Hack

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Modchip to bypass the limitations of a game console.

Hack (also pronounced [ hæk ]; English for technical trick ) has several meanings and can stand for an expansion of functions or problem solving, or for the goal being achieved in an unusual way. In the area of ​​computer security in particular, a system is considered to be hacked if a security mechanism has been broken or circumvented, the hack being the measure with which the goal is achieved. In the source code of a computer program, on the other hand, the word signals that the programmers were aware that the solution found to a problem is not fully developed or is unsatisfactory from the point of view of software technology.

The use of the word can be broken down as follows:

  • Tinkering in the context of a playful self-referential devotion in dealing with technology is called hacking ; a kind of imaginative willingness to experiment (“playful cleverness”) with a special sense of creativity and originality (“ hack value ”) . The result is a hack.
    The term is often used in the context of a misuse. Examples are the construction of a bell or a magnetic stirrer from a hard drive and the PlayStation hack . If the manufacturer removes built-in usage restrictions, the hack is also known as a jailbreak and often appears in the form of a custom ROM on smartphones and tablet computers . In contrast, it can also relate to techniques of life such as strategies and activities (see Lifehack ). For example, social engineering can be a significant part of the hack. An example of a hack that relates to an activity and manages without expanding functions and without misuse is a winding technique for headphones, which helps to avoid tangled cables. The term also includes pranks that relate to the use of technology.
  • In another sense, a hack can be a kind of workaround . As a quickly created, "unsightly" and unpolished adaptation ( quick-and-dirty hack ), the word then stands for a temporary problem solution ( kludge ).
    Examples are so-called browser switches , which are also referred to as " CSS hacks".

The essence of a hack is that it's quick, effective , and can be both inefficient and inelegant. It achieves the desired goal without having to completely reshape the system architecture in which it is embedded, even if it contradicts it.

Word origin and usage

American radio amateurs used the term 'hacking' in the mid-1950s as a term for particularly ingenious adjustments to their equipment to improve their performance.

In the late 1950s, 'hacking' was also used by the MIT ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) model railroad club , more precisely the TMRC ( Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT), which also referred to the customization of their electronic and mechanical devices. The word 'hack' was initially used in the context of technology-based pranks or corresponded to a word for particularly skillful or daring deeds. There was a connotation of harmlessness (in the sense of "non-destructive"), of creative fun. If an MIT student had concocted a clever trick, the culprit was considered a hacker. The use of the word 'hack' shifted to the technique needed to carry out the prank and was later used for a clever technical solution in general, without necessarily referring to a prank and without limiting it to the computer.

Hack as a result of hacking

Especially Lifehacks often have a practical reference. But without this necessarily making sense to an observer, hackers can also get enthusiastic about solving problems for the fun of hacking that are not for purely practical reasons. There are also hacks that have no practical relevance for outsiders, but are the results of a meaningful and exciting activity for a hacker.

Function expansion, misappropriation, procedures

In its original use, hacking refers to tinkering in the context of a playful self-referential devotion to using technology. Wau Holland coined the phrase: "A hacker is someone who tries to find a way to make toast with a coffee machine". In contrast to improvisation , which serves to solve problems that arise, this can also be about the experimental, the attempt to explore the limits of what is feasible.

Based on this, a hack can provide access to a device or a new functionality that is not intended by the manufacturer. This also includes circumventing a hardware or software restriction.

Numerous examples were published between January 2012 and July 2014 in “c't Hacks” magazine in a total of 10 issues by Heise Verlag . Among other things, a device for range gain of a WLAN antenna of foam packaging residues and wire hacks contained therein (for. Example, as a screen for a control computer or as an animated door plate) with digital photo frames, macro photography by the collimator lens of a DVD drive, a Geiger counter from Household materials and electronic components for a few euros, the construction of a bell or a magnetic stirrer from a hard drive.

In contrast, hacks that relate to procedures often get by without expanding functions or misappropriating them. They serve to adapt strategies or activities in such a way that they solve a problem, achieve the goal in an unusual way or increase effectiveness - sometimes even efficiency .

