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System Failure 12
... have i told, you lately, that i love you, secret squirrel? ...
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` ÄÄ ..>> systemfailure#12 <<.. ÄÄ '
sys#12. anarchist noname
.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| System Failure: Issue #12 |
`----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
Yeah yeah, so I'm late getting the issue out. What else is new? Sorry for the
delay in releasing this issue, I've been busy with school-type stuff like
finals and such. But hey, now that I'm finished with high school, I can sit in
my room all day and devote ALL my time to System Failure! Well, maybe not.
Anyway, this is our one-year anniversary issue; the group was started a year
ago on May 3rd, so like, happy anniversary to us, dammit!@# Speaking of
holiday-type stuff, happy birthday to Infinite Zero too, whose birthday is
this weekend. Thanks once again to Anarchist for the opening ascii (what would
we ever do without you?). Look for a big site update in a few days (after I've
finished with graduation and had time to chill). Enjoy the issue!
--Logic Box [6/3/98]
.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| http://www.sysfail.org/ |
| [sysfail@syfail.org] |
`----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| CONTENTS |
| SysInfoTrade by SysFail Staff |
| The History of System Failure by Logic Box |
| Milw0rm Hacks Nuclear Site: An Interview With J.F. by Pinguino |
| Advanced Looting and Trashing by Mr. Sonik |
| Kids and Violence Today by Saint skullY the Dazed |
| Bypassing Your Friendly Neighborhood Firewall by Duncan |
| Messing With Cell Sites by Skitso |
| Reading and Understanding the Assignment Area from A "T" Order by FoneMan |
`----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
<-------+
| SysInfoTrade
+----------------> staff@sysfail.org
--Pinguino's cat Linenoise is the new System Failure mascot. Go look at his
page at http://www.leper.org/~linenoise/ ... you can e-mail him at
kitten@linenoise.org (courtesy of Alienphreak and JF).
--A girl in Fallbrook, CA by the name of Mary Kait Durkee refused to say the
pledge during history class. She claims to not believe in God, thinks that
society is violent, and the government corrupt. She refuses to show
respect to a pledge with whose beliefs she didn't believe in. After being
sent to detention, she contacted the ACLU and are fighting for her first
amendment rights. They're suing her school.
--The goldmine of webpage information sources is at www.webproforum.com,
sponsored by the IEC (International Engineering Consortium). With online
tutorials by companies such as Nortel, Sun, Lucent, HP, AT&T, and
BellSouth, they cover topics such as radio telephony, ss7, pcs,
programmable switching, ATM, cable modems, net security, and so much more.
The main page at www.iec.com lists major technology conventions and other
interesting topics.
--E3 was last weekend, and Sega announced a console that will outdo current
game consoles. Dreamcast. It runs on Windows CE, has a 200MHZ chip, and 64
audio channels. The new improvements are courtesy of Yamaha, Hitachi,
Microsoft, and NEC. [Editor's Note: BAH! Fuck Sega!]
--milw0rm has been VERY active recently.. http://www.hektik.com/hacked/
shows before/after of all of their recent webpage hacks.
--Saint skullY is starting a new project called Open Linux Standard
Distribution (OpenLSD). Basically, he's gonna combine the OpenBSD source tree
with the Linux kernel. For more info or to help, go to http://www.openlsd.org/
or e-mail skully@openlsd.org.
--April 1998- MOD is apparently still quite active and hitting the news
with their recent breakin and theft of Defense Information Systems Network
Equipment Manager (DEM). That long phrase is just a piece of software used
for tracking and communication with submarines. The DOD claims that the
program is unclassified. An interview between Wired and a 24-year old
Russian member claimed a different side of the story.
"We could launch the DEM program using the DISA systems as a trusted
gateway, thus gaining very important router/repeater information about the
DISA," he said.
"We could then either reconfigure/shut down the equipment, or attempt to
compromise it to change routes through systems we 'own,' then sniff from
the owned DISA boxes," he said, describing a process of setting an
invisible recorder to capture keystrokes or network traffic on a system."
"Our goals are to demonstrate the power of 15 or so individuals over large
organizations, through publicizing break-ins and data retrieved," he said.
