921 lines
54 KiB
Plaintext
921 lines
54 KiB
Plaintext
Cybertek Electric: Issue #4 7/30/96
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¢ss es flestra ferdha f”r; en sk lpr es sverdha
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/ |\ /| /|\ |\ |\ /| |-\ \ /
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/ | \ / | / | \ | \ | \ / | | \ \ /
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/ | \ / | / | \ | \ | \ / | | > / \ /
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/ | \/ | / | \ | / | \/ | | / / / /
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\ | | | | < | | | \ / / \
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\ | | | | \ | | | > \ / \
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\ | | | | \ | | | / \ \
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\ | | | | \ | | |-/ \ \
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I know a fifteenth, which Thiodhroerir the dwarf sang before Delling's door.
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He sang might to the Aesir, power to the elves, and understanding to Odin.
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Cybertek Electric: Issue Four
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July 30, 1996
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edited by Thomas Icom/IIRG
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<ticom@l0pht.com> <thomas.icom@iirg.com>
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Complements of OCL/Magnitude's Project Blackthorn,
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and The International Information Retrieval Guild (IIRG)
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Table of Contents
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=================
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* Hacking the Human Body
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by Mujahadin
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* From Crossbows to Cryptography: Techno-Thwarting The State
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by Chuck Hammill
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* Vesoft and the Hewlett Packard 3000
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by Black IC
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---/////---
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Hacking the Human Body
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by Mujahadin
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Many of us in the computer 'underground' are used to seeing various postings
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about bugs and backdoors in various pieces of software and hardware that make
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up this vast culture that we are a part of. But how many of us know, that for
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example, the human body contains many weaknesses, bugs if you will, that can
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be exploited just as easily as Wu_ftp?
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The reasons for this knowledge not being widely available are obvious. The
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people who hold these secrets are like the master hackers who only give out
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these powerful secrets to those they implicitly trust, or to those who have
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shown their worth by diligent study and application of requisite materials. It
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is not my purpose here to disseminate such information recklessly. Rather it
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is to impart the reader with a respect for the capabilities of the human body
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and the weaknesses contained therein, and of some of the basic ways these can
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be used to protect yourself against a physical attack in the most effective
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way possible....you don't want your aggressor to get back up. It NEVER pays
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to be a nice guy during the escalation of a physical confrontation. Only in
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the movies do the nice guys walk away, and not have to turn around.
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First some background concerning body mechanics. The human body, whether
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through evolution or divine creation, moves with circular motion on many axes
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simultaneously. Next time you walk to the bathroom or to the refrigerator to
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refill your beer stein, try walking rigid, like a robot would, using just
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linear motion. You will see immediately that this is an UNnatural method of
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movement and how uncomfortable it is and to help me prove the theory behind
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this article, just how much motion is wasted by this linear activity. It
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takes a CONCERTED effort to maintain balance in this robotic movement. So now
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we see the economy of motion and ease of action that the natural way our
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bodies want to move gives us. Using this economy of motion and ease of action
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now takes us to my next point, physically manipulating the human body in an
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unnatural fashion.
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While many parts of the human body are very flexible, we can say that nothing
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has full 360 degree rotation, and it is in this area I will address most of
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this article to. Joint manipulation is the easiest way to start the
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discussion. The best way to describe a joint manipulation is by example.
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Open your right hand exposing the palm upward. Then place the index finger
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of your left hand (with the rest of the fingers tucked in) into the right
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palm. Now close your right hand around your index finger. Rotate your
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right hand around feeling the limits of movement and committing them to
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memory. Open the right hand back up and put the index finger AND the middle
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finger of the left hand both in the palm, closing it. Rotate the right hand
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once again sensing the difference this makes in this technique. Two fingers
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are ALWAYS better than one, however, make sure that the two fingers you plan
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on seizing are located next to each other on the hand.. or else you may lose
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your grasp due to the difficult to grab shape this makes. One can also grab
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separate fingers on an attackers same hand using both of your hands. This
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is a great technique and is called separating the bone. Try this on a friend
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(or enemy), but if on a friendly victim be sure to be careful, and have the
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action performed on you so you know what this feels like.
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Moving to the wrist. There are plenty of things to do with the wrists but
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for the sake of clarity I wont be discussing these much because placement of
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the hands is very important and since I don't have the tools at my disposal
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to include photographs, then I wouldn't want anyone to feel secure with just
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a text example. But I will say this: get a friend and try out the rotational
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limits of the wrist using one hand and then two. That's as easy as I can make
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it without photos and for the sake of wasted bandwidth. The elbow is a very
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self-explanatory structure, limitwise.
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The forearm has some rotation from the elbow due to the radial and ulna, but
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this is secondary to the lack of real movement that the elbow has. This makes
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it an extremely vulnerable architecture when it does become accessible for a
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technique. This is the problem though, because the elbow tends to stay
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behind the weapon that precedes it. Namely the fist or whatever the fist is
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holding. If one was truly skilled at circular motion then it would be no
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problem to simply circle around an attack to make the elbow more accessible,
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or avert an attack and depend on the attackers over exertion of his own
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sphere of influence....his own over extension of his circular motion, which
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by the way helps us make another point.
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Depending on the attacker to not be in tune with his own natural motion, to be
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clumsy and aloof, ignorant of how he moves, can also be a great key in
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overcoming an opponent. Sort of like a buffer overwrite.... get the attacker
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to overcommit...when he/she does, then take the advantage. If you happen to
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get this far then personally I wouldn't go for the elbow at this juncture, but
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for the purpose of discussion if you get in a bind and you have hold of an
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arm, then pull downward violently to shake the opponent, causing a mild shock
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to the back of the head where it meets the neck (this actually happens). Do
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your best to take advantage in this moment of weakness by turning the arm over
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placing another hand on the outside of the elbow pressuring downwards.
