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...presents... The L0pht Hurrah
by Oxblood Ruffin
4/8/2000-#374
__///////\ -cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc- /\\\\\\\__
\\\\\\\/ Everything You Need Since 1984 \///////
___ _ _ ___ _ _ ___ _ _ ___ _ _ ___
|___heal_the_sick___raise_the_dead___cleanse_the_lepers___cast_out_demons___|
The L0pht (pronounced, loft) always looked like a set from the Terry Gilliam
movie, _Brazil_. A chaotic assembly of monitors, exposed mother boards, the
impossible logic of hybrid machines, linguinied cables, and my personal
favorite, The Crapintosh [don't ask]. But now this legendary workspace looks
like the I.R.A just trashed it looking for the last bottle of whiskey in the
world.
The party's over.
The L0pht is both a workshop in Boston and the collective name of the hackers
who made it famous. And it has just thrown its last open house, a party about
as easy to get into as a trip to the White House -- a distinction one of its
members has recently enjoyed.
But this celebration did not begin with Hail to the Chief. Brian Oblivion --
one of the L0pht's founders -- kick started the party with a round of dance
tracks that he'd organized on his laptop. It's the first time that I've seen
a DJ's system perched on a stack of computer manuals [Applied Cryptography,
Hacking Exposed, and NT Network Security, if memory serves].
The evening was dedicated to bringing old friends together and closing a
chapter on the evolution of The L0pht. The location has changed a few times
since its first incarnation in 1992. And there is the recent merger with
@Stake, a computer security development group and consultancy that has
changed forever how the L0pht will operate.
It has been an incredible journey; one that was never planned.
Behind every great man, there's a great milliner
Like so many things in life, the romance of legend often outstrips the dull
luster of fact. And so it is with the L0pht. Although the original founders
are cited as Brian Oblivion, Count Zero (Zero), Golgo 13 (Golgo) and White
Knight (WK), there was a fifth Sex Pistol so to speak.
Without this great personality the L0pht never would have come into being.
And that large talent, that stellar element of the Boston underground is, big
drum roll, Brian Oblivion's wife.
Mrs. Oblivion is a hat maker. As her business began to expand beyond the
limitations of her home she found a loft space to conduct her business. And
while the great lady was at it, she decided to move Brian's excrescent
hardware collection out of the apartment and into the loft space.
Three others shared the same fate. Zero, Golgo and WK all had more gear than
their living spaces allowed. Out went the crapola and the L0pht -- as it
became known in hackerspeak -- was rapidly stocked with all manner of found
technology. The hat appeared to fit. So it was the exigencies of
accommodation and not the intrigues more common to Hollywood plot lines that
launched the world's greatest hacker atelier.
Birth of the anti-frats
It was a common enough phenomenon, especially in Boston where technology and
hacking have had a long and distinguished history. Along with the L0pht there
were other groups, like Messiah Village and Newhackcity; all populated with
the same kind of hacker. Young, brilliant and s to the a to the u to the c
to the y.
They were hackers with little formal education in computer science. Some went
to university and studied anthropology or music. Others never made it out of
high school. But what they all had in common was the drive to pull apart
computers and the applications that drove them; then they'd throw them back
together in more powerful and personal ways.
The L0pht consciousness -- if such a thing can be described -- evolved out of
the BBS scene in the eighties. It was a loose network of local dial-up boxes
across North America and Europe. They traded in g-files, or textfiles as
they are now called. And these files would contain the code to telephony and
computer exploits, stories of mayhem, Satan worship [purely for laughs], song
lyrics, and some of the most creative ascii art ever captured.
Bow to the Cow
At the epicenter of this movement was the CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc), a hacker
group founded in Lubbock, Texas in 1984. Two of the original founders of the
original L0pht are members of the cDc, as are two on its current roster, Mudge
and Dildog. Although the cDc and L0pht are two separate and distinct
organizations, they have shared members and influenced each other
immeasurably.
The L0pht was launched at the end of the BBS scene and with the birth of the
Web. For years it hosted the original CULT OF THE DEAD COW Web site, as well
as some of the most extraordinary collections of hack/phreak/anarchy content
in the short history of the Web. There
wasn't a kid in the world interested in hacking who did not at one time --
usually many times -- visit the L0pht Web site to feast on a world of learning
that changed their lives forever.
All the while the crew at the L0pht worked on original hacking projects. Most
work revolved around security issues, whether in programs or across networks.
And over time they began to assemble an arsenal of technology upon which they
would test their various inventions and exploits. The L0pht would then
publish their findings, usually as L0pht Advisories [formal white papers],
detailing the minutiae of poor code formations that screamed for correction.
