Break as in Ctrl+C
Since this is Windows, wouldn’t that be Ctrl-Break?
Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
81–90 of 111 posts
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
He does mention a bit more in a hidden comment: "NTOSKRNL.EXE + debug symbols + IDA helped me understand how the remote break-in is supposed to work. I knew that something in the remote break-in code path before the first debug packet is sent is going to reboot my machine. So I patched "JMP SHORT $" instructions into the relevant code-path. If I placed it before the crash point, the machine hangs. If I placed it afte…
Not sure why this is downvoted, the comment is on point. Is it because it is partly gpt-generated content? I wonder if patching memory worked in the debugger, if not this would have to be done by manually editing the kernel file with IDA or something, and rebooting the machine. But in either case this is a good way to find the problem.
It must have been editing the file on disk. The debugger was what was causing the crash in the first place.
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Windows deserves a lot of criticism, but let's be honest and fair here... this would have been the case regardless of what OS was dominant.
It would be more fair to criticize the corporate culture at Microsoft in the 90s that led to this situation. They simply didn't really care. If another OS was dominant, it is easy to argue that fundamental security issues could have been addressed in a better fashion, if management wanted it to be so. To wit, this is the same era of computing that spawned OpenBSD. You can't say with a straight face that OpenBSD would…
AOL had a fun one in the instant messaging HTML interpreter: would bring a system down instantly.
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#84I build a port check way back to determine if services are up. It crashed half the company by simply opening a few tcp ports to the machines. Ridiculous days :)
Remember when Win95 could be crashed or even rooted just by pinging it the right way? We really have come a long way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_of_death I also remember SMB vulnerabilities that stayed unpatched for years on some machines. That was already when Metasploit existed, so you could inject VNC into most Windows hosts on local network with just a few commands. These days at least the patching is sup…
> Remember when Win95 could be crashed or even rooted just by pinging it the right way? We really have come a long way.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_of_death
Much more than that. With Windows 95, you could send an illegal ICMP with a simple "ping.exe -l 65510 victim.host.ip.address". Your Windows 95 might crash/misbehave after that, but not always.
The receiving end, the destination IP, on the other hand... These would panic, crash, dump, hang or reboot: Windows, MacOS, Netware, AIX, Linux, DEC Unix, Nextstep, OpenVMS, SCO Unix, HP-UX, Convex OS, Solaris.
It was very funny in the very first hours, the little toy Win95 machines obliterating all those big, expensive Unix servers on the network.
That was the precise moment when we started filtering ICMP echo on the routers. Hardly anyone did this before.
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#85Ah, the retro-computing rabbit hole. Harmlessly divorced from any real-world consequences, but truly satisfying nonetheless. A real honey trap for nerds. I just had to click that 6 more comments expander
Tech history is basically crack.
Hahah .. I cannot stop myself from clicking ..
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#86I build a port check way back to determine if services are up. It crashed half the company by simply opening a few tcp ports to the machines. Ridiculous days :)
Remember when Win95 could be crashed or even rooted just by pinging it the right way? We really have come a long way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_of_death I also remember SMB vulnerabilities that stayed unpatched for years on some machines. That was already when Metasploit existed, so you could inject VNC into most Windows hosts on local network with just a few commands. These days at least the patching is sup…
I had my Mac exposed on the public Internet around 2021/22, and I expected to be hacked instantly, but nothing actually happened. Times really have changed.
The feeling of being able to chat with friends over nc was pretty powerful, though.
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#87I build a port check way back to determine if services are up. It crashed half the company by simply opening a few tcp ports to the machines. Ridiculous days :)
Remember when Win95 could be crashed or even rooted just by pinging it the right way? We really have come a long way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_of_death I also remember SMB vulnerabilities that stayed unpatched for years on some machines. That was already when Metasploit existed, so you could inject VNC into most Windows hosts on local network with just a few commands. These days at least the patching is sup…
When I was at the university and without a fully developed frontal lobe I thought it was a great idea to test this in the lab.
Ended up creating a "battleship"-like game. Two people, each trying to crash the other's machine. Since the IPs were randomly assigned by DHCP and for some inexplicable reason changed frequently (every day or so), we would be trying to guess what the other machine's IP was.
Given how they were physically arranged, we were able to see the machines blue screening (but not always fully crashing).
Of course, there was a lot of collateral damage as some machines were in used by people that weren't part of the 'game'. Thankfully, most of the time they didn't fully crash. Most of the time.
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIRC Windows XP up to SP2 was vulnerable to this. Basically if you ran the install with the DSL modem attached, your PC was compromised even before the end of setup.
When W32/Blaster[0] came out I worked at a small ISP doing tech support and computer repair. A tech and I imaged an old box we had in the corner with a clean XP, assigned it a static IP in our /24, plugged it in and started a stopwatch. It didn’t even make it two minutes before it was infected. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_(computer_worm)
It took about 5 seconds IIRC on our college campus network.
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#89Ah, the retro-computing rabbit hole. Harmlessly divorced from any real-world consequences, but truly satisfying nonetheless. A real honey trap for nerds. I just had to click that 6 more comments expander
I look back to the computers before my time - the PET's and such, and I think it'd be fun to play with them. Or maybe an old IRIX box.
But a 486?? That brings back too many memories of blue screens and waiting forever because we couldn't afford memory and was thus swapping to disk. Still too soon for me, I suppose.
Re: Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
#90Awesome, the person who asked the question also answered it. Great stuff this is :-)
Plus I'm so happy people care about retrocomputing.
It's great to document these problems and solutions for everyone.