Computer Systems and Their Shortcomings

Computer Systems and their Shortcomings

Well Psychotic wrote one of the most helpful unix text files in cyberspace but with the mail that we

received

after the release of our famous 36 page Unix Bible we realised that unix isn't for everybody so

we decided that we should write on another aspect of hacking..... Virtual Circuit and Psychotic is proud to

release, "Hacking Webpages With a few Other Techniques." We will discuss a few various ways of hacking

webpages and getting root. We are also going to interview and question other REAL hackers on the

subjects.

Getting the Password File Through FTP

Ok well one of the easiest ways of getting superuser access is through anonymous ftp access into a

webpage. First you need learn a little about the password file...

root:User:d7Bdg:1n2HG2:1127:20:Superuser

TomJones:p5Y(h0tiC:1229:20:Tom Jones,:/usr/people/tomjones:/bin/csh

BBob:EUyd5XAAtv2dA:1129:20:Billy Bob:/usr/people/bbob:/bin/csh

This is an example of a regular encrypted password file. The Superuser is the part that gives you root.

That's the main part of the file.

root:x:0:1:Superuser:/:

ftp:x:202:102:Anonymous ftp:/u1/ftp:

ftpadmin:x:203:102:ftp Administrator:/u1/ftp

This is another example of a password file, only this one has one little difference, it's shadowed.

Shadowed password files don't let you view or copy the actual encrypted password. This causes problems

for the password cracker and dictionary maker(both explained later in the text). Below is another

example of a shadowed password file:

root:x:0:1:0000-Admin(0000):/:/usr/bin/csh

daemon:x:1:1:0000-Admin(0000):/:

bin:x:2:2:0000-Admin(0000):/usr/bin:

sys:x:3:3:0000-Admin(0000):/:

adm:x:4:4:0000-Admin(0000):/var/adm:

lp:x:71:8:0000-lp(0000):/usr/spool/lp:

smtp:x:0:0:mail daemon user:/:

uucp:x:5:5:0000-uucp(0000):/usr/lib/uucp:

nuucp:x:9:9:0000-uucp(0000):/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/lib/uucp/uucico

listen:x:37:4:Network Admin:/usr/net/nls:

nobody:x:60001:60001:uid no body:/:

noaccess:x:60002:60002:uid no access:/:

webmastr:x:53:53:WWW Admin:/export/home/webmastr:/usr/bin/csh

pin4geo:x:55:55:PinPaper Admin:/export/home/webmastr/new/gregY/test/pin4geo:/bin/false

ftp:x:54:54:Anonymous FTP:/export/home/anon_ftp:/bin/false

Shadowed password files have an "x" in the place of a password or sometimes they are disguised as an

* as well.

Now that you know a little more about what the actual password file looks like you should be able to

identify a normal encrypted pw from a shadowed pw file. We can now go on to talk about how to crack it.

Cracking a password file isn't as complicated as it would seem, although the files vary from system to

system. 1.The first step that you would take is to download or copy the file. 2. The second step is to find

a password cracker and a dictionary maker. Although it's nearly impossible to find a good cracker there

are a few ok ones out there. I recommend

that you look for Cracker Jack, John the Ripper, Brute Force

Cracker, or Jack the Ripper. Now for a dictionary