--May 18, 1998 -- BEEPLESS! (submitted by Kaeiri) Today over a million
people lost their pager service due to a "satellite spinning out of
control". PageNET, Airtouch, and other pager companies were affected,
including MY pager! Damn satellite control centers. Important resources
like hospitals/doctors, fire departments, police, etc lost their critical
paging protocol. Police report there was a lowered rate in drug deals
because of narcotics dealers losing their ever-used paging (and cellular?
being investigated) needs. The newspapers report that service will be
back up by tommorrow morning, and they are investigating longterm effects
and damages. Check out http://www.pagemart.com/satellite.htm for more
info.
--Checkout www.linenoise.org ..active (is that my word of the day or
something?!@$) web board where you can network with people in your area,
and a nice collection of textfiles.. soon they will offer every issue of
System Failure as well.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The History of System Failure
by Logic Box (logic@sysfail.org)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Contrary to what some people may think, System Failure was never an organized
project to begin with. The zine--and the group--was born on May 3rd, 1998, in
Cupertino, California.
I had met Pinguino on IRC a couple of weeks earlier. After seeing a
particularly elaborate graphic that she'd drawn for someone's webpage, I
followed the accompanying link to www.penguinpalace.com--Penguin Palace
Multimedia. I read a bit about the history of the company, about the things
they did, the places they'd been, and an in-depth history of a very amazing
girl named Joyce Kolb--or, as most of us know her, Pinguino.
I was very impressed with her website, and what I knew about her. I'd seen her
in #rock on IRC for awhile, but I'd never really bothered to talk to her. I
saw #peng mentioned on penguinpalace.com, and decided to go there and check
things out. I talked to Pinguino for awhile, and started hanging out in #peng
a lot. Pinguino and I became friends pretty fast; she even sent me cookies
and stuff for my birthday. :)
A couple weeks after I'd started hanging out there, I saw Pinguino talking to
someone about a trip to the San Jose area that she was making on the next
weekend. Seeing as how I live in the San Jose area, I thought it might be
pretty cool to meet her. So, I grabbed my good friend Darkcactus and we headed
over to DeAnza Community College, where she was helping her friend Mr. Frost
out with an anti-gun thing called TAG (Tuffmen Against Guns) at DeAnza's
monthly expo-type thing.
After walking around the expo for a couple hours, we eventually met up with
Pinguino, Mr. Frost, and his girlfriend Gerry. Me, Ping, and DC walked around
the college campus for a while and talked about various things. We found out
that she planned to move to Denver, Colorado in the next two weeks.
We went back to Mr. Frost's house to chill for awhile, and watched Pinguino
dewdle. After sitting on our asses for an hour or so, we decided we were
hungry, so the three of us (me, Ping, and DC) went out to eat at a pizzeria
down the street called Gumba's.
Over lunch, we talked about Penguin Palace and the various projects she had
going. One, she said, was a H/P-themed electronic zine that touched a bit on
social issues and the like. Originally conceived to act as a sort of
replacement for the recently-retired PLA (with which I had been--and still
am--heavily involved), she called this project System Failure. She wanted to
associate a tight-knit group with it that would grow over time, and she asked
me to head the project, with Darkcactus as my second-in-command. Since the
retirement of PLA, Kenshiro Cochrane and I had been throwing around the idea
of starting our own zine. Remembering this, I asked her if he could be
involved with this project as well. She knew him from IRC too, and said yes.
System Failure was born.
We spent the next few days planning out the layout of the zine and the
website. We also drew up a detailed list of membership acceptance guidelines,
which would be made known only to members of the group. After a few more days
of hanging out, we said goodbye to Pinguino, and she went home to San Diego.
I thought the project over. I was excited at the idea of starting a zine, and
maybe--just maybe--having it be a huge success. I had no clue how big of a
following we would get. Boy, was I surprised.
The first issue released in late June, with the second issue--and the
website--going up the day before Darkcactus and I left for DefCon 5. We hooked
up with Pinguino once again at DefCon, and managed to pull off a pretty
successful showing with our booth and all (I'd call radio coverage, TV
coverage, and the fact that a newspaper reporter took us trashing a pretty
successful showing, wouldn't you?).
