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Phrack Inc. Volume 08 Issue 53 File 04
----[ Phrack Magazine Volume 8, Issue 53 July 8, 1998, article 04 of 15
-------------------------[ P H R A C K 5 3 P R O P H I L E
-----------------[ Personal
Handle: Glyph
Call him: Yesmar
Reach him: glyph@dreamspace.net
Past handles: The Raver (cDc), Necrovore (Bellcore),
Violence (The VOID Hackers)
Handle origin: Egyptian mythology: glyph \'glif\ n [Gk glyphe^-
carved work, fr. glyphein to carve -- more at
CLEAVE] (ca. 1727) a symbol that conveys information
nonverbally (e.g., heiroglyphics).
Date of birth: Late 60's
Age at current date: As old as the lunar landing
Height: 5'10" or so
Weight: Skinny (I hate fat people)
Eye color: Blue
Hair color: Brown
Computers: Started with a TeleVideo 920 dumb terminal and worked
my way up to a small collection of SGI and NeXT boxes.
Sysop/Co-Sysop of: Nothing that you've ever heard of (limited lifespan
hacker boards on Prime superminis and VAX mainframes
located on the X.25 global data networks).
Admin of: Go look in the InterNIC databases yourself.
URLs: I am not going to support the World Wide Waste of time
in my Pro-Phile.
I first started playing with computers when I was nine years old. I started
by learning FORTRAN on a Prime supermini at the local university where my
parents worked. Later I learned BASICA on the original IBM PC (what hulks
those were). Then a shipment of Apple ][+'s arrived and I learned about
the joys of warez. Ultima ][, Wizardry, and all the rest kept me busy for
a couple of years. I never had my own computer, so I had to hike down to
the university computer center to frotz around.
Around 1984 I was loaned a TeleVideo 920 dumb terminal and a 300 baud USR
modem. I used it to connect to the university's PRIME cluster. A hacker
was born. I had a legitimate account, but managed to obtain additional
user IDs by exploring the filesystem. I had also begun tinkering around
with the telephone network by this time.
Later I got an Apple //c and eventually a //gs. These computers got me
back into the warez scene. One month I got a $500 phone bill. The next
month the phone bill was back to $0. The only difference was that the
warez intake had nearly doubled. Indeed, I had learned about codes. I
spent a lot of time calling warez boards around the country. Ultimately
I tired of the pirate scene, mainly because of all the inane bickering.
I also stopped phreaking because I had gotten scared. I disappeared for
a year or so.
Eventually I made a comeback. I wanted to continue to play with computers
and networks, but I wanted to avoid the phreaking scene. I decided that
I needed a name. I decided to call myself 'The Raver' after Turiya Raver
from _The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever_. (Note: the rave
scene was unknown in the U.S. at the time). I spent a lot of time calling
hack/phreak boards and learning.
I discovered that I really liked this new communications medium known as
tfiles: files containing pure ASCII text. Tfiles could be about hacking,
phreaking, anarchy, or best of all, DEAD COWS WHO RULE THE WORLD. Yes, I
had discovered a rare beauty on the BBS landscape of the 80's: cDc --
the Cult of the Dead Cow. I was entranced. These people of the cow were
like digital punks, espousing their wild views without a single care. I
was instantly hooked. I started writing tfiles. Before long, I found
myself invited to join the forces of the Cow. How could I decline Bob and
Elsie? So it came to pass that I contributed to what I consider a class
movement in the telecom scene of the late 80's. cDc fulfilled my need to
communicate and hang with open-minded people in a BBS context.
In time, my desire to hack started to come back. At first it was merely
an 'itch' to poke at a system. Later it developed into a full-blown need
to get into everything I could. It was around this time that I started
exploring TELENET and the global X.25 data networks. I met ParMaster,
the original members of Bellcore, and LOD/H on altger in Munich. I was
hooked. Par and I, considering ourselves lame at the time, formed a group
named XTension. The group flourished on the European networks.
