Hack Like a Pro « Null Byte

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: Cryptography Basics for the Aspiring Hacker

Welcome back, my rookie hackers! As hackers, we are often faced with the hurdle of cryptography and encryption. In some cases, we use it to hide our actions and messages. Many applications and protocols use encryption to maintain confidentiality and integrity of data. To be able to crack passwords and encrypted protocols such as SSL and wireless, you need to at least be familiar with the concepts and terminology of cryptography and encryption.

Hack Like a Pro: Denial-of-Service (DoS) Tools & Techniques

Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! Over the years, we have examined multiple ways to own, exploit, or compromise a system. On the other hand, we have not spent a lot of time on denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

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 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.

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:

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 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 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 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: The Hacker Methodology

Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! Many newbie hackers seem to be confused regarding the process or methodology to employ a successful hack. Most want to simply go straight to the exploit without doing the due diligence to make certain that the hack will work and you won't get caught.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Find the Exact Location of Any IP Address

Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! Have you ever wondered where the physical location of an IP address is? Maybe you want to know if that proxy server you are using is actually out of your local legal jurisdiction. Or, maybe you have the IP address of someone you are corresponding with and want to make certain they are where they say they are. Or, maybe you are a forensic investigator tracking down a suspect who wrote a threatening email or hacked someone's company.

Hack Like a Pro: Using TFTP to Install Malicious Software on the Target

Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, we can only get a command shell on our target system. For instance, with Metasploit, it's not always possible to get the all powerful Meterpreter on our target system. In other cases, we may be able to connect to a command shell via Netcat or Cryptcat.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Find Website Vulnerabilities Using Wikto

Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! When we are trying to find vulnerabilities in a website to attack, we need a solid web server vulnerability scanner. Internet-facing web apps can open enormous opportunities for us as they are often riven with vulnerabilities and can often offer an entire point to the internal network and resources.

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: 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 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 Create a Virtual Hacking Lab

Welcome back, my amateur hackers! Many of you here are new to hacking. If so, I strongly recommend that each of you set up a "laboratory" to practice your hacks. Just like any discipline, you need to practice, practice, and practice some more before you take it out to the real world.

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: How to Extract Email Addresses from an SMTP Server

Welcome back, my budding hackers!

Hack Like a Pro: How to Find Exploits Using the Exploit Database in Kali

Welcome back, my budding hackers! When we are looking for ways to hack a system, we need a specific exploit to take advantage of a certain vulnerability in the operating system, service, or application. Although I have shown you multiple ways to exploit systems here in Null Byte, there are still many more exploits available that I have not yet shown you.

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 for Vulnerabilities with Nessus

Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! Generally, you will want to perform a vulnerability scan before doing a penetration test. Vulnerability scanners contain a database of all known vulnerabilities and will scan your machine or network to see whether those vulnerabilities appear to exist. If they do, it is your job to test whether they are real and can be exploited.

Hack Like a Pro: Windows CMD Remote Commands for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 1

Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Many new hackers come from a Windows background, but seldom, if ever, use its built-in command-line tools. As a hacker, you will often be forced to control the target system using just Windows commands and no GUI.

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: 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: Finding Potential SUID/SGID Vulnerabilities on Linux & Unix Systems

Welcome back, my nascent hackers! We have spent a lot of time in previous tutorials focused on hacking the ubiquitous Windows systems, but the vast majority of "heavy iron" around the world are Linux or Unix systems. Linux and Unix dominate the world of Internet web servers with over 60% of the market. In addition, Linux and Unix servers are the operating system of choice for major international corporations (including almost all the major banks) throughout the world.

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: 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.

Hack Like a Pro: The Basics of the Hexadecimal System

Welcome back, my novice hackers! It has become clear from some of your questions that quite a few of you are unfamiliar with the hexadecimal system, or simply, hex. The hexadecimal system is used throughout computing and if you have never studied this Base16 numering system, it may appear relatively opaque.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Evade Detection Using Proxychains

Welcome back, my novice hackers! The worst thing that can happen to any hacker is being detected by a security admin, the security technologies (IDS, firewall, etc.), or a forensic investigator.

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 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 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.

Hack Like a Pro: Use Your Hacking Skills to Haunt Your Boss with This Halloween Prank

Welcome back, my amateur hackers! With Halloween right around the corner, I thought you could have a little fun with your newfound hacking skills using a hack that is guaranteed to freak out your boss, teacher, coworker, friend, etc.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Hack Windows Vista, 7, & 8 with the New Media Center Exploit

Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! Recently, Microsoft released a new patch (September 8, 2015) to close another vulnerability in their Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 operating systems. The vulnerability in question (MS15-100) enabled an attacker to gain remote access to any of these systems using a well-crafted Media Center link (MCL) file.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Anonymously Torrent Files with Tribler

Welcome back, my nascent hackers!

Hack Like a Pro: Hacking Windows XP Through Windows 8 Using Adobe Flash Player

Welcome back, my novice hackers! New hackers often ask me the same question: "What is the easiest platform to hack?" My response is always the same—it is not a platform, but rather a particular piece of software that is easiest to hack, which is on nearly every client-side system. That software is Adobe Flash Player.

Hack Like a Pro: Using Nexpose to Scan for Network & System Vulnerabilities

Welcome back, my budding hackers!