5 ms·

Evan Doorbell's Classic Phreaking Tapes

93 points by fapjacks 9y ago

fapjacks 9y ago
In particular, the "How Evan Doorbell became a Phone Phreak" series is excellent storytelling with plenty of detail to keep hackers entertained.
- mdp 9y ago
  Link the Soundcloud version, which might be easier for mobile listeners - https://soundcloud.com/evan-doorbell/sets/group-1 https://soundcloud.com/evan-doorbell/sets/group-1
  - hansjorg 9y ago
    This is really well produced, and he's a great narrator! Loving both the hacker spirit and the contemporary music with DTMF mashups. NPR or someone should pick this up and give it a broader audience.
    - riffic 9y ago
      Radiolab did a piece on Joybubbles - http://www.radiolab.org/story/187724-long-distance/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/187724-long-distance/
pagnol 9y ago
What exactly is this about?
- jpeterman 9y ago
  My understanding is that this guy was a telephone "phreaker" (hacker enthusiast) and I gather he traveled a lot and would use pay phones and record them as he did. The "tapes" are him narrating over these old tapes many years later explaining what he was doing. Much of it is him dialing various numbers and listening to the beeps/boops/kachunks and explaining exactly what is happening technically to route the call.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  Phreakers were/are telephone system hackers. Back in the day it was possible to hack telephone systems using simple electronics and some technical knowledge. The page being linked to seems to go into some of the history of phone phreaking. Incidentally, the following clip contains the most impressive demonstration of phreaking I've ever seen, showing a blind phreaker with perfect pitch called Joe Engressia who was able to hack the phone system just by whistling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVZm7I1CTBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVZm7I1CTBs A fair amount of the hacker culture of the 80s and early 90s (hacker in terms of what the common perception of a hacker is) seems to owe its debt to the trail blazed by phreakers.
watmough 9y ago
This is awesome: http://www.evan-doorbell.com/production/PanPulsLovers.mp3 http://www.evan-doorbell.com/production/PanPulsLovers.mp3 It covers the exchanges talking to each other.
EvanAnderson 9y ago
I very much enjoy the "Dom Tuffy" series (though I highly recommend all of Mr. Doorbell's recordings-- his voice is pleasing and hearing how it has changed over his life is amusing, if nothing else). The August, 2001 tapes in Nantes, Quebec are especially poignant to me. I grew up in a rural small town that had the analog phone switch replaced with a digital switch (a DMS-10) in the late 1980's. A couple of other little towns around still had analog switches into the early 90's. I "played around" with them a little bit but really didn't understand the technology. Now I wish I'd had more time with them.
dmix 9y ago
This sounds interesting but he's using so much phone jargon it's hard for me to follow. Is there some good intro to this stuff somewhere?
- brianzelip 9y ago
  Sure, one is 'Exploding the Phone', 2013, by Phil Lapsley. http://explodingthephone.com http://explodingthephone.com Great book.
- snorkel 9y ago
  This is essentially trainspotting for telephony nerds. Most of this hobby is exploring and mapping telephone exchanges just by dialing random numbers and listening, and sometimes discovering interesting unlisted phone numbers. The jargon is mostly referring to identifying telephony switching equipment based on dialing a lot of phone numbers in a given area code then listening for the subtle audio clues that hint at the type of switching used by that exchange. Lookup Step by Step switches on YouTube for to see what old timey telephone exchange equipment was like.
flyinghamster 9y ago
The "Sounds of Long Distance" series does a pretty good job of explaining how the phone network was laid out in the waning years of the Bell System.
cperciva 9y ago
On the topic of phreaking, does anyone know if modern condo entryphone systems are vulnerable? The fact that pressing a button on my phone unlocks the front door to the building makes me wonder how it could possibly not be vulnerable to having the right pitches played, but I would hope that the dangers of in-band signalling have been widely understood for long enough that systems would be protected...
- mulmen 9y ago
  I would be shocked if there are not vulnerabilities in the form of default codes and factory resets. As far as phreaking there's probably something to it. The fact that my building's call box picks up when I dial the front door number seems like a bad sign. The building next to mine has what appears to be an Android tablet as the keypad, I can only imagine the vulnerabilities there.
- kkielhofner 9y ago
  I assume this is one of those systems where a potential entrant types a code, and the systems calls a pre-provided number for the occupant of the unit who provided the code to the entrant? The common denominator on the PSTN is listening for inband DTMF within a G.711 "encoded" stream. The "security" in this system is the condo entry phone device dialing out to the PSTN (via some mechanism) to the destination number, which is routed via SS7 to the proper owner. This security mechanism is somewhat similar to those used by two-factor systems that send SMS via SS7 to destination numbers. It's not without fault, there have been many demonstrated attacks against the SS7 network.
  - cperciva 9y ago
    Sorry, I should have specified more. This is a "potential entrant selects the person they're trying to visit; system phones the pre-programmed number for that occupant; occupant talks to the visitor and presses a button to let them in". In my building, I have to press 6 to make the door unlock. Could a vistor play a very loud "touchtone phone 6" into the microphone and make the system think that the occupant pressed that number?

