The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/phreak/general/db001.004

Text File | 2003-06-11 | 11.7 KB | 206 lines

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

                                   Presents:

                                 Manuscript II
                                Field Phreaking
                              -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                                  June,  1988


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 BBS's
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.

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 The Third Cartel carries the following optional materials in their Field Kit:
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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 Dumpsters:  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.
Correction: Don't take anything you don't *really* want.  Have phun with this,
and please let us know if you find any useful gadgets in a telco truck.  We'd
like to hear from you!  Look for a Field Phreaking II file soon.  It should be
Manuscript III.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  >>>>*Freddy*<<<<  [The Only Living Peabody]

                                  The  HORN
                                . <<Honk!>> .
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