The box that I was previously hosted on was cracked a few weeks ago. Root wasn’t gained because it was just Skids that gained entry. The normal crap was found littered in the usual places.
The actual exploit was a no brainer and I have had several attempts on the site since it happened. As usual I got the normal response from the ISP that the attack originated from ie “We just have too many machines to check”. “Not our fault, fix your exploit” etc etc.
To me its a bit like using a hammer to smash a window. You didn’t manufacture the hammer and wouldn’t know how to, you seen your dad use the hammer so you know what it can do and you seen someone smash a window with it. So you imitate the action. This is what the skids do except they then think that they are elite because of it.
I suppose a better analogy to draw would be of a your typical smash and grab robber thinking he’s Auric Goldfinger after the event.
I suppose a lot of it is peer pressure. Always trying to compete amongst each other and go that little bit further. Then of course you get the real crackers fanning the flames so that they can get a bunch of skids doing the mundane stuff and reporting unmanaged boxes to their “uber mates” them included. I wonder how many of these skids reported their latest conquest over an unmanaged box only to go back and find that someone has battened down the hatches.
I must admit I am never going to understand the Skids culture.
Auric, you’d better watch out.