========================================================================== = <=-[ HWA.hax0r.news ]-=> = ========================================================================== HWA.hax0r.news Number 1 Volume 1 November 13, 1998 ========================================================================== Hacker and hacking related news for the general public ========================================================================== "If it was any bigger, it would be much larger than this" - f1uffy First released November, Friday the 13th around 10:30pm after Millennium then again a few hours later after SouthPark and finally again sometime Saturday night or early Sunday when I got bored of the tv. Synopsis -------- The purpose of this list is to 'digest' current events of interest that affect the online underground and netizens in general. This includes coverage of general security issues, hacks, exploits, underground news and anything else I think is worthy of a look see. This list is NOT meant as a replacement for, nor to compete with, the likes of publications such as CuD or PHRACK or with news sites such as AntiOnline, the Hacker News Network (HNN) or mailing lists such as BUGTRAQ or ISN nor could any other 'digest' of this type do so. It *is* intended however, to compliment such material and provide a reference to those who follow the culture by keeping tabs on as many sources as possible and providing links to further info, its a labour of love and will be continued for as long as I feel like it, i'm not motivated by dollars or the illusion of fame, did you ever notice how the most famous/infamous hackers are the ones that get caught? there's a lot to be said for remaining just outside the circle... Welcome to HWA.hax0r.news ... Issue #1, premiere ish! Send all submissions (news, articles, humour etc) to hwa@press.usmc.net Section Content ------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ 0.0 ... Who am we? 1.0 ... Sources 2.0 ... From the editor 2.1 ... Where's the WaReZ? 3.0 ... Cash cOw? the hacker gold rush is on! 3.1 ... WWWHACK 3.2 ... Back Orifice 3.2b .. NetBus 3.3 ... AOL kicked off EFNET 3.4 ... Using wingate's to hide on IRC 3.5 ... Exploiting windows shares 3.6 ... The RootShell.com hack 3.7 ... Carolyn P. Meinel, A not so happy "hacker"? 3.8 ... "Hong Kong Blondes" take on the Chinese Government 4.0 ... Tagline of the month 5.0 ... Kewl unix file link(s) 6.0 ... Kewl windoze file link(s) 7.0 ... "Stuff to do when its raining in your head" 7.1 ... The SAR project: Security awareness or fastracking network abuse. 8.0 ... PHACVW linx -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 0 - Who is the editor and why is (s)he writing this? Who cares? I am noone, a nobody, I am not a phed or a narq, I could be you. I do this for myself and some friends, you get something out of it too? 'whump, there it is'. Thats all there is to it, nothing more, Neither am I a "hax0r" or a "cracker" and hell if I were, you think i'd broadcast it all over some crummy news sheet? heh, get over it, this is meant to be a fun read, nothing more, so get reading. and if you ain't smiling, you're taking things much too seriously. Keep hacking and stay free ... w00t. C*:. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 1 - Sources can be some, all, or none of the following (by no means complete nor listed in any degree of importance) News/Hacker site........ http://www.bikkel.com/~demoniz/ News site+I/O zine ..... http://www.antionline.com/ News + Exploit archive ..http://www.rootshell.com/beta/news.html News,Advisories,++ ......http://www.l0pht.com/ News site (HNN/l0pht),...http://www.hackernews.com/ Back Orifice/cDc.........http://www.cultdeadcow.com/ News site+...............http://www.zdnet.com/ IRC list/admin archives..http://www.the-project.org/ +Various mailing lists and some newsgroups, such as ... alt.hackers.malicious alt.hackers alt.2600 BUGTRAQ ntbugtraq ISN security mailing list http://www.anchordesk.com/ Jesse Berst's AnchorDesk +Various known and unknown or anonymous netizens ;) http://www.savage.net/ Annaliza Savage's home page http://www.kevinpoulsen.com/ Kevin Poulsen's home page http://catalog.com/kevin/ KP's mirror site (aka The Switch Room) http://home.pacbell.net/sysadm/ Agent Steal's home page * Feel free to send in sources of information that you feel provide good coverage or archives of hacker material and i'll add it to the list. 2 - From the editor: START ~~~~~ Ok, so there has been a lot of interesting stuff going on out there and i've had to wheedle out all kinds of stuff in order to keep this mailing a reasonable size. I won't yack on and on but rather jump right into the content.. have at it and enjoy. Congrats, thanks, and kudos to cruciphux@mobsters.com complaints and all nastygrams and mailbombs can go to /dev/nul or if you're really upset you might want to look at section 7 ... danke. Last minute stuff: Justin Petersen (aka Agent Steal) crawls out from under a rock.. Home page ...http://home.pacbell.net/sysadm/ ZDNET story..http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2164061,00.html Yet another MSIE bug ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IE bug: restart Windows By: demoniz Nov 9,22:16 From: http://www.bikkel.com/~demoniz/ A new and very serious Internet Explorer bug has been found. A special Java applet which uses the 'modified' Microsoft DirectDraw Java classes is able to crash not only MS Internet Explorer 4.