Null Byte Features
How To: 13 Black Friday Deals on Courses That Will Beef Up Your Hacking & Programming Skill Set
It's Black Friday time, and in 2020, that means a lot of online deals to make up for more stores closing on Thanksgiving, as well as everyone avoiding in-person shopping because of the coronavirus. But while you may wish to grab a better 65-inch 4K TV, the new PlayStation 5, or some hacker hardware on sale, Black Friday is also the best time to invest in your programming and cybersecurity education.
Windows Security: Software Level
As many of you know Windows is not the most secure Operating System in the world, but then again no OS is really secure if the user doesn't know how to protect themselves. Later I will show you how to lower the risk even more on your (the user's) end.
How To: Fingerprint Web Apps & Servers for Better Recon & More Successful Hacks
Web applications are ubiquitous in the modern online world, and knowing how to attack them is an increasingly valuable skill. But the key to a successful attack is good recon since it's easier to be focused and efficient with the more information you have. There are many fingerprinting tools available, such as httprint and WebTech, but there are even more that can aid us in reconnaissance.
Recon: How to Research a Person or Organization Using the Operative Framework
The Operative Framework is a powerful Python-based open-source intelligence (OSINT) tool that can be used to find domains registered by the same email address, as well as many other investigative functions. This reconnaissance tool provides insight about your target through examining relationships in the domains they own.
How To: Create Custom Commands in Kali Linux
When attempting to run a script, it can be rather inconvenient to have to locate the script, and run it time and time again. What if there were a way to run a script from anywhere. Well that's what we'll be doing today. This can be useful for any scripts you use frequently, it can save you time by removing the need to locate and execute.
How To: Brute-Force WPA/WPA2 via GPU
Most of you lot would be aware what WPA/WPA2 is so I won't bang on about the encryption or protocols a great deal. In short WPA and WPA2 both have a maximum of 256bit encrypted with a maximum of 64 characters in the password. The encryption is really only 64bit but x 4 because of the way the authentication functions as a 4 way handshake.
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.
Hack Like a Pro: Digital Forensics Using Kali, Part 1 (The Tools of a Forensic Investigator)
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Lately, much of the discussion here on Null Byte has revolved around evading detection and not getting caught hacking. Several of you have written me asking for a series on evading detection and forensics, and while I began a series 5 months ago on just that, we have changed hacking platforms from BackTrack to Kali, which has a much more highly developed forensic toolset.
How To: Use Beginner Python to Build a Brute-Force Tool for SHA-1 Hashes
Developers creating login systems know better than to store passwords in plain text, usually storing hashes of a password to prevent storing the credentials in a way a hacker could steal. Due to the way hashes work, not all are created equal. Some are more vulnerable than others, and a little Python could be used to brute-force any weak hashes to get the passwords they were created from.
Social Engineering, Part 2: Hacking a Friend's Facebook Password
Welcome to the second Null Byte in a series educating you on Social Engineering awareness and techniques. Today, I'm going to show you how a saavy Social Engineer would trick a friend into unknowingly surrendering their Facebook password. My intent is to warn and demonstrate how easy it is to succumb to phishing via Social Engineering, and therefore expose yourself.
How To: Use WebTech to Discover What Technologies a Website Uses
Correctly identifying the underlying technologies that run on a website gives pentesters a considerable advantage when preparing an attack. Whether you're testing out the defenses of a large corporation or playing the latest CTF, figuring out what technologies a site uses is a crucial pen-tester skill.
Hack Like a Pro: Metasploit for the Aspiring Hacker, Part 4 (Armitage)
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! As you know by now, the Metasploit Framework is one of my favorite hacking tools. It is capable of embedding code into a remote system and controlling it, scanning systems for recon, and fuzzing systems to find buffer overflows. Plus, all of this can be integrated into Rapid7's excellent vulnerability scanner Nexpose.
How To: A Hacker's Guide to Programming Microcontrollers
While hackers know and love the Raspberry Pi, many don't know of its cheaper cousin, the microcontroller. Unlike a Pi, which can be used more or less like a regular computer, microcontrollers like the Wi-Fi connected ESP8266 require some necessary programming skill to master. In this guide, we'll build an Arduino program from scratch and explain the code structure in a way anyone can understand.
