Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
System Failure 13
______________ _______________________________/ ___________ \________
\__ _____//___| . ____ __________ _____ _______\ .. __/
___/____ \ | /___/____ .. \ // \ / _____|___ | | \
/ .. | \ | / | \/ . \/ | .. // | | \
//____________________/ _________________________________________ |__|_____\
:::::: ______________/ / :: _________ :::::: / / :: ___________/ / ::: :: :
:_____/_______________//_____\_ //_______/__/____/ ___________/__________
/__ _________ __________/ . /______ | ___ . , ____ . _______\
:// . ______/ / | \ / \ / / | \ | ___\ // _____|___
/ \___// \/ \ \ // ' .. \ , \/ | /
_________________| .. ___________________________________| .. __________//
:// /____________|_______\ / ___________/ // _______________\
/______________ \ :::::::: / / ::::: ________/ / ::::::::::::::::: ::: :: :
::: jp!cia ... \ \________/_//_______/..________/ system failure ::
:::........::: \______________________// .........................::
_| |_
\ . //
\ ./
\/
.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| System Failure: Issue #13 |
`----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
Whew. Finally, issue 13. We've been delayed for about a month now, partially
due (okay, MOSTLY due) to the fact that I'm lazy and my schedule's been rather
broken lately, and partially due to the fact that I've been far too generous
in the amount of time I've given certain people (they know who they are) to
get their articles to me. Anyway, this is our last issue before DefCon 6, and
issue 14 (our second annual Spiffy Con Review Issue) should be out shortly
thereafter. Thanks to Jack Phlash for this issue's opening ascii and .diz
file.
--Logic Box [7/16/98]
.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| http://www.sysfail.org/ |
| [sysfail@syfail.org] |
`----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
<phelix> damnit. my screen is blue. BARKODE.
<barkode> what? I didn't do it.
.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| CONTENTS |
| SysInfoTrade by SysFail Staff |
| WIPO: The Government's Stranglehold by Velocity |
| Calling Number Delivery by Keystroke |
| IP Masquerading for Dummies by Saint skullY the Dazed |
| ARP: Your Ethernet Card's Best Friend by BarKode |
| Private Branch Exchanges by The PBX Phreak |
| Group Ethics and Morals by Logic Box |
| SysFail Mailbox by SysFail Staff |
`----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
<-------+
| SysInfoTrade
+----------------> staff@sysfail.org
--System Failure shirts are in stock, get them now! sysshirt.jpg in the
System Failure #13 zip show what they look like. Send $25 (s/h included)
to Penguin Palace PO Box 836853 Richardson, TX 75083
http://www.sysfail.org/products.htm
Get them now, because we'll only be bringing a limited supply to DefCon.
--Penguin Palace's TORI DO: THE EPIC CD should be available for DefCon. Bring
$20 to buy a copy at the con, and get it signed by pinguino. Jungle/Dark
Ambient soundtrack by Re: (part of Consciousness Lab of Sacramento), Miguel Q,
and Solo Jr. http://www.penguinpalace.com/torido
--DefCon is July 31-August 2, 1998. It's at the Plaza Hotel and Casino,
1-800-634-6575 (refer to the Network Security Solutions convention when
booking a hotel room) www.defcon.org
--System Failure will be hosting contests during the convention; a scavenger hunt
(friday) and a frequency hunt (saturday, bring a scanner). There will be prizes,
if you have anything (ram, dox, payphone, little sister, pet goldfish, ANYTHING)
you want to donate as a prize, email pinguino@sysfail.org or bring it by the
table on Friday of the con. Come by the table for a flyer about the current
contest. No information will be given out the day prior to the contest.
--On July 1, 1998, law enforcement officials including local police, state
police, and the FBI served search warrants at a Harwich, MA business and a
16 year-old Eastham boy's home and confiscated multiple computer systems
from both places, but no arrests were made at either location. These
raids were the result of a five month probe looking into alleged computer
crimes against Cape Internet and clients of Cape Internet. The Harwich
Business, Doctor PC, is the location of a Cape Internet POP, which serves
lower Cape Cod customers with dialup lines. They are also investigating
a half-dozen other teenage associates of the Eastham boy. (submitted by spee)
--On June 24, 1998, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) that it will
merge with TCI, a cable based telecommunications and Internet provider.
AT&T plans on merging its long distance, wireless, and Internet services
with TCI's cable, telecommunications and Internet services to create what
will be called AT&T Consumer Services. This new company will provide
local, long distance, wireless, cable, and dialup and high speed internet
access which will all be under the AT&T name. This merger allows AT&T to
be able to offer local phone service, of which TCI has a network already.
It also allows AT&T to offer cable modem services around the U.S. as well.
AT&T hopes that this will allow them to offer a variety of services
directly into consumer's homes.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
WIPO: The Government's Stranglehold
by Velocity (velocity@ionsys.com)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
WIPO is an acronym for the 'World Intellectual Propery Organization'
1.1: Brief Introduction
I was inspired to write this article after hearing about the controversial
new WIPO bill (controversial to the computer literate actually, I imagine
non-computer users couldn't care less about it). At the time I wrote this, the
WIPO bill had been passed by the senate and was on its way to congress. If
you haven't heard or read anything about the WIPO bill, oh well, that's not my
problem, you just suck. Go do a netsearch on it or something because I don't
want to discuss it in detail; I will however say that loosely translated, the
WIPO bill dictates that the reverse engineering of software shall be illegal.
For those of you who are less gifted and are having trouble with the big
words, this basically means that it will be illegal to take end-user software
packages and search for bugs within the program.
1.2: But Why?
Now I imagine right now at this exact second you are saying to yourself,
"Hey! I'm an elite hacker, I can do whatever I want, I can reverse engineer
software until I turn purple and the government can't do anything because they
won't know! Ha!". Well thats fine and dandy for you, I'm happy for you, and
the whole world is happy for you. What about people who actually make a living
doing this though? What about security consultants? Well, unlike you, they do
what they do as a profession. They can't very well continue with their career
if it is illegal. In the government's eyes, it would probably be equivalent to
working for the mafia. I'm not sure how that equation works out, but it just
does, so live with it. For the few of you who are thinking, "why would the
government do something as downright nutty as this?", well seeing as how my
telepathic skills aren't at their full potential at the moment, it being so
late at night and all, I will just give you my personal opinion. If my opinion
is not good enough for you, e-mail me and we can schedule and appointment for
me to perform a Vulcan Mind Meld on you. That way you can see all the
information I have stolen from the unsuspecting brains of government workers
first hand! But for those of you too impatient to wait for the appointment,
here is my opinion. My opinion is very simple, and probably very common among
other people. THEY ARE SCARED! They are afraid, plain and simple. They know
that malicious security-knowledgable individuals may be a greater threat to
the civilized world then Iraq is. Perhaps they are afraid because they are
ignorant, and they have no idea how to secure a system, so they just outlaw
the process of actions which go into finding a security flaw. Or maybe they're
not ignorant, they're just pricks. Who knows? But either way, the government
is trying to put a stranglehold on hackers and computer users in general.
