On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
> > "+++ATDT[number]" - a common attack on
> > internet...stupid modems will receive commands from
>
> Wouldn't it be possible for some sociopath to pick on
> random victims by running some program that would send
> dial strings to random IP numbers? The program would
> not even have to know whether the random IP numbers are
> online. Odds are that some of the random IP numbers
> would get hit. The sociopath might be one with a
> mentality typified by the well-known little rhyme that
> goes like this: "I shot an arrow into the air. Where
> it lands I do not care."
>
> Do you think something like that might have happened?
Hmmm... off-shore 900 number? Or maybe an 800
number of a business he doesn't like. Imagine the
phone bill an 800# would rack up if it were to be
called by thousands of random computers.
> If so, isn't there a very good chance that the
> sociopath would soon get caught by use of tracking
> technology?
Nope. ISP's don't log every single packet that
goes through their machines. Depending on the size
of the ISP, the logs would easily be in the gigabytes
or even terabytes each day.
> The ISPs and telcos would probably make a
> concerted effort to track him down because this kind
> of illegal activity is far worse than mere spamming.
If they essentially shrug their shoulders about Code
Red II, which installs a back door on every computer
it infects, do you think they really care about an
isolated incident of your modem hanging up and dialing
out?
IIRC, there's a command you can put in your
initialization string to prevent that from happening...
Yes, there it is, "To protect yourself you can disable
the +++ command by setting the S2 register to 255"
http://www.attrition.org/security/denial/w/mod-ath.dos.html
- Steve
