Diary of a Network Geek

A new player heard from!
Well, interestingly enough, my Bloglines password was comprimised, too. But, I got that fixed and even managed to recover some of the deleted feeds and posts from those blogs that have also been deleted. Well, and I have hard-copy of all the good ones.

Well, I’ve already gotten one comprimised account squared away.
The other should follow shortly, though, it’s with a larger company so it may take a bit longer than I’d like. In any case, it wasn’t a big deal at all. Just a minor incovenience.

Well, it seems I’ve “upset” someone.
Apparently, an un-named someone at IP 68.106.38.39 is a little upset with me. Said person changed a couple of e-mail addresses and passwords last night. That same person seems to reside at hostname ip68-106-38-39.ph.ph.cox.net. Interestingly enough, this is the same IP address and hostname that changed the Yahoo account of another person who used to live in this house recently. Coincidence or pattern? Remember what I was writing about this very thing earlier in the week? Well, apparently, our would be malcontent doesn’t read very well, because they’ve left a very traceable trail. Does anyone know what areas are covered by Cox Cable? How many Western states do they handle? Ah, yes, logs are a wonderful thing.
Now, the question is, does it merit such things as, say, prosecution? I believe that said person, or persons, are now in violation of several laws. Having restricted my access to accounts at which I should be able to expect a reasonable amount of security and/or privacy. I don’t have the statutes in front of me, but, the last time I checked that was illegal. Now, I’ll get it straightened out, eventually, but that’s not the point. The point is, after being accused of hacking and breaking the law myself, someone has gone and done what I’ve been accused of doing. Ironic, isn’t it?
But, at least I have the joy of knowing that I’ve upset someone’s apple cart. It makes all the hassle of changing a couple of passwords back worth while. Suddenly, no matter what the weather is here in Houston, it’s a bright, sunny day for me! Have a fantabulous day!

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"My obligation is to do the right thing. The rest is in God's hands."
   --Martin Luther King

For some reason, I seem to be preparing for a siege.
Yesterday, I spent $296 on food at Sam’s Club. My freezer is packed so full, that things lean against the door! I have mass quantities of all kinds of staples. So, for the next three months or so, all I should need are short-term perishables like milk, eggs, and yogurt. Everything else, mostly, I have jammed into my pantry and upright freezer. But, my siege mentality goes further than that.
I’ve taken to locking the door behind me when I get home. I have a double-key deadbolt, so I don’t have a little toggle handle to lock the deadbolt on my back door. Instead, I have to actually use a key on the inside, too. That makes it difficult for anyone to smash a window and then open the door from the inside. It’s kind of weird, really, since I have no reason to be like this. I mean, it’s not like I’m actually afraid that someone is going to try and kill me or anything, but, still, I’ve been a little paranoid.
My .357 is still loaded and in the key-code gun safe next to my bed. I have candles in every room of the house, so I can find my way when the power goes out. But, the power hasn’t gone out in ages and I don’t remember the last time I heard anything about any kind of violent crime in my neighborhood. Still, I’m ready should anything happen. I don’t know, maybe it’s just that I’ve been living alone for a bit now and I’m just preparing to take care of anything, no matter what it is, all by myself. Certainly, that’s some of what motivated the food hoarding.
Everything I bought at Sam’s is convenient food. For me, at least. Soups and ravioli and single-serving macaroni and cheese. Hot Pockets and White Castle Cheeseburgers. Frankly, everything I make these days has to be quick and easy or it’s not worth it! I’m just too busy! All the running around with H.O.P.E. and doing pro bono computer work for a non-profit organization and church and therapy and support groups and just everyday life keep me really busy. And, even with all that, I still manage to lose weight. Of course, it fluctuates, but I bounced off 170 this weekend. It’ll be back up tomorrow, but still, I’m keeping trim in spite of eating relatively “fast” food.
Wow, I got tired just thinking about all that. Off to bed for me. I need my rest!