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Experimentation with this pressure is absolutely necessary for you to feel how
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this works. Also don't place the hand too high or too low... this can cause
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the attacker to fold his elbow, opening you up to a vicious counterattack with
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one of the body's most powerful weapons. Interesting that one of the bodies
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weakest structures at its opposition, can become one of the strongest weapons
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the body has. As for the shoulder, just move your own shoulder around to its
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extremes and you will easily see how its weaknesses can be exploited.
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Continuing our discussion of the elbow from above, once the elbow is locked,
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hopefully you would have enough forethought to make sure your attacker is
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slightly away from you and bent over. Take this opportunity to jam his
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shoulder with plenty of force in the direction of his jaw. This is a neat
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little bonus of the straight elbow lock. Also preemptive striking to the
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shoulder lessens any force of an incoming blow. This is what Bruce Lee called
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a 'stop hit'. But this takes flawless timing and is out of context for this
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article.
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Visiting the neck area we see several options. The throat provides us with
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much soft collapsible mass which can be accessed quite easily, as long as
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speed and accuracy are on your side. A quick and powerful jab to the larynx,
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either above or below, gains us some time to explore more possibilities in our
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defensive posture. We can now become the offensive party if we are successful
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here. Note that also on the sides of the neck exist sternomatocollastoid
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muscle structures (for exact placement of these check your Gray's Anatomy
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Coloring Book) which give us ample space to access several 'pressure points'
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which if manipulated (read SQUEEZED) properly will cause the brain to prompt
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the body to lift up on the toes, thereby weakening any effort of your attacker
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to strike with any force. I have only met one person completely immune to the
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initial pain sequence produced by this technique, and it made for lots of
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interesting experimentation, and unfortunately for our immune friend, lots of
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bruises as well. Also within this muscle structure are the carotid arteries.
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A well placed strike to the outsides of the neck will seize the muscles up,
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causing the blood supply to the brain to be shut off. Contrary to popular
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belief, this is how a strike to the temples work as well. To revive from such
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a strike requires massage and gentle rotation of the neck structure to return
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the muscles to their previous state.
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The eyes are an obvious weakness as is the nose, be it from straight on,
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upwards, sideways, or even downwards. The ears are interesting because of
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the occasional airtight capabilities. Have you ever been slapped on the
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ear? The air pressure involved with that is tremendous for such a little
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canal. Its no small wonder then that partial and often full deafness arises
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out of such little force. There are also several pressure points located
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beneath the ear which have differing effects, depending on how utilized. There
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also exists on the back of the skull at the base where the vertebrae end which
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when struck causes yet another shutdown of the brain due to the contraction of
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muscles. Don't forget this key clue: where the head goes.... the body follows.
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Moving in a downward direction we have the ribs, where nerve fibers weave
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in and out between the ribcage members. This takes practice but finding
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these aren't too difficult. There is a term where nerves are exposed to
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the underside of the flesh when running between muscle bundles. Its called
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a cavity, and cavity striking is an acquired skill. Bodybuilders are known
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for their extra musculature. Obviously. But with this muscularity comes a
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nice big weakness which can be exploited by someone with little or no muscle
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mass at all.....justice ;). It seems as though with this extra muscle comes
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extra cavity space...i.e., more exposed nerve fiber. Need I say more on
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this?
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The floating ribs are susceptible to becoming dislodged from their location,
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given the right angle of approach. The abdominal area is naturally tense and
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as well should be, unless trained in advanced deep abdominal conditioning
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which has been a protected secret for centuries. I have seen examples of this
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training and it is quite impressive. No tricks involved. I can spot a fake
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from a thousand miles away. Real 'Iron Body' practitioners can be struck with
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a variety of implements using full force with no damage done. All this is
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done with complete relaxation of the abdominal muscle wall. But there is a
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flaw in even the tensing of the abdominal area. The muscles that make up this
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area are primarily weaved in a direction that naturally opposes force from the
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front. If we introduce a spirryllic action slightly downwards to this mass
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then we have exploited the weakness in the weave.
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The groin structure is really self explanatory, save for the few fanatical
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practitioners of several martial arts who practice for hours a technique
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where the testicles are drawn up inside the scrotum. But these guys are a
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dead giveaway, wherein they must stand in a particular posture for this to
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happen, exposing other areas to vulnerability.
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On the sides and slightly to the back of the thigh belong the sciatic nerves.
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Repeated strikes to this area will definitely cause weakness in the legs, and
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eventually an inability to stand straight without wavering. The knees, when a
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person is standing straight up, are extremely vulnerable to being sheared
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downward or to the side... this is very violent and should only be used in a
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VERY life threatening situation. When slightly flexed then the knees are
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vulnerable from the sides and back. Actually, the knees are ALWAYS weak from
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the sides. There exist many pressure points on the thigh, shin and arch of the
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foot that I will not address, as these require pinpoint accuracy to administer
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to and this is beyond the scope of this treatment, however I will say that I
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heard a story of a Special Forces Sergeant who, after being injured in Vietnam
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had to walk with a cane, became so adept with the cane that in a particular
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barfight all he had to do to subdue his attacker was stomp the cane down on
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the arch of the foot, thereby disrupting the intricate pattern of bone and
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ligament causing separation of said bone and ligament many times over.
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Needless to say, with ZEN-like simplicity, the altercation was over before it
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started. With this in mind, when in a bear hug type situation, never fail to
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stomp down on the arch of the foot, unless you are suspended in the air. Then
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it is a simple matter of using your head to make your point, while kicking at
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the knees or shins.
