What is 0Day?

by Poster <[email protected]> "0-day" is a term used in the Warez-scene to describe the releases by all the cracking/warez/release groups on that particular day. These releases are moved around the world to 0-day dump-sites (FTPs) by "couriers" for the various groups. Some dump-sites also connect to other dump-sites via FXP, using server to server transfer, and keep each-other "synched") so that these dump-sites can have as nearly complete a feed of the day's releases as possible. 0-day warez are posted exactly as released by the release groups. The zips are not altered in any way, except that some posters/sites remove extraneous "nfo" files that are put into the zips by some sites or couriers. This can help to hide the path the files took to the dump-sites which are supplying the warez that is being posted. One of the beauties of 0-day warez being posted (and archived) in this fashion is that it is possible to get a fill at some distant time in the future from a 'careful archivist'. (See "Saving and preserving posts" for how to do this. Ed.) For example: If you have the March 15th 2003 Paradox release of 'such-and-such' archived to CD, and your hard disk crashes, so that you lost the installed app- then you went to CD and found that one of the zips had "gone-bad", you could be screwed-- except that since you had the original archives and know their specifics, you can go and ask on Usenet or IRC for the specific zip by name from that particular release. Someone will likely have it, and you can restore your system. If you pull the RARs and delete the zips you have almost certainly lost your chance to restore, and will have to search-out the entire application again. Some dump-sites are better served by couriers than others, but these are also more exposed and vulnerable to be taken down by "anti-evaluation forces" who don't want people to fully test the software, usually because it doesn't really work. (Once you break the shrink-wrap it's yours-- they have your money and there's not a thing you can do about it if the software doesn't perform as advertised. And that is exactly the way the software dragons and their "bought-and-paid-for" legislators mean to keep it!) A 0-day site is organized by date. Everything the courier has that was released on April 15th, for example, s/he will deposit in a directory on the dump-site named 0415 (mmdd)- creating a sub-directory for it with the name and version # and release group name, such as: Wise.for.Windows.Installer.Professional.v4.02-PARADOX This is to make it simple for the site-operator and other couriers to see what has been delivered. Very often a particular release will be brought to a site by different couriers on different days, so 0414 and 0415 might both contain the same release. No biggie. People with 0-day "access" are allowed onto these 0-day dump-sites to both upload and download warez. This warez very quickly finds it way to places other than the regular dump-sites: Web pages, private FTPs, IRC, etc. One of the places it ends-up is Usenet. People with 0-day access (very often group couriers themselves) will post some of the material to Usenet. This is new material that no one has had an opportunity to test yet, least of all the poster who probably only just looked on the dump-site, saw an "interesting-looking" application name, grabbed it and posted it, with few or no checks at all. Prolific posters who do this on a regular basis may grab dozens of applications to post daily. They have no time to check them, except perhaps to virus scan them. Many times they are taken and posted based solely on the application's name. Typically the poster hasn't got a clue as to the workings of the application, the crack, or anything else about the application. Such posters are acting as couriers, moving the material from the dump-sites to Usenet- they have no chance to do anything with it. The 0-day material stays on the dump-site for a limited time (depending on the storage and daily volume of the site) - and on the poster's drives for a limited time. They post most or all of what they get, when they get it. After it's posted it's either deleted or burned to CD or DVD, or whatever other long-term storage the poster may have. Asking such posters for specific applications is highly unlikely to produce a positive result. Generally speaking, if they get it, they post it when they get it. So asking for something in a 0-day group, or of a 0-day poster, is usually a waste of time. But go ahead and ask if you think, or know, that an application was recently released. Many posters have taken more than they have uploaded to Usenet (bandwidth there being a major consideration- and time to prepare and post) and may have what you're looking for on their hard drive. Asking a "0-day" poster for an application you know was released 6 weeks ago or more, for example, is most likely a waste of time. Chances are very slim that he/she even remembers it, much less still has it. But you never know, and someone else might see the request and fill it for you. But such requests are best made to non-0-day groups, and non-0-day posters, for the reasons mentioned. No reason to ruffle people's feathers with such "off-topic" requests, especially when they will have a much better chance of being filled someplace else, where they would be "on-topic."