==Phrack Magazine==
Volume Seven, Issue Forty-Eight, File 5 of 18
-:[ Phrack Prophile ]:-
This issue, we have a "very special episode" of the Phrack Prophile. As
everyone knows, Phrack is once again in flux, and an entirely new editorial
staff is coming on board. In an effort to introduce everyone to these three
hackers, we've had them do profiles. Ladies and Gentlemen (yeah, like any
ladies OR gentlemen read Phrack), meet your new editors: Daemon9, ReDragon
and Voyager.
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Prophile on Daemon9
Personal
~~~~~~~~
Nomenclature: daemon9/route/infinity
In real life: Mike D. (as in David, not Diamond) S.
DOB: 10.05.73
Likes: Women who aren't afraid to cry.
Dislikes: Hippies. GOD, I hate hippies...
Ink: Large back piece, and growing... (It's the outline of
a die. (No, not as in a pair of dice, but as in a
computer chip...)
Other: Glock 19 with trigger-guard mounted laser-site.
Passions: Computers. Computer Security (or lack there of).
Health. Mental and Physical aptitude.
Main URLs: http://www.infonexus.com/~daemon9
ftp://ftp.infonexus.com/pub
mailto://route@infonexus.com
mailto://daemon9@netcom.com
Hardware
~~~~~~~~
Years with Computers: 14ish
Computers Owned: Towers: P90/32MB/3GIG (Windows NT/Solaris/DOS-WFW)
Mids: P120/32/2GIG (Linux), 486-66/16/700MB (FreeBSD),
486-50/16/540 (Linux)
Laptops: P133/16/800, (Windows NT/Linux)
486-75/16/500 (DOS/WFW)
Networks Owned: The Information Nexus (infonexus.com)
Media
~~~~~
Music: Front242, FLA, The Goats, NIN, Diatribe, 16Volt,
Morphine, etc...
Movies: Usual Suspects, Miller's Crossing, Sneakers, Fletch
Army of Darkness, True Romance, NBK, etc...
Books: TCP/IP Illustrated vols. I-III, UNP, Applied
Cryptogrpahy 2nd edition, Computers and Intractablity:
A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness, and so on...
A Bit of History
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ah, the days of my youth... Carefree, happy-go-lucky, life was a big
open door to me. One spring a very good friend of mine told me I should get
an ``Internet'' account to write him mail while he was away at school.
"Huh...?"
...Was my concise reply. I was deep into the computer thing at that time,
but I had not gotten into the Internet yet. Well, we went out and bought
a (at the time) $200 2400 BPS modem and got me hooked up with this brand new
service provider, NetCom Online... At first I merely used the thing for
email, but soon after I taught myself all about Unix, I discovered all the
wonders of Usenet and IRC (AKA the Big Waste). Most people know me from my
frequent alt.2600 presense. That's where I met Voyager. We quickly found
that we had the same interests as far as computers and hacking went. The
rest is history... Sorta.
The Theory Behind It All
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I look back and try to figure out how the hell I got here, I have
one person to thank. My father. He bought me my first Commodore 64. I can
remember hooking that archaic thing up to my TV, writing my own adventure
games in basic, and saving them to a tape drive. My computer time line goes
something like this:
c64 Apple IIc IBM XT IBM 286 486/33 486/66 P90 486/66 486/50 P120 P133...
1982 1984 1986 1987 1991 1992 1994 1995 1996 1996 1996
I am not happy unless I am bathed in a contstant stream of extraneous
RF radiation. My room is alive with a myriad of blinking and flashing lights,
several humming fans, and hundreds of feet of fire-hazard-inducing cables.
I have to put tin-foil on all of my windows just to keep the sun out and the
temperature down. You'd be amazed how well that works.
The pursuit of knowledge is what led me down the path I am following.
I am simply not satisfied with knowing that something works. I need to
know why and how, and how to break it and then how fix it... I do not solve a
problem by merely finding a work-around. I slam head on into the fucking
thing and work with it until a solution presents itself.
Intelligence, to me, is not what you know, or how much you know. It is
the ability to reason logically and rationally when the need arises and, if
pragmaticism is not the best approach, let intuition and chaos guide you.
Intelligence is adaptive and ever-changing... Memory capacity is too often
mistaken for smarts...
People I Know
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linenoiz: The reason I fell into the whole Internet scene to begin with.
Best friends for 12 years, I would not be where I am now
without him. He is one of the most intelligent people I know.
Nihil: The reason I fell into the whole hacking scene to begin with.
We have had our differences over the years, but our computing
interests are too similar to let petty squabbles come in the
way of our friendship. The other one of the most intelligent
people I know.
