From: "Geo" 

"Don Hills"  wrote in message
news:Bjv7EtgaXSpX092yn{at}attglobal.net...

> As for having a "maintenance mode", you can IML it with
diagnostics if you
> have it to yourself but normal diagnostic and repair work is done with the
> processor running - you take the section of the complex that you need to
> work on offline via the service console and the machine just runs a bit
> slower until you put it back online. It's very uncommon to have to take
the
> whole machine down for maintenance. It's part of the "z" in zSeries.

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.

Geo.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5