------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ ___ ___ _ _ _ _ _ ___ ___ _ ___ __ |_ _| __/ __| || | \| | /_\ | _ \/ __| || \ \ / / E-ZINE | | | _| (__| __ | .` |/ _ \| / (__| __ |\ V / Volume I |_| |___\___|_||_|_|\_/_/ \_\_|_\\___|_||_| |_| Issue #001 "Dreams become entangled in the system" -- Anne Clark ------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited by: K.L. Contributions by: Spider Email: an615992@anon.penet.fi UUCP: uunet!tnarchy!news ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Table of Contents: 1. Editorial 2. Software Review: VFS 3. Next Issue ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Editorial Welcome to the first issue of TECHNARCHY, a new electronic digest dedicated to the computer underground. Our mission statement is to provide quality information and opinion about any topic of relevance to the community, with special focus on technology and politics. The time between each issue will depend on the amount of material we can write ourselves or get from our contributors, but we are aiming at putting out a new issue every month. Of course, reader feedback is welcome. So feel free to send us your comments, suggestions or contributions of any kind. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Software Review: VFS (by Spider) There has been a lot of buzz in the scene around this mysterious piece of software. The first rumours about VFS talked about game-changing network tech, unnamed gov agencies... truly Area 51-level stuff. But nobody seemed to have actually SEEN it. Well, I'm glad to announce that I managed to score some binaries! I won't get into details on the process, let it just be said that I had to pull some strings in dark corners of the Net. Long story short, this thing is unlike anything I've ever used before. It installs like a regular program, and from the user's perspective it operates unassumingly like a command shell. The brilliant part is how VFS seems to expose a filesystem- like representation of the internals of any device connected to a network. I tried it on my own boxen and it bypassed every protection, software or hardware, with zero manual intervention. It cut through the network like a hot knife through butter. WTF! So how does it do this? I can only say some kind of deep magic must be involved. Personally, I'm betting on a combination of quantum computing and an arcane, yet undiscovered "OSI Layer -1" connecting through the astral plane (just kidding of course). This means, forget about social engineering for access, cracking passwords or hunting 0-day exploits for privilege escalation. The user experience is surreal, like wearing X-ray glasses. Just unbelievable. Is this thing suddenly turning us all into script kiddies? What will happen if (or when) VFS goes mainstream? It will be interesting to find out, that's for sure. In the meantime, my advice is to get it, keep the secret and enjoy while it lasts. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Next Issue It wasn't quite ready for this issue, but we have a piece in the pipeline about the tech behind Empyreum. These folks are announcing a service with bleeding-edge crypto and self- sustaining shelter technology. The target here is clearly the high end survivalist crowd. If they deliver, this would fulfill some libertarian fantasies out there. And if they don't, it could at least be a clever scheme to milk paranoid tech moguls for their excess cash. Watch your mailbox or the doc section of your favorite BBS! ------------------------------------------------------------------- TECHNARCHY e-zine, Volume I, Issue #001 EOF