Hacks that relate to uncertainties, strategies or activities of life are, since 2004 Lifehacks called. They often pursue the goal of making everyday life easier by u. a. Solve everyday problems by misappropriating everyday things. Examples are hacks that are used to unscrew broken screws, peel potatoes with a knife in just a few seconds or tie shoes faster.

programming

Hacking related to programming first appeared at MIT in the early 1960s in connection with the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory , AI Lab for short . Together with hackers from the TMRC and fellow campaigners from other US academic institutions, such as Stanford , Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon , they belong to the origins of academic hacker culture (a term that suggests the original academic environment of that scene, but does not mean that Hacking was an academic subject at the time). It later gave rise to the free software (since 1983) and open source movements (since 1998), which also include other free content (such as free hardware ), which made the word 'hack' more widespread.

A characteristic of hacking is not the (programming) activity itself, but the way in which it is carried out. As the jargon file describes, a hacker enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or bypassing boundaries, whereby this scene expressly does not mean bypassing security mechanisms and wants to see itself distanced from such activities. Here too, hacking often involves a form of excellence (in the sense of virtuosity ), for example exploring the limits of what is feasible and doing something exciting and meaningful for yourself. The result is a hack.

In contrast, the word hack among programmers also stands for normal programming activity in the sense of “writing on a keyboard” and is then not necessarily in the context of a hack.

Computer security

Hacking, in the sense of intrusion into computer systems, was in computer jargon before 1983, but until then there was no public awareness that such activities were taking place. That changed with the motion picture WarGames , which contributed to the popular belief among US citizens that teenage hackers could pose a threat to US national security.

In the context of computer security, the challenge of hacking is seen in overcoming security mechanisms and thus being able to recognize weak points or, more precisely , infiltrating systems, for example using social engineering , or investigating design and programming errors using reverse engineering . By circumventing the security precautions, hackers can gain access to a computer network , a computer, a secured component ( e.g. chip card ) or access to blocked data or another protected function of a computer program. Here, a system is considered hacked if a security mechanism has been broken or bypassed, with the hack being the measure by which the goal is achieved.

Additionally, there is a technical understanding of hacking in this scene as well that isn't necessarily computer related. One example is the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) as the most influential association of hackers in Germany. Although security issues are his main field of activity and politics, industry, press, data protection and banks consult him as a quasi-official expert organization on this topic, he sees hacking in a much more general way as an overarching culture of creative use of technology of all kinds. Wau Holland was one of the founders and leading figures of the club and coined the above formulation on the coffee machine toaster.

Hack as a workaround

A hack can be an amazingly simple and clever solution to a nontrivial problem, but it can also contain an effective but inefficient, unsightly and unpolished solution ( quick-and-dirty hack ), which is more like a temporary problem-solving ( kludge ).

Based on this, a kind of workaround can be called a hack , for example to make a computer program run quickly under changed conditions. The English equivalent for this is rather "klu (d) ge".

In the source code of a computer program, the word signals that the programmers were aware that the solution found to a problem is not yet fully developed or is unsatisfactory from the point of view of software technology. This can also be forced by external circumstances such as missing or inadequate interfaces .

In the Linux kernel , the term "hack" is found 1572 times, the term "workaround" 2473 times

