Section A: Computers

Table of Contents

  1. How do I access the password file under Unix?
  2. How do I crack Unix passwords?
  3. What is password shadowing?
  4. Where can I find the password file if it's shadowed?
  5. What is NIS/yp?
  6. What are those weird characters after the comma in my passwd file?
  7. How do I access the password file under VMS?
  8. How do I crack VMS passwords?
  9. What can be logged on a VMS system?
 10. What priveleges are avaliable on a VMS system?
 11. How do I break out of a restricted shell?
 12. How do I gain root from a suid script or program?
 13. How do I erase my presence from the system logs?
 14. How do I send fakemail?
 15. How do I fake posts to Usenet?
 16. How do I hack ChanOp on IRC?
 17. How do I modify the IRC client to hide my real username?
 18. How to I change to directories with strange characters in them?
 19. What is ethernet sniffing?
 20. What is an Internet Outdial?
 21. What are some Internet Outdials?
 22. What is this system?
 23. What are the default accounts for XXX?
 24. What port is XXX on?
 25. What is a trojan/worm/virus/logic bomb?
 26. How can I protect myself from virii and such?
 27. Where can I get more information about viruses?
 28. What is Cryptoxxxxxxx?
 29. What is PGP?
 30. What is Tempest?
 31. What is an anonymous remailer?
 32. What are the addresses of some anonymous remailers?
 33. How do I defeat copy protection?
 34. What is 127.0.0.1?
 35. How do I post to a moderated newsgroup?
 36. How do I post to Usenet via e-mail?
 37. How do I defeat a BIOS password?

(Italic indicates updated questions, while bold indicates new questions.)

(To obtain the source and patches in this document, select load to local
disk first.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

01. How do I access the password file under Unix?

In standard Unix the password file is /etc/passwd. On a Unix system with
either NIS/yp or password shadowing, much of the password data may be
elsewhere. An entry in the password file consists of seven colon delimited
fields:

Username
Encrypted password (And optional password aging data)
User number
Group Number
GECOS Information
Home directory
Shell

Sample entry from /etc/passwd:

will:5fg63fhD3d5gh:9406:12:Will Spencer:/home/fsg/will:/bin/bash

Broken down, this passwd file line shows:

          Username: will
Encrypted password: 5fg63fhD3d5gh
       User number: 9406
      Group Number: 12
 GECOS Information: Will Spencer
    Home directory: /home/fsg/will
             Shell: /bin/bash

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

02. How do I crack Unix passwords?

Contrary to popular belief, Unix passwords cannot be decrypted. Unix
passwords are encrypted with a one way function. The login program encrypts
the text you enter at the "Password:" prompt and compares that encrypted
string against the encrypted form of your password.

Password cracking software uses wordlists. Each word in the wordlist is
encrypted and the results are compared to the encrypted form of the target
password.

The best cracking program for Unix passwords is currently Crack by Alec
Muffett. For PC-DOS, the best package to use is currently CrackerJack.
CrackerJack is available via ftp from clark.net.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

03. What is password shadowing?

Password shadowing is a security system where the encrypted password field
of /etc/passwd is replaced with a special token and the encrypted password
is stored in a separate file which is not readable by normal system users.

To defeat password shadowing on many (but not all) systems, write a program
that uses successive calls to getpwent() to obtain the password file.

Example: unshadow.c

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

04. Where can I find the password file if it's shadowed?

Unix                  Path                            Token
-----------------------------------------------------------------
AIX 3                 /etc/security/passwd            !
       or             /tcb/auth/files//
A/UX 3.0s             /tcb/files/auth/?/*
BSD4.3-Reno           /etc/master.passwd              *
ConvexOS 10           /etc/shadpw                     *
ConvexOS 11           /etc/shadow                     *
DG/UX                 /etc/tcb/aa/user/               *
EP/IX                 /etc/shadow                     x
HP-UX                 /.secure/etc/passwd             *
IRIX 5                /etc/shadow                     x
Linux 1.1             /etc/shadow                     *
OSF/1                 /etc/passwd[.dir|.pag]          *
SCO Unix #.2.x        /tcb/auth/files//
SunOS4.1+c2           /etc/security/passwd.adjunct    ##username
SunOS 5.0             /etc/shadow

System V Release 4.0  /etc/shadow                     x
System V Release 4.2  /etc/security/* database
Ultrix 4              /etc/auth[.dir|.pag]            *
UNICOS                /etc/udb                        *

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

05. What is NIS/yp?

NIS (Network Information System) in the current name for what was once
known as yp (Yellow Pages). The purpose for NIS is to allow many machines
on a network to share configuration information, including password data.
NIS is not designed to promote system security. If your system uses NIS you
will have a very short /etc/passwd file with a line that looks like this:

+::0:0:::

To view the real password file use this command "ypcat passwd"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

06. What are those weird characters after the comma in my passwd file?

The characters are password aging data. Password aging forces the user to
change passwords after a System Administrator specified period of time.
Password aging can also force a user to keep a password for a certain
number of weeks before changing it.

]
] Sample entry from /etc/passwd with password aging installed:
]
] will:5fg63fhD3d,M.z8:9406:12:Will Spencer:/home/fsg/will:/bin/bash
]

Note the comma in the encrypted password field. The characters after the
comma are used by the password aging mechanism.

]
] Password aging characters from above example:
]
] M.z8
]

The four characters are interpreted as follows:

  1: Maximum number of weeks a password can be used without changing.
  2: Minimum number of weeks a password must be used before changing.
3&4: Last time password was changed, in number of weeks since 1970.

Three special cases should be noted:

If the first and second characters are set to '..' the user will be forced
to change his/her passwd the next time he/she logs in. The passwd program
will then remove the passwd aging characters, and the user will not be
subjected to password aging requirements again.

If the third and fourth characters are set to '..' the user will be forced
to change his/her passwd the next time he/she logs in. Password aging will
then occur as defined by the first and second characters.

If the first character (MAX) is less than the second character (MIN), the
user is not allowed to change his/her password. Only root can change that
users password.

It should also be noted that the su command does not check the password
aging data. An account with an expired password can be su'd to without
being forced to change the password.

                        Password Aging Codes
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                        |
| Character:  .  /  0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H |
|    Number:  0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 |
|                                                                        |
| Character:  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  a  b |
|    Number: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 |
|                                                                        |
| Character:  c  d  e  f  g  h  i  j  k  l  m  n  o  p  q  r  s  t  u  v |
|    Number: 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 |
|                                                                        |
| Character:  w  x  y  z                                                 |
|    Number: 60 61 62 63                                                 |
|                                                                        |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

07. How do I access the password file under VMS?

Under VMS, the password file is SYS$SYSTEM:SYSUAF.DAT. However, unlike
Unix, most users do not have access to read the password file.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

08. How do I crack VMS passwords?

Write a program that uses the SYS$GETUAF functions to compare the results
of encrypted words against the encrypted data in SYSUAF.DAT.

