TESO
Encyclopedia
TESO was a famous hacker
group
, which originated in Austria
and quickly became international. It was active from 1998 to 2004, and during its peak around 2000, it was responsible for a significant share of the exploits
on the bugtraq
mailing list.
Camp near Berlin.
By 2000, the group was at its peak, and started speaking on various conferences, wrote articles for Phrack
and released security tools and exploits at a very high pace. Some of its exploits only became known after leaking to the community. This included exploits for wu-ftp, apache and openssh.
2001 Comprehensive Format String Research Paper by scut
2002 First remote vulnerability in OpenBSD followed by a series of remote exploits against OpenBSD (some co-authored with ADM). Forced OpenBSD to remove the claim from the OpenBSD webpage "7 years without vulnerability".
In 2003, the group informally disbanded, and in 2004 the website went down.
s of the original founders (typo, edi, stanly, oxigen), but as many of the most skilled members joined later, this interpretation quickly became meaningless. Teso originally and during its peak was a small and tightly-knit group, it is estimated that Teso had more than 15 members before disbanding. If the public sources can be trusted, at least the following 16 members can be documented:
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
group
Group (sociology)
In the social sciences a social group can be defined as two or more humans who interact with one another, share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity...
, which originated in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and quickly became international. It was active from 1998 to 2004, and during its peak around 2000, it was responsible for a significant share of the exploits
Exploit (computer security)
An exploit is a piece of software, a chunk of data, or sequence of commands that takes advantage of a bug, glitch or vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur on computer software, hardware, or something electronic...
on the bugtraq
Bugtraq
Bugtraq is an electronic mailing list dedicated to issues about computer security. On-topic issues are new discussions about vulnerabilities, vendor security-related announcements, methods of exploitation, and how to fix them...
mailing list.
History
In 1998, Teso was founded, and quickly grew to 6 people, which first met in 1999 at the CCCCCC
- Businesses and organizations :* Canterbury of New Zealand, a New Zealand-based sports apparel company* Center for Community Change, one of the larger community building organizations in the United States* Color Climax Corporation, a Danish pornography company...
Camp near Berlin.
By 2000, the group was at its peak, and started speaking on various conferences, wrote articles for Phrack
Phrack
Phrack is an ezine written by and for hackers first published November 17, 1985. Described by Fyodor as "the best, and by far the longest running hacker zine," the magazine is open for contributions by anyone who desires to publish remarkable works or express original ideas on the topics of interest...
and released security tools and exploits at a very high pace. Some of its exploits only became known after leaking to the community. This included exploits for wu-ftp, apache and openssh.
2001 Comprehensive Format String Research Paper by scut
2002 First remote vulnerability in OpenBSD followed by a series of remote exploits against OpenBSD (some co-authored with ADM). Forced OpenBSD to remove the claim from the OpenBSD webpage "7 years without vulnerability".
In 2003, the group informally disbanded, and in 2004 the website went down.
Achievements
- In 2000, developed hellkit, the first shellcodeShellcodeIn computer security, a shellcode is a small piece of code used as the payload in the exploitation of a software vulnerability. It is called "shellcode" because it typically starts a command shell from which the attacker can control the compromised machine. Shellcode is commonly written in...
generator. - In 2000, wrote TesoGCC, the first format string vulnerability scanner, and the first comprehensive guide on format string exploitation.
- BurnEye is widely believed to be one of the first proper ELF executable crypters.
- Broke OpenBSDOpenBSDOpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
's "7 years without a remote vulnerability in the default install" record.
Quotes
Members and name
The name originally was an acronym of the nicknameNickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
s of the original founders (typo, edi, stanly, oxigen), but as many of the most skilled members joined later, this interpretation quickly became meaningless. Teso originally and during its peak was a small and tightly-knit group, it is estimated that Teso had more than 15 members before disbanding. If the public sources can be trusted, at least the following 16 members can be documented:
- caddis
- edi
- halvar
- hendy
- lorian
- oxigen
- palmers
- randomizer
- scut
- smiler
- skyper
- stealth/S.Krahmer
- stanly
- typo
- mdr/xdr
- zip
See also
- Goatse SecurityGoatse SecurityGoatse Security is a loose-knit, nine-person grey hat hacker group that specializes in uncovering security flaws. It is a division of the anti-blogging Internet trolling organization known as the Gay Nigger Association of America . The group derives its name from the Goatse.cx shock site, and it...
- w00w00W00w00w00w00 is currently one of the largest non-profit security teams in the world with more than 30 active participants . w00w00 was created in 1998. Participants come from 5 continents, and 14 countries , as well as several U.S...
- A rivaling hacking group. Some research and releases were published together with w00w00 members. - The Hacker's ChoiceThe Hacker's ChoiceThe Hacker's Choice, also known as THC, is a non-commercialgroup of international security researchers andhackers.- About :THC was founded in 1995 in Germany and has published over 70 software...
- Some team-teso members joined THC after TESO was disbanded.