DeAuthThis IS Back!
I am bringing back DeAuthThis my old IPTV Show.
The blog is being moved back over there.... Check it out
http://deauththis.com and just click the Blog link for my usual postings.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Friday, July 20, 2012
UHF TV (Hacker Entertainment)
A new Roku channel has been publicly released!
http://urbanhackerfilms.com
https://owner.roku.com/add/UHFTV
UHF TV or "Urban Hacker Films" is a new Roku channel I've been working on for the better part of 3-4 months. I've been working for some time to get this thing just right and while I'm 100% satisfied with the look of the channel, it is functional.
So far it seems to be well received, please let me know what you think.
http://urbanhackerfilms.com
https://owner.roku.com/add/UHFTV
UHF TV or "Urban Hacker Films" is a new Roku channel I've been working on for the better part of 3-4 months. I've been working for some time to get this thing just right and while I'm 100% satisfied with the look of the channel, it is functional.
So far it seems to be well received, please let me know what you think.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I'm a Licensed (Technician) Amateur Radio Operator!
I recently attended a local ham club meeting, I had been studying to take my general exam in about a month but luckily for me it just so happened that 3 VEs were in fact members of the club!
And so I was allowed to take my tech exam while I was there and passed with with flying colors (insert nann cat here)
I'll keep you posted but the fun of SDRs, Amateur Radio in the 70cm/2m band and much more is about to ensue.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Hacker Movies | They All Suck
I've seen time in and time again people make reviews about hacker movies and so on.
What I don't get is that 90% of these reviews are by people who have no ties to the hacking community can have no idea what they're talking about.
While I'm no programmer, or hardware designer I have the mentality of a hacker and very much so consider myself one. In the terms of how I think and what I enjoy doing, While I don't often create something fresh/new I am certainly not a malicious cracker.
The issue I have with all of these reviews is that first off, nobody goes into documentaries or older films, not to mention these people don't actually have an understanding or grasp of what is possible.
So I give you my review from the standpoint of a "hacker"
War Games
This was quite an interesting film, it starts out with a kid "war dialing" I loved seeing this as war dialing is very much real and while its not done much these days it was a great way to find dial-up servers and bbs's (think of them as the forum's of today) However war games realistic sense completely dies from there out. They go on continuously about a computer "W.O.P.R" which somehow has AI that can communicate with the kid and magically hack into war heads and launch missiles.. what?
Final Grade: F+
Pump up The Volume
While not directly a hacking movie, it revolves around a teenage who starts broadcasting via his own radio transmitter using a modified HAM. This is of course quite possibly done depending on what station he actually was broadcasting on, my assumption based on what I don know about ham radio is that is was broadcasting on the AM frequencies. This is pretty much the only "hacker"-isk thing that goes on in the film. I think if you truly understand the hacker culture and enjoy learning about different technology then this film should interest you. It's all about pirate radio and it revolves around something that is quite easily done today.
Final Grade: A
Take Down
I have some major gripes about this film, the thing that kills me about it is the fact that the story it is based upon is false. You see Kevin Mitnick was sentenced without a trial in fact had not even tried at the time the film was created. 80% or so of the crime that Kevin was convicted and charged with, he never even committed.
While many things in the film are not possible in the way they were shown other aspects were and are still today quite possible.
In the movie Kevin steals the source code to a cell phone the would allow him to spy on agents around him, this actually did happen and more-so with new advances this is still possible today. GSM the technology behind nearly 85% or so of our phones around the world has been 100% cracked and anyone with a budget of as little as $20 up to about $1000 can easily by-pass the encryption on your phone and steal your information. (I should know, I've done it. With my own equipment against myself)
Social Engineering is the most significant part of this film and its where Kevin really shines, Social Engineering is basically the stipulation of someone to get what you want, Kevin didn't need skills to hack into a corporation, or at least, not technical skills. All Kevin had to do was call in and pretend to be an employee, eventually he'd manage to get the level of access required to achieve or attain whatever it was he wanted.