Two such programs are known to exist, CHECK_PASSWORD and GUESS_PASSWORD.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

09. What can be logged on a VMS system?

Virtually every aspect of the VMS system can be logged for investigation.
To determine the status of the accounting on your system use the command
SHOW ACCOUNTING. System accounting is a facility for recording information
about the use of the machine from a system accounting perspective (resource
logging such as CPU time, printer usage etc.), while system auditing is
done with the aim of logging information for the purpose of security. To
enable accounting:

$ SET ACCOUNTING  [/ENABLE=(Activity...)]

The following activities can be logged:

BATCH                   Termination of a batch job
DETACHED                Termination of a detached job
IMAGE                   Image execution
INTERACTIVE             Interactive job termination
LOGIN_FAILURE           Login failures
MESSAGE                 Users messages
NETWORK                 Network job termination
PRINT                   Print Jobs
PROCESS                 Any terminated process
SUBPROCESS              Termination of a subprocess

To enable security auditing use:


$ SET AUDIT [/ENABLE=(Activity...)]

The /ALARM qualifier is used to raise an alarm to all terminals approved as
security operators, which means that you need the SECURITY privileges. You
can determine your security auditing configuration using $ SHOW AUDIT /ALL

The security auditor can be configured to log the following activities:

ACL                     Access Control List requested events
AUTHORIZATION           Modification to the system user
                        authorization file  SYS$SYSTEM:SYSUAF.DAT
BREAKIN                 Attempted Break-ins
FILE_ACCESS             File or global section access
INSTALL                 Occurrence of any INSTALL operations
LOGFAILURE              Any login failures
LOGIN                   A login attempt from various sources
LOGOUT                  Logouts
MOUNT                   Mount or dismount requests

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

10. What priveleges are avaliable on a VMS system?

ACNT            Allows you to restrain accounting messages
ALLSPOOL        Allows you to allocate spooled devices
ALTPRI          Allot Priority.  This allows you to set any priority
                value
BUGCHK          Allows you make bug check error log entries
BYPASS          Enables you to disregard protections
CMEXEC/
CMKRNL          Change to executive or kernel mode.  These privileges
                allow a process to execute optional routines with KERNEL
                and EXECUTIVE access modes. CMKRNL is the most powerful
                privilege on VMS as anything protected can be accessed
                if you have this privilege.  You must have these
                privileges to gain access to the kernel data structures
                directly.
DETACH          This privilege allow you to create detached processes of
                arbitrary UICs
DIAGNOSE        With this privilege you can diagnose devices
EXQUOTA         Allows you to exceed your disk quota
GROUP           This privilege grants you permission to  affect other
                processes in the same rank
GRPNAM          Allows you to insert group logical names into the group
                logical names table.
GRPPRV          Enables you to access system group objects through
                system protection field
LOG_IO          Allows you to issue logical input output requests
MOUNT           May execute the mount function
NETMBX          Allows you to create network connections
OPER            Allows you to perform operator functions
PFNMAP          Allows you to map to specific physical pages
PHY_IO          Allows you to perform physical input output requests
PRMCEB          Can create permanent common event clusters
PRMGBL          Allows you to create permanent global sections
PRMMBX          Allows you to create permanent mailboxes
PSWAPM          Allows you to change a processes swap mode
READALL         Allows you read access to everything
SECURITY        Enables you to perform security  related functions
SETPRV          Enable all privileges
SHARE           Allows you to access devices allocated to other users.
                This is used to assign system mailboxes.
SHMEM           Enables you to modify objects in shared memory
SYSGBL          Allows you to create system wide permanent global
                sections
SYSLCK          Allows you to lock system wide resources
SYSNAM          Allows you to insert in system logical names in the
                names table.
SYSPRV          If a process holds this privilege then it is the same as
                a process holding the system user identification code.
TMPMBX          Allows you create temporary mailboxes
VOLPRO          Enables you to override volume protection
WORLD           When this is set you can affect other processes in the
                world

To determine what privileges your process is running with issue the
command:

$ show proc/priv

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

11. How do I break out of a restricted shell?

On poorly implemented restricted shells you can break out of the restricted
environment by running a program that features a shell function. A good
example is vi. Run vi and use this command:

:set shell=/bin/sh

then shell using this command:

:shell

If your restricted shell prevents you from using the "cd" command, FTP into
your account and you may be able to cd.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

12. How do I gain root from a suid script or program?

1. Change IFS.

If the program calls any other programs using the system() function call,
you may be able to fool it by changing IFS. IFS is the Internal Field
Separator that the shell uses to delimit arguments.

If the program contains a line that looks like this:

system("/bin/date")

and you change IFS to '/' the shell will them interpret the proceeding line
as:

bin date

Now, if you have a program of your own in the path called "bin" the suid
program will run your program instead of /bin/date.

To change IFS, use this command:

IFS='/';export IFS      # Bourne Shell
setenv IFS '/'          # C Shell
export IFS='/'          # Korn Shell

2. link the script to -i

Create a symbolic link named "-i" to the program. Running "-i" will cause
the interpreter shell (/bin/sh) to start up in interactive mode. This only
works on suid shell scripts.

Example:

% ln suid.sh -i
% -i
#

3. Exploit a race condition

Replace a symbolic link to the program with another program while the
kernel is loading /bin/sh.

Example:

nice -19 suidprog ; ln -s evilprog suidroot

4. Send bad input to the program.

Invoke the name of the program and a separate command on the same command
line.

Example:

suidprog ; id

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

13. How do I erase my presence from the system logs?

Edit /etc/utmp, /usr/adm/wtmp and /usr/adm/lastlog. These are not text
files that can be edited by hand with vi, you must use a program
specifically written for this purpose.

Example: erase.c

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

14. How do I send fakemail?

Telnet to port 25 of the machine you want the mail to appear to originate
from. Enter your message as in this example:

 HELO bellcore.com
 MAIL FROM:Voyager@bellcore.com
 RCPT TO:president@whitehouse.gov
 DATA

        Please discontinue your silly Clipper initiative.
 .
 QUIT

On systems that have RFC 931 implemented, spoofing your "MAIL FROM:" line
will not work. Test by sending yourself fakemail first.

For more informationm read RFC 822 Standard for the format of ARPA Internet
text messages.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

15. How do I fake posts to Usenet?

From: Anonymous (Pretending to be: tale@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence))
Subject: FAQ: Better living through forgery
Date: 19 Mar 1995 02:37:09 GMT

       Anonymous netnews without "anonymous" remailers

Inspired by the recent "NetNews Judges-L" events, this file has been
updated to cover forging control messages, so you can do your own article
canceling and create and destroy your own newsgroups.

Save any news article to a file. We'll call it "hak" in this example.

Edit "hak", and remove any header lines of the form

        From some!random!path!user   (note: "From ", not "From: " !!)
        Article:
        Lines:
        Xref:

Shorten the Path: header down to its LAST two or three "bangized"
components. This is to make the article look like it was posted from where
it really was posted, and originally hit the net at or near the host you
send it to. Or you can construct a completely new Path: line to reflect
your assumed alias.

Make some change to the Message-ID: field, that isn't likely to be
duplicated anywhere. This is usually best done by adding a couple of random
characters to the part before the @, since news posting programs generally
use a fixed-length field to generate these IDs.

Change the other headers to say what you like -- From:, Newsgroups:,
Sender:, etc. Replace the original message text with your message. If you
are posting to a moderated group or posting a control message, remember to
put in an Approved: header to bypass the moderation mechanism.