Mythrandir: I met Myth about 2 years on alt.2600. Sharp kid. Very sharp.
We think so alike on some things it's freaky. We'll get going
on that Tiger Team soon enuff, Jeff...!
Alhambra: Strong coder. We did the DemonKit for Linux (and are still
working on it..;)). Jeremy and I also have very similar
interests as far as hacking goes. I am glad he is here
with me in the Guild. I need more people like him. Not a
risky gambler, but hey, I took care of that for both of us...
Halflife: Coder supreme.
Shouts Out To
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brent, Carrie, ColdFire, Crow, Halflife, Heather, Jason, Jen, Kev,
Ka_mee, MikeP, Mudge, Shawn, SirSyko, Tim, Tom, Topher, Xanax, Vision
What I Have Done
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
alt.2600
--------
It used to be that you could find me in that group like clockwork. I
was always there. Reading, posting, flaming, lurking. That was me. For
years. This is where most people probably first remember me from. I took
it upon myself to self-moderate and answer all the questions I could possibly
handle... I usually posted several times daily. At last count, I posted over
2100 times (according to ~/.tin/posted). I was prolific. I have fond memories
of back then... But, times have changed. That group has gone almost completely
to hell (AKA the way of #hack). Thesedays, it's a fucking miracle if I find a
worthwhile thread to follow-up to... These days, look for me on comp.security.*,
comp.protocols.tcpip, sci.crypt, alt.security.pgp and so on...
zines...
--------
Oh yeah, I wrote some code and a few rag-tag articles for some Zines
out there. Can't remember the names...
the Guild
---------
The Guild is my group of roudy Internauts. I started the group about
20 months ago for several reasons, some of which are just *now* becoming
clear to me. For a while there, we were putting out a zine, The Infinity
Concept, but that is on hiatus while I do Phrack. Various members have done
coding and exploits. Look for more to come from the Guild...
ftp.netcom.com/pub/da/daemon9
-----------------------------
Somewhere along the line about 2 years ago, I started to take
advantage of netcom's free 5 megs of ftp space. I put together a modest
collection of tools and whatnot (under 6 megs of stuff). For some yet
undiscovered reason, people flocked to the site. I have no clue why. It
wasn't *that* great. What I find even more fascinating is the fact that
to this day people *still* go looking there for hacking paraphenelia.
The site has been vacated for almost a year now. If you are reading this
and still have a link to my O-L-D netcom ftp site, UPDATE it to point to
ftp.infonexus.com. I am *much* more proud of this site... Hundreds of megs
of top-notch stuff here. Anyway, the netcom site went down because Brian
Smith (at the time the only member of the netcom security staff) told me I
couldn't have certian tools there for distro. When I ignored him, he froze
my account. This was the final catalyst in me deciding to start the
Information Nexus...
the Information Nexus
---------------------
Ah yes... The InfoNexus... My frustration with Netcom led me to do
what I had been wanting to do for some time, start my own site. This site
would be a Haven for hackers, a place where they could come and be sure to
find only the finest in technologies and tools. A place of much learning and
information trade. A knowledge dumping ground. Thus was born the Information
Nexus. With anywhere from 6-10 machines the Nexus is a heterogenous
environment: the OS's range from several Unix flavors, several versions of
Windows NT, and, of course, the mundane stuff (like DOS/WFW). The main box,
Onyx, is a heavily tweaked Linux machine. It is a P120 with 32MB RAM and 2
GIGs of HD space.
As it stands now, accounts are given on restricted basis, only to
friends and people I know (or people whose reputation precedes them). As soon
as I upgrade the link from a 28.8 modem I will start offering accounts to the
masses, at a nomial fee. I will also open up ftp access, allowing a greater
number of users at all hours.
The Infinity Concept
--------------------
TIC is the zine the Guild put out. Some of the noteworthy subjects
written on: Cryptography, Windows NT security, Unix security,the security
of PGP, and several coding projects... We have done 3 issues to date, but
I have stopped further production of the zine to devote my full attention to
Phrack magazine.
Phrack Magazine
---------------
Several months back, I hopped on IRC with some of my Guild-mates and
was having a wonderous discussion on, oh, nothing. Well, Voyager was on, and
he dragged me into a private chat. He told me about ErikB stepping down, and
told me he and ReDragon were to take over as the new editors... I was very
happy for him, and told him I would have jumped at the chance to do it. That
was his next question... Since then, ReDragon, Voyager and I have been
salivating like dogs waiting to get our hands on the legend that is Phrack
Magazine.
