Hot Null Byte Posts
How To: Perform a Pass-the-Hash Attack & Get System Access on Windows
Passwords on Windows are stored as hashes, and sometimes they can be tough to crack. In certain situations, though, we can get around that by using the hash as is, with no need to know the plaintext password. It's especially interesting if we can manage to get the hash of an administrative user since we can then authenticate with higher privileges by performing an attack known as pass the hash.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Conduct a Simple Man-in-the-Middle Attack
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Many of you have probably heard of a man-in-the-middle attack and wondered how difficult an attack like that would be. For those of you who've never heard of one, it's simply where we, the hacker, place ourselves between the victim and the server and send and receive all the communication between the two.
How To: Enumerate MySQL Databases with Metasploit
It's been said time and time again: reconnaissance is perhaps the most critical phase of an attack. It's especially important when preparing an attack against a database since one wrong move can destroy every last bit of data, which usually isn't the desired outcome. Metasploit contains a variety of modules that can be used to enumerate MySQL databases, making it easy to gather valuable information.
The Hacks of Mr. Robot: How to Spy on Anyone's Smartphone Activity
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! As all you know by now, I'm loving this new show, Mr. Robot. Among the many things going for this innovative and captivating program is the realism of the hacking. I am using this series titled "The Hacks of Mr. Robot" to demonstrate the hacks that are used on this program.
How To: Hack Networks & Devices Right from Your Wrist with the Wi-Fi Deauther Watch
The Deauther Watch by Travis Lin is the physical manifestation of the Wi-Fi Deauther project by Spacehuhn, and it's designed to let you operate the Deauther project right from your wrist without needing a computer. That's pretty cool if you want to do all the interesting things that the Wi-Fi Deauther can do without plugging it into a device.
How To: Fix Bidirectional Copy/Paste Issues for Kali Linux Running in VirtualBox
Last week, I updated VirtualBox on my computer since I had skipped a few versions, then I could no longer copy text or paste text from my Kali virtual machine to my host OS and vice versa. Installing the Guest Additions didn't seem to do anything, and the bidirectional shared clipboard was enabled, but there was one thing that did work for me that may help you out too if you experience the issue.
How To: Find Hidden Web Directories with Dirsearch
One of the first steps when pentesting a website should be scanning for hidden directories. It is essential for finding valuable information or potential attack vectors that might otherwise be unseen on the public-facing site. There are many tools out there that will perform the brute-forcing process, but not all are created equally.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Crack Online Web Form Passwords with THC-Hydra & Burp Suite
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! In an earlier tutorial, I had introduced you to two essential tools for cracking online passwords—Tamper Data and THC-Hydra. In that guide, I promised to follow up with another tutorial on how to use THC-Hydra against web forms, so here we go. Although you can use Tamper Data for this purpose, I want to introduce you to another tool that is built into Kali, Burp Suite.
How To: Obtain Valuable Data from Images Using Exif Extractors
Metadata contained in images and other files can give away a lot more information than the average user might think. By tricking a target into sending a photo containing GPS coordinates and additional information, a hacker can learn where a mark lives or works simply by extracting the Exif data hidden inside the image file.
How To: Find Anyone's Private Phone Number Using Facebook
Facebook really wants your phone number, nagging you for one as soon as you join. This isn't all bad since it can help secure your account with two-factor authentication. On the flipside, this makes it easy to reveal the private phone numbers of virtually anyone on Facebook, including celebrities and politicians. We're going to look at how a hacker would do this and how to protect yourself.
How To: Hack WiFi Using a WPS Pixie Dust Attack
Long time reader, first time 'How To' poster. This tutorial has been highly requested. Here are the steps to perform a Pixie Dust attack to crack a WiFi password that has WPS enabled.
How To: There Are Hidden Wi-Fi Networks All Around You — These Attacks Will Find Them
There are hidden Wi-Fi networks all around you — networks that will never show up in the list of available unlocked and password-protected hotspots that your phone or computer can see — but are they more secure than regular networks that broadcast their name to any nearby device?
How To: Set Up a Wi-Fi Spy Camera with an ESP32-CAM
The ESP32-CAM is a convenient little camera module with a lot of built-in power, and you can turn one into an inconspicuous spy camera to hide in any room. There's only one issue: it does omit a USB port. That makes it a little harder to program, but with an ESP32-based board, FTDI programmer, and some jumper wires, you'll have a programmed ESP32 Wi-Fi spy camera in no time.