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There are many more areas to address here and I have selectively left much out
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because of the damaging nature of the techniques. I didn't pay too much
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attention to the circular nature of the body in the offensive posture because
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this is very advanced thought. To sum up this circular theory, think of
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spinning a yo-yo around in a circle while the string is fully unwraped from
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the axle.... what makes it spin faster?? what opposing forces are involved
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here?? and where is the actual fulcrumatic action?? These are clues that if
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experimented with to even a slight degree, will give the reader a great
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understanding as to how a greater amount of force can be generated by using
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the natural endowments of the body.
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Greets to the guys in VLAD, GHeap, DrHavoc, prophet, Special Forces then,
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now, and forever, and to Thomas Icom.
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Mujahadin - the real Desert Storm.
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-///-
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FROM CROSSBOWS TO CRYPTOGRAPHY: TECHNO-THWARTING THE STATE
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by Chuck Hammill
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weaponsrus@aol.com
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Given at the Future of Freedom Conference, November 1987
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Public Domain: Duplicate and Distribute Freely
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You know, technology--and particularly computer
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technology--has often gotten a bad rap in Libertarian cir-
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cles. We tend to think of Orwell's 1984, or Terry Gilliam's
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Brazil, or the proximity detectors keeping East Berlin's
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slave/citizens on their own side of the border, or the so-
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phisticated bugging devices Nixon used to harass those on
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his "enemies list." Or, we recognize that for the price of
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a ticket on the Concorde we can fly at twice the speed of
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sound, but only if we first walk thru a magnetometer run by
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a government policeman, and permit him to paw thru our be-
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longings if it beeps.
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But I think that mind-set is a mistake. Before there
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were cattle prods, governments tortured their prisoners with
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clubs and rubber hoses. Before there were lasers for
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eavesdropping, governments used binoculars and lip-readers.
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Though government certainly uses technology to oppress, the
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evil lies not in the tools but in the wielder of the tools.
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In fact, technology represents one of the most promis-
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ing avenues available for re-capturing our freedoms from
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those who have stolen them. By its very nature, it favors
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the bright (who can put it to use) over the dull (who can-
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not). It favors the adaptable (who are quick to see the
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merit of the new( over the sluggish (who cling to time-
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tested ways). And what two better words are there to de-
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scribe government bureaucracy than "dull" and "sluggish"?
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One of the clearest, classic triumphs of technology
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over tyranny I see is the invention of the man-portable
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crossbow. With it, an untrained peasant could now reliably
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and lethally engage a target out to fifty meters--even if
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that target were a mounted, chain-mailed knight. (Unlike
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the longbow, which, admittedly was more powerful, and could
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get off more shots per unit time, the crossbow required no
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formal training to utilize. Whereas the longbow required
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elaborate visual, tactile and kinesthetic coordination to
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achieve any degree of accuracy, the wielder of a crossbow
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could simply put the weapon to his shoulder, sight along the
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arrow itself, and be reasonably assured of hitting his tar-
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get.)
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Moreover, since just about the only mounted knights
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likely to visit your average peasant would be government
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soldiers and tax collectors, the utility of the device was
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plain: With it, the common rabble could defend themselves
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not only against one another, but against their governmental
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masters. It was the medieval equivalent of the armor-
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piercing bullet, and, consequently, kings and priests (the
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medieval equivalent of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
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Crossbows) threatened death and excommunication, respec-
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tively, for its unlawful possession.
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Looking at later developments, we see how technology
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like the firearm--particularly the repeating rifle and the
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handgun, later followed by the Gatling gun and more advanced
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machine guns--radically altered the balance of interpersonal
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and inter-group power. Not without reason was the Colt .45
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called "the equalizer." A frail dance-hall hostess with one
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in her possession was now fully able to protect herself
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against the brawniest roughneck in any saloon. Advertise-
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ments for the period also reflect the merchandising of the
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repeating cartridge rifle by declaring that "a man on
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horseback, armed with one of these rifles, simply cannot be
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captured." And, as long as his captors were relying upon
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flintlocks or single-shot rifles, the quote is doubtless a
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true one.
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Updating now to the present, the public-key cipher
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(with a personal computer to run it) represents an equiv-
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alent quantum leap--in a defensive weapon. Not only can
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such a technique be used to protect sensitive data in one's
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own possession, but it can also permit two strangers to ex-
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change information over an insecure communications
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channel--a wiretapped phone line, for example, or
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skywriting, for that matter)--without ever having previously
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met to exchange cipher keys. With a thousand-dollar com-
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puter, you can create a cipher that a multi-megabuck CRAY
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X-MP can't crack in a year. Within a few years, it should
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be economically feasible to similarly encrypt voice communi-
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cations; soon after that, full-color digitized video images.
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Technology will not only have made wiretapping obsolete, it
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will have totally demolished government's control over in-
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formation transfer.
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I'd like to take just a moment to sketch the mathemat-
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ics which makes this principle possible. This algorithm is
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called the RSA algorithm, after Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman
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who jointly created it. Its security derives from the fact
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that, if a very large number is the product of two very
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large primes, then it is extremely difficult to obtain the
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two prime factors from analysis of their product. "Ex-
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tremely" in the sense that if primes p and q have 100
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digits apiece, then their 200-digit product cannot in gen-
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eral be factored in less than 100 years by the most powerful
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computer now in existence.
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The "public" part of the key consists of (1) the prod-
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uct pq of the two large primes p and q, and (2) one fac-
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tor, call it x , of the product xy where xy = {(p-1) *
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(q-1) + 1}. The "private" part of the key consists of the
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other factor y.
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Each block of the text to be encrypted is first turned
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into an integer--either by using ASCII, or even a simple
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A=01, B=02, C=03, ... , Z=26 representation. This integer
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is then raised to the power x (modulo pq) and the resulting
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integer is then sent as the encrypted message. The receiver
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decrypts by taking this integer to the (secret) power y
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(modulo pq). It can be shown that this process will always
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yield the original number started with.
