gtmhh1-1

Thank you for joining the HAPPY HACKER email list. Moderator
is Carolyn P.
Meinel. If you have hacking tips that you wouldn't mind
being read by law
enforcement types, please send them in! In the meantime,
welcome to the
flagship ezine of this list. Here's...

The inaugural issue of...

_______________________________________________________

GUIDE TO (mostly) HARMLESS HACKING

Vol. 1 Number 1
Hacking tip of this column: how to finger a user via telnet.
_______________________________________________________

Hacking. The word conjures up evil computer geniuses

plotting the downfall
of civilization while squirreling away billions in
electronically stolen
funds in an Antigua bank.
But I define hacking as taking a playful, adventurous
approach to computers.
Hackers don't go by the book. We fool around and try odd
things, and when we
stumble across something entertaining we tell our friends
about it. Some of
us may be crooks, but more often we are good guys, or at
least harmless.
Furthermore, hacking is surprisingly easy. I'll give you a
chance to prove
it to yourself, today!

But regardless of why you want to be a hacker, it is

definitely a way to
have fun, impress your buddies, and get dates. If you are a
female hacker
you become totally irresistible to all men. Take my word for
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it!;^D

This column can become your gateway into this world. In

fact, after reading
just this first Guide to (mostly) Harmless Hacking, you will
be able to pull
off a stunt that will impress the average guy or gal
unlucky^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
fortunate enough to get collared by you at a party.

So what do you need to become a hacker? Before I tell you,

however, I am
going to subject you to a rant.

Have you ever posted a message to a news group or email list

devoted to
hacking? You said something like "What do I need to become a
hacker?" right?
Betcha you won't try *that* again!

It gives you an education in what "flame" means, right?

Yes, some of these 3l1te types like to flame the newbies.
They act like they
were born clutching a Unix manual in one hand and a TCP/IP
specification
document in the other and anyone who knows less is scum.

*********************
Newbie note: 3l1t3, 31337, etc. all mean "elite." The idea
is to take either
the word "elite" or "eleet" and substitute numbers for some
or all the
letters. We also like zs. Hacker d00dz do this sor7 of th1ng
l0tz.
********************
Now maybe you were making a sincere call for help. But there
is a reason
many hackers are quick to flame strangers who ask for help.

What we worry about is the kind of guy who says, "I want to
become a hacker.
But I *don't* want to learn programming and operating
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systems. Gimme some
passwords, d00dz! Yeah, and credit card numbers!!!"
Honest, I have seen this sort of post in hacker groups. Post
something like
this and you are likely to wake up the next morning to
discover your email
box filled with 3,000 messages from email discussion groups
on agricultural
irrigation, proctology, collectors of Franklin Mint
doo-dads, etc. Etc.,
etc., etc....arrrgghhhh!

The reason we worry about wannabe hackers is that it is

possible to break
into other people's computers and do serious damage even if
you are almost
totally ignorant.

How can a clueless newbie trash other people's computers?

Easy. There are
public FTP and Web sites on the Internet that offer canned
hacking programs.
Thanks to these canned tools, many of the "hackers" you read
about getting
busted are in fact clueless newbies.

This column will teach you how to do real, yet legal and
harmless hacking,
without resorting to these hacking tools. But I won't teach
you how to harm
other people's computers. Or even how to break in where you
don't belong.
******************************
You can go to jail tip: Even if you do no harm, if you break
into a portion
of a computer that is not open to the public, you have
committed a crime. If
you telnet across a state line to break in, you have
committed a federal felony.
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I will focus on hacking the Internet. The reason is that
each computer on
the Internet has some sort of public connections with the
rest of the Net.
What this means is that if you use the right commands, you
can *legally*
access these computers.