Others

As extensions to usually more complex programs, hacks are usually produced by a larger hack community , in which mostly a few programmers stand out due to their special knowledge.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lexicon - Hack in the Context of Hacker , Wissen.de, accessed on December 25, 2015, "[... at MIT ] the term hack came about for a technical trick"
  2. ↑ a b c d e Boris Grondahl: Hacker , Rotbuch 3000 series, Rotbuch Verlag, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-434-53506-3
  3. ↑ a b Election manipulation - This is how the hack works , description of the measure with which a security mechanism was broken; November 24, 2016
  4. ↑ Hack , definition at webopedia.com, accessed March 5, 2017
  5. ↑ a b c The Hacker Community and Ethics: An Interview with Richard M. Stallman, 2002 (gnu.org)
  6. ↑ hack in Merriam-Webster , accessed June 20, 2012
  7. ↑ a b "c't Hacks" magazine, issue 03/2012, p. 38
  8. ↑ a b "c't Hacks" magazine, issue 02/2012, p. 122
  9. ↑ Life Hacks - headphones without tangled cables , youtube.com, author: Stern, July 16, 2014
  10. ↑ The Meaning of 'Hack' - Appendix A. Hacker Folklore , catb.org, Jargon Hack, accessed March 5, 2017
  11. ↑ SELFHTML - CSS browser switches to exclude older browsers ( memento of the original from March 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 5, 2017  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wiki.selfhtml.org
  12. ↑ CSS browser switches on css-hack.de, accessed on March 5, 2017
  13. ↑ a b see tmrc.mit.edu "Hackers" ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - "Here at TMRC, where the words" hack "and" hacker "originated and have been used proudly since the late 1950s, ..." @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tmrc.mit.edu
  14. ↑ a b see jargon file "Hacker"
  15. ↑ see “Hack, Hackers and Hacking” from Appendix A of the Free as in Freedom (2.0) ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Richard Stallman, Sam Williams, ISBN 978-0-9831592-1-6 , GNU Press 2010 ( German translation by Theo Walm ( Memento of the original from March 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet Checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / static.fsf.org @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / twalm.net
  16. ↑ see under "MIT Building 20" ( memento of the original from September 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , tmrc.mit.edu - "... creativity inundated the place to such a level that the term hacking was created by TMRC members. TMRCies (TMRC members) soon learned to "hack" electronic and mechanical devices to help their purposes. The practice to make things do what you need, even if they were not designed for it (a hack) became part of MIT's culture "; "MITCo" ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , tmrc.mit.edu & "Chronology of hacks" @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tmrc.mit.edu @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tmrc.mit.edu
  17. ↑ see Jonas Löwgren's lecture notes on Origins of hacker culture (s) ( Memento from January 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ a b c On Hacking (stallman.org)
  19. ↑ a b see Hacker ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 3.0 MB) - Presentation slides by Frank Kargl (CCC - Ulm, 2003) that give an overview of the roots and history of the hacker movement from the point of view of the CCC. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ulm.ccc.de
  20. ↑ "c't Hacks" magazine, issue 01/2012, p. 22
  21. ↑ "c't Hacks" magazine, issue 01/2012, p. 32
  22. ↑ "c't Hacks" magazine, issue 01/2012, p. 96
  23. ↑ "c't Hacks" magazine, issue 02/2012, p. 46
  24. ↑ see definition Lifehack , Words of the Year 2005
  25. ^ Lifehack added to Oxford Dictionary , today.com
  26. ↑ lifehacker.com to Lifehack (English origin of the term)
  27. ↑ Unscrew broken screws - Lifehack , youtube.com, Author: gf (gutefrage.net)
  28. ↑ The HITRADIO RT1 #LIFEHACK - peeling potatoes made easy , youtube.com, author: hitradiort1
  29. ↑ Life Hack: Tie Your Shoes in 2 Seconds , youtube.com, Author: Lifehackers
  30. ↑ Steven Levy: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution . Doubleday 1984, ISBN 0-385-19195-2
  31. ↑ Hackers in contrast to crackers as security breakers (gnu.org)
  32. ↑ hack in the sense of "writing on a keyboard", Duden.de, accessed on March 28, 2017
  33. ↑ see the version of the Jargon File from 1981 , entry "hacker", last meaning.
  34. ↑ see WindowSecurity.com "Computer hacking: Where did it begin and how did it grow?" (October 16, 2002)
  35. ↑ see under Telepolis "The Script Kiddies Are Not Alright" ; Parliament No. 34-35 / August 21, 2006; tagesschau.de ccc for network control ( memento of July 28, 2010 on WebCite ) & voting computer ( memento of July 28, 2010 on WebCite ) & passport / biometric data ( memento of July 28, 2010 on WebCite )
  36. ↑ Linux kernel word count. January 30, 2020, accessed May 14, 2020 .