Sunday, August 22, 2010
Love and life
I wish everyone thinks you make mistakes when you’re young, but I don’t think we make any fewer when we’re grown up
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The Genuine Ethical Hacking
Legal Disclaimer:This article is intended for IT Professionals and systems administrators with experience servicing computer hardware. It is not intended for home users, hackers, or computer thieves attempting to crack the password on a stolen PC. Please do not attempt any of these procedures if you are unfamiliar with computer hardware, and please use this information responsibly. We are not responsible for the use or misuse of this material, including loss of data, damage to hardware, or personal injury.
Anonymizers and Remailers !! What n How
Clear BIOS Password, All tricks !
Hacking your School, College
How Not To Get Hacked
How to Break Into Email Accounts
More in Email Hacking
IP Address Hack, n all bt it !!
Ip Address Hack Contd
Pishing "Protect urself" Know What Hackers Do !
What Is Spy Pishing
Port Knocking
More On Port Knocking
Some Hacking Tools
Trojan Trojan !! What is it ?
Windows Password Loophole
Anonymizers and Remailers !! What n How
Clear BIOS Password, All tricks !
Hacking your School, College
How Not To Get Hacked
How to Break Into Email Accounts
More in Email Hacking
IP Address Hack, n all bt it !!
Ip Address Hack Contd
Pishing "Protect urself" Know What Hackers Do !
What Is Spy Pishing
Port Knocking
More On Port Knocking
Some Hacking Tools
Trojan Trojan !! What is it ?
Windows Password Loophole
Hacking Real World Systems
Seeing this post on Hacker News reminded me of a great story I should have blogged here long ago. The post is in reference to a question on Y Combinator’s latest application form, which is
“Please tell us about the time you (…) most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage”
Wow, I could write a book on these, as that’s pretty much my one true passion in life, but I’ll give you my favorite. Once upon a time, back when I was a regular player on PartyPoker, they rolled out a new promotion called PartyPoints. The deal was that you got frequent player points (FPP) for certain stuff and could use those to buy things from the FPP store.
Their FPP program was a blatant rip off of PokerStars, who had implemented their own VIP program maybe a year or so earlier. Both gave you points for hands played, tournament buy-ins, etc., but with one major difference. PartyPoker also gave you points whenever you deposited money into your account. The best point to dollar deposited ratio was achieved by depositing $500. You had to deposit the money, wait a week, and then the FPPs were credited.
Their cashier system was web-based and poorly designed, so I noticed right away that you could make one deposit and then just keep hitting refresh to deposit again and again. I made a simple AutoHotKey script to refresh the page over and over at a 30 second interval for a preset number of times depending on how many dollars were in my Neteller account. At one point the number of refreshes was over 100, and they all worked. I’d just start the script and go to dinner or shopping or whatever, and when I got back it would be done. I’d then go about my normal playing for a week, cash it all out as soon as my FPP balance spiked, and repeat.
For a long time their store had nothing but t-shirts and other such junk, so I just held on to the points, assuming that one day they’d mimic PokerStars again and add something worthwhile to the store. Sure enough, they eventually added all sorts of electronics and other assorted goods. I did a quick check on eBay to see which of the items had the highest resale value per FPP and discovered that it was the video games, which was extraordinarily fortunate because eBay has an awesome listing system for them, in which you simply input the ISBN number and it fills out the whole page for you. And they’re the easiest thing imaginable to ship, you just slap them in a bubble mailer and print out a media mail postage label.
I made about 100% ROI in 6 months on a pretty good sum, and got a nice eBay rating in the process. And the best part of the whole story is that Neteller, the service I deposited through, charges large poker sites something like 10% of the transaction as their fee, meaning PartyPoker was eating thousands in cashier fees every week and giving me massive FPPs while getting no extra profit out of me whatsoever. Actually it was probably less, as I couldn’t play while doing the refreshes or waiting for cash-outs to hit my Neteller account.