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What makes this a groundbreaking development, and why
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it is called "public-key" cryptography," is that I can
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openly publish the product pq and the number x , while
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keeping secret the number y --so that anyone can send me
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an encrypted message, namely
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x
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a (mod pq) ,
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but only I can recover the original message a , by taking
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what they send, raising it to the power y and taking the
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result (mod pq). The risky step (meeting to exchange cipher
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keys) has been eliminated. So people who may not even trust
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each other enough to want to meet, may still reliably ex-
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change encrypted messages--each party having selected and
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disseminated his own pq and his x , while maintaining
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the secrecy of his own y .
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Another benefit of this scheme is the notion of a "dig-
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ital signature," to enable one to authenticate the source of
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a given message. Normally, if I want to send you a message,
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I raise my plaintext a to your x and take the result (mod
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your pq) and send that.
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However, if in my message, I take the plaintext a and
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raise it to my (secret) power y , take the result (mod my
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pq), then raise that result to your x (mod your pq) and
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send this, then even after you have normally "decrypted" the
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message, it will still look like garbage. However, if you
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then raise it to my public power x , and take the result
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(mod my public pq ), so you will not only recover the ori-
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ginal plaintext message, but you will know that no one but I
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could have sent it to you (since no one else knows my secret
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y ).
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And these are the very concerns by the way that are to-
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day tormenting the Soviet Union about the whole question of
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personal computers. On the one hand, they recognize that
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American schoolchildren are right now growing up with com-
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puters as commonplace as sliderules used to be--more so, in
|
||
fact, because there are things computers can do which will
|
||
interest (and instruct) 3- and 4-year-olds. And it is pre-
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||
cisely these students who one generation hence will be going
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head-to-head against their Soviet counterparts. For the
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Soviets to hold back might be a suicidal as continuing to
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||
teach swordsmanship while your adversaries are learning
|
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ballistics. On the other hand, whatever else a personal
|
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computer may be, it is also an exquisitely efficient copying
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||
machine--a floppy disk will hold upwards of 50,000 words of
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text, and can be copied in a couple of minutes. If this
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weren't threatening enough, the computer that performs the
|
||
copy can also encrypt the data in a fashion that is all but
|
||
unbreakable. Remember that in Soviet society publicly ac-
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cessible Xerox machines are unknown. (The relatively few
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||
copying machines in existence are controlled more inten-
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sively than machine guns are in the United States.)
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||
Now the "conservative" position is that we should not
|
||
sell these computers to the Soviets, because they could use
|
||
them in weapons systems. The "liberal" position is that we
|
||
should sell them, in the interests of mutual trade and
|
||
cooperation--and anyway, if we don't make the sale, there
|
||
will certainly be some other nation willing to.
|
||
|
||
For my part, I'm ready to suggest that the Libertarian
|
||
position should be to give them to the Soviets for free, and
|
||
if necessary, make them take them . . . and if that doesn't
|
||
work load up an SR-71 Blackbird and air drop them over
|
||
Moscow in the middle of the night. Paid for by private sub-
|
||
scription, of course, not taxation . . . I confess that this
|
||
is not a position that has gained much support among members
|
||
of the conventional left-right political spectrum, but, af-
|
||
ter all, in the words of one of Illuminatus's characters, we
|
||
are political non-Euclideans: The shortest distance to a
|
||
particular goal may not look anything like what most people
|
||
would consider a "straight line." Taking a long enough
|
||
world-view, it is arguable that breaking the Soviet govern-
|
||
ment monopoly on information transfer could better lead to
|
||
the enfeeblement and, indeed, to the ultimate dissolution of
|
||
the Soviet empire than would the production of another dozen
|
||
missiles aimed at Moscow.
|
||
|
||
But there's the rub: A "long enough" world view does
|
||
suggest that the evil, the oppressive, the coercive and the
|
||
simply stupid will "get what they deserve," but what's not
|
||
immediately clear is how the rest of us can escape being
|
||
killed, enslaved, or pauperized in the process.
|
||
|
||
When the liberals and other collectivists began to at-
|
||
tack freedom, they possessed a reasonably stable, healthy,
|
||
functioning economy, and almost unlimited time to proceed to
|
||
hamstring and dismantle it. A policy of political
|
||
gradualism was at least conceivable. But now, we have
|
||
patchwork crazy-quilt economy held together by baling wire
|
||
and spit. The state not only taxes us to "feed the poor"
|
||
while also inducing farmers to slaughter milk cows and drive
|
||
up food prices--it then simultaneously turns around and sub-
|
||
sidizes research into agricultural chemicals designed to in-
|
||
crease yields of milk from the cows left alive. Or witness
|
||
the fact that a decline in the price of oil is considered as
|
||
potentially frightening as a comparable increase a few years
|
||
ago. When the price went up, we were told, the economy
|
||
risked collapse for for want of energy. The price increase
|
||
was called the "moral equivalent of war" and the Feds swung
|
||
into action. For the first time in American history, the
|
||
speed at which you drive your car to work in the morning be-
|
||
came an issue of Federal concern. Now, when the price of
|
||
oil drops, again we risk problems, this time because Ameri-
|
||
can oil companies and Third World basket-case nations who
|
||
sell oil may not be able to ever pay their debts to our
|
||
grossly over-extended banks. The suggested panacea is that
|
||
government should now re-raise the oil prices that OPEC has
|
||
lowered, via a new oil tax. Since the government is seeking
|
||
to raise oil prices to about the same extent as OPEC did,
|
||
what can we call this except the "moral equivalent of civil
|
||
war--the government against its own people?"