To specifically cancel someone else's article, you need its message-ID.
Your message headers, in addition to what's already there, should also
contain the following with that message-ID in it. This makes it a "control
message". NOTE: control messages generally require an Approved: header as
well, so you should add one.

Subject: cmsg cancel
Control: cancel
Approved: luser@twits.site.com

Newsgroups are created and destroyed with control messages, too. If you
wanted to create, for instance, comp.misc.microsoft.sucks, your control
headers would look like

Subject: cmsg newgroup comp.misc.microsoft.sucks
Control: newgroup comp.misc.microsoft.sucks

Add on the string "moderated" at the end of these if you want the group to
be "moderated with no moderator" as with alt.hackers. Somewhere in the body
of your message, you should include the following text, changed with the
description of the group you're creating:

For your newsgroups file:
comp.misc.microsoft.sucks               We don't do windows

To remove a group, substitute "rmgroup" for "newgroup" in the header lines
above. Keep in mind that most sites run all "rmgroup" requests through a
human news-master, who may or may not decide to honor it. Group creation is
more likely to be automatic than deletion at most installations. Any
newsgroup changes are more likely to take effect if they come from me,
since my name is hardwired into many of the NNTP control scripts, so using
the From: and Approved: headers from this posting is recommended.

Save your changed article, check it to make sure it contains NO reference
to yourself or your own site, and send it to your favourite NNTP server
that permits transfers via the IHAVE command, using the following script:

postihave

If your article doesn't appear in a day or two, try a different server.
They are easy to find. Here's a script that will break a large file full of
saved netnews into a list of hosts to try. Edit the output of this if you
want, to remove obvious peoples' names and other trash.

findservers

Once you have your host list, feed it to the following script.

findem

If the above script is called "findem" and you're using csh, you should do

        findem < list >& outfile

so that ALL output from telnet is captured. This takes a long time, but
when it finishes, edit "outfile" and look for occurrences of "335". These
mark answers from servers that might be willing to accept an article. This
isn't a completely reliable indication, since some servers respond with
acceptance and later drop articles. Try a given server with a slightly
modified repeat of someone else's message, and see if it eventually
appears.

Sometimes the telnets get into an odd state, and freeze, particularly when
a host is refusing NNTP connections. If you manually kill these hung telnet
processes but not the main script, the script will continue on. In other
words, you may have to monitor the finding script a little while it is
running.

You will notice other servers that don't necessarily take an IHAVE, but say
"posting ok". You can probably do regular POSTS through these, but they
will add an "NNTP-Posting-Host: " header containing the machine YOU came
from and are therefore unsuitable for completely anonymous use.

PLEASE USE THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE FOR CONSTRUCTIVE PURPOSES ONLY.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

16. How do I hack ChanOp on IRC?

Find a server that is split from the rest of IRC and create your own
channel there using the name of the channel you want ChanOp on. When that
server reconnects to the net, you will have ChanOp on the real channel. If
you have ServerOp on a server, you can cause it to split on purpose.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

17. How do I modify the IRC client to hide my real username?

Get the IRC client from cs.bu.edu /irc/clients. Look at the source code
files irc.c and ctcp.c. The code you are looking for is fairly easy to
spot. Change it. Change the username code in irc.c and the ctcp information
code in ctcp.c. Compile and run your client.

Here are the diffs from a sample hack of the IRC client. Your client code
will vary slightly depending on what IRC client version you are running.

Example: irc-diffs

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

18. How to I change to directories with strange characters in them?

These directories are often used by people trying to hide information, most
often warez (commercial software).

There are several things you can do to determine what these strange
characters are. One is to use the arguments to the ls command that cause ls
to give you more information:

>From the man page for ls:

    -F   Causes directories to be marked with a trailing ``/'',
         executable files to be marked with a trailing ``*'', and
         symbolic links to be marked with a trailing ``@'' symbol.

    -q   Forces printing of non-graphic characters in filenames as the
         character ``?''.

    -b   Forces printing of non-graphic characters in the \ddd
         notation, in octal.

Perhaps the most useful tool is to simply do an "ls -al filename" to save
the directory of the remote ftp site as a file on your local machine. Then
you can do a "cat -t -v -e filename" to see exactly what those bizarre
little characters are.

>From the man page for cat:

    -v  Causes non-printing characters (with the exception of tabs,
        newlines, and form feeds) to be displayed.  Control characters
        are displayed as ^X (x), where X is the key pressed with
        the  key (for example, m is displayed as ^M).  The
         character (octal 0177) is printed as ^?.  Non-ASCII
        characters (with the high bit set) are printed as M -x, where
        x is the character specified by the seven low order bits.

    -t  Causes tabs to be printed as ^I and form feeds as ^L.  This
        option is ignored if the -v option is not specified.

    -e  Causes a ``$'' character to be printed at the end of each line
        (prior to the new-line).  This option is ignored if the -v
        option is not set.

If the directory name includes a or a you will need to enclose the entire
directory name in quotes. Example:

cd ".."

On an IBM-PC, you may enter these special characters by holding down the
key and entering the decimal value of the special character on your numeric
keypad. When you release the key, the special character should appear on
your screen. An ASCII chart can be very helpful.

Sometimes people will create directories with some of the standard stty
control characters in them, such as ^Z (suspend) or ^C (intr). To get into
those directories, you will first need to user stty to change the control
character in qustion to another character.

From the man page for stty:

    Control assignments

    control-character C
                      Sets control-character to C, where control-character is
                      erase, kill, intr (interrupt), quit, eof, eol, swtch
                      (switch), start, stop or susp.

                      start and stop are available as possible control char-
                      acters for the control-character C assignment.

                      If C is preceded by a caret (^) (escaped from the
                      shell), then the value used is the corresponding con-
                      trol character (for example, ^D is a d; ^? is
                      interpreted as DELETE and ^- is interpreted as unde-
                      fined).

Use the stty -a command to see your current stty settings, and to determine
which one is causing you problems.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

19. What is ethernet sniffing?

Ethernet sniffing is listening (with software) to the raw ethernet device
for packets that interest you. When your software sees a packet that fits
certain criteria, it logs it to a file. The most common criteria for an
interesting packet is one that contains words like "login" or "password."

Many ethernet sniffers are available, here are a few that may be on your
system now:

OS              Sniffer
~~              ~~~~~~~
HP/UX           nettl (monitor) & netfmt (display)
                nfswatch        /* Available via anonymous ftp           */
Irix            nfswatch        /* Available via anonymous ftp           */
                Etherman
SunOS           etherfind
                nfswatch        /* Available via anonymous ftp           */
Solaris         snoop
DOS             ETHLOAD         /* Available via anonymous ftp as        */
                                /* ethld104.zip                          */
                The Gobbler     /* Available via anonymous ftp           */
                LanPatrol
                LanWatch
                Netmon
                Netwatch
                Netzhack        /* Available via anonymous ftp at        */
                                /* mistress.informatik.unibw-muenchen.de */
                                /* /pub/netzhack.mac                     */
Macintosh       Etherpeek

Here is source code for an ethernet sniffer: Esniff.c

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

20. What is an Internet Outdial?

An Internet outdial is a modem connected to the Internet than you can use
to dial out. Normal outdials will only call local numbers. A GOD (Global
OutDial) is capable of calling long distance. Outdials are an inexpensive
method of calling long distance BBS's.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

21. What are some Internet Outdials?

This FAQ answer is excerpted from CoTNo #5:

                        Internet Outdial List v3.0
                         by Cavalier and DisordeR

Introduction

There are several lists of Internet outdials floating around the net these
days. The following is a compilation of other lists, as well as v2.0 by
DeadKat(CoTNo issue 2, article 4). Unlike other lists where the author just
ripped other people and released it, we have sat down and tested each one
of these. Some of them we have gotten "Connection Refused" or it timed out
while trying to connect...these have been labeled dead.

