Security News > 2023 > April > Student requested access to research data. And waited. And waited. And then hacked to get root

This week meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Wesley", who 25 years ago was about to embark on a thesis in mechanical engineering, continuing the work done by a more senior student who was working towards his doctorate.

The senior student readily agreed, but the days passed, and Wesley still didn't have the data he needed.

"I decided to take things to my hands," Wesley told Who Me? "I had access to the workstation where the files were stored, and a little research on Altavista let me write a small script to gain root access."

Not many minutes later Wesley had the senior student's data and code and got cracking on his thesis thinking he'd committed the perfect crime.

Wesley was saved when he mentioned the name of the senior student who'd been so slow to share data: it turned out one of the PhD candidates was a friend so was willing to let it slide.

The pair of PhD candidates who bailed Wesley up were both awarded their doctorates, became professors, and are still in touch with Wesley.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/04/17/who_me/