151–160 of 231 posts
Back in the good old days we were sending this to random ICQ users saying something like "hey I'm a game developer and made this game, would you like to try it?". I'm not very proud of that tbh.
Yes, now if you do that you end up with a 2000 word threat analysis write up by a network security startup that claims you’re using sophisticated social engineering.
This brings me many good memories of my script kiddie humble beginnings. It all started with backoriffice and mIrc and slowly it evolved to me wanting to run bitchX and eventually getting into linux. It probably took me an year to go from being a windows user to exclusively run Slackware and poring over Phrack :)
mIRC scripting is why I'm a software developer today.
I believe I was in 4th or 5th grade and one night, I was playing Diablo 2 online with my cousin. My family was still using dial-up at the time so I was using one line to play and the other line to talk to my cousin on the phone. It was getting late and I was getting tired so I told my cousin I was going to call it a night. I exited Diablo 2 and continued talking to him on the phone. All of a sudden, I noticed a window pop up on my screen and it read:
"MASTER: what are you doing?"
I immediately asked my cousin if it he was messing with me. He proclaimed to not know what I was talking about and for a little bit I didn't believe him. I clicked in the chat box and asked:
"SLAVE: who is this?"
Anytime I messaged back it labeled me as "SLAVE." Anyways, the chat continued and the person told me to "look behind me." Mind you I'm in the basement and there was nothing behind me besides my dad's computer desk. This is where it got spooky:
"MASTER: who are you talking to on the phone?"
At this point, my cousin swore it wasn't him and I believed him. I looked up at my monitor and chills were sent down my spine. My mom had just given me a webcam for Christmas (I guess they had just become popular) and it was at this point I realized this person had been watching me this entire time. I panicked and immediately pulled the phone cable from the back of my Dell. It was hard to sleep soundly that night.
Believe it or not, I'd like to think this person gets partial credit for sparking my interest in computer security. From that point on, a chain reaction started and I began to immerse myself in security and became fascinated with learning about its history. Today, I happily have a career in the field :), but I still think back to this story from time to time and wonder what exactly happened.
Could it have been a Diablo 2 exploit? Maybe I joined someone's hosted game, they were somehow able to get my IP address, and then possibly exploited Windows XP? The chat window mechanism seemed pretty unique to me (maybe I'm wrong) like this person created it themselves. I'd be curious to read other people's theories. Maybe the person that executed the attack reads this post and can explain it all... :)
Like so many others here this really helped me gain an interest in computers at a young age. It's sad to think that the shit most of us did as kids for fun and learning would land today's children in hot water. I lucked out in Jr High, after getting suspended for 'hacking the school computers' as the computer lab admin caught wind and really encouraged me to learn and provided me with a lot of hands on experience tha…
Not only that, but some in the modern generation seem to genuinely see hackers as the scum of the earth
Oh man brings back so many memories of messing with friends. There was even a doom version that modeled monsters after system processes allowing you to shoot and kill the processes and watch them die
psdoom still exists: http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/ Though I'm skeptical it was ever part of a windows root kit.
Some weird random anecdote about Back Orifice 2000 (BO2k) that nobody asked for: We were goofing around in high school with this. Putting it on computers in school and messing around. We sent it over to a classmate. Her father was teachter and we figured she might open it on their home PC. (we were 14 at the time, by the way). Anyway, we made a fake hotmail address in the name of another classmate. These two people d…
I’m a bit older and when I was about 14 or 15 I got into assembly language DOS virus writing. This was in 1992 and 1993. It’s actually how I learned x86 ASM. I was involved with an old school hacking (sense 2) group called Phalcon/Skism. Did other fun stuff like “wardialing” with a program called ToneLoc. Anyway I wrote some viruses and dropped them in my high school computer lab. Several ended up getting loose on th…
Ever meet a guy who went by PADMaster?
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This reminds me of when I first discovered the Win32 API and used it to write some silly annoying apps in Borland C++ Builder. This was around 1998 and the worst I ever came up with was a persistent pop up that was difficult to remove due to some registry obfuscation. It had a single button that would open the CDROM tray. I put it on every computer in the lab. Good times. You’re right—it used to be playful to hack ar…
We played a lot of counter strike during my uni days and at one point I created a prank program that disguised itself as system.exe and listened for mouse movement. It would then inject random but smooth error into the mouse movement. I installed it on a friend's PC and it drove him to white hot rage. I think he destroyed a couple of mice before I owned up and bought him a new high end Logitech laser mouse (which was…
This brings back fun memories of teenage mischief. Used sit around IRC channels with mIRC scripts looking for people who had the default BO port open. Between that and unsecured smtp relays that didn’t limit the from address, we had lots of fun.
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In AOL Instant Messenger when I was in middle school I bulk messaged a ton of accounts in some teen chat saying “Hi Sarah.” Most of them responded “I’m not Sarah” or similar but a few replied “who is this?” I said “It’s Josh.” Most of them said “I don’t know a Josh” but one of them said “Hi” like she knew a Josh. I then started talking to her and slowly got around to telling her that I had a crush on her. She actuall…
I had many 'randoms' added on MSN messenger. Usually acquired through everyone inviting his complete contact list to one conversation. We used to discuss all and sundry back then. I was always slightly more nervous messaging the girls (obvious from their elaborate emoticon-saturated screen names). Curiously, one of my friends had a contact named 'korea@hotmail.com' who was always online but never replied. I sometimes…
Man, those were the days... Most of my contacts disappeared one by one (except for 2 which are my oldest friends now!), and it seems like that kind of atmosphere (just adding random people to chat) doesn't exist anywhere anymore, does it?