[rescue] SGI fw_sshd and security

[Mike Meredith]

On Fri, 5 Mar 2004 14:18:42 -0500, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> There weren't any directories of network addresses, but you found out
> about some anyway.  People were known to just try things until they
> got something they could identify....

A bit later than your story (1986-9), but I remember at University most
computer access was via serial terminals connected to X.25 PADs and
people used to trade long lists of numeric X.25 addresses that would
connect to weird and wonderful systems. The next stage up was figuring
out how to use the various JANET gateways to other networks.

> So, we had an inbound Tymnet connection at Crosstalk, and it wasn't
> doing anything, so I rigged it up to answer ....
> 
> 	Bank of America
> 	Wire Transfers
> 	Enter source account and amount:
> 
> ... Accept input, and return a random error message.

:)

One of the common games at University was to write programs that would
emulate the Pyramid login and collect usernames/passwords. Hitting ^\
was an easier way to get a list of accounts.