Null Byte How-Tos
Hack Like a Pro: How to Remotely Grab a Screenshot of Someone's Compromised Computer
Welcome back, my newbie hackers! We've already saved the world from nuclear annihilation and covered our tracks afterwards, but the world is still threatened by a malicious, megalomaniacal dictator with missiles and nuclear weapons.
How To: Your Personal Data May Be Stored in MP3s Purchased Online! Here's How to Delete It
If you weren't aware, all music purchased online through iTunes, Amazon, and other digital audio providers have information embedded that can be used to identify the buyer and transaction of the digital music file. This may seem like something you should be disclosed about in their terms of use, but it's not.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Cover Your Tracks So You Aren't Detected
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Congratulations on your successful hack that saved the world from nuclear annihilation from our little, bellicose, Twinkie-eating dictator. The rest of world may not know what you did, but I do. Good job! Now that we hacked into the malevolent dictator's computer and temporarily disabled his nuclear launch capability, we have to think about covering our tracks so that he and his minions can't track our good works back to us.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Save the World from Nuclear Annihilation
Welcome back, my newbie hackers! Hackers often are associated with clandestine and illegal activity, but that is not necessarily always the case. Hackers are increasingly being used and employed for law enforcement, national security, and other legitimate purposes. In this installment, we will look at how a single hacker could save the world from nuclear annihilation.
How To: Use Common Features of Windows Command Prompt
Every Windows system includes command prompt; and while a lot of people on Null Byte and WonderHowTo in general know how to use it, some people don't know anything about it, even how to access it.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Remotely Install an Auto-Reconnecting Persistent Back Door on Someone's PC
Welcome back, my hacker wannabees! Most of my recent posts have addressed using Metasploit’s Meterpreter and what we can do once we have embedded it on the victim’s system. This includes remotely installing a keylogger, enabling the webcam, enabling the microphone and recording, disabling the antivirus software, among many other things. The list is almost unlimited.
How To: Install Aircrack-Ng on Your Linux Computer Correctly
I see that there are a lot of people that want to install and try the Aircrack-ng program for wireless auditing. But have problems because their Linux knowledge isn't that great. This How-To video tutorial explains step by step exactly what you have to do. No loud background music.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Remotely Record & Listen to the Microphone on Anyone's Computer
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! So many of you responded positively to my post about using the keylogger, as well as my post regarding turning on the webcam, that I decided that you might enjoy another similar hack. In this article, we will enable the audio recording capability on the remote system of your roommate.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Secretly Hack Into, Switch On, & Watch Anyone's Webcam Remotely
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates!
How To: "FROST" Sensitive Data Out of a Samsung Galaxy Nexus or Other Android Device
We go to such great lengths to secure our smartphones. We put passwords on our lock screens, encrypt our data, and install anti-theft programs, but it's never enough—someone, somewhere, will find a way around any protective measure you use, no matter how sophisticated.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Remotely Install a Keylogger onto Your Girlfriend's Computer
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Several of you have you have emailed me asking whether it's possible to install a keylogger on a victim’s computer using Metasploit. The answer is a resounding "YES"!
Hack Like a Pro: How to Kill and Disable Antivirus Software on a Remote PC
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! In some of my past articles, I've shown numerous ways of embedding a listener/rootkit on a remote system, including buffer overflows of the operating system, getting the victim to click on a link to our malicious website, and sending a malicious Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat file.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Bypass Antivirus Software by Disguising an Exploit's Signature
Welcome back my fellow hackers! In my last few articles, I've concentrated on what is called a listener, which is basically the same thing as backdoor and rootkit, only "listener" sounds much less malevolent than the other two terms.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Embed a Backdoor Connection in an Innocent-Looking PDF
Welcome back , my fledgling hackers! Lately, I've been focusing more on client-side hacks. While web servers, database servers, and file servers have garnered increased protection, the client-side remains extremely vulnerable, and there is much to teach. This time, we'll look at inserting a listener (rootkit) inside a PDF file, exploiting a vulnerability in Adobe's Reader.
How To: 4 Ways to Crack a Facebook Password & How to Protect Yourself from Them
Despite the security concerns that have plagued Facebook for years, most people are sticking around and new members keep on joining. This has led Facebook to break records numbers with over 1.94 billion monthly active users, as of March 2017 — and around 1.28 billion daily active users.
