Hot Null Byte How-Tos
How To: Attend Defcon Without Looking Like a Noob or Spending a Fortune
Defcon is the largest hacker conference with something for everyone, whether it be the talks, parties, villages, or any of the hundreds of events. In this guide, we'll take a holistic view at everything that goes into attending the con for the first time, from securing your electronics and making the most of your time to the logistics of getting there and finding the right place to stay.
How To: Attack Web Applications with Burp Suite & SQL Injection
Web applications are becoming more and more popular, replacing traditional desktop programs at an accelerated rate. With all these new apps out on the web comes various security implications associated with being connected to the internet where anyone can poke and prod at them. One of the simplest, yet the most prevalent types of security flaws found in modern web apps are SQL injections.
How To: Use the Chrome Browser Secure Shell App to SSH into Remote Devices
Many guides on Null Byte require using the Secure Shell (SSH) to connect to a remote server. Unfortunately for beginners, learning to use SSH can become a confusing mix of third-party programs and native OS support. For Chrome OS users, using SSH is even more difficult. We'll fix this by using the Chrome Secure Shell to establish an SSH connection from any device that can run a Chrome browser.
How To: Flash Kali NetHunter on OnePlus and Nexus Devices (Most) As a Secondary ROM
Hello there, 'Flashers'! Welcome to my 8th Post. This tutorial will explain how to flash Kali NetHunter on OnePlus (Tested) and Nexus Devices (Not Tested-Should work) as a secondary ROM, so that none of your personnel data/ROM gets affected.
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: Use Maltego to Monitor Twitter for Disinformation Campaigns
Russian cyber disinformation campaigns have many missions, but one of particular interest is using technology to monitor, influence, and disrupt online communications surrounding culturally sensitive topics or protests. The ability to watch these events, and even filter positive or negative tweets to amplify, gives rise to the ability to execute a number of disinformation campaigns.
How To: Hack Wi-Fi & Networks More Easily with Lazy Script
Wi-Fi tools keep getting more and more accessible to beginners, and the LAZY script is a framework of serious penetration tools that can be explored easily from within it. This powerful and simple tool can be used for everything from installing new add-ons to grabbing a WPA handshake in a matter of seconds. Plus, it's easy to install, set up, and utilize.
How To: Host a Deep Web IRC Server for More Anonymous Chatting
Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, is one of the most popular chat protocols on the internet. The technology can be connected to the Tor network to create an anonymous and secure chatroom — without the use of public IP addresses.
How To: Gain Control of WordPress by Exploiting XML-RPC
WordPress did not become what is arguably the most popular blogging and CMS platform on the planet because it was difficult to use. Rather, its user-friendly and rich feature set led to it finding a home on somewhere north of 70 million websites—and that's just counting blogs hosted on WordPress.com.
Advice from a Real Hacker: How I Would Build the God's Eye of Furious 7
In the recent hit movie Furious 7, the storyline revolves around the acquisition of a hacking system known as "God's Eye" that is capable of finding and tracking anyone in real time. Both the U.S. spy agencies and an adversarial spy agency (it's not clear who the adversary is, but the location is "beyond the Caucasus mountains," which could imply Russia?) desperately want their hands on this system.
Hack Like a Pro: How to Hack Web Apps, Part 1 (Getting Started)
Welcome back, my budding hackers! With this article, I am initiating a new series that so many of you have been asking for: Hacking Web Applications.
Hack Like a Pro: Using the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) for Reconnaissance
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! Those of you who have been reading my posts here for awhile know how much I emphasize good reconnaissance. Novice hackers often jump into a hack/exploit without doing proper recon and either fail or get caught. Experienced and expert hackers know that 70-80 percent of a good and successful hack is dependent upon successful and accurate reconnaissance.
How To: Regain Access to Lubuntu After Loss of Password (Windows 7)
lubuntu is a is a lightweight Linux/Ubuntu that makes it suitable to virtual environments, that you run with VirtualBox to add a secondary machine to your computer or laptop. With this program you can run a number of operating systems upon the same platform.
