Ooops! We had a period on a line by itself followed by return which made the SMTP port think it had gotten the end of the message. Shoot, all the good stuff came after it! Now this time you get enough to learn the hacker way to edit Windows Registries and trash your CMOS, heh,heh... ___________________________________________________________ GUIDE TO (mostly) HARMLESS HACKING Beginners’ Series #2, Section 2. Hacking into Windows 95 (and a little bit of NT lore)! ____________________________________________________________ Important warning: this is a beginners lesson. BEGINNERS. Will all you geniuses who were born already knowing 32-bit Windows just skip reading this one, OK? We don’t need to hear how disgusted you are that not everyone already knows this. PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED! This lesson will lay the foundation for learning how to hack what now is the most commonly installed workstation operating system: Windows NT. In fact, Windows NT is coming into wide use as a local area network (LAN), Internet, intranet, and Web server. So if you want to call yourself a serious hacker, you’d better get a firm grasp on Win NT. In this lesson you will learn serious hacking techniques useful on both Windows 95 and Win NT systems while playing in complete safety on your own computer. In this lesson we explore: · Several ways to hack your Windows 95 logon password · How to hack your Pentium CMOS password · How to hack a Windows Registry -- which is where access control on Windows-based LANs, intranets and Internet and Webs servers are hidden! Let’s set the stage for this lesson. You have your buddies over to your home to see you hack on your Windows 95 box. You’ve already put in a really industrial haxor-looking bootup screen, so they are already trembling at the thought of what a tremendously elite d00d you are. So what do you do next? How about clicking on “Start,” clicking “settings” then “control panel” then “passwords.” Tell your friends your password and get them to enter a secret new one. Then shut down your computer and tell them you are about to show them how fast you can break their password and get back into your own box! This feat is so easy I’m almost embarrassed to tell you how it’s done. That’s because you’ll say “Sheesh, you call that password protection? Any idiot can break into a Win 95 box! And of course you’re right. But that’s the Micro$oft way. Remember this next time you expect to keep something on your Win95 box confidential. And when it comes time to learn Win NT hacking, remember this Micro$oft security mindset. The funny thing is that very few hackers mess with NT today because they’re all busy cracking into Unix boxes. But there are countless amazing Win NT exploits just waiting to be discovered. Once you see how easy it is to break into your Win 95 box, you’ll feel in your bones that even without us holding your hand, you could discover ways to crack Win NT boxes, too. But back to your buddies waiting to see what an elite hacker you are. Maybe you’ll want them to turn their backs so all they know is you can break into a Win95 box in less than one minute. Or maybe you’ll be a nice guy and show them exactly how it’s done. But first, here’s a warning. The first few techniques we’re showing work on most home Win 95 installations. But, especially in corporate local area networks (LANs), several of these techniques don’t work. But never fear, in this lesson we will cover enough ways to break in that you will be able to gain control of absolutely *any* Win 95 box to which you have physical access. But we’ll start with the easy ways first. Easy Win 95 Breakin #1: Step one: boot up your computer. Step two: When the “system configuration” screen comes up, press the “F5” key. If your system doesn’t show this screen, just keep on pressing the F5 key. If your Win 95 has the right settings, this boots you into “safe mode.” Everything looks weird, but you don’t have to give your password and you still can run your programs. Too easy! OK, if you want to do something that looks a little classier, here’s another way to evade that new password. Easy Win 95 Breakin #2: Step one: Boot up. Step two: when you get to the “system configuration” screen, press the F8 key. This gives you the Microsoft Windows 95 Startup Menu. Step three: choose number 7. This puts you into MS-DOS. At the prompt, give the command “rename c:\windows\*pwl c:\windows\*zzz.” **************************** Newbie note: MS-DOS stands for Microsoft Disk Operating System, an ancient operating system dating from 1981. It is a command-line operating system, meaning that you get a prompt (probably c:\>) after which you type in a command and press the enter key. MS-DOS is often abbreviated DOS. It is a little bit similar to Unix, and in fact in its first version