WELCOME TO BASICS OF HACKING I: DEC'S

IN THIS ARTICLE YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO LOG IN TO DEC'S LOGGING
OUT, AND ALL THE FUN STUFF TO DO IN-BETWEEN ALL OF THIS
INFORMATION IS BASED ON A STANDARD DEC SYSTEM. SINCE THERE ARE
DEC SYSTEMS 10 AND 20, AND WE FAVOR, THE DEC 20, THERE WILL BE
MORE INFO ON  THEM IN THIS ARTICLE. IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT THE
DEC 20 IS ALSO THE MORE COMMON OF THE TWO, AND IS USED NY MUCH
MORE INTERESTING PEOPLE (IF YOU KNOW WHAT WE MEAN...)

 OK, THE FIRST THING YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE RECEIVING
CARRIER FROM A DEC SYSTEM IS TO FIND OUT THE FORMAT OF LOGIN
NAMES. YOU CAN DO THIS BY LOOKING AT WHO IS ON THE SYSTEM.

DEC=> @   (THE 'EXEC" LEVEL PROMPT)

YOU+> SY

SY IS SHORT FOR SY(STAT) AND SHOWS YOU THE SYSTEM STATUS. YOU
SHOULD SEE THE FORMAT OF THE LOGIN NAMES...

A SYSTAT USUALLY COMES UP IN THIS FORM:

JOB LINE PROGRAM USER

JOB: THE JOB NUMBER (NOT IMPORTANT UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOG THEM
OFF LATER)

LINE: WHAT LINE THEY ARE ON (USED TO TALK TO THEM...)

THESE ARE BOTH TWO OR THREE DIGIT NUMBERS.

PROGRAM,:  WHAT PROGRAM ARE THEY RUNNING UNDER?  IF IT SAYS 'EXEC'
THEY AREN'T DOING ANYTHING AT ALL...

USER:  AHHHAHHHH! THIS IS THE USER NAME THEY ARE LOGGED IN
UNDER...  COPY THE FORMAT, AND HACK YOURSELF OUT A WORKING
CODE...

LOGIN FORMAT IS AS SUCH:

DEC=> @

YOU=> LOGIN USERNAME PASSWORD

USERNAME ID THE USERNAME IN THE FORMAT YOU SAW ABOVE IN THE
SYSTAT.  AFTER YOU HIT THE SPACE AFTER YOUR USERNAME, IT WILL
STOP ECHOING CHARACTERS BACK TO YOUR SCREEN.  THIS IS THE
PASSWORD YOU ARE TYPING IN...  REMEMBER, PEOPLE USUALLY USE
THEIR NAME, THEIR DOG'S NAME, THE NAME OF A FAVORITE CHARACTER
IN A BOOK, OR SOMETHING LIKE THIS A FEW CLEVER PEOPLE HAVE IT
SET TO A KEY CLUSTER (QWERTY OR ASDFG). PW'S CAN BE FROM 1 TO 8
CHARACTERS LONG, ANYTHING AFTER THAT IS IGNORED.

YOU ARE FINALLY IN...

IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE A LITTLE HELP,WOULDN'T IT? JUST TYPE A
?  OR THE WORD HELP, AND IT WILL GIVE YOU A WHOLE LIST OF
TOPICS...

SOME HANDY CHARACTERS FOR YOU TO KNOW WOULD BE THE CONTROL KEYS,
WOULDN'T IT?  BACKSPACE ON A DEC 20 IS RUB WHICH IS 2 55 ON YOUR
ASCII CHART. ON THE DEC 10 IT IS CNTRL-H. TO ABORT A LONG
LISTING OR A PROGRAM, CNTRL-C WORKS FINE. USE CNRTL-O TO STOP
LONG OUTPUT TO THE TERMINAL. THIS IS HANDY WHEN PLAYING A
GAME,BUT YOU DON'T WANT TO CNTRL-C OUT. CNTRL-T FOR THE TIME.
CNTRL-U WILL KILL THE WHOLE LINE YOU ARE TYPING AT THE MOMENT.
YOU MAY ACCIDENTALLY RUN A PROGRAM WHERE THE ONLY WAY OUT IS A
CNTRL-X, SO KEEP THAT IN RESERVE.

