Everything Else
How To: The Essential Newbie's Guide to SQL Injections and Manipulating Data in a MySQL Database
No doubt you've seen some of the hack logs being released. One part that stands out over and over again is the heavy database usage. It used to be early on that virus and hackers would destroy data, usually just for lulz. However, with the explosive commercial growth of the Internet, the real target is turning into data theft. You should learn how this happens so you can protect yourself accordingly. Let's take a look at what makes this possible and dare I say, easy.
How to Pick Locks: Unlocking Pin and Tumbler Deadbolts
Lock picking is defined by locksmiths as "the art of opening a lock without the key". There's many ways to accomplish this, but I'm specifically interested in using a lock pick set. Since locks vary in shapes and size, it's better to stick with just one kind of lock at first. Most locks are based on fairly similar concepts, so sharing methods across locks is possible.
How To: Unlock Padlocks Without a Key Using Cheap DIY Shims
Originally made as portable convenience locks, padlocks are known for their cheap, simplistic and relatively secure design. Their construction is made up of a body, shackle and locking mechanism, with the shackle typically assuming a "U" shape to be easily linked to things like fences and chains.
How To: Filter Unwanted Calls & SMS for Free with Google Voice
Google is great. They provide us with tons of free services and open source APIs that we can code fun tools for, one of which I don't think gets enough credit: Google Voice.
How To: Send SMS Messages with Python
In this article, I'll show you how to send SMS messages with Python. You'll need Python 2.7 or later, urllib and urllib2. The code basically uses an online text messaging service to "POST" html data, as if a person was entering the data themselves. The uses for something like this are unlimited. For example, I modified the basic code so I would receive a text message letting me know every time someone rang my doorbell. The program could interface with Arduino through a serial port, and send d...
How To: Encrypt And Decrypt Text In Python
In this article, I'll show you how to create a simplistic AES python based text encryptor. You'll need python 2.7 and PyCrypto (found here). The code is fairly simple, a user enters an encryption key (which basically tells the program how to scramble the text, using an algorithm), then the text to be encrypted. The program takes the key and text and inputs it into the "cryptograph" or code-based algorithm from PyCrypto. PyCrypto can use 16, 24, or 36 character encryption keys, but for the sak...
How To: The Penny Pinchers Guide to Eating Cost Effectively Without Relying on Ramen
If you're on a tight budget for food, whether you're in college, or someone just starting out living on their own, you're probably low on money and sick of ramen noodles. Don't get me wrong, ramen can be tasty and filling, and there is almost nothing cheaper.
How To: Spider Web Pages with Nmap for SQLi Vulnerabilities
The already robust and ingenious Nmap tool has received a whole slew of new scanning scripts that can be used to do all sorts of naughty endeavors. Notably, the SQLi module, since it is a necessary evil that we must cover here at Null Byte. This major update is going to fuel today's lesson.
How To: Write Your Very Own QR Code Generator in C#: Part 1
Introduction I will not go into some time-waster of a story about how I came to build this app. It was a prerequisite in a bigger project I am still tinkering with from time to time.
How To: Your Guide to Buying Computer Parts: How to Get the Most for Your Money
When you buy computer parts, it can be a tough decision where you want to put all of your hard earned dollars into. Not only that, but when you buy a top of the line component, 3 months later (at most), your hardware will likely be outdated. This puts consumers like us in a bit of a pickle when it comes to purchasing, especially on a tight budget.
How To: How Credit Card Algorithms Work: The Anatomy of Credit Card Numbers
Have you ever wondered how credit card numbers work? I mean, how they really work? How do they come up with the numbers? Credit cards actually follow a very specific pattern. Let's take a look at how they're set up.
How To: Install an Off-the-Shelf Hard Drive in an Xbox 360 (Get 10x the GB for Your Money)
Since the day of the Xbox 360 release, storage space for the device has been overpriced beyond belief. OEM 250GB HDD models still cost $110 USD! A 250GB hard drive should not destroy my wallet, Microsoft. Storage space, especially on HDDs, is cheap. You can buy a removable 2TB external for only $100 USD, so it's a little beyond my comprehension to see how they calculate their MSRP to yield such a large profit. On the other hand, Xbox 360 had very impressive hardware specs back in the day, equ...
How To: Copy & Convert your Skyrim Game Save from the Xbox 360 to your PC
Gamers like myself who have switched back and forth between Skyrim on PC and Xbox lack the ability to share game saves. This really sucks. I love playing Skyrim on a console. It's a very comfortable, easy and relaxed gaming experience. You don't have to worry about your frame rate being optimized, or wrist pains from using a keyboard. However, gaming on the PC can allow you to use texture enhancing mods and get an overall smoother experience due to a lack in glitches and bugs that plague the ...
