Basics of Hacking I:
Decs's **
Welcome to basics of hacking i: dec's
in this article you will learn how to log in to dec's, logging out, and all the
fun stuff to do in-between. All of this information is based on a standard
dec system. Since there are dec systems 10 and 20, and we favor, the dec 20,
there will be more info on them in this article. It just so happens that the
dec 20 is also the more common of the two, and is used by much more interesting
people (if you know what we mean...) Ok, the first thing you want to do when
you are receiving carrier from a dec system is to find out the format of login
names. You can do this by looking at who is on the system. Dec=> ` (the
'exec' level prompt) you=> sy sy is short for sy(stat) and shows you the system
status. You should see the format of login names... A systat usually comes up
in this form: job line program user job: the job number (not important
unless you want to log them off later) line: what line they are on (used to
talk to them...) These are both two or three digit numbers. Program: what
program are they running under? If it says 'exec' they aren't doing anything
at all... User: ahhhahhhh! This is the user name they are logged in under...
Copy the format, and hack yourself out a working code... Login format is as
such: dec=> ` you=> login username password username is the username in the
format you saw above in the systat. After you hit the space after your
username, it will stop echoing characters back to your screen. This is the
password you are typing in... Remember, people usually use their name, their
dog's name, the name of a favorite character in a book, or something like this.
A few clever people have it set to a key cluster (qwerty or asdfg). Pw's can
be from 1 to 8 characters long, anything after that is ignored. You are finally
in... It would be nice to have a little help, wouldn't it? Just type a ? Or
the word help, and it will give you a whole list of topics... Some handy
characters for you to know would be the control keys, wouldn't it? Backspace on
a dec 20 is rub which is 255 on your ascii chart. On the dec 10 it is cntrl-h.
To abort a long listing or a program, cntrl-c works fine. Use cntrl-o to stop
long output to the terminal. This is handy when playing a game, but you don't
want to cntrl-c out. Cntrl-t for the time. Cntrl-u will kill the whole line
you are typing at the moment. You may accidently run a program where the only
way out is a cntrl-x, so keep that in reserve. Cntrl-s to stop listing, cntrl-q
to continue on both systems. Is your terminal having trouble?? Like, it
pauses for no reason, or it doesn't backspace right? This is because both
systems support many terminals, and you haven't told it what yours is yet...
You are using a vt05 (isn't that funny? I thought I had an apple) so you need
to tell it you are one. Dec=> ` you=> information terminal or... You=> info
ter this shows you what your terminal is set up as... Dec=> all sorts of shit,
then the ` you=> set ter vt05 this sets your terminal type to vt05. Now let's
see what is in the account (here after abbreviated acct.) That you have hacked
onto... Say => dir short for directory, it shows you what the user of the code
has save to the disk. There should be a format like this: xxxxx.Ooo xxxxx
is the file name, from 1 to 20 characters long. Ooo is the file type, one of:
exe, txt, dat, bas, cmd and a few others that are system dependant. Exe is a
compiled program that can be run (just by typing its name at the `). Txt is a
text file, which you can see by typing=> type xxxxx.Txt do not try to=> type
xxxxx.Exe this is very bad for your terminal and will tell you absolutly
nothing. Dat is data they have saved. Bas is a basic program, you can have it
typed out for you. Cmd is a command type file, a little too complicated to go
into here. Try => take xxxxx.Cmd by the way, there are other users out there
who may have files you can use (gee, why else am I here?). Type => dir <*.*>
(Dec 20) => dir [*,*] (dec 10) * is a wildcard, and will allow you to
access the files on other accounts if the user has it set for public access.
If it isn't set for public access, then you won't see it. To run that program:
dec=> ` you=> username program-name username is the directory you saw the file
listed under, and file name was what else but the file name? ** You are not
alone ** remember, you said (at the very start) sy short for systat, and how
we said this showed the other users on the system? Well, you can talk to them,
or at least send a message to anyone you see listed in a systat. You can do
this by: dec=> the user list (from your systat) you=> talk username (dec
20) send username (dec 10) talk allows you and them immediate
transmission of whatever you/they type to be sent to the other. Send only
allow you one message to be sent, and only after you hit <return>. With send,
they will send back to you, with talk you can just keep going. By the way, you
may be noticing with the talk command that what you type is still acted upon by
the parser (control program). To avoid the constant error messages type
either: you=> ;your message you=> rem your message the semi-colon
tells the parser that what follows is just a comment. Rem is short for
'remark' and ignores you from then on until you type a cntrl-z or cntrl-c, at
which point it puts you back in the exec mode. To break the connection from a
talk command type: you=> break priv's: if you happen to have privs, you can do
all sorts of things. First of all, you have to activate those privs. You=>
enable this gives you a $ prompt, and allows you to do this: whatever you can
do to your own directory you can now do to any other directory. To create a
new acct. Using your privs, just type => build username if username is old,
you can edit it, if it is new, you can define it to be whatever you wish.
Privacy means nothing to a user with privs. By the way, there are various
levels of privs: operator, wheel, cia wheel is the most powerful, being that
he can log in from anywhere and have his powers. Operators have their power
because they are at a special terminal allowing them the privs. Cia is short
for 'confidential information access', which allows you a low level amount of
privs. Not to worry though, since you can read the system log file, which also
has the passwords to all the other accounts. To de-activate your privs, type
you=> disable
when you have played your greedy heart out, you can finally leave the system
with the command=> logout this logs the job you are using off the system
(there may be varients of this such as kjob, or killjob). By the way, you can
say (if you have privs) => logout username afl kills the username's
terminal.
There are many more commands, so try them out. Just remember: leave the
account in the same state as you found it. This way they may never know that
you are playing leech off their acct.
Next time: the basics of hacking ii: vax's (unix)
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this article written by: the Knights of Shadow
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