 CNTRL-S TO STOP LISTING,CNTRL-Q TO CONTINUE ON BOTH SYSTEMS. IS
YOUR TERMINAL HAVING TROUBLE?? LIKE, IT PAUSES FOR NO REASON, OR
IT DOESN'T BACKSPACE RIGHT? THIS IS BECAUSE BOTH SYSTEMS SUPPORT
MANY TERMINALS, AND YOU HAVEN'T TOLD IT WHAT YOUR'S IS YET...
YOU ARE USING VT05 (ISN'T THAT FUNNY?) I THOUGHT I HAD AN APPLE)
SO YOU NEED TO TELL IT YOU ARE ONE.

DEC=> @

YOU=>INFORMATION TERMINAL

OR..  YOU=> INFO TER

THIS SHOWS YOU WHAT YOUR TERMINAL IS SET UP AS...

DEC=>ALL SORTS OF SHIT, THEN THE @

 YOU=> SET TER VT05

THIS SETS YOUR TERMINAL TYPE TO VT05

 NOW LET'S SEE WHAT IS IN THE ACCOUNT (HERE AFTER ABBREVIATED
ACCT.) THAT YOU HAVE HACKED ONTO...

 SAY=> DIR

 SHORT FOR DIRECTORY, IT SHOWS YOU WHAT THE USER OF THE CODE HAS
SAVE TO THE DISK. THERE SHOULD BE A FORMAT LIKE THIS:  XXXXX.OOO

 XXX IS THE FILE NAME, FROM 1 TO 20 CHARACTERS LONG. OOO IS THE
FILE TYPE, ONE OF : EXE, TXT, DAT, BAS, CMD AND A FEW OTHERS
THAT ARE SYSTEM DEPENDENT.

 EXE IS A COMPILED PROGRAM THAT CAN BE RUN (JUST BY TYPING ITS
NAME AT THE @)

TXT IS A TEXT FILE, WHICH YOU CAN SEE BY TYPING=>TYPE XXXX.TXT

DON'T TRY TO=> TYPE XXXX.EXE THIS IS VERY BAD FOR YOUR TERMINAL
AND WILL TELL YOU ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

DAT IS DATA THEY HAVE SAVED.

 BAS IS A BASIC PROGRAM, YOU CAN HAVE I TYPED OUT FOR YOU.

 CMD IS A COMMAND TYPE FILE, A LITTLE TOO COMPLICATED TO GO INTO
HERE.

 TRY=>TAKE XXXX.CMD

 BY THE WAY.THERE ARE OTHERS USERS OUT THERE WHO MAY HAVE FILES
YOU CAN USE (GEE, WHY ELSE AM I HERE?)

 TYPE => DIR <*.*>  (DEC 20)

      => DIR [*,*]  (DEC 10)

 * IS A WILDCARD, AND WILL ALLOW YOU TO ACCESS THE FILES ON
OTHER ACCOUNTS IF THE USER HAS SET IT FOR PUBLIC ACCESS. IF IT
ISN'T SET FOR PUBLIC ACCESS, THEN YOU WON'T SEE IT.

 TO RUN THAT PROGRAM:

 DEC=> @

YOU=>USERNAME PROGRAM-NAME

 USERNAME IS THE DIRECTORY YOU SAW THE FILE LISTED UNDER, AND
FILE NAME WAS WHAT ELSE BUT THE FILE NAME?

