Nmap is possibly the most widely used security scanner of its kind, in part because of its appearances in films such as The Matrix Reloaded and Live Free or Die Hard. Still, most of Nmap's best features are under-appreciated by hackers and pentesters, one of which will improve one's abilities to quickly identify exploits and vulnerabilities when scanning servers.
Welcome back, my novice hackers! Reconnaissance is one of the most important preparatory steps to hacking. As I have emphasized many times before here on Null Byte, you must know the operating system, the ports, the services, the applications, and sometimes even the language of the target to be effective. If you haven't taken the time to gather this info, then you are likely wasting your time.
NMAP is an essential tool in any hacker's arsenal. Originally written by Gordon Lyon aka Fydor, it's used to locate hosts and services and create a map of the network. NMAP has always been an incredibly powerful tool, but with it's newest release, which dropped mid-November of last year, they've really out done themselves.
Nmap is more powerful than you know. With a few scripts, we can extend its functionality beyond a simple port scanner and start to identify details about target servers sysadmins don't want us to know.
When it comes to attacking devices on a network, you can't hit what you can't see. Nmap gives you the ability to explore any devices connected to a network, finding information like the operating system a device is running and which applications are listening on open ports. This information lets a hacker design an attack that perfectly suits the target environment.
Welcome back, my nascent Hackers! In my last blog, we looked at a passive way to gather information necessary for a hack. The advantage of using passive recon is that it's totally undetectable, meaning that the target never knows you're scouting them and you leave no tracks. The disadvantage, of course, is that it's limited to only some websites and not entirely reliable.
Welcome aboard my inquisitive comrades. I am starting a new series that nobody expected coming. It may not seem very exciting at first, but await the last few parts as many startling discoveries will be made. This is a series which I plan to continue after the completion of Nmap, unless you have major objections.
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! Those of you who have been reading my posts here for awhile know how much I emphasize good reconnaissance. Novice hackers often jump into a hack/exploit without doing proper recon and either fail or get caught. Experienced and expert hackers know that 70-80 percent of a good and successful hack is dependent upon successful and accurate reconnaissance.
In my last tutorial I very briefly introduced Zanti , but in this tutorial I will start to show its many features. The first step on hacking is recon . You could use Nmap , but the problem with Nmap on Android is that by itself, in order to gain full functionality your phone must be rooted. Thank goodness for a few geniuses in Zanti's dev team whom managed to implant full fuctionality of Nmap in Zanti without rooting your phone. With that being said, boot up your Android phone and lets start ...
Using Hydra, Ncrack, and other brute-forcing tools to crack passwords for the first time can be frustrating and confusing. To ease into the process, let's discuss automating and optimizing brute-force attacks for potentially vulnerable services such as SMTP, SSH, IMAP, and FTP discovered by Nmap, a popular network scanning utility.
The road to becoming a skilled white hat is paved with many milestones, one of those being learning how to perform a simple Nmap scan. A little further down that road lies more advanced scanning, along with utilizing a powerful feature of Nmap called the Nmap Scripting Engine. Even further down the road is learning how to modify and write scripts for NSE, which is what we'll be doing today.
Web application firewalls are one of the strongest defenses a web app has, but they can be vulnerable if the firewall version used is known to an attacker. Understanding which firewall a target is using can be the first step to a hacker discovering how to get past it — and what defenses are in place on a target. And the tools Wafw00f and Nmap make fingerprinting firewalls easy.
Welcome back my fellow hackers. Today I'm going to teach you how to preform an Idle Scan. You may be asking what is an Idle Scan. Its a very stealthy scan because you don't use your own ip you use a zombie (in computer terms).
NetBIOS is a service that allows for communication over a network and is often used to join a domain and legacy applications. It is an older technology but still used in some environments today. Since it is an unsecured protocol, it can often be a good starting point when attacking a network. Scanning for NetBIOS shares with NBTScan and the Nmap Scripting Engine is a good way to begin.
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/
Remember that scene in The Matrix when Trinity uses a realistic Nmap port scan, followed by an actual SSH exploit (long since patched) to break into a power company? Well, believe it or not, but that scene is not far fetched at all. If you want to exploit vulnerabilities and root boxes, you'll need to learn how to perform the necessary reconnaissance first. In fact, you will spend far more time researching your target then you will exploiting it. In this article, I am going to show you the fi...
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.
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! The database is the hacker's "pot-of-gold," as it contains information that is very valuable to both the business and the hacker. In this, the second of my series on hacking databases, we're on the "hunt" for Microsoft's SQL Server. Although far from the most commonly used database (Oracle hold's that title), Microsoft's SQL Server is very often found in small-to-medium sized businesses. Even a few big businesses use it.
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! I recently began a series on scripting and have received such positive feedback that I'm going to keep this series going. As I've said before, to graduate from the script kiddie to the pro hacker, you'll need to have some scripting skills. The better you are at scripting, the more advanced your hacking. Ultimately, we are leading up to developing the skills to build your own zero day exploits.
Computers all over the world rely on a program called "libssh" to use the SSH communications protocol, which allows trusted users to log in and administer computers remotely. Due to a flaw in libssh, fooling a computer into granting SSH access is as easy as telling it you already have permission. The vulnerability can lead to an attacker gaining complete control over a device.
