Linux-Misc Digest #508, Volume #25 Sun, 20 Aug 00 19:13:02 EDT
Contents:
Re: WARNING: Somebody is trojaning UseNet with Perl Script. ("Andrew N. McGuire ")
Re: Reality Check - NY Times Article (Stewart Honsberger)
Some weird xterm behaviour! ("Andrew N. McGuire ")
Re: burnt iso image (Bob Martin)
Re: LILO re-install question (Juergen Neuhoff)
Re: Upgrading an enternal USR Courier V.Everything *without* MS-Windows... (Bob
Martin)
Re: Severe booting / filesystem problem ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Installing 2nd hard disk ("Peter T. Breuer")
Re: Some weird xterm behaviour! ("Andrew N. McGuire ")
Re: Installing 2nd hard disk ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crossposted-To:
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.d,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.security
From: "Andrew N. McGuire " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: WARNING: Somebody is trojaning UseNet with Perl Script.
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 16:12:22 -0500
On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, Andrew N. McGuire quoth:
~~ Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 15:58:10 -0500
~~ From: Andrew N. McGuire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~ Newsgroups: alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.d, comp.os.linux.setup,
~~ comp.os.linux.networking, comp.os.linux.security, comp.os.linux.misc
~~ Subject: Re: WARNING: Somebody is trojaning UseNet with Perl Script.
~~
~~ On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, NuQ quoth:
~~
~~ ~~ Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 15:23:24 -0500
~~ ~~ From: NuQ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~ ~~ Newsgroups: alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.d, comp.os.linux.setup,
~~ ~~ comp.os.linux.networking, comp.os.linux.security, comp.os.linux.misc
~~ ~~ Subject: Re: WARNING: Somebody is trojaning UseNet with Perl Script.
~~ ~~
~~ ~~ x-no-archive: yes
~~ ~~ "blowfish" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
~~ ~~ news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
~~ ~~ > "Andrew N. McGuire" wrote:
~~ ~~ > >
~~ ~~ > > On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, blowfish (Alex Lam) quoth:
~~ ~~ > >
~~ ~~ > > ~~ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 20:54:05 -0700
~~ ~~ > > ~~ From: "blowfish (Alex Lam)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~ ~~ > > ~~ Reply-To: ..
~~ ~~ > > ~~ Newsgroups: alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.d, comp.os.linux.setup,
~~ ~~ > > ~~ omp.os.linux.networking, comp.os.linux.security,
~~ ~~ comp.os.linux.misc
~~ ~~ > > ~~ Subject: Re: WARNING: Somebody is trojaning UseNet with Perl Script.
~~ ~~ > > ~~
~~ ~~ > >
~~ ~~ > > [ snip post, again ]
~~ ~~ > >
~~ ~~ > > Sorry for the second reply, but I have looked through the Perl
~~ ~~ > > script that is a supposed 'Trojan'. It is not a Trojan Horse, it
~~ ~~ > > looked like familiar bad code, and it was. It is a 3 line RSA
~~ ~~ > > encryption program written in Perl. It is also broken and pretty
~~ ~~ > > much about the worst code I have ever seen (that is taking into
~~ ~~ > > account the fact that it is obfuscated as well). In other words,
~~ ~~ > > there is no reason to fear that Perl snippet, and you have just
~~ ~~ > > wasted a tremendous amount of bandwidth.
~~ ~~ > >
~~ ~~ > > anm
~~ ~~ > > --
~~ ~~ > >
~~ ~~ > It's bad code all right. But it did try to install a "new" KDE on my
~~ ~~ > machine.
~~ ~~ >
~~ ~~ > Yes, it even pops up a new window asking me if I wanted to proceed?
~~ ~~ >
~~ ~~
~~ ~~ So it only affects Linux users? Heheh ;-)
~~
~~ [anm@hawk ~] cat rsa.pl [pts/2]
~~ #!/usr/bin/perl -sp0777i<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj
~~ $/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1
~~ lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)
~~
~~ Is the code you are talking about, right? This is not a Trojan,
~~ it will not ask you if you want to install a new KDE! As a matter
~~ of fact, put it into a file, and run it on another text file.
~~
~~ [anm@hawk ~] ./rsa.pl file [pts/2]
~~ Can't rename file to <X+dfilelMLa^filelN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj: \
~~ No such file or directory, skipping file.
