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Nmap Featured in The Matrix Reloaded
rajiv was among dozens to report that unlike most "Hacks" in film, The Matrix reloaded actually has an ounce of reality where other films would rely on fancy 3D graphics. You can see more at Insecure.org where they have screenshots. It's only on screen for a split second, but
Tritnity uses Nmap to find a vulnerable SSH server, and then exploits it using the SSH1 CRC32 exploit from 2001.
That's Zion0101, i.e Zion5. This is the fifth incarnation of the city, after all. But nobody is supposed to know that...
Thats the point: the world has progressed most likely. The matrix has apparently been running between 500 and 600 years (since The One is a systemic anomoly, and Morpheus makes repeated note that this current Zion has been around for 100 years, its likely that each One takes 100 years). Most likely, after the first [Utopic] Matrix failed, they did one of the following:
1: To periodically reset the time in the matrix, by permitting all the adults to die while not maintaining crops of infants in suspended animation. Once the adults died, they would then revive the children, and have software "parents" raise them. I dont really like this option, it seems pretty unlikely.
2: The first matrix after the Utopic failure was set in the 14th century, i.e. the beginnings of the Renaissance. This would fit with Smith's description of "the peak of your civilization", depending on your perspective, since this was the period of scientific enlightment. This also sits well with the Oracle's statement that the myths of supernatural creatures all derive from bugs/rogue programs in the Matrix. This also sits well with the idea of the first One appearing, since this was a period wherein people were dramatically reforming their conception of the universe.
There are probably other solutions, but these are two I've thought of.
"Stumble before you crawl"
Now if only that human body as a power supply thing made a lick of sense.
I hope some Saberhagen Berserker's show up in the next movie and settle everybodies hash real good.
Ever heard of custom software?
:)
Besides, why would the average grid operator want to individually log into the grid substations and disable them? A nice concise unix command would fire off scripts to do all that.... and yes, if I were the operator I'd want confirmation..
Finally, this is just fiction, ya know? Heck, they used SSH though to make an appeal to geeks
TurboD
Yes this is all assuming that there isn't a meta-matrix in which the matrix is run. It seems pretty obvious to me that that is what the last scene was trying to portray in a subtle way.
And if there is a meta-matrix, what prevents having a meta-meta-matrix and so on? Its really impossible to speculate the age of the matrix based on this information.
Suddenly, the hairy finger of a familiar monkey tapped me on the shoulder. It was time.--G. T.
Nothing wrong at all.
"The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
All of this managed to make my Matrix experience just that much harder to enjoy.
-h-
check the IP number (10.x.x.x, private IANA), it was not on the public internet...
:)
Heh. So?
So that means that the guys who were doing the hacking previous to Trinity's arrival broke into the public network (or, perhaps they don't have one, but instead the building they were in was appropriately inside their private network) and she was working from a unix box inside the private network that the power station was on. It's like how a lot of crackers these days say that networks tend to be like porcupines: hard and secure on the outside, but nice and soft underneath. They probably never bothered to secure their old SSH1 daemons because they were secure in the belief that noone would get far enough to exploit it.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
z1on0101 is the password trinity uses when overriding the powerplant password...
I would put this password first in line on my dictionary for password attacks....
I know all my servers will have this password from now on..
Is there anything morally wrong with downloading an esoteric release of Reloaded online? I went to the movies, paid my money, contributing to the $44 billion or so profit of Warner Brothers. I don't feel guilty downloading a crappy quality VCD to notice all the details and things I missed. (But I did notice the terminal with ssh and nmap on it).
Nothing wrong at all.
It's irrelevant how you feel. Guilt is based on legality, under which you clearly are guilty. Whether it's wrong or not is an entirely different matter, but as a matter of principle I've always operated under "two wrongs don't make a right".
Zion0101 is the 6th Zion.
It's zero-based, duh.
Actually, I just got back from seeing it for the 2nd time (I know, I know, I'm behind the curve.. but trying to catch up)
The Architect says the machines have destroyed zion 6 times already, and are getting quite efficient at it. Which would imply that this is the 7th iteration of Zion.
However, the Merovingian saying 5 predecessors throws that off. The only real way to make them fit is to determine that the first Zion must not have had a "The One" - it just got too big because of the "utopian" nature of the first matrix, so they wiped it and started again, adding a "The One" to the second Matrix. This goes with the Architect saying that the "mother" of the matrix determined how to make people happy within it on the second go-round. It also means that the current iteration of the Matrix is 7th, as is the current iteration of Zion (which i am more and more convinced is just an overflow buffer for the matrix core) - But Neo is only the 6th "The One"
The real question is if the design had him going into the core or back to rescue Trinity. Did he do what they expected or not? The architect says he was supposed to go into the source. But he sounds totally unsurprised and even describes the emotions and such that lead him NOT to go into the core. So maybe that's part of the plan.
All I know is the next one is gonna rock even harder, as we hopefully get some resolution on all this.
Oh - and the screen that the camera goes through into the interogation room in the first one is one of the architects screens. This fact alone is enough to make me believe that they had all this insanity planned from the start. Groovy.
So, the actual history of the Merovingians, not so exciting. The mythology is better though, and far more relevant to "The Matrix." The founder of the Merovingians, Merovec, is considered to be somewhat mythical. The first Merovingian for which there is good historical evidence for is Merovec's supposed grandson, Clovis. As the above poster notes, one story has Merovec as half beast. Other accounts (with connections to Gnostic Christianity, a subject that has been much discussed in relation to "The Matrix") claim that Merovec was the descendant of Jesus (and Mary Magdelene). Yeah, I know, but just bear with me. Now, after the Carolingians took over, supposedly a secret society was formed to reinstall the Merovingians to the throne (after all, who could have more authority than someone with the bloodline of David and Jesus?). This society is named the Prieure de Sion, or the Priory of Zion. (ominous music plays for effect)
This secret society, as all secret societies eventually must (seems to be a rule of conspiracy theory), has been linked to the Knights Templar (which were quite real, actually (formed during the Crusades, became quite wealthy through guarding banking transactions, like a medieval Brinks, were annihilated by Philip the Fair in 1307), though the mythology that has sprung up regarding them is vast) and through them to every secret society you've ever heard of- the Freemasons, the Illuminati, etc.... In other words, the character "the Merovingian" is connected in name to bunch of real world secret conspiracy plots, just the sort of thing you'd like for a fictional character connected in deep with secret conspiracy plots. I must admit it's nice to see that the brothers Wachowski have really done their homework.
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
The truely funny part is that the stack is from BSD. MS went to a great deal of work to try and hide it (they failed miserably, but they still worked hard). Now, you try to make it look like BSD.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.