I don’t know if anyone else ever figured that one out. I never blogged about it or posted it in any forum for fear someone at Party would catch on, and if any other players did spot that particular hack, they were smart enough not to mention it publicly too. Eventually Party removed the deposit bonus and changed the program around a bit. I’m still not sure if it was just a general tightening of the purse strings or if someone had caught on. But it was awesome while it lasted. I still have a PSP (that I’ve only used maybe twice) with a ton of games, an iPod Nano, a poker table, a ton of shirts, some poker books, an entire wardrobe emblazoned with the PartyPoker logo, a kick ass cigar cutter, lighter and travel humidor, business card holder, flask, bar tool set, year’s subscription to 10 different magazines, and I can’t even remember what else to show for it.
“Please tell us about the time you (…) most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage”
Wow, I could write a book on these, as that’s pretty much my one true passion in life, but I’ll give you my favorite. Once upon a time, back when I was a regular player on PartyPoker, they rolled out a new promotion called PartyPoints. The deal was that you got frequent player points (FPP) for certain stuff and could use those to buy things from the FPP store.
Their FPP program was a blatant rip off of PokerStars, who had implemented their own VIP program maybe a year or so earlier. Both gave you points for hands played, tournament buy-ins, etc., but with one major difference. PartyPoker also gave you points whenever you deposited money into your account. The best point to dollar deposited ratio was achieved by depositing $500. You had to deposit the money, wait a week, and then the FPPs were credited.
Their cashier system was web-based and poorly designed, so I noticed right away that you could make one deposit and then just keep hitting refresh to deposit again and again. I made a simple AutoHotKey script to refresh the page over and over at a 30 second interval for a preset number of times depending on how many dollars were in my Neteller account. At one point the number of refreshes was over 100, and they all worked. I’d just start the script and go to dinner or shopping or whatever, and when I got back it would be done. I’d then go about my normal playing for a week, cash it all out as soon as my FPP balance spiked, and repeat.
For a long time their store had nothing but t-shirts and other such junk, so I just held on to the points, assuming that one day they’d mimic PokerStars again and add something worthwhile to the store. Sure enough, they eventually added all sorts of electronics and other assorted goods. I did a quick check on eBay to see which of the items had the highest resale value per FPP and discovered that it was the video games, which was extraordinarily fortunate because eBay has an awesome listing system for them, in which you simply input the ISBN number and it fills out the whole page for you. And they’re the easiest thing imaginable to ship, you just slap them in a bubble mailer and print out a media mail postage label.
I made about 100% ROI in 6 months on a pretty good sum, and got a nice eBay rating in the process. And the best part of the whole story is that Neteller, the service I deposited through, charges large poker sites something like 10% of the transaction as their fee, meaning PartyPoker was eating thousands in cashier fees every week and giving me massive FPPs while getting no extra profit out of me whatsoever. Actually it was probably less, as I couldn’t play while doing the refreshes or waiting for cash-outs to hit my Neteller account.
I don’t know if anyone else ever figured that one out. I never blogged about it or posted it in any forum for fear someone at Party would catch on, and if any other players did spot that particular hack, they were smart enough not to mention it publicly too. Eventually Party removed the deposit bonus and changed the program around a bit. I’m still not sure if it was just a general tightening of the purse strings or if someone had caught on. But it was awesome while it lasted. I still have a PSP (that I’ve only used maybe twice) with a ton of games, an iPod Nano, a poker table, a ton of shirts, some poker books, an entire wardrobe emblazoned with the PartyPoker logo, a kick ass cigar cutter, lighter and travel humidor, business card holder, flask, bar tool set, year’s subscription to 10 different magazines, and I can’t even remember what else to show for it.
Hacking hestory
In the 2000s, a "hack" refers to a clever, quick fix to a computer program problem, and a hacker is a person who does this. The term was first used by US university computing center staff in the mid-1960s. The context determined whether the complimentary or derogatory meanings were implied. Phrases such as "ugly hack" or "quick hack" generally referred to the latter meaning; phrases such as "cool hack" or "neat hack", to the former. In modern computer programming, a "hack" can refer to a solution or method which functions correctly but which is "ugly" in its concept, which works outside the accepted structures and norms of the environment, or which is not easily extendable or maintainable (see kludge). The jargon used by hackers is called Hackish (see the Jargon file). This should not be confused with "1337" or "leetspeak."
