Carolyn's most popular book, in 4th edition now!
For advanced hacker studies, read Carolyn's
|
| Subscribe to Happy Hacker |
| Visit this group |
Unix Edition
__ __ __ __ __
Mar. 14th, 2000 Part One.... .- .--. .--. -.-- .... .- -.-. -.- . .-. -.. .. --. . ... -
See the Happy Hacker web site at http://www.happyhacker.org
Firewall gives you problems? Try http://happyhacker.org
.... .- .--. .--. -.-- .... .- -.-. -.- . .-. -.. .. --. . ... -***********************************************************************
*** Editor's Comments
***********************************************************************First, I'd like to say thanks to "Randy Bosetti aka Magus"
<magusdegor@hotmail.com> for answering my netmask/genmask problem. For those of you who missed it, the question was why if I run an "ifconfig eth0
192.168.1.1 up" route shows a "genmask" of 255.255.255.0, but "ifconfig eth0
192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up" shows it as a "netmask". He wrote:>The reason that "Genmask" is showing up on your Debian box instead of the
>usual "Netmask" is because the netmask was automatically "gen"erated by some
>basic communication packets from the network. If your machine wasn't hooked
>up to the network, but you were setting it up *planning* to put it on your
>network, Debian will default to a Class C netmask.. aka 255.255.255.0So thanks a lot. Now as the second part of my question, why (if there's a
logical reason) my network card only worked with an automatically generated
netmask... any ideas?I've noticed a lot of our readers are from overseas, with varying English
backgrounds. That's cool... I spent a year in a country where my language
skills were... shall we say... slightly below par, and so I understand what
you're going through... but don't forget about the babelfish
(babelfish.altavista.com) translator. If your native language is Spanish,
French, Italian, or Portugese (I think those are the only ones it handles),
you can have it translate for you.***********************************************************************
*** Readers' Submissions
***********************************************************************Anonymous <email@withheld.com> wrote:
Hi. Your website is GREAT and I´m enjoying it a lot. I have tons of
questions to ask but I´ll start with a few. I can Telnet my ISP but the
login and password that I use to access the ISP don´t work here. Does this
mean that my server potentially offers shell accounts but I don´t have
access to it? Another dumb question: The fact that I can Telnet other places
other than my ISP means that i have a shell account? Last one: Do phreak
boxes still work? (Because i suspect digital lines cannot be phreaked in the
old fashion way) Thank you very much for providing interesting educational
information on the internet. I´ve rediscovered my fascination for computers
(I used to be an AMIGA "abuser") and I´m spending almost all day with it.
Thanks,[Editor: Telneting into your ISP does not necessarily mean you have a shell
account-- it just means that your ISP is accepting connections on the telnet
port (23). Now, if they don't offer shell accounts... I'm not sure the purpose
in doing this... but the fact that you can't use your l/pw says to me that you
don't have a really shell account. Being able to use telnet on your local
machine means nothing. The key is if you can have access to another machine to
run telnet on (as opposed to over). Ok? As far as boxes go... get out of here.
Yes, I could answer your question... but all I will say is the following. The
blue boxes (2600Hz trunk generators) have not worked for over a decade. A few
of the other colors do, but most are way outdated. Do you think if they really
worked you'd just be able to get them from 17,456 internet sites? It's not
like the old days when you needed to have an account on some k-rad BBS (P80
was my favorite)... no one, not even the so-called "information wants to be
free" freaks/phreaks, will publish their secrets to the world. After all, then
they're no longer special, right? Furthermore, some of those so-called boxes
never were meant to work. I'm not just refering to things like the "blotto
box" (Hook a generator up to any of the wires in one of those big boxes, run
like hell), but even things like the aqua box (sucks energy out of the line to
run a light to burn out a Fibbie's computer). lol. Oh, and unless you run your
own phone company, boxing is illegal. (wow... that was long)]-----------------------------------------------------------------------
sachin surendran <sachin_surendran@yahoo.com> wonders:
dear carolyn,
let me introduce myself,I am Sachin from India.I am at
present doing my graduation.I came across your website and found it extremely interesting,I had little
knowledge of Linux but after visiting the website I was fascinated by the
power and utilities provided by the same,I also tried the leksha exploit but
the message '501 permission denied' ,I tried similar scripts on many
programmes running in the background and got variying results.your website has helped me in such a great extent that I am triying my own
techniques to get root in my own linux system, If you have more scripts like
the leksha exploit I would be keen to know about the same ,If possible please
do email me the same .I would like to know how you find out bugs in systems,is it using the
source code ? (because the leksha exploit only works if the executable is named smtpd else it activates the sendmail program this made me wonder how you got the right name for the executable). I know little of C ,and have written some softwares
concerning artificial intelligence and neural networks for image recognition
and intelligent process controll using the same.Now after reading your website I have got hooked to this new field,so I
would like to count upon you to help me enhance my knowledge about hacking.[Editor: Let's see here... the "leksha" exploit mentioned here is a favorite
over at happyhacker, probabaly because it's both a. really simple and b.
