The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998

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__________________________________________________________________ The Syndicate Report Feature Introduction Textus Page is published in order to inform TSR Readers of upcoming topics in The Syndicate Report Electronic Magazine. This textus page does not reflect the entire contents of the indicated magazine numbers, only a selected medley of what is about to penetrate an unforeseeable future w/TSR. __________________________________________________________________ THE SYNDICATE REPORT MAGAZINE TEXTUS PAGE, FOR TSR #28 Featuring: Editorial Operation SunDevil, A Rework The Title Reads: "COMPUTISTS ENDANGERED LIVES." Device IDs Fone Callers, Links To dBASE Files Journalist Faces New 'hacker' Charges Fiber Optics and Cable TV Combined? Kids Charged In Bomb Incidents The Electronic Frontier Foundation Cellular Eavesdropping, the 1990s Sport? ________________________________________________ Brief Notes from the Report Quick and Hot News Vocabulary Tonic ________________________________________________ Available on Chaotic Paradise 612.535.8106 * The NEW Main TSR Distribution Site * by The Sensei Editor of The Syndicate Report Magazine (PWA is not directly affiliated with TSR) _____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ THE SYNDICATE REPORT Information Transmittal No. 28 (Part 1 of 2) Released September 5, 1990 Featuring: ________________________________________________ Editor's Note California Firm Again Challenges Hackers To BREAK Into System New Version 'EXTENDER BENDER' Supports the Apple //gs To Catch A Hacker "The True Story of John Maxfield, electronic asshole." Cellular Eavesdroping, the 1990s Sport? Fiber Optics and Cable TV Combined? Kids Charged In Bomb Incidents The Electronic Frontier Foundation ________________________________________________ Brief Notes from the Report Vocabulary Tonic ________________________________________________ by The Sensei Editor Syndicate Report Magazine ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ EXPOSITION: TSR Once again, The Report accepts outside sources. Anybody can write/provide information to The Syndicate Report. Articles/Information may be provided through the CHAOTIC PARADISE Bulletin Board System @612-535-8106. Any info such as Busts, Phreaking, Hacking, Data / Telecommunications, and all new developments on any the previous mentioned specialties will be: accepted, labeled, and given full actual credit to the article/info provider(s), or writer(s). -- ** All articles have been presented by me unless shown at the end of the article as the information provider(s), or writer(s). Some articles may have been commented by the editor. Comments are enclosed by brackets []. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ EDITOR'S NOTE: TSR It been a while. This is it, TSR #28 -- finally here. In the future don't expect TSR to be released each month. It used to be fairly easy to accomplish the monthly dead-line. This one is months late. Expect future issues to be released randomly through-out the seasons. This issue was pretty fun to create -- a lot of interesting articles and new info accumulated over the months. It's especially nice to see a good cause in effect: The Electronic Frontier Foundation. Sounds like a piece out of Star Trek -- and probably is. Read about this group effort later in this issue. How many groups are currently active in the underground? More than you can count right? Well, locally in the 612 there hasn't really been any large cracking/hacking groups. PWA, which stands for Pirates With Attitudes is another new software cracking and distributing group. It's main HQ is Chaotic Paradise at 612 535 8106 -- the same number TSR resides. If anyone is interested in the group, dial up Chaotic Paradise. And on the stranger side... Has anyone ever been in the mood to see a Bill Gates movie? How he did it? How about a movie about Steve Jobs, the college rebel that built the now dead Apple // computer system. What about a Morris Jr. movie? The possibilities are endless in the movie industry. But who would go watch these movies? Us for certain -- but others would rather see Rosanne Barr eat a rolling donut. I guess there's always CH 2. Take it easy, ;The Sensei / TSR Editor ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ CALIFORNIA FIRM AGAIN CHALLENGES TSR (9/90) HACKERS TO BREAK INTO SYSTEM: [ Cut and paste this article. Send it to your printer and take the challenge. ] A Hayward, Calif., company has again challenged computer intruders to try to break its security system, offering a world trip to anyone who can do it. LeeMah DataCom Security Corp., which provides security systems to protect computers from unauthorized intrusions, challenged "hackers" to break the codes protecting a secret message hidden in its files. "We want to show the world that hackers can be beaten," LeeMah President John Tuomy told United Press International, adding that if he is wrong, the company will award a vacation for two to Tahiti or St. Moritz, Switzerland, to the first person who reaches the secret message. UPI reports the message is stored in PCs at the San Francisco and New York offices of the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand, which is overseeing the contest. The computers are protected by the TraqNet security system developed by LeeMah. In an announcement late yesterday, LeeMah supplied two phone numbers -- 212/307-6243 in New York and 415/512-7170 in San Francisco -- and a password, 533624, to enter either system. Contestants have two weeks to try to crack four levels of security and reach the message. LeeMah issued a similar challenge last year and logged 7,476 unsuccessful attempts. This year it added five extra phone lines to take incoming calls from contestants. Said Tuomy, "When we announced the challenge last year, a lot of hackers boasted that it was going to be child's play. When we beat them, some of them said it was because we only had one phone line and they couldn't get through. Now we're giving them their best shot." Tuomy says he estimates the odds of defeating the various levels of security protecting the message at one in 72 quadrillion. Meanwhile, some in the computing community are not thrilled with the LeeMah challenge. "One problem you have with this contest is they are advocating tele-crime," said Ian Murphy, a Philadelphia security expert who goes by the moniker Captain Zap. "Hackers don't pay phone bills," instead often charging calls to stolen access account numbers. Tuomy said he did not know if crackers paid for calls to the challenge, but the company had no reports of tele-crime during last year's contest. If phone companies spotted a number of illicit calls to the challenge, they probably would have notified LeeMah, he said. He said that the contest, rather than encouraging computer intrusion, is intended to show what can be done to defeat invaders. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ NEW VERSION 'EXTENDER BENDER' TSR (11/89) SUPPORTS THE APPLE //GS: For you Apple //gs freaks, Extender Bender 2.0 promises full Apple //gs support now. Other enhancements are full Hayes (and more modems) compatibility, including HST support. Tech Support, Modem Configs: - The Phantom Viper Okay, a lot of people seem to have a problem configuring Extender Bender to their modem. The modem drivers are going to be changed (again), and new driver types, including an HST driver is being added. So, for that, look forward too. Anyway, about the problems... before you come to me, do this: Try all of the modem types (except of course the Apple Cat). Ie: Modem Type [2] Hayes Compatible may work, while modem type [3] Apple Modem, etc. may be the correct type for you. If you're modem is in like slot 2, try number 7 [4] no driver. Try all of these until you find the one that works. [2] Hayes Compatible is your best bet, but if you can get [4] No Driver to work, it is to your advantage. Well, good luck. If anyone has any problems with Extender Bender, though I haven't heard of any justified complaints yet, anyway, leave me mail on Chaotic Paradise so I can fix it for version 3.0. It would be a great favor. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ TO CATCH A HACKER TSR (0/90) "The True Story of John Maxfield, electronic asshole." [ Notes from I, The Sensei, will be in brackets. This file had been typed directly from one of the better IBM PC publications. It is amazing that this magazine brings to life, "OLD NEWS." Then again, it is a very interesting story, and does tells us a lot about our foe John Maxfield. Maxfield = Maxie in this verbatim copy of the story. It does get into the latest craze on hacking voice mail and other forms of communications equipment. But this information was provided separate from the story, even written by a total different person Dara Pearlan and Don Steinberg. Ric Manning wrote the story about Maxie, everything you'll be reading from now on. Look for my intelligible comments in the brackets ][ - TS ] The Computer Crackers and phone phreaks who visited Cable Pair's cluttered office on August evening in 1983 much have thought they were in heaven. Cable Pair was a sysop for a hacker forum in the Twilight Phone, a Detroit-area computer bulletin board. The forum had become a meeting place for members of the Inner Circle, a nation wide hacker group that used the Twilight Phone's message base to trade stolen passwords and swap tips on phone phreaking. Cable Pair's visitors that evening were some of the Inner Circle's most active