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Joined: Oct 2005
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Mostly harmless
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Mostly harmless
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http://public.afca.af.mil/Intercom/2005/October/100505.html

if that mIRC is this mIRC, then.... cooooooool!

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Hoopy frood
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Hoopy frood
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they didnt put in a screen shot, but it sounds like it

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Hoopy frood
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Man, now i feel real unsafe, mircs good and all that,

But would you really want a program that can be taken over by a users simple ignorance of what something does, IE: they type some command, becuase the other end told them too.

Would users be that stupid? from the article "The user only needs basic computer skills to install the system" so YES users would be that stupid.
And would they trust the other end? I again say yes, it only takes one breach, and someone got control of a "trusted" nick and thus anything "trusted" nick tells you must be ok to do.
The initial hack would be the hardest thing, but once there someone could run riot.

Finally I wonder about the accuarcy of the article, "establish a mIRC server at AFCA to host the chat session", they mean a IRC server im assuming, maybe just a understanding error by the article writer, or is it more?

I would think the Military would already have there own multiuser chat system, or at least there own clients, which dont have the ability to be taken over.
Amagine a sleeper script, just quitely sitting in the room socketing out all the chat to Al and Kada at the local Kabarb shop.

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Fjord artisan
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I'm not in the military, or apart of it in anyway. However, my guess is, the network they are on, or the IRC Servers they connect to, would be protected, and wouldn't allow non-military personale into the server/chatroom.

Furthermore, it's likely that these people would only be using mIRC for these type of operations, and would not be using it to chat up people on unsafe servers.

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Hoopy frood
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Hoopy frood
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And as I said, the initial hack would be the hard one, but following that since everyone is on the "oh great were all protected" irc server, i doubt it would be hard for someone to convince others to type a command or two.

And as to your assumption as to what they would and wouldnt do with it, I guess your right, I also guess that no one at work has ever used mirc to chat away the day, becuase there all at work doing there jobs. Yeah right!

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Fjord artisan
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Haha, well, that's not really the point. But I really would assume that people in the military would be smart enough to not type some lamer $decode() message. I mean, I really don't think the "Hey you wan opz in #chanz type: //bleh" stuff would work on them.

However, the initial hack, would be what would screw them over. Cause if someone could pop into their "Channel" at any given time, sure, information could leak. I really hope they're using some sort of network, that isn't actually attached to the internet.

Anyway, here's to hoping the Military is smart enough to not have overlooked possible info-leak threats.

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Fjord artisan
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This caption also indicates the military are actively using mIRC in the field. Looks like they've got no idea what the 'm' means either.

/me slaps Uncle Sam around a bit with a large trout

:P

[edit: and a pdf here with a small writeup on mIRC, check the acronym quickscan for a laugh]

Last edited by Skip; 02/10/05 11:47 AM.
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Hoopy frood
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Hoopy frood
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Quote:
(..) the Air Force’s Speckled Trout airplane (..)

I wonder if mIRC also provided the inspiration for the name of their aircraft wink


Saturn, QuakeNet staff
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Hoopy frood
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Hoopy frood
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I believe SIPRNET has been around for many years and is very secure. The military has used chatting software and other communcations software for a long time. So, using mIRC or some other chatting program isn't a real issue. Also, if they use a decent encrypting script (or, for that matter, use external software to encrypt and decrypt the text), just logging the information won't help any more than listening in on their audio communcations in the field. Encryption and codes change all the time, so even if you crack it once, it won't let you keep it cracked forever without recracking it all the time.

As long as they aren't flying the planes with mIRC, I don't see a real problem with it. Besides, they could easily script in protections from users typing things like $decode.


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