5 ms·

Phrack #67

98 points by deutronium 16y ago

oldstrangers 16y ago
Wow, this brings back memories.
bigmac 16y ago
Wow, ok. I thought "How to make it in prison" was going to be some ironic title on breaking out of a chroot prison or something. Nope, its actually about being in real-life prison. Some topics include whether to join a gang and how to gain respect once you get in.
fredoliveira 16y ago
It's been years since I last read something from phrack, but I remember it being a huge inspiration to me back around their #50th issue. I was talking to a couple of guys during dinner a few days ago (one of them antirez, of Redis fame) and we noted about how serendipitous it was that all 3 of us had a background on compsec and reconnected many years later in a conference. It's interesting to see that these things aren't dead and that people who care deeply about their craft (regardless of what craft that might be) actually succeed. I kinda wish today was a little more like the late 90s. Now that we're in 2010, though, I kinda wish this stuff was instapaper-able (I'm curious about what these guys are publishing these days). I know we're talking about Phrack, but there's no real reason why this looks and feels like 1986. (as an aside: .tar.gz link is dead. Was going to make a pdf version of this to put on the ipad.)
- antirez 16y ago
  Hello Fred :) Interesting that we both commented this actually, and the bottom line is, it is no longer 90s. This is not bad per se. But in 90s you could say, it's no longer 80s with the cool times of BBS, but now there is security that is the new underground. Now everything is still progressing in many ways, and even faster, but there is like the feeling there is no longer an "underground scene". I hope I'm wrong and that people in their 20s are experimenting what we experimented again.
  - fredoliveira 16y ago
    Haha, hey Salvatore (serendipity! again!). Security is not so much an underground scene because everything is super easy to share (this is a good thing) - everyone has access to much more information than we did back in the day. That being said, I'm sure there's guys out there that are in "hunter-gatherer" mode like Melo talked about the other day. These people will hopefully be pushing the envelope in a few years time.
  - jdp23 16y ago
    worry not. people in their teens and 20s are still experimenting -- it's just that the venues are different. i love Phrack's old-time look-and-feel, but yeah, with a little work they could make it a lot more accessible.
- brianritchie 16y ago
  The link is dead but you can manually download the TXT files from here : http://phrack.com/archives/67/ http://phrack.com/archives/67/
antirez 16y ago
Phrack is still writing the same things that you could find there 15 years ago, when it was great. Now it is not anymore I fear.
- HDR 16y ago
  They are trying to distinguish themselves from (the dark period in phrack history) when whitehat faggots ran the show, with the same fuckers (the editors friends) getting published every single time. They are trying to get back to the underground feel of the glory days.
eat 16y ago
I especially appreciate the email from Rachel, mostly because I can masturbate about how much I agree with everything in it. Too bad I was mountains in edu-debt before I realized I could be happy with a netbook, a roof, and 10 Mbps downstream.
dnsworks 16y ago
I've been reading Phrack so long web browsers didn't exist. This makes me feel very old.
gallerytungsten 16y ago
It's interesting to compare the treatment of Albert "soupnazi" Gonzales in phrack, http://phrack.com/issues.html?issue=67&id=3#article http://phrack.com/issues.html?issue=67&id=3#article, vs. the treatment in the NYT article, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html?p... which was also linked here recently.
- milkshakes 16y ago
  soupnazi, or segvec as some people here are more likely to remember him was a joke among the security community. the times magazine article that made him out to be the next mitnick took some real liberties with the truth. verini tried to paint the picture of a sociopath, but ultimately fell in love with him as well. don't be fooled by the times.
- HDR 16y ago
  The saddest part about that article is the_ut / Stephen Watt getting a two year sentence for writing a _packet-sniffer_. Lets round up everyone who writes software that might somehow be used by criminals someday! He should have just written a tcpdump filter. Oh, and he should have listen to _everyone_ telling him segvec was a fed.
getonit 16y ago
"Hacking the mind for fun and profit" is highly recommended... I haven't laughed that hard in months. Not with the author, unfortunately, but there you go.