How To: Exploring Kali Linux Alternatives: How to Get Started with BlackArch, a More Up-to-Date Pentesting Distro
In 2013, Offensive Security released Kali Linux, a rebuild of BackTrack Linux derived from Debian. Since then, Kali has gone on to become somewhat of a standard for penetration testing. It comes preconfigured with a collection of tools accessible by a menu system, tied together with the Gnome desktop environment. However, Kali Linux isn't the only penetration-testing distribution available.
Raspberry Pi Alternatives: 10 Single-Board Computers Worthy of Hacking Projects Big & Small
The $35 Raspberry Pi is an amazingly useful single-board computer (SBC) with a good balance of price, performance, and connectivity options. But for some projects, it just isn't enough. Whether you need more computing power, a smaller size, or better machine-learning capabilities, there are other options available.
How To: Discover Hidden Subdomains on Any Website with Subfinder
When approaching a target, having a precise and detailed plan of attack is absolutely necessary. One of the main goals is to increase the attack surface since the more opportunities there are for exploitation, the greater the chances of success. Subdomain enumeration is one method used to increase the attack surface, and we'll be using a tool called Subfinder to discover hidden subdomains.
Hack Like a Pro: The Ultimate List of Hacking Scripts for Metasploit's Meterpreter
Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! Metasploit framework is an incredible hacking and pentesting tool that every hacker worth their salt should be conversant and capable on.
Mac for Hackers: How to Install iTerm2 Using the Terminal
Now that we've talked about encryption and managing your passwords, let's continue this series on getting your Mac ready for hacking by turning our attention to the terminal.
How To: Bypass Locked Windows Computers to Run Kali Linux from a Live USB
It's easy to run Kali Linux from a live USB on nearly any available computer, but many publicly accessible laptops and desktops will be locked down to prevent such use. School, work, or library PCs can be secured with a BIOS password, which is often an easily recovered default password. Once you have access, though, you can use a USB flash drive to run Kali live on any PC you find.
How To: Security-Oriented C Tutorial 0x0B - User Input
Hey readers! This tutorial will be the entry point for the introduction of buffer overflows. Something like requesting user input is a very common place for vulnerabilities to pop up and we will definitely have fun while trying to make programs crash. But for now, let's start with how we can get input from a user.
How To: Brute-Force Email Using a Simple Bash Script (Ft. THC Hydra)
Hi, my name is Alan, and I am not a script kiddy brat from Xbox Live asking you how to boot someone offline for being mean to me. I am an amateur white hat hacker hoping to learn and teach and this is my first tutorial.
How To: Turn Your Raspberry Pi into a Wireless Hotspot
When hacking into a network during a penetration test, it can sometimes be useful to create your own wireless AP simply by plugging a Pi into an available Ethernet port. With this setup, you have your own backdoor wireless connection to the network in a matter of seconds. Creating an AP is also helpful while traveling, or needing to share a connection with a group of people.
How To: Disable WPAD on Your PC So Your HTTPS Traffic Won't Be Vulnerable to the Latest SSL Attack
You may not know what HTTP is exactly, but you definitely know that every single website you visit starts with it. Without the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, there'd be no easy way to view all the text, media, and data that you're able to see online. However, all communication between your browser and a website are unencrypted, which means it can be eavesdropped on.
Exploit Development: How to Learn Binary Exploitation with Protostar
Being able to write your own hacking tools is what separates the script kiddies from the legendary hackers. While this can take many forms, one of the most coveted skills in hacking is the ability to dig through the binary files of a program and identify vulnerabilities at the lowest level. This is referred to as binary exploitation, and today we're going to check out a tool known as Protostar.
How To: Lock Down Your DNS with a Pi-Hole to Avoid Trackers, Phishing Sites & More
The Pi-hole project is a popular DNS-level ad blocker, but it can be much more than that. Its DNS-level filtering can also be used as a firewall of sorts to prevent malicious websites from resolving, as well as to keep privacy-killing trackers such as Google Analytics from ever loading in the browser. Let's take a look at setting a Pi-hole up and customizing a blacklist to suit your needs.
