Null Byte How-Tos
How To: The Essential Skills to Becoming a Master Hacker
Many of my aspiring hackers have written to me asking the same thing. "What skills do I need to be a good hacker?"
Hack Like a Pro: Creating a Virtually Undetectable Covert Channel with RECUB
Welcome back, my budding hackers! We've spent a lot of time learning to compromise Windows systems, and we've successfully compromised them with Metasploit, cracked their passwords, and hacked their Wi-Fi. However, very little time was spent developing ways to extract the information from the system once inside.
Hack Like a Pro: The Ultimate Social Engineering Hack
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Although we have focused primarily on technical hacks here, social engineering can sometimes be especially effective. This one requires a bit of technical skill, but not too much. In addition, it's limited by how specific a target you can choose—but it will work.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Use Driftnet to See What Kind of Images Your Neighbor Looks at Online
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! We have looked at a number of ways that we sniff traffic on the network with such tools as Wireshark, tcpdump, dnsiff, and others, but each of these tools is only capable of pulling packets off the wire.
Hack Like a Pro: Perl Scripting for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 1
Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! To enter the upper echelons of hackerdom, you MUST develop scripting skills. It's all great and well to use other hacker's tools, but to get and maintain the upper hand, you must develop your own unique tools, and you can only do that by developing your scripting skills.
How To: Remove BackTrack & Install Kali as a Dual-Boot System Without Damaging Your Hard Drive
Yesterday, I wanted to remove BackTrack from my system and install Kali, and at the same time didn't want to damage my Windows 7 or my hard drive. I searched a lot of articles, but almost all of them wanted me to have a backup Windows 7 CD, which I don't possess.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Set Up a Honeypot & How to Avoid Them
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! Those of you who've been reading my tutorials for some time now know that I am adamant regarding the necessity of learning and using Linux to hack. There is no substitute, period.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Clone Any Website Using HTTrack
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Recently, I demonstrated a hack where you could redirect traffic intended for one site, such as bankofamerica.com, to your fake website. Of course, to really make this work, you would need to make a replica of the site you were spoofing, or better yet, you could simply simply make a copy of the original site and host it on your own server!
Hack Like a Pro: How to Use the New p0f 3.0 for OS Fingerprinting & Forensics
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! A short while ago, I did a tutorial on conducting passive OS fingerprinting with p0f. As you remember, p0f is different from other operating system fingerprinting tools as it does not send any packets to the target, instead it simply takes packets off the wire and examines them to determine the operating system that sent them.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Spoof DNS on a LAN to Redirect Traffic to Your Fake Website
Welcome back, my novice hackers! There are SOOOO many ways to hack a system or network, which means you need to think creatively in order to be successful.
How To: Get Started with Kali Linux (2014 Version)
Welcome back, my apprentice hackers! As many of you know, I have been hesitant to adopt the new Kali hacking system from Offensive Security. This hesitancy has been based upon a number of bugs in the original release back in March of 2013 and my belief that BackTrack was easier for the novice to work with.
Hack Like a Pro: Linux Basics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 17 (Client DNS)
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! Domain Name System (DNS) is one of those things we seldom think about unless it doesn't work. Then, it can be very frustrating when we attempt to navigate to a website and we get that frustrating error message.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Exploit Adobe Flash with a Corrupted Movie File to Hack Windows 7
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! In my continuing effort to demonstrate to you how to hack the ubiquitous Windows 7, we will going after that notoriously vulnerable Adobe Flash that is on nearly every client Windows system (you are not likely to find it on servers).
Hack Like a Pro: How to Fingerprint Web Servers Using Httprint
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Earlier in this series, I showed a you a couple of different ways of fingerprinting webservers. Probably the easiest way, is to use netcat and connect to port 80 and pull the webserver banner.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Conduct Passive OS Fingerprinting with p0f
Welcome back, my novice hackers! I have tried to emphasize throughout this "Hack Like a Pro" series that good reconnaissance is critical to effective hacking. As you have seen in many of these hacks, the techniques that we use are VERY specific to the:
Hack Like a Pro: Linux Basics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 16 (Stdin, Stdout, & Stderror)
Welcome back, my budding hackers! In previous tutorials, we've looked at some of the basic commands and concepts for using Linux. Along the way, I realized that I've failed to provide you with some basic background material on the stdin, stdout, and stderror.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Hack Windows 7 to See Whether Your Girlfriend Is Cheating or Not
Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! Several of you have written asking me how you can check on whether your boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse is cheating on you, so I dedicate this tutorial to all of you with doubts about the fidelity of your spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend.
Hack Like a Pro: Scripting for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 3 (Windows PowerShell)
Welcome back, my budding hackers! As you know, I firmly believe that to be a true professional hacker, you need to be proficient in Linux. This is for a number of good reasons.
How To: Networking Basics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part One: IP Addresses
Recently, there have been some questions regarding networking popping up and we have decided to put together this series to try and cover this gap.
How To: Got Beef? Getting Started with BeEF
With the the general computer users understanding of Information security rising (at least to the point of not clicking on unknown links), and operating system security getting better by default. We need to look for new and creative ways to gain a foothold in a system.
Hack Like a Pro: Exploring the Inner Architecture of Metasploit
Welcome back, my novice hackers! We've done a number of tutorials using one of my favorite hacking tools, Metasploit. In each of them, we've used the msfconsole, which can be reached through either the menu system or through simply typing "msfconsole" from the terminal.
