The Early Days of Hacking

FCS US Comp Sci - Nov 2017

Introduction
The year is 1982. Time magazine makes a radical move and replaces the
person of the year with a computer, calling it the Machine of the
year. The internet is still in its infancy and the World Wide Web is
still 10 years away. While the personal computing revolution is just
beginning these computers are stand alone machines that have no
access to the outside world. Inter-connected computers stationed
around the globe reside almost exclusively in universities and
government agencies. These machines are running software which allows
clients to “dial in” via telnet, a network protocol that uses TCP and
FTP to chat, send email, exchange files and, of course, play games.
However, in these early days, security is not of great concern,
because of the limited number of machines and their location.

But as the network expands, new users begin to start exploring beyond
their means, looking for vulnerabilities, exploits, and loopholes.
These “hackers” are constantly on the prowl seeking access to parts
unknown.

Your task is to explore the world of 1980’s internet by following

clues, researching esoterica, and bringing light to the darkness.
Along your journey you will be asked to complete certain tasks. Tasks
are preceded with an arrow ➔
● Wherever you see _________________ you must fill in the blank
with an answer of your own
● Whenever you see <________________> you must fill in the blank
by copying the output from the terminal.
● COMMANDS that can be entered into the terminal will be bold and
in all caps

Before we begin, please define the following:

➔ Telnet ________________
➔ TCP ________________
➔ FTP ________________
➔ CLI ________________
Define: (Click Link for examples) A definition includes.
● Expansion of all Acronyms.
● The class of object or concept to which the term belongs.
● The differentiating characteristics that distinguish it from
all others of its class

Getting Started

WELCOME TO TELEHACK - MAY THE COMMAND LINE NEVER DIE

Point your browser to telehack.com. You are greeted by green on black
command line screen welcoming you TELEHACK and providing you with a
list of commands. Try a few by typing in the name of the command and
then “enter.” If you need to stop a program from running type ctrl-c.
To pull up the list of commands type ? and then return.

➔ What’s the WEATHER like? <weather

44f clouds
scattered clouds
humidity: 41%
wind: 4.1 mph 280 degrees (W)
sunset in 3h>
➔ Where is the GEOIP of 27.156.12.11? <________________>
➔ What does the COWSAY? <________________>

Get logged in
Type the command NEWUSER and follow the commands. DO NOT use a
username or password that you use for anything else. Telenet, by
design, is not a secure. Write down your information below so that
you don’t forget. (Trust me, writing it in google in plain text is
more secure than telehack)
➔ USERNAME:___________________
➔ PASSWORD:___________________

YOU’VE GOT MAIL

As soon as you’re logged in, you’ll receive the message “You have
mail.”
➔ Read your MAIL
◆ Where can you go for help?
● _____________________
 ● _____________________
● _____________________
➔ QUIT the mail program
In general, if you get stuck you can type ? to list available
commands.

+priv POSTMASTER - Congratulations, you just got a POSTMASTER

badge. More coming.
➔ Read the TELEHACK.TXT file.
◆ What are two ways you could have some “Quick Fun”?
● __________________
● __________________

IT’S PERSONAL
You’re not just an anonymous bot, you’re a real live person who has
thoughts and feelings. Let everyone know how you’re feeling by
setting your STATUS message. What else do people know about you? Use
the FINGER command (tee-hee-hee. yes, that’s what it’s called) and
see what they’re saying about you.<________________>

GET OUT THERE AND MAKE FRIENDS

From the beginning, the internet has been used to help speed up
communication. Telehack is no exception. SEND one of your classmates
a message. Not sure what USERS are online? I bet telenet knows if you
ask politely.

Tired of having your commands constantly interrupted by messages from

others. Why not just TALK to them instead?

➔ No one home? Need to leave a message? SEND me MAIL. I’ll make

sure to check it and respond ASAP

It’s great to talk with people you already know, but try striking up
a conversation with someone else on telehack. They’re usually really

nice people.
The Early Days of Hacking pt II
FCS US Comp Sci - Nov 2016
Introduction
Now that you are familiar with telehack it’s time to start going
deeper. When you log in to telehack.com you log into one of thousands
of virtual servers that are all connected together in a web like the
one pictured above. If you were to look at a graph of the internet
today it would look very different.

Let’s imagine that each of the circles is a node, or server. Each

line represents a direct, two-way connection between that server and
another server, i.e. server1 can connect to server2 and server2 can
connect to server1. We can measure the “connectedness” of any server
by counting the number of connections it has. This is called the node
degree. We can also get a sense for how connected the entire network
is by taking an average of degrees of all of the nodes in the
network. This number may not mean much in isolation but it does
provide some information about the network.