Attack someone’s network or website, that is.
Okay, this has been on my mind lately, not because I’ve done any actual hacking recently, since: a) that would be illegal and b) I haven’t done that sort of thing in, well, years. No, I’ve been thinking about it because, according to a friend of mine, at least one fan (short for “fanatic”) seems to think that I am not only capable of doing such things, but that I, in fact, have. And recently, too! As the French say, “It is to laugh…” So, as a thought experiment (that’s a mental exercise for you vocabulary impaired), here’s how I’d go about doing this, if I were, in fact, to do “ownz” someone’s “box”.
First off, I wouldn’t use a computer that I own, that can be traced to my ownership, or that uses an IP address that has ever been associated with my name. There are several ways around this, of course, including IP spoofing, anonymous remailers and other redirectors, and a compromised, third-party’s machine. That last one is the best, and, ironically, the easiest method. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Compromised Windoze machines are a dime a dozen. There are hordes of script kiddies out there just hammering away at every weak Windoze machine they can ping. Also, there are more and more insecure Linux machines floating around out there, too. (Have you applied all the latest patches to your penguin box?) Or, if you know of any systems that you left behind at an unhappy employment situation, that are still vulnerable, you can use them. Usually, a corporation will have a nice, fat data pipe which makes your “job” faster and easier. Of course, if they have half a brain, after you leave, they’ll change all the passwords, but sometimes someone slips. (The last place I knew of like that from my own past finally, after three years, changed the passwords as part of an upgrade.) Or, you could simply go to a coffee house that offers free Internet access via a wireless network. Every time you change coffee houses, you change IPs. And, while I normally am just fine with industrial-strength institutional coffee, a nice cafe au lait from Cresent City is always nice. Or, according to this article on Slashdot, Panera Bread Company is a good place to find a free wifi link.
So, now you have one or more launching platforms from which to case your mark. (That there’s criminal slang that means “look at your ultimate hacking goal”.) What do you use to look for a way in? Well, there’s three that I’d recommend, based on reviews; Snacktime, Nessus and NMAP. Of the three, NMAP is, arguably, the more robust and well known. In fact, NMAP was used in The Matrix movies. Now, that, my faithful readers, is “geek cred”! Though Snacktime is interesting to me because it’s PERL-based. Now, if you’re not familiar with these three tools, just stop reading and go play with your IIS 6.0 webserver. We’re about to talk “big boy” stuff here and you just won’t be up to it. So, if you’re still man enough to be following this, you’d load up your lookeeloo tool of choice on your remote launch platform at this point and get a fingerprint of your target system’s OS.
Now, we get to the meat of this little mental exercise… Okay, you’ve got your “open door”, or “doors”, as it were, into your target system. At this point it’s a matter of taking the information from the nice, clean results that NMAP, or whatever, gives you and applying your exploit. What and how you do that really depends on what you’re attacking, but it’s pretty much a paint-by-numbers affair now, thanks to the legions of script kiddies that keep us up to date. Right, root access (or Administrator, if your target is foolish enough to run Windoze). Now what? Well, that sort of depends, doesn’t it? Do you want data? Start a background transfer to a third party that you can collect later. (Use ftp, tftp, or, for loads of sneaky fun, telnet, to transfer your data. Many admins disable logs on these protocols because they don’t think they’re running. Double check.) Want to install something? Go for it! (Try a keylogger. Now you’ll get loads of target passwords to compromise other machines for further adventures!) Just want to crash the system? You should have skipped all this hassle and just hit your target with a DDoS attack from your many compromised machines, stupid. (Incidentally, for you Windoze admins out there, the entire Code Red scare you sloppy bastards caused was all about a Distributed Denial of Service “issue”. )

Of course, this is all very illegal and somewhat morally questionable as well, so I would NOT do it. What’s more, I would not recommend that anyone else attack, hack, assault, fold, spindle or mutilate any system other than your own. In short, the Network Geek, RyuMaou.com and Jim Hoffman (yes, we’re all the same entity) does not in any way endorse any of the above listed activities, except the cafe au lait from Cresent City. In fact, I suggest that you do NOT do anything that I’ve written about in this entry, including flinging wild accusations that cannot be proven. That’s called “libel”, or, if you say it instead of write it “slander”. That’s against the law, too, the last time I checked.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."
   --Elbert Hubbard

Would you pay to find computer geeks to date?
Okay, this site is obviously directed at professional computer geeks and, lately, I’ve been thinking about dating. Well, I came across a link to a place called aeWebworks that was selling a web suite called aeDating. And, well, that got me thinking… I’ve seen dating sites targeted at every group from Christians to nudists to science geeks to cowboy freaks and I thought, well, why not computer geeks? Okay, sure, it might be lopsided toward the male end of things, but I think I can use that as a selling point. I mean, think about all the “nice” girls who would like to find a guy with a good job. Hey, that’s us! What about all the “ladies” that might get deported if they don’t get married? I’ve known web designers that would do anything to get a date!
Okay, maybe it’s a little out there, but I already have a lot of traffic. It wouldn’t take much to juice that up a little. In fact, just having the dating site, or subsite, would probably drive some traffic. Keywords would be the thing. Yeah, keywords…. Well, before I get too far ahead of myself, I suppose I should see if there’s any interest. So, is there? Leave a comment!

