A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO Hacking Unix

IN THE FOLLOWING FILE, ALL REFERENCES  MADE TO THE NAME UNIX, MAY ALSO BE  SUBSTITUTED TO THE XENIX OPERATING  SYSTEM.    BRIEF HISTORY:  BACK IN THE EARLY  SIXTIES, DURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF  THIRD GENERATION COMPUTERS AT MIT,  A GROUP OF PROGRAMMERS STUDYING THE  POTENTIAL OF COMPUTERS, DISCOVERED  THEIR ABILITY OF PERFORMING TWO OR  MORE TASKS SIMULTANEOUSLY.  BELL  LABS, TAKING NOTICE OF THIS DISCOVERY,  PROVIDED FUNDS FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENTAL  SCIENTISTS TO INVESTIGATE INTO THIS  NEW FRONTIER.  AFTER ABOUT 2 YEARS OF  DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH, THEY PRODUCED  AN OPERATING SYSTEM THEY CANLMD "UNIX".    SIXTIES TO CURRENT:  DURING THIS TIME  BELL SYSTEMS INSTALLED THE UNIX SYSTEM  TO PROVIDE THEIR COMPUTER OPERATORS  WITH THE ABILITY TO MULTITASK SO THAT  THEY COULD BECOME MORE PRODUCTIVE,  AND EFFICIENT.  ONE OF THE SYSTEMS THEY PUT ON THE UNIX SYSTEM WAS CALLED  "ELMOS". THROUGH ELMOS MANY TASKS (I.E. BILLING,AND INSTALLATION RECORDS) COULD  BE DONE BY MANY PEOPLE USING THE SAME  MAINFRAME.    NOTE: COSMOS IS ACCESSED THROUGH THE  ELMOS SYSTEM.    CURRENT:  TODAY, WITH THE DEVELOPMENT  OF MICRO COMPUTERS, SUCH MULTITASKING  CAN BE ACHIEVED BY A SCALED DOWN  VERSION OF UNIX (BUT JUST AS  POWERFUL).  MICROSOFT,SEEING THIS  DEVELOPMENT, OPTED TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN  UNIX LIKE SYSTEM FOR THE IBM LINE OF  PC/XT'S.  THEIR RESULT THEY CALLED  XENIX (PRONOUNCED ZEE-NICKS).  BOTH  UNIX AND XENIX CAN BE EASILY INSTALLED 

ON IBM PC'S AND OFFER THE SAME FUNCTION 

(JUST 2 DIFFERENT VENDORS). 

 

NOTE: DUE TO THE MANY DIFFERENT 

VERSIONS OF UNIX (BERKLEY UNIX, 

BELL SYSTEM III, AND SYSTEM V 

THE MOST POPULAR) MANY COMMANDS 

FOLLOWING MAY/MAY NOT WORK. I HAVE 

WRITTEN THEM IN SYSTEM V ROUTINES. 

UNIX/XENIX OPERATING SYSTEMS WILL 

BE CONSIDERED IDENTICAL SYSTEMS BELOW. 

 

HOW TO TELL IF/IF NOT YOU ARE ON A 

UNIX SYSTEM:  UNIX SYSTEMS ARE QUITE 

COMMON SYSTEMS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. 

THEIR SECURITY APPEARS AS SUCH: 

 

LOGIN;     (OR LOGIN;) 

PASSWORD: 

 

WHEN HACKING ON A UNIX SYSTEM IT IS 

BEST TO USE LOWERCASE BECAUSE THE UNIX 

SYSTEM COMMANDS ARE ALL DONE IN LOWER- 

CASE. 

LOGIN; IS A 1-8 CHARACTER FIELD. IT IS 

USUALLY THE NAME (I.E. JOE OR FRED) 

OF THE USER, OR INITIALS (I.E. J.JONES 

OR F.WILSON).  HINTS FOR LOGIN NAMES 

CAN BE FOUND TRASHING THE LOCATION OF 

THE DIAL-UP (USE YOUR CN/A TO FIND 

WHERE THE COMPUTER IS). 

PASSWORD: IS A 1-8 CHARACTER PASSWORD 

ASSIGNED BY THE SYSOP OR CHOSEN BY THE 

USER. 

      COMMON DEFAULT LOGINS 

   -------------------------- 

   LOGIN;       PASSWORD: 

   ROOT         ROOT,SYSTEM,ETC.. 

   SYS          SYS,SYSTEM 

   DAEMON       DAEMON 

   UUCP         UUCP 

   TTY          TTY 

   TEST         TEST 

   UNIX         UNIX 

   BIN          BIN 

   ADM          ADM 

   WHO          WHO 

   LEARN        LEARN 

   UUHOST       UUHOST 

   NUUCP        NUUCP 

 

IF YOU GUESS A LGIN NAME AND YOU ARE 

NOT ASKED FOR A PASSWORD, AND HAVE 

ACCESSED TO THE SYSTEM, THEN YOU HAVE 

WHAT IS KNOWN AS A NON-GIFTED ACCOUNT. 

