B U R N - I N G ...or...How to work on a Kinko's
%% %% %% %% %% %% %% %%% % %%% Graphic Design Workstation
%% %% %% %%% %% %% %% %% %% %% ALL Day and Not Pay a Red Cent
%%%% %% %%%%%% %%%% %% %% %% Plug Nickle or Thin Dime!
%% %% %% %% %%% %% %% %% %% %% Concept by Arcangel
%% %% %% %% %% %% %% %%% %%% Written by oleBuzzard
-------------------------------------------------------------------02-FEB-96--
INTRO
I like this one. In Colorado (where I live), Kinko's has been running this
Ad Campaign: 'Have you been to Kinko's Lately?' This alludes to Kinkos'
complete architecural and technological overhaul of their 'Consumer Branch
Offices.' Kinko's in case you don't know, is a print related Business
Services company that offers Corporate Quality Printing services for Small
Business and your everyday Joe. Anyway, Kinko's is expanding, and every
Kinko's in town has moved from Strip Mall shacks, to 4000+ Sq.ft.
facilities, complete with bright lights, conference rooms, state of the art
Copiers and Color Copiers, and, upgraded Self-service computers. Quite an
improvement considering last year (1995), Kinko's offered just 2 each Mac LC
IIs and IBM 486SX 30s with barely enough room to accomodate those. For '96,
nothin but P-90s, PowerPCs and plenty of room!
Awesome, huh? Well not exactly. I was there for the Grand Opening, and you
should have seen my jaw drop when my eyes zeroed in on that Macinosh 9500
PowerPC 604 Graphics Workstation. I was like 'Cool!' I immediatley plopped
my ass down in front of it and proceeded to work on a little Graphic Design
job I was working on. You know it's funny how a little job can turn into a
BIG job at the drop of hat when you're working on a computer. That 'little
job' ended up takin four hours and 17 printous. Anyway, I was like 'Damn...
oh well there's $30 bucks down the drain.' $30 bucks my ASS!..."HOW MUCH?!?
$123.97?!!' I couldn't f---in' believe it. Kinko's computer rental rate USED
to be $6.50/hour for any computer. To use that f---in' Workstation cost me
$19.25/hour! Plus they charged me half price for each messed up Color
printout. I was so pissed! I mean, it was cool Kinko's Expanded and
Remodelled and stuff, but make no mistake...they did pass the cost onto the
consumer. Anyway, I had been plotting my revenge ever since. Thank you
Arcangel.
DESK TRACY
Arcangel is an up and commer in (303) who hipped me to how you can use those
damn Kinko's Self-service computers for FREE! Kinko's uses an Accounting
Package on their Macs called Desk Tracy. Basically Desk Tracy keeps an
accounting of:
* Hours, minutes, and seconds online
* Pages printed
* Actions performed
The way Desk Tracy works is: when you get on one of Kinkos' self-service
machines, you have to 'Login', and from that point forth, all time and
printing is accounted. Once you're done, Desk Tracy sends a printout of
charges to the Main Checkout Desk, and....they gotcha!
As part of Desk Tracy's security: it protects against Restarts by keeping
you you logged in and all of your charges added up if you fail to logout
before Restarting. If you try and Restart with Extensions Off, it WON'T
disable Desk Tracy. If you try and Delete anything from the computer, or try
and alter the System Folder in anyway, i.e. drag something into it, or take
something out of it, it will prevent you from doing so. And finally, you
can't access the Desk Tracy Configuration (to override all of this
protection) without a password. Not a bad little package. Thankfully,
because of Arcangel's genius, there's a way around all of this sh#t.
BURN BABY, BURN
One of the most common ways of defeating protected Control Panels
(AfterDark, SAM, Virex, etc), is to delete the Prefs. By deleting the Prefs
you can effectivley remove a files protection because it's configuration is
gone, and it's password is nulled out. Unfortunatley, some programs protect
the Prefs file to prevent just this. In the case of Desk Tracy the Prefs
file is protected in that, first off, nothing can be deleted from a 'Desk
Tracy-ed' computers anyway. On top of that, Desk Tracy prevents anything
from being moved into or out of the System Folder. So much for Deleting the
Prefs or Restarting without them. Enter: Arcangel. Arcangel discovered that
all though you can't Delete or move the Desk Tracy Prefs, you can BURN them!
BURN 2.2 is, what's called, a File Wiper. File Wipers permanently destroy a
file by writing over every sector of it with null data (0s). By this way of
erasing a file, the file is not Deleted, it's physically written over.