OK, I looked at this thing some more, and found some docs on it.
The usage is:
rsa.pl -k=public-key -n=rsa-modulus < file > msg.rsa
That is from the full commented version, found at:
http://www.cypherspace.org/~adam/rsa/story2.html
Still a silly program, I guess the only reason that they obfuscated
it so much, is to condense it into a signature size file, as it is
supposedly illegal to export this program out of the U.S.. Still from
my perspective, there should never be a reason to obfuscate a program
that much, unless of course you are in an obfuscation contest, or
writing JAPH's. This is the last bit of bandwidth and time I am
willing to waste on this topic.
Regards,
anm
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Andrew N. McGuire ~
~ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~
~ "Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow." - Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Stewart Honsberger)
Subject: Re: Reality Check - NY Times Article
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 21:14:42 GMT
On Sun, 20 Aug 2000 20:10:20 GMT, sfcybear wrote:
>and just what does Wall Street really know about technology?
Absolutely nothing. Picking some nits, I've found a few glaring errors in
the quoted article. Vis;
>> and Mr. Torvalds has been replaced as a media favorite by Napster's
>> founder, Shawn Fanning, the latest technologist viewed as most likely
>> to wreak havoc on traditional businesses.
Where, exactly, is the correlation between Linux threatening Microsoft
and MP3 distribution threatening the RIAA's pocketbook?
>> But a key problem remains: Wall Street is not buying the Linux pitch.
Wall Street don't control big servers, nor do they have any power over the
Internet or the average home user. When choosing a server solution for my
business, I'd sooner check the technological specifications of the product
than the stock value(s).
>> That presents two caution flags for the average investor: What is
>>holding Wall Street back, and how far can Linux companies go without
>>institutional support?
As far as it's come to date. Linux has never needed "institutional
support", nor will it ever.
>> But only 24 out of several thousand mutual funds now hold the stock,
>> according to Morningstar Inc., while 35 hold Red Hat, the North
>> Carolina company that sells Linux-related applications.
"Linux-related applications"? Did these guys do any background research?
Red Hat inc. has been a Linux Distribution producer for as long as I can
remember. The only "applications" they may be thinking Red Hat is selling
are those included in their distros according to the GPL.
>> 132, while Brocade Communications, which makes the switches used in
>> computer networks, has 213.
"the switches"?
What sort of journalist wrote this? Obviously not somebody who did well
in their English courses. The phrase "the switches" indicates a degree of
monopolistic control of the industry. Not even close to being true, as
there are no switch/router manufacturers out there who can even hold a
candle to Cisco Systems' annual sales.
>> To date, Linux has made its strongest impact in the market for servers,
>> the powerful computers that drive technology networks. But Mr. Hurley
>> said he believes that the chiefs of technology departments at many large
>> companies are hesitant to take a chance on Linux.
>>
>> "You don't get paid to be a hero," Mr. Hurley said. "You get paid to
>> make sure that things don't break, and when they do break, you can fix them
>> instantly."
What does an investment firm employee know about servers? He can "believe"
whatever he wants, but as long as he sticks to dollars and cents he'll be
alright.
>> VA Linux, in its quarter ended April 28, had $34.6 million in revenue,
>> up 71 percent from the previous quarter and 710 percent from the
>> comparable period a year earlier, but still lost 23 cents a share.
>> The brisk revenue growth has not been enough to convince more than a
>> couple dozen fund managers that the company is worth a $1.7 billion
>> market capitalization.
This goes to show that stock prices are set by those who buy and sell them,
not by the company's performance.
The fact that Linux companies are still profitable is all the indication
that I need. I don't care that their stocks are losing money; that just
means that a lot of investors are buying into this negative propaganda
and dumping their shares, thus creating a negative supply:demand ratio
which is causing the decline in stock prices.
Wall Street brokers can stay there. I have no need for them in my personnal
or professional life, thankyouverymuch.
--
Stewart Honsberger (AKA Blackdeath) @ http://tinys.cx/blackdeath
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Remove 'thirteen' to reply privately)
Humming along under SuSE 6.4, Linux 2.4.0-test6
------------------------------
From: "Andrew N. McGuire " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Some weird xterm behaviour!