|
||
|
||
And, classically, in international trade, can you imag-
|
||
ine any entity in the world except a government going to
|
||
court claiming that a vendor was selling it goods too
|
||
cheaply and demanding not only that that naughty vendor be
|
||
compelled by the court to raise its prices, but also that it
|
||
be punished for the act of lowering them in the first place?
|
||
|
||
So while the statists could afford to take a couple of
|
||
hundred years to trash our economy and our liberties--we
|
||
certainly cannot count on having an equivalent period of
|
||
stability in which to reclaim them. I contend that there
|
||
exists almost a "black hole" effect in the evolution of
|
||
nation-states just as in the evolution of stars. Once free-
|
||
dom contracts beyond a certain minimum extent, the state
|
||
warps the fabric of the political continuum about itself to
|
||
the degree that subsequent re-emergence of freedom becomes
|
||
all but impossible. A good illustration of this can be seen
|
||
in the area of so-called "welfare" payments. When those who
|
||
sup at the public trough outnumber (and thus outvote) those
|
||
whose taxes must replenish the trough, then what possible
|
||
choice has a democracy but to perpetuate and expand the tak-
|
||
ing from the few for the unearned benefit of the many? Go
|
||
down to the nearest "welfare" office, find just two people
|
||
on the dole . . . and recognize that between them they form
|
||
a voting bloc that can forever outvote you on the question
|
||
of who owns your life--and the fruits of your life's labor.
|
||
|
||
So essentially those who love liberty need an "edge" of
|
||
some sort if we're ultimately going to prevail. We obvi-
|
||
ously can't use the altruists' "other-directedness" of
|
||
"work, slave, suffer, sacrifice, so that next generation of
|
||
a billion random strangers can live in a better world."
|
||
Recognize that, however immoral such an appeal might be, it
|
||
is nonetheless an extremely powerful one in today's culture.
|
||
If you can convince people to work energetically for a
|
||
"cause," caring only enough for their personal welfare so as
|
||
to remain alive enough and healthy enough to continue
|
||
working--then you have a truly massive reservoir of energy
|
||
to draw from. Equally clearly, this is just the sort of ap-
|
||
peal which tautologically cannot be utilized for egoistic or
|
||
libertarian goals. If I were to stand up before you tonight
|
||
and say something like, "Listen, follow me as I enunciate my
|
||
noble "cause," contribute your money to support the "cause,"
|
||
give up your free time to work for the "cause," strive
|
||
selflessly to bring it about, and then (after you and your
|
||
children are dead) maybe your children's children will actu-
|
||
ally live under egoism"--you'd all think I'd gone mad. And
|
||
of course you'd be right. Because the point I'm trying to
|
||
make is that libertarianism and/or egoism will be spread if,
|
||
when, and as, individual libertarians and/or egoists find it
|
||
profitable and/or enjoyable to do so. And probably only
|
||
then.
|
||
|
||
While I certainly do not disparage the concept of poli-
|
||
tical action, I don't believe that it is the only, nor even
|
||
necessarily the most cost-effective path toward increasing
|
||
freedom in our time. Consider that, for a fraction of the
|
||
investment in time, money and effort I might expend in try-
|
||
ing to convince the state to abolish wiretapping and all
|
||
forms of censorship--I can teach every libertarian who's in-
|
||
terested how to use cryptography to abolish them
|
||
unilaterally.
|
||
|
||
There is a maxim--a proverb--generally attributed to
|
||
the Eskimoes, which very likely most Libertarians have al-
|
||
ready heard. And while you likely would not quarrel with
|
||
the saying, you might well feel that you've heard it often
|
||
enough already, and that it has nothing further to teach us,
|
||
and moreover, that maybe you're even tired of hearing it. I
|
||
shall therefore repeat it now:
|
||
|
||
If you give a man a fish, the saying runs, you feed him
|
||
for a day. But if you teach a man how to fish, you feed him
|
||
for a lifetime.
|
||
|
||
Your exposure to the quote was probably in some sort of
|
||
a "workfare" vs. "welfare" context; namely, that if you
|
||
genuinely wish to help someone in need, you should teach him
|
||
how to earn his sustenance, not simply how to beg for it.
|
||
And of course this is true, if only because the next time he
|
||
is hungry, there might not be anybody around willing or even
|
||
able to give him a fish, whereas with the information on how
|
||
to fish, he is completely self sufficient.
|
||
|
||
But I submit that this exhausts only the first order
|
||
content of the quote, and if there were nothing further to
|
||
glean from it, I would have wasted your time by citing it
|
||
again. After all, it seems to have almost a crypto-altruist
|
||
slant, as though to imply that we should structure our ac-
|
||
tivities so as to maximize the benefits to such hungry
|
||
beggars as we may encounter.
|
||
|
||
But consider:
|
||
|
||
Suppose this Eskimo doesn't know how to fish, but he
|
||
does know how to hunt walruses. You, on the other hand,
|
||
have often gone hungry while traveling thru walrus country
|
||
because you had no idea how to catch the damn things, and
|
||
they ate most of the fish you could catch. And now suppose
|
||
the two of you decide to exchange information, bartering
|
||
fishing knowledge for hunting knowledge. Well, the first
|
||
thing to observe is that a transaction of this type
|
||
categorically and unambiguously refutes the Marxist premise
|
||
that every trade must have a "winner" and a "loser;" the
|
||
idea that if one person gains, it must necessarily be at the
|
||
"expense" of another person who loses. Clearly, under this
|
||
scenario, such is not the case. Each party has gained some-
|
||
thing he did not have before, and neither has been dimin-
|
||
ished in any way. When it comes to exchange of information
|
||
(rather than material objects) life is no longer a zero-sum
|
||
game. This is an extremely powerful notion. The "law of
|
||
diminishing returns," the "first and second laws of
|
||
thermodynamics"--all those "laws" which constrain our possi-
|
||
bilities in other contexts--no longer bind us! Now that's
|
||
anarchy!
