Hacking through a Network?
 

I go to a school on a campus where they require that we use a login through "Cisco Clean Access Agent" from Sysco Systems. It verify's things like my Antivirus and Window's updates before allowing me to access the internet. However it restricts where I can go to get these updates and I and my friends have trouble completeing these updates because of the restrictions.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to connect to the internet around this restricition from Cisco? (alterior motives not excluded).

It isn't clear to me how exactly they verify that you have the software they require, but.. Use Linux. Other than that, try using a proxy or HTTP tunnel.

Though if you really are having problems downloading whatever software they require, you could probably just go to the Tech help desk or whatever and tell them that, and they'll probably have a way to hook you up with what you need.

You can try predownloading the updates and files onto a USB flash drive. If you got a mp3 player that doubles as data storage, that could help too. Burn it onto a CD even. Other than that, I really don't know much about backdoor-ing log-in prompts.

I do remembering reading something about editing a system file in the form of a .txt document. You look for the Proxy setting thats relative to your network connections and change the 1 to a 0. But I wouldn't suggest changing anything like that unless you really know what it is.

I went to Miami University of Ohio, and they had the exact same thing. My solution wasn't exactly specific to Clean Access.

I had a linux server at home. I would set up a ssh tunnel to that home machine. I forget the command, but I believe it's something like :

ssh user@server_address -D 9000

Then you can set up your computer to use the address 127.0.0.1 and port 9000 as a proxy server. From there you can do whatever you want. I used this solution also because they had wireless internet everywhere, but none of it was encrypted. This encrypted all of network traffic (as long as I was careful things were configured to use that proxy).

You can also use an alternate OS, like it was explained below. However, if you don't feel like switching from windows, I believe Cisco Clean Access uses the http headers from your Web Browser to determine your OS.

Hopefully you're using Firefox. Get an extension for Firefox that allows you to modify the headers of your HTTP requests. Modify them to say you're using an alternate OS. It should make Clean Access believe that you are using an alternate OS. I had a Mac, and I didn't even have to download the Clean Access agent to my mac. My PC however, required that. By switching the headers you should be able to fool Clean Access.

Finally, the option I found most convienent for my PC was: 1) Connect my mac by plugging in, 2) Share that connection wirelessly, 3) Connect to that wireless connection with my PC. All the traffic is flowing through the Mac, which doesn't require all of that Clean Access client crap, so my PC could be connected without having to worry about it.

Hope that helps.

Here's an idea! Why don't you go bug people at your school's IT department who hopefully know more about your school's network than we do! Then you'll solve your problem and you won't get arrested.