Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday... err, Mr Internet
Happy Birthday to You
lo
A news item from National Geographic
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Where'd he go... Where'd who go?
(The disappearance of milw0rm)
(ed: milw0rm is back online, I'll leave this up as a testaments to my fanboiness. There are no additions since 21/09/09 though...)
(re-ed: More to come later, wow: http://bl4cksecurity.blogspot.com/2009/11/str0ke-milworms-funeral-is-this-friday.html)
Why did milw0rm disappear, and why is noone talking about it?
For years, milw0rm.com was one of the best places to find out "what got broken today", providing an amusing and sometimes scary overview of the latest and greatest exploits for operating systems and applications. What set them apart from sites like nvd.nist.gov, however, was the fact that each of these published vulnerabilites had an exploit attached. In languaes from C to Python, the interested reader could learn how to construct actual exploit code from a vulerability, just by reading through the thousands of examples on milw0rm. Another valuable resource on the site was its "papers" section. From XSS and SQL injection (script kiddie) to social engieering (old school), the papers were published by anyone and everyone, but they always seemed to be of reasonable quality, providing interesting insights into how security works.
milw0rm was going strong, publishing around 10 web app exploits per day, until around the 25th of September, when the posts suddenly dried up. Then, a few days ago, around the 8th of October, the web server stopped responding. The archive of milw0rm exploits is still available from second hand sources and is well worth a look if you weren't a regular milw0rm visitor while the site was with us.
(re-ed: More to come later, wow: http://bl4cksecurity.blogspot.com/2009/11/str0ke-milworms-funeral-is-this-friday.html)
Why did milw0rm disappear, and why is noone talking about it?
For years, milw0rm.com was one of the best places to find out "what got broken today", providing an amusing and sometimes scary overview of the latest and greatest exploits for operating systems and applications. What set them apart from sites like nvd.nist.gov, however, was the fact that each of these published vulnerabilites had an exploit attached. In languaes from C to Python, the interested reader could learn how to construct actual exploit code from a vulerability, just by reading through the thousands of examples on milw0rm. Another valuable resource on the site was its "papers" section. From XSS and SQL injection (script kiddie) to social engieering (old school), the papers were published by anyone and everyone, but they always seemed to be of reasonable quality, providing interesting insights into how security works.
milw0rm was going strong, publishing around 10 web app exploits per day, until around the 25th of September, when the posts suddenly dried up. Then, a few days ago, around the 8th of October, the web server stopped responding. The archive of milw0rm exploits is still available from second hand sources and is well worth a look if you weren't a regular milw0rm visitor while the site was with us.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Your Monthly Dose of Noise
For anyone out there who cried a little when the Turbo button disappeared:
Dos Games Online
(I owed a mate a link ;) )
Dos Games Online
(I owed a mate a link ;) )
Thursday, April 2, 2009
I Bricked my Box
A week ago, I had this little black mini/micro/tinyATX box. It had a processor, a motherboard, a hard drive and some other shiny stuff in it. I went to reinstall Windows on this perfectly functional machine, and the strangest thing happened. Well, not the "strangest" thing... that's still to come.
I get the "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration" message. Then black. Miles of it. All black, as far as the eye can see. No blue screen asking me to hit F8 if I fully agree to sell my soul and those of my descendants to Microsoft in perpetuity.
I am puzzled. I slot back in the old hard drive, and it boots flawlessly. At least, it appears to boot flawlessly. After about half an hour of Company of Heroes, I get that blue screen I was looking for... well, not quite the one I was looking for. BSoD (ed: Blue Screen of Death for those of you not already intimately familliar with Microsoft's best marketing tool). Reboot. BSoD, mentioning something about the IDE controller.
So, I dive into the tangle of cables which is my pooter, swap my drives onto the same IDE ribbon (the one from the apparently fully functioning optical drive). BSoD. BSoD. BSoD.