|
||
|
||
Or consider another possibility: Suppose this hungry
|
||
Eskimo never learned to fish because the ruler of his
|
||
nation-state had decreed fishing illegal. Because fish
|
||
contain dangerous tiny bones, and sometimes sharp spines, he
|
||
tells us, the state has decreed that their consumption--and
|
||
even their possession--are too hazardous to the people's
|
||
health to be permitted . . . even by knowledgeable, willing
|
||
adults. Perhaps it is because citizens' bodies are thought
|
||
to be government property, and therefore it is the function
|
||
of the state to punish those who improperly care for govern-
|
||
ment property. Or perhaps it is because the state gener-
|
||
ously extends to competent adults the "benefits" it provides
|
||
to children and to the mentally ill: namely, a full-time,
|
||
all-pervasive supervisory conservatorship--so that they need
|
||
not trouble themselves with making choices about behavior
|
||
thought physically risky or morally "naughty." But, in any
|
||
case, you stare stupefied, while your Eskimo informant re-
|
||
lates how this law is taken so seriously that a friend of
|
||
his was recently imprisoned for years for the crime of "pos-
|
||
session of nine ounces of trout with intent to distribute."
|
||
|
||
Now you may conclude that a society so grotesquely
|
||
oppressive as to enforce a law of this type is simply an
|
||
affront to the dignity of all human beings. You may go far-
|
||
ther and decide to commit some portion of your discretion-
|
||
ary, recreational time specifically to the task of thwarting
|
||
this tyrant's goal. (Your rationale may be "altruistic" in
|
||
the sense of wanting to liberate the oppressed, or
|
||
"egoistic" in the sense of proving you can outsmart the
|
||
oppressor--or very likely some combination of these or per-
|
||
haps even other motives.)
|
||
|
||
But, since you have zero desire to become a martyr to
|
||
your "cause," you're not about to mount a military campaign,
|
||
or even try to run a boatload of fish through the blockade.
|
||
However, it is here that technology--and in particular in-
|
||
formation technology--can multiply your efficacy literally a
|
||
hundredfold. I say "literally," because for a fraction of
|
||
the effort (and virtually none of the risk) attendant to
|
||
smuggling in a hundred fish, you can quite readily produce a
|
||
hundred Xerox copies of fishing instructions. (If the tar-
|
||
geted government, like present-day America, at least permits
|
||
open discussion of topics whose implementation is re-
|
||
stricted, then that should suffice. But, if the government
|
||
attempts to suppress the flow of information as well, then
|
||
you will have to take a little more effort and perhaps write
|
||
your fishing manual on a floppy disk encrypted according to
|
||
your mythical Eskimo's public-key parameters. But as far as
|
||
increasing real-world access to fish you have made genuine
|
||
nonzero headway--which may continue to snowball as others
|
||
re-disseminate the information you have provided. And you
|
||
have not had to waste any of your time trying to convert id-
|
||
eological adversaries, or even trying to win over the unde-
|
||
cided. Recall Harry Browne's dictum from "Freedom in an
|
||
Unfree World" that the success of any endeavor is in general
|
||
inversely proportional to the number of people whose persua-
|
||
sion is necessary to its fulfilment.
|
||
|
||
If you look at history, you cannot deny that it has
|
||
been dramatically shaped by men with names like Washington,
|
||
Lincoln, . . . Nixon . . . Marcos . . . Duvalier . . .
|
||
Khadaffi . . . and their ilk. But it has also been shaped
|
||
by people with names like Edison, Curie, Marconi, Tesla and
|
||
Wozniak. And this latter shaping has been at least as per-
|
||
vasive, and not nearly so bloody.
|
||
|
||
And that's where I'm trying to take The LiberTech
|
||
Project. Rather than beseeching the state to please not en-
|
||
slave, plunder or constrain us, I propose a libertarian net-
|
||
work spreading the technologies by which we may seize
|
||
freedom for ourselves.
|
||
|
||
But here we must be a bit careful. While it is not (at
|
||
present) illegal to encrypt information when government
|
||
wants to spy on you, there is no guarantee of what the fu-
|
||
ture may hold. There have been bills introduced, for exam-
|
||
ple, which would have made it a crime to wear body armor
|
||
when government wants to shoot you. That is, if you were to
|
||
commit certain crimes while wearing a Kevlar vest, then that
|
||
fact would constitute a separate federal crime of its own.
|
||
This law to my knowledge has not passed . . . yet . . . but
|
||
it does indicate how government thinks.
|
||
|
||
Other technological applications, however, do indeed
|
||
pose legal risks. We recognize, for example, that anyone
|
||
who helped a pre-Civil War slave escape on the "underground
|
||
railroad" was making a clearly illegal use of technology--as
|
||
the sovereign government of the United States of America at
|
||
that time found the buying and selling of human beings quite
|
||
as acceptable as the buying and selling of cattle. Simi-
|
||
larly, during Prohibition, anyone who used his bathtub to
|
||
ferment yeast and sugar into the illegal psychoactive drug,
|
||
alcohol--the controlled substance, wine--was using technol-
|
||
ogy in a way that could get him shot dead by federal agents
|
||
for his "crime"--unfortunately not to be restored to life
|
||
when Congress reversed itself and re-permitted use of this
|
||
drug.