Eventually half of XTension were invited to join Bellcore. This was the
first time any of us had experienced a rift in friendship over the digital
medium. It was a painful learning experience. I would not talk to Par
again for many years. In the meantime, I began working at learning even
more under the wings of Bellcore. I hacked Primes for Bellcore. Under the
tutelage of Chippy I discovered the ways of UNIX and TCP/IP networking.
I changed my name to Necrovore in order to make clear the changes that had
occured. The name comes from the fact that I was very much into death
metal at the time. Naming myself after the 'Eater of the Dead' seemed like
a very reasonable thing to me at the time. (God, what was I thinking!?)
At any rate, the Mentor of LOD and I used to pick fights with each other
online across the world, so it isn't surprising that 'Necrovore' found its
way into a Steve Jackson Game's GURPS Supers module as one of the super
villains. Heh.
Eventually Bellcore fell apart, as did so many groups. It became 'cool'
and then too many people were invited to join, and then the trust fell
apart. If there is a lack of trust, how can work be accomplished? Bellcore
was done. It depressed me a lot because LOD continued strong. Was what
I had fought for worthless? I thought not. At that time I decided that
the days of Big Groups were over. Now it was time for the Small Cell.
The VOID Hackers were created by myself and The Usurper, now Thrashing Rage,
a fellow ex-Bellcore member. We recruited Dr. Psychotic, a class assembly
language hacker, and The Scythian, another hacker with a famous past, and
started in after Primes and VAXen around the world. I wrote a lengthy series
of articles on hacking Primes and submitted it to 2600. I got yelled at
later by TK and KL for not submitting it to Phrack. To know the truth, I
didn't think it was good enough for Phrack, which had been the soul of the
scene since its inception. I never heard back from 2600. (Go figure.)
The VOID Hackers surpassed my wildest expectations. We hit systems across
the planet. We had hundreds and hundreds of systems at our beck and call.
It could only get better, or so I thought. Imagine my surprise then, one
day, when my mom picked me up from school and told me that there were
'security people' at the house right then. 'FUCK,' I thought. Fuck,
indeed. I was popped at age 20.
I managed to avoid a multiple felony rap and retired right away. I used
contacts to make it clear to government intelligence people and others
that I was finished. I went to university and majored in English, then
Anthropology, and ultimately settled on Computer Science. Instead of
criminal hacking, I delved into hacking from the MIT perspective. I
explored the UNIX system and sharpened my programming skills.
Eventually I left the protected world of academia and made my way into the
computer industry. With the heavy advent of the Internet I reappeared on
the scene as glyph. It was interesting running into old friends (and
enemies) and meeting new hackers on the scene. I went to several cons and
continued to frolic in the security domain. By this time, however, I had
pretty much ceased to engage in criminal hacking, spending my time instead
developing security tools. Now I am completely retired. You may still
see me as glyph from time to time, however. Undoubtedly, there are more
of 'me' out there. grep. It's been a long, strange ride. I'd do it all
over again if I wasn't so old. 8)
----------------[ Favorite things
Women: Australian chicks rule.
Cars: I don't drive. I might if I could recompile traffic algorithms,
however this doesn't seem all that likely. I definitely would
not drive a BMW. There are too many of those around as it is.
I used to drive a skateboard. That was a long time ago, though.
Brains and computers are still good to drive, however. Vrooom.
Foods: Shrimp Vindaloo, please. Hot and spicy ethnic. Non-processed.
Alcohol: Fine Italian Chianti. Vodka. Exotic imported beer. More Vodka.
Music: Scorn, ClockDVA, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Coil, Slint,
Killing Joke, Chrome, Kraftwerk, Jane's Addiction, Zillatron,
John Zorn, Praxis, Lard, Meat Beat Manifesto, Eat Static, Suede,
Bill Laswell, Sepultura, Grotus, Mr. Bungle, Ozric Tentacles,
Pink Floyd, Frontline Assembly, Dayglo Abortions, Dead Kennedys,
Metallica, Slayer, Kreator, and lots and lots of other stuff.