Ok, awesome, time for a new Mother Board and Processor. While I'm at it, I grab a new power supply, and rummage around in the basement to find a tower case to replace the tiny/nano/picoATX case which has put so many scars on the back of my hands. In the process, I end up kicking (accidentally!) a mate's DVD drive and snapping it, so I give him my one and dig up an old 16x DVD-ROM drive. While I'm at it I figure I'll swap the power supply and the HDD too.
In summary, the following parts of the computer had been changed: MoBo, Processor, Power Supply, HDD, optical drive and case. The *only* two things I took over into the "new" box was the RAM and the Graphics Card (9600GT, my baby :) ).
I boot to the Windows install CD. Setup dutifully inspects my computer's hardware configuration. Then Black. Exact same symptoms.
Right then, must be the RAM. I pop in an Ubuntu install CD and run the Memtest app... and it all passes with flying colours.
Ok, time to hit the internards. In my forum frolicking, I uncover the fact that my MoBo actually requires a BIOS flash to support the socket AM3 processor I have in there. I flash it with rev 0602, and guess what. It all works... just kidding. Black.
My housemate suggests a hard reset of the BIOS memory, by popping the battery and jumpering the jumpy jumpers. I follow the instructions in the manual (I NEVER follow the instructions on the manual, but MoBos scare me a little, so I did).
Now, the moment of truth, I've flashed the BIOS, I've checked every single cable leading to or from the Mother Board. I've sacrificed a chicken (anyone know how to get chicken blood stains out of carpet?); I've done everything but offer up parts of my body in trade for a working computer.
I press the power button.
Black.
No memory test, no POST, no nothing.
Black.
Welcome to www.IBrickedMyBox.com, I'll be your webmaster for the evening.
(FYI M378N MoBo and Phenom II 810 processor. 9600GT Graphics card was removed early on because I couldn't find the "Defualt to internal VGA" setting under Advanced -> Chipset -> Southbridge -> Video -> Magic -> Work. 550 W generic power supply, old 16x IDE DVD Rom Drive. 200 GB IDE HDD. Testeted with 2 different Windows XP CDs and an Xubuntu CD).
I get the "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration" message. Then black. Miles of it. All black, as far as the eye can see. No blue screen asking me to hit F8 if I fully agree to sell my soul and those of my descendants to Microsoft in perpetuity.
I am puzzled. I slot back in the old hard drive, and it boots flawlessly. At least, it appears to boot flawlessly. After about half an hour of Company of Heroes, I get that blue screen I was looking for... well, not quite the one I was looking for. BSoD (ed: Blue Screen of Death for those of you not already intimately familliar with Microsoft's best marketing tool). Reboot. BSoD, mentioning something about the IDE controller.
So, I dive into the tangle of cables which is my pooter, swap my drives onto the same IDE ribbon (the one from the apparently fully functioning optical drive). BSoD. BSoD. BSoD.
Ok, awesome, time for a new Mother Board and Processor. While I'm at it, I grab a new power supply, and rummage around in the basement to find a tower case to replace the tiny/nano/picoATX case which has put so many scars on the back of my hands. In the process, I end up kicking (accidentally!) a mate's DVD drive and snapping it, so I give him my one and dig up an old 16x DVD-ROM drive. While I'm at it I figure I'll swap the power supply and the HDD too.
In summary, the following parts of the computer had been changed: MoBo, Processor, Power Supply, HDD, optical drive and case. The *only* two things I took over into the "new" box was the RAM and the Graphics Card (9600GT, my baby :) ).
I boot to the Windows install CD. Setup dutifully inspects my computer's hardware configuration. Then Black. Exact same symptoms.
Right then, must be the RAM. I pop in an Ubuntu install CD and run the Memtest app... and it all passes with flying colours.
Ok, time to hit the internards. In my forum frolicking, I uncover the fact that my MoBo actually requires a BIOS flash to support the socket AM3 processor I have in there. I flash it with rev 0602, and guess what. It all works... just kidding. Black.