Final Grade: C+ (While alot was true this movie fucked over Kevin and destroyed his reputation making him look like a horrible person, that he was not)
Tron
Final Grade: F-
Anti-Trust
Good 'ol Anti-Trust, this was the first "hacker" film I had ever watched, the first thing you think off when you see the intro is that the film must be about Microsoft. Certainly that was the intention.
I love the quote in the beginning of the film.
"This businesses is binary, your a one or a zero, alive, or dead!"
For those who do not understand binary, it is a number system vary similar to our own 0-9 system, however binary only has two characters 0-1. This is the system that computers and all digital devices use to communicate with another, even dvd's use this format. A smooth area of the disc is a 0 where a pit that reflects off the disc is a 1, these 0s and 1s make up data either numerical or alphabetical.
Binary has two states, on or off, 1 or 0, alive or dead!
All of the hacking, spying, satellite take-over stuff is just 100% bullshit and pure science fiction.
Final Grade: D+
Hackers (1995)
This film has two parts in my mind.
When you get to the hacking nature of the film its certainly bs, I mean the 3d flying around shit is just that, shit!
However the film does have some nice aspects to it.
Phone phreaking is used in part of the film to make a free phone call, sadly while this could be done back in the day its bull shit in this film because the tone used was not the correct quarter tone that should have been used. They used a DTMF tone which probably dials some random phone number. I've not bothered to decode the number that it cor-responds to.
Dumpster diving! Always great, and always fun, you can find alot of data in the trash and while the average good minded hacker doesn't have a reason to do this a cracker or malicious user certainly does. One mans trash is another mans treasure, or this case crackers treasure.
Final Grade: C-
Phone Booth
Phone Booth is another one of those movies that are not really hacking movies exactly.
This movie takes place in a phone booth where a sniper holds a man hostage to force the man to admit his sins to the world. There is a short hacking aspect in which the sniper/caller uses a device to scramble the call.
Assuming the scrambling device was on both ends of the call, which I will assume it was, this would work out perfectly fine and would in-fact keep the police from tapping the line at the phone boxes on the street. The sniper also call forwarded though another city, while not really a hacking matter it does show the mentality and I like that aspect of the film.
Again, while this is not your run of the mill hacking film, I think you'll enjoy it if you appreciate the hacker culture.
Final Grade: A
Other Films of Interest
I just wanted to leave you with a list of other films that might interest you
Pirates of Silicon Valley - The story of the creation of Apple and Microsoft
Pirate Radio USA - A B-Rate film about pirate radio, well worth the watch
History of Hacking - A documentary by Discovery Channel, shows real insight to phone phreaking and the nature of hacking and where is got its roots.
Home Grown Shows of Interest
Home-made shows you might be interested in
DeAuthThis - Hacker DIY show, for the beginners. Hardware/console hacking
HAK5 - Not as good as the first 3 seasons but tons of good hacking info
BSoD (Bastard sons of Dialup) - As far as I'm concerned, the KING of hacker shows! Cannot miss!
Obsoleet - A great show for those interested in older technology
What I don't get is that 90% of these reviews are by people who have no ties to the hacking community can have no idea what they're talking about.
While I'm no programmer, or hardware designer I have the mentality of a hacker and very much so consider myself one. In the terms of how I think and what I enjoy doing, While I don't often create something fresh/new I am certainly not a malicious cracker.
The issue I have with all of these reviews is that first off, nobody goes into documentaries or older films, not to mention these people don't actually have an understanding or grasp of what is possible.
So I give you my review from the standpoint of a "hacker"
War Games
This was quite an interesting film, it starts out with a kid "war dialing" I loved seeing this as war dialing is very much real and while its not done much these days it was a great way to find dial-up servers and bbs's (think of them as the forum's of today) However war games realistic sense completely dies from there out. They go on continuously about a computer "W.O.P.R" which somehow has AI that can communicate with the kid and magically hack into war heads and launch missiles.. what?