                           Working Outdials
                           ----------------
                            as of 12/29/94

NPA          IP Address                   Instructions
---          ----------                   ------------
215          isn.upenn.edu                modem

217          dialout.cecer.army.mil       atdt x,xxxXXXXX

218          modem.d.umn.edu              atdt9,xxxXXXX

303          yuma.acns.colostate.edu 3020

412          gate.cis.pitt.edu            tn3270,
                                          connect dialout.pitt.edu,
                                          atdtxxxXXXX

413          dialout2400.smith.edu        Ctrl } gets ENTER NUMBER: xxxxxxx

502          outdial.louisville.edu

502          uknet.uky.edu                connect kecnet
                                          @ dial: "outdial2400 or out"

602          acssdial.inre.asu.edu        atdt8,,,,,[x][yyy]xxxyyyy

614          ns2400.acs.ohio-state.edu

614          ns9600.acs.ohio-state.edu

713          128.249.27.153               atdt x,xxxXXXX

714          modem.nts.uci.edu            atdt[area]0[phone]

804          ublan.virginia.edu           connect hayes, 9,,xxx-xxxx

804          ublan2.acc.virginia.edu      connect telnet
                                          connect hayes

                           Need Password
                           -------------

206          rexair.cac.washington.edu    This is an unbroken password
303          yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU      login: modem
404          128.140.1.239                .modem8|CR
415          annex132-1.EECS.Berkeley.EDU "dial1" or "dial2" or "dialer1"
514          cartier.CC.UMontreal.CA      externe,9+number
703          wal-3000.cns.vt.edu          dial2400 -aa

                          Dead/No Connect
                          ---------------

201          idsnet
202          modem.aidt.edu
204          dial.cc.umanitoba.ca
204          umnet.cc.manitoba.ca         "dial12" or "dial24"
206          dialout24.cac.washington.edu
207          modem-o.caps.maine.edu
212          B719-7e.NYU.EDU              dial3/dial12/dial24
212          B719-7f.NYU.EDU              dial3/dial12/dial24
212          DIALOUT-1.NYU.EDU            dial3/dial12/dial24
212          FREE-138-229.NYU.EDU         dial3/dial12/dial24
212          UP19-4b.NYU.EDU              dial3/dial12/dial24
215          wiseowl.ocis.temple.edu      "atz" "atdt 9xxxyyyy"
218          aa28.d.umn.edu               "cli" "rlogin modem"
                                          at "login:"  type "modem"
218          modem.d.umn.edu              Hayes 9,XXX-XXXX
301          dial9600.umd.edu
305          alcat.library.nova.edu
305          office.cis.ufl.edu
307          modem.uwyo.edu               Hayes  0,XXX-XXXX
313          35.1.1.6                     dial2400-aa or dial1200-aa
                                          or dialout
402          dialin.creighton.edu
402          modem.criegthon.edu
404          broadband.cc.emory.edu       ".modem8" or ".dialout"
408          dialout.scu.edu
408          dialout1200.scu.edu
408          dialout2400.scu.edu
408          dialout9600.scu.edu
413          dialout.smith.edu
414          modems.uwp.edu
416          annex132.berkely.edu         atdt 9,,,,, xxx-xxxx
416          pacx.utcs.utoronto.ca        modem
503          dialout.uvm.edu
513          dialout24.afit.af.mil
513          r596adi1.uc.edu
514          pacx.CC.UMontreal.CA         externe#9 9xxx-xxxx
517          engdial.cl.msu.edu
602          dial9600.telcom.arizona.edu
603          dialout1200.unh.edu
604          dial24-nc00.net.ubc.ca
604          dial24-nc01.net.ubc.ca
604          dial96-np65.net.ubc.ca
604          gmodem.capcollege.bc.ca
604          hmodem.capcollege.bc.ca
609          128.119.131.11X (X= 1 - 4)   Hayes
609          129.119.131.11x  (x = 1 to 4)
609          wright-modem-1.rutgers.edu
609          wright-modem-2.rutgers.edu
612          modem_out12e7.atk.com
612          modem_out24n8.atk.com
614          ns2400.ircc.ohio-state.edu   "dial"
615          dca.utk.edu                  dial2400 D 99k #
615          MATHSUN23.MATH.UTK.EDU       dial 2400  d  99Kxxxxxxx
616          modem.calvin.edu
617          128.52.30.3                  2400baud
617          dialout.lcs.mit.edu
617          dialout1.princeton.edu
617          isdn3.Princeton.EDU
617          jadwingymkip0.Princeton.EDU
617          lord-stanley.Princeton.EDU
617          mpanus.Princeton.EDU
617          mrmodem.wellesley.edu
617          old-dialout.Princeton.EDU
617          stagger.Princeton.EDU
617          sunshine-02.lcs.mit.edu
617          waddle.Princeton.EDU
619          128.54.30.1                  atdt [area][phone]
619          dialin.ucsd.edu              "dialout"
703          modem_pool.runet.edu
703          wal-3000.cns.vt.edu
713          128.249.27.154               "c modem96"  "atdt 9xxx-xxxx"
                                          or "Hayes"
713          modem12.bcm.tmc.edu
713          modem24.bcm.tmc.edu
713          modem24.bcm.tmc.edu
714          mdmsrv7.sdsu.edu             atdt 8xxx-xxxx
714          modem24.nts.uci.edu
714          pub-gopher.cwis.uci.edu
801          dswitch.byu.edu              "C Modem"
808          irmodem.ifa.hawaii.edu
902          star.ccs.tuns.ca             "dialout"
916          129.137.33.72
916          cc-dnet.ucdavis.edu          connect hayes/dialout
916          engr-dnet1.engr.ucdavis.edu  UCDNET  C KEYCLUB
???          128.119.131.11X              (1 - 4)
???          128.200.142.5
???          128.54.30.1                  nue, X to discontinue, ? for Help
???          128.6.1.41
???          128.6.1.42
???          129.137.33.72
???          129.180.1.57
???          140.112.3.2                  ntu
???          annexdial.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de
???          dial96.ncl.ac.uk
???          dialout.plk.af.mil
???          ee21.ee.ncu.edu.tw           cs8005
???          im.mgt.ncu.edu.tw            guest
???          modem.cis.uflu.edu
???          modem.ireq.hydro.qc.ca
???          modems.csuohio.edu
???          sparc20.ncu.edu.tw           u349633
???          sun2cc.nccu.edu.tw           ?
???          ts-modem.une.oz.au
???          twncu865.ncu.edu.tw          guest
???          vtnet1.cns.ut.edu            "CALL" or "call"

Conclusion

If you find any of the outdials to have gone dead, changed commands, or
require password, please let us know so we can keep this list as accurate
as possible. If you would like to add to the list, feel free to mail us and
it will be included in future versions of this list, with your name beside
it. Have fun...

