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Hacking / mesh ID query

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Thu, 2014-02-20 16:42

Karmarainbow Karmarainbow's picture

Hacking / mesh ID query

Hi guys There are very smart people on this forum. I hope one of you can help. I'm getting ready to GM some EP and am trying to make sure I understand the rules. I'm a bit confused about hacking and can't quite conceptualise how it is intended to work. According to the rules, in order to hack a target you need its mesh ID. The rules seem to suggest that if your target is that transhuman called John over there on the ther side of the room, you can trivially obtain his mesh ID if he is mesh-enabled and operating openly. If on the other hand he has stealthed his signal, you need an Interface roll at -30 to locate his wireless signal and thus obtain his mesh ID. So far, so good. Where I get confused is the situation where I am at one end of a hab and I want to hack a particular device or transhuman at the other end of the hab many km away. Because the target is out of direct range of my mesh inserts/ecto, and I don't have line of sight, it doesn't seem to be possible to obtain their mesh ID by listening in to their wireless signal. So is the idea that you can only hack someone (if you don't know their mesh ID) when you are close by? If not, then you would have to be able to hack someone a long dstance away via the mesh. In that case, how would you obtain their mesh ID to be able to target them? How would you pin down which of the thousands of nodes is the cranial computer of your target? I thought perhaps you would have to find the person's physical location using spimes (perhaps with a Research test) and then connect to a node close to them to eavesdrop on their wireless signal / mesh ID. Even if that works for hacking a person, what if you are trying to hack a mesh enabled server that is hidden out of sight? Any help explaining this greatly appreciated!

Thu, 2014-02-20 20:57

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

yep you can use splimes to

yep you can use splimes to get a fix on your target. as for where that is not possible all you would need to do is follow the packet information. it would require a lot of research rolls to follow the packets to their origin. once you have the origin you have the id and then you can directly target it. the routers will make sure your attack gets there properly. lets just hope they aren't behind something like Tor

Sat, 2014-02-22 17:40

Karmarainbow Karmarainbow's picture

Ok, that makes a lot of sense

Ok, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks

Sat, 2014-02-22 18:05

consumerdestroyer consumerdestroyer's picture

Remember too that if you're

Remember too that if you're not careful with those Research checks to get there (taking the appropriate penalties to be checking incognito as possible), the target's Muse might have quietly alerted them and begun counter-Research checks to figure out who in the frick is pinging their mesh presence so hard.

Sat, 2014-02-22 22:34

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

indeed. running tracerts by

indeed. running tracerts by default is a fairly obvious if routine web traffic. BTW i decided to put a real life example i just rang on our forum here :)

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>tracert eclipsephase.com

Tracing route to eclipsephase.com [23.92.17.141]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    12 ms     9 ms    10 ms  te-5-2-ur01.REDACTED.nh.boston.comcast.net [68
.87.156.213]
  4    12 ms    15 ms    35 ms  be-65-ar01.needham.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.85.
69.165]
  5    21 ms    23 ms    19 ms  he-2-8-0-0-cr01.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net [68
.86.93.185]
  6    23 ms    24 ms    24 ms  as8001-1-c.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net [173.167
.58.26]
  7    24 ms    19 ms    45 ms  0.e1-2.tbr1.mmu.nac.net [209.123.10.118]
  8    22 ms    20 ms    20 ms  vlan801.esd1.mmu.nac.net [209.123.10.10]
  9    36 ms    21 ms    23 ms  207.99.53.42
 10    18 ms    28 ms    19 ms  li641-141.members.linode.com [23.92.17.141]

Trace complete.

Fri, 2014-02-28 05:10

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

"Use the Forks, Luke"

Pardon this bad Lucasian pun, but the advice is still valid create, prior to the hack, a couple Delta Forks that you store in ectos, with hacking relevant skills Infosec Interface Research Programming if you're busy fighting, they can hack in your stead, but if you work with you on the same hack, you could get a nice teamwork bonus. If your own Infosec skill is high enough, it would be like you are the admin already, in all discretion I think there is a tutorial for this in Transhuman. I can quote on which page it is on the top of my head, but it's there, right after the Sentinel Playbook part inspiration wise, I think that Intelligence (the series with Lost's Sawyer) has some nice examples of how it could like in augmented reality; and the hacking part in EVE Online is a good example on how to represent the location mesh. I use it personally (well, I tested it in a few hack simulation and it's fairly dynamic) Beside, you could make it a group thing, and involve the whole party, with the other PCs intervening in meatspace, distracting the guards and stuff, while the hacker(s) sneak in the mesh, taking over the security spimes.

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Fri, 2014-02-28 12:09

consumerdestroyer consumerdestroyer's picture

In other words, go fork

In other words, go fork yourself!

Fri, 2014-02-28 13:07

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Fork it all, Fork it aaa-ooo-aaalll!

it would also provide interesting plot seed -one of the 'security forks' gets corrupted and discretely sabotage missions, or messes up with the repnet, causing rep score to plummet -one of the forks becomes ambitious and tries to take over -if one of the players has for habit to fork around, you can keep one of them to evolve on its side, and become the vilain who seems to know the PC better than himself.

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Fri, 2014-02-28 14:00

consumerdestroyer consumerdestroyer's picture

Multiple Man storylines are

Multiple Man storylines are pretty good material to mine for big time fork ups. Some aren't, though. For example, I really love the one where he goes to hold his and Siryn's newborn baby and figures out it was a duplicate's baby and not his because [i]the baby absorbs into him[/i]. Don't know how to do [b]that[/b] storyline with forks, but then the reabsorption/reintegration parallel isn't all that exact.

Fri, 2014-02-28 16:02

#10

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

The One

Does anybody remember that B-movie with Jet Li (and I believe Jason Statham)? that led me to think, what if it was one of the forks who sought to incorporate the original and thus become a new original himself? retain all that he became since the forking and gaining what the previous original had kinda sounds like Diablerie/Amaranth in classic WoD doesn't it?

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Fri, 2014-02-28 16:51

#11

consumerdestroyer consumerdestroyer's picture

The Attack of the Transcended

The Attack of the Transcended Delta Fork!

Fri, 2014-02-28 18:52

#12

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

with the uplifted beaver Woodchuck Norris

as the courageous Firewall sentinel tasked with stopping the rogue fork That bring another segwayed question how does MeshID work for uplifted and/or metastars? I mean do they have their own or their handler's ID above their own?

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Fri, 2014-02-28 19:06

#13

consumerdestroyer consumerdestroyer's picture

How much wood can Woodchuck

[i]How much wood can Woodchuck Chuck chuck?![/i] Oooh yeah, in polities where uplifts or AGIs or whatever have no rights but can still exist, I wonder if even [i]having[/i] a Mesh ID could be seen as offensive? "Hey, where do [b]you[/b] get off havin' a fuckin' Mesh ID, [i]beastie[/i]?"

Fri, 2014-02-28 21:25

#14

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

that would be The One

Fri, 2014-02-28 21:56

#15

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

consumerdestroyer wrote:"Hey,

consumerdestroyer wrote:
"Hey, where do [b]you[/b] get off havin' a fuckin' Mesh ID, [i]beastie[/i]?"

Woodchuck Norris;"I don't know, I'll ask your mother when I bed her this evenning, she's the one who gave it to me! And have a 'Groot' day!" (C'me on! don't tell me you didn't think of Rocket Racoon, when you read about Woodchuck Norris!) [img]http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/292/3/4/just_for_fun___rocket...

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...