Back to the catalog
securitynetworkingcritical-thinkinginternet-culture

Hollywood hacking: real or nonsense?

14 questions · by Quizbun

Some movie hacks use real tools on real vulnerabilities. Others are technobabble written on deadline. Each Question takes a famous scene, whether a screen, a command or a line of dialogue, and asks if it would work. The Explanations cover the real tech behind it: a 3D file browser, port scans, an SSH bug, private IP addresses, and why "Enhance!" can't add detail the camera never captured.

Start

Questions

  1. Not answered. "It's a UNIX system! I know this!" What is the 3D interface Lex uses in Jurassic Park?
  2. Not answered. In fsn, each directory is a pedestal with boxes standing on it. What does an unusually tall box tell you?
  3. Not answered. In The Matrix Reloaded (2003), Trinity scans a power station's server and finds exactly one open service: SSH. Which TCP port does an SSH server listen on by default?
  4. Not answered. Here is Trinity's full hack from The Matrix Reloaded. How realistic is it?
  5. Not answered. Trinity runs nmap -sS. What kind of scan is that?
  6. Not answered. Trinity's target is 10.2.2.2. What does that address tell you about where she has to be?
  7. Not answered. Which statements about the real SSH1 CRC32 bug, the one named on Trinity's screen, are true?
  8. Not answered. After The Matrix Reloaded opened in 2003, who warned British viewers not to copy Trinity's hack?
  9. Not answered. Nmap has appeared in many films since The Matrix Reloaded. Which of these films show it on screen?
  10. Not answered. "I'll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic, see if I can track an IP address." What's wrong with this line?
  11. Not answered. A hacker floods a lab computer with pop-ups, and two agents fight back by typing on the same keyboard at once. Real or nonsense?
  12. Not answered. A detective zooms into a security-camera frame until the suspect's face is a few blocky pixels, then says "Enhance!" A sharp face appears. Can software do that?
  13. Not answered. In June 2020, someone fed a pixelated photo of Barack Obama into PULSE, a research tool that turns low-resolution faces into sharp ones. What came out?
  14. Not answered. Final round: which of these scenes show a real tool doing something it can actually do?