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linked, and, luckily for us, it had the gdb interface enabled. That was it.
The problem wasn’t a problem anymore, we had a solution. We just needed to
implement it.
Our plan was to use qemu to launch any binary with a remote gdb listener on
a TCP port. Once we connected, we could inject a shellcode directly into
memory. The shellcode was designed to receive a data blob, save it as a
file, and make chmod it +x. That blob would be a statically-linked rsync.
While somebody ordered pizzas, we gave the guy who did the rm -rf the task
of compiling that rsync. It kept him busy and stopped him from jumping out a
window while we (Phil did I think) wrote the shellcode. When everything was
ready, we took a deep breath... and it was a success! We had rsync running.
Using rsync, we restored the systems from a clean backup. It was well past
midnight and there was still work to do before shipping, but the relief in
the room was notable, somebody played Loose yourself to dance, and I jumped
to dance. We were happy. The next day, 'Tita' was sent off, later launched
into orbit with her Linuxes properly configured and all :-).
As for the guy who caused it all? It was his birthday. His family was
waiting for him at the hotel, past midnight, to blow out the candles. He
kept feeding them excuses because, really, how do you explain that you
accidentally wiped a satellite right before its launch? No matter what you
say, the wife will only hear “I’ll be late, I'm with another girl.
|=---=[ What is the achievement you're most proud of?
There’s something that makes me proud, not exactly my personal
achievement, more like a group achievement:
>>> The size and quality of the security scene in Argentina <<<
Many things happened at the same time, and maybe the Ekoparty was a
bigger contributor through the years, but so many amazing people passed
through Core, for many their first true job (because nobody else dared to
employ them, heh), untamed creativity, infinite thirst for breaking the
limits and doing impossible things.
Core grew and grew, attracting talent, until it exploded. First I was
mad at us and the people leaving, but with some time I felt how the spores
got rooted in other places, new companies got infected with the culture, and
suddenly the family got back together, and it was larger than before and
amazing again.
Of course, I should have made a lot of money when we “sold” it, but no,
we just didn’t. I think we got around $5k total (each!). Don’t sign anything
with the big monsters, they’ll just eat you.
On a different life, I’m also happy (not sure if proud) I could write an
OS purely in Smalltalk (see SqueakNOS), with network drivers, and all.
|=---=[ What is something you are not proud of?
In short, I’m not proud of having contributed somehow to the weaponization
of the exploits and mercenarization of the experts. I remember. Back in
2000-2001 getting in a room with my friends/partners at Core SDI (Core
Security later), to discuss whether we should do Core IMPACT and whether we
should include 0-days or not, knowing we were getting into cyber-weapons and
that our technology had “dual use” (like if a scissor didn’t have
“dual use”).
We had a proposal and we decided not to do 0-days for Core IMPACT, decided
to keep publishing everything we found, and decided to leave a lot of money
on the side (or so we believed). “Somebody else will do it”, “But I think we
can make a difference, and if we can, I don’t want to do it”, etc. I kind of
walked away almost proud of the decision, and stranded by it.
Still, I went on and taught “Assembly and Exploit writing classes” to
customers of Core, once to people of some American agency that couldn’t tell
me where [on what 3 letters agency] they worked, or on a military base where
a siren light played as we walked around and they escorted me to shit with
machine guns, waiting outside the cubicle, literally, as I tried to fart as
loud as possible... as if it would make any difference.
Not sure what if anything I could have done differently, or if I should, or
if what I did was right. I know there are truly good reasons to use
cyber-weapons, still, I’m not proud of indirectly collaborating with
weaponization and mercenarization. I lost friends in the process, as we all
saw the industry changing rapidly.
Sometimes I think the antisec movement was right: anything you do
contributes to give more power to the status quo (and this is sort of
right), just do your stuff, don’t publish anything. But that’s not right,
that’s pretending you are the only one you can find the bugs you find, and
write the exploits you write, and that’s just not true, it’s the other way
around: if you did it, it’s clear that someone else can do it, just kill the
0-day and contribute to balance the power.
|=---=[ What would you like to see published in Phrack?
Tough question. I still read Phrack, and still love the tone and the
technical content. But it feels like real-world exploits are happening
somewhere else, sorry. The 9 chained exploits to finally get from 0-click
whatsapp to total iPhone kernel control are still private (or maybe I missed
an article, sorry if I did). I get it, they have an unthinkable value, but
that’s for a reason (who can pay that much money for an exploit? Think about
it). So, I’d love to see anonymous contributions describing high valued
techniques, killing them for the private offender, opening them for the
defenders. I mean, if AI is going to leave us without a job anyway