Final Grade: F+
Pump up The Volume
While not directly a hacking movie, it revolves around a teenage who starts broadcasting via his own radio transmitter using a modified HAM. This is of course quite possibly done depending on what station he actually was broadcasting on, my assumption based on what I don know about ham radio is that is was broadcasting on the AM frequencies. This is pretty much the only "hacker"-isk thing that goes on in the film. I think if you truly understand the hacker culture and enjoy learning about different technology then this film should interest you. It's all about pirate radio and it revolves around something that is quite easily done today.
Final Grade: A
Take Down
I have some major gripes about this film, the thing that kills me about it is the fact that the story it is based upon is false. You see Kevin Mitnick was sentenced without a trial in fact had not even tried at the time the film was created. 80% or so of the crime that Kevin was convicted and charged with, he never even committed.
While many things in the film are not possible in the way they were shown other aspects were and are still today quite possible.
In the movie Kevin steals the source code to a cell phone the would allow him to spy on agents around him, this actually did happen and more-so with new advances this is still possible today. GSM the technology behind nearly 85% or so of our phones around the world has been 100% cracked and anyone with a budget of as little as $20 up to about $1000 can easily by-pass the encryption on your phone and steal your information. (I should know, I've done it. With my own equipment against myself)
Social Engineering is the most significant part of this film and its where Kevin really shines, Social Engineering is basically the stipulation of someone to get what you want, Kevin didn't need skills to hack into a corporation, or at least, not technical skills. All Kevin had to do was call in and pretend to be an employee, eventually he'd manage to get the level of access required to achieve or attain whatever it was he wanted.
Final Grade: C+ (While alot was true this movie fucked over Kevin and destroyed his reputation making him look like a horrible person, that he was not)
Tron
Final Grade: F-
Anti-Trust
Good 'ol Anti-Trust, this was the first "hacker" film I had ever watched, the first thing you think off when you see the intro is that the film must be about Microsoft. Certainly that was the intention.
I love the quote in the beginning of the film.
"This businesses is binary, your a one or a zero, alive, or dead!"
For those who do not understand binary, it is a number system vary similar to our own 0-9 system, however binary only has two characters 0-1. This is the system that computers and all digital devices use to communicate with another, even dvd's use this format. A smooth area of the disc is a 0 where a pit that reflects off the disc is a 1, these 0s and 1s make up data either numerical or alphabetical.
Binary has two states, on or off, 1 or 0, alive or dead!
All of the hacking, spying, satellite take-over stuff is just 100% bullshit and pure science fiction.
Final Grade: D+
Hackers (1995)
This film has two parts in my mind.
When you get to the hacking nature of the film its certainly bs, I mean the 3d flying around shit is just that, shit!
However the film does have some nice aspects to it.
Phone phreaking is used in part of the film to make a free phone call, sadly while this could be done back in the day its bull shit in this film because the tone used was not the correct quarter tone that should have been used. They used a DTMF tone which probably dials some random phone number. I've not bothered to decode the number that it cor-responds to.
Dumpster diving! Always great, and always fun, you can find alot of data in the trash and while the average good minded hacker doesn't have a reason to do this a cracker or malicious user certainly does. One mans trash is another mans treasure, or this case crackers treasure.
Final Grade: C-
Phone Booth
Phone Booth is another one of those movies that are not really hacking movies exactly.
This movie takes place in a phone booth where a sniper holds a man hostage to force the man to admit his sins to the world. There is a short hacking aspect in which the sniper/caller uses a device to scramble the call.
Assuming the scrambling device was on both ends of the call, which I will assume it was, this would work out perfectly fine and would in-fact keep the police from tapping the line at the phone boxes on the street. The sniper also call forwarded though another city, while not really a hacking matter it does show the mentality and I like that aspect of the film.
Again, while this is not your run of the mill hacking film, I think you'll enjoy it if you appreciate the hacker culture.