almost never works. I'm including source code below (way below... end of the
digest) for those who haven't seen it. If you know enough C to write AI and
neural net stuff (as well as enough math, I guess), you should know exactly
what it does. Learning that the SMTP Daemon is named smtpd is just *nix
knowledge... if you administer your own box (the one you're trying to root...
it is yours, right?) you should know how to find a daemon. Of course, the code
could easily be modified to search for the sendmail programs, as well as to
check what version of sendmail is running, and not even attempt execution if a
newer version is found. As to finding exploits... source code is good, as is
trying a bunch of things... looking for buffer overflows, seg faults, code
that runs SUID (or even better... actually invoked by root as root), stuff
like that... and then figuring out a way to make it do cool things.]-----------------------------------------------------------------------
evilhackr <evilhackr@evilhackr.com>
This is driving me crazy! I hate firewalls. I don't understand them one
bit. I have read and read and read about them and I don't understand how
people are getting by them so easy and mentioning, "Too easy!". I was trying
to participate in wargames for the first time. I choose fangz.happyhacker.com. I found 2 places that said it was open access and no firewall, but the host of the servers said that they have firewalls on the site. I'm confused and annoyed. Would you please help me!Paul
[Editor: lol. I must say... first... can I have a free email address? Second,
shouldn't it be evilnotsohacker? Third... about firewalls. I've got someone
who's writing a long article (or two or three) about firewalling technology,
how they work, how to set them up, etc., so hopefully within a few weeks we
should have some serious firewall info on the digest.]-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bil Lee <paimon1469@yahoo.com> asks:
Why is Linux so powerful for hacking, and how does FreeBSD and OpenBSD compare to Linux as a hacking OS.
[Editor: Well, the main reason Linux is so awesome is that it gives you complete control over your computer. In addition, the "open source" nature means lots of cool _free_ programs. Finally, since it's user developed, you're not at the mercy of some quasi-monopoly for things like bug fixes. As far as the BSD's vs. Linux... let's see... they're definately less fun... b/c a lot of programs have not been ported to BSD from Linux, but they're usually a lot more secure. If you have two machines, I'd highly recommend installing OpenBSD on one of them, and Linux on the other, and playing around with that setup.]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Glenn S. <wti@ite.net> wrote:
Actually from the LILO: prompt, you can just type "linux single user" and it will boot into the root shell in single user mode........
[Editor: I clipped out the previous article... it was the guy who's machine crashed while running X, and now, after running fsck (or maybe e2fsck), he can't login.]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
walt jabsco <skankrudieskank@hotmail.com> inquires:
my school has the same mail program discussed in GTMHH, you know ESMTP
Sendmail 8.9.3. I am getting pretty good at faking emails to myself, but I would like to know how to fake emails to myself *wink wink* but add an attachment.
If you could help me with this I would be most grateful.
-Walt[Editor: Of course you're good at faking emails to yourself. If you want to add an attachment to yourself, don't bother... you already have the file in a directory somewhere. Why you'd want to fakemail it to yourself... oh, right, "educational purposes only". Forgot about that catchall. The answer is, you really can't (no back orifice for you...). The reason is you need some way to encode the attachment (like MIME), and that would be a pretty large cut and paste, in addition to forging some more headers. Now, I suppose you could uuencode it... but...]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Allan A. <ultrafear@themutual.net> writes:
Hi Mike,
just a few questions... is linux another form of unix?? i've been reading the happy hacker guides (which are cool) and it seems to love unix, i have not got unix
or linux so which would you recommend i get??thanxs for your help...
Allan....from england....
[Editor: Yes. Linux is a free version of the Unix Kernel (Linux = Linus' Unix... get it?) As far as what distro to get... it's a pretty tough choice... I'd recommend either RedHat or SuSE for starters, as their the easiest to use. BUT, and this is just my opinion, if you're not willing/able to take the time to learn a "harder" distro like Debian, odds are you won't secure your linux box enough, and you'll be rooted pretty quick. I'd advise all the newbies out there who just built a network and have their personal financial info and whatnot on quicken on their windows boxes to be careful when connecting their Linux machines to the internet... you may want to unplug the network cable... just to make sure.]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Esteve <esteve_jane@arrakis.es> wants to try:
hi
My name is esteven & I'm doing a project work on linux security and for the last work of the project i would like to test my networked computer (it has also an intranet) to show the results of the securifying process just to prove how hard or not is the security i have been developing.yours faith fully
P.D: I'm from spain (you'll notice my english); and my partner and i would like to have some information to organize this during summer if it's possible.
AHH!!
I've read your book, i am very pleased to you.[Editor: Cool. As far as testing it... put it on the internet, and post a message to 2600 saying it's JP's home computer... you'll get so many attacks so fast... just make sure it's not connected to anything you don't want to become public. To actually record all the attacks, make sure your logs are kept securely. I've toyed around with the following ideas: a. log to something like a CD-R (not RW) b. log to your printer... I've got yet to meet a hacker who can delete a printed page
c. email your logs frequently... or better yet, use some kind of symlink to
connect syslog to mail. Good luck, and if you send me the address when it's
ready (as well as some way of verifying it's your machine, and not someone
elses), I'll post it here, and our readers can take shots at it as well.]-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Green <markgreen@hutchcity.com> also asks:
I have a win modem, and when i run liniux dailup connection it won't detect my modem. B ecause i have a win modem is there any thing i can do or do i just have to buy a non win modem?