it incorporated thousands of lines of Unix code. ***************************** Step four: reboot. You will get the password dialog screen. You can then fake out your friends by entering any darn password you want. It will ask you to reenter it to confirm your new password. Step five. Your friends are smart enough to suspect you just created a new password, huh? Well, you can put the old one your friends picked. Use any tool you like -- File Manager, Explorer or MS-DOS -- to rename *.zzz back to *.pwl. Step six: reboot and let your friends use their secret password. It still works! Think about it. If someone where to be sneaking around another person’s Win 95 computer, using this technique, the only way the victim could determine there had been an intruder is to check for recently changed files and discover that the *.pwl files have been messed with **************************** Evil genius tip: Unless the msdos.sys file bootkeys=0 option is active, the keys that can do something during the bootup process are F4, F5, F6, F8, Shift+F5, Control+F5 and Shift+F8. Play with them! **************************** Now let’s suppose you discovered that your Win 95 box doesn’t respond to the bootup keys. You can still break in. If your computer does allow use of the boot keys, you may wish to disable them in order to be a teeny bit more secure. Besides, it’s phun to show your friends how to use the boot keys and then disable these so when they try to mess with your computer they will discover you’ve locked them out. The easiest -- but slowest -- way to disable the boot keys is to pick the proper settings while installing Win 95. But we’re hackers, so we can pull a fast trick to do the same thing. We are going to learn how to edit the Win 95 msdos.sys file, which controls the boot sequence. Easy Way to Edit your Msdos.sys File: Step zero: Back up your computer completely, especially the system files. Make sure you have a Windows 95 boot disk. We are about to play with fire! If you are doing this on someone else’s computer, let’s just hope either you have permission to destroy the operating system, or else you are so good you couldn’t possibly make a serious mistake. ******************************* Newbie note: You don’t have a boot disk? Shame, shame, shame! Everyone ought to have a boot disk for their computer just in case you or your buddies do something really horrible to your system files. If you don’t already have a Win 95 boot disk, here’s how to make one. To do this you need an empty floppy disk and your Win 95 installation disk(s). Click on Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs, then Startup Disk. From here just follow instructions. ******************************** Step one: Find the file msdos.sys. It is in the root directory (usually C:\). Since this is a hidden system file, the easiest way to find it is to click on My Computer, right click the icon for your boot drive (usually C:), left click Explore, then scroll down the right side frame until you find the file “msdos.sys.” Step two: Make msdos.sys writable. To do this, right click on msdos.sys, then left click “properties.” This brings up a screen on which you uncheck the “read only” and “hidden” boxes. You have now made this a file that you can pull into a word processor to edit. Step three: Bring msdos.sys up in Word Pad. To do this, you go to File Manager. Find msdos.sys again and click on it. Then click “associate” under the “file” menu. Then click on “Word Pad.” It is very important to use Word Pad and not Notepad or any other word processing program! Then double click on msdos.sys. Step four: We are ready to edit. You will see that Word Pad has come up with msdos.sys loaded. You will see something that looks like this: [Paths] WinDir=C:\WINDOWS WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS HostWinBootDrv=C [Options] BootGUI=1 Network=1 ; ;The following lines are required for compatibility with other programs. ;Do not remove them (MSDOS>SYS needs to be >1024 bytes). ;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx... To disable the function keys during bootup, directly below [Options] you should insert the command “BootKeys=0.” Or, another way to disable the boot keys is to insert the command BootDelay=0. You can really mess up your snoopy hacker wannabe friends by putting in both statements and hope they don’t know about BootDelay. Then save msdos.sys. Step five: since msdos.sys is absolutely essential to your computer, you’d better write protect it like it was before you edited it. Click on My Computer, then Explore, then click the icon for your boot drive (usually C:), then scroll down the right side until you find the file “msdos.sys.” Click on msdos.sys, then left click “properties.” This brings back that screen with the “read only” and “hidden” boxes. Check “read