Movies: The Stepford Wives, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Brazil,
Marathon Man, Blade Runner, anything by Akira Kurosawa,
Memoirs of An Invisible Man, The Usual Suspects, Aeon Flux,
Heavy Metal, Light Years.
Authors: Jorge Luis Borges, J. R. R. Tolkein, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Sun Tzu,
Stephen R. Donaldson, H. P. Lovecraft, Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
Clark Ashton Smith, Umberto Eco, George Orwell, Thomas Ligotti,
Douglas Adams, Robert Anton Wilson.
Turn Ons: Intelligence, algorithms, open mindedness, guitars, see "Women".
Turn Offs: Arrogance, stupidity, shallowness, closed mindedness, media whoring.
----------------[ Passions
Music. Listening to it as well as making it.
Reading and writing.
Programming algorithms and data structures.
I have this rock that I found in the creek next to the elementary school I
used to attend when I was in 3rd grade. The rock weighs over 7 pounds and
is shaped like a pebble. I hefted it from the waters and proclaimed it as
'Herman', my pet rock. I've had it ever since I was 9 years old. That was
the same year I first experienced computers. Holding on to this rock all
these years has definitely been a passion of mine.
Slowly becoming a social recluse. I actually think this is healthy for me.
----------------[ Memorable experiences
Watching Wargames for the first time. Yes, I admit it. It affected my life.
Being lame and creating the group XTension with ParMaster. It was the first
group for both of us. We thought it was pretty cool at the time.
Backdooring PRIMOS Rev. 22.0... yes, the actual source code repository. 8)
Trashing. Hiding in the dumpster while the janitor dumped trash on my head.
Hacking Europe, South America, and parts of Asia. Globe travelling...
Altger (NUA 026245890040004). Sigh. I liked it a lot better than irc.
SummerCon '95. Other than knowing The Usurper and Hyperminde, and having
Byteman visit from New Jersy for two weeks, I hadn't ever really met other
real, live hackers before. Very cool.
chuck and edward.
The l's. Bastards. 8)
Cytroxia on acid. Way to go, Danny.
The great 7-day Alliance Teleconference. I remember waking up to blasts of
DTMF tones and raucous laughter.
TELENET. PAD to PAD. NUIs. TELENET THINGIES!!!1!! DNIC scanning.
That VAX cluster. Hey Par, remember *that* VAX cluster?
PROTEON.
XTension being rent asunder as half the members were invited into Bellcore
and the other half being politely told to fuck off.
Novation AppleCat modems.
Watching a CERT advisory happen--from the inside. It was advisory CA-89.03.
Hiya, Chippy! Where are you?
Social engineering for the first time. It worked, go figure.
The Richard Sandza teletrial.
Getting busted. I missed SummerCon '89 as a result. From Phrack #28 PWN:
Violence and The Scythian: "We got busted by SoutherNet, but we'll be there!"
Backdooring a major network entity for the first time--the exhilheration.
PC PURSUIT. Oopsy.
Discovering I was published in 2600--almost 7 years after the fact!
Hey, I got my free issues and t-shirts!
Fuck QSD channel.
Outdials.
The TCP/IP Drinking Game. Version 1.0. SummerCon '96 in D.C. Talk about a
quick buzz. NeTTwerk gave the speech. BioH, .mudge, ReDragon, myself, and
a few others drank, and drank, and drank. A good time, to be sure. If anyone
reading this has video footage of the event, please mail me.
Backdooring a major VAX application using a hex editor.
Jamming on Control-C and falling through the login command processor into old
Primes. ROTFL.
Hacking from Dataphones in Boston.
My first buffer overflow. I remember talking on the phone with .mudge as I
worked out the details.
Falling in love.
Falling out of love.