1.3: What If It's Passed?
Let's briefly think about the after-effects (If the WIPO bill is passed).
First of all, as mentioned earlier, poor unsuspecting security consultants
will have their jobs flushed down the toilet, because technically their jobs
would be illegal. Second of all, mailing lists like BUGTRAQ will become
illegal, and probably will be forcefully shut down. Also, about a trillion
hack/phreak web pages will suddenly become illegal, and be forcefully removed
from web servers. What's next? Will the government start putting packet
sniffers on IRC servers just to see if we're discussing exploits and such? I
know using a packet sniffer is beyond the realms of most federal exployees'
abilites, but still, they could fluke it. And eventually in the end, every
computer user (with the exception of AOL users) will have a federal officer
handcuffed to him, at all times, just to make sure he doesn't say anything to
anybody about software bugs.
1.4: Other Threats
WIPO isn't the only action of its kind being taken. I'm not sure if this is
correct, but I recall reading a news article about the government's plan to
make it law that crypto developers have to put a backdoor in all their
programs, just in case the feds need to decrypt something (such as the mafia's
e-mail). Well that's lovely. How safe would you feel using PGP if you knew the
feds could decrypt it in 5 seconds? Probably not very god damned safe. What
would probably happen is people would stop developing crypto-type stuff,
because what's the use if the government can decrypt it anyway? That seems
kind of like cleaning up your house just before you're about to move out. Well
I guess it's not like that at all, but what kind of sicko cleans up his house
before he moves out? I'm sure the government has a billion of these little
laws waiting to be passed, but there isn't a whole lot we can do about it.
You could write to your local congressman so he can wipo his ass with your
letter. I bet as soon as he hears that you're upset about this law he'll do
his best to make sure it's never passed!
1.5: Who Will Suffer?
I think large corporations will suffer a lot from WIPO. The government may
be able to stop some poor schmoe of a security consultant, but they can't stop
every hacker in the world from developing exploits. Since the big corporations
don't have any outside experts to fix their security bugs, they will be
completely vulnerable. I guess that's kind of funny, because the government is
trying to protect people from hackers. But I guess if hackers will still be
writing exploits after WIPO, then there will probably be a handful of security
consultants who care little of the government's wrath, and will continue with
their work. And for every consultant brave enough to disobey the government,
there will be a corporation pleased as punch to pay this consultant an
enormous amount of money for him to work his magic on their network.
Corporations are about as concerned with the law as your average serial
killer, they just want to stop the 17-year-old kids from rebooting their
webservers every day. However, like most things in life, the people to suffer
the most will be the little guys. Read section 1.8 for information on how we
will suffer.
1.6: Description of Following Paragraph
The following paragraph was written a day after the rest of the article. All
the information here probably belongs in various other places around the
article, but I'm not about to go looking for places to put all this stuff, it
consists mostly of my ramblings and opinions.
1.7: Personal Opinions Mostly
Have you ever bought a table that had a big red sign on the top of it
warning you to "not tinker with this table under penalty of death!". Of course
you haven't. What manufacturer really gives a damn if you try to attach an
extra leg to his table design? But this in essence is what WIPO is. Software
being the table, and computer users being the would-be carpenters adding an
extra leg to the table. Now if you live outside the United States (as I do),
you may believe that WIPO doesn't affect you at all. WRONG! The WIPO treaty
was signed by 96 countries last December (or last last December, I'm not
sure). The chances are pretty good that unless you live in Biafra, you are
affected by WIPO.
1.8: More WIPO Implications
The treaty is actually meant to protect databases of all kinds. Wait, a
phone book is a database. What if phone companies decided to disallow
telemarketing agencies to use phone books? Well, I bet the telemarketers would
have fun dialing up random numbers all day and praying they get an answer. Not
that I would miss those nutty telemarketers, but still, there go another few
million people in the unemployment line with all those security consultants.
Also, with this nifty new treaty, software developers may decide to say that
you can not make backups of software. Now I'm not talking about warez here,
I'm talking about legit software backups. So what happens if you buy a $600
office suite software bundle, and accidently scratch the hell out of the cds?
Well, you don't have any backups because it's now illegal, so you're out $600.
WIPO also allows database developers to limit utilization of a database. What
this means is that maybe the phone company will let you use a phone book, but
by no means may you make your phone book available to any of your friends.
It is impossible for me to even begin to mention the impact this treaty will
have on us. I'm just trying to get across the fact that is is a very real
threat, and we should all be worried. To understand the full implications of
this treaty, you should really visit http://www.eff.org/, they have alot of
great links with transcripts and whatnot.
1.9: Final Opinions
This article contains very little facts, and several opionions! If I have
any facts wrong, don't bother contacting me about the, I really don't care. I
never asked you to read it, so if you don't like it and want to bitch at me
about it, why don't you go play in traffic? However, if you do have any
constructive criticism for me, you can send me telepathic messages anytime
between 7am and 11pm (my waking hours). And for all you other weirdos who want
to send me death threats, send them to velocity@ionsys.com.
1.10: More final opinions
If you would like to read some official documents on this subject, there are
several legislation transcripts available at http://www.eff.org/. I don't know
the exact URL, but it's somewhere on eff.org. Or you can go to
http://www.wipo.org/, which is roughly equivalent to asking Joe Camel if
smoking is bad for you. I say this because in WIPO members' opinion,
copyrights only "help the flow of information flow smoothly". Damn skippy,
wait, nevermind...
As a final thought I would like to quote a friend of mine, because I think
what he said really fits this treaty. He describes it as being "security
through obscurity". That is exactly what it is. When does copyrighting
interrupt the flow of information? Well, it starts with this bill.
Greetz to MrFly for editing my gay grammar.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Calling Number Delivery
by Keystroke (keystroke@thepentagon.com)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In the PCIE (Post Caller-ID Era), caller information (name, number, etc.) was
only available to the telcos through ANI. Customers had no way of knowing who
was calling them. To fix this problem (and make more money), AT&T Bell
Laboratories designed a service which made it possible for 'average' customers
to receive information about the calling party. On April 15, 1986, "Calling
Number Delivery" was patented in the United States Patent And Trademark
Office. It was assigned Patent Number 4,582,956.