only.” Step six: You *are* running a virus scanner, aren’t you? You never know what your phriends might do to your computer while your back is turned. When you next boot up, your virus scanner will see that msdos.sys has changed. It will assume the worst and want to make your msdos.sys file look just like it did before. You have to stop it from doing this. I run Norton Antivirus, so all I have to do when the virus warning screen comes up it to tell it to “innoculate.” Hard Way to Edit your (or someone else’s) Msdos.sys File. Step zero. This is useful practice for using DOS to run rampant someday in Win NT LANs, Web and Internet servers. Put a Win 95 boot disk in the a: drive. Boot up. This gives you a DOS prompt A:\. Step one: Make msdos.sys writable. Give the command “attrib -h -r -s c:\msdos.sys” (This assumes the c: drive is the boot disk.) Step two: give the command “edit msdos.sys” This brings up this file into the word processor. Step three: Use the edit program to alter msdos.sys. Save it. Exit the edit program. Step four: At the DOS prompt, give the command “attrib +r +h +s c:\msdos.sys” to return the msdos.sys file to the status of hidden, read-only system file. OK, now your computer’s boot keys are disabled. Does this mean no one can break in? Sorry, this isn’t good enough. As you may have guessed from the “Hard Way to Edit your Msdos.sys” instruction, your next option for Win 95 breakins is to use a boot disk that goes in the a: floppy drive. How to Break into a Win 95 Box Using a Boot Disk Step one: shut down your computer. Step two: put boot disk into A: drive. Step three: boot up. Step four: at the A:\ prompt, give the command: rename c:\windows\*.pwl c:\windows\*.zzz. Step four: boot up again. You can enter anything or nothing at the password prompt and get in. Step five: Cover your tracks by renaming the password files back to what they were. Wow, this is just too easy! What do you do if you want to keep your prankster friends out of your Win 95 box? Well, there is one more thing you can do. This is a common trick on LANs where the network administrator doesn’t want to have to deal with people monkeying around with each others’ computers. The answer -- but not a very good answer -- is to use a CMOS password. How to Mess With CMOS #1 The basic settings on your computer such as how many and what kinds of disk drives and which ones are used for booting are held in a CMOS chip on the mother board. A tiny battery keeps this chip always running so that whenever you turn your computer back on, it remembers what is the first drive to check in for bootup instructions. On a home computer it will typically be set to first look in the A: drive. If the A: drive is empty, it next will look at the C: drive. On my computer, if I want to change the CMOS settings I press the delete key at the very beginning of the bootup sequence. Then, because I have instructed the CMOS settings to ask for a password, I have to give it my password to change anything. If I don’t want someone to boot from the A: drive and mess with my password file, I can set it so it only boots from the C: drive. Or even so that it only boots from a remote drive on a LAN. So, is there a way to break into a Win 95 box that won’t boot from the A: drive? Absolutely yes! But before trying this one out, be sure to write down *ALL* your CMOS settings. And be prepared to make a total wreck of your computer. Hacking CMOS is even more destructive than hacking system files. Step one: get a phillips screwdriver, solder sucker and soldering iron. Step two: open up your victim. Step three: remove the battery . Step four: plug the battery back in. Alternate step three: many motherboards have a 3 pin jumper to reset the CMOS to its default settings. Look for a jumper close to the battery or look at your manual if you have one. For example, you might find a three pin device with pins one and two jumpered. If you move the jumper to pins two and three and leave it there for over five seconds, it may reset the CMOS. Warning -- this will not work on all computers! Step five: Your victim computer now hopefully has the CMOS default settings. Put everything back the way they were, with the exception of setting it to first check the A: drive when booting up. ******************************* You can get fired warning: If you do this wrong, and this is a computer you use at work, and you have to go crying to the systems administrator to get your computer working again, you had better have a convincing story. Whatever you do, don’t tell the sysadmin or your boss that “The Happy Hacker made me do it”! ******************************* Step six: proceed with the A: drive boot disk break-in instructions. Does this sound too hairy? Want an easy way to mess with CMOS? There’s a program you can run that does it without