Hack Like a Pro

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.

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: How to Create a Nearly Undetectable Backdoor with Cryptcat

Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! Awhile back, I demonstrated one of my favorite little tools, netcat, which enables us to create a connection between any two machines and transfer files or spawn a command shell for "owning" the system. Despite the beauty and elegance of this little tool, it has one major drawback—the transfers between the computers can be detected by security devices such as firewalls and an intrusion detection system (IDS).

Hack Like a Pro: How to Haunt Your Boss's Computer & Drive Him Insane

Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! In today's hack, we're going to have a bit of Halloween fun. Have you ever had a boss who made you miserable with his micro-management and nagging? Maybe you thought he unfairly fired your friend/colleague? Well, now here's your chance to get a bit of revenge and keep him or her off your back!

Hack Like a Pro: How to Use Metasploit's Psexec to Hack Without Leaving Evidence

Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! It's been awhile since we did a Metasploit tutorial, and several of you have pleaded with me for more. I couldn't be happier to oblige, as it's my favorite tool. For the next several weeks, I'll intersperse some new guides that'll help expand your Metasploit skills and keep you abreast of new developments in Metasploit, so look for them in the near future.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Use Netcat, the Swiss Army Knife of Hacking Tools

For over 20 years, a tiny but mighty tool has been used by hackers for a wide range of activities. Although well known in hacking circles, Netcat is virtually unknown outside. It's so simple, powerful, and useful that many people within the IT community refer to it as the "Swiss Army knife of hacking tools." We'll look at the capabilities of Netcat and how the aspiring hacker can use it.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Cover Your Tracks & Leave No Trace Behind on the Target System

Welcome back, my budding hackers! Previous to this tutorial, we've focused mostly on hacking the target system. If we're successful in owning the target system, we'll then want to make certain that the system administrator doesn't know we were there, and that he or she cannot track us.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Scan the Globe for Vulnerable Ports & Services

Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Finding vulnerabilities in systems can be one of the most time-consuming tasks for a hacker. There will be times, though, when you'll find yourself in a position that you know that a particular port represents a vulnerable application or service.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Create Your Own PRISM-Like Spy Tool

Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! In recent weeks, the revelation that the NSA has been spying on all of us has many people up in arms. I guess I take it all in stride as I just assume that the NSA is spying on all of us—all of the time. Don't get me wrong, I don't condone it, but I know the NSA.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Hack Your School's Server to Download Final Exam Answers

Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! If you're like most aspiring hackers, at one time or another you've probably spent too much time playing Call of Duty and not enough time preparing for your final exams.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Find the Latest Exploits and Vulnerabilities—Directly from Microsoft

Welcome back, my rookie hackers! Several of you have written me asking about where they can find the latest hacks, exploits, and vulnerabilities. In response, I offer you this first in a series of tutorials on finding hacks, exploits, and vulnerabilities. First up: Microsoft Security Bulletins.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Get Even with Your Annoying Neighbor by Bumping Them Off Their WiFi Network —Undetected

Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! My recent posts here in Null Byte have been very technical in nature, so I thought that I'd have a little fun with this one.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Crack User Passwords in a Linux System

Welcome back, my eager hackers! In recent blogs, I've demonstrated how to grab password hashes remotely using Metasploit's meterpreter and pwdump. Once we have the Windows passwords from the SAM file, we can then crack these hashes using tools such as Cain and Abel.

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.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Grab & Crack Encrypted Windows Passwords

Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! Several of you have written me asking how to crack passwords. The answer, in part, depends upon whether you have physical access to the computer, what operating system you are running, and how strong the passwords are.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Install BackTrack 5 (With Metasploit) as a Dual Boot Hacking System

Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Many of you have written me that you're having difficulty installing and running Metasploit on a variety of platforms. No matter if you're using Mac, Linux, or Windows, I strongly recommend you install BackTrack as your secondary OS, a virtaulization system, or on an external drive. This particular Linux distribution has many hacking and security tools integrated—including Metasploit.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Remotely Grab Encrypted Passwords from a Compromised Computer

Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! There's an evil dictator hellbent on destroying the world, and in one of our last hacks, we successfully compromised his computer and saved the world from nuclear annihilation. Then, we covered our tracks so no one would know what we did, and developed a hack to capture screenshots of his computer periodically so we could track of what he was up to next.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 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.

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.

Hack Like a Pro: Hacking Samba on Ubuntu and Installing the Meterpreter

Hey, hackers! Now that you've hacked/owned your first "box" in my last article, let's look a little closer at another great feature of Metasploit, the Meterpreter, and then let’s move on to hacking a Linux system and using the Meterpreter to control and own it.

How to Hack Like a Pro: Getting Started with Metasploit

This is my first contribution in an ongoing series on detailing the best free, open source hacking and penetration tools available. My goal is to show you some of the quality tools that IT security experts are using every day in their jobs as network security and pen-testing professionals. There are hundreds of tools out there, but I will focus and those that meet four key criteria: