6 ms·

I remember in high school renaming programs to "calc.exe" so we could run them. Back when these kinds of protections were so primitive :-)

drummojg 5y ago
When I was in college, we would set the process name of the MUD client to whatever WordPerfect used on the VAX so we wouldn't get busted for playing games during non-gaming hours. Of course the sysadmins saw right through the charade, but it was fun to feel like you were getting away with something for half a minute.
Waterluvian 5y ago
We had this StudeNT Vista thing and yeah it was so much fun finding exploits.
QuinnWilton 5y ago
My highschool physically removed the right mouse button from the mice, because we were right clicking to make text files that we'd rename as batch files to get a command prompt open. Some people would just bring their own mouse in to get past the defences.
- chungy 5y ago
  Doesn't seem extremely effective unless you also remove the F2, F10, Shift, and Alt keys from the keyboard.
  - QuinnWilton 5y ago
    Oh and it wasn't. That was the least of the school's problems though. They also used a surveillance system called LanSchool, which sent out all of its commands entirely unencrypted and unauthenticated, so people would spoof the remote takeover command and steal exams from teachers' accounts. It ended up being a whole thing my senior year.
    - wave100 5y ago
      This thread is making me remember how incompetent my old school district used to be with technology. Once upon a time, a friend of mine got detention for opening a command line and running `tree`. The teacher said that he was hacking the computer. The name of the class? "Digital literacy".
knodi123 5y ago
Ah, the era of primitive DIY security. Those were the days. It's kinda of sad that today's kids have to deal with industry-grade encryption and professional best practices, instead of going toe-to-toe with an underpaid self-taught middle-aged "computer guy" like my generation did...
- detaro 5y ago
  > industry-grade encryption and professional best practices You overestimate "professional best practices" in many places...
- throwaway3699 5y ago
  I had a few amusing tactics. Even with 'professional best practices' (debatable), the human element was still vulnerable. One example was that my school refused to give out the Wi-Fi password as a form of security, so they'd demand to manually type it in themselves on your machine. A simple keylogger and now the whole school just ignored that rule for a few months. Another is that while they tried to block things like SSH, VPNs, etc... to get around the school's internet filtering, turns out you could just run SSH over port 80 and have a tunnel out :)
  - linux_is_nice 5y ago
    Hilariously, I'm thinking of doing that(using SSH over port 80) at my school.
    - ok123456 5y ago
      I setup sshd on the pop3 port back in high school in the 90s, so I could connect to my home machine and chat on irc during study hall.
- twobitshifter 5y ago
  Our computer guy was pretty cool, he set up Starcraft LAN parties during recess. However he also used passwords like Spring1998, so everyone could get year-round admin rights if they knew his pattern.
bick_nyers 5y ago
In my high school IT class we got to play Halo CE if we got all of our work done early. I made a play game batch script that started the game, but also planted a secret batch script with an unsuspecting name into your startup folder, that would open and close your CD drive at random intervals. The teacher let it go on for a week or two, he thought it was hilarious
aidenn0 5y ago
Same, but I think it was mspaint.exe for me.
Apfel 5y ago
My current (government) employer blocks installation of Firefox and Chrome setup exes, but it's still just a hardcoded block on Chromesetup.exe and can be bypassed by calling it literally anything else.

drummojg 5y ago

When I was in college, we would set the process name of the MUD client to whatever WordPerfect used on the VAX so we wouldn't get busted for playing games during non-gaming hours. Of course the sysadmins saw right through the charade, but it was fun to feel like you were getting away with something for half a minute.

Waterluvian 5y ago

We had this StudeNT Vista thing and yeah it was so much fun finding exploits.

QuinnWilton 5y ago

My highschool physically removed the right mouse button from the mice, because we were right clicking to make text files that we'd rename as batch files to get a command prompt open. Some people would just bring their own mouse in to get past the defences.

chungy 5y ago
Doesn't seem extremely effective unless you also remove the F2, F10, Shift, and Alt keys from the keyboard.
- QuinnWilton 5y ago
  Oh and it wasn't. That was the least of the school's problems though. They also used a surveillance system called LanSchool, which sent out all of its commands entirely unencrypted and unauthenticated, so people would spoof the remote takeover command and steal exams from teachers' accounts. It ended up being a whole thing my senior year.
  - wave100 5y ago
    This thread is making me remember how incompetent my old school district used to be with technology. Once upon a time, a friend of mine got detention for opening a command line and running `tree`. The teacher said that he was hacking the computer. The name of the class? "Digital literacy".

knodi123 5y ago

Ah, the era of primitive DIY security. Those were the days. It's kinda of sad that today's kids have to deal with industry-grade encryption and professional best practices, instead of going toe-to-toe with an underpaid self-taught middle-aged "computer guy" like my generation did...

detaro 5y ago
> industry-grade encryption and professional best practices You overestimate "professional best practices" in many places...
throwaway3699 5y ago
I had a few amusing tactics. Even with 'professional best practices' (debatable), the human element was still vulnerable. One example was that my school refused to give out the Wi-Fi password as a form of security, so they'd demand to manually type it in themselves on your machine. A simple keylogger and now the whole school just ignored that rule for a few months. Another is that while they tried to block things like SSH, VPNs, etc... to get around the school's internet filtering, turns out you could just run SSH over port 80 and have a tunnel out :)
- linux_is_nice 5y ago
  Hilariously, I'm thinking of doing that(using SSH over port 80) at my school.
  - ok123456 5y ago
    I setup sshd on the pop3 port back in high school in the 90s, so I could connect to my home machine and chat on irc during study hall.
twobitshifter 5y ago
Our computer guy was pretty cool, he set up Starcraft LAN parties during recess. However he also used passwords like Spring1998, so everyone could get year-round admin rights if they knew his pattern.

bick_nyers 5y ago

In my high school IT class we got to play Halo CE if we got all of our work done early. I made a play game batch script that started the game, but also planted a secret batch script with an unsuspecting name into your startup folder, that would open and close your CD drive at random intervals. The teacher let it go on for a week or two, he thought it was hilarious

aidenn0 5y ago

Same, but I think it was mspaint.exe for me.

Apfel 5y ago

My current (government) employer blocks installation of Firefox and Chrome setup exes, but it's still just a hardcoded block on Chromesetup.exe and can be bypassed by calling it literally anything else.