Calling Number Delivery is on a subscription basis. The customer must pay
their local RBOC to have the Calling Number's Information (we'll call this
CNI) sent to them. If the customer being called subscribes to Caller ID, the
Terminating Central Office sends the CNI during the final 3100ms of the 4000ms
silent interval between the 1st and 2nd rings. Prior to the CNI being
transmitted, a Channel Seizure Signal and Mark Signal are sent (first 900ms)
to let the Caller ID Box (Customer Premises Equipment) know that CNI is about
to be sent. The CNI is then sent in either Single Data Message Format (SDMF)
or Multiple Data Message Format (MDMF). Both SDMF and MDMF contain the date,
time, and calling number; however, MDMF also contains the name associated with
the number. The data is then interpreted by the Customer Premises Equipment.
For more information on Calling Number Delivery protocols, read BellCore
articles:
TR-TSY-000030, "SPCS Customer Premises Equipment Data Interface",
TR-NWT-001273, "SPCS to Customer Premises Equipment Data Interface for
Analog Display Services, Generic Requirements for an",
TR-TSY-000031, "CLASS(sm) Feature: Calling Number Delivery",
TA-NWT-001188, "CLASS(sm) Calling Name Delivery and Related Features",
TR-NWT-000575, "CLASS(sm) Feature: Calling Identity Delivery on Call
Waiting (LSSGR)".
You can order them by calling 1-800-521-CORE.
Okay, now for the 0day exploits.
The Customer Premises Equipment sits dormant until the first ringing pattern.
After the change in voltage, it listens for the Channel Seizure Signal and
Mark Signal and finally the CNI. If no data is sent, or the data is corrupt
(it doesn't correspond to the checksum), it displays an error message, which
is determined by the particular CPE manufacturer.
If the phone only rings once and no data is sent, a timer in the CPE will
reset after several seconds, so the CPE knows that the next voltage change
will be the FIRST ring and that it should look for data. If the timer is not
reset, the CPE displays the caller's info and ignores the next few rings
because data is only sent after the first ring. While I haven't seen any specs
for CPEs, this timer thing seems logical, so we'll pretend it's true.
Anyone starting to see a possible exploit here? Hint: It's lame.
If you could somehow increase the voltage in the customer's loop, and then
place your actual call, the CPE will error because no data is sent after the
first (fake) "ring." The data will still be sent, but after the 2nd ring (as
the caller ID box sees it, actually it would really be the 1st ring) but
during this time, the caller ID isn't looking for info and has already errored
and is ignoring future ringing patterns. The only problem now is making the
trojan (first) "ring".
Well, it isn't really too big of a problem. Since the Caller ID data is sent
only after the 1st ring, you can call and hang up quickly without your info
being dumped by the Terminating Central Office. Unfortunately, you can't
communicate with the party on the other end unless they answer their phones
lightning quick. Unless...
0-day Exploit
-------------
Requirements - 2 phone lines, speedy fingers
1) Call victim on phone line #1; hang up after 1st ring
2) Quickly call them back on phone line #2
Sometimes you get a busy signal, but with practice you'll be calling people
Caller ID free in no time. This is a bug in the CPE, as the data is still
transmitted, so if they block people who do *67s, you'll still get through
(*67 block is at the switch). Unfortunately, *69 still works, but maybe during
the course of the call you can tell them you've hax0red their Caller ID and if
they type *69 it'll blow up and kill them or something. Then again, maybe not.
P.S. Contrary to the beliefs of some conspiracy theorists, when *67 is used to
block your number, it is not sent to the called-party. A "P" is sent instead.
You may have heard otherwise from some crazies, but I'm telling the truth.
Really.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
IP Masquerading for Dummies
by Saint skullY the Dazed (skully@sysfail.org)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Well, since a few issues back Dr. Seuss was going to write an article on
firewalling your Linux boxen but didn't write a very complete part 3, I'm
going to (try) to cover that a little more fully here. It assumes you have a
basic knowledge of configuration, compiling, and booting a kernel, some basic
knowledge about ipfwadm, and TCP/IP in general. If you have little or no
knowledge of the above, read the following HOWTO's, available at
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/
1. Kernel-HOWTO
2. NET-3-HOWTO
3. PPP-HOWTO (If applicable)
4. ISP-Hookup-HOWTO (If applicable)
5. Diald mini-howto (See above)
6. Ethernet-HOWTO
7. Firewall-HOWTO
8. IP-Masquerade mini-howto
Before I continue, I'd like to thank Logic and Pinguino for starting a kickass
'zine, Linus for writing a kickass kernel, the people at Walnut Creek for
putting together what is IMO the best distribution available, Dr. Pepper for
making a kickass soda, and the people working in the sweatshops in Asia for
making my clothes cheap.
This article will entail 3 parts:
I. What is Required
II. Setting Up the Basics
III. More Advanced Stuff
I. What is Required
-------------------
To masquerade, you need some basic components: an internal network, A Linux
box with two interfaces (one to the internal network the other to the external
network--the internet), a connection to the internet, and some time and
willingness to learn.
The Linux box can be as small as a 386/SX with 8MB of RAM, although a
486/DX-66 with at least 16MB of RAM would be preferred, depending on what else
the Linux box is expected to do. If you expect it to also handle mail and/or
web, you will need to adjust your CPU and RAM accordingly.
The connection to the internet can be anything from a PPP connection to a
cable modem or an ethernet connection in a dorm. In my case, it's a wireless
ethernet connection to my ISP (connected to eth0).
II. Setting Up the Basics
-------------------------
First, you should have your localnet setup. Each machine should have its own
IP, preferrably in one of the reserved IP blocks used especially for internal
(non-connecting) networks. There are 3three blocks setup, one for networks
requiring a class A, one for networks requiring a class B, and one for
networks requiring a class C. From RFC 1597:
Section 3: Private Address Space
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the
following three blocks of the IP address space for private networks:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
You will most likely use just a class C, and the most common to use is
192.168.1.0, although 192.168.0.0 works just as well.
For our purposes, we will assume a 4-node network using 192.168.1.0. So our
network will appear something like this:
192.168.1.1 Linux Router that will Masquerade
192.168.1.2 Workstation #1 running Windows 95
192.168.1.3 Workstation #2 running MacOS
192.168.1.4 Linux box that controls web and mail
They are all networked via 10b2 (Coax, since it doesn't require a hub). Each
machine is able to ping the other machines and can create connections as
necessary.