|
||
|
||
So . . . to quote a former President, un-indicted co-
|
||
conspirator and pardoned felon . . . "Let me make one thing
|
||
perfectly clear:" The LiberTech Project does not advocate,
|
||
participate in, or conspire in the violation of any law--no
|
||
matter how oppressive, unconstitutional or simply stupid
|
||
such law may be. It does engage in description (for educa-
|
||
tional and informational purposes only) of technological
|
||
processes, and some of these processes (like flying a plane
|
||
or manufacturing a firearm) may well require appropriate li-
|
||
censing to perform legally. Fortunately, no license is
|
||
needed for the distribution or receipt of information it-
|
||
self.
|
||
|
||
So, the next time you look at the political scene and
|
||
despair, thinking, "Well, if 51% of the nation and 51% of
|
||
this State, and 51% of this city have to turn Libertarian
|
||
before I'll be free, then somebody might as well cut my
|
||
goddamn throat now, and put me out of my misery"--recognize
|
||
that such is not the case. There exist ways to make your-
|
||
self free.
|
||
|
||
If you wish to explore such techniques via the Project,
|
||
you are welcome to give me your name and address--or a fake
|
||
name and mail drop, for that matter--and you'll go on the
|
||
mailing list for my erratically-published newsletter. Any
|
||
friends or acquaintances whom you think would be interested
|
||
are welcome as well. I'm not even asking for stamped self-
|
||
addressed envelopes, since my printer can handle mailing la-
|
||
bels and actual postage costs are down in the noise compared
|
||
with the other efforts in getting an issue out. If you
|
||
should have an idea to share, or even a useful product to
|
||
plug, I'll be glad to have you write it up for publication.
|
||
Even if you want to be the proverbial "free rider" and just
|
||
benefit from what others contribute--you're still welcome:
|
||
Everything will be public domain; feel free to copy it or
|
||
give it away (or sell it, for that matter, 'cause if you can
|
||
get money for it while I'm taking full-page ads trying to
|
||
give it away, you're certainly entitled to your capitalist
|
||
profit . . .) Anyway, every application of these principles
|
||
should make the world just a little freer, and I'm certainly
|
||
willing to underwrite that, at least for the forseeable fu-
|
||
ture.
|
||
|
||
I will leave you with one final thought: If you don't
|
||
learn how to beat your plowshares into swords before they
|
||
outlaw swords, then you sure as HELL ought to learn before
|
||
they outlaw plowshares too.
|
||
|
||
--Chuck Hammill
|
||
|
||
THE LIBERTECH PROJECT
|
||
|
||
-///-
|
||
|
||
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
|
||
³ Vesoft and the Hewlett Packard 3000 ³
|
||
³ by Black IC ³
|
||
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
|
||
|
||
There have been numerous articles written about the Hewlett Packard
|
||
3000 and how to break the system. This write up does not deal solely with
|
||
the HP3000 but with the addon for tighter security by the VESOFT corporation.
|
||
|
||
As time goes on and people begin to see the need for better security
|
||
and a more productive system, it's becoming harder to exploit any weakness
|
||
that could be on said system. That's where VESOFT comes in.
|
||
|
||
VESOFT
|
||
1135 S. Beverly Dr.
|
||
Los Angeles, CA
|
||
90035-1119
|
||
|
||
(310) 282-0420
|
||
(310) 785-9566 (Fax)
|
||
|
||
They have been supporting Hewlett Packards since 1980 with excellent
|
||
addons for the HP3000. In the following paragraphs I discuss the various
|
||
utilites that VESOFT employs and what you might expect on a VESOFT secured
|
||
system.
|
||
|
||
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
|
||
³ MPEX 3000 ³
|
||
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
|
||
|
||
The MPEX addon emulates and implements virtually all of the MPE/iX
|
||
user interface features (variables, command files, implied :RUN, :CALC,
|
||
:COPY, :PRINT, etc) on MPE/V. Not only does this add a lot of power to the
|
||
MPE/V system, but it also lets you use the same job streams on MPE/V and on
|
||
the MPE/iX (If the owner of the Hewlett Packard has both setups!)
|
||
|
||
So initially you wont see a difference with the target system. Also
|
||
if the system has VESOFT installed and not on the other systems their,
|
||
that's not an issue right now cause if you are experienced with the 3000
|
||
series and the likes you will be able to navigate with out a problem.
|
||
|
||
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
|
||
³ VE AUDIT 3000 ³
|
||
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
|
||
|
||
The Audit program from VESOFT is a resecurement utility very similar
|
||
to the SATAN program for UNIX. The purpose of VE AUDIT is to check the
|
||
system for loopholes and to assist the Manager/System Administrator in
|
||
resecuring the system. VE AUDIT takes the laborous job of checking accounts
|
||
(LISTACCT), users (LISTUSER), and groups (LISTGROUP) to see who has what
|
||
access, capabilities, no passwords, etc. The program goes through everything
|
||
and then reports to manager what loopholes (if any) are found and what is the
|
||
suggested step to resecure that system. This program can also be used to
|
||
alter the system accounting structure as well as look at it with a new set
|
||
of commands.
|
||
|
||
The program is run when you set the attributes (password, capability,
|
||
access mask). List them in one or two line object format. Create an MPEX
|
||
command file that will rebuild the accounting structure when the program is
|
||
executed. Purge them after prompting.
|
||
|
||
As you can see this program will assist the manager/system
|
||
administrator in an easy to use manner and allows the system security to be
|
||
tightened in a way that was not as easy on the standard HP3000.
|
||
|
||
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
|
||
³ SECURITY 3000 ³
|
||
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
|
||
|
||
The VESOFT security program works in several ways to secure the
|
||
Hewlett Packard system. Most HP3000 systems will allow users to log on to
|
||
the system using a non-unique name and generic session name with a session
|
||
password (i.e. JOE.PAYROLL as opposed to JOE,CLERK.PAYROLL). The VESOFT
|
||
program will no matter what format the system uses to establish identity
|
||
allow the use of a session name and a password for that individual, thus
|
||
increasing the security 10-fold. It will also eliminate the annoying habit of
|
||
users omitting the session name since the MPE operating system considers it
|
||
optional.