➔ In the above graph, what is the “degree” of the central node?

I.e. how many connections does it have?
________________________
➔ What is the degree of one of the second level nodes?
___________
➔ How many second level nodes are there? ______________
➔ What is the average degree for the first two level of nodes
(the central node and all of the nodes which are connected to
it) in the graph above? ____________________________
➔ How do you suppose this network is different from the world
wide web?____________________________

Furthermore, Unlike the internet, telehack does not have routers

which can move your requests for information across multiple servers
quickly and quietly. Instead you need to “hop” from server to server
by logging in via TELNET.

Let’s get going

Where am I?
Start by exploring your NETSTAT (Network Status).
➔ Which servers are you connected to? <____________>
Try using TELNET to log into another server? Can you get it?

A quick aside:
As you move through, don’t forget all of the resources that are out
there. If you get stuck, make sure you OPEN telehack.txt. You could
also ask for HELP on a specific [command].

Running Programs
Telehack comes with some preloaded files and programs. Try looking
through the DIRectory. List the file types on your directory and what
they stand for. The file types are the three letter extension after
the (.) period.
◆ Ext What it stands for
◆ ___ __________________
◆ ___ __________________
◆ ___ __________________
◆ ___ __________________
➔ OPEN some of the files and explore
➔ FNORD is a Pickle without <___________>
➔ FNORD is a the echo of <__________>
➔ What other, more popular, program did the Les Earnest, the
inventor of FINGER command, write? ______________

Quests: The Tedium Begins!

Ok, now we’ve come to the meat and potatoes of this whole thing, the
quests. This is where you get to actually start “hacking.” As we
discussed earlier, hacking might be generally understood to mean
getting into something that you’re not supposed to. The early days of
the internet were not great days for security and as soon as some
areas were closed off, hackers started looking for ways to get in.
You now get to join the ranks of ARPANET Hackers.
➔ Define ARPANET ________________

Starting a QUEST
Type the command QUEST into telehack.com and see what happens
➔ Hack your way to the host _(ENTER HOST NAME HERE)_
➔ Obtain the file _(ENTER FILE NAME HERE)_
Where am I going?

Now that you know where you’re going, how do you get there? The first
thing to do is to UUPLOT a course to your host.

➔ Copy your plot from the terminal window and paste it below. (if
it doesn’t display right reduce the font size and make sure
that the paragraph spacing is set to 1. Or you could take a
screenshot and paste that
➔ <____________________>
+Paste you plot here

Now that we have a map, decide on what hosts you’ll have to hop
through to get to where you’re going. You are on the telehack server.
Lines represent connections between one server and another.

I this example I would start at telehack, move to mimsy, then to

dodeca, and then to ameritec.

➔ ____________________
➔ ____________________
➔ ____________________
➔ ____________________
➔ ____________________

How do I get there?

By hacking your way there, d’uh! Run the command PORTHACK and see
what happens. When it asks you for a host, enter in the name of the
first host on you path that you described above. After probing for
open sockets you’ll see a list of port numbers, services, and
descriptions.
➔ What is an computer networking port and why are they important?
________________
➔ What service run on port 22? ___________
➔ What service run on port 25? ___________
➔ What service run on port 110? ___________
➔ What service run on port 80? ___________

Try trying to get into your host server through different ports. Did
you get into the target host?
➔ How does a buffer overrun attack work? Hint, you’ll probably
have to look it up
◆ _____________________________
➔ Open Fing your iPad (that program we downloaded earlier) and
find my computer. What ports do I have open? What are those
ports used for?
◆ ___ ______________
◆ ___ ______________
◆ ___ ______________

Once you breached the security you’ll need to TELNET into the <host>
to keep going. You’ll need to work your way all the way over to the
quest host to get your reward.

But wait, why can’t I run porthack?

Because you only have access to the programs that exist on the server
that you are currently logged into, you’ll need to use FTP to GET
your file/programs from telnet or to PUT your telnet files/programs
into your target host’s directory.
➔ In real life, besides QUIT, what is another command to end the
ftp session? Hint, it’s not EXIT. ______________________ If
you’re stuck you might need to get HELP

So you’ve reached your target host and read the file, now what?
First:
➔ What did your message say?
◆ _____________________
Well, if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably a pretty smart and
resilient person. Make sure you read telehack.txt and sysmon.txt

Extra Credit
➔ Unlink your account
➔ Gain root access