How To: Create a Reverse Shell to Remotely Execute Root Commands Over Any Open Port Using NetCat or BASH
Reverse shells are useful for issuing commands to a remote client when the client is behind something such as a NAT. You might say, "But can't a normal shell or simple SSH tunnel do the same thing?". No, it can't. All over the internet I see a lot of confusion regarding the difference between a normal shell and a reverse shell. Let's clear this up before we get started.
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: The Null Byte Guide to 3D Printing for Hackers
3D printers allow hackers and makers alike to create something from nothing. They're an incredible technology that lets you build protective cases and covers for gear such as a wardriving phone and Raspberry Pi-Hole. 3D printers can even help you out in a bind when something breaks, and it's impossible to get the part, since you can just print one out yourself.
How To: Check Your MacOS Computer for Malware & Keyloggers
While you might suspect your MacOS computer has been infected with malware, it can be difficult to know for sure. One way to spot malicious programs is to look for suspicious behavior — like programs listening in on our keyboard input or launching themselves every time we boot. Thanks to free MacOS tools called ReiKey and KnockKnock, we can detect suspicious programs to discover keyloggers and other persistent malware lurking on our system.
How To: Use & Abuse the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to Locate Hosts on a Network
When joining a new network, computers use the Address Resolution Protocol to discover the MAC address of other devices on the same network. A hacker can take advantage of ARP messages to silently discover the MAC and IP address of network devices or actively scan the network with spoofed ARP requests.
Locking Down Linux: Using Ubuntu as Your Primary OS, Part 4 (Auditing, Antivirus & Monitoring)
You've protected your Ubuntu system from physical attacks, annoyed network hackers, and sandboxed potentially malicious applications. Great! Now, the next logical steps to locking down your OS include thoroughly auditing Ubuntu for weak points, using antivirus software that respects your privacy, and monitoring system logs like a boss.
How To: Run Kali Linux as a Windows Subsystem
Kali Linux is known as being the de facto penetration-testing Linux distribution but can be a pain to use as an everyday OS — even more of a pain if that means carrying around a second laptop or the constant frustration of using the finicky Wi-Fi on virtual machines. But there's another option: installing a Kali subsystem on your Windows computer as a convenient compromise.
How to Hack Wi-Fi: Automating Wi-Fi Hacking with Besside-ng
Besside-ng is the hidden gem of the Aircrack-ng suite of Wi-Fi hacking tools. When run with a wireless network adapter capable of packet injection, Besside-ng can harvest WPA handshakes from any network with an active user — and crack WEP passwords outright. Unlike many tools, it requires no special dependencies and can be run via SSH, making it easy to deploy remotely.
Hack Like a Pro: How Windows Can Be a Hacking Platform, Pt. 1 (Exploit Pack)
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! As most of you know, I am strong advocate for using Linux as a hacking platform. In fact, I would say that without knowing Linux, you will never become a professional hacker/pentester.
How To: Reverse Engineering with Radare2 (A Quick Introduction)
In this article, we will explore the basics of radare2, a powerful package that comes with Kali. We are going to write a simple program, and then disassemble it, to see what is really doing in the processor.
Advice from a Real Hacker: How to Create Stronger Passwords
People who know that I am a professional hacker often ask me what they can do to make their computers and personal information safe from people like me. The answer, of course, is that nothing will make you completely safe, but there are a number of measures any computer user can take to reduce the chances of being a victim of a hacker.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics Using Kali, Part 2 (Acquiring a Hard Drive Image for Analysis)
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers and those who want to catch my aspiring hackers! As most of you know, this series on digital forensics is inspired by the motivation to keep all of you all out of custody. The more you know about the techniques used by law enforcement and forensic investigators, the better you can evade them.
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.
How To: A Guide to Steganography, Part 3: How to Hide Text and Images in Pictures
Welcome to part three in a series about steganography, the art of hiding things in plain sight. We are practicing steganography because it can be a useful skill if you don't have access to encryption software, or need a quick solution to make sure the sender and recipient are the only ones who are able to read your message.
How To: Make Your New Year's Resolution to Master Azure with This Bundle
Microsoft has plenty of products that you're likely familiar with, especially if you work or dream of working in IT. One of the most important now and in the future will be Azure, the company's cloud computing service. You might not know it, but a significant portion of the internet runs on Azure, and that share of the web is projected to keep growing in the coming years.