Our next task will be to set up the router to masquerade. Our box in this case
is a freshly installed Slackware 3.5 system running Linux 2.0.34. The first
thing we will want to do is to create a startup script called rc.firewall, and
place it with the other startup scripts (most likely /etc/rc.d/ or /etc/rc/).
A good basis for this is something like the following:
#!/bin/bash
# Clear all firewall entries and start fresh.
ipfwadm -A -f
ipfwadm -I -f
ipfwadm -O -f
ipfwadm -F -f
This will flush all entries for any firewall stuff so you avoid duplicate or
outdated entries. Next you will add any entries for blocking any ICMP, UDP and
TCP packets you want/need (a common example is to block 139 to the outside
world, since many versions of Samba have bugs and only your internal network
needs to connect to the Linux box for this purpose). I recommend commenting
all entries so that in 6 months' time when you need to change things, you
remember what does what. Refer to ipfwadm(8) for how to do this.
Next, we need to tell the Linux box to forward all connections from the
internal network to the Internet and masquerade them. This is done with these
two lines:
ipfwadm -F -p deny
ipfwadm -F -a m -S 192.168.1.0/24 -D 0.0.0.0/0
The first line tells the system to deny all forwarding requests by default.
Otherwise, anyone who can control their routing (Read: anyone who runs any
type of *ix system) can easily gain access to your internal network. The
second line tells it to forward all requests from 192.168.1.0 to anywhere, and
to masquerade the requests. This is all that's needed to have a working setup,
but remember that we also have a machine inside the LAN that is going to
handle all mail and web connections. Enter in two more important programs:
datapipe and tcplogger, both available at ftp://ftp.sysfail.org/pub/Linux/.
Tcplogger is a program which will log all connection attempts from remote
hosts. It doesn't matter if you are listening on that port or not. This is
handy if someone tries to portscan you. For our purposes, it also allows us to
see who connects to your machine for web and mail. Datapipe listens on a
specified port and forwards all packets from the host machine to another
machine. This allows us to forward all connections to port 80 and port 25 over
to the Linux box handling web and mail. You need tcplog so that you can see
who connects, since all the mail/web server will log is "192.168.1.1". With
tcplogger and datapipe setup, our network is complete and functioning how we
want it. If this is all you're after, skip the rest of this document.
III. More Advanced Stuff
------------------------
Ok, now that we have our network set up, we may need a few more things. This
will deal with things related to having a subnet and wanting some machines to
be masqueraded and others to not be. So we must modify our network a bit.
We'll assume you have an 8 IP (6 usable IPs) subnet, and 10 machines to be
connected. The machines we want to be visible to the outside will be using
172.16.1.192 with a netmask of 255.255.255.248 and a broadcast of
172.16.1.199. The machines on the internal network will be using the class C
192.168.1.0. So our IP Table now looks something like the following:
Non-Masqueraded
---------------
172.16.1.193 - Router
172.16.1.194 - Web
172.16.1.195 - web2
172.16.1.196 - web3
172.16.1.197 - mail
172.16.1.198 - NT Box
Masqueraded
-----------
192.168.1.1 - Router
192.168.1.2-5 - Workstations
Now I'm going to assume that you want all connections originating from the
internal network to be masqueraded (for security concerns) no matter which
subnet it's on. So instead of the rather small script we had before, you will
need to modify it a bit. Here's a sample script:
# Clear all firewall entries and start fresh.
/sbin/ipfwadm -A -f
/sbin/ipfwadm -I -f
/sbin/ipfwadm -O -f
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -f
# Add entries for IP Masquerading
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -p deny
# Subnet
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a m -S 172.16.1.192/28 -D 0.0.0.0/0
# Workstations
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a m -S 192.168.1.0/24 -D 0.0.0.0/0
This will masquerade all connections, but what good is our subnet if we are
still masquerading. So we next add lines to allow hosts to connect into the
subnet. This is done with a line similar to the following:
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a accept -S 0.0.0.0/0 -D 172.16.1.192/28
But what if we want to do that on a host-by-host basis? Say, web1 will allow
all connections, but web2 and web3 should only allow certain IPs to connect?
We will then want to not use the lines above, and use something like this:
# This is to allow all connections to web1
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a accept -S 0.0.0.0/0 -D 172.16.1.194/32
# This is to allow only 10.1.1.0 to connect to web2
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a accept -S 10.1.1.0/24 -D 172.16.1.195/32
# This is to allow only 10.1.2.0 to connect to web3
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a accept -S 10.1.2.0/24 -D 172.16.1.196/32
And for mail, we need to forward all connections to our mail server.
# This is for mail connections
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a accept -S 0.0.0.0/0 -D 172.16.1.197/32
And finally, the NT box should allow all connections. This will require two
lines, one for input and one for output. We will use something like the
following:
# Allow the NT box to have any connections it wants.
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a accept -S 0.0.0.0/0 -D 172.16.1.198/32
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a accept -S 172.16.1.198/32 -D 0.0.0.0/0
Now, we have a network set up to our original specifications. Providing you
keep your Linux box secure, your machines inside the firewall should also be
secure. If you wanted, you could limit the lines above even further by having
the router only forward certain TCP ports rather then any traffic bound for
the Linux box. For example, to allow only TCP packets destined for port 25 to
connect to the Linux box, you would scrap the line above and use something
like this:
/sbin/ipfwadm -F -a accept -P tcp -S 0.0.0.0/0 25 -D 172.16.1.197/32
That will forward all port 25 connections to 172.16.1.197 on to the mail
machine, yet deny all other connections.
If you've made it this far, you're probably thinking one of two things: "This
shit is way over my head," or "This seems rather simple, what about filtering
ports to the router and specifying interfaces?" Well, my response is that this
was a followup to Dr. Seuss's last article (part 3 in "Firewalling your Linux
Boxen") which he did not have time to make into the comprehensive guide he
would have liked. So I wrote this, since I had to learn much of it myself and
was getting tired of answering people's questions regarding some of the more
advanced stuff. So now I can just say "Read my damn article" and not worry
about it. :=)
***** Just a quick note not related to the article in any way *****
<note>
As I sit here and write this in vi, I can't help but be reminded of the many
religious wars, e.g., elm vs. pine, vi vs. emacs, Linux vs. BSD, ad nauseum,
I can't help but laugh. True, I myself have been guilty of entering into (and
even starting) these wars. What they usually boil down to is personal
preference, and whatever works for you is what's best. However, you should not
force your personal preference. You can use whatever you like without having
to worry about someone else forcing you to use another program. Hell, if it's
what's right for you, you may even use Win95, although I would question your
sanity. ;=) At any rate, I still love to get into these religious wars,
however I do know that no matter how much I may argue, I still can't force
anyone to use vi/elm/bash. You should realize the same, and maybe point out
good features of each, but don't try to insult someone based on their personal
preference.