How to Hack Bluetooth, Part 1: Terms, Technologies, & Security
Welcome back, my novice hackers! This new series on Bluetooth hacking was inspired by a recent episode of Mr. Robot (my favorite TV show). In episode 6, Eliot hacked the bluetooth keyboard of the police office in order to hack the prison and release his nemesis, Vera. This is just one of the many hacks we will explore in the series.
How To: Break into Router Gateways with Patator
Router gateways are responsible for protecting every aspect of a network's configuration. With unfettered access to these privileged configurations, an attacker on a compromised Wi-Fi network can perform a wide variety of advanced attacks.
How To: Hunt Down Wi-Fi Devices with a Directional Antenna
If you've ever wanted to track down the source of a Wi-Fi transmission, doing so can be relatively easy with the right equipment.
How To: Hack WPA WiFi Passwords by Cracking the WPS PIN
A flaw in WPS, or WiFi Protected Setup, known about for over a year by TNS, was finally exploited with proof of concept code. Both TNS, the discoverers of the exploit and Stefan at .braindump have created their respective "reaver" and "wpscrack" programs to exploit the WPS vulnerability. From this exploit, the WPA password can be recovered almost instantly in plain-text once the attack on the access point WPS is initiated, which normally takes 2-10 hours (depending on which program you use).
How To: Create Malicious QR Codes to Hack Phones & Other Scanners
QR codes are everywhere, from product packaging to airline boarding passes, making the scanners that read them a juicy target for hackers. Thanks to flaws in many of these proprietary scanning devices, it's possible to exploit common vulnerabilities using exploits packed into custom QR codes.
How To: Use Commix to Automate Exploiting Command Injection Flaws in Web Applications
The ability to execute system commands via a vulnerable web application makes command injection a fruitful attack vector for any hacker. But while this type of vulnerability is highly prized, it can often take quite a bit of time to probe through an entire application to find these flaws. Luckily, there is a useful tool called Commix that can automate this process for us.
How To: Brute-Force WPA/WPA2 via GPU
Most of you lot would be aware what WPA/WPA2 is so I won't bang on about the encryption or protocols a great deal. In short WPA and WPA2 both have a maximum of 256bit encrypted with a maximum of 64 characters in the password. The encryption is really only 64bit but x 4 because of the way the authentication functions as a 4 way handshake.
How to Hack Wi-Fi: Capturing WPA Passwords by Targeting Users with a Fluxion Attack
With tools such as Reaver becoming less viable options for pen-testers as ISPs replace vulnerable routers, there become fewer certainties about which tools will work against a particular target. If you don't have time to crack the WPA password or it's unusually strong, it can be hard to figure out your next step. Luckily, nearly all systems have one common vulnerability you can count on — users!
How To: Catch an Internet Catfish with Grabify Tracking Links
Featured on MTV's Catfish TV series, in season 7, episode 8, Grabify is a tracking link generator that makes it easy to catch an online catfish in a lie. With the ability to identify the IP address, location, make, and model of any device that opens on a cleverly disguised tracking link, Grabify can even identify information leaked from behind a VPN.
How To: Build a DNS Packet Sniffer with Scapy and Python
In my last how-to, we built a man-in-the-middle tool. The aforementioned script only established a man-in-the-middle. Today we'll be building a tool to utilize it. We'll be building a DNS packet sniffer. In a nutshell, this listens for DNS queries from the victim and shows them to us. This allows us to track the victims activity and perform some useful recon.
How To: Discover Open Ports Using Metasploit's Built-in Port Scanner
One of the first steps in reconnaissance is determining the open ports on a system. Nmap is widely considered the undisputed king of port scanning, but certain situations call for different tools. Metasploit makes it easy to conduct port scanning from directly inside the framework, and we'll show you three types of port scans: TCP, SYN, and XMAS.
How to Hack Wi-Fi: Performing a Denial of Service (DoS) Attack on a Wireless Access Point
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! As part of my series on Wi-Fi hacking, I want to next look at denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and DoSing a wireless access point (AP). There are a variety of ways to do this, but in this tutorial we'll be sending repeated deauthentication frames to the AP with aircrack-ng's aireplay. Remember, hacking wireless networks isn't all just cracking Wi-Fi passwords! Our Problem Scenario
Hack Like a Pro: Getting Started with BackTrack, Your New Hacking System
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! In one of my recent articles, I showed you how to install BackTrack as a dual boot system on a Windows computer. In this tutorial, I will walk you through BackTrack, giving you a tour of the most salient features for the hacker-to-be.
How To: Discover & Attack Raspberry Pis Using Default Credentials with Rpi-hunter
When setting up a Raspberry Pi, it's easy to overlook changing the default password. Like many IoT devices, the Raspberry Pi's default Raspbian operating system installs with a widely-known default password, leaving the device vulnerable to remote access. Using a tool called rpi-hunter, hackers can discover, access, and drop custom payloads on any weak Pi connected to the same network.
