Python Training

How To: Control Electronics from a Browser Using MicroPython in Jupyter Notebook

If you want to control electronic devices, such as a relay or motor, you can do so using MicroPython with an ESP8266 and web browser. Usually, you'd program an ESP8266 using Arduino, but C++, which Arduino uses, is not always the easiest programming language for beginners to learn.

How To: Program an ESP8266 or ESP32 Microcontroller Over Wi-Fi with MicroPython

The only thing better than programming MicroPython is programming MicroPython over Wi-Fi. So once you set up MicroPython on a microcontroller and have it on its own power source, you won't need to use a data cable to connect to it whenever you need to interact with it, program it, upload files, or grab data.

How To: Python 2 vs. Python 3 — Important Differences Every Hacker Should Know

Python is commonly touted as one of the best programming languages for beginners to learn, and its straightforward syntax and functionality makes that hard to argue with. But a lot of tutorials still use Python 2, which is outdated now. Python 3 introduces many new features, and it's important to be aware of them going forward, as well as the key differences between Python 3 and its predecessor.

How To: Create Rogue APs with MicroPython on an ESP8266 Microcontroller

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.

How To: Program MicroPython NeoPixel Holiday Lights to Animate However You Want

Individually addressable LEDs, also commonly called "NeoPixels" after the popular Adafruit product, are a bright and colorful way to get started with basic Python programming. With an inexpensive ESP8266 or ESP32 microcontroller, it's easy to get started programming your own holiday lighting animations on a string of NeoPixels with beginner-friendly MicroPython!

How To: Get Started with MicroPython for ESP8266 Microcontrollers

For anyone interested in using cheap, Wi-Fi-connected microcontrollers like the ESP8266, the Arduino programming language can be a barrier to entry. Based on C++, Arduino requires knowledge of more computer science than languages like Python. Fortunately for beginners, setting up MicroPython on an ESP8266 allows anyone to write Python on affordable microcontrollers in a matter of minutes.

How to Train Your Python: Part 23, the Argparse Module

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I've posted anything (with good reason). But, now that the digital dust has settled, it's time to be an adult about this. I will be continuing to post to Null Byte on a smaller scale, and will also fully participate in whatever communities Null Byte members branch into.

How to Train Your Python: Part 22, Beginning the Socket Module

Welcome back everyone! It's been awhile hasn't it? Sorry for being so quiet, but my CCNA courses have really picked up recently. In the last article we covered how to import modules and how we can use them. In this article, we'll actually be covering a module that is essential to the hacking aspect of Python, sockets.

How to Train Your Python: Part 21, Introduction to Modules

Welcome back everyone! It's been quite a while hasn't it? Today we're going to kick off the second part of the Python training series by introducing modules. We'll start off by explaining what a module is and we'll give an example. So, let's get started!

How to Train Your Python: Part 20, Masters of the Basics

Welcome back everyone. This article isn't going to contain anything related to scripting, but rather some updates about the series. We'll be quickly discussing what we've covered so far and what is to come.

How to Train Your Python: Part 19, Advanced File Input and Output

Welcome back! Sorry for the dry spell, but I've been rather busy setting up some side projects! If you remember back to a few training sessions ago, we covered basic file I/O. This is a very important step in making our scripts applicable in a real life scenario, and today we're going to further these concepts.

How to Train Your Python: Part 18, Introduction to Bitwise Operators

Welcome back! In our last training session we covered classes and how OOP can make programming/scripting easier. Today we'll be taking a breather and covering something fairly simple, bitwise operators.

How To: Build an Evasive Shell in Python, Part 4: Testing the Shell

Welcome back, everyone. In the previous part of this rapid-fire miniseries, we built the attacker portion of the shell. In this article, we'll just be testing it to see if everything works correctly.

How To: Build an Evasive Shell in Python, Part 3: Building the Attacker Script

Welcome back, everyone. In the previous part of this rapid-fire miniseries, we built the victim portion of the shell. Today, we'll be building the attacker portion. This script will initialize interaction with the victim portion of the shell, send commands, and receive the output.

How To: Build an Evasive Shell in Python, Part 2: Building the Shell

Welcome back, everybody. In the previous article, we covered the ideas and concepts of well-known ports and trust exploitation in order to evade a firewall. Today, we'll be building the shell, the part that receives commands, executes them, and sends the output back to the attacker.

How To: Build an Evasive Shell in Python, Part 1: Introduction & Concepts

Hello, everyone. Stealth is a large part of any successful hack; if we don't get noticed, we're much less likely to be caught. In these next few articles, we'll be building a shell based on keeping us hidden from a firewall. There are many ways to stay hidden from a firewall, but we'll only be incorporating a couple into our shell. This article will outline and explain these evasion concepts and techniques.

How to Train Your Python: Part 17, Introduction to Classes

Welcome back everyone! In the last training session we covered basic file input and output. We're going to leave this topic for a bit and start on something that will change the way we write scripts, classes.

