Editing 1808: Hacking
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| − | + | {{incomplete|"Oh my god." Cueball isn't shocked, this is sarcasm. It's the first laughter when reading the comic. "Is that not what the explanation says already? Else rephrase. But some people may misunderstand this and that is why this wiki is here. And that possible misunderstanding is part of the joke!")}} | |
This comic is referencing an incident on the day before this comic was released, March 7, 2017, in which {{w|WikiLeaks}} exposed thousands of hacking exploits (thus the title) and programs from the {{w|CIA}} (see for instance this article: [https://www.wired.com/2017/03/wikileaks-cia-hacks-dump/ WikiLeaks Just Dumped a Mega-Trove of CIA Hacking Secrets]). Many of the tools that were in the leak were similar to publicly available tools, or not entirely unexpected, with several coming from sites such as {{w|StackOverflow}} and {{w|Reddit}}. | This comic is referencing an incident on the day before this comic was released, March 7, 2017, in which {{w|WikiLeaks}} exposed thousands of hacking exploits (thus the title) and programs from the {{w|CIA}} (see for instance this article: [https://www.wired.com/2017/03/wikileaks-cia-hacks-dump/ WikiLeaks Just Dumped a Mega-Trove of CIA Hacking Secrets]). Many of the tools that were in the leak were similar to publicly available tools, or not entirely unexpected, with several coming from sites such as {{w|StackOverflow}} and {{w|Reddit}}. | ||
The main joke in this comic refers to the common practice of adding spaces between parts of an email address when publishing them on websites. For example, "[email protected]" may be written as "john dot doe at example dot org". The purported goal of doing this is to thwart page scraping bots from {{w|Email address harvesting|harvesting the correct email addresses}} and prevent them from becoming the target of spam or being sold as address lists for email marketers. | The main joke in this comic refers to the common practice of adding spaces between parts of an email address when publishing them on websites. For example, "[email protected]" may be written as "john dot doe at example dot org". The purported goal of doing this is to thwart page scraping bots from {{w|Email address harvesting|harvesting the correct email addresses}} and prevent them from becoming the target of spam or being sold as address lists for email marketers. | ||
| − | In this comic, [[Ponytail]] tells [[Cueball]] that | + | In this comic, [[Ponytail]] tells [[Cueball]] that CIA have a tool which can delete such spaces. Such a tool can fix the space and most likely convert the words "dot" and "at" into their respective symbols. This will overcome the problems faced by harvesting tools, and make these email addresses more prone to receive spam. |
| − | Cueball appears shocked to hear this news, but given the caption below, stating that this was one of the ''less dramatic revelations'' from the CIA hacking dump, this is likely sarcasm by Cueball (and [[Randall]]). In fact, it is quite simple to devise a program which detects and converts/removes such spaces; it's naive to believe that one can prevent e-mail addresses from being harvested just by writing the addresses with space or omitting @ etc | + | Cueball appears shocked to hear this news, but given the caption below, stating that this was one of the ''less dramatic revelations'' from the CIA hacking dump, this is likely sarcasm by Cueball (and [[Randall]]). In fact, it is quite simple to devise a program which detects and converts/removes such spaces; it's naive to believe that one can prevent e-mail addresses from being harvested just by writing the addresses with space or omitting @ etc. |
The title text lists three other undramatic (fictitious) hacking exploits which sound more interesting, but are still more or less useless, and certainly not dramatic news. They are: | The title text lists three other undramatic (fictitious) hacking exploits which sound more interesting, but are still more or less useless, and certainly not dramatic news. They are: | ||
| − | #Millions of {{w|prime factors}}: The security of the {{w|RSA (cryptosystem)|RSA cipher}} relies on the difficulty of finding prime factors for a large number. But just having those numbers without any other context means you | + | #Millions of {{w|prime factors}}: The security of the {{w|RSA (cryptosystem)|RSA cipher}} relies on the difficulty of finding prime factors for a large number. But just having those numbers without any other context means only you have millions of {{w|Prime number|prime numbers}}. This is useless like having a list of millions of passwords without any further information. |
| − | #A {{w|0-day exploit}} for {{w|Tamagotchi}}: A 0-day exploit is an exploit of which the manufacturer is not (yet) aware. 0-days are very valuable to hackers since defenses against them have not yet been developed. However, an exploit for a Tamagotchi is likely useless because they are very low-end entertainment devices that do not contain microphones or cameras, and usually don't have access to any networks. This may also be a play on words, as | + | #A {{w|0-day exploit}} for {{w|Tamagotchi}}: A 0-day exploit is an exploit of which the manufacturer is not (yet) aware. 0-days are very valuable to hackers since defenses against them have not yet been developed. However, an exploit for a Tamagotchi is likely useless because they are very low-end entertainment devices that do not contain microphones or cameras, and usually don't have access to any networks. This may also be a play on words, as Tamagotchis are notoriously difficult to keep alive for more than zero days. |
#A way to get {{w|GNU_Compiler_Collection|gcc}} and {{w|Bash_(Unix_shell)|bash}} to execute arbitrary code: ''Unintentional'' execution of arbitrary code is serious vulnerability that allows attackers to do whatever they choose on a victim's computer. However the examples given here merely describe the ''intended'' purpose of the tools: gcc is a {{w|compiler}}, so preparing arbitrary code is its main purpose, and bash is a {{w|Shell script|Unix shell}}, so executing arbitrary code is also one of its primary functions. | #A way to get {{w|GNU_Compiler_Collection|gcc}} and {{w|Bash_(Unix_shell)|bash}} to execute arbitrary code: ''Unintentional'' execution of arbitrary code is serious vulnerability that allows attackers to do whatever they choose on a victim's computer. However the examples given here merely describe the ''intended'' purpose of the tools: gcc is a {{w|compiler}}, so preparing arbitrary code is its main purpose, and bash is a {{w|Shell script|Unix shell}}, so executing arbitrary code is also one of its primary functions. | ||
