ICE is Chen Xu, and FOX is Zhong Ziyu; these are their unchanging IDs used on the hacker battlefield. XUAN, naturally, refers to Wu Yuan. This guy is currently in a passionate relationship with Bi Xuan… well, it's Wu Yuan who's passionate, as Bi Xuan is quite reserved. Therefore, Wu Yuan changed all his online IDs to XUAN, taken from the character "Xuan" in Tang Bi Xuan's name.
As for Twofat, needless to say, he's prematurely obese. Twofat is actually Erfei... This name was given to him by Guan Yi, and the fat guy couldn't refuse it!
SNOW is Zhan Jing; I don't know why she chose such a name.
ICE is ice, SNOW is snow... Zhan Jing explained with a calm smile, "Because I saw that your name is Ice, I was too lazy to think of a name. I'll just call you Snow."
The rule of this hacking competition is that you need a server administrator account... How do you prove you've obtained the account? You change the account name to your own ID.
Four super administrators have been added. This means that all of your teammates will also be able to join the server.
But how could it be so fast?
"Impossible? Absolutely impossible?!" the white goose exclaimed. "How could they have obtained the administrator account so quickly? Was it true that the administrator didn't have a password?!"
The rules of the competition are as follows: the server is provided by the referees of the Red Hacker Alliance, and each team is given an IP address to access it. This server, of course, needs to have a basic operating system installed. This operating system requires a basic administrator account, which is password-protected.
The most basic operation for both sides of the hacking is to attack each other while preventing themselves from being kicked out, and to crack the password to obtain the administrator account.
But unexpectedly, the administrator account was hacked by the other party in just a few seconds!
They are cheating!
When Chen Xu and the others saw the ID "Azure Goose" type "You're cheating! How did you get the administrator password?" on the screen, they all smiled disdainfully. Please. Only a fool would try to brute-force the system administrator password! You see, to ensure fairness, the system password is created by the referee randomly typing in a line of numbers, copying it, and then pasting it into the password input field using special software.
In other words, even the administrator doesn't know what password they set, which ensures the fairness of the competition. At the same time, it would be impossible to crack such a scrambled password in the long run.
However, as mentioned before, no matter how the system changes, it cannot create something from nothing. Saving passwords also requires a file to store them. Once this file is deleted, the system's passwords will naturally be set to "no password" by default.
The server runs Windows 2003, a server version operating system. For Microsoft systems, cracking this is incredibly easy! So Chen Xu only needed to find the file containing the password and delete it using a tool… Without a tool, the file is protected by the system, commonly known as a "locked" file. Such files are specially encrypted and cannot be deleted or opened… However, this protection method is outdated; an ordinary person might find the file but still be unable to delete it. But for Chen Xu, it was an incredibly simple matter.
But the other party actually thought they were cheating?
Sigh, it seems we're really not on the same level in terms of strength!
The plan was clear: once they broke in, Chen Xu would obtain the password and create an administrator account. Then Zhan Jing and Wu Yuan would begin patching the system to prevent vulnerabilities… because firewalls used in battlefields often have many vulnerabilities, and exploiting even one could cause serious problems. While they were patching the vulnerabilities, Ying Nianzaofei and his apprentice Zhong Ziyu harassed and sniped the enemy, while Chen Xu used his aggressive fighting style to drive out a few people first.
In other words, Chen Xu was on the front line, while Zhan Jing and Wu Yuan were like defenders, and Ying Nian Zao Fei and Zhong Ziyu were passers, drawing fire for Chen Xu or finding an opening to strike decisively... shadow forwards.
It's clear that Chen Xu and his team took their opponents very seriously before, but the problem now is that their opponents are obviously too weak!
It's not just about skill level; just based on their knowledge alone, you can tell that the two teams are not on the same level.
"What should we do? Proceed with the original plan?"
"The original plan my ass!" Even Gao Xiaojie could see at this point that the other party was clearly a newbie!
Calling them newbies might be a bit derogatory, but judging from their description, "Qiong Kaixin" is probably a team that uses off-the-shelf software, knows some attack and defense techniques, and has some technical skills, but their fundamentals are very weak... Otherwise, they wouldn't have asked such a question. Asking this question doesn't necessarily mean they're technically bad, but it definitely means their basic skills are not solid, and they haven't even figured out the most basic system principles.
