Forensics
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 16 (Extracting EXIF Data from Image Files)
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! In many cases when a computer, phone, or mobile device is seized for evidence, the system will have graphic images that might be used as evidence. Obviously, in some cases these graphic images may be the evidence such as in child pornography cases. In other situations, the graphic images may tell us something about where and when the suspect was somewhere specific.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 15 (Parsing Out Key Info from Memory)
Welcome back, my budding hackers! Digital forensics is one of IT's most rapid-growing disciplines. All hackers should be familiar with digital forensics if for no other reason than to protect themselves. More than one hacker has been apprehended because they were unaware of the evidence trail they left behind.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 14 (Live Memory Forensics)
Welcome back, my budding hackers! One of the most basic skills the forensic investigator must master is the acquisition of data in a forensically sound manner. If data is not captured in a forensically sound manner, it may not be admissible in court. In my Kali Forensics series, I showed you how to acquire a forensically sound, bit-by-bit image of a storage device such as a hard drive or flash drive, but now let's dive into live memory.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 13 (Browser Forensics)
Welcome back, my novice hackers! In this series, we have been exploring how a forensic investigator can find evidence of illegal or illicit activity. Among other things, we have examined the registry and prefetch files for artifacts and have done some rudimentary forensic analysis. For those of you who are seeking career as a forensic investigator or security engineer, this can be invaluable training. For hackers, it might be life-saving.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 12 (Windows Prefetch Files)
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! In this series, we continue to examine digital forensics, both to develop your skills as a forensic investigator and to avoid the pitfalls of being tracked by a forensic investigator.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 11 (Using Splunk)
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! Digital forensics is one of the fields often overlooked by aspiring hackers. In a rush to exploit every and any system they can, they often ignore learning digital forensics—the field that may lead to them being traced.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 10 (Identifying Signatures of a Port Scan & DoS Attack)
Welcome back, my budding hackers! As I have mentioned many times throughout this series, knowing a bit of digital forensics might keep you out of a lot of trouble. In addition, digital forensics is a burgeoning and high paying career. Some knowledge and certifications in this field will likely help you land a Security Engineer position or put you on the Incident Response Team at your employer.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 9 (Finding Storage Device Artifacts in the Registry)
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! In this series, I am trying to develop your knowledge of digital forensics, which is valuable whether you're choosing a career in it or just want to know how your hacker activity can be traced. Few professional digital forensic investigators have a hacking background, but the best ones do.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 8 (More Windows Registry Forensics)
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! Let's continue to expand our knowledge of digital forensics, to provide you the skills necessary to be a digital forensic analyst or investigator, as well make you a better hacker overall. In your attempts to enter a system or network undetected, it is key to understand what a skilled forensic investigator can learn about you, the alleged hacker.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 7 (Windows Sysinternals)
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! In many of my earlier tutorials, I mentioned the complementary nature of hacking and forensics. Both disciplines, hacking and forensics, benefit from a knowledge of the other. In many cases, both disciplines will use the same tool. In this tutorial, we will use another tool that can be used in either discipline—Sysinternals—a suite of tools developed by Mark Russinovich.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 6 (Using IDA Pro)
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Digital forensics and hacking are complementary disciplines. The better you are at digital forensics, the better hacker you are, and the better hacker you are, the better you are digital forensics. Unfortunately, few people in either profession cross these discipline lines.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 5 (Windows Registry Forensics)
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! As I mentioned in earlier posts, the best hackers (or at least those not behind bars) have a keen understanding of digital forensics. If I am tasked to intrude upon an enemy's file server to retrieve war plans, such as in this tutorial, it is essential to my country's (and my own) well-being that it not be traced back to me. Understanding digital forensics helps us to leave without a trace and never have a trail back to us or our employer.
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?"
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: 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: 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: Don't Get Caught! How to Protect Your Hard Drives from Data Forensics
With the mass arrests of 25 anons in Europe and South America, and the rumors of an FBI sweep on the east coast of America floating around, times look dicey for hackers. Over the past few days, a lot of questions have been posed to me about removing sensitive data from hard drives. Ideas seem to range from magnets to microwaves and a lot of things in-between. So, I'd like to explain a little bit about data forensics, how it works, and the steps you can take to be safe.