Hack Like a Pro: Exploit MS Word to Embed a Listener on Your Roommate's Computer
In my last hack blog on crashing your roommates Win7 system, we started looking at client- side attacks. As promised, we will be looking at some more client-side attacks.
How To: 5 Great Reasons Why You Should Use Private Browsing Online
The creation of private browsing was brought upon by the backlash against ad tracking and other ways that sites and agencies take away users' privacy online. People were tired of getting spammed with ads for Vitamin C pills simply because they visited WebMD. Private browsing is now built into all of the major browsers and is used frequently. While private browsing is more infamously known as the "Porn Portal," and does prove to be a great way of keeping racy content out of the sight of others...
How To: Create Strong Passwords Automatically with This DIY USB Password Generator
No matter how many PSAs are published on the topic, studies continue to show that we are generally terrible at creating secure passwords and PINs. Using the same password (or variations of it) for multiple sites is another huge no-no that the majority of people ignore, and even though you should change your passwords frequently, most of us don't.
How To: Bypass Region-Blocked Streaming Content Online for Free with Tunlr
For people that live outside of the United States, how many times has this happened when surfing through U.S. streaming services? If you're outside of the U.S. market and want to stream stateside services like Hulu, MTV, CBS, Pandora, and others—you're in luck. Tunlr is an application that re-addresses certain data envelopes, tricking the receiver into thinking the data originated from within the U.S. by using its own DNS server's IP address. You can even watch some non-US shows stateside, li...
How To: Crack Wi-Fi Passwords—For Beginners!
An internet connection has become a basic necessity in our modern lives. Wireless hotspots (commonly known as Wi-Fi) can be found everywhere!
Hack Like a Pro: How to Exploit IE8 to Get Root Access When People Visit Your Website
All of my hacks up to this point have been operating system hacks. In other words, we have exploited a vulnerability usually in an operating system service (SMB, RPC, etc.) that all allow us to install a command shell or other code in the target system.
How To: Turn an Ordinary Surge Protector into a Sneaky Hacking Strip
Remember the Power Pwn, the clever little hacking tool disguised as a power strip? It's great in theory, but with a $1,295 price tag, it definitely doesn't fit into most people's budgets.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Crash Your Roommate's Windows 7 PC with a Link
In my first few articles, we focused on operating system hacks. These hacks have been primarily on older operating systems such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003.
How To: Turn an Innocent Dry Erase Marker into a Hotel Hacking Machine
A couple of months ago at the Black Hat security conference, hacker Cody Brocious gave the hotel industry a nasty surprise when he figured out how to hack the locks made by Onity that are used in millions of hotels worldwide.
How To: Twitter's Massive Security Flaw Makes Your Password Easy to Hack
What's your Twitter handle worth? If it's considered "desirable" (aka short and simple), it'll get you around 100 bucks, or, if you prefer, the affections of a teenage girl.
How To: Have Your Passwords Ever Been Leaked Online? Find Out with PwnedList
It seems like every other day there's a new security threat or data leak in the news. Whether it's your credit card PIN or your smartphone's apps leaking your email address, no one wants their personal information out there, especially passwords. And if you use the same email address and/or password for more than one site, the effects of someone getting hold of your credentials can be catastrophic.
How To: Most Credit Card PINs Are Easy to Crack—Here's How to Strengthen Yours
You've probably noticed how we like to stress the importance of a strong password. After all, there are still people out there who continue to use passwords like 123456 and even just "password". But passwords aren't the only barriers that protect your information.
How To: Learn to Code for Free with These Online Programming Lessons
While becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg may be out of reach for someone just getting introduced to code, the skill has never been more valuable. Just understanding basic programming language is a great thing to put on your resume, and if you know how to code, you’re golden. Software developers and programmers have been the most resistant to the recession, as jobs in the tech industry continue to grow.
How To: Crack Wi-Fi Passwords with Your Android Phone and Get Free Internet!
Want to take advantage of your neighbor's super fast Wi-Fi connection? If they're smart, they probably have it password protected (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this, would you?). But if you have an Android phone, you can get back at them for always parking in your spot and slamming the door when they get home at 2 a.m.—by stealing...er, borrowing, their connection.
