Phoenix Network Forums

So to get around this nasty little program running on the campus network here at my school, I've sofar come up with a few methods.

1. Peer Guardian - OK so this really doesn't do much, but from using it I found that this program, called ICARUS, (which the actual functions of which is kept pretty secret) seems to be running off of a single box, and I can prevent it from seeing my box by blocking its IP addy. Problem arising from this: it's Win32 only

2. IPsec - so I could stunnel out to a shell or another box and have that forward decrypted data, the problem here being that I'm too unskilled to make a script that would make all the common ports into stunnels, and I don't know if encrypted data has any effect on ICARUS, ie, it may just watch for certain loads of traffic.

3. Pioneering - writing something to evenly distribute and encrypt the outgoing packets from my computer over multipe ports and use a shell to recombine and decrypt. Obviously this is a little excessive considering my knowledge is mostly limited to theory when it comes to networks/security. The only way this differs from IPsec is that there wouldn't be a large volume over select ports, thus attempting to further cloak any large volume of activity.

So, any ideas on what I can do? The goal here is to fool a program that restricts internet activity, with the catch being that I would need to hide both inbound and outbound traffic and possibly have the data encrypted in order to prevent any sniffed backets from being interperted. And if I could do this without a shell it'd be nice too.

I may be a little too ambitious in what I want to do given my skill level, but I have a learn by doing philosophy anyways, so please don't feel like you have to hold back on a response. If I don't understand it, I look it up. If I can't find it, I'll ask.

uhhh I would have some ideas and suggustions if i knew what your were trying to do.

"So to get around this nasty little program running on the campus network here at my school, I've sofar come up with a few methods."

what nasty little program stoping you from doing what ?

The name of the program is ICARUS, and it prohibits any server functions from running, regardless of source. If your MAC address (we're forced to register) is associated with any server process, you're put through punative measures. So since I want to run server apps (there is an inadequate policy about making exceptions for "approved" academic purposes) without being punished, it's necessary for me to create a method of bypassing ICARUS or cloaking my activities from it.

hmmm probably the only way is to use ssh with port forwarding.

That may get around it.

Well al_tyranny and I were discussing this, and a little more research found that ICARUS is basically a conglomeration of Perl scripts, and that access levels are given based on recognition of a combination of IP/MAC addresses. The option here is to go create my own unique unlimited access level via SQL injection, but then again I'm not looking to get myself expelled. If I had some src to work with then I could figure out maybe how to evade classification all together, but there seems to be a method in place for preventing that as well. So it basically looks like I'm pretty fooked unless I come up with a valid blanket arguement as to while to let me have server capabilities... any takers on this? Is there a better way to say that I want to learn but am ineligible for more advanced coursework due to the mountain of pre-reqs?

Of course, you could just get your own connection?
Would this be possible on your campus? Independent of your income, you should get at least a near decent connection for not so much.