Hacking web applications can sometimes be challenging due to the sheer amount of moving parts they possess. At the core of these apps are HTTP requests and parameters, but these things are often concealed from the user, due to security reasons, convenience, or both. However, a tool called Arjun can be used to discover hidden HTTP parameters in web apps.
If you've tossed around the idea of turning your interest in white hat hacking into a career in cybersecurity or IT, now's as good as time as ever to invest some time and energy into improving your skill set.
Determining the antivirus and firewall software installed on a Windows computer is crucial to an attacker preparing to create a targeted stager or payload. With covert deep packet inspection, that information is easily identified.
Anyone who has used Linux long enough is familiar with sudo. Short for superuser do (or substitute user do, depending on who you ask), it allows users to run commands as either root or another user on the system. From a hacker's point of view, sudo is often all that stands between them and root access. We'll be exploring an older vulnerability in sudo that allows a user to run commands as root.
Password cracking is a specialty of some hackers, and it's often thought that raw computing power trumps everything else. That is true in some cases, but sometimes it's more about the wordlist. Making a custom, targeted wordlist can cut down cracking time considerably, and Wordlister can help with that.
Privilege escalation is one of the essential skills a hacker can have and often separates the newbies from the pros. With a continually changing landscape and a plethora of exploits out there, it can be a problematic aspect of any attack. Luckily, some tools can help expedite the process. Linux Exploit Suggester is just one of many to help you get root.
Web applications are a prime target for hackers, but sometimes it's not just the web apps themselves that are vulnerable. Web management interfaces should be scrutinized just as hard as the apps they manage, especially when they contain some sort of upload functionality. By exploiting a vulnerability in Apache Tomcat, a hacker can upload a backdoor and get a shell.
There are many password-cracking tools out there, but one of the mainstays has always been John the Ripper. It's a powerful piece of software that can be configured and used in many different ways. Metasploit actually contains a little-known module version of JTR that can be used to quickly crack weak passwords, so let's explore it in an attempt to save precious time and effort.
No operating system is stricken with as many vulnerabilities as Windows, and it's often a race to release the latest patches to fix things. From an attacker's point of view, knowing which patches are present on a Windows machine can make or break successful exploitation. Today, we will be covering three methods of patch enumeration, using Metasploit, WMIC, and Windows Exploit Suggester.
Samba can be configured to allow any user with write access the ability to create a link to the root filesystem. Once an attacker has this level of access, it's only a matter of time before the system gets owned. Although this configuration isn't that common in the wild, it does happen, and Metasploit has a module to easily exploit this security flaw.
So you've managed to get a shell on the target, but you only have measly low-level privileges. Now what? Privilege escalation is a vast field and can be one of the most rewarding yet frustrating phases of an attack. We could go the manual route, but like always, Metasploit makes it easy to perform local privilege escalation and get root with its exploit suggester module.
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.
The art of privilege escalation is a skill that any competent hacker should possess. It's an entire field unto itself, and while it's good to know how to perform the techniques involved manually, it's often more efficient to have a script automate the process. LinEnum is one such script that can be incredibly useful for privilege escalation on Linux systems.
It is said that the best way to avoid detection when hacking is to leave no trace, and often that means not touching the filesystem at all. But realistically, in most cases, it's impossible not to interact with the filesystem in one way or another. The next best thing to do to throw off any investigators is to change the file attributes to hide activity. We can do this with Metasploit's Timestomp.
Hundreds of Windows 10, macOS, and Linux vulnerabilities are disclosed every single week, many of which elude mainstream attention. Most users aren't even aware that newly found exploits and vulnerabilities exist, nor that CVEs can be located by anyone in just a few clicks from a selection of websites online.
After backdooring a MacBook not protected by FileVault or using a fake PDF to gain remote access, an attacker may wish to upgrade their Netcat shell to something more fully featured. While a root shell allows attackers to remotely modify most files on the MacBook, Empire features some useful post-exploitation modules which make hacking Macs very easy.
Traditional subdomain enumeration techniques create a lot of noise on the target server and may alert intrusion detection systems to an attacker's intentions. For a stealthier approach, there's a tool with the capability of finding hundreds of subdomains related to the target website without alarming the server administrators.
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.
Web applications are becoming more and more popular, replacing traditional desktop programs at an accelerated rate. With all these new apps out on the web comes various security implications associated with being connected to the internet where anyone can poke and prod at them. One of the simplest, yet the most prevalent types of security flaws found in modern web apps are SQL injections.
