dwhayden
join:2000-12-23
Greenwood, IN
| Idiot Hacker
Many years ago I discovered a security backdoor to my ISPs remote access server where I had gained full rights over the system. I made the decision to call the ISP instead of telling everyone else how to hack it. They hooked me up with the head engineer, and we worked together to plug the hole. The ISP was very grateful for the information, and gave me a year free access.
This stupid hacker took a security vulnerability, and made it much worse by publishing the how-to with passwords. The ISP was well within its rights to terminate this idiot's service. Hopefully charges will be filed against him for hacking since it's so obvious his motivation was not to protect the ISP and its subs, but to gain recognition. |
|
openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
 ·AT&T Southeast
| said by dwhayden  :I made the decision to call the ISP instead of telling everyone else how to hack it. This is generally the "socially accepted" avenue to taken by white hats and in general, better for the overall community than telling the whole world about the vulnerabilities. What this guy did is more black hat and he does deserve the consequences. Now if you had received little or no response from your ISP regarding the situation, the area becomes a little more grey, and usually you'll see the vulnerabilities published in an attempt to 'force' a response. |
|
gworkman7
join:2005-10-18
Vail, AZ | User: Admin
Pass: 1234
Not very secure, but that was how my ISP was shipping their modems a couple of years back. They were counting on self-installers to change the password when they got the modems. |
|
openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
·AT&T Southeast
| And both you and your ISP knew about this insecurity. Same practice as almost every networking device sold. It's not the same as looking for, or discovering a "vulnerability" and then contacting the responsible party for a fix...or worse yet, posting it on the net for potential malicious activity. |
|
snatman
join:2003-02-22
Virginia, MN | reply to gworkman7
"12345! Amazing, I got the same combination on my luggage!" /Spaceballs |
|
