usually always
- sent unscrambled, amongst others..
-
- Some Televisions (Nokia make one) can tune into all of these higher
- frequencies already. This type of TV is known in the USA as a 'cable
- ready' television. I know that Maplin Electronics also sell something that
- can convert down the higher frequencies used by the Cable signals for most
- televisions to view. Take a look at http://www.hackers.org.uk/hph/ for the
- infamous Hull cable TV hack which uses this facility.
-
- However, whilst just about everyone should be able to get some unscrambled
- channels using this method, all the good stuff (yes, porno channels,
- you shameless people), Sky One, etc. is usually scrambled.
-
- 4.8.2 How do I Descramble them?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Some old boxes do simple things to the horizontal and vertical sync of the
- picture, and don't touch the sound etc. In cases like this it is probably
- feasible to try and build a descrambler if you know what you are doing.
- However, most modern boxes use some fairly ackward techniques. So people
- thought: "Hmm, instead of building a descrambler, how about making the
- cable box (which already has the descrambler built in) do all the hard
- work for you?". So the 'test chip' and 'Cube' where born.
-
- If you thought that to let you view a particular channel cable companies
- had to switch some thing externally, you are wrong. In fact in most
- systems all the channels are present when they reach your box. It is
- your box that is programmed to stop you seeing these channels, Not
- something outside the home! The only exception to this is possibly
- a very few companies who use 'filtering' methods, ie. they use
- computerised 'smart filters' outside the home which filter out premium
- channels etc. and control what you can and cannot see. If your cable co
- uses this type of system (I know none that do in the UK) Then you are
- screwed. (Either that or it's time to go pay a rich neighbour a visit
- with some wire cutters, a spade, and a length of cable wire long enuff
- to reach your house :) The one positive side to this method is that all
- signals are sent in the clear, and the ones you dont pay for are
- filtered out. And so, if you have a 'cable ready' TV, it eliminates
- the need for a box.
-
- The following applies to 'Jerrold' cable boxes, But can also be assumed
- to apply to most modern cable boxes like Scientific Atlanta etc.
-
- All cable boxes contain a serial number. Your cable co. has this number
- on record in their computers. When you phone and say "I'd like to
- subscribe to the Racing Channel, Cause its great value at only 20 quid
- a month" They simply type in the computer you are allowed to see that
- channel. The cable co. then sends a signal to your box saying box
- AB 1234567890 is allowed to see channel 33. Your cable box contains a
- modem that receives data from the cable co. in the form of an FM signal.
- The box specifically looks out for instructions to its serial number,
- and obeys. It can be told where specific channels go, (Show BBC1 on
- ch 21 etc) can disconnect your service, or can show what are called
- 'barker' channels in place of the premium channels (Unless it's told
- different ;). This FM signal is known as the cable boxes 'data stream'.
- However, cable companies dont just send the data stream to your box
- the once and then thats it. They send instructions to everyones box
- constantly looping around you all. And so, on a small system with a
- few people your box might be updated every few minutes, or on a larger
- one the box might be updated every 20 minutes etc. This ensures everyone
- gets what they pay for.
-
- And so, the point is that you don't build a descrambler - you trick
- your cable box into thinking you're allowed to see the premium channels!
- This can be done in two ways: 1. By Cube. 2. By Test chip. Both have
- their advantages and disadvantages, much of which is outside ths scope of
- this document and therefore you are encouraged to seek further information
- elsewhere.
-
- Finally, because there are no UK sources for this type of thing
- EVERYONE must get cubes/test chips etc. from the USA. And the UK being
- the UK has to be a bit awkward and do it slightly different from the US.
- Data streams there are 99 times out of 100 one of four frequencies
- between 88-108.5 FM. However, here the data stream is often found at
- higher rates like 122.75Mhz etc. (ie. outside the normal FM wave band).