These advisories in fact have accounted for much of the L0pht's fame, or
infamy depending upon to whom one listens. Hackers have always favored
security through openness as opposed to security through obscurity. If
exploits are discovered, then they should be revealed so everyone knows what
they are, not just the bad guys.
This approach has not endeared the L0pht to their principal nemesis,
Microsoft.
Everything will BO2K
The Redmond infolith appears to let their marketing division direct their
security efforts, an observation made by many third party security
consultants. It is typical for Microsoft to flail its arms every time the
L0pht - or anyone else - publicizes one of their vulnerabilities. One of the
most recent and compelling examples was the cDc/L0pht collaboration on Back
Orifice 2000, or BO2K as it is known.
BO2K is a remote network administration tool. It can be run in stealth mode,
a common feature to applications of this type. This means that a user
wouldn't know that his/her machine was being administered externally. In
addition to this, Dildog, who programmed this app, did so in such an elegant
and precise fashion that BO2K is a very small program; small enough to be sent
as an email attachment; small enough to be opened, installed and functioning
within moments; and, small enough not to be noticed.
The CULT OF THE DEAD COW released this application with much fanfare. We ran
a publicity campaign for B02K that was as effective as any product launch from
Microsoft. The BO2K release demonstrated that: a) we could offer the public a
free, open-source application better
than anything else on the market; and b) it acted as a wake-up call to the
public. BO2K can be programmed to run as a Trojan [a program operating on a
users machine without the user's knowledge]. This application, more than any
other initiative, raised public awareness to the dangers of Trojans. The
facts were published. Microsoft grew apoplectic.
It is this same kind of work that the L0pht has taken on from its inception.
Searching out the flaws, making them known, and building tools that forced the
Net to become a more secure place. They have held software and hardware vendors
feet to the fire and forced them to clean up their act and release better
products. L0pht members have also spoken widely and well to issues concerning
Internet security. Space Rogue, another L0pht member, launched the Hacker News
Network, one of the few places on the Web that covers hacker issues with any
credibility.
Mr. President, may I present Mudge
You don't get as much press as the L0pht does and avoid getting attention.
During the summer of 1998, the L0pht went to Washington to testify before the
United States Senate. The members, Space Rogue, Mudge, Brian Oblivion,
Silicosis, Kingpin, Tan, and Weld Pond, had gained such notoriety that the
government of the United States sat up and took notice.
The most remarkable feature of their appearance at the Senate hearings was
seeing them in suits. Normally they look like members of a punk band. But
being grilled by politicians is the kind of thing that requires a jacket and
tie, if only as camouflage. This was where they told the Senate that they
could shut the Internet down in half an hour. Fortunately, they never made
good on this claim.
This was a watershed moment for the L0pht. Their prestige was at an all-time
high, the venture capitalists were clamoring, and not too much later they
formed an alliance with @Stake to act as their R&D division.
The rest is more recent history. An invitation to join President Clinton's
Internet security advisory panel was the cherry on top of the whipped cream.
And the coolest thing of all was that they did it on their own terms. For a
hacker to be addressed by the President of the Untied States by his handle and
not given name is the ultimate form of legitimization.
Quite a long way from the early days of caffeinated hack marathons at the
first L0pht.
Bomb solid
After eight years of struggling and some well deserved funding, the L0pht had
a good reason to celebrate. Last Saturday night the space that has become the
Jerusalem of hacking threw its last annual open house. Music blared, war
stories were told, and if a bomb had gone off, the elite of Internet security
would have left the Net a more dangerous place than they found it.
It was somehow fitting that on the wall facing the DJ hung an autographed
picture of Senator John Glenn. There seemed to be a straight line from his
bold voyage in space to where the L0pht had set its course. While they have
more in common with rock stars than American patriots, they have shown the
same pioneering spirit. The L0pht has always traveled to where others could
not reach, or were too afraid to venture.
Even their parties are the bomb.
.-. _ _ .-.
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/.ooM \ / \ .-. [ x x ] .-. / \ /.ooM \
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/lucky 13\ / \ / `-(' ')-' \ / \ /lucky 13\
\ / `-' (U) `-' \ /
`-' the original e-zine `-' _
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\__/ ) / Copyright (c) 2000 cDc communications and the author. \ ) \)(/
(_/ CULT OF THE DEAD COW is a registered trademark of oooO
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oooO All rights reserved. Edited by Omega. __ ( \
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\_) xXx BOW to the COW xXx Oooo