</note>
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
ARP: Your Ethernet Card's Best Friend
by BarKode (barkode@geekbox.slackware.org)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This document is meant to be an introduction to the ARP protocol. It assumes
that you are somewhat familiar with TCP/IP networking.
On the Link Layer of the 7-Layer OSI Network Model, you'll find ARP, standing
by itself off in a corner. This seemingly out-of-the-way protocol is actually
essential for most network communication to take place, as it translates
logical addresses (in this case, IP) to Hardware Addresses.
ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol, and for this document, we'll speak
of ARP as it applies to a standard IPv4 TCP/IP network.
ARP is responsible for resolving the 48-bit ethernet address associated with
your 32-bit IP address. Your ethernet card doesn't care, nor does it even know
what its IP address is. It just has a 48-bit address assigned to it, most
often hard coded into the firmware. Your IP address however, can change any
time, while your ethernet address stays the same. Hence, your IP-based network
needs to know how to find which machine to send its IP packets to. ARP is the
way.
Let's say for this document your ethernet card has a hardware address
of 00:00:2b:04:a9:11 and your IP address is 198.162.1.1, and you are on
a class C network.
When a machine on the network wants to initiate an IP-based connection, it
first needs to find out the hardware address of the remote machine. ARP steps
in and sends an ARP REQUEST, asking the network who has the IP address it's
looking for. Let's say you are trying to connect to 192.168.1.2.
Running tcpdump you might see this:
00:00:2b:04:a9:11 ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff arp 60:
arp who-has 192.168.1.2 tell 192.168.1.1
Let's look at this packet.
The first section is our hardware address.
The second section is the broadcast hardware address of the network. This
packet is sent to every machine listening asking each where this IP is.
The third identifies the packet as being an ARP packet.
The fourth is the size of the ethernet frame, padded to its minimum 60 bytes.
The rest is fairly straightforward, asking "Which machine on this network has
192.168.1.2 assigned to them? Please tell 192.168.1.1 your hardware address."
Now let's look at what this packet looks like on the network.
Ethernet Header
.-------------------------------.
|Ethernet Dst|Ethernet Src|Frame|
| Address | Address |Type |
| | | |
`-------------------------------'
6 bytes 6 bytes 2 bytes
.--------------------------------------------------------------.
| Hard|Prot|Hard|Prot|Op|Sender Eth|Sender|Target Eth|Target IP|
| Type|Type|Size|Size| | Address | IP | Address | Address |
| | | | | | | | | |
`--------------------------------------------------------------'
2 2 1 1 2 6 4 6 4
The numbers below the fields represent the number of bytes in the field. This
ARP request is 28 bytes in length.
The Ethernet header contains the 48-bit ethernet address of the sender and
the recipient, in this case, the recipient being the broadcast address. The
2-byte Frame Type field specifies that this is an ARP request or reply with
the value 0x0806.
The Hardware Type and Protocol Type fields specify the type of hardware
address and type of protocol address, respectively. This would be a 1 for
ethernet in this case, and an 0x0800 for for IP addresses, again respectively.
Hard Size and Prot Size are related information, containing the size of the
hardware address and protocol address contained in the following fields. In
this case we have a 48-bit ethernet address (6 bytes) and a 32-bit IP address
(4 bytes).
The OP field specifies what type of service this packet is. It can be any of
the following:
1 - ARP Request
2 - ARP Reply
3 - RARP Request (Reverse ARP, not covered in this article)
4 - RARP Reply
For now assume Reverse ARP is a machine asking other machines for it's own IP.
Since this field is a request, the target ethernet address is not included, as
that is the information we are looking for.
When the remote host recieved the broadcast request, it recognizes the IP as
being its own, and replies:
00:00:4b:2a:01:04 00:00:2b:04:a9:11 arp 60:
arp reply 192.168.1.2 is-at 00:00:4b:2a:01:04
When the machine requesting the information gets this packet, it can now open
the connection to the remote machine. This entire process on a 10Mbit network
may take about 3ms.
The packet sent back is formatted as the first packet, with different values
in the fields.
1. The Ethernet header is formed with its own information.
2. The OP type is changed to 2, ARP reply.
3. The source and destination fields are completed with the information as
expected, i.e. its own IP and hardware addresses.
4. The packet contains the hardware address of the machine with the IP address
originally asked for in the request.
But what about machines on other networks accessed through gateways? Well, ARP
requests will not be made for machines not located on the local network.
Instead, packets will be forwarded to a next-hop router (gateway) for delivery
to another network.
I hope you learned something reading this article. Next issue, we should be
talking about RARP, ProxyARP, ARP caching, and Gratuitous ARP. If you are
interested in learning more about ARP or any protocols in the TCP/IP family,
I highly recommend W. Richard Stevens' TCP/IP Illustrated Volume 1. This book
covers many topics of TCP/IP networking in great detail, belongs next to the
bed at night, and was used for reference while writing this article.
Also I recommend running tcpdump on your network often and watch what's going
on. This is a good way to get a preliminary look into what's really going on
when that light on the hub is blinking. :)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Private Branch Exchanges
by The PBX Phreak (chris@sloth.org)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I would like to thank Chapters book store for baring with me for all my time
of research at their store, and also thank you to Starbucks coffee for
providing their awesome cocoa! A lot of research was done for this article. I
hope you like it!
Down to Business:
A private branch exchange (PBX) is a typical telephone system for large
organizations. In this environment, an organization that is served by a
central office dial tone from the local exchange company might need the
capacity of high-volume calling and handling services. Clearly, a single-line
telephone set with a dial-tone line for each user will work. But, it will only
just work! It will not satisfy the needs of the organization.
In addition, it will be expensive. Assume that a dial-tone line costs $20 per
month. If the organization has a multitude of users, the cost per month will
be significant. Table A highlights some of the typical costs associated with
basic dial-tone service for various numbers of employees. These numbers are
only representative, but they should get our point across. The table reflects
the basic montly cost and the annualized cost of renting a dial-tone line
from the local carrier.
Table A:
Number of Users Monthly Cost @ $20.00 Annualized Cost
100 $2,000 $24,000
500 $10,000 $120,000
1,000 $20,000 $240,000
2,500 $50,000 $600,000
10,000 $200,000 $2,400,000
You can clearly see from these numbers that the use of a basic dial-tone
service can get quite expensive. As a matter of fact, many organizations now
say that telecommunications is the number-two expense item in their corporate
expense registers, second only to personnel costs. This is both good and bad.