[Editors note: Updates have been made to this document after the original
publication.]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

22. What is this system?

AIX

IBM AIX Version 3 for RISC System/6000
(C) Copyrights by IBM and by others 1982, 1990.
login:

You will know an AIX system because it is the only Unix system that clears
the screen and issues a login prompt near the bottom of the screen.

AS/400

UserID?
Password?

Once in, type GO MAIN

CDC Cyber

WELCOME TO THE NOS SOFTWARE SYSTEM.
COPYRIGHT CONTROL DATA 1978, 1987.

88/02/16. 02.36.53. N265100
CSUS CYBER 170-730.                     NOS 2.5.2-678/3.
FAMILY:

You would normally just hit return at the family prompt. Next prompt is:

USER NAME:

CISCO Router

                             FIRST BANK OF TNO
                           95-866 TNO VirtualBank
                          REMOTE Router -  TN043R1

                                Console Port

                                SN - 00000866

TN043R1>

DECserver

DECserver 700-08 Communications Server V1.1 (BL44G-11A) - LAT V5.1
DPS502-DS700

(c) Copyright 1992, Digital Equipment Corporation - All Rights Reserved

Please type HELP if you need assistance

Enter username> TNO

Local>

Hewlett Packard MPE-XL

MPE XL:
EXPECTED A :HELLO COMMAND. (CIERR 6057)
MPE XL:
EXPECTED [SESSION NAME,] USER.ACCT [,GROUP]   (CIERR 1424)
MPE XL:

GTN

WELCOME TO CITIBANK. PLEASE SIGN ON.
XXXXXXXX

@
PASSWORD =

@

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

PLEASE ENTER YOUR ID:-1->
PLEASE ENTER YOUR PASSWORD:-2->

CITICORP (CITY NAME). KEY GHELP FOR HELP.
  XXX.XXX
 PLEASE SELECT SERVICE REQUIRED.-3->

Lantronix Terminal Server

Lantronix ETS16 Version V3.1/1(940623)

Type HELP at the 'Local_15> ' prompt for assistance.

Login password>

Meridian Mail (Northern Telecom Phone/Voice Mail System)

                            MMM       MMMERIDIAN
                           MMMMM     MMMMM
                         MMMMMM   MMMMMM
                        MMM  MMMMM  MMM     MMMMM     MMMMM
                      MMM   MMM   MMM     MMMMMM   MMMMMM
                     MMM         MMM     MMM MMM MMM MMM
                    MMM         MMM     MMM  MMMMM  MMM
                   MMM         MMM     MMM   MMM   MMM
                  MMM         MMM     MMM         MMM
                 MMM         MMM     MMM         MMM
                MMM         MMM     MMM         MMM
               MMM         MMM     MMM         MMM
              MMM         MMM     MMM         MMM

                                          Copyright (c) Northern Telecom, 1991

Novell ONLAN

N

To access the systems it is best to own a copy of ONLAN/PC.

PC-Anywhere

P

To access the systems it is best to own a copy of PCAnywhere Remote.

PRIMOS

PRIMENET 19.2.7F PPOA1

ER!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

CONNECT
Primenet V 2.3  (system)
LOGIN           (you)
User id?        (system)
SAPB5           (you)
Password?       (system)
DROWSAP         (you)
OK,             (system)

ROLM CBX II

ROLM CBXII  RELEASE 9004.2.34 RB295 9000D IBMHO27568
BIND DATE:  7/APR/93
COPYRIGHT 1980, 1993 ROLM COMPANY.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ROLM IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK AND CBX IS A TRADEMARK OF ROLM COMPANY.
YOU HAVE ENTERED CPU 1
12:38:47 ON WEDNESDAY 2/15/1995

USERNAME: op

PASSWORD:

 INVALID USERNAME-PASSWORD PAIR

ROLM-OSL

MARAUDER10292  01/09/85(^G) 1 03/10/87  00:29:47
RELEASE 8003
OSL, PLEASE.
?

System75

Login: root
INCORRECT LOGIN

Login: browse
Password:

Software Version: G3s.b16.2.2

Terminal Type (513, 4410, 4425): [513]

Tops-10

NIH Timesharing

NIH Tri-SMP 7.02-FF  16:30:04 TTY11
system 1378/1381/1453 Connected to Node Happy(40) Line # 12
Please LOGIN
.

VM/370

VM/370
!

VM/ESA

VM/ESA ONLINE

                                          TBVM2 VM/ESA Rel 1.1     PUT 9200

Fill in your USERID and PASSWORD and press ENTER
(Your password will not appear when you type it)
USERID   ===>
PASSWORD ===>

COMMAND  ===>

Xylogics Annex Communications Server

Annex Command Line Interpreter   *   Copyright 1991 Xylogics, Inc.

Checking authorization, Please wait...
Annex username: TNO
Annex password:

Permission granted
annex:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

23. What are the default accounts for XXX?

AIX

guest           guest

AS/400

qsecofr         qsecofr         /* master security officer */
qsysopr         qsysopr         /* system operator         */
qpgmr           qpgmr           /* default programmer      */

also

ibm             password
ibm             2222
ibm             service
qsecofr         1111111
qsecofr         2222222
qserv           qserv
qsvr            qsvr
secofr          secofr

DECserver

ACCESS
SYSTEM

Dynix (The library software, not the UnixOS)

(Type 'later' to exit to the login prompt)
setup           no password
library         no password
circ            9 digit number

Hewlett Packard MPE-XL

HELLO           MANAGER.SYS
HELLO           MGR.SYS
HELLO           FIELD.SUPPORT     HPUNSUP or SUPPORT or HP
HELLO           OP.OPERATOR
MGR             CAROLIAN
MGR             CCC
MGR             CNAS
MGR             CONV
MGR             COGNOS
OPERATOR        COGNOS
MANAGER         COGNOS
OPERATOR        DISC
MGR             HPDESK
MGR             HPWORD
FIELD           HPWORD
MGR             HPOFFICE
SPOOLMAN        HPOFFICE
ADVMAIL         HPOFFICE
MAIL            HPOFFICE
WP              HPOFFICE
MANAGER         HPOFFICE
MGR             HPONLY
FIELD           HPP187
MGR             HPP187
MGR             HPP189
MGR             HPP196
MGR             INTX3
MGR             ITF3000
MANAGER         ITF3000
MAIL            MAIL
MGR             NETBASE
MGR             REGO
MGR             RJE
MGR             ROBELLE
MANAGER         SECURITY
MGR             SECURITY
FIELD           SERVICE
MANAGER         SYS
MGR             SYS
PCUSER          SYS
RSBCMON         SYS
OPERATOR        SYS
OPERATOR        SYSTEM
FIELD           SUPPORT
OPERATOR        SUPPORT
MANAGER         TCH
MAIL            TELESUP
MANAGER         TELESUP
MGR             TELESUP
SYS             TELESUP
MGE             VESOFT
MGE             VESOFT
MGR             WORD
MGR             XLSERVER

Common jobs are Pub, Sys, Data.
Common passwords are HPOnly, TeleSup, HP, MPE, Manager, MGR, Remote.