Strange addresses watch my web page.
Who on the other side of disneyOC3-gw.customer.alter.net would be interested in my web page? Does Disney run Novell? Is an imagineer looking for Linux tips? I just can’t imagine what the interest might be, myself. Though, it is cool that I seem to have a fan in South Africa. Never been there, but it always looks beautiful in the documentaries. Besides, that’s where Charlize Theron is from, right? So, that’s all good.
Again, though, who the devil at Winn-Dixie.com would be interested in little, ole’ me? Is this another Novell site? I have a feeling that there are a lot of big Novell shops that are rather “stealth”, if you take my meaning. Of course, I get hits from all kinds of state and local governments, too, but I expect that considering how highly entrenched Novell is in the government sector. Though, I have to admit that the hits I get from .MIL always make me wonder. Is the NSA actually monitoring my communications? Or, Army Intel? Or even, the CIA? In any case, I think it’s great that so many people in the Washington, D.C. area are interested in my website.
Contrast those sites with the all the anonymous browsing sites that hit my page, though. I find that very interesting, indeed. After all, if the United States military isn’t embarassed to be browsing my website and blog, who would be? It certainly can’t be anyone from big business, since, in part, that’s who I cater to here. Is there a closet Novell geek out there who’s afraid his boss might find out? Or, perhaps, she’s afraid that her husband might catch her at something? Oh, whoever you are, just come on out of the closet and say hello! What could be the harm? (Oh, if you’re interested in using any of those free anonymous browsing systems, you can find a decent grouping of them here. Thank you, anonymous fan, whoever you are, for giving me that bit of information!)
Naturally, I find it particularly interesting that a device labeled “virgo-gw.customer.alter.net” seems to like hitting my website. Gee, do I have a secret admirer who just happens to be a Virgo? Well, what the heck, it can’t be worse than any of the Capricorns I’ve known! Say, just what is compatible with a Sagitarius like me? Ah, well, it doesn’t really matter, I guess, since I don’t believe in that hokum. Still, it is fun to speculate, isn’t it?

Hey, here’s another reason to be proud of my adopted state!
The State of Texas is sueing one of the world’s top four spammers. Apparently, the company, or companies, is based out of California and is already being sued by MicroSoft, but the State of Texas is joining in. The suit itself is based on the CAN-SPAM Act, which was such a big deal when it was passed. I have to admit, at the time, I never thought we’d actually see any of these bottom-feeders prosecuted in any way, but it looks like the CAN-SPAM Act may be actually doing some good! According to the article, the two spammers who run this company could face “penalties of $250 per violation, up to a maximum of $2 million.” Wow. That’d hurt!
Apparently, the Texas Attorney General is bringing suit against these guys under Texas law that “cover electronic mail and solicitation as well as deceptive practices. Those laws carry fines of up to $25,000 per day and $20,000 per violation…” Dang! You go get ’em!
Let’s hope it does some good!

No, that is not some kind of euphemism!
This morning when I’m drinking my coffee and praying, which is how I start every workday, I see something splashing about in the back of the square pond. At first, I thought it was a bird taking a little bath. Then, I thought it might be a squirrel that fell in and was dragging itself out. But, finally, it occurred to me that the weather was nice, the water was getting warm in the sun, and neither squirrels nor birds are generally bright gold and white, at least in my neighborhood. So, yes, Spring is springing here in Houston. The fish are feeling frisky and, well, “getting it on”. My only disappointment is that it’s the comets not the koi. Comets are cheap, but baby koi are anywhere from $50 to $300 a pop!
Of course, what that really all means is that I have to get out there and work on the ponds. Time for Spring cleaning. And, Spring water gardening. And, this year, a whole lot of repair work on the round pond’s waterfall. Right now, if anything blocks the waterfall even a little bit, it starts to overflow out the back. That’s a Bad Thing, in case it wasn’t clear. Not sure how I’ll get that done, especially alone, but I’ll manage somehow. I always do.

Okay, here’s a good reason to sit and think before hacking.
Or, even just taking a quick look at anything that you find you “accidentally” have access to and probably shouldn’t. I read a short story on AustralianIT.com about a guy who deleted e-mail sent to his former lover by her new beau. Apparently, he set up her e-mail address and knew the password, so he used it. I guess she wasn’t quite smart enough to change it while she was still using it to contact her new guy. Of course, the kicker was that she was seeing the “new” guy while still with the e-mail “hacker”. I can imagine how that must have felt. Probably pissed the poor guy off pretty bad. But, that’s still no excuse to lose your head!
Security work is often about maintaining a clear head when emotions or pressure are running high. Sometimes, both. I understand about keeping a clear head under pressure. Heck, everyone in this industry does. We’re usually under pressure, frankly, but freaking out doesn’t make it any better! In any case, if the guy had just printed the e-mail, or just read them, he probably would have gotten away with it. After all, who would’ve known? How would they have known? But, he lost his temper and, out of spite, deleted the e-mails that he found offensive. And got caught.
He got off lightly, though, mainly due to the fact that he got over the girl in question and moved on with his life. And, he pleaded guilty. In other words, he fessed up to what he’d done and how it was wrong. He got a suspended sentence. So, as long as he keeps his nose clean, he’s free and clear. Fair enough. But, there’s a lesson there for all of us who have that kind of access to other people’s accounts. Be careful and be smart.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"'One of these days' is none of these days."
   --English Proverb