The zine grew over the next few months. While it was difficult at first to get
people to submit enough articles (I made a rule never to publish without at
least seven articles), it became easier as time progressed. The group also
grew steadily. I knew from day one that Saint skullY and Mr. Sonik, my
longtime friends from Oregon, would be members of System Failure in time. Spee
was a pretty unexpected--but worthwhile--addition. Though Darkcactus is a good
friend to all of us, he left the group in April of 1998, due to lack of
interest (he just isn't the writing type).
Months passed, the zine grew, we all had our ups and downs, and Pinguino
eventually relocated to Texas. She came to visit in February of 1998 for a
month, and we began planning for DefCon 6 (we've got some cool stuff planned
too). I've become very close to her in the year that I've known her, and she
has managed to convey a very strong "family" feeling among the members of the
group. Unlike a lot of huge groups you see out there every day, System Failure
is not just a ragtag band of like-minded people who are in a group for name
recognition--we are a group of very close friends (this is why we're so
selective of our members--and why we have so few compared to other groups).
And now, a year has passed. A year since I met Pinguino--who, in that short
time, has become my best friend. A year since System Failure was started--the
group, the zine, the following. A new year begins here. We never could have
made it this far if it had not been for our readers, and our contributors.
While I am grateful to each and every one of you, extra-special thanks goes to
these people:
Anarchist (practically all the opening asciis we've ever had)
BarKode (all your support and the stuff you've done for us)
JF (yours and Milw0rm's support)
Junk (your criticism and publicity)
Mr. Frost (one of the biggest moral supporters we've got)
Muerte (lots of moral support)
Pesto (for helping us when things aren't going too good)
RedBoxChiliPepper and Colleen Card (we wouldn't be here if it weren't for you)
Velocity (your criticism, your support, and just being really fucking cool)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Milw0rm Hacks Nuclear Site: An Interview With J.F.
by Pinguino (pinguino@sysfail.org)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ping: J.F... of Milw0rm.. where did you guys come up with that name?
J.F.: Well, it was a joke really... hehe. We wanted something funny, yet
topical on the military side of things, as that's what we planned to do.
We act as a trojan "worm" within the military.. not just US military but
other military, such as India. :)
Ping: Milw0rm is an international group.. with members in which countries?
J.F.: 2 in UK, 2 in US, 1 in NL (Netherlands), 1 in NZ (New Zeland).
Ping: Describe your recent break-in with the Indian nuclear facility.
J.F.: Well...it was easy, lame security, it's funny because they had their
internal LAN connected up to the internet without a firewall or
anything. The motd said - PLEASE DO NOT TURN OFF MACHINES AFTER USE..
hahaha.. lame ass fucks.. and we gained sensitive data regarding the
recent nuclear test by India.
Ping: Why do you think they were so lax in security? Ignorance?
J.F.: Probably didn't realize, perhaps they couldn't afford it? Who knows.
Ping: Do you think your act will spur similar instillations to secure their
systems? Not only in India, but in other nations?
J.F.: Well it had better, because Pakistan WILL be owned.. that's a promise.
Ping: Are you now on a crusade to show the truth to the world about nuclear
threats, or something different?
J.F.: Basically, we are against all this nuclear shit, what's the point? We
want peace, not war, and surely the only use of nuclear weapons is for
war. We want to uncover details of these tests and prove that nothing is
safe, and we will do that. We have already started work and scanned
everything, madly... we will expose more.
Ping: For the most part the general population feels "safe," with no threat of
nuclear war anytime soon. Is your hacking a demonstration to show that
there is a threat? Or are you actively deleting files that will hinder
the testing and research of these deadly weapons?
J.F.: Well... I haven't personally deleted any files, although I know one
member of Milw0rm did wipe out several subnets on their server (not a
good idea). What I am basically showing is.... that DATA IS NOT SAFE, it
should not be kept on a server which is accessible from the internet. If
I was an international terrorist I could cause A LOT of trouble, but I'm
not. But seriosuly, the info I have is nothing to be joked with, it's mad
info which does NOT need to fall into the wrong hands.
Ping: Kinda funny that its people like you that these corporations are afraid
of. What would you recommend to these companies to prevent similar
attacks?