- If unsure, get yourself a scanner that can tune that high, plug
- your cable into it, and search around for your data stream. Once you
- find it let the company know, and many will be happy to modify it for
- you before shipping to the UK. You need to know this or your cube will
- not work!
-
- Also read rec.video.cable-tv for a while and you might pick up some stuff.
-
-
- 4.9 Who are British Telecom Security?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- BT security is basically made up of the following four sections:
- 1. Directorate Of Security & Investigation. The focal point for
- 'expertise' within the group.
- Director Of Security & Investigation.
- Room A740
- BT Centre
- 81 Newgate Street
- London EC1A 7AJ
- Tel: 0171 356 4928. Fax: 0171 356 5909.
-
- 2. Commercial Security Unit
- Room A169
- BT Centre
- 81 Newgate Street
- London EC1A 7AJ
- Tel: 0171 356 5234. Fax: 0171 356 6068.
-
- 3. Specialist Services Unit.
- Libra House.
- Sunrise Parkway.
- Milton Keynes MK14 6PH.
- Tel: 01908 693939. Fax: 01908 693961.
-
- 4. Investigation And Detection.
- Libra House.
- Sunrise Parkway.
- Milton Keynes MK14 6PH.
- Tel: 01908 693838/3839 ;'Help desk' Fax: 01908 693860.
- Also : 01908 693800...
-
- It's this last one which is responsible for actually 'busting' people
- for nicking 0.00005v of electricity. It's mainly two of them who come see
- you: Adrian Goram and Stephen Byrom. You'll probably get one or the other if
- you're ever fortunate enough to get in trouble with BT. And apparently they
- insists those are their real names.
-
-
- 4.10 How do I find out my phone bill before it comes?
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- There is an automated service on 0800 854608 which will give you your bill
- amount, so you can start saving! When you call, dial ** followed by your
- full number including STD code, then the first eight digits of your
- account number (situated at the top of your last bill).
-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section 5 - Resources
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- The following sources may be of interest
-
- A very good list of resources is available in the alt.2600 faq, but these are
- my recommendations.
-
- 5.1 On the net
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- These are constantly changing and thus some may not work by the time you read
- this. Please do keep us updated about what's new and what's old.
-
- 5.1.1 Newsgroups
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- alt.ph.uk - This group !
- alt.2600 - Hacking & Cracking
- alt.dcom.telecom - Telecom
- alt.hackers - Hacking (in the old sense of the word)
- alt.cellular-phone-tech - Mobile Phones
- alt.security - Computer Security
- comp.dcom.telecom - Telecom [moderated]
- comp.dcom.telecom.tech - Technical telecom
- comp.dcom.cellular - Cellular telecom
- comp.security.unix - Unix security
- comp.security.misc - Computer Security
- de.org.ccc - See what the German scene is up to courtesy
- of the Chaos Computer Club, who usually run a
- Congress around Christmas/New Year
- uk.telecom - UK Telecom Issues
-
-
- 5.1.2 Web Pages
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The L0pht - http://www.l0pht.com/
- EFF - http://www.eff.org/
- The UK.Telecom FAQ Page - http://wwww.gbnet.net/net/uk-telecom/
- 8lgm - http://www.8lgm.org/
- 2600 Magazine - http://www.2600.com/
- 2600 Bristol Meets - http://metro.turnpike.net/H/hagar/2600.html
- FireWalls - http://www.tis.com/Home/NetworkSecurity/Firewalls/Firewalls.html
- alt.2600 FAQ - http://www.engin.umich.edu/~jgotts/hack-faq.html
- TELECOM Digest FAQ - http://www.wiltel.com/telecomd/tele_faq.html
- hackHull & Co. - http://www.hackers.org.uk/hph/
- Geek - http://www.geek.org.uk/
- ITU archive, - gopher://info.itu.ch:70/
- http://www.itu.ch/
- OFTEL - http://www.open.gov.uk/oftel/oftelwww/oftelhm.htm
- ICSTIS - http://www.icstis.org.uk/
- UK ISDN FAQ - http://www.multithread.co.uk/isdnfaq.htm
- Telephone charging - http://www.gold.net/users/cdwf/phones/charging.html
-
-
- 5.1.3 FTP
- ~~~~~~~~~
- The L0pht - ftp://ftp.l0pht.com
- Routes - ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/da/daemon9
- Spies - ftp://ftp.spies.com
- EFF - ftp://ftp.eff.org
- Firewalls - ftp://ftp.tis.com/pub/firewalls/isoc94.ps.Z
- Firewalls - ftp://research.att.com/dist/internet_security/*
- The Jargon File - ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/jarg320.txt.gz
- Security Archives - ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/security
-
-
- 5.1.4 Mailing Lists
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Firewalls
- mail majordomo@greatcircle.com and put SUBSCRIBE FIREWALLS-DIGEST
- in the body of the message.