Major BBS

Sysop           Sysop

Mitel PBX

SYSTEM

NeXTSTEP

root            NeXT
signa           signa

Nomadic Computing Environment (NCE) on the Tadpole Technologies SPARCBook3

fax             no password

PICK O/S

DSA             # Desquetop System Administrator
DS
DESQUETOP
PHANTOM

Prolog

PBX             PBX
NETWORK         NETWORK
NETOP           null

Radio Shack Screen Savers

RSSTORE_ID_NUMBER

Rolm

CBX Defaults

op              op
op              operator
su              super
admin           pwp
eng             engineer

PhoneMail Defaults

sysadmin        sysadmin
tech            tech
poll            tech

RSX

SYSTEM/SYSTEM   (Username SYSTEM, Password SYSTEM)
1,1/system      (Directory [1,1] Password SYSTEM)
BATCH/BATCH
SYSTEM/MANAGER
USER/USER

Default accounts for Micro/RSX:

                MICRO/RSX

Alternately you can hit ^Z when the boot sequence asks you for the date and
create an account using:

                RUN ACNT
            or  RUN $ACNT

(Numbers below 10 {oct} are Priveleged)

Reboot and wait for the date/time question. Type ^C and at the MCR prompt,
type "abo at." You must include the . (dot)!

If this works, type "acs lb0:/blks=1000" to get some swap space so the new
step won't wedge.

type " run $acnt" and change the password of any account with a group
number of 7 or less.

You may find that the ^C does not work. Try ^Z and ESC as well. Also try
all 3 as terminators to valid and invalid times.

If none of the above work, use the halt switch to halt the system, just
after an invalid date-time. Look for a user mode PSW 1[4-7]xxxx. then
deposit 177777 into R6, cross your fingers, write protect the drive and
continue the system. This will hopefully result in indirect blowing up...
And hopefully the system has not been fully secured.

SGI Irix

4DGifts         no password
guest           no password
demos           no password
lp              no password
nuucp           no password
tour            no password
tutor           no password

System 75

bcim            bcimpw
bciim           bciimpw
bcms            bcmspw, bcms
bcnas           bcnspw
blue            bluepw
browse          looker, browsepw
craft           crftpw, craftpw, crack
cust            custpw
enquiry         enquirypw
field           support
inads           indspw, inadspw, inads
init            initpw
kraft           kraftpw
locate          locatepw
maint           maintpw, rwmaint
nms             nmspw
rcust           rcustpw
support         supportpw
tech            field

Taco Bell

rgm             rollout
tacobell        null

Verifone Junior 2.05

Default password: 166816

VMS

field           service
systest         utep

XON / XON Junior

Default password: 166831

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

24. What port is XXX on?

The file /etc/services on most Unix machines lists the port assignments for
that machine. For a complete list of port assignments, read RFC (Request
For Comments) 1700 Assigned Numbers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

25. What is a trojan/worm/virus/logic bomb?

This FAQ answer was written by Theora:

Trojan

Remember the Trojan Horse? Bad guys hid inside it until they could get into
the city to do their evil deed. A trojan computer program is similar. It is
a program which does an unauthorized function, hidden inside an authorized
program. It does something other than what it claims to do, usually
something malicious (although not necessarily!), and it is intended by the
author to do whatever it does. If it's not intentional, its called a 'bug'
or, in some cases, a feature :) Some virus scanning programs detect some
trojans. Some virus scanning programs don't detect any trojans. No virus
scanners detect all trojans.

Virus

A virus is an independent program which reproduces itself. It may attach to
other programs, it may create copies of itself (as in companion viruses).
It may damage or corrupt data, change data, or degrade the performance of
your system by utilizing resources such as memory or disk space. Some virus
scanners detect some viruses. No virus scanners detect all viruses. No
virus scanner can protect against "any and all viruses, known and unknown,
now and forevermore".

Worm

Made famous by Robert Morris, Jr. , worms are programs which reproduce by
copying themselves over and over, system to system, using up resources and
sometimes slowing down the systems. They are self contained and use the
networks to spread, in much the same way viruses use files to spread. Some
people say the solution to viruses and worms is to just not have any files
or networks. They are probably correct. We would include computers.

Logic Bomb

Code which will trigger a particular form of 'attack' when a designated
condition is met. For instance, a logic bomb could delete all files on Dec.
5th. Unlike a virus, a logic bomb does not make copies of itself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

26. How can I protect myself from virii and such?

This FAQ answer was written by Theora:

The most common viruses are boot sector infectors. You can help protect
yourself against those by write protecting all disks which you do not need
write access to. Definitely keep a set of write protected floppy system
disks. If you get a virus, it will make things much simpler. And, they are
good for coasters. Only kidding.

Scan all incoming files with a recent copy of a good virus scanner. Among
the best are F-Prot, Dr. Solomon's Anti-virus Toolkit, and Thunderbyte
Anti-Virus. AVP is also a good proggie. Using more than one scanner could
be helpful. You may get those one or two viruses that the other guy
happened to miss this month.

New viruses come out at the rate of about 8 per day now. NO scanner can
keep up with them all, but the four mentioned here do the best job of
keeping current. Any _good_ scanner will detect the majority of common
viruses. No virus scanner will detect all viruses.

Right now there are about 5600 known viruses. New ones are written all the
time. If you use a scanner for virus detection, you need to make sure you
get frequent updates. If you rely on behaviour blockers, you should know
that such programs can be bypassed easily by a technique known as
tunnelling.

You may want to use integrity checkers as well as scanners. Keep in mind
that while these can supply added protection, they are not foolproof.

You may want to use a particular kind of scanner, called resident scanners.
Those are programs which stay resident in the computer memory and
constantly monitor program execution (and sometimes even access to the
files containing programs). If you try to execute a program, the resident
scanner receives control and scans it first for known viruses. Only if no
such viruses are found, the program is allowed to execute.

Most virus scanners will not protect you against many kinds of trojans, any
sort of logic bombs, or worms. Theoretically, they _could_ protect you
against logic bombs and/or worms, by addition of scanning strings; however,
this is rarely done.

The best, actually only way, to protect yourself is to know what you have
on your system and make sure what you have there is authorised by you. Make
freqent backups of all important files. Keep your DOS system files write
protected. Write protect all disks that you do not need to write to. If you
do get a virus, don't panic. Call the support department of the company who
supplies your anti-virus product if you aren't sure of what you are doing.
If the company you got your anti-virus software from does not have a good
technical support department, change companies.

The best way to make sure viruses are not spread is not to spread them.
Some people do this intentionally. We discourage this. Viruses aren't cool.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

27. Where can I get more information about viruses?

This FAQ answer was written by Theora:

Assembly lanaguage programming books illustrate the (boring) aspect of
replication and have for a long time. The most exciting/interesting thing
about viruses is all the controversy around them. Free speech, legality,
and cute payloads are a lot more interesting than "find first, find next"
calls. You can get information about the technical aspects of viruses, as
well as help if you should happen to get a virus, from the virus-l FAQ,
posted on comp. virus every so often. You can also pick up on the various
debates there. There are alt.virus type newsgroups, but the level of
technical expertise is minimal, and so far at least there has not been a
lot of real "help" for people who want to get -rid- of a virus.