How To: The Novice Guide to Teaching Yourself How to Program (Learning Resources Included)
Today's post is a small go-to guide for beginner programmers in Null Byte. With many of our community members picking up programming from our Community Bytes, it only makes sense to lay out a one-stop guide for your reference. Hopefully this guide will help you make an educated and thoughtful choice on what programming languages you want to learn, and how you want to learn said languages.
How To: Fix the Channel -1 Glitch in Airodump on the Latest Kernel
Ever since kernel 2.6.xx in Linux, a lot of the internet kernel modules for wireless interfaces ended up becoming broken when trying to use monitor mode. What happens commonly (to myself included) is a forced channel that your card sits on. No good! For users of airodump and the aircrack-ng software suite, the software has become unusable.
How To: Use Wireshark to Steal Your Own Local Passwords
Here at Null Byte, we've spoken a lot about securing and anonymizing traffic. This is a big deal. With all of today's business taking place electronically via computers, we need to be secure when on-the-go. A lot of businesses don't even train their employees to secure their computers to protect from various threats. Here are a few things that should always happen when doing business on computers:
How To: Quickly Encrypt Your Web Browsing Traffic When Connected to Public WiFi
As we all know, security is a big thing here in Null Byte. We've talked quite a bit about ways to encrypt traffic and become anonymous on the internet, some of which entail using proxies, VPNs, and SSH tunnels. We've also talked about preference using SSL pages in practice for safe logins. These are all great protocols and tools, but aren't without their flaws and inconveniences.
How To: Burn an XDG3 Formatted Xbox 360 Game ISO with Linux
Gamers who have their Xbox 360's firmware flashed may have recently noticed an inability to play backups, or even make backups of newer games that have come out, such as Gears of War 3 and Dead Island, to name a few.
How To: Hack Your Firefox User Agent to Spoof Your OS and Browser
There are a lot of things on your computer that can reveal information about you when you are surfing the Internet. If you are like me, then you will do anything to maintain your privacy and prevent those little leaks of information from happening. Here's a list of a few of the "threats" that can reveal information about you:
How To: Permanently Delete Files to Protect Privacy and Passwords
Permanently deleting files is something that a lot of people aren't aware of. Actually, most people think that once a file is deleted, it is gone forever. This is not the case. Hard drives write to the disk via magnetic charges, positive and negative correlate to 1s and 0s for binary. This is then interpreted into information for the computer to use and access.
How To: Fix Your Overheating, RRoD, or E74 Xbox 360 with Mere Pennies
Microsoft has had a pretty bad wrap with their Xbox 360 gaming console. Right from the start, the console has suffered a multitude of different hardware failures and design flaws. These problems cause the parts to get too hot and become faulty. I'm sure everyone who's had an Xbox 360 has gotten at least one Red Ring of Death or E74 error.
How To: Give Your GRand Unified Bootloader a Custom Theme
GRUB, or the GRand Unified Bootloader, is a program that installs to your Master Boot Record and controls what operating system you load at boot time. Normally, it is used for multi-boot systems. Multi-boots allow you to switch between operating systems installed on seperate drives, or partitions at boot time. Linux actually uses it as its default bootloader, even without multiple operating systems.
How To: A Guide to Steganography, Part 2: How to Hide Files and Archives in Text or Image Files
Welcome to part two in a series about steganography, the art of hiding things in plain sight. We are practicing steganography because it can be a useful skill if you don't have access to encryption software, or need a quick solution to make sure the sender and recipient are the only ones who are able to read your message.
How To: Make an Unbreakable Linux Password Using a SHA-2 Hash Algorithm
In Linux, all password hashes are normally stored using the MD5 hashing algorithm in the /etc/shadow file, but MD5 is algorithmically weak due to collision vulnerabilities. The new recommended standard are the higher level SHA-2 hashing algorithms, SHA256 or SHA512. As a friend pointed out to me, Ubuntu is currently the only distro implementing SHA-2 as the default. With SHA-2, your passwords take an unreasonably larger amount of time to calculate. This will greatly decrease how many password...
How To: How Hackers Take Your Encrypted Passwords & Crack Them
You may have asked yourself, "How do hackers take my password, if the website owner can't?" The answer is simple. When a website stores your login password for the site, it is run through a cryptographic hash function before it enters the database (if the website isn't Sony).
