Hacking

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

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:

$

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