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 17:02:30 -0500
Thought someone might find this interesting:
I brought up an xterm, ssh'ed into a remote machine running
Solaris, and by-accidentally cat'ed a gzipped PDF file. Well
I'll be darned, but this causes my machine to start spooling
print requests!! The funny thing is it is reproducable, you
can do it catting almost any binary. Once it is done screwing
up your terminal, exit the remote session and do an lpq, you
may see jobs queued for no apparent reason.
You will see messages such as this on the console if you aren't
running the print daemon:
lpr: connect: Connection refused
jobs queued, but cannot start daemon.
Of course you can unqueue the jobs with something like:
perl -e 'print "$_\n" for 24..29' | xargs lprm
to remove jobs 24-29.
Anyways, I am just wondering if anyone else can reproduce this,
and would this be considered a bug? I am using Slackware 7.1, and
xterm -version yields:
XFree86 3.3.3.1b(88b)
Regards,
anm
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Andrew N. McGuire ~
~ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~
~ "Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow." - Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
From: Bob Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: burnt iso image
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 17:02:01 -0500
Ian Mortimer wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Having a bit of trouble with a SuSE 6.4 iso.
>
> I downloaded the file and burnt it to a (new) CD-RW using Adaptec EasyCD
> (using the "Create CD using image" option) on an NT box - the test and
> write went fine but I can't seem to mount it.
>
> NT reported that the CD contained 647Mb and the CD Icon had the SuSE
> text label but it couldn't read it / open it. My Linux box won't mount
> it at all:
>
> root@pent133:/home/ian > mount -r -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /cdrom
> mount: No medium found
> root@pent133:/home/ian >
>
> Have I just got a bad CD or am I doing something wrong ?
>
> Rgds,
>
> Ian.
All CDroms are not the same, sounds like maybe you have an older one in
the linux box that can not read the XA format, some can't handle a RW
disk either.
--
Bob Martin
------------------------------
From: Juergen Neuhoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: LILO re-install question
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 23:24:52 +0100
Thanks, it now works.
BTW.: What software is there available for usenet newsgroup access under
Linux?
I can't create a reply to this newsgroup message thread with Netscape
4.72,
always have to boot into Windows and its Netscape 4.70 version to do so.
Juergen Neuhoff
------------------------------
From: Bob Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Upgrading an enternal USR Courier V.Everything *without* MS-Windows...
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 17:13:07 -0500
Robert Heller wrote:
>
> I have a 33.6/28.8 USR Courier V.Everything and I would like to upgrade
> it to a V90 (56K) modem. The problem: I *don't* have MS-Windows
> installed on my computer. Since a full version of MS-Windows costs
> $189, with the added cost of the modem upgrade of $60 == ~$250, this
> makes about $250. Which happens to be close to the cost of a *new*
> modem... I can either buy a copy of MS-Windows, install it on my 345meg
> C: drive (presently containing MS-DOS 6.2 and is mostly full of old .tgz
> files) or buy a new modem. Yuck.
>
> Does there exist a version of the upgrade program for Linux? Does
> anyone what the upgrade *actually* program does? This is an
> *external* RS232 serial modem. What can a *MS-Windows* program do with
> the serial port than Linux cannot?
>
>
Does the flash program really require windoze ? I've never seen a flash
that worked unless booted from a plain DOS boot floppy.
--
Bob Martin
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Severe booting / filesystem problem
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 22:10:52 GMT
> EXT2-fs: 03:09: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional
features.
Get tomsrtbt-1.7.205 and use 'chroot /mnt /sbin/lilo' -Tom
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: "Peter T. Breuer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Installing 2nd hard disk
Date: 20 Aug 2000 22:17:27 GMT
In comp.os.linux.help Stewart Honsberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: On 20 Aug 2000 19:06:53 GMT, Peter T. Breuer wrote:
:>: Correct until the end. I installed a second drive to my system, added
:>: partitions, and FDisk said something about calling IOCTL to recan table.
:>
:>That's the one. The ioctl'll error out unless the drive is completely
:>dismounted at the time. I couldn't guarrantee it for him at his level
:>of expertise, so I asked him to reboot, which will ensure that every
:>partition is dismounted.
: I'm not even certain that this is correct. Besides the fact that he was
You should be.
: inserting a virgin disk to his machine. IMNSHO, things should be taught
He was, but I was't going to give him a long list of "don't"s. Don't try
and make one partition, mke2fs it, mount it, then repeat for the rest,
for example.
