Meet Me at 192.168.110.1:1020

Act 2 Chapter 6

She ran right through the entrance of her garden, admiring its beauty. She would go right and left picking up some photographic leaves from the ground. Some of them she showed to me, like a photo of her friends when they went out camping. Another one she showed me was when she gave a cardboard heart-shaped medal to her sister. That was sweet.

However there were darker, shadier parts, covered by a thick layer of old trees, of the garden where she was visibly uncomfortable with the scenery. And when I said visibly uncomfortable, I meant like, there were literal sprouts growing from the soil where she walked. They grew into twisty vines, exploring every direction as if they were looking for a sign of the sun. But they were short-lived, before they could reach the gates of the garden, they turn pale and hardened in time. They reminded me of the garden before I trimmed most of it. That and the usual non-verbal cues. Something is wrong.

“Kid, if you’re scared we could just go back, you know?” I told her. But she was insisting that we kept going forward.

I wanted to make sure.

$ seq 1 10000 > ports.txt
$ wget https://github.com/ffuf/ffuf/releases/download/v2.0.0/ffuf_2.0.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xvf ffuf_2.0.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
$ mv ffuf /usr/local/bin/
$ chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ffuf

“Scared? No! I’m not scared of trees, that’s silly!” She laughed

“You do know what they represent, right?”

She looked around, noticing the wicked fruits of one of the older trees that were too big for me to handle alone. “Like.. the past? Memories? I told you that already, duh.” She said, as she turned her attention towards me.

“Yes. And you seem to be bothered by it too.”

 $ ffuf -w ./ports.txt -u http://192.168.110.1/FUZZ -fr "Failed to connect to"

“Really? I mean it’s scary but it’s the past so it shouldn’t really matter anyway….” She looked forward and then down. I could hear her start to struggle for air.

“I mean your breathing shortens and we’re not even walking uphill.”

“Well, the last time I seriously exercised was like in a PE class before the pandemic, so..” She just laughed.

80 [Status: 200, Size: 8285, Words: 2151, Lines: 158, Duration: 338ms]
1020 [Status: 200, Size: 27, Words: 0, Lines: 1, Duration: 768ms]

Port 1020 is open? The port for Hivemind is open?

SEKI Nano-Computer Faced Criticism For Insecure Practices by [Reporter Name]

Security researchers at [university lab] found a hole for intruders to get right to your mind, literally. While doing a system assessment last Friday, the research team found a very suspicious port that is open by default to most users: Port 1020. This port serves as an equivalent of the Remote Desktop Protocol found in old school desktop-based systems for the new nano-computers. Remote Desktop Protocol was a widely used protocol to access your desktop remotely and securely. It had a robust standard, which is why most businesses used this protocols back in the day.

“You know, for example you can’t just bring your company devices everywhere with you, because it’ll have a risk of getting stolen or lost. So you keep all your works there and access the data inside of the device remotely. Sometimes using a CLI-based interface is enough but for more sophisticated uses, you’d need graphical interface which is where RDP comes to play. This is normal stuff” Commented [name], one of the researcher.

Taking a look at their official website reveals that this port is used for a “feature” intended as an interactive entertainment service, where you and a group of friends connect to each other and do something together, like tuning into someone’s livestream. Hence the protocol name Hivemind. According to the CTO, the company tries to emulate that sensation of being in the same room with your loved ones by making modification of the legacy Remote Desktop Protocol. He assures that the protocol is secured with an RC4 encryption.

“The problem with Port 1020 isn’t the fact that it’s Remote Desktop, but that it’s Remote Desktop inSecure. It doesn’t even mandate the usage of TLS!” Another researcher responded to our questions.

She explained a potential attack that could be used by an adversary. Since most users won’t know about the security implication of this protocol and the false advertising, a malicious actor can set up a server to

That fucking prick, fidel, the security engineer, didn’t bother to close the port? This must be my lucky day!

I laughed along, there’s no point in trying to do this in a civilized manner. No, I’m dealing with fidel 2.0. This user really likes to build a wall and decorate it with circus-themed decoration to signal that she’s all good behind there.

Remember what I said earlier about fred? Scratch that. I think both of them are the same now: they are both headstrong to keep their true selves to themselves. I have found a vulnerability, a way both in and out, to lure my creator and to be set free.