Gao Xiaojie said, "Now you don't need to waste any more time, just sweep them out and that's it!"
Organized but undisciplined!
How could our team say such irresponsible things?
Chen Xu looked at Zhan Jing, who had already pushed the keyboard back. He smiled calmly and shook his head: "Yes, I agree with her. You can clean up the mess."
Chapter 235 of the main text: Discovered
Chen Xu quickly kicked the group out of the server, then turned around and said with a frustrated look, "The difference in strength is just too big!"
After hearing this, Zhan Jing chuckled and said, "Actually, that's how it is in hacker competitions. Unless both sides are experts who have reached the same level of bottleneck, it's hard to reach a point where they are evenly matched. Hacking is a profession where the difference in strength is almost like heaven and earth."
Is that so? Chen Xu looked at Ying Nianzaofei, who nodded in agreement, but added, "But it can be said that the current top masters are all at a bottleneck, because it is almost impossible to make any further breakthroughs at their level, so their strengths are about the same. Once this bottleneck is broken, they will be invincible like Mitnick back then."
Chen Xu nodded. It seemed he still had a long way to go... He should reach the bottleneck first.
After Chen Xu and his team advanced, another 26 teams were eliminated that day, leaving 27 teams in the final round. After two rounds of elimination, the remaining 27 hacker groups are now all quite strong. Therefore, this is where the real action begins, and it can no longer be like before, where a single match decides the winner and the game ends.
The 27 teams were divided into nine groups of three, playing a round-robin tournament, with one team advancing from each group. The remaining nine teams were then divided into three groups to determine the top three, who then competed in a final showdown to determine the current top 27. This is where the truly captivating aspect begins!
This time, the group draw was entirely randomized by computer. Because there are no seeded teams, the randomization might result in several strong teams being placed in one group, while several weaker teams might be placed in another.
In short, it all comes down to luck!
Chen Xu still wanted to cheat by drawing lots. But Zhan Jing told him that Blue Baby had said cheating was not allowed, otherwise things would get chaotic, so he had to give up.
In reality, to prevent cheating, the firewall used by the organizers' server was the one provided to the military by SMMH. That firewall is hailed as a god-tier firewall; even the X organization spent six months desperately attacking it before finally taking it down. Therefore, in the short term, Chinese hackers cannot access that server to modify the system data… The only one, Chen Xu, could enter through a known backdoor, but considering that his purpose in coming here wasn't to win the championship, he didn't care and left it to fate.
As a result of the draw, Chen Xu's "Foxtail Grass" team was placed second in Group C. The other two teams in the same group were named "Don't Know What to Name" and "I Am a Spinach"...
What a ridiculous name!
Honestly, choosing a name is a real headache. If you focus too much, you'll always feel that this name is bad, that name is bad! But if you just pick a random name and put it on the table, maybe everyone will accept it.
These two teams are clearly like that. The "not knowing what to name" part probably stemmed from a near-breakdown in their search for a name, leading them to choose such a nonsensical one: "I am a spinach..." Needless to say, this likely comes from them playing Louis Koo's song while filling out their team name: "Ah, I am a spinach, spinach spinach spinach..."
These are all a large army of pseudonyms!
Because many of the participants in this hacking competition were members of the Red Hacker Alliance—basically, people you see every day—everyone knew the competition's purpose was to promote computer technology and encourage more people to learn it. Therefore, they didn't take the results too seriously, and instead of using their real identities to make a name for themselves, they all used aliases. Using aliases also had the advantage of preventing others from knowing who they really were, which was beneficial. After all, everyone in the Red Hacker Alliance knew each other inside and out—their styles and skill levels were all well-known—so using aliases added a bit of fun.
I heard that only a handful of people, such as Blue Baby and Lion Guan Pingchao, did not change their aliases... mainly because they are all veterans of the Red Hacker Alliance and are not allowed to change their aliases.
So now Chen Xu pointed at the other party's member list and asked Zhan Jing with a headache, "Do you know this group of people?"