: correctly from the beginning, rather than giving people the "cop-out"
: or "band-aid" solution. Linux really doesn't have to be re-booted except
This isn't a cop-out. If he tries your idea on the same disk as he's
curretly running on, he'll overwrite most of what he's got.
: From the FDISK man page;
: A sync() and a BLKRRPART ioctl() (reread partition table
: from disk) are performed before exiting when the partition
And they can fail.
: table has been updated. Long ago it used to be necessary
Not so long ago!
: to reboot after the use of fdisk. I do not think this is
: the case anymore - indeed, rebooting too quickly might
: cause loss of not-yet-written data. Note that both the
Now that is impossible, because reboot will cause an umount, which will
cause a sync. If he can't sync, then he can't sync, and needn't go to
the trouble of rebooting to find out (but does have to in order to
clear the situation). Do you know which version of fdisk he
has, or which kernel, btw? ... without looking!
:>: The only required re-boot was to physically install the drive (I didn't
:>: have any hot-swappable equipment).
:>
:>You'd have had to reboot if your root was on the drive and you were
:>repartitioning it, for example. That kind of situation is all I
:>intended to avoid by issuing the instruction as above.
: That shouldn't have been neccesary. FDISK quite nicely warns you if it
: has trouble calling IOCTL to write to the disk, vis;
It does, but I wasn't going to waste my breath telling him what to do
in case it says so.
: ** fdisk excerpt begins **
: Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
: Re-read table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
: Reboot your system to ensure the partition table is updated.
: ** fdisk excerpt ends **
: FYI - I was confident (stupid? Ballsy?) enough to do this on my primary
: master HDD which contains my root (/) partition while my system was
: running, including such things as XFree86 v4.0 in which I'm writing this
: response to you.
: No damage was done, and my system continues to function without any hiccups.
It's only luck. Changing a partition size and then mke2fs'ing it would
have resulted in mke2fs using the old partition size and position. That
might not have been your intention.
: FYI2 - No, I did not actually make any changes to the table. I merely ran
: fdisk /dev/hda as root, and entered 'w' at the prompt (write table to disk
: and exit).
That's not a danger scenario, so, indeed, it wasn't only luck :-).
Peter
------------------------------
From: "Andrew N. McGuire " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Some weird xterm behaviour!
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 17:29:26 -0500
On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, Andrew N. McGuire quoth:
~~ Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 17:02:30 -0500
~~ From: Andrew N. McGuire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~ Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
~~ Subject: Some weird xterm behaviour!
~~
~~ Thought someone might find this interesting:
~~
~~ I brought up an xterm, ssh'ed into a remote machine running
~~ Solaris, and by-accidentally cat'ed a gzipped PDF file. Well
~~ I'll be darned, but this causes my machine to start spooling
~~ print requests!! The funny thing is it is reproducable, you
~~ can do it catting almost any binary. Once it is done screwing
~~ up your terminal, exit the remote session and do an lpq, you
~~ may see jobs queued for no apparent reason.
~~
~~ You will see messages such as this on the console if you aren't
~~ running the print daemon:
~~
~~ lpr: connect: Connection refused
~~ jobs queued, but cannot start daemon.
~~
~~ Of course you can unqueue the jobs with something like:
~~
~~ perl -e 'print "$_\n" for 24..29' | xargs lprm
~~
~~ to remove jobs 24-29.
~~
~~ Anyways, I am just wondering if anyone else can reproduce this,
~~ and would this be considered a bug? I am using Slackware 7.1, and
~~ xterm -version yields:
~~
Another note on this, that is definitely a bug, root on the remote
system (or anyone with access to your pty) can cat a binary to your
pts, making your machine print. :-(
Regards,
anm
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Andrew N. McGuire ~
~ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~
~ "Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow." - Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Installing 2nd hard disk
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.help
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 23:00:30 +0100
Peter T. Breuer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> did eloquently scribble:
> : The whole point of the mount command is to allow for an extendable
> : filesystem without the need to reboot!
> I think you're confusing two parts of the software universe.
I think you're right...
:)
My mistake.
--
______________________________________________________________________________
| [EMAIL PROTECTED] | "Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky?" |
|Andrew Halliwell BSc(hons)| |
| in | "I think so brain, but this time, you control |
| Computer Science | the Encounter suit, and I'll do the voice..." |
==============================================================================
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Misc Digest
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