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! One of the first issues any hacker has to address is reconnaissance. Before we even begin to hack, we need to know quite a bit about the target systems. We should know their IP address, what ports are open, what services are running, and what operating system the target is using. Only after gathering this information can we begin to plan our attack. Most hackers spend far more time doing reconnaissance than exploiting.
MagicTree is often the go-to tool for data collection and reporting for many pentesters. It organizes data in nodes in a tree-structure which is very efficient at managing host and network data. Reports can be completely customized to meet the user's needs. Also, MagicTree allows you to import XML data and has XSLT transforms for Nessus, Nmap, OpenVas, Burp, Nikto. MagicTree comes pre-installed in Kali.
Welcome back, my budding hackers! Recently, I showed you how you could exploit the widely disseminated OpenSSL vulnerability that has to become known as "Heartbleed". Although the world has known about this vulnerability for over a month now, it will likely take many more months—or even years—for everyone to close this vulnerability.
Gaining access to a system is always exciting, but where do you go from there? Root or bust. Sure, a compromised host is a great way to run a botnet, or do some other boring, nefarious thing—but as hackers, we want root. We also want to take the easiest path possible, search out low-hanging fruit, and exploit them. SUID programs are the lowest of the low-hanging fruit.
In my previous article, we learned how to generate a vulnerable virtual machine using SecGen to safely and legally practice hacking. In this tutorial, we will put it all together, and learn how to actually hack our practice VM. This will provide some insight into the methodology behind an actual attack and demonstrate the proper way to practice on a VM.
With a tiny computer, hackers can see every website you visit, exploit services on the network, and break into your Wi-Fi router's gateway to manipulate sensitive settings. These attacks can be performed from anywhere once the attacker's computer has been connected to the router via a network implant.
Welcome back, my budding hackers! We've spent a lot of time learning to compromise Windows systems, and we've successfully compromised them with Metasploit, cracked their passwords, and hacked their Wi-Fi. However, very little time was spent developing ways to extract the information from the system once inside.
It's not uncommon for hackers to attempt to move laterally between devices in proximity of a compromised device to maintain a prolonged presence in the network. Malware utilizing USB flash sticks to self-replicate and compromise air-gapped machines isn't a new concept.
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Recently, I asked the Null Byte community what subject they would most like me to cover in future tutorials. Many of you cited scripting, and I decided it's best to cover this subject soon, so here goes.
The ability to stay organized and be resourceful with data gathered from recon is one of the things that separates the true hackers from the script kiddies. Metasploit contains a built-in database that allows for efficient storage of information and the ability to utilize that information to better understand the target, which ultimately leads to more successful exploitation.
With all of the bare-bones setup out of the way in our Mac for Hackers series, your Apple machine should be ready to run a significant amount of pentesting tools. We can pull tools from GitHub and compile them, we can pull dependencies or tools from Homebrew, we have both Python and Ruby. Everything is ready to go and now it's time to start building a toolbox on our local host.
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers!
In recent weeks, major bank websites around the world have experienced outages after being have been hit with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Although few, if any, of these banks have been totally knocked offline, these DoS attacks have dramatically slowed the response time of their websites to legitimate customers. The most recent victim was the Royal Bank of Scotland. Due to this attack, RBS customers were unable to access their accounts for about an hour last week.
Automation has been a buzz word for quite some time now, but the principles behind it are as strong as ever. For a hacker or pentester, Bash scripting is one form of automation that cannot be ignored. Virtually any command that can be run from the terminal can be scripted — and should be, in many cases — to save valuable time and effort. And a Bash script just happens to be great for recon.
Automating port scanners, directory crawlers, and reconnaissance tools can be complicated for beginners just getting started with Kali Linux. Sparta solves this problem with an easy-to-use graphical interface designed to simplify a penetration tester's tasks.
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! Have you ever had a neighbor that you're certain is up to no good? Maybe you've seen him moving packages in and out at all hours of the night? Maybe you've seen people go into his home and never come out? He seems like a creep and sometimes you hear strange sounds coming from his home? You know he's up to no good, but you aren't sure what it is exactly.
Greetings comrades! Great leader has ordered that we gain intel on a website owned by the opposition. For all general purposes we will be scanning nmap.org because they really don't care if Big Brother decides to perform a whois on their IP. We will be using Dmitry for the scanning.
In my last post I introduced how to use ncat to connect to your Pi remotely, but what's the point to if you can't actually hack? This tutorial I'm gonna show you how to use very simple tools for a much bigger purpose. With that said, boot up our Pi and lets wreck havoc.
Welcome back, my novice hackers! I've written a couple of articles on reconnaissance and its importance, and as I've said before, a good hacker will spend 3 to 4 more times doing reconnaissance than actually exploiting the system. If your recon isn't good, you'll likely fail, or worse—end up serving time and becoming Bubba's wife for a couple years. I can't say it enough—recon is critical.
UnrealIRCd is an open-source IRC server that has been around since 1999 and is perhaps the most widely used one today. Version 3.2.8.1 was vulnerable to remote code execution due to a backdoor in the software. Today, we will be exploiting the vulnerability with Metasploit, examining the underlying code to understand it, and creating our own version of the exploit in Python.