J.F.: I would tell them to stop putting sensitive dox on networks that can be
accessible from the internet, it's dumb and should be stopped. I would
also patch a hell of a lot on their server.
Ping: Has the Indian site responded in any way yet? Notices on their webpage
or anything? What's the URL anyway?
J.F.: They have patched it, but I have still got access to their server (I'm
on it now, BTW). The URL is http://www.barc.ernet.in/
Ping: Has Milw0rm decided what they want to do with the information obtained
from that particular site?
J.F.: We are playing it by ear, gaining more info, seeing what happens. We
have not yet found out India's reaction to what has happened.. as far as
I know they were unavailable to comment.
Ping: Do they realize how much information you guys have, or just think that
their webpage was hacked (in your estimation)?
J.F.: They think it's a webpage hack... but they know more. They just don't
know the extrent.
J.F.: Here's a quote by Peter Neumann, a critical infrastructure and security
expert with SRI International: he said that the three teens weren't as
much of a threat as terrorists, but that India was "way behind" America
in terms of security. HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS G1MP KNOW WE AREN'T
TERRORISTS?? They are treating us like "dumb kids" but how does he know
we don't work for a terrorist organization? Although, we don't, it shows
how easy it is to own this sort of thing. It's stupid and people like
Peter Neumann should NOT say things like that without knowing the TRUE
extent of what we have. That really annoys me, I just saw that and he
talked about our hack and the info we pull.. .it just goes to show how
clueless they all are....
Ping: No kidding.. he assumes that since the media thus far has called you
"kids," that you work alone. People shouldn't assume things when many
lives could be at risk.
J.F.: We have information realting to ALL the tests, detailed intrinsic
reports, everything....
Ping: With that sort of information, what *could* Milw0rm do? On its own,
without selling the information to anyone.. hypothetically.
J.F.: Unless we wanted to declare our own war, nothing really. We could only
use the information to work with others, but that would start a war and
that's not what we want. This is a demonstration to show how easy it is
to do this. We could, in theory, start a nuclear war. We know the exact
limitations of India's nuclear weapons from their test results.... this
could easily be exploited. We do NOT want this information to get into
the wrong hands, which is why it should be taken off... it's crazy and
it makes me angry. :/
Ping: Right... I'm sure that governments have their own private staff that
tries to accomplish what you guys did in under 20 minutes.
J.F.: It took us about 10 minutes to root the server (maybe less) and then we
just pulled the dox. So why don't they fix it? Stupid fools.
Ping: They prolly didn't know it was broken. =)
J.F.: Probably not...hehe..
J.F.: A VERY HAPPY 1ST YEAR ANIVERSARY TO SYSFAIL!#@! I LUB J00 ALL... and I
hope to see you all at DefCon. I just gotta raise some more cash (if
anyone wants to donate...tell me!#@!). LATERS Y'ALL!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Advanced Looting and Trashing
by Mr. Sonik (sonik@sysfail.org)
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By now you have probably seen plenty of articles on trashing and looting for
anything from free food to eleet telco warez. That's the problem--I have read
plenty of articles and consider myself an expert on this topic, and I've
decided to give some good ideas and info to help you make the most of your
time. I have spent many hours of my time reading docs about trashing before
accually trying it; I have had to throw most of the knowledge away that I have
gained through reading, simply because it's nothing like some people say it
is.
My first trip to the telco yard was a waste; I listened to an article that
said things like "make your trip fast" and "get things that are easy to grab."
Bullshit, if you want to get somthing neato you're gonna have to look hard and
take a little time to make your trip worth going on. First off, let's look at
a list of things to take with you on your trip.
1. A police scanner is a must; since my favorite telco lot is just near the
edge of city limits, I put the police and sheriff in one empty memory bank
and scan between the two of them. I also have an earphone so that I don't
have to have the scanner blaring away and giving me away to any concerned
citizens or security.
2. Some nice black clothes and a black hat. This is wise because you're going
to be out at night (most likley). Make sure that you have plenty of pockets
for your scanner, a flashlight, wire cutters for barbed wire, and some other
tools like mace or whatever makes you feel safe. Make sure you can get to
these tools quickly in case you have to take some evasive action.
