HIR Issue 1: Anonymous Hacking
Anonymous Hacking by: Axon
A hacker's dream...to be able to dial up anything, anywhere, and hack it without leaving a traceable path. Sometimes it becomes necessary to pay a few cents (or bucks) to do this (or a way to "transcend" the cost if that's what kind of person you are. It's riskier to do it that way). There are a few decent ways to make sure your mark never finds you out (via caller ID, ANI, or tracing methods).
Some people think that if you snatch a UNIX shell account and telnet all over the place to hell and back again a few (hundred) times, It'll be so hard to trace you no one will bother. THIS METHOD IS 100% BULLSHIT. By checking system logs, it's easy to find where the shell account you dialed up to resides. After that, the system logs will show what line you called in on and what time. Face it. The phone company knows what number called that line at that time. From there, you might as well bend over and take it like a man, because if they want to find you now, you're screwed. I don't want anyone (at least one of our readers) to have that happen to them, which is why I'll tell you a few good ways to anonymize your phone calls.
Actually, we aren't anonymizing at all. That's impossible. There has to be SOME phone number that the call originates from. The only main LEGAL ways to anonymize yourself is to use either a payphone.
Payphone:
Some of you lesser-educated hackers might be asking "payphone? Payphones don't have rj-11's on them" This is usually true. Some, however do. Of course this typically works best if you have a portable system and modem that don't require any outside form of power. Most payphones don't have rj-11's, so this is where the phun part comes in. Remember in the second phyle? Yah, That's it...the coupler! Strap it onto the fone, dial up someone else's shell account and telnet, or if ya got sum balls, just do a direct dial to yer mark.
Most of the juicy places information loves to hide is dial-up only. No internet, nothing. A single computer attached to a fone line. Often, this is even protected by intricate passwords and often call-back systems. On a call-back system, a hacker needs to intercept the outbound call. I will not go into this now, because there are many files on hacking call-back systems, and this really does not fall into the scope of anonymity. The point is that sometimes, the only way into a system is through the phone. Learn the ways to mislead the origin of the call.
There are obviously a few non-legal ways to go about making your phone call anonymous. These are ways that, in some way or another, tap into someone else's phone line.
One method is to use a beige box adapted for a modem. This, again is usually a tactic that works better with portables, unless you feel like running the phone line underground to your house. An alternative is the Gold Box. Gold boxes at one time were fairly popular, though their use is declining. I would suggest reading some of the many phyles on the gold box. It is a very fun toy, and will help you sharpen your soldering skills if nothing else. Note that if law enforcement gets ahold of your new toy, and they can prove "intent to use", you get the shaft. (you don't even have to commit the crime to get the book). The theory behind a gold box is if you can find 2 phone lines in the same box (Sometimes this is behind a business building) You place a device between them so that when you call the first line, it picks up the second line and puts it through to you, giving you a dial tone--Someone else's dial tone. The foneco would trace it to the second line, and if you go back and take your precious gold box out of that location before they find it, chances are you're home free.
There are more technical and fancier ways to make sure the foneco can't find out where you are coming from, but that typically takes some very advanced hacking techniques, large amounts of time, and knowledge that originates only from years of hardcore phreaking (that i don't have). This kind of setup would be more down the alley of a phreaker that wanted to use a touch of hacking for his own uses, rather than a hacker who uses a little phreaking to mask his/her activity. If anyone knows these methods, though, they could write an article up on the topic for us. =]