<non-text snipped>
[Editor: First, disable HTML mail output. Very annonying. Second, the answer is a qualified "No, you have to buy a (real) modem". There is an experimental driver being written for some WinModems, the problems is the companies often don't release source code / schematics for the chips they use. I'm in the process of playing around with some of this code to see how well it works (well, it's not even supposed to work yet, right now it's supposed to pick up the phone and hang up), but for the time being... off to CompUSA.]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephanos Nightmare <stephanos@engineer.com> wrote:
hello. I hope you can help me with my problem. You know i have an old computer and I've recently installed Suse linux 6.1 Since then i had some problems with the x windows. First of all i cannot connect to the internet because the kppp is not installed. I have no idea how to install it. I tried to do so via the cd-rom but it is undetectable as well.
I don't know what to do I'm lost. I need all the help i can get. Thank you for your time reading this
p.s sorry for my English mistakes if any !!!
[Editor: Ok. First, If you can't detect your cd-rom, how did you install SuSE? If /dev/cdrom is your problem, try /dev/hdb /dev/hdc or /dev/hdd (for IDE slave/primary, master/secondary, and slave/secondary respectively). As far as installing a ppp program, you can use YAST or YAST2. If the cd is bad... maybe you might need a new one. Good luck.]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Arpaio <brian214@bellsouth.net> notes:
HI,
When I try to download Debian Unix off of the internet, it takes me to a maze of directories and when I click on things it takes me to another page about a mile long of giberish. I just want to download the debian Unix, or even better the SuSe linux. Can u help me?
-Brian[Editor: Yep, Debian is pretty confusing, isn't it :). The best thing to do is buy a CD. Unlike RedHat or SuSE which can run 30, 40, or even 50 dollars, you can get debian from a place like Linux System Labs (lsl.com) or CheapBytes (www.cheapbytes.com) for as low as $5.00. I wouldn't buy yet, though, as Debian 2.2 (potato) is supposed to be released very soon. Version 2.1 (slink), which is from last March (I think), includes old stuff like perl 5.004, X 3.something old, and is really not worth buying, since by the time it gets to you, they should have potato out already. If you _insist_ on downloading it, download the images for the rescue floppy, the drivers floppy, and the base floppies. Then download rawrite, and create your floppies. Once the base system is installed, use pppconfig to set up a ppp connection to use dselect to download (use the APT method).]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
cheechun <chun83@pd.jaring.my> says:
hi there !!
In this email i would like to ask some questions based on Unix and
Linux.The question is:-
1) Is there any different between Unix and Linux? I mean like the command use in Linux.
2) Im now trying to set up my home hacker laboraty and Im confuse wat Internet cards should i buy..is there any different between Ethernet card , NIC card and Hub..wat should i buy?
3)Do we need to upgrade my computer in order to run home-made hackerlabs? Im now using the P-133mhz computer wit 16 EDO RAM as well as 1.2GB hardisk...That`s all i want to ask..I hope sir can help me out with this problem...Thank you..
[Editor: I've already answered the Linux/Unix one... sorta. As far as commands go, things like cd will be the same... as far as what applications will work (X, pine, emacs, whatever), it depends on what's installed. As far as networking, here's what you need to know. You need one NIC (Network Interface Card) per machine (that's your ethernet card), one hub, and so-called patch (UTP) cables (RJ-45... like big fat phone cords) top connect the cards to the hub. You can also use 10Base2 (coax) with BNC connectors, but I'd advise against that due to two factors. Number 1, most networking kits are 10BaseT, and 2, the main problem with 10Base2 is that if one cable is bad, the entire network goes down.
Your computer is a good enough machine to run any *nix, although you won't have much of a network with one computer :). If you're looking to start a network, I'd recommend Linksys's cheap networking kit... 2 PCI cards, a 5 port hub (5 + 1 uplink, but you can use either port #5 or uplink, not both), and cables... I just bought one, it cost me 44.00 (plus FREE shipping) from Onvia.com. Check out computers.com to get good prices.
Just make sure your cards have Linux drivers available, or even better, are NE2000 compatible.]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jake61119@aol.com was dumb enough to ask:
Do U have a program so i can use to Hack a online game Called The Realm?? It was from serria but then was sold to Game Masters. I heard it's really easy to hack on it. Please if u need anymore info or can help please E-mail me back Thanx
Jake
[Editor: It's true, it's really easy. And that's one of the reasons you're so pathetic... because you can't even get in. Two, go away. Three, NOW! BTW, I'd like to warn everyone NOT to flame this guy, as tempting as it may be... do NOT *cough* *cough* send him hundred of megs of attachments, do NOT <wink> IM him at all times, and absolutely, under no circumstances, should you be his friend :)]
.... .- .--. .--. -.-- .... .- -.-. -.- . .-. -.. .. --. . ... -