members, highly placed in the hacker pecking order. They had come in response to messages that Cable Pair had posted on the board, inviting them to take a guided tour of his headquarters, and they were suitably impressed. Computer equipment was everywhere. The sysop's console consisted of several terminals connected to a remote HP minicomputer. IN a back room was a bank of electromechanical telephone switches -- old stuff, but enough to run a phone system for a small town. Cable Pair even had an official Bell version of the infamous "blue box." TO demo the magic box, he keyed in a 2600 Hz tone and was rewarded with the clear whisper of AT&T's LD circuit. Then, like jazz players in a jam session, group members took turns show what they could do. One tapped in AT&T's 0-700 teleconferencing system. Another bragged about how he once nearly had Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth, and the pope on the same conference call. One hacker's specialty was getting into Arpanet, the advanced research network that links universities and government agencies, including defense research centers. "The Wizard of Arpanet sat right there at the keyboard and hacked into the system," says Cable Pair, smiling at the memory. "And we captured every keystroke." It was probably Cable Pair's finest hour. He was not, after all, just another hacker. The gathering that evening was the culmination of an elaborate sting operation. Outside the office, FBI agents watched everyone who entered and left the building. A few months after the jam session, police raided homes across the country. They confiscated computers and disks and charged about a dozen adults and teenagers with various counts of computer abuse and wire fraud. Cable Pair was John Maxfield, whose career as an FBI informant had started a year earlier. Now approaching the age of 50, he is still chasing hackers, phone phreaks, and computer pirates. When his cover was blown in a hacker newsletter soon after the office party, he attracted a network of double agents, people who found it more convenient -- and safer -- to work with him than against him. Some continue to maintain their status in the hacker underground and pass information to Maxfield. SPY STORY. The nature of Maxfield's calling depends on your frame of reference. If you've read enough cheap fiction, you might see him as a private disk in a digital overcoat. Or a stagecoach guard sitting on the strongbox, eyes scanning the horizon, electron gun across his knees. He refers to the hacker phenomenon in the nebulous language of Cold War espionage, casting himself in a spy-noble role as a warrior fighting battles that both sides will deny ever happened. There's something of a CIA-versus-KGB type of professional courtesy in what people in the hacker community say about Maxfield. "He's very good at getting hackers together on one thing," says Eric Corley, editor of 2600 magazine, the hacker publication that fingered Maxfield more than six years ago. "I can think of nothing that hackers agree on except that John Maxfield is EVIL." Maxfield responds in kind. "Hackers are like electronic cockroaches," he says. "You can't see them, but they're there, and at night they raid the refrigerator." Although a lot of hackers are what Maxfield calls "tourists" -- young people who go into a systems simply because it's there, just to look around -- more sinister influences often lurk behind them. "The tourist may go into a system and look around, but when he leaves, he's god a password, and he'll share it when others because he's got an ego and wants to show how good he is," says Maxfield. "It's my experience that every hacker gang has one or more adult members who direct activities and manipulate the younger ones. What could be better than to have these naives doing your dirty work for you? They can open all the doors and unlock the systems, and then you go in a steal space-shuttle plans." "The hackers are one step away from the shadow world of the spies," Maxie says. "Some have deliberately sought out and made contact with the KGB." Maxie wasn't surprised at West German police announced in March 1988 that they had arrested a group of hackers who used overseas links to U.S. computer networks to steal sensitive data. (See "The Cuckoo's Egg, the book.) And he thinks computer companies and corporations haven't learned much about securing their systems. "There are more interconnections," he says, "and that leads to more vulnerability." A good example was the worm that Morris unleashed. But that's old news. "The hackers will tells you that this kind of thing is just a practical joke, a harmless prank. But it can do some very serious damage," says Maxie. Computer systems experts who testified at Morris's trial last January estimated that the cost of cleaning up after