----------------[ People to mention
In no particular order:
Dr. Who, BioHazard, Alhambra, .mudge, Dr. Cypher, Asriel, Bill From RNOC,
_*Hobbit (still reading flammage after all these years), Swamp Rat, N8,
The Dictator (AKA Dale Drew), Frankengibe, The Mentor, FryGuy, Garbage Heap,
The Scythian, Mr. Xerox, MasterMicro, 0x486578, Tim N. (love your code),
Bika (dig that hair), Grave45, Shewp, SkyHook, Blade Runner, Mycroft,
Shatter, Sir Hackalot, Nirva, Crimson Death, Par, Taran King, Thingo It,
Knight Lightning, Enkhyl, CheapShades, The Force, Byteman, The Leftist,
Chippy (la la la), Mad Hacker (the *real* one), The Usurper/Thrashing Rage,
Kewp (NOT!), Touch Tone (My voice isn't *that* hiiiigghhhh!!! CONNECT 1200),
The Urvile/Necron 99, Hyperminde/Dr. Psychotic (Remember, until there is a
cure for Assembly Language Brain Fry, there will always be the N.C. Home
for Deranged Programmers), ReDragon, B, Route, GyroTech, Epsilon,
Control-C (thanks for all the prank calls!). Lastly, I *must* mention that
cool ass M.I. guy who tried to bust me--you were rad! (It was a truly good
game. You told me to go to college, and I did. You also taught me not to
under-estimate the enemy, because I did.)
----------------[ Boards to mention
Elite Boards: Phoenix Project, Digital Logic, Pirate-80, Speed Demon Elite,
the various Metalland systems, The Metal AE, Demon Roach Underground, upt.org,
The Polka AE, The Lost City of Atlantis, Lunatic Labs, The Dead Zone, Ripco,
Broadway Show/Radio Station, The Central Office, The Missing Link, Lutzifer,
The Works, upt.org, and the L0phT BBS. There are undoubtedly more, but these
are the ones I remember to this day.
Local Boards: Never a fan of 'local' boards, there are only two that I can
recall as being k-interesting to any degree: The Padded Cell and Pandemonium,
both of which were in the 919 NPA.
----------------[ Quotes
Gimme sum PR1MEZ!1!!
May the Forces of Darkness become confused on the way to your house.
<SN> WERE THE SEKRATARIES THAT R00L CYBERSPACE
<SN> WE SKRIBBLE GFILES IN SHORTHAND
<SN> HEY THE RAVER EYE HEAR U PACK A MEAN LUNCHBoX
<SN> HEY ITS THE RAVER 0F CDC @#$@#
<SN> HEY RAVER OF CDC @$@#$
<SN> RAVER COME OVER HERE AND POSE WITH ME AND GHEAP F0R A PH0T0
<SN> I CANT BELIEVE EYEM ON IRC WITH THERAVER OF CDC
<SN> @$)%(&@*($&#*
<SN> HEY LADYADA, IM ON IRC WITH THE RAVER OF CDC
<SN> CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!
<SN> IM ST00PID NIGGAH oF M0D
I don't think that was really SN, but it was funny as hell anyway.
* glyph is away - vomiting binary - all Lame messages will be ignored.
<n8> I actually vomit hex, but that always seems to break down into binary
if it sits on the floor for a while
When I was a kid, nobody ever picked me to play dodge ball, kick ball, or
whatever. If I was picked, I was always last or second to last. You can
imagine what a pleasure the following was to read:
<Asriel> WE PICK GLYPH
<DaveNull> WE ALREADY HAVE GLYPH ASRIEL
<Asriel> oh
<Asriel> fuck
<Asriel> well
<Asriel> at least we have knuth
Other quotes have been lost to the vestiges of time.
----------------[ The future of the computer underground
I see a future without me.
----------------[ The forgotten pro-phile question
...And now for the [once] regularly taken poll from all interviewees.
Of the general population of phreaks and hackers you have met, would
you consider most, if any, to be computer geeks?
No. Most phreaks and hackers that I have met are not geeks. They are
more likely to be utter freaks, however, but not nerds or geeks. Geeks
lack social skills. Phreaks and hackers have a definite social world that
extends beyond phone switches and computer networks.
Thanks for your time, Yesmar. "No problem."
----[ EOF
