What is Digg?96 Comments
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14"Man Finds Stick"
Now there's a diggable article. Where did he find this stick? What kind of stick was it? Will he use the stick for good, or for awesome? Will his rocket backback incorporate the fledgling "stick" technology, or will he continue to use twigs? I NEED TO KNOW!! - tuxidomasx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12wow. thats crazy. i think most universities are vulnerable to this kinda thing tho. i think Li made a bad decision. even if he were up to no good, he shouldnt have attempted to change the grade. there are too many unknowns:
is there a backup? wont changing your grade throw off the "average" and "median" values for the class? wont your changes be timestamps? ,etc.
instead, if he wanted to have an unfair advantage, he could have simply been patient and waited for the professor to upload something to his directory. such as "tomorrow's exam" or "Tuesday's pop quiz". Also, teachers are notorious for sending copies of exams to TAs or keeping backups on the network.
There would have been very little risk in just reading data, but by actively changing it, Li was putting himself in a BAD situation. Not only that, but connecting from his home computer without bouncing off other systems anywhere was just setting himself up for an arrest.
aside from that, i think the universities weak security is also to blame. a world readable "passwd" file is a disaster waiting to happen. Also, failure to enforce strong passwords also contributed. either way, Li made a big mistake, and so did the administrators (w/ their weak security).
the moral of the story. "the best way to not be seen is to not be heard"
and that's an original quote ^ ^ - Hortnon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5"So a kid hacks a computer, and it gets in trouble. How is this on the front page?"
It's a good thing we have the Front Page Police on the case. - riah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2why does it take them 2 months to correct my grade they flubbed on... i need to get this kid on the job.
- kylemeans, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2damn... Ferris Bueller look out! Here come the Feds!
- dragazis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A+ for the effort
F for failing and getting arrested
B- for his hacking skills
so thats a B- (You could do better. Please see me after class) - PaulOwen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Even the title sounds a little bit parochial, a bit like:
"Dog Befriends Parrot, Onlookers Say 'Aaah'."
"Boy Eats Worm. Feels Uncomfortable For A While"
"Man Finds Stick."
Being liberal with posting rights is a double-edged sword. - lightningrod220, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Here's what you do... deport him... but not back to China. Instead, find a poor country in Africa, where there aren't any computers, and the nearest airport is 1,000 miles away. If he can make it out alive, he deserves to live.
- gabbagabbahey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So the professor used the same password at work, at Yahoo and possibly at his bank.
Good job.
They make it sound like he was dumb enough to brute force on the system he was trying to compromise, not a good move. If he had done the brute force at home, used the account only at college and not used it everywhere else he might not have got caught.
Some basic lessons to be learned here. - tjtwkr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hope they throw the book at him. I love hearing about knuckle heads like this. And when the press gets pictures of them getting arrested or escorted by law enforcement, they always look like they're about to cry. LMAO!
- beejay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm in the CS undergrad program at the U...I think this guy is in one of my classes.
- the1casey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I bet the guy did something stupid like Brute Forced his way in using non-anonymous proxies or something. What an ass-hat, just send him back to China.
- Grodius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would have changed every grade in the entire class or like 50 other people's so that no one knew it was me.
- officialchicken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hate the press misnomer known as "hacking".
Hacking is not a crime. Hacking is something like making a toster run bsd... it's an ethic, a lifestyle, or frame of mind. Hacking is modifying a system. It is a good thing.
Unlawfully breaking into a computer system (and not covering your tracks) is CRACKING. - conto1987, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why doesnt he cheat like normal peeple
- thyratron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hearby sentence you to FIVE YEARS of using Windows ME
- xst4t1kx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Brute force pass 1:
username: admin
password: password
Login successful. Time elapsed: 00:00:00.03 - chrisc2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hate to stereotype, but he's Chinese and he needs to change his MATH grade? I thought the Chinese were good at Math...
- m99stump, on 07/29/2008, -0/+1*****.
Not that I don't think he should be punished, but grand perjury? Sony had to pay 7.50. - dirtyfratboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1its actually pronounced something like "yo-lee" ...close enough
- Broncho24, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Brute force? Talk about obvious and really stupid.
