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(C) Sun Feb 16 12:34:01 EST 1997 Explorer Post 369

Explorer Post 369

Table of Contents

ExpNews

Calendar of Events:
OverSeas WorkShop
Dayton Hamvention
S.A.T.A.N. Should it have been Released
Dumb & Dumber
Our Principals:
Explorer Post 369:
Our Creed:
Linux
Quote of the Month
Use for the VT100s
Donations to Explorer Post 369
Our E-Mail Addresses

Calendar of Events:

April 27 Exp. Recognition Dinner

April 28-30 Camp Out

May 8 EOA Meeting 7:00

July 2-8 Summer Camp

July 25 Advancement Tests

August Court-of-Honor

August 1-11 World Jamboree

January 23 Advancement Tests

January 30 Post Elections

February 3 Court-of-Honor

February 4 Scout Sunday

OverSeas WorkShop

Stephen M Gladfelter <gladfelter.6@osu.edu>

What are you doing this summer? For me this is going to be my last break before college and new responsibility. Most of my friends will get a job and earn and save as much as they can before fall quarter. There is nothing wrong with this, but for myself the thought of being tied down to my hometown for another minute depresses me. It seems like Reynoldsburg is the pit hole of the universe because there is this wonderful, wide world out there and I can see none of it from here. I want to get out of this city. I want to see this world. I need to see this world.

My romantic instincts of travel and excitement must seem irrational or perhaps cliched. I have no response to these accusations; I'm not sure that I can relate to others this feeling of being trapped here. All I can say is that if I did nothing to comply with this impulsive, extemporaneous side of my personality, it would surely die.

I initially planned to ask a friend to bum around the US with me: get a rental and see how many miles we could put on it in two weeks. Maybe visit Yellowstone and drive on to Alaska or maybe see how far south we could drive without a passport. However, as my ambition grew, so did my plans. I now have a concrete itinerary for a jaunt about European this summer.

To make this trip I have made a big decision. I am bottoming out my college tuition that I have saved. These are my thoughts, "I only live once and I will go to college one way or another, but this will be my last chance to take an extended trip for many years to come." I have found a cheap way to go about this though. There is an organization called Volunteers for Peace International (VFP) that places people into volunteer work sites overseas. This is ideal for students because it is cheap since meals and sleeping arrangements provided by the host country, and it allows young people to meet people like themselves from all over the globe. With these plans I can look forward to June 6, my graduation date, instead of dreading it.

For more information about overseas work camps contact your travel agent or: VFP 43 Tiffany RD Belmont, Vermont 05730 (802)259-2759

Dayton Hamvention

Lisa Varner <lvarner@freenet>

On Thu, 6 Apr 1995, Lucas James wrote dread to ask.....What's a Dayton Ham Fest? (Sounds like lots of calories and stiffened arteries:)

The Explorer Code

As an Explorer-

I believe that American's Strength lies in her trust in God and in the courage and strength of her people

I will, therefore, be faithful in my religious duties and will maintain a personal sense of honor in my own life.

I will treasure my American heritage and will do all I can to preserve and enrich it.

I will recognize the dignity and worth of my fellowmen and will use fair play and goodwill in dealing with them.

I will acquire the exploring attitude that seeks the truth in all things and adventure on the frontiers of our changing world.

It's a blast. Paul (my husband and I) have gone every year since about 1978. Actually we are thinking of not going this year. It is in Dayton, Ohio. People come from all over the US and Canada. It runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is also known as the Dayton Hamvention, because it started out as a convention for ham radio operators. It is HUGE! It's in the Dayton Hara Arena. Inside the arena is all brand new stuff, usually big companies. In surrounding rooms is all kinds of small businesses from across the country. Then outside in the parking lot is mostly individuals with small businesses, and individuals with tables. Like a huge flea market. Over the years, there is more and more electronics and COMPUTERS! Software, pieces parts, you name it you can find it there...at a great price! They have seminars and testing for the hams, a banquet and off campus stuff for the wives of the dedicated to take off and do craft stuff, although I've never gone with the wives.:-)

S.A.T.A.N. Should it have been Released

James D. Corder <

Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks (SATAN), Is a publicly available software package designed to do security audit on computers by collecting information then reporting the found security holes or known Operating Systems bugs to the system administrator. The software is freely available at: ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/security/satan_doc.tar.Z

The software package "SATAN" collects information about specific computers or entire networks of computers by testing networking protocols and services, such as: NIS, NFS, finger, ftp, etc. The software then will return a report of found holes to the person running this program. If a patch is known for the bug or hole "SATAN" reports it as it creates "maps" of the network.

It has been said that the Author of the public domain software package known as "satan" was fired by his employer. That made me feel extremely Indigo. It is my personal opinion that he was fired so his employer could be politically correct and therefor escape the wrath of the media.

Many people in the world had stated that such a package should have never been released to the InterNet. Some believe that the knowledge is to powerful in the hands of ruthless crackers. [Some day we will go into the differences between the Hacker and the Cracker.]

Though I disagree with his choice of its name, I truly believe that his decision to publicly offer it was the correct one. All of the holes and bugs that "satan" takes advantage of are presently known by the System Administration Community.

The majority of concerns are from managerial computer neophytes that are paranoid about security problems and face it the media wanted a good story. Unfortunately, the average corporations in America under pay their MIS staff. Consequently, unskilled or lazy people are in charge of their computer security. Therefore, any cracker could abuse the knowledge obtained from utilizing this software package could gain access and even complete root control.

I have always been disappointed when new security holes and/or bugs are found in an operating system and individuals are afraid to release them due to those criminals that would abuse the knowledge. I have known many companies that are afraid to inform their own employees of the security holes, even to patch them, for the fear that they will break into their "private" files. I have never understood that one: If you give the System Administrator root privileges, s/he has total and complete access to EVERYTHING on your system anyway. If the person is not trustworthy, fire them.