Final Grade: A
Other Films of Interest
I just wanted to leave you with a list of other films that might interest you
Pirates of Silicon Valley - The story of the creation of Apple and Microsoft
Pirate Radio USA - A B-Rate film about pirate radio, well worth the watch
History of Hacking - A documentary by Discovery Channel, shows real insight to phone phreaking and the nature of hacking and where is got its roots.
Home Grown Shows of Interest
Home-made shows you might be interested in
DeAuthThis - Hacker DIY show, for the beginners. Hardware/console hacking
HAK5 - Not as good as the first 3 seasons but tons of good hacking info
BSoD (Bastard sons of Dialup) - As far as I'm concerned, the KING of hacker shows! Cannot miss!
Obsoleet - A great show for those interested in older technology
Friday, May 25, 2012
Switched To The Verizon iPhone
I bought the Motorola Milestone, this craptastic phone ran Android 2.1-1 and thanks to Alltel I couldn't upgrade it, I decided to do what any good hacker, geek, or just any'ol tech savvy person would do... I rooted it!
So after my root I was happy to have an Android 2.2.1 phone running a cyonagen mod rom. This increased stability ten fold and over-clocked my phone making it much easier to deal with, sadly I still faced many problems such as... Random reboots, dropped calls with great signal, unable to answer the phone, unable to make calls, force closing apps, lagging, and well.. I think you get the idea.
I'm a computer consultant and technician, I drive on-site when a client has an issue and so of course when you rely on the gps in your phone to get you there a 10 minute restart is a BAD THING!
I spent (or rather was stolen from) the amount of $500 to upgrade to the HTC Merge, this Android phone ran Android 2.3, I still didn't understand why they were locking updates. To anger me more I find that the phone sells brand new for only $150 from the manufacture but Alltel the little shits they are like to rape their customers and signed a contract with HTC to allow it to sell at their jacked up "retail" price.
After about 1 week I found myself in the same position, dropped calls, forced closing apps, random reboots, the list goes on.. And this is mind you without rooting the phone, the fucker was stock!
So what was I to do? The first thing was to say hell with Alltel.
I returned the phone and used the $500 to pay off my cancellation fee of $200 (wtf alltel) and switch to Verizon (I realize Verizon owns alltel, but my lord is their service better) I had to decide what phone to get, I looked at several Android based phones, none of which had the latest version of android on it, and none of them were up datable because again these companies like to fuck their customers, I found some really nice phones but also found tons of horrible reviews on their own site stating.... you guessed it.. Random reboots, forced closes, etc as the issue.
I also had memories of the Google TV (based on android of course) doing the same freaking thing within 1 hour of trying it out.... Honestly I don't know if its the fault of Google/Android for releasing faulty software, the poor development of this open source software onto different hardware or just the fake that most providers don't allow you to upgrade to the latest version because they want to fuck with it and limit you first.
As you may or may not know I've been a bit of an Apple hater for .... most of my life. I've always hated how the company acts the fact that everything they sell is propriety not following any standards to allow you to upgrade your hardware, you've always had to buy a new product to upgrade... Being a pc and linux user I of course love building my own computers, this was not the case with Apple.
I used to call iOS the idiotOperatingSystem, but there is always the argument that just because something is harder to use doesn't make it better or for "smarter people".
I basically got to the point that I pretty much hate the whole Android platform, I don't know if we're seeing how open source works in a commercial market or if the manufactures just don't know how to properly test anything anymore before release.
I knew when I switched I was going to miss things like widgets and all my customizability but in the first week I've had my iPhone, while I have found some things I don't care for in the way they work or function the fact was I needed a phone that "just worked" I needed a work phone for work use.
Since I've switched I've received better stability, a better work environment, and superior battery life. I am nothing but happy about my switch and even though it pains me to say it.. I've been an ass about Apple products and never bothered to look past the shortcommings to see how remarkable they're products are, even if I don't like how they operate their company.
