Hot Null Byte News Stories
News: Learn to Code in Python, Part One: Variables, Input and Output
In this article, I'll be exploring the basics of Python, i.e. variables, input and output. You'll need Python (2.7+), a computer, and some free time.
News: Bugzilla Cross Site Request Forgery
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News: The Right Linux Distro
As many of you Null Byters may know, I was planning on writing this article a week or two ago. Better late than never! So, let's get right to it then—choosing the right Linux distro for your needs.
Farewell Byte: Goodbye Alex, Welcome Allen
Hello, fellow Null Byters. Today, with mixed feelings, I want to let you know that this is my last official post as the admin of Null Byte. I've come to the decision that I need to spend more time focusing on my studies. Over the past 5 months, I have enjoyed building this community and teaching people unorthodox methods of doing things, creating things, and hacking them. But I'm also excited to be delving deeper into the studies that brought me here in the first place.
News: Art Meets Information Liberation with the Transparency Grenade
Julian Oliver created the Transparency Grenade in January 2012 for the Studio Weise7 exhibition at Labor 8. It's a transparent device with a "payload" built from an ARM Chip, an Arduino Nano, a mic, and a strong Wi-Fi antenna. It taps into wireless networks and logs emails, webpages, images, and voice to a publicly available online map showing its "detonation" location. Apparently, development for an Android version (sans the pretty plastic shell) is under way thanks to interested donors. See...
News: FBI holds teleconference regarding Anonymous - but they were listening!
The FBI decided to have a large internal teleconference on ideas and plans to wrangle in Anonymous 'members' - need less to say this ended in a rather unexpected way...
News: Fend Off Attackers Using This Scary Hot DIY Pepper Spray
Let's face it, the world we live in is far from the fairy-tale land we want it to be, where violence doesn't exist and weapons are not needed. Our foremost goal in life out there in the scary world is simply to survive. And if we need a few tools to accomplish this, we should use them, right?
News: Combinedsystems.com Defaced and RM'd by Antisec!
A major attack went down more early then expected, read the pastebin for the lulzy details!
News: Catch Creeps and Thieves in Action: Set Up a Motion-Activated Webcam DVR in Linux
When it comes to webcams these days, most people are using their laptops over desktops. The cameras are centered, integrated, and require no configuring. They're a cinch and usually have great resolution. So, then what do we do with all of those old wired desktop webcams that we've accrued over the years? Even if you still use an external USB one, chances are you're not using it daily, so why not come up with a better use for it?
News: Symantec Source Code Released by Anon After Failed Negotiations
A hacker from Anonymous broke off communication with an FBI agent posing as a Symanec employee after being offered $50,000 to not publish the Symantec pcAnywhere code online. And in a not surprising turn of events... the code was released today on peer-to-peer networks.
News: Awesome Trick with Prepaid "GoPhones" Nabs You Free Text Messaging for Life
You might be sitting there thinking that I'm crazy, but the truth is you're only partially right. You can get free text messaging for life, all for a cheap, one-time fee. But, how can that be possible? An exploit in AT&T's prepaid GoPhones is the culprit behind this sweet, oh-so rare opportunity for exploitation. The exploit grants a lifetime of free texting, assuming that the company stays afloat from now until the end of time.
Community Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 4 - Real Hacking Simulations
We'd like this to be one of the last HTS mission announcements, at least for now. As soon as Null Byte finds a server to play with (anyone want to donate one?), we are going to start doing root the box competitions, which is like king of the hill, except you have to hack a server and maintain access. Each server will have numerous known security holes. But for now, back to the normal flow of things...
Community Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 3 - Real Hacking Simulations
We're aiming for this to be one of the last HTS mission announcements, at least for now. As soon as Null Byte finds a server to play with, we are going to start doing root the box competitions, which is like king of the hill, except you have to hack a server and maintain access. Each server will have numerous known security holes. But, for now, back to the normal flow of things...
Goodnight Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 2 - Real Hacking Simulations
Last Friday's mission was to accomplish solving HackThisSite, realistic 2. This second mission in a series of realistic simulation missions was designed to be exactly like situations you may encounter in the real world, requesting we help a friend take down a racist hate-group website.
Forbes Exploited: XSS Vulnerabilities Allow Phishers to Hijack Sessions & Steal Logins
Here's another delicious Byte. Ucha Gobejishvili, a Georgian Security Researcher under the handle of longrifle0x, discovered two cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities on the official website of Forbes. He discovered the hole in two different locations on the site, and has already informed the website of the vulnerability.
News: Get the Perfect Cup of Java with a DIY Linux-Powered Coffee Roaster
When it comes to coffee, some people just like perfection. Most would agree that the best cup of coffee comes from home, after roasting your own green coffee beans. But not everybody has the time or money to have complete control over their coffee's flavor. Roasting via stovetop or oven produces mélange (not quite perfection), and home roasters can be pricey.
News: Flaw in the Latest Linux Graphical Server Allows Passwordless Logins
Just a quick post. Xorg is the graphical server that handles the desktop environment you choose for your Linux box. A pretty big flaw was found in Xorg versions 1.11 and later that allows anyone to bypass the screen lock mechanism on xscreensaver, gscreensaver, and many others.