93 points by fapjacks 9y ago

In particular, the "How Evan Doorbell became a Phone Phreak" series is excellent storytelling with plenty of detail to keep hackers entertained.

mdp 9y ago
Link the Soundcloud version, which might be easier for mobile listeners - https://soundcloud.com/evan-doorbell/sets/group-1 https://soundcloud.com/evan-doorbell/sets/group-1
- hansjorg 9y ago
  This is really well produced, and he's a great narrator! Loving both the hacker spirit and the contemporary music with DTMF mashups. NPR or someone should pick this up and give it a broader audience.
  - riffic 9y ago
    Radiolab did a piece on Joybubbles - http://www.radiolab.org/story/187724-long-distance/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/187724-long-distance/

pagnol 9y ago

What exactly is this about?

jpeterman 9y ago
My understanding is that this guy was a telephone "phreaker" (hacker enthusiast) and I gather he traveled a lot and would use pay phones and record them as he did. The "tapes" are him narrating over these old tapes many years later explaining what he was doing. Much of it is him dialing various numbers and listening to the beeps/boops/kachunks and explaining exactly what is happening technically to route the call.
ZenoArrow 9y ago
Phreakers were/are telephone system hackers. Back in the day it was possible to hack telephone systems using simple electronics and some technical knowledge. The page being linked to seems to go into some of the history of phone phreaking. Incidentally, the following clip contains the most impressive demonstration of phreaking I've ever seen, showing a blind phreaker with perfect pitch called Joe Engressia who was able to hack the phone system just by whistling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVZm7I1CTBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVZm7I1CTBs A fair amount of the hacker culture of the 80s and early 90s (hacker in terms of what the common perception of a hacker is) seems to owe its debt to the trail blazed by phreakers.

watmough 9y ago

This is awesome: http://www.evan-doorbell.com/production/PanPulsLovers.mp3 http://www.evan-doorbell.com/production/PanPulsLovers.mp3 It covers the exchanges talking to each other.

EvanAnderson 9y ago

I very much enjoy the "Dom Tuffy" series (though I highly recommend all of Mr. Doorbell's recordings-- his voice is pleasing and hearing how it has changed over his life is amusing, if nothing else). The August, 2001 tapes in Nantes, Quebec are especially poignant to me. I grew up in a rural small town that had the analog phone switch replaced with a digital switch (a DMS-10) in the late 1980's. A couple of other little towns around still had analog switches into the early 90's. I "played around" with them a little bit but really didn't understand the technology. Now I wish I'd had more time with them.

dmix 9y ago

This sounds interesting but he's using so much phone jargon it's hard for me to follow. Is there some good intro to this stuff somewhere?

brianzelip 9y ago
Sure, one is 'Exploding the Phone', 2013, by Phil Lapsley. http://explodingthephone.com http://explodingthephone.com Great book.
snorkel 9y ago
This is essentially trainspotting for telephony nerds. Most of this hobby is exploring and mapping telephone exchanges just by dialing random numbers and listening, and sometimes discovering interesting unlisted phone numbers. The jargon is mostly referring to identifying telephony switching equipment based on dialing a lot of phone numbers in a given area code then listening for the subtle audio clues that hint at the type of switching used by that exchange. Lookup Step by Step switches on YouTube for to see what old timey telephone exchange equipment was like.

flyinghamster 9y ago

The "Sounds of Long Distance" series does a pretty good job of explaining how the phone network was laid out in the waning years of the Bell System.

cperciva 9y ago

On the topic of phreaking, does anyone know if modern condo entryphone systems are vulnerable? The fact that pressing a button on my phone unlocks the front door to the building makes me wonder how it could possibly not be vulnerable to having the right pitches played, but I would hope that the dangers of in-band signalling have been widely understood for long enough that systems would be protected...

mulmen 9y ago
I would be shocked if there are not vulnerabilities in the form of default codes and factory resets. As far as phreaking there's probably something to it. The fact that my building's call box picks up when I dial the front door number seems like a bad sign. The building next to mine has what appears to be an Android tablet as the keypad, I can only imagine the vulnerabilities there.
kkielhofner 9y ago
I assume this is one of those systems where a potential entrant types a code, and the systems calls a pre-provided number for the occupant of the unit who provided the code to the entrant? The common denominator on the PSTN is listening for inband DTMF within a G.711 "encoded" stream. The "security" in this system is the condo entry phone device dialing out to the PSTN (via some mechanism) to the destination number, which is routed via SS7 to the proper owner. This security mechanism is somewhat similar to those used by two-factor systems that send SMS via SS7 to destination numbers. It's not without fault, there have been many demonstrated attacks against the SS7 network.
- cperciva 9y ago
  Sorry, I should have specified more. This is a "potential entrant selects the person they're trying to visit; system phones the pre-programmed number for that occupant; occupant talks to the visitor and presses a button to let them in". In my building, I have to press 6 to make the door unlock. Could a vistor play a very loud "touchtone phone 6" into the microphone and make the system think that the occupant pressed that number?