Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console
From: jkb () mrc-lmb cam ac uk (Bonfield James)
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 94 16:39:36 EDT
der Mouse writes:
For one thing, that assumes the machine will boot far enough for you to log in (as root, since presumably nobody else can read /dev/eeprom). If it's set fully secure (eeprom secure=full), this is not normally the case. As for whether it's the first word, that is not true on the one machine I just tried; it may depend on the machine (this was tried on a SPARCstation 1+).
A far more useful thing is to use 'od -a' on the correct offset. The fully comprehensive guide to the eeprom can be gleaned from examining /usr/include/mon/{eeprom.h,password.h}. According to this the password structure is at 0x490, and the password itself at 0x494-0x49b inclusive. Also, as I mentioned before, certain actions appear to ignore the password. The most notable of this is the ability to sometimes state which device and file to boot from. This prompt seems to appear with diskless machines and a boot server that is down (or maybe just disconnections from the network at the correct time). And, once again, I have seen machines have their prom passwords wiped by nothing more complex than repeated 'L1-A' 'c' commands during reboot. Although I haven't tested this myself for a couple of years, so more recent PROMs maybe fixed.
When I did "strings - /dev/eeprom", I got 8 strings: 45670123 31204567 Ec#Y;A1y sd()vmunix le()vmunix
This reminds me of someone who had a PROM password along the lines of the 'le()vmunix' style of string. Rather cunningly picked to deterr the confuse strings attack :) James -- James Bonfield (jkb () mrc-lmb cam ac uk) Tel: 0223 402499 Fax: 0223 412282 Medical Research Council - Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QH, England.
Current thread:
- Re: Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console Jim Thompson (May 31)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console John C. Orthoefer (Jun 01)
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console der Mouse (Jun 05)
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console Catherine Allen (Jun 06)
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console gabrams () camden ge com (Jun 07)
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console der Mouse (Jun 07)
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console Mark Fullmer (Jun 07)
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console Bruce Barnett (Jun 07)
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console Bonfield James (Jun 07)
- Re: Breaking in from the monitor at the console Casper Dik (Jun 07)