Organisation
organisation:the_pit
Nickname for an NSA hacker group and office that conducted internal penetration testing and red-team work.
Nickname for an NSA hacker group and office that conducted internal penetration testing and red-team work.
“We nicknamed our office The Pit.”
“NSA’s super-secret red team – was called The Pit”
| Direction | Predicate | Other entity | Origin | EP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| outgoing | PART_OF | System and Network Attack Center | Explicit | 83 |
| outgoing | USES | Red Team | Explicit | 83 |
| outgoing | USES | password guessing | Explicit | 83 |
| outgoing | USES | Crack | Explicit | 83 |
| outgoing | USES | John the Ripper | Explicit | 83 |
| outgoing | USES | Open-source intelligence | Explicit | 83 |
The Pit PART_OF System and Network Attack Center
Jack states that The Pit was part of the System and Network Attack Center.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“This Pit as they called it was part of SNAC, the System Network and Attack Center”
The Pit conducted internal penetration testing and red teaming, although the terminology was not yet common.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“Jeff and the team in The Pit were doing internal penetration testing, red teaming.”
The Pit USES password guessing
Jeff describes the team using password guessing to access idle accounts and identify passwords.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“what was commonly done back then to break into UNIX systems and UNIX networks was – there was password-guessing”
Jeff says password hashes could be copied and processed with Crack programs.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“you could just copy them and run crack programs like Crack or John the Ripper.”
The Pit USES John the Ripper
Jeff says password hashes could be processed with John the Ripper.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“run crack programs like Crack or John the Ripper.”
The Pit USES Open-source intelligence
The Pit gathered publicly available information about targets, people, naming conventions, and likely passwords before seeking approval for an attack.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“We’d try to learn as much as we could about the target from a benign perspective”
“We would do that sort of open-reconnaissance”