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How To: Use SELinux Targeted Policy to Secure Your Hosts

Hackers often rely on lazy system admins and unpatched vulnerabilities to get access to a host. Keeping intruders off of our machines requires us to update daily, only run the services we need, and read the code, among other things, but we can still make mistakes. Luckily for us, we can limit the damage caused by those mistakes by running SELinux.

How To: Security-Oriented C Tutorial 0xF8 - PE File Infection

How is it goin', fellow 1337 haXX0rZ! dtm here with another article, this time, we'll be looking at infecting PE files, executables in particular for this write-up. Obviously some prerequisite knowledge will be needed since this isn't really newbie-friendly. If you are still a beginner, fear not, it might still be interesting to read! Hopefully!

How to Train Your Python: Part 4, Basic User Input

In the last iteration of how to train your python, we covered basic string manipulation and how we can use it to better evaluate user input. So, today we'll be covering how to take user input. User input is very important to scripting. How can we do what the user says if we can't tell what the user wants? There are multiple ways to take input, we can give the user a prompt and take input from them directly, or we could use flags/switches, and take their input before the script is even execute...

How to Train Your Python: Part 3, Basic String Manipulation

Last time in how to train you python, we covered the basics of variables and output. While we were covering variables, we talked briefly about strings. "String" is just a fancier way of saying "Word". A string is simply a set of characters encased in quotations, this lets python know that it is a word. Sometimes when we do things with strings we'll need to change them in order to do something. Python is case sensitive, for example "Null-Byte" is not the same as "null-byte". This is where mani...

How To: Create an Encryption Program with Python

Hello, fellow grey hat hackers and aspiring coders. I'm back again with another python tutorial. Just that this one is gonna be a lot cooler ;-). We gonna make an encryption program, that well you know encrypts all the files on your pendrive or hdd or whatever you want....Also lots of thanks to DrapsTV. They have helped me a lot with Python and making awesome programs. The video is here:

How To: Save Battery Life on Android by Turning Off Pixels (No Root Required)

Many modern Android devices use a display technology called AMOLED. These screens differ from traditional LCD displays in that each pixel emits its own light, so a backlight is not required. Even better, when rendering a black element on the screen, AMOLED displays simply don't light up the associated pixels, meaning virtually no power is used. Since black pixels use little to no power on an AMOLED screen, more black pixels means lower battery consumption.

How To: Quiet an Overthinking Mind

We all carry a bit of anxiety around with us. Is our boss still annoyed because we could barely stay awake in yesterday's pre-dawn meeting? Will our friend hate us forever because we forgot to call them back two weeks ago? Whatever worries pop up in your mind, whether they're monumental or insignificant, it can be hard to quiet those nagging voices, but you can shut down your nonstop mind with a bit of relaxation, distraction, and action.

Decoding Produce Stickers: The Hidden Meaning Behind Fruit & Vegetable Labels

Like Costco's price codes or the tags on your bread, the numerical codes printed on those sticky little fruit and vegetable labels can reveal a lot of information to us consumers. Once you understand the codes, you can look at that little label (also known as PLU, or "price look up" label) and know whether the produce you're about to buy or eat was treated with pesticides, genetically modified, both, or neither. Before we go any further with deciphering the codes on these labels, let's take a...

How To: Get Rid of Spiders Naturally

Spiders are common pests that typically prefer to live outdoors. However, insects and warmth will eventually attract them into our houses. They like to spin their webs in corners, crevices and unused areas of your house. Most species are harmless and even act as a natural repellent for getting rid of other insects. However, in some cases, spiders can be very dangerous. Whichever the case may be, they are scary and people are always looking for natural ways to get rid of them.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Perform Stealthy Reconnaissance on a Protected Network

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.

Hack Like a Pro: How to Install BackTrack 5 (With Metasploit) as a Dual Boot Hacking System

Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Many of you have written me that you're having difficulty installing and running Metasploit on a variety of platforms. No matter if you're using Mac, Linux, or Windows, I strongly recommend you install BackTrack as your secondary OS, a virtaulization system, or on an external drive. This particular Linux distribution has many hacking and security tools integrated—including Metasploit.

How To: Group and Organize Your Start Screen Tiles in Windows 8

Keeping your computer organized and your desktop clutter-free can be pretty difficult. And with last week's official release of Windows 8, users have another screen they need to get used to organizing—the new Metro-style Start Screen. It uses large rectangular or square tiles in place of the standard icons you've seen on older Windows operating systems. For better organization and grouping, you can group similar items onto a page (similar to many smartphones), you increase or decrease the siz...