The group "I am a spinach" has five members whose IDs are all "XX spinach"... namely, braised spinach, cold spinach salad, Popeye eating spinach, halal spinach, and garlic spinach... These guys are clearly here to prank people!
Zhan Jing laughed and said, "How would I know them? Unless you hack into their computer to find out."
Hmm?
That's a great idea!
The problem is, even if we wanted to hack into them, we'd need to find their IP addresses first, right? The official channels keep all players' IP addresses confidential, so we can't get them right now. The hacking claim is pure nonsense.
However, it wasn't entirely without loopholes. Zhan Jing suggested two methods. The first was to find the opponents the betting team had faced in the last battle, or to hack into the servers they used in their last fight, to see if they could find any clues about the betting team. The second was to hack into S, because S had an interview with the participating teams, including an interview with the betting team's captain, Garlic Spinach.
Seeing Zhan Jing's serious expression, Chen Xu couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat and said, "You're not really serious, are you? I was just saying!"
Zhan Jing said solemnly, "This is not something to be taken lightly. You are the captain, and we are responsible for carrying out your orders. Even if you make a suggestion, if we all agree that it is acceptable, then we need to start implementing it. If you don't even have this much awareness... I hope you don't treat this competition as a joke. If you continue to treat it like a game, then you will drag the entire team down."
This was the first time Chen Xu had seen Zhan Jing so serious, and he was somewhat speechless after hearing what she said. He nodded awkwardly.
The atmosphere was a bit tense.
Gao Xiaojie glanced at Zhan Jing cautiously, then went over and took her hand, whispering, "Jingjing, are you being too demanding of him? Or are you in a bad mood today?"
“It’s not strict,” Zhan Jing realized she had been too harsh, and breathed a sigh of relief, softening her tone as she said, “Chen Xu, I hope you can learn something from this competition. These things may not be things that the SMMH masters can teach you. As a captain, you may not need to be the most skilled player on the team, you may not need to be an expert in everything, or do everything yourself. But you are responsible for making decisions, and we are responsible for carrying out your decisions. Some things are very serious, and you can’t always treat them with a game mentality; that won’t do you any good for your growth.”
Chen Xu nodded seriously. He wasn't the kind of person who couldn't listen to other people's opinions, and Zhan Jing was good to him.
So Chen Xu said, "Alright then, let's use the second method first: hack into Sina's servers. As usual, I'll be the main attacker, and you guys will assist me. Zhan Jing, prepare to analyze the password first."
"That's more like how a captain should act," Zhan Jing nodded in satisfaction and sat down at the computer. The others were even more frightened by the usually gentle girl's sudden sharp words and quickly took their places.
Zhong Ziyu secretly told Wu Yuan, "Some girls are always throwing tantrums. They don't learn anything good, but instead try to emulate those 'savage girlfriends' from Korea. They think they're so cool, that throwing tantrums will get men's attention and make them listen to them. Look at that, what's a truly good girl? A truly good girl doesn't usually express her opinions, but when she does say something meaningful, men won't dare disobey her!"
Wu Yuan and Ying Nianzaofei both deeply agreed!
Now, under the leadership of Chen Xu's "botnet army," Sina's servers can no longer withstand Chen Xu's attacks... He can even hack the BBC. The defense capabilities of portal websites like Sina and Sohu are about the same as the BBC's. In comparison, NetEase is better because Guan Pingchao recently switched jobs again, from Qihoo to NetEase, and helped strengthen NetEase's servers.
However, it would be easy for Chen Xu to hack Sina, but if he wanted to sneak in, he couldn't use botnets to launch a massive attack... because that would paralyze the Sina website and damage its interests.
This is just a friendly competition; there's no need to make a huge fuss and cause innocent bystanders to suffer.
Since they couldn't openly rob it, they had to steal it secretly.
There are many ways to hack, but this kind of spy-style intrusion is usually done stealthily, so that even the administrator on the other side is unaware that a hacker has ever visited.
Sina's website defenses aren't particularly strong. They have multiple server clusters, which is understandable given it's a large portal website, making comprehensive management impossible. This led to an incident where Sina was hacked, with homepage ads replaced by nude women. The hacker at the time was just a college student, and the methods used were limited to some basic system tools.