* or 5, but the whole Windows 9* system. On a Windows NT system Internet Explorer crashes, but the operating system is in most cases still usable. According to Fabio Ciucc, who discovered the major flaw, the applet will not run in true and 100% pure Java environments, such as Netscape Navigator, Sun's HotJava or using the Java Plugin. The bug is only present in non standard Java modifications done by Microsoft in its Internet Explorer 4/5 on Windows systems. Fabio Ciucc hasn't released the information required to re-create the bug because of the potential danger of a huge DoS flood. Microsoft acknowledged the problem with its DirectDraw Java foundation classes that causes computers to crash. A patch will be released soon. A test is available at Fabio Ciucc's website. http://www.anfyjava.com/iebug/ (IE users: please note that your entire system will crash!) 2.1 Where's the WaReZ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is no information in this list pertaining to 'warez' that scene is covered quite adequately by others and has no place here.'nuff said. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 3.0 HACKER CASH GRAB? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bow to the Cash cOw: Hey Cartman, did the | watch come yet??? http://www.cultdeadcow.com/merchandise/watch.html At least we know where the cDc guys are coming from, ;-) Gimme your money: ---------------- It seems the old hacker gold rush is on, I don't care what anyone says, HACKING sells, and it sells big, I'm actually surprised it has taken this long for some people to realize this and begin to cash in on it, but it is readily apparent to me that the 'golden age of hacking' is far from over. AntiOnline, run by 19yr old John Vranesvich seems to have struck the mother lode. Already a commercial entity offering shell accounts to the wannabes the site now proclaims the following: "AntiOnline Forms Partnership With Zarite Inc.Sunday 10:00am, November 08, 1998 - Venture Capitalists see a future in AntiOnline, and decide to invest." uh, yeah, hey maybe someone will invest in us too some day . http://www.antionline.com/SpecialReports/zarite-partnership/ "Under the terms of the agreement, Vranesevich will retain a majority 70% stake in AntiOnline, and will maintain sole managerial control" From the press release: In exchange for 30% control of AntiOnline "Zarite Inc. has provided an undisclosed amount of investment capital, which is set to be used to launch a second generation site. ... which is expected to span over some 8 separate domains, will collectively be dubbed "AntiOnline - The Internet's Information Security Super Center". Along with the latest InfoSec news updated 3 times a day, AntiOnline will also run weekly columns and interviews from and by some of the biggest names in the computer security and hack scene. Another domain will host Bub, AntiOnline's artificial intelligence bot, 6 months in the making, that will be able to interactively answer questions about computer security issues posed to it by web surfers. One of the domains will host a virtual store front that will be a one stop shop for security products and hacker memorabilia, and yet another one will serve as a high power search portal to information security related sites, based on technology being leased from InfoSeek. Another of the domains will serve as the world's most extensive web companion to IRC, the form of real time type written communication used by thousands of hackers around the world." 3.1 WWWHACK ~~~~~~~ "Hacking" XXX sites for fun and profit. If it isn't trojaned then you have just another password brute force hacker? http://members.xoom.com/jimrand/ 3.2 BackOrifice ~~~~~~~~~~~ Note: I debated wether or not to include info on this as it has been around for quite some time (first unleashed at DefCon in July 1998) but since it is still so prevelant and people are STILL unclued as to what it is and where to get it etc here's the info... People are still in awe over this, and with good reason, its use has spread like wildfire among hackers and crackers alike with many netizens (especially warez pups) being completely unaware that their systems have been compromised. In a nutshell back orifice consists of two pieces, the server which runs in the background of an 'infected' Windows95 machine and a client program that allows the attacker to do "anything" he or she wishes with the compromised box. Clients exist for both Windows9x and unix environments, the standard port that the server runs on is 31337 but it can be configured to run on any port and even connect to irc and announce that it is 'owned'. You can get it and all the info you can stand here: http://www.cultdeadcow.com/tools/ Or see who's currently 'owned' on the EFNET channel #bo_owned Related items: 3.2b NetBus - A Windows trojan similar in operation to Back Orifice but ~~~~~~ not as widely disseminated. The home page seems to be on the run but it was last spotted at the following url: Current location Nov 13th 1998: ** http://come.to/netbus (A redirector, redirects to tripod) http://members.tripod.com/newkzone/__Download__/patch.exe Past locations: http://netbus.hypermart.net/index.html "under construction/moved" http://surf.to/netbus "deleted/moved" 3.3 AOL kicked out of EFNET ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Follow the sad thread here (quite amusing). http://www.the-project.org/admins/1098/maillist.html 3.4-5 Are you using wingates on IRC or exploiting windows shares? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These people are looking to educate those plebes and shut you out. LockDown2000 (aka Hacker98) http://lockdown2000.com/demo/start.html 3.6 RootShell hacked ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Possible bug in SSHD (a confirmed buffer overflow condition) The archived hack and Rootshell's story are available at their site. http://www.rootshell.com/hacked_sites/www.rootshell.com/ 3.7 Carolyn P. Meinel, A not so happy "hacker"? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From the ISN mailing list, included for review purposes, no permission for inclusion sought. Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 10:00:09 -0700 (MST) From: mea culpa To: InfoSec News Subject: [ISN] Carolyn Meinel --- Debunking the myth. X-Copyright: This e-mail copyright 1998 by jericho@dimensional.com Sender: owner-isn@repsec.com Reply-To: mea culpa From: Ralph Logan Approximately a year and a half ago, I attended Defcon V. Information Security professionals attend Defcon regularly to see old friends, form new relationships, and generally relax in an environment where we can speak about familiar topics without having to stop and explain years of computer knowledge to the general public, managers, clients or our bosses. According to the Official Defcon V page there was a panel discussion moderated by: Carolyn P. Meinel - Moderator of the Happy Hacker Digest and mailing lists. She will preside over a seperate[sic] Happy Hacker discussion pannel[sic] that will cover the topics of wether[sic] or not "newbies" should hav[sic] information handed to them, or should they learn for themselves? Having established relationships previously with other Information Security Professionals, I was surprised her name had never been mentioned, so I decided to sit in on the panel. Understanding that this was an informal convention, I was not expecting strict guidelines or 'stuffy' behavior from any of the panel members, but the complete ignorance and irrelevance of Ms. Meinel's statements, retorts and reactions to open questions amazed me. I left the panel discussion early. Over the last year, I have kept a watchful eye on this person, Ms. Meinel. I researched her history, read her list, watched other mailing lists, and attempted to understand how and when she became a 'Security Professional'. Knowing the experience and educational backgrounds of other Information Security Professionals, I could not grasp how the moderation of a mailing list qualified her as a 'Security Professional.' I received a document sent to Mike Bellus of the FBI outlining Ms. Meinel's services as a consultant. In the description of the "3-day Beginner Hacking Course" she was proposing to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ms. Meinel roughly portrays one of her services as "...designed to go far enough in these three days to teach serious proficiency at catching email criminals such as mail bombers." Such are the 'skills' that Ms. Meinel encourages in her followers on the "Happy Hacker" mailing list and journal, although the 'skills' Ms. Meinel teaches on her list are just sufficient to get a new computer enthusiast in enough hot water to send them to prison. She of course throws in an occasional 'Don't do this or you will go to jail' comment, but let's compare that to setting the cookie jar in front of the hungry child, shall we? Questions began to form in my mind: 'Is Ms. Meinel attempting to generate business for herself?', 'Is her skillset really this limited, or is she teaching new computer enthusiasts just enough to set off the warning signals with potential clients?' I watched at a distance as Ms. Meinel continuously poked and prodded her way around the underground scene with inflammatory accusations, ridiculous claims, and pious retorts to intelligent queries. Taunting the underground personalities with challenges, then turning to Federal Officials and accusing innocent people of terrorizing her, Ms. Meinel has unjustly accused many people of criminal activities, with not the slightest bit of evidence. It was obvious to me that Ms. Meinel had an agenda other than simply helping the uninformed in her 'Happy Hacker' mailing list. Sure enough, in early 1998 her book 'The Happy Hacker' was published. Interest waned after the book was released, as myself and other security professional associates realized that she was a harmless charlatan. At Defcon VI Ms. Meinel was amazingly quiet. A few months later, my current military client and I attended NISSC (National Information Systems Security Conference). One session of the conference concerned 'The Future of Information Security'. Included in this session's audience were professionals from the Department of Justice, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service, security professionals from the 'Big Five' accounting firms, Microsoft, and INFOSEC Professionals in the private industry. The panel discussion soon moved to 'How are we as INFOSEC professionals going to police the integrity of our profession?' When someone mentioned the content of Ms. Meinel's