the chaos reeked by the Unix worm was $15 million. The information that Maxie collects about these computer pranksters and criminals goes into a database that he maintains to help him identify hackers and monitor their activities. (Though they've tried on more than a few occasions, hackers have no chance of breaking into this database -- there's no dialup access to it.) B.S.! Maxie tracks the phone phreaks' identities and aliases to help his clients, who are managers at large corporations, credit card companies, and telephone companies --business-people who feel the need to protect their electronic goods and services. :::: Information from PC Magazine :::: ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ FIBER OPTICS AND CABLE TV COMBINED? TSR (9/90) One regional phone company is planning to install fiber optics "curb to curb" by the year 2010. The pros to this are obvious... Con side is that anti-trust situation might develop, and that Cable TV industry might be burned a little, or might end up being sold to phone companies, eliminating competition. Many problems jump out from behind trees. As a whole, consumers don't necessarily want it. They figure they've already got perfectly good digital lines, and don't want to pay for a complete renovation. Reminds me of the natural gas conversion hangups that neighborhoods fought tooth and nail. On the other hand, we've got the technology rapped up and tested enough that it's beginning to infiltrate into the new developments. (we've got numberous small 'fiber to the home' test spots around the country, and are receiving favorable results) Unfortunately, since deregulation, the replacement costs are directly passed on to the consumer, rather than deferred or subsidised as with the Ma Bell system. A definate catch-22. But as for changing over, and combining cable and phone, that sounds like it would likely be more economical for consumers. Having consumer pay to improve the company's ability to make money, sounds wrong. Keep in mind that Cable TV companies would soon be able to compete with the phone company for telephone service too! This could break the citywide or region wide monopoly on phone service. Phone company might be forced to compete with cable companies, and I doubt that cable companies would expect customers to pay for their improved ability to earn money. According to some Senators, consumers very much DO want improved communication services. The fiber network stuff, coming from either RBOC or Cable companies, would serve rural areas better. People in the country would be able to have CABLE TV, where they couldn't get it before. The more massive business traffic on such fibers, would more readily justify very extensive market penetration. $26 phone bill, and $20 cable bill per month, could be combined at $35 of monthly revenue per drop. It sounds as if I, the consumer, would pay for a bigger and more profitable vending machine. Isn't that the merchant's problem? Yup, but the RBOCs don't see it that way. They view it as an assesment to the property, and will charge the endusers directly. (at least for now) The advantage isn't improved communication services in the common sense of the word. Fiber has the ability to carry multiple signals (TV, Data, Voice etc) within a very small media, and needs much less repeater capability. (Let alone cheaper). We're experimenting with it in a few locations, and, although the concept is great, we're running into a few logistical problems - Such as cooperation between providers, routing (can't bend the stuff, Y'know), and switching. (The fiber Optic switch is a biggie - even techwise). Nope. We're on our own to develop, market, install, and license whatever technology and process we feel is profitable. If we can unload a giant OSP Fiber Loop Converter, or a nice hefty Fiber Distribution Frame on Pacific Bell, then so be it. Since the Crash of the Monopoly, Multi-regional services were forced to diversify, and split into smaller providers altogether. Each is free to market, and sell their particular form of service as they see fit. I think it'll happen, but don't hold your breath... ;The Sensei, TSR Editor ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ CELLULAR EAVESDROPING, THE 1990s SPORT: TSR (0/89) Eavesdroping on cellular telephone conversations is an illegal but increasingly popular activity. Lack of privacy on portable cellular phones is a little-discussed blemish on an otherwise productive industry. By the end of last year, 3.5 million cellular phones were in use - mostly in cars - a 67 percent rise over 1988. Industry officials say that changes in frequency involved in a cellular conversation discourage listeners from hearing lengthy conversations. And the increased popularity of cellular phones makes it harder to pick out single