How-To Guides from Null Byte: Page 4

Those of us who've taken the time to learn how to code are relatively well-suited for shakeups in the economy. Despite the recent and notable disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, demand for talented and trained programmers and developers is still high, and it will likely keep rising as companies in every industry adapt their business models to a more remote world.

There are countless ways in which you can turn your love of tech and coding into a full-fledged career — from developing apps and websites as a freelancer to working in the IT departments of small startups or major tech companies. But one of the best ways that you can put your programming skills to good use is to join the increasingly important world of cybersecurity.

Ever a hacker can have their own business that goes beyond cashing in on profitable bug bounties. With the right skill set and certifications, an ethical hacker could build a cybersecurity firm, become a penetration testing for hire, or even just consult on preventive measures to defend against black hats. But learning how to start and grow a business is rarely easy.

Whether you're coding a simple app, trying to learn a new programming language, or building an entirely new operating system from scratch, being able to quickly and clearly organize your thoughts is absolutely paramount — even as an ethical hacker or penetration tester.

For a hacker, there are a lot of advantages to creating a fake network. One advantage forces nearby devices to use their real MAC address if you happen upon a network that's stored in their preferred network list.

We've already highlighted the importance of learning Microsoft Excel from a hacker's standpoint, but it's also just a good skill to have as you'll likely come across the number-crunching powerhouse at school and work, as well as in other areas of your life, such as budgeting.

Hacking web applications can sometimes be challenging due to the sheer amount of moving parts they possess. At the core of these apps are HTTP requests and parameters, but these things are often concealed from the user, due to security reasons, convenience, or both. However, a tool called Arjun can be used to discover hidden HTTP parameters in web apps.

Password cracking is a specialty of some hackers, and it's often thought that raw computing power trumps everything else. That is true in some cases, but sometimes it's more about the wordlist. Making a custom, targeted wordlist can cut down cracking time considerably, and Wordlister can help with that.

A stager is a small piece of software that's typically used by malware to hide what's happening in the early stages of infection and to download a larger payload later.

We've shared a capture-the-flag game for grabbing handshakes and cracking passwords for Wi-Fi, and there are some upcoming CTF games we plan on sharing for other Wi-Fi hacks and even a dead-drop game. While security-minded activities and war games are excellent ways to improve your hacking skills, coding a real video game is also an excellent exercise for improving your programming abilities.

While we haven't covered Amazon Web Services, or AWS, on Null Byte before, Amazon's cloud computing platform is ripe for attack by hackers, pentesters, and cybersecurity researchers. It's also an excellent cloud hosting service to build or use vulnerable-by-design AWS setups and frameworks.

Choosing which programming language to learn next can be a truly daunting task. That's the case regardless of whether you're a Null Byter just beginning a career in development and cybersecurity or you're a seasoned ethical hacking and penetration tester with years of extensive coding experience under your belt. On that note, we recommend Python for anyone who hasn't mastered it yet.

With the Wigle WiFi app running on an Android phone, a hacker can discover and map any nearby network, including those created by printers and other insecure devices. The default tools to analyze the resulting data can fall short of what a hacker needs, but by importing wardriving data into Jupyter Notebook, we can map all Wi-Fi devices we encounter and slice through the data with ease.

The Digispark is a low-cost USB development board that's programmable in Arduino and capable of posing as a keyboard, allowing it to deliver a number of payloads. For only a few dollars, we can use the Digispark to deliver a payload to a macOS computer that will track the Mac every 60 seconds, even bypassing security like a VPN.

PowerShell Empire is a post-exploitation framework for computers and servers running Microsoft Windows, Windows Server operating systems, or both. In these tutorials, we will be exploring everything from how to install Powershell Empire to how to snoop around a target's computer without the antivirus software knowing about it. If we are lucky, we might even be able to obtain domain administrator credentials and own the whole network.

An attacker can repurpose public MyBB forums to act as command-and-control servers. It only takes a few lines of code to configure a MacBook to fetch commands and send responses to any website the attacker desires.

With tools such as Reaver becoming less viable options for pen-testers as ISPs replace vulnerable routers, there become fewer certainties about which tools will work against a particular target. If you don't have time to crack the WPA password or it's unusually strong, it can be hard to figure out your next step. Luckily, nearly all systems have one common vulnerability you can count on — users!

While password cracking and WPS setup PIN attacks get a lot of attention, social engineering attacks are by far the fastest way of obtaining a Wi-Fi password. One of the most potent Wi-Fi social engineering attacks is Wifiphisher, a tool that blocks the internet until desperate users enter the Wi-Fi password to enable a fake router firmware update.

If left unattended, a hacker with a USB Rubber Ducky and physical access to the computer can infiltrate even the most secure computer. Such attacks often go undetected without the use of a tool like USBRip, which can provide you with assurance that your device hasn't been compromised.

Many popular IoT devices have terrible security. For instance, a hacker who's on the same Wi-Fi network as a Sonos speaker can assume direct control over the device's behavior. If an IoT device doesn't secure the messages used to control it over a network, it's easy for somebody to write a few Python scripts to make it do whatever they want.