SSH local forwarding is a must for covering your tracks and getting out there to do your work. Also called SSH tunneling, this process will put one or more steps between your machine and the machine you're working on, for security and other purposes. It can be a bit daunting for newbies to get down, and that's where Punchabunch comes in.
The octopus is famous for its bulbous head, enormous eyes, and four pairs of long arms. The stuff of legends and nightmares, octopi have been featured in stories, artwork, and meals galore. But how do you eat this distinctive looking, bilaterally symmetrical sea creature?
The biggest corporation we know today is called Google, I bet you've heard of it yeah? How Google Tracks You:
As many of you know, I have been running a couple of series here on Null Byte about digital forensics called Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker and Digital Forensics Using Kali. Although many readers have seemed to enjoy these series, just as many seem to be pondering, "Why should I study digital forensics?"
Hello there, reader! If you've clicked on this How-to then it means you are interested in learning some C programming or just generally curious about what this page has to offer. And so I welcome you warmly to the first of many C tutorials!
For many of you, this is common knowledge. But I still regularly see comments posted here and elsewhere asking, "This <AV bypass> doesn't work, because when I upload my payload to VirusTotal...."
Hi, dear co-apprentices and wise masters. I've been recently trying to learn the basics to hacking here, and I've read all guides on Wi-Fi hacking and noticed no word is dedicated to this awesome script that comes bundled with Kali!
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! As I mentioned in earlier posts, the best hackers (or at least those not behind bars) have a keen understanding of digital forensics. If I am tasked to intrude upon an enemy's file server to retrieve war plans, such as in this tutorial, it is essential to my country's (and my own) well-being that it not be traced back to me. Understanding digital forensics helps us to leave without a trace and never have a trail back to us or our employer.
What if someone asks you to do a Nmap scan but you left your pc at home? What if a golden opportunity shows during a pentest but you were walking around the building, taking a break?
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! My preference for Linux as a hacking platform is well documented, and I have even created a series of tutorials to train new hackers. Without being proficient in Linux, you can't really call yourself a hacker.
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.
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! So many readers in the Null Byte community have been asking me questions about evading detection and hacking undetected that I decided to start a new series on digital forensics.
Welcome back, my hacker trainees! A number of you have written me regarding which operating system is best for hacking. I'll start by saying that nearly every professional and expert hacker uses Linux or Unix. Although some hacks can be done with Windows and Mac OS, nearly all of the hacking tools are developed specifically for Linux. There are some exceptions, though, including software like Cain and Abel, Havij, Zenmap, and Metasploit that are developed or ported for Windows.
Router gateways are responsible for protecting every aspect of a network's configuration. With unfettered access to these privileged configurations, an attacker on a compromised Wi-Fi network can perform a wide variety of advanced attacks.
The price of hacking Wi-Fi has fallen dramatically, and low-cost microcontrollers are increasingly being turned into cheap yet powerful hacking tools. One of the most popular is the ESP8266, an Arduino-programmable chip on which the Wi-Fi Deauther project is based. On this inexpensive board, a hacker can create fake networks, clone real ones, or disable all Wi-Fi in an area from a slick web interface.
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.
The newest version of macOS has arrived. While everyone's mind is being blown by Mojave's groundbreaking new Dark Mode, we'll be taking advantage of its insecure file permissions to establish a persistent backdoor with a self-destructing payload that leaves little evidence for forensics.
Hacking Wi-Fi is a lot easier than most people think, but the ways of doing so are clustered around a few common techniques most hackers use. With a few simple actions, the average user can go a long way toward defending against the five most common methods of Wi-Fi hacking, which include password cracking, social engineering, WPS attacks, remote access, and rogue access points.
While Wi-Fi networks can be set up by smart IT people, that doesn't mean the users of the system are similarly tech-savvy. We'll demonstrate how an evil twin attack can steal Wi-Fi passwords by kicking a user off their trusted network while creating a nearly identical fake one. This forces the victim to connect to the fake network and supply the Wi-Fi password to regain internet access.
Conducting phishing campaigns and hosting Metasploit sessions from a trusted VPS is important to any professional security researcher, pentester, or white hat hacker. However, the options are quite limited since most providers have zero-tolerance policies for any kind of hacking, good or bad. After researching dozens of products, we came out with 5 potentials that are ideal for Null Byte readers.
The internet is constantly under siege by bots searching for vulnerabilities to attack and exploit. While conventional wisdom is to prevent these attacks, there are ways to deliberately lure hackers into a trap in order to spy on them, study their behavior, and capture samples of malware. In this tutorial, we'll be creating a Cowrie honeypot, an alluring target to attract and trap hackers.
