Cool1Net6

Good Evening, Everyone.

My name is Cool1Net6, and this is my first post. I am back in college, and I am having a little trouble coping with their network.

Background
My schools IT people set up our network/firewall so that it asks you for a username and password every time you try to access the internet. It asks you this usually only through the web browser (using that 'Connect to' prompt), and it blocks all traffic until this security prompt is completed with valid cridentials. It also "leases" this authentication out for 4 hours, which then you must re-enter your information.

This didnt bother me at first, but after a few weeks it gets rather annoying having to enter in my information over and over again several times a day, or leaving my computer for a long duration and loosing my internet connection. The prompt shows in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera. Also, it is only for accessing the world wide web; it does not occurr when using the internal network.

So far, I have found out that this is just a BASIC AUTH challenge sent from some server on the network. Also, my school firewall kills all ICMP traffic, so pinging anything is out of the question.

Problem/Question
I was hoping to make a program that will completely intercept the BASIC AUTH challenge and fill it out "manually". For example, the program would accept a username and password from the user, store them, then keep checking to see if there is an internet connection. Then if there is none, it invoaks the prompt and fills out the information and submits it. All this has to be done transparently to the user (meaning no prompts actually show) and although resources isnt a very large concern, I dont want to make a program that takes 25MB of memory.

I have programmed before, so I do have that background, and I'm open to almost any programming language. That being said, there are some restictions. First, it has to be somewhat easy to learn (Sorry assembly guys). Second, it has to produce a half-decent GUI easily, meaning a couple labels, 2 text boxes, maybe some buttons and an image too. Visual Basic instantly comes to mind, and I have used Visual Basic before, but I only have access to VB 6, and its been a while (4 years). Third, it has to be powerful enough to do the task at hand. I am familiar with C/C++ and Java, but the last time I coded in that was 3 years ago (2 yrs for Java) and I never graduated from the "command prompt" window to a Windows GUI (in C++). Also, I have no development kit's except for VB6.

If you need any more information on how my school network/firewall works, please just ask.

Thank you for your time.

-Cool-

thechristelegacy

Since you have expirence with Java, go with that. I understand GUIs aren't that bad. Plus it's a bit more "advanced" than VB. If you want to do ist quickly and easily, you can always use a scripting language such as Python or Ruby.

DaWei

I think its against forum rules or policy to aid someone in subverting the security measures of a system, regardless of the silliness of such measures or the intent of the party asking. I could be wrong. There are lots of crackz/warez destinations available. If I'm correct, I'd suggest this thread be closed.

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Ooble

As a student, I have a soft spot for this guy... but why do you need to be logged on for more than four hours?

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Cool1Net6

@ DaWei ... I'm sorry if I have broken any rules, my profound apologies if this has occurred. I understand how this could be considered circumventing a security system, but I honestly dont think it will compromise the integrity of the network/firewall that much. It still requires you to enter in valid cridentials and it doesnt hack the network itself in order to eliminate the prompt. Its sole purpose is just to automate what I find to be a tedious task.

I am not a fan of any Warez site; I never figured them out, they are badly in need of a web designer, and quite frankly I dont trust anything on them. By making this program myself, I am ensured there isnt any "suprises" in the program, and I learn a little more programming along the way. I dont think there is any "1337 hax0r pr0gz" out there that will do the task I want it to do.

@ Ooble ... Here's a typical scinario:
I start my computer at 8AM. I log onto my PC and as it boots up, all my little internet apps that load and update and connect fine at home all break until I open my web browser and enter in my cridentials. To do that, I load my web browser, go to some site like Google, have the prompt show, fill it out correctly, and continue to check my email.

I get ready for class at 9, finish by 12, and after lunch, I'm back in my dorm. By now, my "lease" has expired, therefore anything that was running, such as windows updates, virus updates, spyware updates, AIM, and any other internet application stops working. I now have to enter in my cridentials again in order to get my PC reconnected, again this is only possible through my browser. After doing that, I do my thing there, leave for tutoring, homework, maybe some dinner, come back at 7PM to have the same damn prompt again, breaking everything. I repeat the process and as I'm surfing the web at 11PM, there it is again.

As you can see, this process can get tedious over the weeks and months. It seems to like popping up when I am surfing the web (coincidental) and its inconvenient to type the same thing over and over. Additionally, it only saves my password depending on what site I surf to, so if I save my password when accessing http://www.cnet.com/, it does not remember it for http://digg.com/, even though its asking for the same cridentials.

-Cool-

P.S: Please dont take me as a script kiddie trying to make KaZaA work on my school network. Its not like that. I am just trying to automate a task.

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Ooble

Wow... that's a bitch. Unfortunately, I don't think I can help ya on this one.

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DaWei

Quite aside from any ethical issues, have you amortized the time you expect to spend on a solution over the number of irksome logins you'll avoid, and decided that it's a worthwhile investment?

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Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
Contributor's Corner: Grumpy on C++ Exceptions DaWei on Pointers

thechristelegacy

Are you able to shorten your username and password?

Ooble

I think the issue is that anything that happens to be using the net is effectively stopped in its tracks.

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tempest

I don't think he's avoiding any security measures, merely trying to find a way to conform to them and still have his system functional.

This might help.

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