Hi all,
I played with some idiot today who made a custom tank name to insult me, then he proceeded to talk trash to me the entire game.... He clearly has issues with women and was about as vile as possible. ANYWAY, at one point he told me that he has my IP from having played on his private TT server and he told me that he has already copied some files from my machine and will be posting them here soon.

I don't really believe that he had (or could) do that since I am fairly well protected, but his comments did make me wonder....

Could you hack into a machine just by having an IP address? I realize that to some of you, that will seem like a childish question, but I have no idea how that stuff works.

Could someone who has your IP address gain access to your machine and your files?
I am using Mac OSX, I play through a router which has a basic firewall, and I have sharing off in preferences. Could I be relatively easily attacked?

Thanks,
Katherine

No, though bolo will momentarily disagree.

Its tough to hack a mac...but it can be done

B

Thanks for the link flea.
I checked it out and was told I am bullet proof.

Katherine

I have sent an e-mail looking for this person, and have request the Admin group ban them for thier actions, as well as the insulting name choice.

Napalm

Well, here is a little known fact about OS X and macs....

Go to a terminal window, and type: (not for the very faint of heart, but not dangerous, as long as you remember your login name and password)

Sudo sudo cac_setup

[type your root password]

Log out of your mac (you might get an initial surprise...but wait!) and then log back in using your username.

Surprised?

( What you see here is essentailly a Department of Defense Security & ownership warning showing that your machine belongs to the DoD.. )

This is embedded into the Mach Kernel of the OS and is there because OS X's implementation of UNIX is DoD grade security out of the box.

To turn it off, go to a Terminal window and type:

Sudo su cac_setup -off

Macs are not impossible to hack, but the chances of someone remotely attacking your machine through your IP address is at just that.. Remote.

Sleep soundly.

Sniper

Last edited: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 11:17:47 PM

The more services that you "serve" to the web, then the more doors the hacker has available to hack. The only exception was when WIndows XP was first released, it had a massive security hole that allowed a person to hack in even if the machine wasn't running internet services. That hole was quickly plugged, though.

OS X is solid if you are smart with it. For instance, do NOT turn on the "FTP" service. FTP sends your password in the clear. With your IP address, he could sniff for the next time you remotely access your machine with FTP, and then be able to log in himself. Using SSH (which also enables SFTP) is much better, as the encryption is nearly bullet-proof if you've been keeping up with your updates.

The web-server, if you are just hosting standard HTML or XHTML files, is pretty bullet-proof. However, if you are serving Java apps or CGI apps, then those may have a potential security hole. It depends on the app, though.

Frankly, the guy sounds like he's talking out of his butt. Even with your IP address, it would take him some serious time to get in even if you were running FTP and accessing it multiple times. I wouldn't worry about it.

- Bomb…James Bomb

The mental image of that always makes me giggle.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Katherine

I doubt he could just someone movin thier mouth to be herd..
-sl

I use a wireless router, so my IP address is safe, right?
Yes?
Yay! Now I can tick off all the people I want and not get banned! Lol jk X/

Hi K8
The admin circle is all over this guy
The hunt is on!!!
And I am asking those in the circle to include you on all servers as an admin
If he shows his ugly head you can pop him yourself
an email form me is forthcoming
Nobody messes with my friends!
Roo

Last edited: Monday, January 17, 2005 at 3:08:55 PM

As a general rule of thumb a persons hacking ability is inversely proportional to how much they spray about hacking

Last edited: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 9:32:57 AM

Absolutely

Dash doesnt know anything....me neither

B

THANKS ROO!!!!!

Anyone know of some sites I could peruse to educate myself on the subject? I have no desire to hack, but knowing how to protect yourself from hackers is good, besides "Install this program", and being better educated on a subject is almost never a bad thing.

But for some reason I don't particularly want to type "How to Hack Computers" into a search engine... ;)

LOL TMO,
You do that search and instantly your front door is being bashed in, you get dragged off to jail and made a public example of....

Next thing you know, you actually enjoy being in jail and your new "best friend" Bubba starts talking about marrying you when the two of you get out of jail... The shocking part is, it starts to sound good to you... After all (you think to yourself), in the right light, he looks kinda pretty.

(For those of you who have NO idea why I chose to write all of this.... I have no idea either....)

Katherine
XD

Last edited: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 6:54:43 AM

I know you know this TMO, but starting at the mother ship first is always so obvious it's overlooked.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/security/

Why would I want to look at Mac security? I run a PC. B)

I was just asking about the topic in general, not on Macs specifically.

Last edited: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 8:42:23 AM

You'll find more information in newsgroups than on the internet. Frankly, asking about hacking is like asking about Math. It is a huge and varied subject that is hard to generalize. Try to generally describe finite mathaematics sometime. How about Matrix reductions and what they are used for? What specifically do you want to learn about for hacking? Phreaking? SSH security holes? Trojans? Javascript exploits?

There are two kinds of people who know much about hacking:
1. The type who learned it because the had too much time on their hands and were up to no good. To this day, they cause mischief, mayhem, and like to occasionally brag about it.
2. The type who learned it because the had too much time on their hands and were up to no good. However, something changed their direction in life. ;)

- Bomb…James Bomb

And folks like me, the terminally curious... ;)

I Am.... Curious TMO

Last edited: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 11:46:28 AM

Oh, I wouldn't worry about that TMO. Go ahead and type in your search for hacking… just make sure you're on a neighbor or co-workers computer when you do it. Simple. ;)

And if you're still insecure, switch to FireFox.

Jb:

I dont know bout that.....as a techie I always despised and tried to stay ignorant of the subject....i mean who would want to do these things??? Much like bank robbing....dont wanna try that either...

However during my education I was forced to learn the basics and it intrigued me....never thought I would use it in development....

Then as a techie for some companies I worked for....turns out I learned even more to do my job....

I dont really care if people know that I am knowledgable...im not gonna get stupid with it

...now I hope I never have to learn diversion and scare tactics...

:)

B