==Phrack Inc.== Volume Three, Issue 27, File 1 of 11 Phrack Inc. Newsletter Issue XXVII Index ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ June 20, 1989 Greetings and welcome to Issue 27 of Phrack Inc. The pressure is on with SummerCon '89 just a couple short days away. We're sorry it has taken so long to get this issue out, but summer break has created more responsibilities and busy schedules than we have ever had to deal with while in school. Still, I think you will agree that this issue was worth the wait. This issue we feature a new updated NUA and Datex-P list from Oberdaemon of Switzerland and Chapter 7 of the Future Transcendent Saga (taking into account that the SPAN and NSFnet files were chapters 5 and 6). We also present the second part of the COSMOS file written by King Arthur. Before we get to the main contents of the issue, we have a few comments to make regarding security and Phrack Inc.'s Internet access; Thanks to a friend, we at Phrack Inc. have become aware of one of the main techniques that the National Security Agency (NSA) uses to perform surveillance on the wide area networks. In certain messages that certain government agencies distribute, special phone numbers are included; WATS (800) numbers, to be more specific. As these messages are distributed around the continent via various netmail and file transfer schemes, they are passed through several surveillance stations. All of their stations perform one function, and in Unix terms, that function is called "grep." Grep stands for G>lobal R>egular E>xpression search and P>rint. The grep does simple string matching. Every instance of these special 800-numbers in an email message (or batch of them) is flagged, recorded, and the record is mailed to certain intelligence agencies by the surveillance stations. Here are the networks that we are reasonably certain that this practice is performed on: * USEnet : Email is only checked in certain places, but ALL netnews (including alt and any other nonstandard newsgroups) are flagged by a single government domain SUN-3 that shall remain nameless. * ARPAnet : All mail going through a standard BBN (Bolt, Bernack, and Neumann... a Cambridge/MIT spinoff) Internet controller will be flagged, but the only information recorded by the controller is the source and destination TCP/IP addresses of the message. But when you consider that this involves ***ALL*** DARPA mailing lists, you get a visualization of the magnitude. The reason more complex information is NOT recorded is that this network is the only AUTHORIZED place that these messages with the hot WATS are supposed to appear. You will see what this means in a moment. * BITnet : Large IBM mainframe with I/O channel cycles to spare should have no problem scanning mail from one of the most publically accessable "free" networks. * Fidonet : The Secret Service scans this for credit card and other violations. It is not too hard for them to check for the (800)'s, too. * W.Union : All international telex lines are scanned to match a whole lot of stuff, especially drug-related information. The phone numbers are on their list. We have other suspicions, but we are withholding them for now. The other news is equally disturbing because it strikes us a little close to home. We are temporarily losing our network access. As of June 27, 1989 through August 28, 1989 we will not have access to our accounts on UMCVMB mainframe system. Make no attempt to mail us to our addresses there until August 28, 1989. However, every cloud has a silver lining and this is no exception. For networks people who wish to submit files to Phrack Inc. during this time period we proudly present our friend and associate, Hatchet Molly. He can be reached at "TK0GRM2@NIU.BITNET" and/or "TK0GRM2%NIU.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU". So here is to another great issue of Phrack Inc! Taran King Knight Lightning Hatchet Molly TK0GRM2@NIU.BITNET TK0GRM2%NIU.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU _______________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents: 1. Phrack Inc. XXVII Index by Taran King and Knight Lightning 2. Operating The IBM VM/SP CP by Taran King 3. Introduction To MIDNET: Chapter Seven Of The FTS by Knight Lightning 4. NUA List For Datex-P And X.25 Networks by Oberdaemon 5. COSMOS: COmputer System for Mainframe OperationS (Part Two) by King Arthur 6. Looking Around In DECnet by Deep Thought 7. The Making Of A Hacker by Framstag 8. Sending Fakemail In Unix by Dark OverLord 9. The Postal Inspection Service by Vendetta 10. Phrack World News XXVII/Part 1 by Knight Lightning 11. Phrack World News XXVII/Part 2 by Knight Lightning 12. Phrack World News XXVII/Part 3 by Knight Lightning _______________________________________________________________________________