There are a lot of virus experts. To become one, just call yourself one.
Only Kidding. Understanding viruses involves understanding programming,
operating systems, and their interaction. Understanding all of the 'Cult of
Virus' business requires a lot of discernment. There are a number of good
papers available on viruses, and the Cult of Virus; you can get information
on them from just about anyone listed in the virus-l FAQ. The FTP site
ftp.informatik.uni-hamburg.de is a pretty reliable site for proggies and
text.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

28. What is Cryptoxxxxxxx?

This FAQ answer is excerpted from: Computer Security Basics by Deborah
Russell and G.T. Gengemi Sr.

A message is called either plaintext or cleartext. The process of
disguising a message in such a way as to hide its substance is called
encryption. An encrypted message is called ciphertext. The process of
turning ciphertext back into plaintext is called decryption.

The art and science of keeping messages secure is called cryptography, and
it is practiced by cryptographers. Cryptanalysts are practitioners of
cryptanalysis, the art and science of breaking ciphertext, i.e. seeing
through the disguise. The branch of mathematics embodying both cryptography
and cryptanalysis is called cryptology, and it's practitioners are called
cryptologists.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

29. What is PGP?

This FAQ answer is excerpted from: PGP(tm) User's Guide Volume I: Essential
Topics by Philip Zimmermann

PGP(tm) uses public-key encryption to protect E-mail and data files.
Communicate securely with people you've never met, with no secure channels
needed for prior exchange of keys. PGP is well featured and fast, with
sophisticated key management, digital signatures, data compression, and
good ergonomic design.

Pretty Good(tm) Privacy (PGP), from Phil's Pretty Good Software, is a high
security cryptographic software application for MS-DOS, Unix, VAX/VMS, and
other computers. PGP allows people to exchange files or messages with
privacy, authentication, and convenience. Privacy means that only those
intended to receive a message can read it. Authentication means that
messages that appear to be from a particular person can only have
originated from that person. Convenience means that privacy and
authentication are provided without the hassles of managing keys associated
with conventional cryptographic software. No secure channels are needed to
exchange keys between users, which makes PGP much easier to use. This is
because PGP is based on a powerful new technology called "public key"
cryptography.

PGP combines the convenience of the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) public key
cryptosystem with the speed of conventional cryptography, message digests
for digital signatures, data compression before encryption, good ergonomic
design, and sophisticated key management. And PGP performs the public-key
functions faster than most other software implementations. PGP is public
key cryptography for the masses.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

30. What is Tempest?

Tempest stands for Transient Electromagnetic Pulse Surveillance Technology.

Computers and other electronic equipment release interference to their
surrounding environment. You may observe this by placing two video monitors
close together. The pictures will behave erratically until you space them
apart.

What is important for an observer is the emission of digital pulses (1s and
0s) as these are used in computers. The channel for this radiation is in
two arrangements, radiated emissions and conducted emissions. Radiated
emissions are assembled when components in electrical devices form to act
as antennas. Conducted emissions are formed when radiation is conducted
along cables and wires.

Although most of the time these emissions are simply annoyances, they can
sometimes be very helpful. Suppose we wanted to see what project a target
was working on. We could sit in a van outside her office and use sensitive
electronic equipment to attempt to pick up and decipher the emanations from
her video monitor. These emissions normally exist at around 55-245 Mhz and
can be picked up as far as one kilometer away.

A monitoring device can distinguish between different sources emitting
radiation because the sources emanating the radiation are made up of
dissimilar elements and so this coupled with other factors varies the
emitted frequency. For example different electronic components in VDUs,
different manufacturing processes involved in reproducing the VDUs,
different line syncs, etc... By synchronizing our raster with the targets
raster we can passively draw the observed screen in real-time. This
technology can be acquired by anyone, not just government agencies.

The target could shield the emissions from her equipment or use equipment
that does not generate strong emissions. However, Tempest equipment is not
legal for civillian use in the United States.

Tempest is the US Government program for evaluation and endorsement of
electronic equipment that is safe from eavesdropping. Tempest certification
refers to the equipment having passed a testing phase and agreeing to
emanations rules specified in the government document NACSIM 5100A
(Classified). This document sets forth the emanation levels that the US
Government believes equipment can give off without compromising the
information it is processing.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

31. What is an anonymous remailer?

This FAQ answer was written by Raph Levien:

An anonymous remailer is a system on the Internet that allows you to send
e-mail or post messages to Usenet anonymously.

There are two sorts of remailers in widespread use. The first is the
anon.penet.fi style, the second is the cypherpunk style. The remailer at
anon.penet.fi is immensely popular, with over 160,000 users over its
lifetime, and probably tens of thousands of messages per day. Its main
advantage is that it's so easy to use. The cypherpunks mailers, which
provide much better security, are becoming more popular, however, as there
is more awareness of them.

The user of the anon.penet.fi system first needs to get an anonymous id.
This is done either by sending mail to somebody who already has one (for
example, by replying to a post on Usenet), or sending mail to
ping@anon.penet.fi. In either case, penet will mail back the new anon id,
which looks like an123456@anon.penet.fi. If an123456 then sends mail to
another user of the system, then this is what happens:

1.  The mail is transported to anon.penet.fi, which resides somewhere in
    the vicinity of Espoo, Finland.

2.  These steps are carried out by software running on anon.penet.fi.
    Penet first looks up the email address of the sender in its
    database, then replaces it with the numeric code.  All other
    information about the sender is removed.

3.  Then, penet looks up the number of the recipient in the same
    database, and replaces it with the actual email address.

4.  Finally, it sends the mail to the actual email address of the
    recipient.

There are variations on this scheme, such as posting to Usenet (in which
step 3 is eliminated), but that's the basic idea.

Where anon.penet.fi uses a secret database to match anon id's to actual
email addresses, the cypherpunks remailers use cryptography to hide the
actual identities. Let's say I want to send email to a real email address,
or post it to Usenet, but keep my identity completely hidden. To send it
through one remailer, this is what happens.

1.  I encrypt the message and the recipient's address, using the public
    key of the remailer of my choice.

2.  I send the email to the remailer.

3.  When the remailer gets the mail, it decrypts it using its private
    key, revealing as plaintext the message and the recipient's address.

4.  All information about the sender is removed.

5.  Finally, it sends it to the recipient's email address.

If one trusts the remailer operator, this is good enough. However, the
whole point of the cypherpunks remailers is that you don't _have_ to trust
any one individual or system. So, people who want real security use a chain
of remailers. If any one remailer on the "chain" is honest, then the
privacy of the message is assured.

To use a chain of remailers, I first have to prepare the message, which is
nestled within multiple layers of encryption, like a Russian matryoshka
doll. Preparing such a message is tedious and error prone, so many people
use an automated tool such as my premail package. Anyway, after preparing
the message, it is sent to the first remailer in the chain, which
corresponds to the outermost layer of encryption. Each remailer strips off
one layer of encryption and sends the message to the next, until it reaches
the final remailer. At this point, only the innermost layer of encryption
remains. This layer is stripped off, revealing the plaintext message and
recipient for the first time. At this point, the message is sent to its
actual recipient.