That, of course, is what you already do when you visit a Web

site. But I
will show you how to access and use Internet host computers
in ways that
most people didn't know were possible. Furthermore, these
are *fun* hacks.
In fact, soon you will be learning hacks that shed light on
how other people
(Not you, right? Promise?) may crack into the non-public
parts of hosts. And
-- these are hacks that anyone can do.
But, there is one thing you really need to get. It will make
hacking
infinitely easier:
A SHELL ACCOUNT!!!!

A "shell account" is an Internet account in which your

computer becomes a
terminal of one of your ISP's host computers. Once you are
in the "shell"
you can give commands to the Unix operating system just like
you were
sitting there in front of one of your ISP's hosts.

Warning: the tech support person at your ISP may tell you
that you have a
"shell account" when you really don't. Many ISPs don't
really like shell
accounts, either. Guess why? If you don't have a shell
account, you can't hack!

But you can easily tell if it is a real shell account.

First, you should use
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a "terminal emulation program" to log on. You will need a
program that
allows you to imitate a VT 100 terminal. If you have Windows
3.1 or Windows
95, a VT 100 terminal program is included as one of your
accessory program.

Any good ISP will allow you to try it out for a few days
with a guest
account. Get one and then try out a few Unix commands to
make sure it is
really a shell account.

You don't know Unix? If you are serious about understanding

hacking, you'll
need some good reference books. No, I don't mean the kind
with breathless
titles like "Secrets of Super hacker." I've bought too many
of that kind of
book. They are full of hot air and thin on how-to. Serious
hackers study
books on:
a) Unix. I like "The Unix Companion" by Harley Hahn.
b) Shells. I like "Learning the Bash Shell" by
Cameron Newham and Bill
Rosenblatt. A "shell" is the command interface between you
and the Unix
operating system.
c) TCP/IP, which is the set of protocols that make
the Internet work. I
like "TCP/IP for Dummies" by Marshall Wilensky and Candace
Leiden.

OK, rant is over. Time to hack!

How would you like to start your hacking career with one of
the simplest,
yet potentially hairy, hacks of the Internet? Here it comes:
telnet to a
finger port.

Have you ever used the finger command before? Finger will
sometimes tell you
a bunch of stuff about other people on the Internet.
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Normally you would just
enter the command:
finger Joe_Schmoe@Fubar.com

But instead of Joe Schmoe, you put in the email address of

someone you would
like to check out. For example, my email address is
cmeinel@techbroker.com.
So to finger me, give the command:

finger cmeinel@techbroker.com

Now this command may tell you something, or it may fail with
a message such
as "access denied."
But there is a more elite way to finger people. You can give
the command:
telnet llama.swcp.com 79
What this command has just done is let you get on a computer
with an
Internet address of llama.swcp.com through its port 79 --
without giving it
a password.

But the program that llama and many other Internet hosts are
running will
usually allow you to give only ONE command before
automatically closing the
connection. Make that command:

cmeinel

This will tell you a hacker secret about why port 79 and its
finger programs
are way more significant than you might think. Or, heck,
maybe something
else if the friendly neighborhood hacker is still planting
insulting
messages in my files.

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Now, for an extra hacking bonus, try telnetting to some
other ports. For
example:

telnet kitsune.swcp.com 13

That will give you the time and date here in New Mexico,
and:
telnet slug.swcp.com 19

Will show you a good time!

OK, I'm signing off for this column. And I promise to tell
you more about
what the big deal is over telnetting to finger -- but later.
Happy hacking!
*******************************************************
Want to share some kewl hacker stuph? Tell me I'm terrific?
Flame me? For
the first two, I'm at cmeinel@techbroker.com. Please direct
flames to
dev/null@techbroker.com. Happy hacking!
_______________________________________________________
Copyright 1996 Carolyn P. Meinel. You may forward the GUIDE
TO (mostly)
HARMLESS HACKING Ezine as long as you leave this notice at
the end. To
subscribe, email cmeinel@techbroker.com with message
"subscribe hacker
<joe.blow@my.isp.net>" substituting your real email address
for Joe Blow's.
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