[CS-FSLUG] Novell Sites Hacked

[Josiah Ritchie]

On Tue, 2005-10-04 at 00:45 -0400, Don Parris wrote:

> O.k., just to prove I'm not a real hacker, let me ask my dumb question: 
> Don't you have to hack a server in order to deface it?  Or is it because the 
> goofballs managed to *merely* deface the website, rather than actually get 
> into the software packages, that it's not considered "hacking" proper?
> 
> Please enlighten me.

If it is a wiki site that allowed anyone to edit it already, then this
permission was given freely and them changes were simply monitored. It
is no hack if the access is handed to the world. Besides hacking implies
innovative thought. This doesn't even qualify as cracking, meaning
taking advantage of a known security flaw, if the rumors about it being
an open wiki are true. I haven't bothered read up on it.

JSR/