How to Hack Wi-Fi: Disabling Security Cameras on Any Wireless Network with Aireplay-Ng
Electronic warfare tactics work by jamming, disrupting, or disabling the technology a target uses to perform a critical function, and IoT devices are especially vulnerable to attacks. Wireless security cameras like the Nest Cam are frequently used to secure critical locations, but a hacker can surgically disable a webcam or other Wi-Fi connected device without disturbing the rest of the network.
How To: Use John the Ripper in Metasploit to Quickly Crack Windows Hashes
There are many password-cracking tools out there, but one of the mainstays has always been John the Ripper. It's a powerful piece of software that can be configured and used in many different ways. Metasploit actually contains a little-known module version of JTR that can be used to quickly crack weak passwords, so let's explore it in an attempt to save precious time and effort.
How To: Hunt Down Social Media Accounts by Usernames with Sherlock
When researching a person using open source intelligence, the goal is to find clues that tie information about a target into a bigger picture. Screen names are perfect for this because they are unique and link data together, as people often reuse them in accounts across the internet. With Sherlock, we can instantly hunt down social media accounts created with a unique screen name on many online platforms simultaneously.
How To: Use MinGW to Compile Windows Exploits on Kali Linux
Cross-compilation allows you to develop for one platform (like Kali) and compile to run on a different platform (such as Windows). For developers, it means that they can work on their platform of choice and compile their code for their target platform. For hackers, it means we can compile exploit code for Windows from Kali.
How To: Conduct Wireless Recon on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi & GPS with Sparrow-wifi
If you're ever in a situation where you need to take a peek at the wireless spectrum, whether it's for Bluetooth or Wi-Fi devices, there's a fascinating Python 3-based tool called Sparrow-wifi you should check out. It's cross-platform, easy to use, and has an impressive GUI that shows you the signal strength of nearby devices.
The Hacks of Mr. Robot: How to Send a Spoofed SMS Text Message
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! As most of you know, Mr. Robot is probably the best hacker TV show ever! This is a great show about a cyber security engineer who is being enticed to hack the very corporation he's being paid to protect. This show is so good, I began a series to demonstrate how to do the hacks he uses in the show.
How to Hack Your Game Saves: A Basic Guide to Hex Editing
The days of entering left, right, left, right, up, down, up, down, a, b to cheat your way through a video game are long gone. With achievements and trophies in existence, game developers have, for the most part, removed cheats from video games.
The Hacks of Mr. Robot: How to Hack Bluetooth
Welcome back, my novice hackers! Episode 6 of Mr. Robot has come and gone and, as usual, it did not disappoint. Once again, our hero, Elliot, has used his extraordinary intellect and hacking skills to awe and inspire us.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Crack Passwords, Part 4 (Creating a Custom Wordlist with Crunch)
Welcome back, my apprentice hackers! In this series on password cracking, I have been attempting to develop your skills in the age-old art of password cracking. Although it might seem like a simple and straightforward exercise, those of you who have attempted password cracking know that there are many subtleties to this art.
How To: Build a Beginner Hacking Kit with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
If you want to follow Null Byte tutorials and try out Kali Linux, the Raspberry Pi is a perfect way to start. In 2018, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ was released featuring a better CPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet built in. Our recommended Kali Pi kit for beginners learning ethical hacking on a budget runs the "Re4son" Kali kernel and includes a compatible wireless network adapter and a USB Rubber Ducky.
How To: Set Your Wi-Fi Card's TX Power Higher Than 30 dBm
Do you have an Alfa AWUS036NH Wi-Fi adapter that claims it can go to 2000 mWs, or some card that can supposedly transmit power over 1000 mW? If so, you may have run into problems setting your card's TXPOWER higher than 30 dBm, which is about 1000 mW. Well, I will show you how to break that barrier and go as high as you want!
How To: Get Unlimited Free Trials Using a "Real" Fake Credit Card Number
When I see the words "free trial," I know I'm probably going to have to whip out my credit card and enter in the number to "not get charged." Then I end up forgetting about the trial and want to kick myself in the ass when I see my statement at the end of the month.
The Hacks of Mr. Robot: How to Hide Data in Audio Files
Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! A you know, Mr. Robot is my favorite TV show this year, and not just for the realistic hacking. Rami Malek, the actor who plays Elliot, is incomparable in his depiction of a young man with social anxiety who is alienated from a superficial, materialistic society and wants to make a better world. I believe we will see a lot more of this actor in coming years.