How To: Use Internet Explorer? Install the Latest Version to Avoid the Newest Zero-Day Exploit
If you're one of the people who make up the nearly 24% of Internet users on Internet Explorer, now is a good time to click on 'Check for updates.' Researchers have found yet another Metasploit Zero-Day exploit that leaves IE 7, 8, and 9 vulnerable for Windows users. Brought to us by the same group as the Java 7 exploit a few weeks ago, this one uses a malicious site to install the Poison Ivy backdoor trojan while unsuspecting users browse. Once installed, it basically gives the attacker the s...
Hack Like a Pro: How to Take Control of Windows Server 2003 Remotely by Launching a Reverse Shell
When I left off on our last hack, we had hacked into the ubiquitous Windows Server 2003 server by adding ourselves as a user to that system so that we can return undetected at any time. The problem with this approach is that a sysadmin who is on their toes will note that a new user has been added and will begin to take preventative action.
How To: Know Who's Not Who They Claim to Be Online
All kinds of people pretend to be someone they're not on the internet, including scammers, people attempting to wind others up, hackers and web predators. Almost all of these people will leave bases uncovered and they're all easy to expose when you understand how to. Here are my favorite ways of finding out when somebody is lying quickly. Image Search
How To: Stop the New Java 7 Exploit from Installing Malware on Your Mac or PC
UPDATE: A patch to fix the exploit has been released. Download it here.
Hack Like a Pro: Remotely Add a New User Account to a Windows Server 2003 Box
Welcome back, hacker novitiates! In the next few hacks, we will be breaking into Windows servers. In this installment, we will learn to add ourselves as a user to a Windows 2003 server. Of course, when we have added ourselves as a user, we can come back any time and simply log into our account without having to hack into the system and risk detection.
How to Hack Like a Pro: Hacking Windows Vista by Exploiting SMB2 Vulnerabilities
Hi, gang! Time for another hack using Metasploit. We have exploited Windows XP (a very insecure operating system) and we have exploited Ubuntu and installed Meterpreter on a Linux system exploiting the Samba service. Several of you have asked for a hack on more modern Windows systems, so here goes.
How To: If You Use Password Hints in Windows 7 or 8, This Hack Could Easily Exploit Them
Earlier this week, Spiderlabs' vulnerability researcher Jonathan Claudius discovered a key in Windows 7 and 8 registries that makes it easy for anyone with physical or remote access to a computer get a hold of the user's password hints. When the "UserPasswordHint" key is read, the hints are displayed as a code that looks encrypted, but Claudius noticed a pattern of zeroes that could be easily translated back to plain text with a decoder he made in Ruby. He added this functionality to the Meta...
How To: Locked Out of Your Phone? Here's How You Bypass the Android Pattern Lock Screen
It can be extremely frustrating when you've forgotten the pattern you use to lock your smartphone, and even more so if someone has managed to prank you by changing it. Luckily, there's an easy fix if you know the username and password for the Gmail account you used to set up the lock.
How To: Clear Dead Tracks from Your iTunes Library on Windows Using Only Notepad
If you've ever mistakenly moved your music files around without relinking them in iTunes, you might now be noticing that you have a long list of tracks asking you to relink them. You could go through them one by one, redirect them to the new file location, then delete any copies. Or you could try to track them all down and delete the old references. But come on, who wants to spend that much time when you can clean up your library using this clever method using only Notepad on your Windows com...
How To: Hack Your Roommate! How to Find Stored Site Passwords in Chrome and Firefox
Even though we all know it's a bad idea, a lot of people still use their browser's store password function to keep up with all their accounts. While convenient, this shortcut also makes their passwords very easy to find if you have access to the computer they're stored on.
How To: Hack Your PC into a Mac! How to Install OS X Mountain Lion on Any Intel-Based Computer
Have a PC but hate Windows? Maybe you've just heard a ton about the new Mountain Lion OS X and want to see if it lives up to expectations. Either way, you can install Mountain Lion on your Intel-based PC in a few easy steps. All you need is a copy of the OS X and an 8 GB USB flash drive. The first step is getting Mountain Lion onto the flash drive. You'll need to format the drive with one partition as Mac OS Extended, Journaled and select Master Boot Record under options so that it's able to ...