3. A duffle bag or a backpack. I prefer a backpack beacause it's easier to run
with it on compared to a duffle bag, but that is my own personal
preference.
4. Tools. Some of the things I like to take with me are a good heavy duty
flashlight. I like the little mag lights that take two "AA" cells; these
lights are around $12 and are waterproof and very durable. I'm sure you
could use it to break a window, and they come with a spare bulb. The
batteries seem to last longer than the "AAA" cell lights and they are a tad
brighter, plus they are small enough to fit in your back pocket. Another tool
I may invest in is a slim jim to open car doors without breaking windows
out. I also like to have some good sharp side cutter pliers that are
capable of cutting chain link fence and barbed wire. The last thing that
may be handy is some 18-inch handle bolt cutters. These work great on
padlocks, but require a little more muscle than the longer-handled ones;
they fit in a backpack easily and are about $30 at a local hardware store
like Home Depot. Although the bolt cutters are handy, they are certainly
not required, and you may choose to leave them behind because of their
weight. It's your call.
5. Now for some things that you should absolutely _not_ take with you. A
laptop computer, your mother, noisy key/wallet chains, your pet rock, dog,
cat, frog, etc. And definitely not that noisy-ass motherfucker down the
street, or anyone you can't trust.
Okay, now that you have a starting point of what to pack, here's what to do
when you get there. First, scope the place out a time or two. I reccomend
going on a couple of different scouting trips at different times of the night
to see if there are any security guards there or maintenance crews of 24-hour
staff people. While you're there, take note of the different entrance and exit
points that you think are fairly secluded and easy to use. If you have to take
the fence apart, try not to break it; use your cutters as a last resort.
Remember, the less tracks you leave, the better. I like to bend the corner of
the fence apart and crawl underneath it whenever possible. If the fence has
fat holes in the chainlink (like my local telco yard) that is easy to climb,
go for it. Remember never to break the golden rule of silence--if you make
noise trying to climb a fence, then you might as well go home. You may feel
stupid trying to be like a ninja or some sniper-type shit, but it pays off.
Once you have the place scoped and can get in and out easily, here's what to
look for.
Dumpsters: these have more often than not payed for a trip to the yard for me.
I have found ANI, loop information, employee numbers, old interoffice memos,
and other interesting shit like instruction books to handsets and whatnot.
Trucks: Once you have trashed a little, you may want to get some neato tools
and equipment from the trucks. When breaking into trucks, look for toolbelts
and toolboxes that may have neat stuff in them. All the toolbelts I have seen
are fully loaded with tools and sometimes a handset clipped to them. Also keep
an eye out for little yellow plastic boxes with shoulder straps and little
black cloth pouches. The bigger yellow boxes are usually loop testers, which
can do all kinds of neat shit. If you're extremely lucky, you can get a DOS
terminal box. These have VT100 terminal emulators and all kinds of neat telco
info on them. I have never found one, just the instruction booklet to it.
Also, some of the most important things you can get are papers of any kind
from the trucks. Just go apeshit and load up on them; you can sort through
them later. Once, I had to take a very large pair of cable cutters to cut the
fence apart to escape with. :)
I only recomend staying a maximum amount of 20-25 minutes per trip. I usually
grab stuff that looks neat or expensive, but remember to only take what you
can carry.
Some other places to go looting besides telco yards are local electronics
stores, computer stores, and large chain stores like Office Max and Office
Depot. I have found a discarded printer, monitor, and serial cables as well as
a shitload of cd jewel cases and a desk pen and pencil holder with minor
damage to it. I also found two PS/2 bus mice for a Compaq, and a software
install disk for a IBM Thinkpad. I have heard of non-working computer systems
thrown away that need only minor repairs. I reccomend trying to find out what
day the trash is picked up at your target store and looting on that day or the
day before for maximum profits. If you have any suggestions, feel free to
contact me.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kids and Violence Today
by Saint skullY the Dazed (skully@sysfail.org)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
It's happened again. Another kid went on a rampage with a gun. The other times
it happened, I wasn't too concerned. They were all thousands of miles from me.
What makes this time different? I live only 15 minutes from the school where
it happened.
This time, it wasn't at some school I had never heard of. It wasn't some
distant town I probably would never visit. When it happens at a school in the
next town, you sit up and take notice. You wonder how it could happen in your
town. Well, if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.
