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Re:I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptograp... by andai on Friday January 28, 2022 @04:46PM (#30120792)
When I was 11 or 12 we had a bunch of old Windows (2000?) boxes with a shared network folder — all the students' files were in the same folder. I had just learned about basic batch file "programming" so I made one called Change Your Grades Click Here!!.bat which asked for your username and password (we had individual accounts on the Mac computers) and saved them to a hidden text file in the same folder. Most people didn't fall for it, but I got one girl's login that actually worked, which scared the shit out of me, and I deleted the program. (I really wanted to tell her that "emma" is not a good password, but I thought it wouldn't turn out well for me.)

A few years later, I cracked the admin password (with a Ophcrack live USB) for a silly reason: they had the machines mostly locked down, and I wanted to change the desktop background hahah. I remember being quite disappointed in the sysadmins that the admin password for all the machines in school was a common dictionary word, cracked in 30 seconds.

Oh, once I met a guy who identified as a "hacker" (in the sense of breaking into systems illegally) and he told me (then a young teen) to "have my fun" before I turned 18 and then to stop, which in retrospect was very good advice.

Re:I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptograp... by rootsudo on Friday January 28, 2022 @05:38PM (#30121435)
Ah yes, grabbing the SAM file. That's still a valid attack vector if local admin password rotation isn't in play.
Re:I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptograp... by IronWolve on Saturday January 29, 2022 @04:05PM (#30130435)
When dsl was deployed into my town, it was mostly for doctors offices and the local hospitals.

I was one of the first normal citizens to get dsl internet. I opened windows explorer, and saw all the hospitals and doctors office network folder shares, with patient data.

Yeah, big telecom internet company too.

Re:I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptograp... by vagrantJin on Friday January 28, 2022 @04:52PM (#30120865)
> I got one girl's login that actually worked, which scared the shit out of me, and I deleted the program. (I really wanted to tell her that "emma" is not a good password, but I thought it wouldn't turn out well for me.

With all due respect for HN policy of nuanced, Intelligent debate.

"Wimp"

Re:I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptograp... by hutzlibu on Friday January 28, 2022 @06:49PM (#30122134)
Did you ever had the courage to tell, that you lacked courage, once?
Re:I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptograp... by vagrantJin on Saturday January 29, 2022 @11:22PM (#30134004)
At least a few times a week.

Wimping out is par for the course.