 *** YOU ARE NOT ALONE ***

REMEMBER, YOU SAID (AT THE VERY START) SY SHORT FOR SYSTAT, AND
HOW WE SAID THIS SHOWED THE OTHER USERS ON THE SYSTEM? WELL, YOU
CAN TALK TO THEM, OR AT LEAST SEND A MESSAGE TO ANYONE YOU SEE
LISTED IN A SYSAT. YOU CAN DO THIS BY:

DEC=> THE USER LIST (FROM YOUR SYSTAT)

 YOU=> TALK USERNAME    (DEC 20)

       SEND USERNAME    (DEC 10)

 TALK ALLOWS YOU AND THEM IMMEDIATE TRANSMISSION OF WHATEVER YOU
THEY TYPE TO BEE SENT TO THE OTHER. SEND ONLY ALLOW YOU ONE
MESSAGE TO BE SENT, AND ONLY AFTER YOU HIT <RETURN> WITH SEND,
THEY WILL SEND BACK TO YOU, WITH TALK YOU CAN JUST KEEP GOING.

BY THE WAY, YOU MAY BE NOTICING WITH THE TALK COMMAND THAT WHAT
YOU TYPE IS STILL ACTED UPON BY THE PARSER (CONTROL PROGRAM). TO
AVOID THE CONSTANT ERROR MESSAGE TYPE EITHER:

 YOU=> ; YOUR MESSAGE

YOU=>  REM

        YOUR MESSAGE

THE SEMI-COLON TELLS THE PARSER THAT WHAT FOLLOWS IS JUST A
COMMENT   REM IS SHORT FOR 'REMARK' AND IGNORES YOU FROM THEN ON
UNTIL YOU TYPE A CNTRL-Z OR CNTRL-C, AT WHICH POINT IT PUTS YOU
BACK IN THE EXEC MODE.

 TO BREAK THE CONNECTION FROM A TALK COMMAND TYPE:

YOU=> BREAK

 PRIV'S:

 IF YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE PRIVS, YOU CAN D ALL SORTS OF THINGS.
FIRST OF ALL, YOU HAVE TO ACTIVATE THOSE PRIVS.

YOU=> ENABLE

 THIS GIVES YOU A $ PROMPT, AND ALLOWS YOU TO DO THIS:  WHATEVER
YOU CAN DO T YOUR OWN DIRECTORY.

 TO CREATE A NEW ACCT, USING YOUR PRIVS JUST TYPE => BUILD
USERNAME

 IF USERNAME IS OLD, YOU CAN EDIT IT,

 IF IT IS NEW, YOU CAN DEFINE IT TO BE WHATEVER YOU WISH.

 PRIVACY MEANS NOTHING TO A USER WITH PRIVS. BY THE WAY, THERE
ARE VARIOUS LEVELS IF PRIVS:OPERATOR, WHEEL, CIA

WHEEL IS THE MOST POWERFUL, BEING THAT HE CAN LOG IN FROM
ANYWHERE AND HAVE HIS POWERS. OPERATORS HAVE THEIR POWER BECAUSE
THEY ARE AT SPECIAL TERMINAL ALLOWING THEM THE PRIVS. CIA IS
SHORT FOR 'CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION ACCESS', WHICH ALLOWS YOU A
LOW LEVEL AMOUNT OF PRIVS. NOT TO WORRY THOUGH, SINCE YOU CAN
READ THE SYSTEM LOG FILE, WHICH ALSO HAS THE PASSWORDS TO ALL
THE OTHER ACCOUNTS.

 TO DE-ACTIVATE YOUR PRIVS, TYPE

 YOU=> DISABLE
 
WHEN YOU HAVE PLAYED YOUR GREEDY HEART OUT, YOU CAN FINALLY
LEAVE THE SYSTEM WITH THE COMMAND=> LOGOUT

 THIS LOGS THE JOB YOU ARE USING OFF THE SYSTEM (THERE MAY BE
VARIANTS OF THIS SUCH AS KJOB OR KILLJOB).

NY THE WAY, YOU CAN SAY (IF YOU HAVE PRIVS)  => LOGOUT USERNAME
AND THAT KILLS THE USERNAME'S TERMINAL
 
THERE ARE MANY MORE COMMANDS, SO TRY THEM OUT. JUST REMEMBER:
LEAVE THE ACCOUNT IN THE SAME STATE AS YOU FOUND IT. THIS WAY
THEY MAY NEVER KNOW THAT YOU ARE PLAYING LEECH OFF THEIR ACCT.