As you may or may not know, the school I'm taking about is Thurston High
School in Springfield, OR. Thurston had never had much violence. It didn't fit
the profile of a school infested with gangs. It was closer to a school of the
50s then a school of the 90s. Yet it happened there.
You may be wondering what can be done about this problem. Well, the solution
is not easy. I'm sure that because of this, there will be another big push for
gun control. Because of this, I'm sure there will be a push for limits on your
free speech (banning of heavy metal music, violence on TV and movies, etc). We
must not fall into that trap. Because despite what people may tell you, music,
TV, and movies are not to blame for violence. Rather, the parents of the
children who are violent should be blamed.
Would you be willing to give up your right to listen to whatever music you
like? How about watching what you want to watch? Even for a cause so noble as
helping children, I don't think that censorship is the answer. Rather, I think
that parents need to take the time to supervise their children. They need to
know what their kids are watching, what music they choose to listen to, and be
frank and earnest when their kids have questions. The kids in Kentucky who
shot at their classmates after pulling the fire alarm thought they were
playing a game. They didn't have an understanding that death is permanent. Had
their parents took the time to not only show them how to fire a gun, but also
how to safely handle the gun, and what to shoot and what not to shoot, the
tragedy in Kentucky may have been avoided. Had the student in Springfield been
better supervised by his parents, he may not have killed two classmates, his
own parents, and wounded 20 others.
The student in Springfield had been voted most likely to start World War III.
Should he have been considered violent? Yes. Does it look like this is
something that started long before he was a freshman? Yes. In short, violence
is something that grows and builds, not something that's sparked instantly. So
if you're a parent, please supervise your kids, take an active part in their
lives, help them grow up to be a good person. If you're an older sibling, help
your parents bring your younger siblings up right. And if you have no
siblings, or they are all already grown up, please remember this for when (if)
you have kids of your own. If for no other reason, the please think about
yourself and how embarrassed you'd be if a massacre happened because of your
child. But hopefully it will be because you want to avoid a massacre like
that, period.
Addendum
--------
The last part was written the same day the shootings took place. Now, a week
later when the facts have come out, and everyone has had time to calm down,
let's straighten out some things I said earlier. I chose to leave the above
in place to show what happens when you let your emotions guide you rather than
think things through. It turns out that the Kinkles were trying to help Kip
and were trying to figure out how to best help their son. The paper recently
announced that Kip's father had called about enlisting his son in the National
Guard.
Kip had a longtime interest in guns and violence, and in an attempt to
dissuade the unhealthy interest he had (guns seemed to be his life) his
parents bought him a gun and taught him to use it responsibly. There is
nothing wrong with learning to handle guns properly. However, Kip was mentally
disturbed, and even if his parents had not bought him the gun, he would
probably have still committed the massacre.
So, how do we avoid things like this? The short answer: we don't. The long
answer: there are many answers. Some suggest guns, some suggest violence on
TV/movies. However, I don't think either of those are at cause. It is a tough
decision, and I'm not exactly sure what my own opinion is. One theory I've
heard put forward that I agree with is that there are too many bullshit rules
in schools, and not enough common sense issues. One example, is that I got
reprimanded for having a pager, supposedly because it could disrupt class, yet
I could walk in wearing just enough clothes to cover myself without getting
arrested for indecent exposure, and nothing would be said. Maybe teachers
should use a little common sense and recognize that I have a pager for work
and not for dealing drugs. Or maybe kids should just fight every so often to
release all the frustration, where the worst that happens is they walk around
a couple weeks with a black eye and a few bruises (assuming no weapons were
used), rather then the frustration building up and finally getting released
via a gun pointed at fellow students.
At any rate, the answer to this is not going to be simple, and is not going to
be quick. I have no doubt that there will be more shootings, and we may very
well lose many of our rights due to knee-jerk reactions rather then those in
power taking time to find a good fix and/or the people exercising their rights
to contact their representatives.