My housemate suggests a hard reset of the BIOS memory, by popping the battery and jumpering the jumpy jumpers. I follow the instructions in the manual (I NEVER follow the instructions on the manual, but MoBos scare me a little, so I did).
Now, the moment of truth, I've flashed the BIOS, I've checked every single cable leading to or from the Mother Board. I've sacrificed a chicken (anyone know how to get chicken blood stains out of carpet?); I've done everything but offer up parts of my body in trade for a working computer.
I press the power button.
Black.
No memory test, no POST, no nothing.
Black.
Welcome to www.IBrickedMyBox.com, I'll be your webmaster for the evening.
(FYI M378N MoBo and Phenom II 810 processor. 9600GT Graphics card was removed early on because I couldn't find the "Defualt to internal VGA" setting under Advanced -> Chipset -> Southbridge -> Video -> Magic -> Work. 550 W generic power supply, old 16x IDE DVD Rom Drive. 200 GB IDE HDD. Testeted with 2 different Windows XP CDs and an Xubuntu CD).
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Open or Closed?
It's not a new debate. Traditional, "safe", commercial software or "free"-as-in-speech open source programs. On the one hand you have a tried and tested model. You have full-time programmers with time to bugfix. Most importantly, it seems, you have someone to sue when the lights go out and your hamster dies of dehydration. On the other hand you have free software, extra sets of eyes checking the code and the ability to extend the software, shaping it to fit your needs.
For some it is a basic philosophical question of the right to make money from original thought. Can you copyright an idea? Is software really a product? For others it is a business decision, made by weighing up the risks and costs against the potential benefits. What is it to you? Do you care? Should we? Should all software be free? Does that even make sense? Have your say, post below.
For some it is a basic philosophical question of the right to make money from original thought. Can you copyright an idea? Is software really a product? For others it is a business decision, made by weighing up the risks and costs against the potential benefits. What is it to you? Do you care? Should we? Should all software be free? Does that even make sense? Have your say, post below.
The Manifesto
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
\/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/
+++The Mentor+++
Written on January 8, 1986
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
\/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/
+++The Mentor+++
Written on January 8, 1986
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"... Damn kids. They're all alike.
But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world... Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me... Damn underachiever. They're all alike.
I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..." Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.
I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me... Or thinks I'm a smart ass... Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here... Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.
And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found.
"This is it... this is where I belong..."
I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all... Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...
You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.
This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.
Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.
I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.
+++The Mentor+++
http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=7&id=3&mode=txt
Life, the Universe and Most Things
I've drifted through life with the delusion that the Universe loves me. Anything I need just falls into my lap, I'm the luckiest guy on Earth. But, as so often happens, I started to believe my own bullshit. Now the Universe has come to get its own back.
But, it turns out, the Universe is a bit rusty when it comes to serving up cold karma. Instead of ending up out of a job, I've been offered my dream job the day after I signed on for a perfectly good job. I'm not sweeping streets, I'm not cleaning windshields, but I'm not developing intelligent agents for the Defence Department either.
What next? It almost feels as though I ended up making out with the chick rom True Blood in a nightclub, and the chick from Heroes walks in. Oh well. Next time. A job is a job, right?
Anyway, my point is... wait, I know I had one in here somewhere. Oh yeah. Don't believe the bullshit. The universe doesn't love you, god doesn't hate you, there is no conspiracy, life is what you stake a claim to.
But, it turns out, the Universe is a bit rusty when it comes to serving up cold karma. Instead of ending up out of a job, I've been offered my dream job the day after I signed on for a perfectly good job. I'm not sweeping streets, I'm not cleaning windshields, but I'm not developing intelligent agents for the Defence Department either.
What next? It almost feels as though I ended up making out with the chick rom True Blood in a nightclub, and the chick from Heroes walks in. Oh well. Next time. A job is a job, right?
Anyway, my point is... wait, I know I had one in here somewhere. Oh yeah. Don't believe the bullshit. The universe doesn't love you, god doesn't hate you, there is no conspiracy, life is what you stake a claim to.
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