It is good that organizations are depending on telecommunications more, as
opposed to more expensive alternatives (such as travel, personnel, and other
sales and marketing costs). Pound for pound, telecommunications sill produce a
greater return on every dollar spent.
But back to the point. The costs can be staggering to a financial or senior
managerial person in an orgranization. But the dial-tone line costs listed in
table A give the user only dial-tone access. This is a full-time dedicated
access line for two-way service for every single user. If you add just a
single-line telephony set for each of these users, then there are some
capital costs associated with the ownership of these lines. Table B shows the
costs of a single-line set for every user, at a base price of $60 per
single-line telephone set. These are, again, basic assumptions on the
purchase of these sets; one could do better.
Table B:
Number of Users Cost of Equipment
100 $6,000
500 $30,000
1,000 $60,000
2,500 $150,000
10,000 $600,000
Again, you can see that the equipment costs can mount quickly. But what is
wrong with this picture? Well for starters, the single-line set limits what
the user can do with the basic dial-tone service. Also, the single-line set
does not allow for intercommunication between the users within the
organization unless they tie up their dial-tone lines as follows:
- Grab the dialtone by going off hook.
- When dial toen is recieved, dial the digits (seven) of the desired internal
party.
- When the ring is generated and the party answers, hold a conversation.
But this completely ties up two outside lines for the two parties to converse.
If a customer tries to call either of these two parties, the customer will get
a busy tone. That is, unless the call hunts to some other number. If the call
does hunt, then a third outside line is occupied while a message is taken at
the rollover line. Customers can be denied access, and can get frustrated. All
of this while the two parties could be talking to each other in the next
office. Note that however long the wires are that run back to the central
office where the dial tone is provided, the call uses twice that to get the
two conversationalists together. Clearly, this is not an optimized use of
telecommunications services.
It should be obvious from the preceeding discussion that larger organizations
require the larger capacity and capability of a private branch exchange (PBX).
These systems have names that come in many flavours, such as Private Automated
Branch Exchange (PABX), Computerized Branch Exchange (CBX), Digital Branch
Exchange (DBX), Integrated Branch Exchange (IBX), and Nippon Electric
Automated Exchange (NEAX).
These names basically mean the same thing. They are just different vendors'
acronyms used to differentiate their specific products. The generic term PBX
is a private (customer owned and operated) branch exchange (like a central
office, it switches and routes calls internally or externally and provides a
dial tone to the internal users). The PBX marketplace is inundated with
acronyms and features. However, they all do similiar things: they primarily
process voice calls for the organization. These devices are computer systems
that just happened to do voice. Now they also do other things, such as
provide data communications and data access.
On average the all-digital PBX will cost approximately $750 to $1000 per
station. A station is the end-user device, and the figure includes the cost of
all the associated hardware to support the telephone set. Included in this
generic price is the card inside the computer that provides the dial tone and
the logic, a portion of the common equipment that serves many users, and the
telephone set, the wiring, and the installation.
The Components of the PBX are as follows:
- The central processor unit (CPU) is the computer inside the system. The
"brains".
- The memory-any computer needs some amount of memory.
- The stations, or telephone sets, are also called lines.
- The trunks are the telco CO trunks that terminate into a PBX.
- The network switches calls inside the system.
- The cabinets house all the components.
- The information transfer, or bus carries the information to and from the
computer.
- The console or switchboard allows the operator to control the flow of
incoming calls, and so on.
- The common logic, power cards, and so on facilitate the system's operation.
- The battery back-up insures against power failures.
- The wiring infrastructure connects it all.
The PBX is a stored-program, common-controlled device. As a telephone system,
it is a resource-sharing system that provides the ability to access a dial
tone and outside trunks to the end user. This stored-program controlled system
today is an all-digital architecture. In older versions, the PBX could be an
analog system, but newer systems are all digital. It would not make sense to
produce an older technology for a modern-day telephony system.
Analog Systems
--------------
The analog system used analog components to handle to handle the call setup
and tear-down for the entire system. A voice call is introduced into the
system in much the same way that a business or residential user's input is
introduced to the telephone company network. As the user generates a call, the
telephone handset is picked up from the cradle. At this point, an input/output
(I/O) request signal is sent to the main architecture of the PBX, which is
usually a computer. Once the signal is sent to the common control, the system
then returns a dial tone. The user then dials the digits for the party
desired. This dialing sequence is done in-band on the wires the talk path of
the caller. The digits, either rotary (pulse) or tone (DTMF), are sent down
the wires to the telephone system.
From there, the telephone system kicks in and generates a request through the
architecture to a trunk card. The trunk card serves as the interface to the
central office (CO) to request an outside dialtone. The PBX, upon recieving
dial tone at the trunk card interface, then generates the pulses or the tones
across the line to the central office. Then CO processes these digits in the
same manner that is processes individual line requests from a residential
user. From the telephone company's perspective, this is the easiest way to
process the information.
Digital PBX
-----------
All newer systems are basically digital. As a computer architecture, the
system processes the information in its digital format. A digital
coder/decoder (codec) in the telephone set converts the analog voice
conversation into a digital format. The digital signals are then carried down
the wires to the PBX heart (the CPU) for processing. If a call must go outside
to the world, the PBX has to determine the best route to process the call
onto. In the case where the call will be traversing the telephone company's
central office links on an analog circuit, the PBX must format the information
for the outside link. In this case, a digital-analog conversion will take
place. Even if the call is to traverse a digital link to the world, the PBX
might have to go through a digital-digital conversion. This is because the
digital signal at the PBX interface is a unipolar signal, whereas the signal
to the telephone company is bipolar signal.
The list of vendors selling and supporting PBX systems is quite lengthy. The
manufacturers offer them to the customer directly or through a distributor.
The options are many. The two largest suppliers of systems in the United
States are Lucent Technologies and Northern Telecomm Inc. (NORTEL). This
ranking is based on number of systems sold, rather than a qualification of
"best", although tiy nught establish that the quantity sold is a reflection of
some qualitative measure. Table C. shows the top players in the United States,
based of sales volumes. It is interesting to note that the top 2 command
better than 50 percent of the U.S. market.
Table C: Top Players in the U.S. PBX Market
-------------------------------------------
Northern Telecomm (NORTEL)
Lucent Technologies
ROLM
NEC
GTE
Intecom
Fujitsu
Hitachi
Mitel
The PBX market has recently been plagued by soft sales. This is a function of
the recession, the rightsizing and downsizing of corporate America, and the
overall unsettled market from a technological standpoint. End users are
uncertain of what to buy and when on the market curve they should buy.
