Hacking the ATCOM Cyberbooth
by Fever (a_fever@juno.com)
Recently I was sitting around in an airport, waiting for a flight, when I noticed something strange.
In the middle of the room, there was a large gray obelisk with a sign saying, "Surf the Web! Send/Receive e-mail!" Naturally curious, I sat down. I discovered a bug that some of you may find useful, or at least entertaining.
Since then I have done some research on these machines, and this is what I have learned:
A Cyberbooth is basically a Pentium 120 to 166 MHz with an ISDN line. The top of the line model, the Cyberbooth Kiosk, is a four-sided unit featuring two computers and space for two optional payphones. This is the obelisk I mentioned earlier. They cost about $15,000. The Wall Unit and the Low Profile Cyberbooth are basically the same machines, the only difference being in the shape.
The wall unit looks like a prop from a bad Star Trek episode, while the Low Profile just looks... odd. The newer Payphone Cyberbooth and Desktop Cyberbooth have smaller screens and are slower. The Payphone only has a 33.6 kbps modem. This is one of the few cases outside of Microsoft where a new product is considerably worse than the old ones.
This may explain why ATCOM/INFO won an Microsoft Retail Application Developer award. There are some interesting features on these machines, however. These two are the only ones with sound. The Payphone Cyberbooth mounts next to real payphones. Download some sounds from the Internet, and you have a conveniently placed Red Box. You could also play sound effects at passersby. This could be especially fun at an airport.
The Desktop Cyberbooth, also called the "Hospitality Solution," is intended for hotel rooms, and this gives rise to two unique features. The first is that they don't require a credit card, they just charge your time directly to your room. The second is that it has a 3.5" floppy drive. I'm sure you could think of some rather... creative uses for that, but keep in mind that they know what room you're in, and what machine you have access to. If you're going to play with it, use an assumed name and pay cash.
The Cyberbooth offers several main features. You can access the web, e-mail, Telnet, play games (just in case you can't wait to get home to play Minesweeper), or access online services like CompuServe and America Online. (Don't use America Online. You'll be much happier in the long run.) Unfortunately, all of these features require you to swipe your credit card!
ATCOM/INFO gives you some options free, in the hope that you will give them your credit card later. You can look at the ATCOM/INFO web site and send e-mail to their webmaster telling him about this article. You can also visit some other pages free. These will usually be on the right of the screen, but you may sometimes find free options on the top too.
At this point, you might be thinking that you can just go to the ATCOM/INFO site and then go wherever you want from there. There are a few things they do to prevent this. The main problem is that as soon as you attempt to leave, you will get a message telling you that you are not allowed to access that page without paying, and you will remain on the free page.
"Oh no!" you cry, "I can't pay for this! How can I get on the web?" There is a huge hole in security that would allow any AOLuser to get on the web, assuming he could figure out how to use the web. Look at the top of the Cyberbooth screen. Click on the Cyberbooth Marketplace button. This will give you several graphics linked to advertisers' web pages. Click on one that looks interesting. This will take you to an advertiser's web page. From there, try to find a link out.
For some reason, when you go through the Marketplace, it lets you out. I have not found any other ways to get free access from a Cyberbooth, but feel free to experiment. Tell me if you find anything interesting.
Need more details? Here is the easy five step process:
1.) Sit/stand in front of the Cyberbooth.
2.) Click on Cyberbooth Marketplace.
3.) Click on WinterNet. If WinterNet isn't there anymore when you read this, improvise.
4.) It seems WinterNet won a Microsoft "Best of the Net" award! Click on it.
5.) Congratulations! You're off the free site, but who wants to spend time with Microsoft? Click on "Search."
You have reached Microsoft's Search Engine page. You can go pretty much anywhere from here. There are still some limits on what you can do. The biggest problem after this is that it won't allow you to type a URL. This shouldn't be a problem if you can get to a search engine, or maybe www.anonymizer.com.
You will also be stuck with only a partial screen and what there is will be the ATCOM/INFO CyberShell Web browser. You might have some problems due to the CyberPatrol software installed on the machine. It blocked Alta Vista searches on everything from 2600 to Disney, but it seemed to get along with Yahoo!. It will block any page with "hack" in the title. It also blocks many "legitimate" pages. This program is nothing but trouble on this system.
Why is this bug here? They know it exists, yet they refuse to fix it. I can only speculate as to their motives. Perhaps the advertisers don't want their links limited. Much more likely is that someone at ATCOM/INFO is lazy and doesn't want to get off his fat ass to fix it. If you're going to try this hack, try it soon, as they will probably fix it very fast now that it is public knowledge.
If you would like to find out more about the ATCOM/INFO Cyberbooth, you can check out their web site at www.atcominfo.com or send e-mail to help@atcominfo.com. To find a Cyberbooth near you, go to: www.atcominfo.com/cl-main.htm