- gekkokid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yeah he cracked/hacked it but got caught! i could change my grades, walk in with a gun and put it againsted the exam boards head and tell them to change it - i would get caught, same thing, if it was a uni saying "our system has been hacked and all the students grades were changed" that would be a story, actually if i did the gun approach that would be the better story lol
- slackerhobo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+01) I laugh at the school
Showing glaring flaws in their security if someone can remote brute force attack like that
2) Idiot ... home computer - peerk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Looks like there is going to be a job opening for Unix sysadmin at the University of Utah.
- Phieudu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sound like he was able to brute force the passwd file in those 'Nix OS.
Can't image nowadays the administrator does not use some kind of shadowing methods to protect it. - nargilamonster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've had a CS professor offer extra credit for cheating successfully on assignments because it'd require such a sophisticated knowledge of code, but to be able to do so with a brute force attack? Well, chalk this one up to non-creative types over in the school's IT secuirty department.
- nogami, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wouldn't do squat to grades for our students - ya, the security isn't all that hot (someone really determined could probably break-in), but the system logs each access to the grades system (IP, time, date, etc), and we always double-check the final marks (from a computer that's not accessible over the network) on paper at our end-of-term meeting, so such things are futile in the longrun - as soon as we spotted a difference between the paper marks and the marks we entered into the database, there'd be an investigation.
- SolidGun1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah, poor kid. I hope he at least got a diploma in those two years. Couldn't get a transcript, but that paper should look good on a wall after he gets kicked out of country.
- aznboi04k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0he's my hero!
- warez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0if u know how to use a brute force attack u would probobly know what a proxy server
- fastfood15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0can u say deported??
- soogy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Was that part of his PhD thesis?
- Galaeron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0djwk1928 - "And @ o0joshua0o
The most logical way he would of got caught is from multiple incorrect login logs since it was a brute force attack."
Again I ask the question, if he did this over a year ago(article says 2004) why take so long to act on it? - Pureeviljester, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Owned
- WiFi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't know why people are claiming he 'hacked' anything. Running someone else's program to -guess- a password hardly requires more than a few brain cells. Only a complete moron would brute force something which keeps logs.. and then not delete them.
- tmcleroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0poor kid
- stoops, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Let's all sign up for Ethics 101. I'll be in the courtyard before class starts so join me if you can.
- capajc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Defendants charged in indictments are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in court."
They're only supposed to be presumed innocent by "the system". Not by any actual person within the system. Ah, the naivety. - Anth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why the ***** was the PASSWD file not shadowed? You ALWAYS shadow the PASSWD file and have a very strong root password (10+ charecters) so it cant be brute forced. The admins should be fired for being too lax in security.
- twinklyJesus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0tuxedomasx: It's the university's fault for not having enough security???
Hey! Here's a clue...if you know your grades or other info are on a computer you don't have physical access to, or don't have the passwords for...you're not supposed to access them. It's a no-no. Just because they don't have a wall down the middle of the street doesn't mean it's ok to drive on the wrong side of the road.
He knew what he was doing was wrong... I agree, deport his ass. This seems to be a recurring theme with the Chinese. - autumntial, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Any word on how exactly he got caught? That would be the most interesting part of the story."
Quoted for truth. - o0joshua0o, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Any word on how exactly he got caught? That would be the most interesting part of the story.
- saddad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Not all math courses are algebra/matrices. There is number theory, ring theory, proofs, etc....
- tdaddy11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0liz4rd,
I now see why my comment made you so mad. You're last name is Marxx. I know, your last name has an additional "x", but I still got a kick out of it. Thanks! - mhl12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0+digg just because my last name is Li as well. lol
- Codebender, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A federal grand jury? FBI special agents? Only because he's a foreign national, clearly. Doesn't the FBI have more important things to be investigating than script kiddies changing their grades? I would think that local law enforcement could handle it, it's not like he's leading an Al-Qaida cell or anything.
- SWGreg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Straight up WarGames style bay-bee!! Tell me, who didn't want to do that when they saw Mathew Broderick do it so effortlessly??"
Exactly what I was thinking of. Great film. - Dufresne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0even if he did everything successfully, wouldn't a teacher notice?
- RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"aside from that, i think the universities weak security is also to blame. a world readable "passwd" file is a disaster waiting to happen. Also, failure to enforce strong passwords also contributed. either way, Li made a big mistake, and so did the administrators (w/ their weak security)."
Agreed. The grand jury needs to indict the sysadmins at the U of U next, for being so stupid. - rafgar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"wait he hacked the damn thing
shouldent he be passing math?"
Programming/hacking ability does not require high math skill, despite what educators like to say. It HELPS, true, but it's not essential. -
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