Surveying the COSMOS

by The Fire Monger

COSMOS is Bell's computer for handling information on customer lines, special services on lines, and orders to change line equipment, disconnect lines, etc.

COSMOS stands for Computerized System for Main Frame Operations.  It is based on the UNIX operating system and, depending upon the COSMOS and upon your access, has some, many, or no UNIX standard commands.  COSMOS is powerful, but there is no reason to be afraid of it.  This article will give some of the basic, pertinent info on how users get in, account format, and a few other goodies.

Password/Identification

To get onto COSMOS you need a dial-up, account, password, and Wire Center (WC).  Wire centers are two letter codes that tell what section of the COSMOS you are in.  There are different wire centers for different areas and groups of exchanges.  Examples are PB, SR, LK, etc.  Sometimes there are accounts that have no password; obviously such accounts are the easiest to hack.

Checking It Out

Let's suppose you have a COSMOS number which you obtained one way or another.  The first thing to do would be to make sure it is really a COSMOS system, not some other Bell or AT&T computer.  To do this, you would call it can connect your modem, then hit some returns until you got a response.  It should say: ;LOGIN: or NAME:

If you enter some garbage here it should say: PASSWORD:

If you hit a Return and it says WC?, it is a COSMOS system.  If it says something like TA% then you're in business.  If it doesn't do any of the above, then it is either some other kind of system, or, if you're not getting anything at all, the dial-up has probably gone bad.

Getting In

COSMOS has certain accounts that are usually on the system, one of which might not have a password.

They consist of ROOT (most powerful and almost always on the system), SYS (second most powerful, still many privileges), BIN (a little less power), PREOP (a little less), and COSMOS (hardly any privileges, like a normal user).

The way to tell if they have passwords is by entering the accounts at the ;LOGIN: or NAME: prompt, and if it jumps straight to a WC?, all you need is a wire center to get in.

But suppose all of the accounts have passwords?  You have two choices.  You can try to hack the password and wire center to one of the above accounts.  I won't deal with this method, as it is self-explanatory.  Or you can do something I find much easier - call the COSMOS during business hours and hope that someone forgot to log off.  Keep calling until when you connect and hit Return until you get a WC% prompt.  WC is the wire center that the account you found is currently in.  You are now in!

What to Do While Online

The first thing you want to do is write down the wire center you are in.  The command WCFLDS (!) should list all wire centers.  On your first login it is a good idea to print everything or dump everything to a buffer:

*)  WHO should print everyone currently logged on the system, giving some accounts.

*)  TTY tells what terminal port you are on.

*)  WHERE should tell the location of the COSMOS installation.

*)  WHAT tells what version of COSNIX, COSMOS' operating system it is.

*)  LS * prints all the files you have access to.

*)  CD DIR connects you to director DIR.

*)  CAT FILENAME prints the file FILENAME.   Typing the name of the file runs it.

*)  ED FILENAME edits file FILENAME.  Q quits the editor.

If you've got privileges, you can try to print the password file.  To do this, type: CAT /ETC/PASSWD

If you have access, it will print the password file out.  The passwords are almost always encrypted, but you get a list of all the accounts.  If you are lucky, one of the lines will have two colons after the account name.  This means there is no prompt from the ;LOGIN: or NAME: prompts when you enter that account.

If you can't print out the password file, you're going to have to hack a password for an account or call again until you get in the way described above.

To logoff, type Ctrl+Y.

TAT sometimes prints a little help file.

To do a check on some telephone line, type ISH at the COSMOS WC% prompt.

Then type H TN XXX-XXXX (Hunt Telephone Number) to tell you about the local number you are interested in.

When the system gives you: - (dash)

Type a: . (period)

And it will type all kinds of info on the phone number you entered (in Bell abbreviations, of course).

If it is not a good exchange, it will say something to that effect.  You type a period to end the ISH.

If you wish to learn more information about COSMOS, find yourself a COSMOS manual or look at future issues of 2600.  A UNIX manual would also be helpful for standard UNIX commands.