[alt.hackers] mystery UNIX file

goetz@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Phil Goetz) (12/19/90)

>>>What's the easiest way to get yesterday's date in a string?  After some
>>>poking around, give or take a time zone, this seems to do the trick:
>>>
>>> $ TZ=EST29EDT date
>
>>It helps if you tell us what computer and what
>>operating system you're referring to.
>
>   C'mon, any hacker worth his salt should know this one cold. :) Think
> "massive licensing fees" and I think you'll get it. :)
>
>| coxs@mts.rpi.edu       | "No matter how hot or cold a room is, it's      |

I have used System V UNIX hardly at all; it is
narrowminded of you to assume that anyone
worthy of the name "hacker" uses System V.
(In fact, it is even within the realm of possibility that there
are hackers who don't use UNIX!
Of course, if you are referring to people who
break into other computers, then they doubtless are familiar
with BSD and System V UNIX.)

Someone sent me a rather cryptic message which said

IT IS UNIX.  HERE IS UNIX.  HOPE YOU HAVE FUN WITH IT.

begin 0/unix.Z
MCS;0J.-@M=*<AOC/M"=VM"07:5Z$($L.JR)OCEN_G5P!8+HN;<^5\.Z@W[/<
M26_,RT_K_D8J"AZ"#TTJ6<%DSQT^042QT1=EZ?X.!7L^[BZ,:Q)$OA]-UB'O
MDX5+J,\7*\:'D<]L(2M1.0IGA/^2Y)"D_&WO?/TW.>>W88=D54Z73 _P9MI-
etc.

There was no valid return address on the message, so I can't
ask the user directly.  But:

The .Z suffix indicates that it is a compressed file.
But 'uncompress' in UMACS 4.3 (BSD) does nothing to it.
The file is over 360K.  Could it actually be the compressed
source to UNIX, or is UNIX source much bigger?
Again, the sender gave no indication what format the
file was in, presuming that I'm using the same operating system
as he and that decompression would be obvious.

It would be nice if the original sender or someone else responds soon,
because the file is much too big for me to save in the mailbox
for more than a day or so, and my system manager has a policy
of deleting the accounts of people who leave things in /tmp
overnight.  I hate to delete it without ever discovering
what it is.

Phil Goetz
goetz@cs.buffalo.EDU

Just think:  How would Bugs Bunny handle this?

gaudreau@juggler.East.Sun.COM (Joe Gaudreau - Sun BOS Software) (12/20/90)

Phil Goetz sez:

>>IT IS UNIX.  HERE IS UNIX.  HOPE YOU HAVE FUN WITH IT.
>
>begin 0/unix.Z
>MCS;0J.-@M=*<AOC/M"=VM"07:5Z$($L.JR)OCEN_G5P!8+HN;<^5\.Z@W[/<
>M26_,RT_K_D8J"AZ"#TTJ6<%DSQT^042QT1=EZ?X.!7L^[BZ,:Q)$OA]-UB'O
>MDX5+J,\7*\:'D<]L(2M1.0IGA/^2Y)"D_&WO?/TW.>>W88=D54Z73 _P9MI-
>etc.

the file has been compressed and uuencoded.  To reverse this, you must
first uudecode the file and then uncompress it.

also, the first line would probably look better as:
begin 666 unix.Z

maybe it's a joke...

assuming you don't have uudecode, try this (courtesy of rec.arts.startrek):

This question has been asked before, many times, so I think many will
find this useful.

Here's the source code to a C program for uudecode.  If you can compile
C, or can translate it into a language you do have, this should solve
your problems.

David B. Mears
Hewlett-Packard
Cupertino CA
hplabs!hpda!mears
mears@hpinddf.cup.hp.com
---------------
#include <stdio.h>
#define DEC(c)  (((c) - ' ') & 077)
main()
{
        int n;
        char dest[128], a,b,c,d;

        scanf("begin %o ", &n);
        gets(dest);

        if (freopen(dest, "w", stdout) == NULL) {
                perror(dest);
                exit(1);
        }

        while ((n=getchar()) != EOF && (n=DEC(n))!=0)  {
                while (n>0) {
                        a = DEC(getchar());
                        b = DEC(getchar());
                        c = DEC(getchar());
                        d = DEC(getchar());
                        if (n-- > 0) putchar(a << 2 | b >> 4);
                        if (n-- > 0) putchar(b << 4 | c >> 2);
                        if (n-- > 0) putchar(c << 6 | d);
                }
                n=getchar();
        }
        exit(0);
}


cheers,

Joe
-=-