My pledge is twofold: Timely distribution and nothing but the highest
quality articles. We will be distributing Phrack on a regular seasonal
rotation and will weed out all but the top-notch articles. I plan to write
at least one article per issue. I promise this much: You will not be
disappointed...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prophile on ReDragon
Personal
~~~~~~~~
Handle: ReDragon
Call Him: Dave
Past Handles: Dr. Disk (circa '84), The Destroyer (circa '88)
Handle Origin: Thomas Harris Book, Saab insignia, D&Dish sort of
name, then I decided it would be cooler (and original)
if it was all one word and one D.
Date of Birth: 12/30/75
Age of current date: do the math yourself
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 175
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Brown
Computers: Apple ][e, Atari 800, 8088, 386sx/16, 386dx/40, and
right now a 486/33
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I got my Hayes Micromodem //e in the summer of '84. I was eight years old
and with the help of my babysitter begged my way onto an H/P board. I used
to read Phrack and write BASIC code, I was quite the clueless newbie for a
while. People say age doesn't matter, but it does when you are that young.
My lameness continued, I learned Pascal, the years passed, and I started to
figure out how things worked. I discovered Unix, it was cool. I learned
what Crack was, I used it. Years passed I started to figure out how things
worked. I would go into more detail but I don't really care to tell the
world about my life, ask me privately if you care.
ReD's Favorite Things
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Women: yes
Cars: Saab
Foods: Taco Bell (doesn't everyone?), Young animals killed cruely
Music: Pink Floyd, Beatles, anything not techno
Leisure: IRC is bad for you, just say no.
Alcoholic Fun: Bottled beer, Jaegermeister, Long Island Iced Teas
Most Memorable Experiences
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saab car trouble in Queens on the way to HOPE.
Saab car trouble on PA Turnpike on way back from Pumpcon.
Saab stranded on George Washington Bridge on way to SummerCon '95.
Saab finally breaks down on NY Turnpike on way home.
SummerCon '95 (memorable that I don't remember any of it)
SummerCon '96 (the worst organized con I have ever been to)
Some People To Mention
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Green Machine (for altering my life more than I can imagine)
Acker (even though you gave up on it all, wish I knew what you were doing now)
Bluesman (why didn't you tell me about C earlier?)
Zorgo (for ruining my life showing me IRC)
Wozz (I still don't believe you grew up there)
r00t (you're all a bunch of idiots, but i love you)
Asriel (we are pretty similar people, except I'm not a narq)
Max-Q (screaming at me "Nice Fuckin' Con!" after Summercon '96, I was touched)
Taran King (you were cool to me when I was nobody, I was impressed)
Sirsyko (only hacker I know that I actually trust)
ErikB (annoying him enough made for an interesting summercon and a new phrack)
l0pht (for bringing back what hacking is really about)
b (stuff?)
Why Phrack?
~~~~~~~~~~~
I have been in one way or another involved in the "hack scene" for more
than half my life. I spent a large part of that on the lower end of the
knowledge ladder, and throughout it all few people helped me along directly.
What I recognize though is that there have been scores of people that have
spent their time, at no personal gain to themselves, to help educate others
about something that they know a bit more about than the rest of us.
I read a lot of books to learn about hacking; I paid for them and the
authors have gotten the money they deserve. I learned quite a bit from
college; I paid quite a lot for college. But I have learned about hacking
most of all from hackers. How can I repay those that have given me so much?
We are rather fortunate to be in a position where we actually can give
something back to them. We can give them a new generation of hackers that
have the same opportunities to learn and to share their knowledge that we
had. We can show them that we haven't forgotten about where we started; we
haven't forgotten about why we are hackers; and we haven't forgotten that
to be a hacker is a passion, and it is something we are proud of.
To my peers, consider giving something back to the community. To the next
generation, learn from what we give and explore from what you learn; it will
soon be your turn to take our place. And to those that made this all possible,
to those that gave their own knowledge in the name of the community, the
hundreds of authors, the ten editors, and most of all the readers: Thank You.
-ReDragon
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Prophile on Voyager
Personal
~~~~~~~~
Handle: Voyager
Call him: Will
Date of Birth: 06/23/69
Age: 27
Height: 6'
Weight: 200lb
Computers owned: 486DX4-100(FreeBSD), 486SX25(OS/2) and P-75 laptop(PC-DOS)
How did this handle originate? I jumped on IRC one day and didn't want
to use my real handle, so I made this one up on the spur of the moment.
How I Got Started
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I didn't start hacking computers until I went to college. I taught
myself to use PRIMOS and I started hacking because the 150k disk quota I
was given wasn't large enough for me to compile decent sized programs.
I started hacking in '87 and didn't run into another hacker until '91.