I've actually considered buying an iMac and Macbook, and well, an Apple TV as well. While I don't ever intend to get rid of my 6.5TB power house of a pc (which actually... the i7 of the macs pretty much trump now) I would keep the machine basically for a NAS or something.. But honestly I'm loving my experience with Apple thus far and while I never thought I'd say it.. This is likely to be one of many Apple purchases I make in the future.
Monday, May 7, 2012
The Roku
Sadly I have to say I was pretty disappointed, the only thing they offered that I cared about was huluplus and pandora radio and while they were nice it was nothing new and of course if you've been with hulu for a while you know that alot of hulu's content goes missing when you pay for it and put it on a box unless your running it from hulu desktop (still my favorite way to do it).
What I didn't like about the Roku is its limited number of channels, they're was a poor selection and left alot to be desired especially for those in our area of interest. The beast I could find aside from the Revision3 channel was a privately offered DerbyCon channel that played... you guessed it.. DerbyCon videos.
This was a good start and my eyes lit up when I was a conference presentation begin playing on my Roku, this however just isn't enough content for me and if your in the interest area I am then I doubt you've found much interest in the service either.
So here comes the fun part. I have decided to develop my own roku channel, what that means is
A) More content for the Roku (alot more)
B) More content in our area of interest
C) An up-coming text (or video) tutorial on how to build a channel using OpenRokn (super easy) licensed with Apache 2.0 (loving it)
So I'm guessing that if your in the interest area A and B are a big deal, if you like doing things yourself perhaps C or even AB and C. Well I'm here to bring you more content.
Visit http://televisedbeta.com this is an old website of mine I created about a year ago, the idea was to fill in what Revision3 left out when they picked content for they're network, leaving out great shows like BSoD, Infinity Exists, Etc...
What you'll see on Televised Beta's website is just the beginning of the Roku channel which will keep an archive of the last 3 years of Defcon conferences, every show on the TVB database and so much more!
Server costs are going to be expensive, so I'd appreciate donations but... That link is for another time, perhaps once its released to the public..
You can find a preview on my youtube channel http://youtube.com/users/pspheaven
Friday, April 27, 2012
DECT 6.0 Live Intercept!
In germany laws prohibit listening in realtime and since the Devs were all primarily German or lived in the country they stopped any attempt to add this support to the DeDECTed project.
Once I had a card I was dying to get this live feature going, at first it was just a cool idea, but I had found out that a few people had it working back in '09 with the EU band, it was never published for the official DeDECTed project and so was released as a separate project. I posted on hak5 with a $50 bounty to merge this feature into the latest DeDECTed project release (a project which has been dead for about two years now) with about 2 days I had a reply from Sitwon who uploaded a complete copy of the software along with the full changes that I requested. On the first try it worked!
I didn't think it was working at first because the PP (handset) is encrypted but the FP (base station) is not (VTech phone) and so the channel I was listening on had nothing for me to hear... However when I ran the "direction" command, it switched over and I could hear loud and clear the audio from my phone with only about a 1~2 second lag!
I will be tossing him a bit more to add a few features to the tool set that will start the software in US DECT 6.0 mode and not EU (switching will still work) as well as listening on FP first.. and then switching over to PP, I'd like to see the ability to auto-switch as audio comes though....
He has not yet changed the menu but its an easy change... The new commands are as follows
direction - Switch side of audio your listening to in realtime (I'd like to see a "d' command as a shortcut)
autorec - Old feature, but now also does direct to .wav and real-time audio
audio - Will enable/disable real-time audio (I'd like to see this command changed to "realtime")
Feel free to download the modified version here: https://github.com/Sitwon/dedected
If you have issues just clean make && make both the com-on-air_cs-linux directory and the tools directory and you should be ok.. If not.. read the original installation docs here: http://www.backtrack-linux.org/wiki/index.php?title=DECT_Sniffing_Dedected&oldid=897
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