How to Train Your Python: Part 16, Basic File Input and Output

Welcome back! In the last training session we covered how to write and execute scripts. But today we'll be getting back to the code!

How to Train Your Python: Part 15, Script Structure and Execution

Welcome back! Sorry I've been gone for so long, but if anyone has been keeping up with these articles, you'll know that when I get quiet, something is cooking under the surface. In other words, I've been working on a project lately, so I haven't had much time!

How to Train Your Python: Part 14, More Advanced Lists, Lambda, and Lambda Operators

Welcome back! In our last training session, we covered some advanced list topics. We'll be going deeper into the advanced list rabbit hole today with lambda and lambda operators! (And I'm not talking about Gordan Freeman)

How to Train Your Python: Part 13, Advanced Lists, Slicing, and Comprehension

Welcome back! In the last training session, we covered logical and membership operators. We're going to switch gears and expand our knowledge of lists.

How to Train Your Python: Part 12, Logical and Membership Operators

Welcome back! In the last round of python training, we talked about tuples and dictionaries. We'll be diverging again and talking about logical operators as well as membership operators. These are used very similiar to booleans, so if you haven't read that, I suggest you do so first.

How to Train Your Python: Part 11, Tuples and Dictionaries

Welcome back! In the last iteration of how to train your python, we talked about functions, and we even made our own! We're going to move on to more types of data arrays (much like lists) in today's discussion.

How to Train Your Python: Part 10, Making Our Own Functions

Welcome back! In the last iteration of how to train your python, we covered error detection and handling. Today we'll be diverging from this and discussing functions. More specifically, we'll be creating our own functions. First we'll need to understand exactly what a function is, then we'll get on to making our own! So, let's get started!

How to Train Your Python: Part 9, Basics of Error Detection and Handling

Welcome back! In the last iteration of how to train your python, we covered loops, today we'll be covering something that I wish I had learned about much earlier in my scripting career, errors. We all run into them, and they can be frustrating, but there is also a silver lining to them. Today, we'll be discussing why some errors are unavoidable, and what we can do when we run into them. Also, this article will be more of a concept and less of writing actual code, but the information is equall...

How to Train Your Python: Part 8, Intro to Iteration, For, and While

Welcome back! Sorry for being so quiet, I've been rather busy with this project lately! Anyways, in the last iteration of how to train your python, we covered lists. Today we'll be introducing iteration and the two loops python has to offer, for and while. Also, we'll be covering a couple general use functions. So, let's get started!

How to Train Your Python: Part 7, Lists, List Methods, and Indexing

In the last iteration of how to train your python, we covered if/else and conditional statements. We're going to diverge a little today and cover lists. Lists are simply that, lists. It is a set of values located under one variable. Now that we know the definition of a list, let's learn about them! List Basics

How to Train Your Python: Part 6, If, Else, and Conditional Statements

In the last iteration of how to train your python, we covered the concept of control flow and covered the booleans associated with it. Today, we'll be putting those to use as we discuss how to use if, else, and how to make conditional statements. So, Let's get started!

How to Train Your Python: Part 5, Intro to Control Flow and Booleans

Well, first things firsts, it's been awhile! I'm sorry the series has been dead for a little bit, but I recently hit some personal relationship issues and needed to take some time to think. But, now that it's all said and done, the dust can settle and we can start training again!

How to Train Your Python: Part 4, Basic User Input

In the last iteration of how to train your python, we covered basic string manipulation and how we can use it to better evaluate user input. So, today we'll be covering how to take user input. User input is very important to scripting. How can we do what the user says if we can't tell what the user wants? There are multiple ways to take input, we can give the user a prompt and take input from them directly, or we could use flags/switches, and take their input before the script is even execute...

How to Train Your Python: Part 3, Basic String Manipulation

Last time in how to train you python, we covered the basics of variables and output. While we were covering variables, we talked briefly about strings. "String" is just a fancier way of saying "Word". A string is simply a set of characters encased in quotations, this lets python know that it is a word. Sometimes when we do things with strings we'll need to change them in order to do something. Python is case sensitive, for example "Null-Byte" is not the same as "null-byte". This is where mani...

How to Train Your Python: Part 2, Basic Output, Variables, and Types

In python, or any scripting language for that matter, there are certain things that you will carry with you throughout your entire scripting career. Some of the most basic things that you will keep with you are output, variables, and their value types. We'll start by going over output, then cover variables and their types. So, let's get started!

How to Train Your Python: Part 1, Introduction

Recently I've been looking around our wonderful community and I've seen some absolutely hands-down fantastic python scripting articles. But, in the end, these series weren't very extensive. I've been wanting to do a series on teaching python for a while now, and I don't mean just the basics, I mean to make an extensive series that takes it all the way from "Hello, World!" to popular third party modules, and everything in between!