I got Internet access and I found Phrack on ftp.eff.org. Wow! I
thought, these people are serious. Shortly thereafter, I compiled the
VMS client for IRC and I was talking to other hacker types on a regular
basis.
About that time, I put up a BBS. The system is now known as "Hacker's
Haven." The system has become fairly popular, with over 1,400 users
surviving the last 90 day purge.
In '92, I wrote a "bot" in the IRC scripting language and called it
"HackSrv." HackSrv distributed H/P files on demand and also opped all of
us regular #hack cronies.
Late in '92 I moved to Atlanta and started organizing 2600 Meetings. We
had a blast. We held them at my apartment. I can't imagine what my
neighbors thought. I still remember 40 people in my tiny living room
huddled around the TV watching sneakers. One week, we were hacking on
one terminal, IRC'ing on another, watching a lockpicking demo on the
front door, sorting trash on the balcony, having firearms instruction in
the bedroom, and setting off bottle rockets from the kitchen to the
living room. The last is not a good idea, by the way.
Over the course of the next few years, #hack went completely to hell.
The place became littered with clueless newbies asking clueless newbie
questions. Other people, usually even less clueful newbies, would kick
and ban people for asking questions. This effectively stopped all useful
conversation on #hack, as anyone who brought up a technical topic was
likely to be kicked immediately. This led to a group of #hack ChanOp's
who had absolutely no technical knowledge and instead wasted away the
hours stroking their egos. I was annoyed by the incredible cluelessness
that had taken over the once fine channel and decided to do something
about it.
Towards that end, I wrote the #hack FAQ. The #hack FAQ was to be given
to new people to bring them up to speed in a short amount of time. This,
I reasoned, would raise the intellectual level on conversation on #hack.
It would also set the tone for conversation on #hack back to the technical
atmosphere I had known just a few years earlier. Later, the #hack FAQ
became the alt.2600/#hack FAQ and it's purpose was expanded to cover
the newsgroup alt.2600.
In the Summer of '94 I moved to Denver and joined up with TNO. TNO is a
group of friends who share an avid interest in computer and telephone
security. Today, TNO consists of Cavalier, DisordeR, Major, Edison and
myself.
Over the last few years, I've written for Phrack, 2600, CoTNo and FUCK.
I've wanted to be Phrack editor since Taran King retired. When ErikB
told me he was looking to retire from the job, and that I was being
considered as the next Phrack editor, it hit me just how big of a
responsibility this was. I spoke with ReDragon (Editor of FEH) and
daemon9 (Editor of The Infinity Concept). Together, we agreed to set
aside our current e-zine's (I was the current Editor of CoTNo) and focus
all of our attention on Phrack. We have received offers of support from
many old and new people in the hacking community. I am looking forward
to a bright future for Phrack.
Interests
~~~~~~~~~
Women: Sharp and quick
Cars: Big and fast
Food: Spicy to the point of pain
Music: Rock and Roll
Favorite performers: Jimmy Buffett, The Eagles
Favorite author: Joel Rosenberg
Favorite Book: Unix Power Tools
Most Memorable Experiences
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KL kicking me off #hack for saying that hacking was wrong.
Captain Hemp hiding my address and phone number in a bag of trash.
Reading my first sniffer log.
Getting arrested with Captain Hemp outside of a Southern Bell facility.
Finding the switch with the unpassworded root account.
Being pulled over on the way to HoHoCon while we were moshing in the
van.
DeadKat and Cavalier doing the root dance.
Being followed by the security guard with the baby seat.
Major and I *not* getting mugged and beaten by the gang of thieves, even
though he could barely stand up and neither of us were carrying at the
time.
Some People To Mention
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Major : You are, at the same time, one of the best people I have
ever known and one of the worst people I have ever
known. I am just glad I am on your side, and you mine.
I trust you with my life, and with a few of the
situations we've been through, that's not just talking.
Cavalier : You taught us all what was important in a group. Your
steadiness and common sense has helped carry TNO through
the dark times. As always, I'm glad to have you here.
You can always be counted on, and that means a great
deal to me.
The Presence : It is always a pleasure to talk to you. You have taught
me more than anyone else in the scene. You will always
be one of the best. The strength of your ethics will
guide you through where lesser men would fail.
Captain Hemp : There's no one I'd rather be arrested with.
NoCar / K : Congratulations on your new system!
The Final Question
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have met quite a few hackers. Very few have been "geeks" in the
traditional sense of the term. I have met hacker business people,
hacker jocks, hacker criminals, hacker stoners, hacker programmers, and
hacker skater punks. It's a sport for just about anyone with
intelligence, dedication, and absolutely no respect for authority.