Hot Posts
How To: Delete Files on Android So They Can't Ever Be Recovered
When you delete a file, Android doesn't actually remove it from your storage drive—instead, it simply marks that space as empty and pretends the file doesn't exist anymore. But deep down inside, the file that you originally wrote to that location is still physically there, at least until you randomly happen to save another file on top of that same spot.
How To: 15 Ways Apple Messages Makes Texting and iMessage Even Better on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15
Apple's Messages app already has a ton of great features, from audio message transcriptions to message editing and screen effect triggers. But there are some important new changes to go along with the newest software updates for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that make Messages even better.
How To: Set Up Contact Key Verification for the Highest Level of iMessage Security
Your iPhone is fairly secure by default, but Apple's Lockdown Mode takes it to Fort Knox levels of protection. If you're a high-value target for spyware, phishing attempts, and other sophisticated cyberattacks, it's an essential feature. But for almost everyone else, it's an extreme move. If you simply want to verify someone's identity when chatting, Contact Key Verification is a more practical option.
How To: Get Google's New Live Bloom Wallpapers on Your Pixel
If you own a Google Pixel 4a or newer, there are new live wallpapers for you to explore that other Android devices can't have.
How To: 3 Ways to Find & Save Old Photos in Your Gmail Account
After my hard drive crashed recently, I lost everything. Old college essays, half-written stories, short films, and most importantly, all of the photos that I had saved from the past five years... all gone.
How To: Apple's Tapback Reactions in Messages Got a Huge Makeover with More Options — Here's What's New
The updated Messages app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac has some really cool new features, but the one you may end up using the most is something you're already familiar with: Tapbacks. With iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15, Tapbacks are improved and contain even more reactions to choose from.
How To: Bypass Paywalls in Safari to Read Any Article on Your iPhone
Paywalls make it nearly impossible to access certain content unless you have a subscription. It's a practice that many news organizations and other online publications use to increase revenue: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Wired, and so many more. But just because a paywall is in place doesn't mean you can't get around it on your iPhone.
How To: 5 Secret Codes You Need to Know About Costco's Prices to Get Even Better Deals
It's no surprise that Costco has great deals, and that's why millions pay annual fees for the privilege to shop in their wholesale outlets. Just take their hotdog and soda combo for $1.50—it's the same price now as it was 27 years ago.
How To: Make an Origami Lily Flower
this tutorial explains how to make a traditional origami lily from one sheet of paper. No cuts, no glue needed. You'll Need
How To: Send ADB Commands to Your Own Phone Without a Computer or Root
There are three tiers to Android customization: things you can do by default, things you can do with ADB, and things you can do with root. While root is still pretty tricky to get, ADB mods just got a lot easier.
How To: Fold a Pentakis Dodecahedron
Math Craft admin Cory Poole provided quite a few recipes for sonobe models in his blog, and I followed one to make the pentakis dodecahedron here.
Making Electromagnetic Weapons: EMP Generator, Part One
In this series, I'll be exploring electromagnetic weapons, how to build them, their function and application to the future, and the amazing possibilities electromagnetism has to offer. First, the electromagnetic pulse generator, or EMP. You've probably heard of these before, and their devastating effects on electronics. A simple EMP consists of a capacitor, transformer, trigger, and coil of copper wire. This, when triggered, would produce an intense magnetic field for a brief period, similar ...
How To: This Hidden Setting Gives Safari's Favorites Bar Better-Looking Shortcuts to Your Most-Used Bookmarks
Apple has a new way to tidy up your favorite bookmarks in Safari, making them easier to access than ever before. This new feature saves space, allowing you to quickly see more of your favorites at the same time.
How To: Hack 5 GHz Wi-Fi Networks with an Alfa Wi-Fi Adapter
Wi-Fi networks come in two flavors: the more common 2.4 GHz used by most routers and IoT devices, and the 5 GHz one offered as an alternative by newer routers. While it can be frustrating to attack a device that moves out of reach to a 5 GHz Wi-Fi network, we can use an Alfa dual-band adapter to hack Wi-Fi devices on either type of network.
