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I must have gone to a great high school. I actually hacked our systems a few times. We used a piece of software to lock down the PCs, IIRC, called Fool Proof.
by vkjv 11y ago
I must have gone to a great high school. I actually hacked our systems a few times.
We used a piece of software to lock down the PCs, IIRC, called Fool Proof. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be ironic, because it didn't take long to figure out that it kept the clear text admin password in swap. The machines didn't have BIOS passwords, so it was pretty easy to boot into a hex editor and dig it out.
When my teacher found out I did this, he praised my ingenuity and even got me involved in vetting alternative options, despite the fact that I had been handing the password around to friends like candy.
- ryukafalz 11y agoDid you have a clue as to where in swap the data was stored? Looking through a swap partition in a hex editor sounds mind-numbing.
- mckiddy 11y agoPlaintext actually stands out pretty easily in a hex editor, just because everything else is basically gibberish.
- firebones 11y agoAnd never underestimate the amount of time that a teenager, with all the time in the world, would dedicate to this.
- vkjv 11y agoThe password preamble included the string `FOOLPR`. If I recall correctly, I just did a search for `FOOL` on a whim and it turned up only a few results.