recent 'Scientific American' article, the entire audience burst into laughter. It was a satisfying moment for those of us following Ms. Meinel's less than illustrious career: to finally see that our fellow PROFESSIONALS see her for what she is, and not what she purports to be. I returned home from that conference with a sense of satisfaction, knowing that other INFOSEC professionals see through the charade that Ms. Meinel is creating. The most disturbing part of this last year and a half of watching Ms. Meinel, is her uncanny ability to pull the wool over the eyes of the press and the limited amount of the public that listen to her. I am afraid we are going to see more people in our industry playing these games with potential clients and the public, and we must constantly guard the integrity of INFOSEC, for integrity is a mainstay of any INFOSEC professional. It was with shame that I read your article after my boss pointed it out to me, asking if I was familiar with Ms. Meinel. This letter is not for publication, only to ask you to please research your publicized writers before publication in the future. This is not a letter to taunt Ms. Meinel, for I have no desire to respond to her, correspond with her, or even give her an attempt to justify her ever downward spiralling 'career' as a 'Security Expert'. Ralph Logan Senior Information Management Specialist Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. The opinions stated in this correspondance are in no way representative of my employers. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomo@repsec.com with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com] 3.8 The "Hong Kong Blondes" take on the Chinese Government. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ZDNET's Wired online news picks up this story: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/13693.html http://www.wired.com/news/news/email/explode-infobeat/politics/story/15857.html 4.0 Tagline of The month/week/year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seen on a msg in BUGTRAQ: "software industry, the: unique industry where selling substandard goods is legal and you can charge extra for fixing the problems." 5.0 Kewl (Unix) Software: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ksh (korn shell) and programming environment for *nix http://members.tripod.com/~dfrench/ "The U/WIN package provides a mechanism for building and running UNIX applications on Windows NT, Windows 98, and Windows 95 with few, if any, changes necessary. " http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/uwin/ 6.0 Kewl (Windoze) Software: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Windows Administrator (free) - all'round utility for registry and other internals for Windows95,98 and NT. http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=000U5C 7.0 "Stuff to do when its raining in your head" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, you have some frustrations you need to work out? a little pissed off at the world, the "scene", life, your bf/gf? Maybe Windows9x blue screened in the middle of that new killer app download? Here's a few suggestions to keep yourself busy, if not out of trouble [------------------------] [-----------------------------] [ ( A ) ] [ ( B ) ] [Have you installed unix?] [Have you installed Windows 9x] [------------------------] +--->[or NT and dual booted it with] / \ / [unix and a 32 bit fat? ] [YES] [NO] / [-----------------------------] / \----------/ / \ [DO YOU FEEL 'LEET?] [YES] [NO] / \ / I [YES] [NO] [DO YOU FEEL 'LEET?] {Are you using someone / \ / \ else's machine?} {Go to (B)} {Can you code in } [YES] [NO]-{Go to (C)} / \ c or write shell \ [YES] [NO] (perl) scripts? } {Did you do it to / / / \ an existing system / {you're using / [NO] w/o reformatting?} / a mac or imac! [YES] \ I I seek professional / {Go to (C)} I I help!} / / { Are you using a {Do you have / a hacked account?} a keen sense / / \ of humour? } {w00t go to (C) [YES] [NO] / \ ;-) } I I / [NACK] {Go to (C)} {Go to (A)} [ACK] \ I \-{congrats, you could be I the next Bill Gates.} \ [-------------------] [ (D) ] [Write a humorous ] [-------------------------------] [flowchart and send ] [ (C) ] [it to me, I need it] [ You're bored, but not stupid ] [more than you do. ] [ ] [ ] [ continue with section 8.0 ] [-------------------] [-------------------------------] 7.1 SAR Project ~~~~~~~~~~~ Like so many other things in the security field, this is a double edged sword... this site lists the current top 10 smurf amplifier networks. The idea is that by revealing which networks are "broken" (allowing the broadcast attack packets through) it will shame the NOCs into fixing their networks. Another idea may come to mind for people that like to play dirty though. http://www.powertech.no/smurf/ 8.0 PHACVW Links ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://lockdown2000.com/demo/start.html http://www.hitbox.com/wc/world.100.HackingPhreaking.html http://www.tazzone.com/top500/tally.cgi?section1=Hacking_Phreaking http://www.cyberarmy.com/ http://www.webfringe.com/top100? http://www.splitinfinity.com/~top55/ http://www.linkz.net/cgi-bin/top250/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- --EoF-HWA-EoF--EoF-HWA-EoF--EoF-HWA-EoF--EoF-HWA-EoF--EoF-HWA-EoF-- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-