Modular Origami: How to Make a Truncated Icosahedron, Pentakis Dodecahedron & More
Last post, the Sonobe unit was introduced as a way to use multiple copies of a simply folded piece of paper to make geometric objects. In this post, we are going to explore that concept further by making two more geometric models. The first is the truncated icosahedron, which is a common stitching pattern for a soccer ball. The second was supposed to be the pentakis dodecahedron, but through systematic errors last night, I actually built a different model based off of the rhombic triacontahed...
How To: Skip the Oven—Microwave Your Fish
Fish are delicate, flaky, and can be damn tricky to cook; more often than not, you end up with a hard, dry block of flesh that makes your taste buds sad. And the best ways to cook fish that you know of—c'mon, who doesn't love a fried fish—take way too much effort for you to bother with on a weeknight. Or maybe you're looking for a healthier way to enjoy fish that doesn't require batter or frying at all.
How To: Trick Your Brain into Not Feeling Any Pain
Pain is, for the most part, unavoidable when you stub your toe, break your arm, or cut your finger open. It's instantaneous and, in some cases, long-lasting, but it only feels as bad as you want it to. Yes, that's right—that pain is all in your head.
How To: Enable Monitor Mode & Packet Injection on the Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi Zero W and Pi 3 Model B+ include integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and more than enough power to run Kali Linux. They sound like perfect all-in-one penetration testing devices, but the lack of support for monitor mode and packet injection usually meant buying a supported Wi-Fi adapter. Now, it's possible to use monitor mode on the built-in Wi-Fi chip with Nexmon.
How To: The Trick to Inserting Line Breaks into Instagram Captions & Comments
Line breaks signify not only the ending of one line of thinking, but the beginning of another. We use them to emphasize points, to fragment information, to shift tone, and more. They're important in getting our message across properly, which is why I'm always disappointed when I can't insert a line break into my masterful Instagram caption.
How To: There's an Easy Way to Type Fractions as Single Characters on Your iPhone's Keyboard
Whenever you need to type out a fraction on your iPhone, whether in a message, word document, presentation, math problem, recipe, or wherever else you need it, it's easy to use numbers and slashes. But there's a way to make fractions look more professional and easier to read straight from your keyboard.
How To: Annoy Your Friends on iMessage with a Barrage of Automated Texts
Back in its infancy, the App Store was filled with text bomb apps that allowed users to send a barrage of text messages to friends, family, and foes. It was a fun way to annoy people, but Apple quickly scrubbed the apps because of technical issues. Although text bombs are still banished, you can now use a Siri Shortcut to send text bombs through iMessage on your iPhone.
How To: Open an ADB or Fastboot Command Window in Platform-Tools
When it comes to rooting and modding any Android device, ADB and Fastboot commands will quickly become your two new best friends once you realize the power they have. From unlocking your bootloader to flashing any file you could ever want — if you're serious about the modding and customization game, you'll want to become acquainted with these commands as soon as possible.
How To: Inconspicuously Sniff Wi-Fi Data Packets Using an ESP8266
If you want to get started sniffing Wi-Fi networks, you usually need to start with a wireless network adapter. But thanks to a Wi-Fi sniffing library written in Arduino and the ultra-cheap ESP8266 chip, you might not need one. For less than $10 in electronics, you can build a tiny Arduino Wi-Fi sniffer that saves Wireshark-compatible PCAP files and fits anywhere.
News: Always-Updated List of Carriers That Support RCS Universal Profile
In November 2016, the RCS Universal Profile (Rich Communications Services) was introduced. The technology takes text messaging to the 21st century, emulating many of the features found in IM apps like WhatsApp and iMessage, but working through your phone number like regular SMS or MMS. The only thing is, your carrier needs to support RCS-UP to use the feature. Thankfully, the list is growing.
How To: Completely Banish Google from Your Android Experience
Update (February 2019): The methods below will help on older Android versions, but we've recently revisited this topic. So if you have a newer Android phone and you want to get rid of Google, head here.
The Hacks of Mr. Robot: How to Send a Spoofed SMS Text Message
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! As most of you know, Mr. Robot is probably the best hacker TV show ever! This is a great show about a cyber security engineer who is being enticed to hack the very corporation he's being paid to protect. This show is so good, I began a series to demonstrate how to do the hacks he uses in the show.