If you have any comments or responses to this, feel free to submit them to
System Failure. Who knows, it may spark a huge debate and prompt me to set up
a web board on sysfail.org. ;=)
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Bypassing Your Friendly Neighborhood Firewall
by Duncan (duncan@arena.cwnet.com)
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Well, here you are, sitting at work, minding your own business when you up and
decide to build yourself a Linux box. Why, you ask? Because, you have 8 840
meg hard drives, 3 computers, 2 monitors, 123 keyboards, and 52 some-odd mice
sitting next to you, and more time than Death on your hands. Well, you build
your Linux box and then you ask "What next?"
Well, maybe your first thought is "Can I IRC from it?" Mine sure as hell was
when I did it, and yours will be too. But after that, you say to yourself, "I
have this Ethernet connection that goes to waste from the hours of 6pm to
4am". And this is of course wrong not to use this prime bandwidth, so, we
embark upon the bypassing of your firewall, for reasons only attuned to
causing large amounts of havoc to small groups of people on connections far
less than yours.
You may view firewalls as some prime example of network security that are
set up by highly-paid network professionals like you and I hope to be. Well,
my future hope is that I know more than the clueless dolts who thought that if
they install it directly out of the box, it would work just like they want it
to. Unfortunately, that is a little bit off from the truth. Firewall
installations will allow for port 25 connections (STMP) and most connections
over port 1024. System administrators will not see the need to block anything
above that, as it can be used by servers for outbound port connections. Well,
we can use this to our advantage. Port 25, on the other hand, is far more
insidious, as it is the mail port of the machine, and allows outside mail
delivery.
The most obvious way to do this is to just redefine our portmapping scheme on
our new Linux box (let's call it tequila). You have two choices here. You can
edit your /etc/inet.conf file, and change :
smtp stream tcp nowait root <blah blah blah blah blah>
to
smtp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.telnetd
That is a quick way to do it. That will make your STMP port (25) point to your
newly bound telnet port. All you have to do is reload inetd.conf and kill your
sendmail program.
The second way, which is a bit more permanent, and a bit more risky (i.e., I
did it the first way, so I recommend that more) is to modify your port
settings in /etc/services. So:
telnet 23/tcp
to
telnet 1100/tcp
And now we have an open port on your new machine that will bypass your
firewall at port 1100 that is linked to your telnet port. Again, you will have
to kill your inetd and such, but you will leave your mail server, so you could
receive mail on your new system that is not supposed to be there. That will,
of course, work with ssh and everything else that you would like to have
bypass the firewall (just to mention, sshd can be run at boot time with a
different port other that the default port of 22).
Dedicated to Tequila. You were the too young to go (if you know, you know
why).
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Messing With Cell Sites
by Skitso (skitso@teleport.com)
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Clyde works for AT&T. He also goes to my church, which means certain perks for
me. He offered me a tour of the cell site "because I seem to have an unusual
interest in phones" (heh) and the tour was pretty boring until he let me
listen in on a few conversations and disconnect a few people. Then I realized,
what if I could come back and do this anytime? Here's how.
First line of defense: A fence. It _looks_ electric (it's not), and probably
has barb wires along the top; if you're planning on coming back, throw
something on the barb wire and climb over (if you cut it, they'll be sure to
beef up the security).
Second line of defense: Door lock. Fairly cheap one, pick it if you can, but
if you can't, then drill it and never come back. :)
Final defense: Silent alarm. It trips like the light in your refrigerator (and
no, you can't just put your finger in it). Once inside, you've tripped the
alarm, and the police are supposedly on the way; however, there should be
something that looks like an electrical outlet, execpt with a keyhole. It will
say "Tech on site" on/above it. Follow the wire comming out of this along to
the wall to the "alarm" panel. Open it (pull really hard); there will be two
vertical rows of metal prongs. Look for wires going to a set that has a label
on it ('tech on site'). Connect these prongs with a paper clip or something,
and that's it. The way this works is, if a technician comes in, he trips the
alarm, and by turning the key, he sends a second (different) alarm signal that
overrides the first.