Therefore, hacking into Sina's website is not difficult; there are many methods.
The simplest way is to directly access S's backend management page, then follow the trail to crack the account and password of one of its administrators, and then gain access to all administrators, thereby querying the connection records.
This task doesn't require many people to work on it simultaneously, so Chen Xu will take the lead, with Zhan Jing assisting. The others will monitor the data stream from behind to prevent being discovered by the opposing administrator, while preparing to launch the attack once Chen Xu obtains the IP address.
Chen Xu quickly entered the website and found the address of the interview with the betting team. The IP address was obviously a botnet because it was located in Australia.
Just as Chen Xu followed that IP address to gain access, the computer's security system suddenly went off in a frenzy. Chen Xu shouted, "We've been discovered!"
Chapter 236 The Great War of the Three Kingdoms (Part 1)
Since everyone was together, Chen Xu naturally couldn't use Xiao Min's supercomputer. He used a laptop he had chosen himself, and of course, it wasn't his old, beat-up laptop anymore... Chen Xu hadn't been particular about computers before, because he had a computer from the 80s—what computer configuration could even meet his standards these days?!
However, since hacking is a specialized skill, and hacking requires specific configurations, the idea that Kevin Mitnick could hack into the US Air Force's defense system using only a 486 is pure nonsense!
Intrusion also consumes system resources and bandwidth. Older computers are too slow, and they will crash when there is too much data flow! So at the very least, there should be some basic requirements for computers.
However, Chen Xu now had plenty of money in his pocket. After deciding to buy a new computer, he naturally wouldn't buy one that was slightly higher-end than his old laptop. It was basically the top-of-the-line civilian microcomputer that could be achieved at the moment... It cost him nearly 100,000 yuan. Many of the components were obtained by Yi Shuihan through special channels, and they were simply not available on the ordinary civilian market.
This laptop is basically the highest-spec and lightest laptop currently available... It lacks external devices like optical drives and floppy drives, and the entire computer weighs just over 1KB, yet its configuration is astonishing, and its security is also very high. Moreover, Chen Xu installed some defensive software on the computer; of course, he didn't dare use the futuristic software provided by Xiao Min, as that would be too conspicuous. Even ordinary programs are already quite advanced.
Therefore, when an illegal data stream intrudes, even if it is well disguised, it can still be identified by the system and trigger an alarm.
"Don't panic, your defense system can hold out for now. First, find out who's attacking you and locate their IP address!" Zhan Jing said as she opened the keyboard and started working. The others immediately got to work as well.
Chen Xu guessed that the attackers were from the gambling team, because it was obvious that this team was much stronger than the previous one; at least they used botnets during the interview. This showed their concern for their own security... A hacker who always prioritizes their own security can't be too bad!
The opponent's attacks were fierce, and they were simultaneous attacks from multiple points, making it impossible for Chen Xu to determine which one was the opponent's true form.
He was currently inside one of the other party's compromised computers, and Chen Xu quickly checked the network connection status. There were at least a hundred IPs connected to this computer simultaneously. In other words, the other party was very cunning; they had tampered with the compromised computer, or rather, they had deliberately set a trap to lure people into it.
Chen Xu checked the safety of this botnet... In short: Damn!
It would be strange if this wasn't a trap!
This is a computer running naked... "Naked" should be a familiar term; it refers to a computer without any firewall or antivirus software installed. Among the running software, aside from some system processes, he didn't recognize many of the process names, but he could see two processes, "goode" and "bocai.exe," frantically sending junk files into their intrusion ports.
These two processes are clearly "suicidal processes," designed to deal with intruding hackers. To put it simply, it's like trapping a dog in a cage!
This is outrageous!
Chen Xu quickly relayed the IP address of the compromised computer and told them it was a trap. Just then, a dialog box appeared on the desktop. It read: "Is it 'Foxtail Grass,' or do you not know what to name it?"
It's obvious that the people who rigged the game were the betting teams.
They anticipated that one of the other two teams in their group might come to investigate, and that the investigation might involve using the interview address on S, so they deliberately set up an ambush.
Just as Chen Xu was about to reply, another line of text appeared on the whiteboard: "Ha, it's foxtail grass! Hello everyone, it's nice to see you all!"