having to play with your mother board. How to Mess with CMOS #2 Boy, I sure hope you decided to read to the end of this GTMHH before taking solder gun to your motherboard. There’s an easy solution to the CMOS password problem. It’s a program called KillCMOS which you can download from http://www.koasp.com. (Warning: if I were you, I’d first check out this site using the Lynx browser, which you can use from Linux or your shell account). Now suppose you like to surf the Web but your Win 95 box is set up so some sort of net nanny program restricts access to places you would really like to visit. Does this mean you are doomed to live in a Brady Family world? No way. There are several ways to evade those programs that censor what Web sites you visit. Now what I am about to discuss is not with the intention of feeding pornography to little kids. The sad fact is that these net censorship programs have no way of evaluating everything on the Web. So what they do is only allow access to a relatively small number of Web sites. This keeps kids form discovering many wonderful things on the Web. As the mother of four, I understand how worried parents can get over what their kids encounter on the Internet. But these Web censor programs are a poor substitute for spending time with your kids so that they learn how to use computers responsibly and become really dynamite hackers! Um, I mean, become responsible cyberspace citizens. Besides, these programs can all be hacked way to easily. The first tactic to use with a Web censor program is hit control-alt-delete. This brings up the task list. If the censorship program is on the list, turn it off. Second tactic is to edit the autoexec.bat file to delete any mention of the web censor program. This keeps it from getting loaded in the first place. But what if your parents (or your boss or spouse) is savvy enough to check where you’ve been surfing? You’ve got to get rid of those incriminating records whowing that you’ve been surfing Dilbert! It’s easy to fix with Netscape. Open Netscape.ini with either Notepad or Word Pad. It probably will be in the directory C:\Netscape\netscape.ini. Near the bottom you will find your URL history. Delete those lines. But Internet Explorer is a really tough browser to defeat. Editing the Registry is the only way (that I have found, at least) to defeat the censorship feature on Internet Explorer. And, guess what, it even hides several records of your browsing history in the Registry. Brrrr! ************************* Newbie note: Registry! It is the Valhalla of those who wish to crack Windows. Whoever controls the Registry of a network server controls the network -- totally. Whoever controls the Registry of a Win 95 or Win NT box controls that computer -- totally. The ability to edit the Registry is comparable to having root access to a Unix machine. ‘em How to edit the Registry: Step zero: Back up all your files. Have a boot disk handy. If you mess up the Registry badly enough you may have to reinstall your operating system. ****************************** You can get fired warning: If you edit the Registry of a computer at work, if you get caught you had better have a good explanation for the sysadmin and your boss. Figure out how to edit the Registry of a LAN server at work and you may be in real trouble. ******************************* ******************************* You can go to jail warning: Mess with the Registry of someone else’s computer and you may be violating the law. Get permission before you mess with Registries of computers you don’t own. ******************************* Step one: Find the Registry. This is not simple, because the Microsoft theory is what you don’t know won’t hurt you. So the idea is to hide the Registry from clueless types. But, hey, we don’t care if we totally trash our computers, right? So we click Start, then Programs, then Windows Explorer, then click on the Windows directory and look for a file named “Regedit.exe.” Step two: Run Regedit. Click on it. It brings up several folders: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT HKEY_CURRENT_USER HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE HKEY_USERS HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG HKEY_DYN_DATA What we are looking at is in some ways like a password file, but it’s much more than this. It holds all sorts of settings -- how your desk top looks, what short cuts you are using, what files you are allowed to access. If you are used to Unix, you are going to have to make major revisions in how you view file permissions and passwords. But, hey, this is a beginners’ lesson so we’ll gloss over this part. **************************** Evil genius tip: You can run Regedit from DOS from a boot disk. Verrrry handy in certain situations... **************************** Step three. Get into