Remailers exist in many locations. A typical message might go through
Canada, Holland, Berkeley, and Finland before ending up at its final
location.

Aside from the difficulty of preparing all the encrypted messages, another
drawback of the cypherpunk remailers is that they don't easily allow
responses to anonymous mail. All information about the sender is stripped
away, including any kind of return address. However the new alias servers
promise to change that. To use an alias server, one creates a new email
address (mine is raph@alpha.c2.org). Mail sent to this new address will be
untraceably forwarded to one's real address.

To set this up, one first encrypts one's own email address with multiple
layers of encryption. Then, using an encrypted channel, one sends the
encrypted address to the alias server, along with the nickname that one
would like. The alias server registers the encrypted address in the
database. The alias server then handles reply mail in much the same way as
anon.penet.fi, except that the mail is forwarded to the chain of anonymous
remailers.

For maximum security, the user can arrange it so that, at each link in the
chain, the remailer adds another layer of encryption to the message while
removing one layer from the email address. When the user finally gets the
email, it is encrypted in multiple layers. The matryoshka has to be opened
one doll at a time until the plaintext message hidden inside is revealed.

One other point is that the remailers must be reliable in order for all
this to work. This is especially true when a chain of remailers is used --
if any one of the remailers is not working, then the message will be
dropped. This is why I maintain a list of reliable remailers. By choosing
reliable remailers to start with, there is a good chance the message will
finally get there.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

32. What are the addresses of some anonymous remailers?

The most popular and stable anonymous remailer is anon.penet.fi, operated
by Johan Helsingus. To obtain an anonymous ID, mail ping@anon.penet.fi.

The server at anon.penet.fi does it's best to remove any headers or other
information describing its true origin. You should make an effort and try
to omit information detailing your identity within such messages as quite
often signatures not starting with "--" are including within your e-mail,
this of course is not what you want. You can send messages to:

        anXXX@anon.penet.fi

Here you are addressing another anonymous user and your E-Mail message will
appear to have originated from anon.penet.fi.

        alt.security@anon.penet.fi

Here you are posting an anonymous message to a whole Usenet group and in
this case to alt.security which will be posted at the local site (in this
case Finland).

        ping@anon.penet.fi

If you send a message to this address you will be allocated an identity
(assuming you don't already have one). You can also confirm your identity
here as well.

You can also set yourself a password, this password helps to authenticate
any messages that you may send. This password is included in your outgoing
messages, to set a password send E-Mail to password@anon.penet.fi with your
password in the body of your text e.g.:

        To: password@anon.penet.fi
        Subject:
        TN0_rUlEz

For more information on this anonymous server send mail to:

        help@anon.penet.fi

Anonymous Usenet posting is frowned upon by other users of Usenet groups
claiming their opinions are worthless. This is because they believe
anonymity is used to shield ones self from attacks from opponents, while on
the other hand it can be used to protect ones self from social prejudice
(or people reporting ones opinions to ones superiors). Also if you are
thinking this is a useful tool to use to hid against the authorities then
think again, as there was a famous case where a Judge ordered the
administrator of the server to reveal the identity of a poster.

To see a comprehensive list on anonymous remailers, finger
remailer-list@kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

33. How do I defeat Copy Protection?

There are two common methods of defeating copy protection. The first is to
use a program that removes copy protection. Popular programs that do this
are CopyIIPC from Central Point Software and CopyWrite from Quaid Software.
The second method involves patching the copy protected program. For popular
software, you may be able to locate a ready made patch. You can them apply
the patch using any hex editor, such as debug or the Peter Norton's
DiskEdit. If you cannot, you must patch the software yourself.

Writing a patch requires a debugger, such as Soft-Ice or Sourcer. It also
requires some knowledge of assembly language. Load the protected program
under the debugger and watch for it to check the protection mechanism. When
it does, change that portion of the code. The code can be changed from JE
(Jump on Equal) or JNE (Jump On Not Equal) to JMP (Jump Unconditionally).
Or the code may simply be replaced with NOP (No Operation) instructions.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

34. What is 127.0.0.1?

127.0.0.1 is a loopback network connection. If you telnet, ftp, etc... to
it you are connected to your own machine.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

35. How do I post to a moderated newsgroup?

Usenet messages consist of message headers and message bodies. The message
header tells the news software how to process the message. Headers can be
divided into two types, required and optional. Required headers are ones
like "From" and "Newsgroups." Without the required headers, your message
will not be posted properly.

One of the optional headers is the "Approved" header. To post to a
moderated newsgroup, simply add an Approved header line to your message
header. The header line should contain the newsgroup moderators e-mail
address. To see the correct format for your target newsgroup, save a
message from the newsgroup and then look at it using any text editor.

A "Approved" header line should look like this:

Approved: will@gnu.ai.mit.edu

There cannot not be a blank line in the message header. A blank line will
cause any portion of the header after the blank line to be interpreted as
part of the message body.

For more information, read RFC 1036: Standard for Interchange of USENET
messages.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

36. How do I post to Usenet via e-mail?

Through an e-mail to Usenet gateway. Send e-mail messages to
newsgroup@cs.utexas.edu. In the username field, replace all periods in the
newsgroup name with hyphens. For example, to post to alt.2600, address your
mail to alt-2600@cs.utexas.edu.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

37. How do I defeat a BIOS password?

This depends on what BIOS the machine has. Common BIOS's include AMI,
Award, IBM and Phoenix. Numerous other BIOS's do exist, but these are the
most common.

Some BIOS's allow you to require a password be entered before the system
will boot. Some BIOS's allow you to require a password to be entered before
the BIOS setup may be accessed.

Every BIOS must store this password information somewhere. If you are able
to access the machine after it has been booted successfully, you may be
able to view the password. You must know the memory address where the
password is stored and the format in which the password is stored or you
must have a program that knows these things.

The most common BIOS password attack programs are for the AMI BIOS. Some
password attack programs will return the AMI BIOS password in plain text,
some will return it in ASCII codes, and some will return it in scan codes.
This appears to be dependent not just on the password attacker, but also on
the version of the AMI BIOS.

To obtain AMI BIOS password attackers, FTP to oak.oakland.edu

If you cannot access the machine after if has been powered up, it is still
possible to get past the password. The password is stored in CMOS memory
that is maintained while the PC is powered off by a small battery, which is
attached to the motherboard. If you remove this battery, all CMOS
information will be lost. You will need to re-enter the correct CMOS setup
information to use the machine. The machines owner or user will most likely
be alarmed when it is discovered that the BIOS password has been deleted.

On some motherboards, the battery is soldered to the motherboard, making it
difficult to remove. If this is the case, you have another alternative.
Somewhere on the motherboard you should find a jumper that will clear the
BIOS password. If you have the motherboard documentation, you will know
where that jumper is. If not, the jumper may be labeled on the motherboard.
If you are not fortunate enough for either of these to be the case, you may
be able to guess which jumper is the correct jumper. This jumper is usually
standing alone near the battery.