Hacking DEC's by the Jolly Roger

In this article you will learn how to log in to dec's, logging out, and all

the fun stuff to do in-between. All of this information is based on a

standard dec system.

Since there are dec systems 10 and 20, and I favor, the dec 20,

there will be more info on them in this article. It just so happens

that the dec 20 is also the more common of the two, and is used by much

more interesting people (if you know what I mean...) Ok, the first thing

you want to do when you are receiving carrier from a dec system is to find

out the format of login names. You can do this by looking at who is on the

system.

Dec=> ` (the 'exec' level prompt)

you=> sy

sy is short for sy(stat) and shows you the system status.

You should see the format of login names...

A systat usually comes up in this form:

job line program user

job: the job number (not important unless you want to log them off later)

line: what line they are on (used to talk to them...)

These are both two or three digit numbers.

Program: what program are they running under? If it says 'exec'

they aren't doing anything at all...

User: ahhhahhhh! This is the user name they are logged in under...

Copy the format, and hack yourself outa working code... Login format is as

such:

dec=> `

you=> login username password

username is the username in the format you saw above in the systat.

After you hit the space after your username, it will stop echoing

characters back to your screen. This is the password you are typing in...

Remember, people usually use their name, their dog's name, the name of a

favorite character in a book, or something like this. A few clever

people have it set to a key cluster (qwerty or asdfg). Pw's can be from 1

to 8 characters long, anything after that is ignored. You are finally in...

It would be nice to have a little help, wouldn't it? Just type a ? Or the

word help, and it will give you a whole list of topics...

Some handy characters for you to know would be the control keys,

wouldn't it? Backspace on a dec 20 is rub which is 255 on your ascii chart.

On the dec 10 it is cntrl-h. To abort a long listing or a program,

cntrl-c works fine. Use cntrl-o to stop long output to the terminal.

This is handy when playing a game, but you don't want to cntrl-c out.

Cntrl-t for the time. Cntrl-u will kill the whole line you are typing at

the moment. You may accidently run a program where the only way out is

a cntrl-x, so keep that in reserve. Cntrl-s to stop listing, cntrl-q to

continue on both systems. Is your terminal having trouble??

Like, it pauses for no reason, or it doesn't backspace right? This is

because both systems support many terminals, and you haven't told it what

yours is yet... You are using a vt05

so you need to tell it you are one.

Dec=> `

you=> information terminal

or...

You=> info

this shows you what your terminal is set up as...

Dec=>all sorts of shit, then the `

you=> set ter vt05 this sets your terminal

type to vt05.

Now let's see what is in the account (here after abbreviated acct.)

that you have hacked onto... Say

=> dir

short for directory, it shows

you what the user of the code has save to the disk. There should be a format

like this: xxxxx.Oooxxxxx is the file name, from 1 to 20 characters

long. Ooo is the file type, one of: exe, txt, dat, bas, cmd and a few

others that are system dependant.

Exe is a compiled program that can be run (just by typing its name at the `).

Txt is a text file, which you can see by

typing=>

type xxxxx.Txt

Do not try to=>

type xxxxx.Exe this is very bad for your terminal and will tell you

absolutly nothing.

Dat is data they have saved.

Bas is a basic program, you can have it typed out for you.

Cmd is a command type file, a little too

complicated to go into here.

Try =>

take xxxxx.Cmd

By the way, there are other users out there who may have files you can use

(gee, why else am I here?).

Type => dir <*.*> (Dec 20)

=> dir [*,*] (dec 10)

* is a wildcard, and will allow you to access the files on other accounts

if the user has it set for public access. If it isn't set for public access,

then you won't see it. To run that program:

dec=> `

you=> username program-name

username is the directory you saw the

file listed under, and file name was

what else but the file name?

** You are not alone **

remember, you said (at the very start) sy short for systat,

and how we said this showed the other users on the system? Well, you

can talk to them, or at least send a message to anyone you see listed in a

systat. You can do this by:

dec=> the user list (from your systat)

you=> talkusername (dec 20)

send username (dec 10)

talk allows you and them immediate transmission of whatever you/they type

to be sent to the other. Send only allow you one message to be sent, and

send, they will send back to you, with talk you can just keep going. By the

way, you may be noticing with the talk command that what you type is still

acted upon by the parser (control program). To avoid the constant error

messages type either:

you=> ;your message

you=> rem your message

the semi-colon tells the parser that what follows is just a comment. Rem

is short for 'remark' and ignores you from then on until you type a cntrl-z

or cntrl-c, at which point it puts you back in the exec mode. To break the

connection from a talk command type:

you=> break priv's:

if you happen to have privs, you can do all sorts of things.

First of all, you have to activate those privs.

You=> enable

this gives you a $ prompt, and allows you to do this:

whatever you can do to your own directory you can now do to any

other directory. To create a new acct. Using your privs, just type

=>build username

if username is old, you can edit it, if it is new, you can

define it to be whatever you wish. Privacy means nothing to a user with

privs. By the way, there are various levels of privs: operator, wheel,

cia.

wheel is the most powerful, being that he can log in from anywhere and

have his powers.

Operators have their power because they are at a special terminal

allowing them the privs. Cia is short for 'confidential information

access', which allows you a low level amount of privs.

Not to worry though, since you can read the system log file, which also

has the passwords to all the other accounts.

To de-activate your privs, type

you=> disable

when you have played your greedy heart out, you can finally leave the

system with the command=>

logout

this logs the job you are using off the system (there may be varients

of this such as kjob, or killjob).

----------------Exodus---------------