How To: Create Packets from Scratch with Scapy for Scanning & DoSing
By using almost any packet-crafting tool, a hacker can perform denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. With the power to create just about any packet with any characteristics, a hacker can easily find one that will take down a host or network. Nmap and Hping are effective packet manipulation tools, but there's also Scapy, which is almost infinitely customizable.
How To: Make Lazy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches in Your Toaster
The lengths people will go to for a grilled cheese sandwich are amazing. They'll use irons, wafflemakers, or whatever appliance that produces enough heat to produce the perfect combination of golden, grilled bread and oozy, melting cheese. I personally favor my cast-iron skillet or the oven for making a really great grilled cheese sandwich. If I'm feeling lazy, then a toaster oven will do. But what if you're at work or in a dorm and the break room only has a toaster?
How To: Writing 64-Bit Shellcode - Part 2 (Removing Null-Bytes)
Welcome to the sequel to the latest post on writing 64 bit shellcode! This tutorial will assume that you are aware of everything mentioned in the last one, as I will try to make this tutorial void of formalities and straight to the point! If you have not read the last one, I suggest doing so unless you are familiar with basic assembly programming and system calls. This is by no means rocket science, so therefore I will simply repeat my TL;DR from last time before we get started, so that the a...
How To: Your Samsung Galaxy S20 Has a Built-in Level to Check if Any Surface Is Flat
The next time you need to build some IKEA furniture or assemble a shelf in the bathroom, bring your Samsung Galaxy S20. It has a hidden feature that replaces one tool you will need for the job.
Hack Like a Pro: Advanced Nmap for Reconnaissance
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.
How To: Build a Beginner Hacking Kit with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
If you want to follow Null Byte tutorials and try out Kali Linux, the Raspberry Pi is a perfect way to start. In 2018, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ was released featuring a better CPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet built in. Our recommended Kali Pi kit for beginners learning ethical hacking on a budget runs the "Re4son" Kali kernel and includes a compatible wireless network adapter and a USB Rubber Ducky.
How To: The Ultimate Potato Cheat Sheet: Which Potato Goes Best with What?
I've been a fan of potatoes ever since I can remember... but mainly because they weren't a big part of my daily diet (which usually consisted of rice). And because my experience with potatoes was so limited, I only knew of two varieties growing up: big, brown Russets and sinewy sweet potatoes. As for cooking with potatoes—well, I'm embarrassed to admit that the only time I cooked potatoes when I was a kid was with the instant kind.
Cydia 101: How to Add Repos to Find More Jailbreak Tweaks
Unlike the iOS App Store, which is a one-stop shop that lets you search for and instantly download apps on your iPhone, jailbreak apps found within Cydia are far more fragmented and not as easy to source. In fact, Cydia only comes stock with a fraction of the apps and tweaks that are available on its official Apple counterpart. That's where Cydia repositories come in.
How To: Unlock the Bootloader on Your Pixel 4
The Pixel 4 is one of the most talked-about phones of 2019, and it has many things going for it, especially in the world of rooting and modding. Just as with previous Pixel generations, unlocking the bootloader is the gateway to realizing your device's true potential. It can make way for such things as TWRP, Magisk, custom ROMs, and many other device-specific mods just the same.
News: Scrabble's 2-Letter Words - Defined
Ok, so you've memorized the list of valid 2-letter words, but when challenged after playing one, can you smugly demonstrate your dominating intellect by spouting out the proper definition?
How To: There's a Handy Shortcut for Typing Fractions on Android
If you're using the default Samsung Keyboard on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or Gboard on a Google Pixel or any other Android device, here's a cool trick you should know about.
How To: 4 Ways to Crack a Facebook Password & How to Protect Yourself from Them
Despite the security concerns that have plagued Facebook for years, most people are sticking around and new members keep on joining. This has led Facebook to break records numbers with over 1.94 billion monthly active users, as of March 2017 — and around 1.28 billion daily active users.
How To: Flip a Clip in Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2
This is a great how to for all users in Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 Video: .
How To: Guess how many candies are in a jar
Want to win the prize? Knowing a little math is the key to winning this popular contest. In this video, learn how to estimate correctly.