Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.

Hack the Stack

14 posts / 0 new
Last post
Sun, 2013-09-29 03:25
#1
Baalbamoth Baalbamoth's picture
Hack the Stack
Is it possible to hack a cortical stack? or force somebody into a potentially damaging VR?
—
"what do I want? The usual — hundreds of grandchildren, complete dominion over the known worlds, and the pleasure of hearing that all my enemies have died in highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me."
Top
Sun, 2013-09-29 08:03
nizkateth nizkateth's picture
Don't quote me but...
I don't think a stack has external access that would allow hacking, for that very reason. I think you have to remove it to access it at all. Not sure about the VR, but probably.
—
Reapers: Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Ball. My watch also has a minute hand, millenium hand, and an eon hand.
Top
Sun, 2013-09-29 11:03
Trinary Trinary's picture
Theoretically
The Cortical Stack makes a really lousy backup because of how often it copies the active brain-state of its carrier without ensuring that it also maintains a 'good' backup; so theoretically you can screw someone's cortical stack backup by sufficiently messing with their active mental state. There are a variety of ways to 'damage' someone in simspace or even with simple access to their mesh inserts. An entire section of the 'Software' heading in the core book's equipment list is dedicated to malicious programs called Scorchers that can inflict both physical and mental trauma on their victims. Creative use of AR Illusion software can also reduce someone to a gibbering, sobbing heap. :) All you have to do is locate their mesh ID and get past their personal firewall and muse to start messing with them. Happy hacking
Top
Sun, 2013-09-29 17:35
Baalbamoth Baalbamoth's picture
I think that's why nobody would have a mesh ID
I mean wouldn't everyone just use disposable ectos instead?
—
"what do I want? The usual — hundreds of grandchildren, complete dominion over the known worlds, and the pleasure of hearing that all my enemies have died in highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me."
Top
Sun, 2013-09-29 19:27
Trinary Trinary's picture
Packet routing
I'm not a network engineer, or even moderately familiar with the technical side of networking beyond 'plug it in here'; so bear with me. Just like the Internet, the Mesh needs to know where to send data it's been asked to convey. Your Mesh ID (especially if you use anonymous accounts) are like a modern IP number; it's the digital address that packets get sent to. It does not; however; necessarily identify the user of that particular device. Sniffer softs are like me sitting down in a resturant, flipping open my laptop, and looking for wireless access: I can see there's routers out there, but I don't know where they're physically located or who they belong to, unless I can gain access to the other computers attached to that router. Why doesn't everyone use disposable ectos? Same reason I don't throw away my laptop every time I use public wifi. Even in a post-scarcity outsystem hab with public nanofab for all; changing to a new device every time you want to connect to the mesh is a hassel; and then the clean device you replace it with needs to be reconfigured for how you're used to it. Unless you happen to like the factory default settings; but then you're just not human. :p
Top
Sun, 2013-09-29 23:43
DivineWrath DivineWrath's picture
Well, biomorphs can get
Well, biomorphs can get Mnemonic Augmentation. That allows someone sleeved in a biomorph to access their cortical stack to make forks, or merge forks with themselves. This might open a back door to accessing one's cortical stack and even performing psychosurgery. Normally, there wouldn't be an established connection (for security reasons), but I think one might be needed to have this happen. You can find the rules on (Core Rulebook, p. 275) that does mention biomorphs doing fork merging with the said augmentation.
Top
Mon, 2013-09-30 07:53
Lorsa Lorsa's picture
As far as I understood, the
As far as I understood, the cortical stack works by having nanobots constantly monitoring the synapses and sending information of the brain's state to the stack. If that is the case, wouldn't it be possible to hack that very transmission? Or is there something in this transmission that makes it be something less than a full ego and more of an "this has changed in the past second" so in order for it to make sense you need to know the ego that was sleeved in there? If it really is a full ego that is sent to the cortical stack every second, then shouldn't uploading be much quicker than currently listed?
—
Lorsa is a Forum moderator [color=red]Red text is for moderator stuff[/color]
Top
Tue, 2013-10-01 10:21
NewtonPulsifer NewtonPulsifer's picture
Baalbamoth wrote:I mean
Baalbamoth wrote:
I mean wouldn't everyone just use disposable ectos instead?