In a similar vein, a "hack" may refer to works outside of computer programming. For example, a math hack means a clever solution to a mathematical problem. The GNU General Public License has been described as[who?] a copyright hack because it cleverly uses the copyright laws for a purpose the lawmakers did not foresee. All of these uses now also seem to be spreading beyond MIT as well.
The term has since acquired an additional and now more common meaning, since approximately the 1980s; this more modern definition was initially associated with crackers. This growing use of the term "hack" is to refer to a program that (sometimes illegally) modifies another program, often a computer game, giving the user access to features otherwise inaccessible to them. As an example of this use, for Palm OS users (until the 4th iteration of this operating system), a "hack" refers to an extension of the operating system which provides additional functionality. The general media also uses this term to describe the act of illegally breaking into a computer, but this meaning is disputed.
The term is additionally used by electronics hobbyists to refer to simple modifications to electronic hardware such as a graphing calculators, video game consoles, electronic musical keyboards or other device (see CueCat for a notorious example) to expose or add functionality to a device that was unintended for use by end users by the company who created it. A number of techno musicians have modified 1980s-era Casio SK-1 sampling keyboards to create unusual sounds by doing circuit bending: connecting wires to different leads of the integrated circuit chips. The results of these DIY experiments range from opening up previously inaccessible features that were part of the chip design to producing the strange, disharmonic digital tones that became part of the techno music style.
A DIY musician probes the circuit board of a synthesizer for "bends" using a jeweler's screwdriver and alligator clips
While it is generally accepted as a way of creating additional markets for such devices (and software as well), companies take different attitudes towards such practices, ranging from open acceptance (such as Texas Instruments for its graphing calculators and Lego for its Lego Mindstorms robotics gear) to outright hostility (such as Microsoft's attempts to lock out Xbox hackers or the DRM routines on Blu-ray Disc players designed to sabotage compromised players).
In a similar vein, a "hack" may refer to works outside of computer programming. For example, a math hack means a clever solution to a mathematical problem. The GNU General Public License has been described as[who?] a copyright hack because it cleverly uses the copyright laws for a purpose the lawmakers did not foresee. All of these uses now also seem to be spreading beyond MIT as well.
The term has since acquired an additional and now more common meaning, since approximately the 1980s; this more modern definition was initially associated with crackers. This growing use of the term "hack" is to refer to a program that (sometimes illegally) modifies another program, often a computer game, giving the user access to features otherwise inaccessible to them. As an example of this use, for Palm OS users (until the 4th iteration of this operating system), a "hack" refers to an extension of the operating system which provides additional functionality. The general media also uses this term to describe the act of illegally breaking into a computer, but this meaning is disputed.
The term is additionally used by electronics hobbyists to refer to simple modifications to electronic hardware such as a graphing calculators, video game consoles, electronic musical keyboards or other device (see CueCat for a notorious example) to expose or add functionality to a device that was unintended for use by end users by the company who created it. A number of techno musicians have modified 1980s-era Casio SK-1 sampling keyboards to create unusual sounds by doing circuit bending: connecting wires to different leads of the integrated circuit chips. The results of these DIY experiments range from opening up previously inaccessible features that were part of the chip design to producing the strange, disharmonic digital tones that became part of the techno music style.
A DIY musician probes the circuit board of a synthesizer for "bends" using a jeweler's screwdriver and alligator clips
While it is generally accepted as a way of creating additional markets for such devices (and software as well), companies take different attitudes towards such practices, ranging from open acceptance (such as Texas Instruments for its graphing calculators and Lego for its Lego Mindstorms robotics gear) to outright hostility (such as Microsoft's attempts to lock out Xbox hackers or the DRM routines on Blu-ray Disc players designed to sabotage compromised players).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)