IF YOU GUESS A CORRECT LOGIN AND PASS- 

WORD, THEN YOU HAVE A USER ACCOUNT. 

AND, IF YOU GUESS THE ROOT PASSWORD, 

THEN YOU HAVE A "SUPER-USER" ACCOUNT. 

ALL UNIX SYSTEMS HAVE THE FOLLOWING 

INSTALLED TO THEIR SYSTEM: 

ROOT, SYS, BIN, DAEMON, UUCP, ADM 

ONCE YOU ARE IN THE SYSTEM, YOU WILL 

GET A PROMPT. COMMON PROMPTS ARE: 

 

$ 

% 

# 

 

BUT CAN BE JUST ABOUT ANYTHING THE 

SYSOP OR USER WANTS IT TO BE. 

 

THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU ARE IN: SOME 

OF THE COMMANDS THAT YOU MAY WANT TO 

TRY FOLLOW BELOW: 

 

WHO IS ON  (SHOWS WHO IS CURRENTLY 

            LOGGED ON THE SYSTEM.) 

WRITE NAME (NAME IS THE PERSON YOU 

            WISH TO CHAT WITH) 

      TO EXIT CHAT MODE TRY CTRL-D. 

      EOT=END OF TRANSFER. 

LS -A      (LIST ALL FILES IN CURRENT 

            DIRECTORY.) 

DU -A      (CHECKS AMOUNT OF MEMORY 

            YOUR FILES USE;DISK USAGE) 

CD\NAME    (NAME IS THE NAME OF THE 

            SUB-DIRECTORY YOU CHOOSE) 

CD\        (BRINGS YOUR HOME DIRECTORY 

            TO CURRENT USE) 

CAT NAME   (NAME IS A FILENAME EITHER 

            A PROGRAM OR DOCUMENTATION 

            YOUR USERNAME HAS WRITTEN) 

      MOST UNIX PROGRAMS ARE WRITTEN 

      IN THE C LANGUAGE OR PASCAL 

      SINCE UNIX IS A PROGRAMMERS' 

      ENVIRONMENT. 

ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS DONE ON THE 

SYSTEM IS PRINT UP OR CAPTURE (IN A 

BUFFER) THE FILE CONTAINING ALL USER 

NAMES AND ACCOUNTS. THIS CAN BE DONE 

BY DOING THE FOLLOWING COMMAND: 

 

CAT /ETC/PASSWD 

 

IF YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL YOU WILL A LIST 

OF ALL ACCOUNTS ON THE SYSTEM.  IT 

SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS: 

 

ROOT:HVNSDCF:0:0:ROOT DIR:/: 

JOE:MAJDNFD:1:1:JOE COOL:/BIN:/BIN/JOE 

HAL::1:2:HAL SMITH:/BIN:/BIN/HAL 

 

THE "ROOT" LINE TELLS THE FOLLOWING 

INFO : 

LOGIN NAME=ROOT 

HVNSDCF   = ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 

0         = USER GROUP NUMBER 

0         = USER NUMBER 

ROOT DIR  = NAME OF USER 

/         = ROOT DIRECTORY 

 

IN THE JOE LOGIN, THE LAST PART 

"/BIN/JOE " TELLS US WHICH DIRECTORY 

IS HIS HOME DIRECTORY (JOE) IS. 

 

IN THE "HAL" EXAMPLE THE LOGIN NAME IS 

FOLLOWED BY 2 COLONS, THAT MEANS THAT 

THERE IS NO PASSWORD NEEDED TO GET IN 

USING HIS NAME. 

 

CONCLUSION:  I HOPE THAT THIS FILE 

WILL HELP OTHER NOVICE UNIX HACKERS 

OBTAIN ACCESS TO THE UNIX/XENIX 

SYSTEMS THAT THEY MAY FIND. THERE IS 

STILL WIDE GROWTH IN THE FUTURE OF 

UNIX, SO I HOPE USERS WILL NOT ABUSE 

ANY SYSTEMS (UNIX OR ANY OTHERS) THAT 

THEY MAY HAPPEN ACROSS ON THEIR 

JOURNEY ACROSS THE ELECTRONIC HIGHWAYS  OF AMERICA.  THERE IS MUCH MORE TO BE  LEARNED ABOUT THE UNIX SYSTEM THAT I  HAVE NOT COVERED.  THEY MAY BE FOUND  BY BUYING A BOOK ON THE UNIX SYSTEM  (HOW I LEARNED) OR IN THE FUTURE  I MAY WRITE A PART II TO THIS........   Downloaded from P-80 Systems......