Date: Wed, 12 Aug 98 13:00:44 -0500 From: Pat Parrinello <pparri@crossfields.com> Cc: <freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: UDP port 31337 Message-ID: <199808121807.NAA01660@anne.crossfields.com>
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MORALITY ALERT ((___)) MORALITY
ALERT
[ x x ]
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(U)
____________________________www.cultdeadcow.com____________________________
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ST. PAUL, BACK DOOR BOOM BOOM, AND ALL THE TEA IN CHINA
[San Francisco, August 6] Almost two thousand years ago St. Paul made an
abrupt about face on the road to Tarsus. The CULT OF THE DEAD COW is not
sure which road Microsoft is travelling, but they have just made a
series of one hundred and eighty degree turns that would shock the
apostle. What could account for Redmond's rapid reversals, and more
importantly, does it point towards some deeper problems?
After releasing Back Orifice - our remote Windows 9x administration tool
-
the CULT OF THE DEAD COW was by turns publicly mocked or dismissed by
Microsoft flunkies. A useless tool, they droned, users have nothing to
worry about, the constellations still spin around our mighty OS. What a
load. But the point is, in the space of a few short days Microsoft is
now puling that Back Orifice is a dangerous weapon. And to add insult to
injury, not only do they slam us in public, privately they're asking for
our help to patch up _their_ mess.
However, this does raise an interesting question. Was releasing Back
Orifice to the public immoral? Microsoft would love for their customers
to believe that we're the bad guys and that they - as vendors of a
digital
sieve - bear no responsibility whatever. But questions of morality are
more often relative than absolute. So to make things easier, we'll frame
our culture and actions against their's and let the public determine
which one of us looks better in black.
We'd like to ask Microsoft, or more to the point, we'd like to ask Bill
Gates why he stood shoulder to shoulder in 1996 with China's president
and head of the Communist Party to denounce any discussion of China's
human rights record at the annual meeting of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights in Geneva? Was the decision to cozy up to the
world's largest totalitarian state based on some superior moral
position, or was it just more convenient to trample human decency
underfoot and go for even more money? Call us crazy, but we think that
Microsoft has about as much right to condescend to the CULT OF THE DEAD
COW as Li Peng does to lecture anyone who raises the issue of human
rights abuses in China - a point of view that Bill Gates shares.
Now let's return to Back Orifice. Would it be immoral to use this tool
for untoward purposes on Windows networks? Would it be immoral for Back
Orifice to find its way to China and cause a lot of dry heaving in
Microsoft's largest target market? Should hacktivists use Back Orifice
as a form of protest against multinationals who share Microsoft's
position
of dollars before dignity?
It's a short life and we're all going to be judged by our actions. So,
whether or not we've done the right thing is a matter for history and
human conscience to decide. But if the gods want to curse us for
bringing fire down from the mountain, we'll take a seat with Prometheus
and deal with the heat. At the end of the day, the CULT OF THE DEAD COW
doesn't think that the world was meant to be a dark place.
--
For background information on this whole damn kerfuffle, the public may
consult the following documents:
1) Our technical rebuttal to...
[http://www.cultdeadcow.com/news/rebuttal.txt]
2) Microsoft marketing's spin-control job on Back Orifice
[http://www.microsoft.com/security/mktBackOrifice.htm]
3) Back Orifice Press Release
[http://www.cultdeadcow.com/news/back_orifice.txt]
4) BO homepage
[http://www.cultdeadcow.com/tools/]
5) To learn more about cDc's stance on the PRC...
[http://www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/cDc-0356.html]
For further details or lucrative film offers, please contact:
The Deth Vegetable
Minister of Propoganda
CULT OF THE DEAD COW
veggie@cultdeadcow.com
...........................................................................
.
The CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc) is the most influential group of hackers
in the world. Formed in 1984, the cDc has done everything from publish
the
longest running e-zine on the Internet to diddling military networks
around the globe. We could go on, but who's got the time. Journalists
can check out the Medialist link on our Web site for more background
information. Cheerio.
"cDc. It's alla'bout style, jackass."
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