Honestly after that whole TITAN fiasco anybody who uses implanted mesh inserts is an idiot. Its a problematical conceit in Eclipse Phase - everyone blissfully disregards computer security just as much as in our modern day, but realistically after a world ending apocalypse people wouldn't even be allowed on the mesh without the equivalent of a driver's license, and would be put in jail for doing stupid stuff on the mesh (they'd probably treat it the equivalent of drunk driving) or have their mesh privileges revoked permanently and only be allowed to interact with the mesh if they buy a high-end security AI that is indirectly controlled by the government. So you either need to just keep the blinders on and roll with the conceit or change your Eclipse Phase setting to be more believable.
—
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."- Isoroku Yamamoto
Top
Tue, 2013-10-01 11:19
Nebelwerfer41 Nebelwerfer41's picture
Thanks for bringing up one of
Thanks for bringing up one of my many bugaboos with the core setting. AIs almost destroyed humanity? Here, have an AI implanted in your head. Whole factions are dedicated to the downfall of hypercorps and can fork hacker egos to get all the information they care to access? No, you can't have blueprints because hypercorps control them. etc.
Top
Tue, 2013-10-01 14:57
nerdnumber1 nerdnumber1's picture
Baalbamoth wrote:Is it
Baalbamoth wrote:
Is it possible to hack a cortical stack? or force somebody into a potentially damaging VR?
I did have the sick idea of some jerk mislabeling hardcore simulated tentacle rape xp to trick people into playing it without their muse checking it out. Of course, default safety settings on mesh inserts would likely filter intense physical pain and normal xps couldn't prevent you from turning off the xp once you figured out something was wrong/recovered from the initial shock. It might also be a good idea to let your muse screen xp files first. The availability of online xp is rife for abuse by cruel pranksters,even if they aren't super skilled.
Top
Tue, 2013-10-01 15:59
NewtonPulsifer NewtonPulsifer's picture
Nebelwerfer41 wrote:Thanks
Nebelwerfer41 wrote:
Thanks for bringing up one of my many bugaboos with the core setting. AIs almost destroyed humanity? Here, have an AI implanted in your head. Whole factions are dedicated to the downfall of hypercorps and can fork hacker egos to get all the information they care to access? No, you can't have blueprints because hypercorps control them. etc.
The problem with blueprints isn't blueprints. It's the silly desktop cornucopia machine that can replicate itself in 5 hours *facepalm*. I should start a new thread instead of derailing this one with that whole thing...
—
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."- Isoroku Yamamoto
Top
Wed, 2013-10-02 01:17
thezombiekat thezombiekat's picture
Well you would need
Well you would need blueprints for a desktop cornucopia machine (which do not come free with your first one) and it would need to be made one part at a time and assembled so it might take longer than 5 hours (say 10 hours not really much of an improvement) you may even need some exotic feed stock.
Top
Wed, 2013-10-02 13:33
NewtonPulsifer NewtonPulsifer's picture
thezombiekat wrote:Well you
thezombiekat wrote:
Well you would need blueprints for a desktop cornucopia machine (which do not come free with your first one) and it would need to be made one part at a time and assembled so it might take longer than 5 hours (say 10 hours not really much of an improvement) you may even need some exotic feed stock.
Good input. Sorry for the derail - started a thread at http://eclipsephase.com/fast-atomically-precise-manufacturing-not-hard-s... Back to "hacking the stack" :)
—
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."- Isoroku Yamamoto
Top
Fri, 2013-10-11 16:37
Wyvernjack Wyvernjack's picture
Nebelwerfer41 wrote:Thanks
Nebelwerfer41 wrote:
Thanks for bringing up one of my many bugaboos with the core setting. AIs almost destroyed humanity? Here, have an AI implanted in your head. Whole factions are dedicated to the downfall of hypercorps and can fork hacker egos to get all the information they care to access? No, you can't have blueprints because hypercorps control them. etc.
Limited AI with no ability to expand it's intelligence under the circumstances. That's why they hate on the AGI which can actually evolve. For the second part, it's about location. Closer to the Earth, the hypercorps have better tech, better people, and decades of practice on hiding and keeping their things protected. If the anarchist can make a hundred hackers, the Hypercorps have resources to three hundred hackers in specialized and time dilated servers, making it essentially a spoon against a tank sort of battle. Further out, nothing stopping me from giving you any of the hacked and open sourced blueprints.
Top