tenney@well.sf.ca.us (Glenn S. Tenney) (09/26/90)
I put this together when the GURPS Cyberpunk (or Cyberbunk, as some news stories have called it) manual first came out: --- cut here --- Subject: Hacking/Phreaking/Cracking tips from the GURPS Cyberpunk manual Well, I rushed out and bought GURPS Cyberpunk, in the hopes that my money will help SJG with legal fees. (Plus, I collect game stuff.) On the front cover, in the SJG Illuminatus logo, it says: "The book that was seized by the U.S. Secret Service! (see p. 4)" Anyway... (Assume I know *nothing* about cracking/phreaking -- I won't comment on my real knowledge.) The following is a summary of text from the GURPS Cyberpunk supplement, with a few direct quotes. How Much Hacking Can I Do Based on the C-word manual: (From the section entitled "Netrunning".) 0. People use handles to hide their real identity (p62). 1. You can use sensitive devices to listen in on the signals being sent to a computer monitor, and redisplay the image on your own screen (p62). 2. General info on ISDN. (p64-65) 3. Computer accounts can come in various levels, from specialty logins (uucp) to "superuser" who has access to everything. Some programs can give you a higher level of access, equivalent to a "better" account (p68). 4. General info on back doors (p69). 5. General info on chat systems (p69). 6. A list of network names from around the world. No clues as to which are real. For the US, the following are listed: WUT, UDTS 2, Datel I & II, Telenet, Tymnet, ARPAnet, Infomaster, GraphNet, TRT, FTCC, UniNet, Autonet, CompuServe, GENIE, AlaskaNet, JANET, Internet (p 71). 7. Passwords can be really obvious, or hard to remember random text strings (p 72). 8. A program could possibly cause physical damage (p 72). 9. General Phreaking Info: - Diverters: go through a bunch of systems so that tracing takes a long time; - Junction Boxing: Just go down to the local junction box and tie in (p 76). 10. Lots of networks use different protocols that are sometimes incompatible (p 77). 11. Ma Bell stuff: - Existence of CN/A, and that Ma Bell can look you up in any way; - Line Routing: "With access to the main phone switch computer, a hacker can control everything about a specific phone line."; - Monitoring: a person could monitor calls with the right access; - After Billing: A person could change bills; (p 82). 12. Trashing: Go through somebody's trash to find out all sorts of interesting info about their computing equipment (p 86,87). (13 and 14 are from the section "Attack and Defense Programs". The programs are obviously s-f software, but...): 13. Promote: "This program is executed from a normal user account on a system. If successful, the account is 'upgraded' to a superuser account." 14. Webster: "This is the standard icebreaker for use against Password programs (see p 93.). It acts as an extremely fast 'brute-force' hacker." (p 92). 15. Credcard Crime: A false balance could be entered in an account. A device could be used to access somebody else's card without having the correct password to get into the credcard (p 105). [note: a credcard is a self-contained debit card that can have anything from a password to retina scan protection.] And, um, that's about it. Now that you've read that, you know how to break into computer systems and do phone phreaking... 1/2 :-) --- cut here --- -- J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120 Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Skate UNIX(r)