98 points by deutronium 16y ago

Wow, this brings back memories.

Wow, ok. I thought "How to make it in prison" was going to be some ironic title on breaking out of a chroot prison or something. Nope, its actually about being in real-life prison. Some topics include whether to join a gang and how to gain respect once you get in.

fredoliveira 16y ago

It's been years since I last read something from phrack, but I remember it being a huge inspiration to me back around their #50th issue. I was talking to a couple of guys during dinner a few days ago (one of them antirez, of Redis fame) and we noted about how serendipitous it was that all 3 of us had a background on compsec and reconnected many years later in a conference. It's interesting to see that these things aren't dead and that people who care deeply about their craft (regardless of what craft that might be) actually succeed. I kinda wish today was a little more like the late 90s. Now that we're in 2010, though, I kinda wish this stuff was instapaper-able (I'm curious about what these guys are publishing these days). I know we're talking about Phrack, but there's no real reason why this looks and feels like 1986. (as an aside: .tar.gz link is dead. Was going to make a pdf version of this to put on the ipad.)

antirez 16y ago
Hello Fred :) Interesting that we both commented this actually, and the bottom line is, it is no longer 90s. This is not bad per se. But in 90s you could say, it's no longer 80s with the cool times of BBS, but now there is security that is the new underground. Now everything is still progressing in many ways, and even faster, but there is like the feeling there is no longer an "underground scene". I hope I'm wrong and that people in their 20s are experimenting what we experimented again.
- fredoliveira 16y ago
  Haha, hey Salvatore (serendipity! again!). Security is not so much an underground scene because everything is super easy to share (this is a good thing) - everyone has access to much more information than we did back in the day. That being said, I'm sure there's guys out there that are in "hunter-gatherer" mode like Melo talked about the other day. These people will hopefully be pushing the envelope in a few years time.
- jdp23 16y ago
  worry not. people in their teens and 20s are still experimenting -- it's just that the venues are different. i love Phrack's old-time look-and-feel, but yeah, with a little work they could make it a lot more accessible.
brianritchie 16y ago
The link is dead but you can manually download the TXT files from here : http://phrack.com/archives/67/ http://phrack.com/archives/67/

antirez 16y ago

Phrack is still writing the same things that you could find there 15 years ago, when it was great. Now it is not anymore I fear.

HDR 16y ago
They are trying to distinguish themselves from (the dark period in phrack history) when whitehat faggots ran the show, with the same fuckers (the editors friends) getting published every single time. They are trying to get back to the underground feel of the glory days.

eat 16y ago

I especially appreciate the email from Rachel, mostly because I can masturbate about how much I agree with everything in it. Too bad I was mountains in edu-debt before I realized I could be happy with a netbook, a roof, and 10 Mbps downstream.

dnsworks 16y ago

I've been reading Phrack so long web browsers didn't exist. This makes me feel very old.

gallerytungsten 16y ago

It's interesting to compare the treatment of Albert "soupnazi" Gonzales in phrack, http://phrack.com/issues.html?issue=67&id=3#article http://phrack.com/issues.html?issue=67&id=3#article, vs. the treatment in the NYT article, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html?p... which was also linked here recently.

milkshakes 16y ago
soupnazi, or segvec as some people here are more likely to remember him was a joke among the security community. the times magazine article that made him out to be the next mitnick took some real liberties with the truth. verini tried to paint the picture of a sociopath, but ultimately fell in love with him as well. don't be fooled by the times.
HDR 16y ago
The saddest part about that article is the_ut / Stephen Watt getting a two year sentence for writing a _packet-sniffer_. Lets round up everyone who writes software that might somehow be used by criminals someday! He should have just written a tcpdump filter. Oh, and he should have listen to _everyone_ telling him segvec was a fed.

getonit 16y ago

"Hacking the mind for fun and profit" is highly recommended... I haven't laughed that hard in months. Not with the author, unfortunately, but there you go.