|
||
|
||
Changing of passwords become manditory through the security program.
|
||
Saving the account manger time by having a set time period for the users
|
||
to change their passwords (i.e. every 30 days or as set).
|
||
|
||
Some HP3000 systems when accessed give the user access to the MPE
|
||
prompt ":" which most users don't need access to all the commands. VESOFT now
|
||
sets up a menu of options which allows the user to use the given choices
|
||
and nothing else.
|
||
|
||
If the system has dial-ups the security program allows passwords on
|
||
a terminal by terminal basis thus adding in a second password to protect the
|
||
system. Thus anyone calling up not only has to get past the dial-up sequence
|
||
but they also have to log in to the system as if they were at the console.
|
||
|
||
If the system is run on networks then the program will synchronize the
|
||
network and allow file transfers with out actually logging into the
|
||
receiving system. Users will also have to login to a system at a different
|
||
terminal just as if they were at that console.
|
||
|
||
Embedded passwords are probably one of the biggest threats to HP3000
|
||
systems along with shared passwords and passwords that have not been changed
|
||
in a long time. It then is easier for someone to access the system seeing as
|
||
it will be easier to figure out. Once a password has become embed the ability
|
||
to change it in a job stream is very hard and time consuming. The security
|
||
program comes with what is called the "STREAMX" module which will do all the
|
||
handy work for the account manager.
|
||
|
||
Logoff now has a built in timer so those users that are idle or leave
|
||
the system unattended for a given amount of time will automatically be logged
|
||
off and the integrity of the system brought back to normal.
|
||
|
||
This covers the basics of the VESOFT programs. As you can see any
|
||
entry into an HP3000 using VESOFT will not react as usual and the
|
||
accessibility has been changed to that of seriously protected. I'll save the
|
||
coverage of surveillance social engineering and dumpster diving for others.
|
||
What I will say is you need to have a firm grasp of the target system and its
|
||
users.
|
||
|
||
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
|
||
³ DEFAULTS ³
|
||
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
|
||
|
||
The following is a list of some of the defaults in the Hewlett Packard
|
||
MPEX System used on the 3000 and the likes. Keep in mind that a resecured
|
||
system is going to have the defaults removed and replaced with a tighter
|
||
setup. Remote login maintenance has been a pride and joy of Hewlett packard
|
||
owners. It is also one of the most exploited in terms of malicious entry.
|
||
With the VESOFT programs properly installed the usual one password entry
|
||
for remote will now be two. The default accounts are almost always open if
|
||
they still exist. Aside from "dumpster diving" you should consider social
|
||
engineering names and as much info as possible about the system you are
|
||
attempting to get in on, just incase you are asked for a password. Sometimes
|
||
you will come across a system that uses the "terminal password" at login.
|
||
This is an old option and thus being an option does not have any defaults.
|
||
|
||
|
||
operator.cognos mgr.hpword field.hpword
|
||
manager.hpoffice mgr.hpoffice wp.hpoffice
|
||
spoolman.hpoffice mailman.hpoffice advmail.hpoffice
|
||
mail.hpoffice field.support operator.support
|
||
operator.sys rsbcmon.sys pcuser.sys
|
||
operator.system operator.disc mgr.xlserver
|
||
manager.itf3000 sys.telesup manager.security
|
||
mgr.conv mgr.rje mgr.hpp187
|
||
mgr.hpp189 mgr.hpp196 field.hpp187
|
||
mgr.intx3 mgr.carolian manager.tch
|
||
mgr.word mgr.telesup field.service
|
||
operator.disc mgr.ccc field.hpunsup
|
||
field.hp mgr.hpp189 mgr.hpp196
|
||
mail.mail mail.netbase mgr.rego
|
||
mgr.rje mgr.robelle mgr.cnas
|
||
mgr.hpdesk mgr.robelle mgr.vesoft
|
||
|
||
|
||
I hope this write up will provoke more interest in the Hewlett Packard
|
||
systems namely the HP3000. If you have any comments or wish to discuss these
|
||
systems more indepth please feel free to contact me at the following e-mail
|
||
address:
|
||
|
||
black.ic@iirg.com
|
||
|
||
Hope to hear from some of you.
|
||
|
||
Black IC/IIRG
|
||
|
||
---/////---
|
||
|
||
Unless otherwise noted Cybertek Electric is Copyright (C)1996 by
|
||
OCL/Magnitude, P.O. Box 64, Brewster, NY 10509. All Rights Reserved.
|
||
Noncommercial reproduction is encouraged provided this electronic publication
|
||
is redistributed in its entirety with credits intact. Cybertek Electric is
|
||
published for educational purposes only; under The First Amendment of The
|
||
United States Constitution. No illegal use is implied or suggested. If you
|
||
have a problem with this, too fucking bad. SUBMISSIONS WANTED. If you can read
|
||
and understand this e-zine then you should know what we're interested in.
|
||
Please send any feedback, questions, and/or submissions to either of the email
|
||
addresses in the signature below.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|\ /| /\ / |\ | Thomas Icom/IIRG
|
||
| >< | < > / | \ |\ The Blackthorn Project
|
||
|/ \| \/ < | | > <ticom@l0pht.com> <thomas.icom@iirg.com>
|
||
| | /\ \ \ | |/ International Information Retrieval Guild
|
||
| | / \ \ \| | "May Odin guide your way!"
|
||
Madhr er manna gaman, ok moldar auki, ok skipa skreytir.
|
||
|
||
<End of Text> |