one of these HKEY thingies. Let’s check out CURRENT_USER by clicking the plus sign to the left of it. Play around awhile. See how the Regedit gives you menu choices to pick new settings. You’ll soon realize that Microsoft is babysitting you. All you see is pictures with no clue of who these files look in DOS. It’s called “security by obscurity.” This isn’t how hackers edit the Registry. Step four. Now we get act like real hackers. We are going to put part of the Registry where we can see -- and change -- anything. First click the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT line to highlight it. Then go up to the Registry heading on the Regedit menu bar. Click it, then choose “Export Registry File.” Give it any name you want, but be sure it ends with “.reg”. Step five. Open that part of the Registry in Word Pad. It is important to use that program instead of Note Pad or any other word processing program. One way is to right click on it from Explorer. IMPORTANT WARNING: if you left click on it, it will automatically import it back into the Registry. If you were messing with it and accidentally left click, you could trash your computer big time. Step six: Read everything you ever wanted to know about Windows security that Microsoft was afraid to let you find out. Things that look like: [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlctl.PasswordCtl\CurVer] @="htmlctl.PasswordCtl.1" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlctl.PasswordCtl.1] @="PasswordCtl Object" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlctl.PasswordCtl.1\CLSID] @="{EE230860-5A5F-11CF-8B11-00AA00C00903}" The stuff inside the brackets in this last line is an encrypted password controlling access to a program or features of a program such as the net censorship feature of Internet Explorer. What it does in encrypt the password when you enter it, then compare it with the unencrypted version on file. Step seven: It isn’t real obvious which password goes to what program. I say delete them all! Of course this means your stored passwords for logging on to your ISP, for example, may disappear. Also, Internet Explorer will pop up with a warning that “Content Advisor configuration information is missing. Someone may have tried to tamper with it.” This will look really bad to your parents! Also, if you trash your operating system in the process, you’d better have a good explanation for your Mom and Dad about why your computer is so sick. It’s a good idea to know how to use your boot disk to reinstall Win 95 it this doesn’t work out. Step eight (optional): Want to erase your surfing records? For Internet Explorer you’ll have to edit HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS. You can also delete the files c:\windows\cookies\mm2048.dat and c:\windows\cookies\mm256.dat. These also store URL data. Step nine. Import your .reg files back into the Registry. Either click on your .reg files in Explorer or else use the “Import” feature next to the “Export” you just used in Regedit. This only works if you remembered to name them with the .reg extension. Step nine: Oh, no, Internet Explorer makes this loud obnoxious noise the first time I run it and puts up a bright red “X” with the message that I tampered with the net nanny feature! My parents will seriously kill me! Or, worse yet, oh, no, I trashed my computer! All is not lost. Erase the Registry and its backups. These are in four files: system.dat, user.dat, and their backups, system.da0 and user.da0. Your operating system will immediately commit suicide. (This was a really exciting test, folks, but I luuuv that adrenaline!) If you get cold feet, the Recycle bin still works after trashing your Registry files, so you can restore them and your computer will be back to the mess you just made of it. But if you really have guts, just kill those files and shut it down. Then use your Win 95 boot disk to bring your computer back to life. Reinstall Windows 95. If your desk top looks different, proudly tell everyone you learned a whole big bunch about Win 95 and decided to practice on how your desk top looks. Hope they don’t check Internet Explorer to see if the censorship program still is enabled. And if your parents catch you surfing a Nazi explosives instruction site, or if you catch your kids at bianca’s Smut Shack, don’t blame it on Happy Hacker. Blame it on Microsoft security -- or on parents being too busy to teach their kids right from wrong. So why, instead of having you edit the Registry, didn’t I just tell you to delete those four files and reinstall Win 95? It’s because if you are even halfway serious about hacking, you need to learn how to edit the Registry of a Win NT computer. You just got a little taste of what it will be like here, done on the safety of your home computer. You also may have gotten a