Community Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 2 - Real Hacking Simulations
The community tore up the first realistic mission last week. You've applied the techniques learned in the basic missions to a real scenario, so I'm pretty content. The realistic missions are where the learning gets intense and where we can apply real knowledge to extremely realistic situations. We will also be continuing the normal Python coding and hacking sessions. These sessions are created to bring our community together, to learn from each other, and grow together. Everyone is welcome, f...
Goodnight Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 1 - Real Hacking Simulations
Last Friday's mission was to accomplish solving HackThisSite, realistic 1. This is the first in a series of realistic simulation missions designed to be exactly like situations you may encounter in the real world. This first mission, we are asked to help a friend manipulate the website voting system for a Battle of the Bands vote count in his favor.
News: Advanced Cracking Techniques, Part 2: Intelligent Bruteforcing
Following the first part in this series on advanced cracking techniques, we are going to go over how we can intelligently crack passwords using the old-fashioned bruteforce method. These unique cracking techniques aren't widely used, because most crackers are Script Kiddies who have no idea what the concepts are behind cracking passwords, thus, word won't get around too quickly.
News: Advanced Cracking Techniques, Part 1: Custom Dictionaries
How did it happen? How did your ultra-secure WPA password on your wireless network get broken into? Well, you might have just found yourself at the mercy of a cracker.
News: Cannot find windows loader after Linux install?
Have you ever had this happen? Your main OS is windows, and you just istalled a nux dualboot. But when you installed GRUB to the mbr, your windows loader got deleted! Hence you are not able to get into windows anymore... Sucks. But there's also a solution!
News: MegaUpload goes down - Anon retaliates.
As you may or may not know, MegaUpload - one of the largest file sharing services has been taken down by the feds.
News: MPAA - ''SOPA Blackout's Are a Stunt...''
So... The MPAA, who are (obviously) in favor of SOPA, are crying about how the anti-SOPA blackouts are being caused by the ''big corporations'' and any who support it are apparently turning into pawns of said corporations.
News: SOPA and PIPA Blackout!
As of today (January 18, 2012) many websites have "blacked" out their content for the day, one of the more notable websites is Wikipedia.org. As this can be a small compromise as an act of protesting against the heinous bills going through the United States' Congress. A lot of these websites are using a type of Java-Script or JS for short, and others are using simple little Pop-Ups to block the sites. Through the use of some clever addons everyone that cares about their online security should...
News: Flaw in Facebook & Google Allows Phishing, Spam & More
Here's a nasty little Null Byte. An open redirect vulnerability was found in both Facebook and Google that could allow hackers to steal user credentials via phishing. This also potentially allows redirects to malicious sites that exploit other vulnerabilities in your OS or browser. This could even get your computer flooded with spam, and these holes have been known about for over a month.
Pygame: All You Need to Start Making Games in Python
Pygame! And what you can accomplish with it. Another python article... (Blame Alex for getting me hooked on yet another coding language...)
Community Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 1 - Real Hacking Simulations
Community byters, it's time to get serious. We are finally moving on to the realistic missions in HackThisSite. This is where the learning gets intense and where we can apply real knowledge to extremely realistic situations. We will also be continuing the normal Python coding and hacking sessions. These sessions are created to bring our community together, to learn from each other, and grow together. Everyone is welcome, from novice programmers to aspiring hackers.
News: Call to Webmasters Everywhere
A cool link I found on Twitter that Anonymous tweeted. Get involved, this effects everyone.
Goodnight Byte: HackThisSite Walkthrough, Part 10 - Legal Hacker Training
This is it! That last basic mission. Last Friday's mission was to accomplish solving HackThisSite, basic mission 11. This final mission in the basic series was made to give us the skills and a place to apply our Apache server knowledge. This will teach us how to traverse through awkward and custom directory structures.
News: Arduino-based Curtain Automation
Jamie Zawinski uses a command line to control his curtains.. ..How cool is that?
News: Skyrim Covers That Will Make Your Ears Climax
Without Much Delay: The Below Videos Are Awesome! 'Nuff Said.
News: Midas Magic Spell Overhaul [MOD]: Now on Skyrim
Long story short, this is a mod by Xilver, who once upon a time did a spell mod called Midas Magic: Spells of Aurum, for TES Oblivion. Well, now he made one for TES Skyrim.
Community Byte: HackThisSite Walkthrough, Part 10 - Legal Hacker Training
Welcome to the 10th Community Byte session for coding in Python and completing the challenges presented to us by HackThisSite. These sessions are created to bring our community together, to learn from each other, and grow together. Everyone is welcome, from novice programmers to aspiring hackers.
Goodnight Byte: HackThisSite Walkthrough, Part 9 - Legal Hacker Training
Last Friday's mission was to accomplish solving HackThisSite, basic mission 10. This mission teaches us how to use JavaScript to manipulate cookies on poorly coded cookie-based authorization.
News: Null Byte Is Calling for Contributors!
We're officially seeking Null Byters interested in teaching others! Contributors will write tutorials, which will be featured on the Null Byte blog, as well as the front page of WonderHowTo (if up to par, of course). This is a job meant for anyone with the will to share knowledge. There is no need to be intimidated if you fear you lack the writing skills. I will edit your drafts if necessary and get them looking top-notch! You can write tutorials of any skill level, and anything you feel like...