Therefore, the vendors have had to resort to major markdowns, and they often
throw in several other goodies. The buyer's market prevails in the PBX
industry. As a result, significant discounts can be obtained if you work with
the vendor and understand the product being offered. Many vendors will also
compete severly with their distributors. Remember, this is a buyer's market.
In Table D. is a summary of how the costs would look for the acquisition of a
digital PBX, the basic telephone system for an organization. This table
reflects three important pieces of the billing arrangements. It would not be
unethical to see how the vendors price out their systems against this model.
In table D. we use an average price per port of $1000. The costs associated
with a 1000-user system would, therefore, be as they appear in table D.
Table D: Summary of Costs for a 1000-Line Digital PBX
-----------------------------------------------------
- Cost of hardware, software, training, all telephone sets, and interfaces
with installation of the hardware - $350,000
- Cost of wiring and installation for the building infrastructure - $350,000
- Markup and Profit - $300,000
- Total - $1,000,000
Another item of note is the third line item, that being profit. We always want
out vendors to survive for another day , no two ways about that. However, we
do not want to pay a 30 percent total markup on a system for profit. In
actuality, the margin is 37 percent, and we will see why later. This is
unheard of. So, the discounts that might be passed along from the vendor might
well be from the profit picture. Suppose that the vendor offers a discount of
20 percent off the top of the price. The total price is $1,000,000 and the
discount is 20 percent, so you can expect to pay $800,000. That should make
you feel pretty good, to get a $200,000 discount off the top of your system.
But, wait! What if the vendor cam back and said that the total discount is
only $70,000? Where did we go wrong? Well, the issue is where the numbers are
being calculated. The vendor discounted the 20 percent from the top of the
system cost ($350,000 X 0.2 = $70,000). Now, you are paying around $930,000
total for the system, installed. That is not exactly what you thought you were
getting a discount on! The vendor will explain that the cost of the wiring
cannot be discounted because they use a subcontractor and have to pay this
third party for the installation. True, but the vendor also marks up the cost
of the wiring and installation. That $350,000 fee to install and wire the
system is probably only a $280,000 to $300,000 charge from the subcontractor.
So, the manufacturer or distributor is getting a piece of the pie for the
installation too!
Yes, this is true. Regardless of how we slice and dice the numbers, this is
still a very lucrative sale for the vendor. With a $50,000 to $70,000 markup
on the wiring, a $300,000 profit margin, and the remaining cost of the system
($280,000), you can imagine just how much the vendor is making on this system.
Well now look at the margins based on this new evidence.
Table E:
Item Original Cost New Cost Profit Percent Margin
---- ------------- -------- ------ --------------
PBX System $350,000 $280,000
Wiring and Installation $350,000 $350,000 $70,000 20
Margin and Profit $300,000 $300,000 $300,000 30
Total $1,000,000 $930,000 $370,000 37
Can you see anything wrong with this picture? Even though the vendor has given
a 20 percent discount to you, and you feel so special for negotiating such a
difficult deal for the vendor, and a great one for the organization, the
overall margin of profit that the vendor has achieved is still 37 percent.
This still leaves a lot of room for negotiation before the deal is done. If
you consider that there is still room to cut the cost in the profit margin,
the profits on the subcontracted piece of wiring, and the overall system cost,
then the dealing has only begun. In many cases, the ability to subcontract the
wiring (for example) might produce more productive and competitive results. In
this case, many organizations will act as the general contractor for the
overall telephone system and then contract for the wiring separately from the
telephones. An example of the wiring costs might look like the numbers shown
in Table F, where a seperate contract is issued for the installation of a
four-pair cable installed at 1000 user locations, the horizontal wiring
between the telephone closets and the main distribution frame, and any
ancillary cabling needed to implement the system.
Table F:
Cost Per Location Extended Price
----------------- --------------
Cost of wiring a 1000-user system @$250-$280 $250,000-$280,000
Cost of PBX manufacturer @$350 $350,000
Difference $70,000-$100,000
Keep in mind that these figures are generic, and will require seperate bids
from various installation companies. If, however you now consider this figure,
and recognize that the wiring contractor has already built the necessary
profit margins to make money on the installation, then the PBX price now has a
different perspective. The margin for the hardware, installation, and
warrantee on the PBX is now subject to serious negotiation. See table G.
Table G:
Item Cost Percent Margin
---- ---- --------------
PBX $280,000
Markup $300,000
Subtotal $580,000 115
Wiring $280,000 15
Total $860,000
As you can now imagine, the cost for the telephone system is $280,000 with a
profit margin of $300,000 (over 100 percent markup). No vendor will ever
approach this structure; these are comparative pricing scenarios. However, if
you consider that a 30 percent markup is what the vendor is entitled to, the
following summary gives us a whole new structure to deal from. The intent is
not to jeopardize the stability and profitability of the supplier, but to
maximize the comfort between the two parties. This case will obviously consume
a lot of time and effort. But, the overall results are significant. See
table H.
Table H:
Item Original Pricing Revised Pricing Difference
---- ---------------- --------------- ----------
PBX $350,000 $280,000 $70,000
PBX Markup $300,000 $84,000 $216,000
Wiring $350,000 $280,000 $70,000
Totals $1,000,000 $644,000 $356,000
Percentage 35.6%
Clearly the price has changed significantly! The system is now being
considered at approximately $644 per user instead of $1000. This accounts for
a $356,000 discount overall. This is the way you can look at using the system
pricing, rahter than just accepting standard pricing. The pricing can vary
quit a bit from the original proposal.
Peripheral Devices
------------------
And finally, the list of peripheral devices for PBX markets is virtually
unlimited. The devies range from items as simple as an external bell to very
sophisticated management systems. The pieces are too numerous to list herein
but there is still a lot of negotiating room for any component you might need.
Here are some devices that might appear in the picture:
Automatic call distribution
Voicemail
Automated attendant
Call detail recording
Modem pools
Multiplexers
Head serts
Display sets (telephones)
Paging systems
Least cost call routing
Network management systems
Design tools
Answering machines
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Group Ethics and Morals
by Logic Box (logic@sysfail.org)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I've been into the H/P scene for two years now. I got into it in July of 1996
after first reading PLA way back when it was still on peak.org. As do many
other people, I went through my "stupidity" phase (as I guess it could be
called) during which time most of my blatant (yet for the most part, piddly)
illegal activity was done, and most of my power-tripping took place as well
(mostly on IRC). After a few months of this--and a few rough experiences--I
realized a few things and learned a few lessons. And after an interesting
conversation with my good friend BarKode recently, I really began to realize
something that not a lot of people in this scene seem to.
It's important to have morals.