Once you're in, there should be some binders laying on a table; steal them
all (logs, frequencies, manuals). There should also be a spectrum analyzer
lying around (like a 50 lb. one); it seems to have a 386 processor built in,
but I never got to mess with it much. Find where the coaxial cable comes in
from the tower (hard to miss, its a 6''-1' diameter cable that hugs the
ceiling). Follow it to where it enters the radio circuitry; there will be
headphone jacks (the big ones). Either plug in the headphones and listen in,
or find a homosexual headphone wire (I call it that because it's male on both
sides), plug it in, and make a loop. Since you can't call out with the radio
stuff, and it'd be a pain to beige that complex stuff, they hide a phone in
the drawer of a desk. Just plug it in behind the desk and you're set.
A few tips:
-----------
* Don't worry about doing this around 2am, there are legit people that fix
problems 24/7 (actually 2am would be best).
* If there's a car/jeep/telco van parked _inside_ the big fence, come back
another day.
* If you're really paranoid (or can't override the alarm), just remember, it
takes cops an average of 20-30 minutes to get there, so carry off all you
can.
* Remember, this info came from a Portland, OR cell site. Security may differ
elsewhere.
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Reading and Understanding the Assignment Area from A "T" Order
by FoneMan (e-mail staff@sysfail.org to contact)
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In this article I'm going to show you how to read and understand the
assignment area from a "T" order. First I'll blow up an example of an
assignment area and then break it down into smaller portions so it's easier to
understand.
Let's have a look at the entire assignment area.
---ASGM
G1 TN 708 304 1250
FA 520 SHORELY DR, BARINGTN, IL
/LOC APT 101/RT 1005/RZ 13
IOE 01010-011-30/EXK 708 381/TN
708 304-1250/LPS/DF F10-04-
064C/OAB KAY
G2 WC 708 381/CT
IF1 /CA 25/PR 2324/DF F10-04-106V
/PRQ N/BP G-W+V-BR/OPC BL-R+W-
BL/TEA CP200 E NW HWY; EXJ
/TPR 111613
RO ORD F004546723 DD 95-06-
12
IF2 /CA 200N/PR 126/BP 1/TEA IT
520 SHORELY DR; CIW
Okay, now you're probably looking at that wondering what the hell it all
means. The G1 area shows the phone number for the following cable and pair
assignment. Yes, that's right, that TN stands for Telephone Number. Wow, it's
that easy, FoneMan? Damn straight biznich.
The FA part of the assignment contains the destination address. Obviously if
the town name is too large they're going to abbreviate it like the example
above. See, this isn't too hard.
The G2 line is very important. The first part shows the wire center. Wow,
there's another one of those acronyms. That's right, WC stands for Wire
Center. Often the telco will refer to the WC as the EWO. If you see CT in the
second part, that means it's a cut-through. Wow FoneMan, this shit is easy!
The IF1 section gives details about the cable that leaves the CO. In this
case, the new service leaves on cable 25, and pair 2324. This cable runs to a
Cross Box at 200 E. Northwest Hightway (TEA). To connect this cable to the
next leg of cable, the tech will connect the white-striped green wire (from
the F1 cable) to the red-striped blue wire (of the F2 cable) and the
brown-striped violet wire (F1) to the black-striped white wire (F2). Actually,
this is already done in this case. You can tell by the EXJ (EXisting
cross-connect Jumper) after the semicolon.
The IF2 section tells the tale of the cable that left the cross-box headed
for the customer. From this we can derive the cable name (/CA 200N/) the cable
pair (/PR 126/) and terminal binding post (/BP 1/). We can also determine that
it is an inside terminal (/TEA TI) and the terminal's address (520 SHORELY
DR). The CIW at the end tells us that the inside wire is already connected. If
IT is not shown, assume that the terminal is outside, common for single-family
dwellings.
In place of CIW you may find the following:
PIW Place Inside Wire (not a CT)
CDW Connected Drop Wire (a CT)
PDW Place Drop Wire (not a CT)
Well, that's pretty much it. I hope this article has helped you some. The
person reading this should have a basic knowledge of phones to understand
things such as cable, pair, wire center, etc. This is one of the few articles
I write about phreaking, or anything for that matter, so enjoy. Peace out.
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Well, this marks the beginning of a new year for System Failure. We've done
better than either Pinguino or I ever expected to, and we've come a long way
from the small zine that was born in that pizzeria. Thanks to all our
supporters and readers, and we hope you'll continue to read System Failure for
many years to come!
RAPE THE SYSTEM FAILURE
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