There seems to be a fallacy in the pirate world that all BBS software is
untouchable. However, about a month ago a few people associated with the
Oblivion team took apart .93 (a version number of Vision-X) and found
backdoors. The unfortunate problem with this is that the V-X team put those
backdoors in so they could trace down which Beta site was giving out Beta copies. Well, they found the backdoors and called up several boards and used
them.
1. The story from the people who hacked the boards is this, one of the two
involved was irate becuase he wrote a registration for .93 so anyone could
run it, whether they paid for the software or not. When the V-X team found
out about it, they blacklisted him from being able to logon into any V-X
system. This was done hard-coded, so no sysop could let him in with that
handle. Anyway, the story is they got into several of the BBSes, and even
dropped to DOS to look around, but did not have any intentions on
destroying data. Basically, they wanted to expose the weaknesses of the
software. The problem started when they posted the backdoors on a national
net, which means that now any lamer could use this backdoor for their own
purpose. According to the Oblivion guys, they did not destroy the data,
but some of the lamers that saw the backdoors on the net did. They regret
posting the backdoors. They didn't realize that there are some people who
are malicious enough to destroy data.
2. The Vision-X team are positive that the people who did take down the BBSes
were the Oblivion team, some say they even admitted to doing it. There is
a major paradox in these stories, and at this point it doesn't look like
anyone will ever be able to get the entire truth about what had happened.
Backdoors have never been a good idea, even if the authors are positive they
will never be found. The recent barrage of system crashing prove that the backdoors will indeed be found eventually. On the flip side of the coin, even
if backdoors in BBS software are found, they should be left alone to be used for their original intent. Most authors who put the backdoors into the systems
do it to protect their investment and hardwork. Most BBS programers these days
work on the software for the benefit of the modem community, and expect a
little money in return for their hard work. It is wrong for sysops to use it
without permission. You guys need to stop being cheap asses, and support a
software you want support from. What is the point of running a cracked piece
of software since you cannot get support from the authors and not get the net
they are involved in. The nominal amount of money involved is a good