Hack Like a Pro: Linux Basics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 15 (Creating a Secure Tunnel to MySQL)
Welcome back, my budding hackers! In my continuing effort to build your basic Linux skills for hacking, I want to show you how to build a secure "tunnel" to MySQL.
Hack Like a Pro: An Introduction to Regular Expressions (Regex)
Welcome back, my novice hackers! This next subject might seem a bit obscure, but I promise you, this lesson will benefit you significantly either as a hacker or system admin. This tutorial will cover what is usually referred to as a regular expression, or regex for short.
How to Hack Windows 7: Sending Vulnerable Shortcut Files
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! After the disaster that was Windows Vista and the limited and reluctant adoption of Windows 8 and 8.1, Windows 7 has become the de facto standard operating system on the desktop/client.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 4 (Evading Detection While DoSing)
Welcome back, my hackers novitiates! As you read my various hacking tutorials, you're probably asking yourself, "What are the chances that this hack will be detected and that I'll land behind bars, disappointing my dear mother who already thinks I'm a loser?"
How to Hack Databases: Extracting Data from Online Databases Using Sqlmap
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! In a previous tutorial on hacking databases, I showed you how to find online databases and then how to enumerate the databases, tables, and columns. In this guide, we'll now exfiltrate, extract, remove—whatever term you prefer—the data from an online database.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Hack into Your Suspicious, Creepy Neighbor's Computer & Spy on Him
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! Have you ever had a neighbor that you're certain is up to no good? Maybe you've seen him moving packages in and out at all hours of the night? Maybe you've seen people go into his home and never come out? He seems like a creep and sometimes you hear strange sounds coming from his home? You know he's up to no good, but you aren't sure what it is exactly.
How To: How Hackers Stole Your Credit Card Data in the Cyber Attack on Target Stores
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! As nearly everyone has heard, Target Corporation, one of the largest retailers in the U.S. and Canada, was hacked late last year and potentially 100 million credit cards have been compromised. Happening just before Christmas, it severely dampened Target's Christmas sales, reputation, and stock price (the company's value has fallen by $5B).
Hack Like a Pro: How to Pivot from the Victim System to Own Every Computer on the Network
Welcome back, my hackers apprentices! To own a network and retrieve the key data, we only need to find ONE weak link in the network. It makes little sense to beat our heads against heavily fortified systems like the file and database server when we can take advantage of the biggest weak link of all—humans.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Crack Private & Public SNMP Passwords Using Onesixtyone
Welcome back, my novice hackers! In a recent tutorial, I showed how the SNMP protocol can be a gold mine of information for reconnaissance on a potential target. If you haven't already, I strongly suggest that you read it before progressing here, as little of this will make much sense without that background.
How to Hack Databases: Hacking MySQL Online Databases with Sqlmap
Welcome back, my amateur hackers!
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 3 (Recovering Deleted Files)
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! I recently began a new series on digital forensics to help tenderfoot hackers from being detected and ultimately, incarcerated. In this installment of that series, we will look at recovering deleted files. This is important to hackers because you need to know that even when you delete files on your computer or on the victim's computer, a forensic investigator can usually recover them.
Hack Like a Pro: Linux Basics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 14 (MySQL)
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers!
Hack Like a Pro: How to Exploit SNMP for Reconnaissance
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! The more we know about a system or network, the better our chances of owning it and not leaving a trace for investigators to follow. One of the often overlooked sources for information is the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Many rookie hackers are not even aware of it, but it can prove to be a treasure trove of information, if you understand how it works and how to hack it.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Hack Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to Snatch the Sysadmin Password
Welcome back, my budding hackers! One of the keys to becoming a professional and successful hacker is to think creatively. There is always a way to get into any network or system, if you think creatively. In previous tutorials, I have demonstrated ways to crack passwords on both Linux and Windows systems, but in this case, I will show you a way to get the sysadmin password by intercepting it from a Remote Desktop session.
Hack Like a Pro: Linux Basics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 13 (Mounting Drives & Devices)
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! One of those areas of Linux that Windows users invariably struggle with is the concept of "mounting" devices and drives. In the Windows world, drives and devices are automatically "mounted" without any user effort or knowledge. Well, maybe a bit of knowledge. Most Windows users know to unmount their flash drive before removing it, but they usually think of it as "ejecting" it.
How To: The FBI Can Spy on Your Webcam Undetected: Here's How to Stop Them
Let's just say it's been a pretty bad year for spies and government agencies and an even worse one for the privacy of U.S. citizens. Edward Snowden blew the lid off the NSA's spy program, and the FBI was recently discovered to have the ability to access your webcam any time they want—without triggering the "camera on" light. Yeah, that means those Justin Bieber lip sync videos you recorded weren't just for your private collection.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 2 (Network Forensics)
Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! I recently began a new series on digital forensics to show aspiring hackers what the forensic investigator can do and see while investigating a cyber attack. This is the second installment in that series and will focus upon network forensics. In other words, what can a network forensic investigator learn about the attacker during an investigation and how.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Change the Signature of Metasploit Payloads to Evade Antivirus Detection
Welcome back, my budding hackers! I've written several listener guides on creating a malicious PDF or malicious Word document that would carry in it a payload with the Meterpreter, or reverse shell enabling you to own the system. One of the hurdles to using these techniques is the antivirus (AV) software on the target system. For instance, if you try to email a malicious PDF or Word doc, it's likely that the victim system will alert the victim that it contains a virus or other malware.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 1 (Tools & Techniques)
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! So many readers in the Null Byte community have been asking me questions about evading detection and hacking undetected that I decided to start a new series on digital forensics.