-
- Orange (check out http://info.mcc.ac.uk/Orange for more details)
-
- hackHull?
- mail listserv@madrab.demon.co.uk and put SUBSCRIBE HACKHULL in
- the body of the message.
-
- BoS (Best of Security) maillist
- can someone provide me with info please?
-
- Access All Areas
- Planning and discussion for the next Access All Areas event
- The Access All Areas Mailing List - mail majordomo@access.org.uk with
- the word 'help' in the body of the message for more information
-
-
- 5.1.5. Mags-EZines
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Phrack (http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cs6171/phrack/phrackindex.html)
- CuD (ftp://ftp.warwick.ac.uk/cud/) ????
- Condor (http://mindlink.net/A7657/)
- P/H-UK (http://www.paranoia.com/~coldfire/files/phuk/)
-
-
- 5.1.6 TV & Film
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Unauthorized Access (http://bianca.com/bump/ua/)
- War Games, Sneakers et al :)
- Hackers (http://www.digiplanet.com/hackers/)
- The Net (not as good as Hackers, but worth it for Sandra Bullock ;-)
-
-
- 5.2 In Print
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- 5.2.1 Mags
- ~~~~~~~~~~
- 2600 magazine (Available at Tower Records, London, or direct from
- AK Press at http://www.obsolete.com/ak/ or by phoning
- 0131-667-1507 [Edinburgh])
- Wired (The US version)
- Mondo 2000
- Blacklisted! 411
- (Does anyone know of a UK source for this mag?)
-
-
- 5.2.2 Books
- ~~~~~~~~~~~
- (About Hackers)
-
- Cyberpunk: Outlaw & Hackers on the computer Frontier
- Katie Hafner and John Markoff - ISBN 1-872180-94-9
- (3 Accounts in one book, Mitniks Early Years, widely discredited by
- people close to him. Pengo and The Chaos Computer Club (which ties in
- with The Cuckoo's Egg') and Robert 'Internet Worm' Morris
- The Cuckoo's Egg
- Clifford Stoll
- (Techno Hippy gets compulsive about East German Hacker)
- Hackers
- Steven Levy
- (Early days of Old-Style MIT hackers)
- Approaching Zero
- Beating the System (Hackers, Phreakers and Electronic Spies)
- Owen Bowcott and Sally Hamiliton. ISBN: 7475 0513 6
- Computer Hacking: Detection and Protection,
- Sigma Press 1995?, UK - ISBN 1-85058-538-5
-
- (About Systems)
-
- Any Tech Ref Manual you can lay your hands on
- Far too many to mention
-
-
- 5.3 Phone numbers
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- UK Interesting phone numbers
- Check out the uk.telecom FAQ for a good starting list of phone numbers
-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section 6 - Questions to be answered in the next version of the FAQ - Help!
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Who created alt.ph.uk?
- Anthing contained in [] above :)
- Short sections on Novell, Cellphones
- Sources of 2600 magazine in the UK (except for Tower & AK, that is)
-
-
-
-
- --
-