conversations. "You used to be able to get some juicy conversations. Now you get a headache" because of crowded frequencies, says a listener. Cellular phone conversations are as easy to intercept as any other radio transmissions. And they can be overheard for miles around, unlike those on the cordless phone you take into the backyard. Cordless phones have a range of 1,000 feet or less, but the cellular technology transmits more than 50 miles away. The market for scanners and equipment for eavesdroping is growing. Most scanners now are aimed at police and fire communications, and omit cellular phone frequencies - roughly between 800 and 900 megahertz. But scanners are easy to modify with the snip of a wire or addition of a cheap converter. Cellular companies, fearful of losing sales and subscribers, have failed to warn customers that random eavesdroping is possible. Some phones include warnings, but most do not. A 1987 survey by the California Public Utilities Commission found that 60 percent of cellular phone users were unaware their conversations could be intercepted. The problem of cellular eavesdroping gradually will disappear as the industry moves toward a "digital" method of transmission in the next few years, says industry experts. The conversion will bring greater clarity as well as security. But experts say as soon as phones go digital, someone will start selling a device that will undigitalize it for scanner owners. :::: Information Provided by Cellular Phreak :::: ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ KIDS CHARGED IN BOMB INCIDENTS: TSR (9/90) Four Maryland youths -- two 15-year-olds and two 16-year-olds -- who are so- called to have used computers to retrieve information about making pipe bombs have been charged with manufacturing and detonating explosives. In Harford County,, Md., Deputy Fire Marshal Bob Thomas said three pipe bombs destroyed a mailbox, a soft drink machine and a phone booth between July 30 and Aug. 12 in the Havre de Grace-Level area. He said three other explosive devices in two other mailboxes did not detonate. No one was injured in the incidents. Thomas said investigators found computer material and files the four allegedly used to share information on how to make pipe bombs and about specific targets. United Press International quotes Thomas as saying the arrests mark the second time in about a year that Maryland juveniles allegedly used computers to share information on pipe bombs and other homemade explosive devices. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: TSR (7/90) Software pioneer Mitch Kapor, founder and former chairman of Lotus Development, has found a new high-tech crusade to keep him busy: fighting overzealous computer crime stoppers. At a news conference today, Kapor, now chairman of a new software company, is scheduled to announce the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that will study and publicize the novel social and legal issues arising from the increasing use of *computers* to communicate and dispense information. The new foundation is part of a small but growing concern that the continuing government crackdown on computer tampering, electronic eavesdroping and other hacker activities has gone too far. Some members of the foundation have said recent law enforcement steps threaten civil liberties, particularly First Amendment guarantees of free speech and Fourth Amendment protections against improper searches and seizures. Kapor, who wrote the all-time best-selling personal computer program Lotus 1-2-3, has been speaking out in recent months about the dangers posed by overzealous enforcement of anti-hacker laws and has expressed interest in helping to pay the legal fees of those charged under the laws. However, a spokeswoman for Kapor said the new foundation will be "more than a hacker defense fund" and will support and fund public education and government lobbying efforts in addition to intervening in court cases. Co-founder of the group is John Perry Barlow, a Wyoming cattle rancher active in Republican party politics who is perhaps best known as a lyricist for the Grateful Dead rock band. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, is a major donor to the foundation that will be based in Cambridge, Mass., near Kapor's current business. Initially, the foundation will underwrite a $275,000 study of the issues by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, a group of engineers and others in the computer industry. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::::::: SYNDICATE REPORT BRIEF NOTES ::::::::::::::::::::::: // New Fone Can Screen Visitors // Citizen has unveiled a telephone device in Las Vegas that lets residents see who is at the door. The two-part gadget has a 3 by 5 1/2 inch doorbell unit that hides a black-and-white camera, and a phone with a 3-inch screen. A doorbell ring activates the camera and the visitors image is projected onto the phone unit. ________________________________________________ // New Soft. Breaks Barriers // New intelligent communications software from Data General is making it possible for networks to have intelligent conversations in digital voice, facsimile, image or text format. How: Product determines how to share data and retrieve and deliver information. User can access data in their own familiar computer format, regardless of the sender's format. ________________________________________________ // School Created in a MicroCHIP // Desert View Middle School in El Paso, Texas, has created "The Academy," a computer bulletin board that allows students to read, write and explore cultures. Students tap into a wide-ranging database; the Academy has logged 41,800 calls in two years, most of the 692 registered users are students. ________________________________________________ // County Employees Warned // Fifty thousand dollars in calls to porn lines, and other 900 numbers were made on Nassau County, N.Y., phones since 1988, officials say. County employees were warned to stop unauthorized calls or face firing. ________________________________________________ // Man STOPPED for Using Cellular Car Fone // Better think twice about using a car phone in Wilkes-Barre, Penn. Dave Davies got a $25 ticket for using his phone while driving. A police sergeant cited Davies for violating a law that says drivers cannot "operate a vehicle while wearing or using one or more headphones, earphones or any similar device which would impair the ability of the driver to hear traffic sounds." ________________________________________________ // BELL Atlantic Files Request // Bell Atlantic of Arlington, Va., Thursday filed a request with the Justice Department for permission to offer improved videotex gateway service. The relief sought by Bell Atlantic would make its Gateway service easier for consumers to use. Bell Atlantic Gateway service allows people with computers to reach electronic services such as home shopping, dining and travel guides, and medical news. ________________________________________________ // More Hotels Offer Voice Mail // Hotels are turning to high technology to improve a basic but critical service: Taking guests' telephone messages. Instead of relying solely on human operators, more hotels are installing voice-mail systems. All 65 Westin Hotels will have voice-mail systems by the end of the year. Homewood Suites and several Sheraton hotels already use voice mail. ________________________________________________ // Callers can be Tracked ! // Callers to 900 numbers for all types of services are not faceless customers. Through a sophisticated tracking system (CLID), the 900 line providers can cross-check names, phone numbers, addresses and zip codes, said Scott Roberts, president of Digital Corrections Corp., the Riviera Beach, Fla., firm that provides 900 lines to various 1-900 retailers. ____________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::::::::::: TSR Vocabulary Tonic :::::::::::::::::::::::::: What "Vocab. Tonic" is, is a list of acronyms and definitions to help educate the ignorant hacker. With an extensive vocabulary, there is virtually nothing one can't learn. Study on... BNU - Basic Networking Utilities. System V.3's uucp package. LAN - Local Area Network. NETWORK - A group of machines set up to exchange information and/or resources. node - A terminating machine on a network. package. CON - Control Functions (Sys Admin payroll/timesheet functions) ACT - Field Activity (Handles field activities) BIL - Bill Paying (Processing purchase orders, producing expense accounts.) ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::::::::: TSR "Quote of the Month" :::::::::::::::::::::::: "Lighting Strikes When & Where You Least Expect ... It, Protect Thy God MODEM" ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ TSR will accept additional sponsor/support Systems. If you have a certain interest in the Report, and wish to provide support to TSR -- Leave your BBS number -- and any other information on Chaotic Paradise Bulletin Board Systems. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ C H A O T I C P A R A D I S E 6 1 2 - 5 3 5 - 8 1 0 6 - The Syndicate Report Support - - Bulletin Board System - - Accommodating 14.4k bps, Over 300+ Megs, P/H Msg Bases, & Files -- ...and the official Pirates With Attitudes (PWA) system - (PWA is not affiliated with TSR in anyway) ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ This concludes this Transmittal No. 28 (Part 1 of 2) Released September 5th, 1990 by The Sensei Editor of The Syndicate Report ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________