Oh the other hand, if you freely distribute security information amongst the population then the quality System Administrators will utilize such programs as "satan" "cops" etc. to protect the computers from the crackers.

According to The United States Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability INFORMATION BULLETIN Unauthorized users may execute commands through Any system running SATAN.

Commands can be sent to the SATAN HTML server where the commands will be executed with the privileges of the SATAN process.

SOLUTION:

Upgrade to SATAN 1.1.1.

I found it neat that the premier security tool had a profound security hole in it:-)

Dumb & Dumber

Lucas James <jj@ldjpc.apana.org.au>

Sunday night we went to the movies and watched "Dumb and Dumber". Boy, was it DUMB (no pun intended). Oh well. The silly thing was I was going to watch Star Trek Generations, until the Venturer Leader convinced me to watch D&D with the rest of the crew. She was apologizing profusely afterwards.

Lisa Varner <lvarner@freenet> I also saw this, (not my choice) and it was stupid, I would have rather seem the Jungle Book again.

Our Principals:

1) Honor before all else.

2) The difference between a winner and a looser is that the winner tried one more time.

3) K.I.S.M.I.F.

Explorer Post 369:

Explorer Post 369 was chartered on December 31, 1994 to the Reformation Luthern Church.

Explorer Post 369 specializes in UNIX for Programmers while emphasizing a deep theme of Engineering Computer Information & Science

Membership in Explorer Post 369 is open to young men and women between the ages of 14 [and in high school] and not yet 20. Annual Membership fees are $15.00.

Our Creed:

Exploring: Enthusiasm, Energy, & Excellence.

Linux

Scott M. Warmbier <scowar@symix.com>

Linux - A FREE Computer Operating System thats really Cool!

Whats this Linux I keep hearing about (or maybe not)? Linux is a full featured -FREE- UN*X that runs on multiple platforms (different types of computers), the most popular being the Intel x86. Linux can be obtained in many ways: you can download it from a BBS or the Internet, get it on CD-ROM (sometimes for as low as $12.95) or borrow a set of disks from a friend who is nice enough to make a set for you. A basic Linux install can be as small as two disks and run off of the second one. You can run Linux on a minimum of a 386SX-16mhz with 4 megabytes of RAM and a floppy drive. With that setup you can at least play with the operating system and decide if you want to install it on your hard drive and have some real fun! I would suggest that if you want to install Linux and do some useful things to have a minimum of a 386DX-40mhz, 8 megabytes of RAM - a VGA card and monitor are needed to run X windows (a window environment that is the standard in the workstation arena).

Why should I install or use Linux?

We need a donation of cabinets to store our computer equipment. Can you help?

The views in this NewsLetter are strictly those of Explorer Post 369 and they do not necessarily represents the views or opinions of the Reformation Luthern Church or the Boy Scouts of America and/or the Simon Kenton Council.

Linux is a true 32bit multitasking operating system. DOS and Microsoft Windows are for the most part a 16bit operating systems and GUI (Graphical User Interface). Windows NT is an exception, however its kernel (the heart of the operating system) is based largely upon an UN*X design! Linux comes in many forms or Distributions and with many extras such as Compilers, Languages, X Windows, Communications Packages, Business Software, Database Managers, Games, and Utilities - for FREE or in Shareware form. The UN*X Operating System is very popular on minicomputer, mainframe and workstation systems which make up a large portion of the business computing environment. Some big names in that area include IBM, HP, Digital, Data General, SUN to name a few. What about DOS on IBM, HP or Digital? Remember were talking about business environments which are larger and have to be extremely reliable. Linux has a lot of the same functionality and advantages of commercial UN*X on these bigger machines but can run on your home machine and better yet the operating system is FREE! The benefit from running Linux is that it exposes you to another operating system that is very, very close to what you would have at work, in fact, many people who use computers at work in the banking, insurance, and communications industry use UN*X and don even know it! Linux allows people at home to play with things that they cant break at work. They can experiment and install new software without worrying about crashing the system and affecting hundreds or thousands of users. For those fortunate enough to have more than one machine at home you can play with networking and learn some of what your local Systems Administrator does! Linux can be frustrating to install even for someone who has had experience installing the UN*X Operating System on other machines - so don't get depressed when you couldn't install Linux in 10 minutes and be playing Xsolitare under X Windows. A good piece of advise is to bribe a friend who has installed it on their computer. Hint: I can be bribed for pizza and soda, cookies, homemade baked bread, and other tasty treats! Another piece of advice is buy a good book on how to install and run Linux at a computer store that sells a lot of books some books come with a CD-ROM which has a full Linux Distribution and other goodies on it! Expect to pay about $25-$60 for a book with a CD included - if you want one without the CD about $12-$35. OReilly & Associates makes, in my opinion, the best UN*X books around, and guess what, they even have a couple of Linux books! Another route to go is buy the CD-ROM without a book - look for them in the Shareware software section or ask a Salesperson for help. They may look at you weird but, thats because they have been brain-washed by Bill Gates! These CDs often include an installation guide or a HOWTO on the CD to help you but I think its nice to have a good old book to be able to look things up quickly (OK, I know I shouldn't want more trees to die, but I like to do my reading from paper). You can also order CDs from a company like InfoMagic (602) 526-9565 they may be more expensive (Postage and Handling), but you will probably get a more recent version of the Distribution. I hope you have luck with your first experience in working with Linux, but remember backup your system before you start! I look forward to following up this with a regular column dedicated to Linux - starting with the basic installation of Slackware - next time!