How To: Get Free Wi-Fi from Hotels & More
Often times when staying at a hotel or anywhere for that matter, you'll whip out your laptop and check the local area for Wi-Fi. I know you've all been in my shoes when you find an unsecured network that appears to be public Wi-Fi belonging to the hotel or airport, and you connect to it. You connect fast and perfectly, only to find that when you open your browser, it says you don't have an account, and are filtered from accessing the web. This is because the owners of the network want to keep...
How To: Run Windows from Inside Linux
Something that can shy a user away from making the switch to Linux is not having the option to go back to Windows. Luckily, there are solutions like dual-booting, where you can have both OS's installed right next to each other. However, Windows 8 appears as if it will block dual-boots with its neo-space BIOS that have been developed. Sneaky-sneaky. Windows users could still throw in a Linux live CD to try out Linux, but what does a Linux user do when they need something from Windows?
How To: Mine Bitcoin and Make Money
Bitcoin is a new currency built off "Satoshi Nakamoto's" (alias) 2008 Bitcoin white-paper. Bitcoin provides its users with a way to make peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions without having to use a bank as a mediator. There is no middle man, no corporation backing it, and no one has access to your money, except you. It's decentralized from government, run by the people, for the people.
How Null Byte Injections Work: A History of Our Namesake
In this Null Byte, I'm going to teach you about Null Byte Injections. Null Bytes are an older exploit. It works by injecting a "Null Character" into a URL to alter string termination and get information or undesirable output (which is desirable for the malicious user).
How To: These High-Quality Courses Are Only $49.99
Project managers — and those hoping to become one — should rejoice at this killer deal. The Project Manager's Essential Certification Bundle Ft. Scrum, Agile & PMP usually runs for $1,990 but is only $49.99 for a limited time.
How To: Learn to Code Today with This $20 Web Development Course
Learning to code is difficult, particularly if you're doing it alone. While coding may be among the most valued job skills in many markets, the education is sometimes inaccessible.
How To: Master the Internet of Things with This Certification Bundle
These days, everything is connected. No, really — we mean everything. Your phone, your smart speaker, and even appliances like stoves and refrigerators can be connected and communicate with one another. Welcome to the Internet of Things, the start of our interconnected future. It's projected by 2027 that there will be more than 41 million internet-connected devices in use around the world.
How To: Rank Up in Google Searches with This SEO Couse Bundle
You know just how great your products and services are. Now it's time to let the rest of the world know. Of course, that's easier said than done. You're probably competing with bigger, more established brands that can afford to spend their way to the top. You can make it a fair fight with a little SEO optimization.
How To: This Master Course Bundle on Coding Is Just $34.99
Whether you're already coding from home or are seeking help as a beginner, now is a great time to find a lucrative job in programming. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than 200,000 jobs were created in computer programming in 2019, with a median pay of more than $85,000, and the number is only set to grow over time. If you want to learn to code, The Master Learn to Code 2021 Certification Bundle is your ticket.
How To: This VPN Will Give You a Lifetime of Security for Just $18
With everything the last year has thrown at us, the odds are good that you've had to start working from home, complete with all-new challenges both for you and the technology you use.
How To: Start Learning How to Code in Just a Week
If you've been thinking about changing careers and you have just a little bit of time, The Ultimate 2021 Web Developer & Designer Super Bundle may be just what you need. This is also the perfect time to get it because it's on sale for $34.99, which is 98% off the regular price of $1,886. You'll get 14 courses that offer 39 hours of content on HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and more.
How To: This HD Infographic Design Software Is on Sale for $45
Anyone who's worked in web development or graphic design long enough knows that one of the most difficult job elements is finding high-quality stock images that aren't tangled in red tape. Whether you're trying to build a website, ad campaign, or email newsletter, you need to have reliable graphics that are easy to find and use across multiple platforms.
How To: Stay Fully in Sync with Your Remote Team Using TimeSync Pro
If you've been working from home a bit more often than usual lately, you're far from alone. Despite some optimistic predictions that things would have returned to normal right now, social distancing guidelines have forced most offices to shut their doors, and it's looking like this is going to be the new normal for the foreseeable future.
How To: Make Your New Year's Resolution to Master Azure with This Bundle
Microsoft has plenty of products that you're likely familiar with, especially if you work or dream of working in IT. One of the most important now and in the future will be Azure, the company's cloud computing service. You might not know it, but a significant portion of the internet runs on Azure, and that share of the web is projected to keep growing in the coming years.
How To: Learn to Code with a Bundle That Fits Your Schedule
It can feel hard to find time for just about anything these days. But if you really sit down and think about it, you likely have a little more free time in your day than you might actually imagine. The average person has about 4.5 hours of total leisure time over the course of a week.