How To: Spy on SSH Sessions with SSHPry2.0
SSH, or the secure shell, is a way of controlling a computer remotely from a command-line interface. While the information exchanged in the SSH session is encrypted, it's easy to spy on an SSH session if you have access to the computer that's being logged in to. Using a tool called SSHPry, we can spy on and inject commands into the SSH sessions of any other user logged in to on the same machine.
How To: Conduct Recon on a Web Target with Python Tools
Reconnaissance is one of the most important and often the most time consuming, part of planning an attack against a target.
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: Locked Out of Your Phone? Here's How You Bypass the Android Pattern Lock Screen
It can be extremely frustrating when you've forgotten the pattern you use to lock your smartphone, and even more so if someone has managed to prank you by changing it. Luckily, there's an easy fix if you know the username and password for the Gmail account you used to set up the lock.
How To: Change Your Terminal Header
So, you want your terminal to be customized with awesome script every time you fire it up, huh?! Well, look no further because I am here to answer this calling!
Hacking Windows 10: How to Break into Somebody's Computer Without a Password (Exploiting the System)
After a hacker has configured Metasploit on a remote private server, created a resource script for automation, and created a simple payload, he or she can begin the process of remotely controlling someone's Windows 10 computer with just a few moments of physical access — even if the computer is off.
How To: Linux Basics for the Aspiring Hacker: Using Start-Up Scripts
Very often we have processes in Linux that we want to always run in the background at startup. These would be processes that we need to start at bootup and always be available to us.
How To: Fake Captive Portal with an Android Phone
Have you ever used an open wifi, which after you connect displays a website to enter your credentials to get internet? That website is called captive portal and widely used in airports, hotels, universities etc. Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone would set up an open wifi with the same name displaying a very similar web page asking for credentials? Usually if there are multiple wifi networks with the same name and encryption, devices only display the one with the highest sign...
Android for Hackers: How to Backdoor Windows 10 & Livestream the Desktop (Without RDP)
The Windows 10 desktop and microphone can be livestreamed without using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) software and without opening any ports on the target computer. A hacker with low user privileges can monitor and exfiltrate a target's every move and private conversation in real time no matter where they are. Hackers are watching and listening, and there are few ways to protect yourself.
How To: Become a Hacker
Many of our members here at Null Byte are aspiring hackers looking to gain skills and credentials to enter the most-valued profession of the 21st century. Hackers are being hired by IT security firms, antivirus developers, national military and espionage organizations, private detectives, and many other organizations.
How To: Modify the USB Rubber Ducky with Custom Firmware
The USB Rubber Ducky comes with two software components, the payload script to be deployed and the firmware which controls how the Ducky behaves and what kind of device it pretends to be. This firmware can be reflashed to allow for custom Ducky behaviors, such as mounting USB mass storage to copy files from any system the Duck is plugged into.
How To: Hack TOR Hidden Services
A lot of people think that TOR services are unhackable because they are on a "secure environment", but the truth is that those services are exactly the same that run on any normal server, and can be hacked with the same tools (metasploit,hydra,sqlmap...), the only thing you have to do is launch a transparent proxy that pass all your packets through the TOR network to the hidden service.
Hacking macOS: How to Create a Fake PDF Trojan with AppleScript, Part 1 (Creating the Stager)
While hackers have taken advantage of numerous vulnerabilities in Adobe's products to deliver payloads to Windows users via PDF files, a malicious PDF file can also wreak havoc on a Mac that's using the default Preview app. So think twice before double-clicking a PDF open on your MacBook — it might just be a Trojan with a rootkit inside.
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: Do a Simple NMAP Scan on Armatige
How to do an NMAP scan on Armitage to find IPs within a certain range. Armitage is a gui interface of Metasploit, and advanced hacking/exploiting program. It can be downloaded from http://metasploit.com/ and http://fastandeasyhacking.com/ and you will need NMAP. http://www.nmap.org/