t_pascal@OXY.EDU (Clarence Regis Wilson) (05/27/90)
Around here at this site, I've done a lot of "hacking". I am a freshman with sophomore standing, and I've learned a lot since comming here. Possibly, my first hack was discovering where the log files for logins were. Later, a former "hacker" gave me a binary editor so that I was able to change the date, time, etc. of when I had logged in. (Occasionally, it was neccessary to appear not to have logged in :-) The second hack was very interesting. The bulletin system used here is supposed to only be used to announce events on campus, post computer related problems, etc. In other words, it is a bore. I found out with my binary editor that the bulletin object code had a string that it used when attaching to the bulletin directory. This string was the password for the directory. (Our system is not remotely based on unix, i.e., it is not as secure.) I wrote a pascal program which attached to the directory with the proper password, and then turned control over to my binary editor. I was then able to edit messages at will. It was fun. My third hack was to change the location descriptions. Normally, these descriptions say "JOE_SCHMOE VT100 Library, Grnd flr". I changed them so that when you checked where they werer, it would say, "JANE_DOE VT100 Purgatory Bar & Grill" :-) I also changed the system administrator's location so it said, "SYSTEM System Console God" Maybe this sounds terribly juvenile, but in my point of thinking, I could have been destroying files and what not. The last hack I wish to relate involves programming. I related to you the bulletin board we have here. Well, I got fed up with the fact that there was no real discussion board on the computer. So I wrote one. Over Winter Break, I was bored, and spent a good two hundred hours writing a bbs. I wrote all sort of utilities, options, menus, etc. I made it with nine security levels (God, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Guest). It has about eight discussion boards, (users with yellow or better clearance can create boards!) and discussion when a discussion topic falls off, the board is renamed or removed. The hardest part was writing the login routine, but it worked out well. Overall, I am quite satisfied with my achievements, but next year there will be more, n'est-ce pas? T. Pascal