Beginners guide to Hacking UNIX

NOTE: Hacking is a illegal activity so don't try on anyone. this tutorial is Only for educational purpose. If you want to use this tutorial for miscellaneous purpose please stop reading.

Beginners guide to Hacking UNIX

 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 called "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 functions (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 login 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.

Legal Disclaimer : This tutorial is completely for educational purpose only. For any misuse of this tutorial by any means the author will not be held responsible.  

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