taste of how easy it is to make a huge mess when messing with the Registry. Now you don’t have to take my work for it, you know first hand how disastrous a clumsy hacker can be when messing in someone else’s computer systems. So what is the bottom line on Windows 95 security? Is there any way to set up a Win 95 box so no one can break into it? Hey, how about that little key on your computer? Sorry, that won’t do much good, either. It’s easy to disconnect so you can still boot the box. Sorry, Win 95 is totally vulnerable. In fact, if you have physical access to *ANY* computer, the only way to keep you from breaking into it is to encrypt its files with a strong encryption algorithm. It doesn’t matter what kind of computer it is, files on any computer can one way or another be read by someone with physical access to it -- unless they are encrypted with a strong algorithm such as RSA. We haven’t gone into all the ways to break into a Win 95 box remotely, but there are plenty of ways. Any Win 95 box on a network is vulnerable, unless you encrypt its information. And the ways to evade Web censor programs are so many, the only way you can make them work is to either hope your kids stay dumb, or else that they will voluntarily choose to fill their minds with worthwhile material. Sorry, there is no technological substitute for bringing up your kids to know right from wrong. ****************************** Evil Genius tip: Want to trash most of the policies can be invoked on a workstation running Windows 95? Paste these into the appropriate locations in the Registry. Warning: results may vary and you may get into all sorts of trouble whether you do this successfully or unsuccessfully. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon] "MustBeValidated"=dword:00000000 "username"="ByteMe" "UserProfiles"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies] "DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000000 "HideSharePwds"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] "NoDrives"=dword:00000000 "NoClose"=dword:00000000 "NoDesktop"=dword:00000000 "NoFind"=dword:00000000 "NoNetHood"=dword:00000000 "NoRun"=dword:00000000 "NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000 "NoRun"=dword:00000000 "NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000 "NoSetFolders"=dword:00000000 "NoSetTaskbar"=dword:00000000 "NoAddPrinter"=dword:00000000 "NoDeletePrinter"=dword:00000000 "NoPrinterTabs"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network] "NoNetSetup"=dword:00000000 "NoNetSetupIDPage"=dword:00000000 "NoNetSetupSecurityPage"=dword:00000000 "NoEntireNetwork"=dword:00000000 "NoFileSharingControl"=dword:00000000 "NoPrintSharingControl"=dword:00000000 "NoWorkgroupContents"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] "NoAdminPage"=dword:00000000 "NoConfigPage"=dword:00000000 "NoDevMgrPage"=dword:00000000 "NoDispAppearancePage"=dword:00000000 "NoDispBackgroundPage"=dword:00000000 "NoDispCPL"=dword:00000000 "NoDispScrSavPage"=dword:00000000 "NoDispSettingsPage"=dword:00000000 "NoFileSysPage"=dword:00000000 "NoProfilePage"=dword:00000000 "NoPwdPage"=dword:00000000 "NoSecCPL"=dword:00000000 "NoVirtMemPage"=dword:00000000 "DisableRegistryTools"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\WinOldApp [END of message text] [Already at end of message] PINE 3.91 MESSAGE TEXT Folder: INBOX Message 178 of 433 END [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\WinOldApp ] "Disabled"=dword:00000000 "NoRealMode"=dword:00000000 _________________________________________________________ Want to see back issues of Guide to (mostly) Harmless Hacking? See either http://www.tacd.com/zines/gtmhh/ or http://ra.nilenet.com/~mjl/hacks/codez.htm or http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/loukas.halo8/HappyHacker/ Subscribe to our email list by emailing to hacker@techbroker.com with message "subscribe" or join our Hacker forum at http://www.infowar.com/cgi-shl/login.exe. Chat with us on the Happy Hacker IRC channel. If your browser can use Java, just direct your browser to www.infowar.com, click on chat, and choose the #hackers channel. Want to share some kewl stuph with the Happy Hacker list? Correct mistakes? Send your messages to hacker@techbroker.com. To send me confidential email (please, no discussions of illegal activities) use cmeinel@techbroker.com and be sure to state in your message that you want me to keep this confidential. If you wish your message posted anonymously, please say so! Direct flames to dev/null@techbroker.com. Happy hacking! Copyright 1997 Carolyn P. Meinel. You may forward or post on your Web site this GUIDE TO (mostly) HARMLESS HACKING as long as you leave this notice at the end. ________________________________________________________ Carolyn Meinel M/B Research -- The Technology Brokers