Wholey by coincedence (I suppose) this 'writing over' process circumvents
the mechanics involved in Deleting a file (a process which simply takes a
file out of the Desktop Database) and thereby DEFEATS protection against
deleting files. Say good bye to Desk Tracy's protection.
Steps:
1. Login to a Kinko's Self-service Mac and Insert your Disk with Burn on it
2. Open -> System Folder: Extensions: Desk Tracy Folder
3. Drag the files 'DTPreferences' and 'UData' onto the Burn 2.2 Icon.
4. Go up to the Menubar, you should see your Login name up there, drag down
to 'Configuration'
5. Don't change anything, just click the Close Box and it will ask you if
you want to Save. Click 'Yes'
6. Now go up to the Apple Option Menu and Select 'About Desk Tracy'. It
should beep at you, and then show you the Desk Tracy 'About' Window.
7. By this process, you have just Returned Desk Tray to it's Virgin
Installation State! All accounting is Off, and Desk Tracy is like it was
when it was First installed, BEFORE it was configured!
Now I tried this and it worked great! But I discovered one problem; Kinko's
already (kinda) knows about this trick (I think). As part of the 'NEW'
Kinkos' there's a Camera aimed from the ceiling at every other Computer, AND
the Employees walk around looking over the shoulder of Self-service Computer
patrons. This policy probably stems from fraudulent use of their Color
LaserWriter 600 ;>. In any event I'm at Kinko's about to try Arcangel's
trick for the second or third time, when this Employee comes up behind me
and says, 'Hey, what are you using Burn for?' I'm like, 'Excuse me?!' He's
all, 'We don;t allow Burn on our computers.' I asked why and he responded
'Company policy'. Now I'm not sure what THIS stems from--Arcangels' is, as
as far as I know, a fairly new and original trick. Despite this there is NO
question, Kinko's does not want you using Burn on their computer. Now if
they're going to be spying on you and looking over your shoulder for
whatever reason, and they don't want you using Burn for whatever reason,
it's obvious you're going to need a subterfuge...
THE CLANDESTINE BURN
Basically what the following does is hide Burn's existence and actions. See,
the Burn icon looks like a flaming Trashcan, a dead giveaway, so we need to
change this. Also, Burn's called Burn--to obvious--so we need change this
too. Third, Burn puts up a dialog that beeps and says 'Are you sure you want
to delete the file [whatever]?' WAY to obvious, we definitley need to change
this.
The first two are easy, a couple of simple Finder mods. The last change,
getting rid of the dialog, requires a patch. For the patch I went to that
virtuoso of Cracking, Observer. Now, he pointed out to me that in Burn's
Preferences you can just turn Off 'Confirm Delete' thereby preventing any
Dialog from showing when you Burn the Prefs file. The only problem is, you
want to try and be as inconspicuous as possible about this whole thing. Now,
if you have to Load up Burn, select the Preferences, and configure the
options...so much for being inconspicuous. And, because Burn defaults to
'Confirm Deletes', the only way to prevent it from doing this without
configuring it when you move it to a new computer, is to do a patch. So,
a-patching we will go
Steps:
1. If you don't have it, go get Burn 2.2:
ftp://mirrors.aol.com/pub/info-mac/disk/burn-22.hqx
2. Create and Save a Microsoft Word or Teach Text document.
3. In the Finder, go up to File and Get Into on the Saved document. Within
the Get Info information, click on the document Icon, and select Copy.
4. Get Info for Burn 2.2, select the Burn Icon and Paste. Burn 2.2 should
now look like a Teach Text or Word Document.
5. Rename Burn to 'Assignment #1' or something.
6. Use Resourcer or ResEdit to make the following patch to remove the
Delete Confirmation Dialog:
CODE 1, Offset $C12--change from: 67 1C
to: 60 1C
That's it, The Clandestine Burn. Flame up those Desk Tracy prefs files in
complete obscurity. Noone, except Happy future customers will know a thing!
OUTRO
Ah, revenge is sweet! That'll teach those bastards to charge me $19.25 an
hour to use their f---kin' computer! ;>, I'd like to thank Arcangel for his
*KILLER* concept, and Observer for his Programming Prowess. If you'd like to
contact Arcangel he can be found at The Gravity Well (303)-YOU-WISH. If you'd
like to contact Observer he can be reached at <k0p> BBS, user #158. If you'd
like to contact me or read more of my Infamous T-Philes (nearly 40), you can
goto the kn0wledge phreak WWW site at:
http://iti2.net/k0p or call <k0p> BBS:
oleBuzzard's 7 Macintosh/PC Underground
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