In thinking about this, I began considering the people around me and those I
associate with on a day-to-day basis--especially my group. Everything I do,
and everything that everyone else in System Failure does, leaves an impression
on people about the group as a whole. And I don't like making bad impressions.
BarKode brought up a very good point in particular, involving Milw0rm's recent
streak of military website attacks. JF and company hang out in our IRC channel
regularly, and read this zine as well. In each of their website attacks, a
shout-out to System Failure was included, along with a link to our website.
This, of course, attracted all kinds of attention. I've noticed quite a few
hits from government sites in our httpd access logs lately. The question is:
is this good attention? I don't think so.
I have thought a lot about this sort of thing. While we are friends with
Milw0rm and such, these types of things probably aren't something that we--as
a group--should be implicated in. I know that the collective group wouldn't go
around doing stuff like this ourselves. We tend to be pretty passive people,
and vie for our learning through reading and understanding, not doing
blatantly illegal things (I am expressing no opinion about Milw0rm's actions).
I do not wish to point the finger at Milw0rm, this is just a good example that
I am using to prove my point.
Another question that I began to ask myself is: if I got raided today, would I
be okay? I think this is a question that everyone should ask themselves every
now and then. Especially all the members of System Failure that are reading
this. :) What if, say, one of the others members of my group got raided for
something, and during questioning, they told the authorities that they were
part of an underground group called System Failure? This would attract a lot
of unwanted attention from the wrong people. Not exactly something I want.
Our ethics, morals, and general overall attitude are important things, and
should be taken into consideration by more people. Be careful about what you
deal with, who you deal with, how you deal with them, and what the
consequences might be--especially if you're in a group. Good groups are few
and far between these days, and those that are should take steps to insure
that they stay around.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
<-------+
| SysFail Mailbox
+----------------> staff@sysfail.org
We've gotten a lot of interesting mail here at sysfail.org lately, so I just
thought I'd share a few of the more humorous ones with you. Note that none of
these are edited for grammar.
From: Bell Haxor
To: logic@sysfail.org
Subject: infos
y0 d00d,
I've b33n readin' yur elite zine and have hella infos I'd like to hook
yas up wit. I've got DMS-100 Skilz xESS skillz and many other cools
things like that, can I get my piture on yur page etc?
# Uhhhh, great. I dunno what a piture is, but I'll get right on it! Actually,
# I never replied to this, and about two days later this guy sent me another
# e-mail calling me a fucking asshole and saying "no wonder the only articles
# in your fucking zine are about editing inetd.conf." It was funny as hell,
# and I would include it here except I lost it.
------------------------------
From: DAIZY BOO
To: staff@sysfail.org
Subject: very important
i really like your articles and stuff.But the reason im writing you is i want
to know how to get passwords peoples accoun credit card number so do you think
you could please help.If you want i have a few peoples account i could give to
you for something in return.i want to no how to punt people and learn stuff
from yall so please write back and tell me what ya think
# As for the credit card stuff, I don't do that sort of thing. It's bad. And
# I don't know what you mean by punting people, but one day some guy came to
# IRC and threatened to punt us all (as soon as he learned how), and we
# 'punted' his ass right off the channel. Funny huh? [above e-mail sent from
# aol.com]
------------------------------
From: PTD125
To: staff@sysfail.org
Subject: Worldvox exploit Q
After I setup the worldvox conf, is it safe to call it from home?
# Yeah, sure it is. I promise. [also sent from aol.com]
------------------------------
From: WopMan
To: logic@sysfail.org
Subject: CARD SCAMZ
I HAVE FOUND A WAY TO GET TONS OF CREDIT CARD NUMBERS.YOU JUST NEED A SCANNER
AND AN A ANTENNA USUALLY TWICE AS LARGE AS WHAT THEY GIVE YOU WHEN YOU BYE
IT.100 DOLAARS FOR THE SCANNER AND 13 DOLLARS FOR A BIGGER ANTENNA FROM RADIO
SHACK AND YOUR IN BUISSNESS.E-MAIL ME BACK AND TELL ME IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE
BEST MODEL SCANNERS AND OTHER EQUIPMENT 2 USE.ALSO A GREAT WAY TO GET INFO TO
BLACKMAIL YOUR NIEGHBORS WITH.JUST E-MAIL ME AND ILL TELL YOU ALL THE BEST
STUFF TO USE.
# WOW, THAT'S GREAT! First of all, my advice is to fix your broken caps lock
# key. Second, learn how to spell before I send the Grammar Mafia to your
# house. Third, I don't know what a 'nieghbor' is, but I don't have any and I
# can't say I've ever blackmailed them.
[aol.com]
------------------------------
From: krow
To: staff@sysfail.org
Subject: Fucking over Sony
Havent practiced this krime yet, but I assume it would work. If you put
a playstation game in your pc cd drive you can access all kinds of data
from the game. (some of you might know where I am going) If you have a
read/write drive you can copy all of the data and save it to a new cd.
Pop in another cd and do the same, until you have 500 dollars worth of
pirate games and it cost you about 300 dollars. or for the more
advenerous out there you might try carding the drive and cds from mail
order DickUSA. If any one tries this I would like you to eMail me at
[address edited out] with your results, because I am to stupid to card my
own drive.
# c0uld y3w t34ch m3 h0w t0 k0mm1t o7h3r h1gh-t3k kr1m3z? There's not a
# DickUSA in my area, so I guess I'm out of luck. You can't play copied PSX
# games (or foreign ones for that matter) anyway unless you've modified your
# Playstation (but I wouldn't know how to do that or anything). And by the
# way, this "krime" has been widely known for quite a while.
------------------------------
From: Georg Bourek
To: logic@sysfail.org
Subject: claim
yr people have hacked our site. This caused us a loss in time and money.
This practice to increase yr traffic is absolutely criminal. therefore we
expect yr message within 24 hours how you will pay for this loss. yr org
has to pay for the damage you caused. if no answer received, we will
forward this matter another way.
# We are not milw0rm. Quit e-mailing us, you morons.
------------------------------
From: John N. Phelps
To: logic@sysfail.org
Subject: url
Hi, can you send me your secret romance url?
Thanks :)
# Uh, yeah... it's at http://nomercy.jobs.sk:8080
------------------------------
From: Gideon
To: pinguino@sysfail.org
Subject: hey
Hello , i am Gideon .... just a humble fan. I was wondering .. are you
single. :)
# No, but Spanish Prince is! You can e-mail him at spee@sysfail.org!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Well, that wraps up this issue. Issue 14 should be out soon after DefCon, with
15 following later in the month. To all of you who are attending DefCon 6,
we'll see you there.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-E-O-F-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-