Android for Hackers: How to Backdoor Windows 10 & Livestream the Desktop (Without RDP)
The Windows 10 desktop and microphone can be livestreamed without using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) software and without opening any ports on the target computer. A hacker with low user privileges can monitor and exfiltrate a target's every move and private conversation in real time no matter where they are. Hackers are watching and listening, and there are few ways to protect yourself.
How To: Use Websploit to Scan Websites for Hidden Directories
Websites are often misconfigured in ways that allow an attacker to view directories that are not ordinarily meant to be seen. These directories can contain sensitive information such as private credentials or configuration files that can be used to devise an attack against the server. With a tool called Websploit, hackers can scan targets for these hidden directories without difficulty.
Hacking macOS: How to Perform Situational Awareness Attacks, Part 1 (Using System Profiler & ARP)
The first few minutes after gaining access to a MacBook are critical — but where do we begin? Using tools built into macOS, we can develop an in-depth understanding of running background processes, detect antivirus software, locate sensitive files, and fingerprint other devices on the network. All of this can be done without installing additional software or modifying any files.
How To: Flood Your ISP with Random, Noisy Data to Protect Your Privacy on the Internet
Net neutrality is dead and your internet service providers can collect all the data they want. While VPNs are a great way to protect some of that privacy, they're not perfect. There is another option, though, called Noisy, which was created by Itay Hury. It floods your ISP with so much random HTTP/DNS noise that your data is useless to anyone even if they do get it.
How To: Use a Raspberry Pi as a Dead Drop for Anonymous Offline Communication
A PirateBox creates a network that allows users to communicate wirelessly, connecting smartphones and laptops even when surrounding infrastructure has been disabled on purpose or destroyed in a disaster. Using a Raspberry Pi, we will make a wireless offline server that hosts files and a chat room as an educational database, a discreet local chat room, or a dead-drop file server.
Mac for Hackers: How to Organize Your Tools by Pentest Stages
With all of the bare-bones setup out of the way in our Mac for Hackers series, your Apple machine should be ready to run a significant amount of pentesting tools. We can pull tools from GitHub and compile them, we can pull dependencies or tools from Homebrew, we have both Python and Ruby. Everything is ready to go and now it's time to start building a toolbox on our local host.
How To: Bypass File Upload Restrictions Using Burp Suite
When attempting to gain access to a server, there may come a point when you need to get around file upload restrictions to upload something. If we can find a way to get around the restrictions, then we can upload anything we want to the server, effectively compromising it. That is what we'll be doing here today, so let's get started!
Behind the Hack: How I Discovered the 8-Try Master Combo Lock Exploit
In my last guide, I showed how you could crack the combination of any Master Lock combination padlock in 8 tries or less using my online calculator. Now, as promised, I'll be showing you how I devised the attack, which is based off the well-known technique that reduces the 64,000 possible combinations of a Master Lock down to just 100. Here, I will be drilling open a Master combo lock to show you how the insides work.
How To: Hack Any Account That Has Recovery via Phone Option Enabled (SMS) On Android:
Hello Elite Hackers! Welcome to my 3rd Post, which explains how to hack any account like G-mail, Facebook, etc.
How To: Bypass Common Windows Restrictions, Activate God Mode, and More
A lot of different places have computers with controls on them for several things; some have controls for installing software, some for running software, blocking websites, opening certain file formats, etc.
How To: Learn C# & Start Designing Games & Apps
Learning different coding languages can be difficult. You spend so much time mastering one and getting used to thinking along the channels you need for it that learning something new can sometimes be more difficult than starting from scratch. Starting from scratch, notably, is also difficult.
How To: Use a Directional Antenna with ESP8266-Based Microcontroller
Microcontrollers like ESP8266-based boards have built-in Wi-Fi, and that's really cool, but what's even cooler is that certain pro models of the D1 Mini also have a port where you can connect a directional antenna. This can give you exceptional range, but if you were to just plug one in after opening the package, it most likely wouldn't work.