From: black.hole.4.spam{at}gmail.com (Don Hills)

In article , "Geo"
 wrote:
>The way I discovered how to hack all the NEC mini systems was when reading
>the install manuals. Usually nobody is thinking security when creating
>sysgen utilities. Now I don't know squat about mainframes but if those
>utilities are still present after the system is up and running, it's
>completely possible they could be used as an entry point. Mainframes
>probably also have some remote maintenance interface that might provide a
>similar point of entry.

The diagnostics etc are there, but as I said you have to be at the machine
to use them. I can't speak for other manufacturers, but at IBM the dangers
of remote access via maintenance ports were appreciated as far back as the
80s for the machines I was supporting (S/370 and S/390 mainframes, and
AS/400).

--
Don Hills    (dmhills at attglobaldotnet)     Wellington, New Zealand
"New interface closely resembles Presentation Manager,
 preparing you for the wonders of OS/2!"
    -- Advertisement on the box for Microsoft Windows 2.11 for 286

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