How to Hack

Hacking

1. Use a *nix terminal for commands. Cygwin will help emulate a *nix for Windows users. Nmap in particular uses WinPCap to run on Windows and does not require Cygwin. However, Nmap works poorly on Windows systems due to a lack of raw sockets. You should also consider using Linux or BSD, which are both more flexible, more reliable, and more secure. Most Linux distributions come with many useful tools pre-installed.
2. Secure your machine first. Make sure you've fully understood all common techniques to protect yourself. Start with the basics — have you found a server hosting a site about illegal or possibly bad activity? Attempt to hack it in any way you can. Don't change the site, just make it yours.
3. Test the target. Can you reach the remote system? While you can use the ping utility (which is included in most operating systems) to see if the target is active, you can not always trust the results — it relies on the ICMP protocol, which can be easily shut off by paranoid system administrators.
4. Determine the operating system (OS). Run a scan of the ports, and try pOf, or nmap to run a port scan. This will show you the ports that are open on the machine, the OS, and can even tell you what type of firewall or router they are using so you can plan a course of action. You can activate OS detection in nmap by using the -O switch.
5. Find a path or open port in the system. Common ports such as FTP (21) and HTTP (80) are often well protected, and possibly only vulnerable to exploits yet to be discovered.
   • Try other TCP and UDP ports that may have been forgotten, such as Telnet and various UDP ports left open for LAN gaming.
   • An open port 22 is usually evidence of an SSH (secure shell) service running on the target, which can sometimes be bruteforced.
6. Crack the password or authentication process. There are several methods for cracking a password, including brute force. Using brute force on a password is an effort to try every possible password contained within a pre-defined dictionary of brute force software
   • Users are often discouraged from using weak passwords, so brute force may take a lot of time. However, there have been major improvenments in brute-force techniques.
   • Most hashing algorithms are weak, and you can significally improve the cracking speed by exploiting these weaknesses (like you can cut the MD5 algorithm in 1/4, which will give huge speed boost).
   • Newer techniques use the graphics card as another processor — and it's thousands of times faster.
   • You may try using Rainbow Tables for the fastest password cracking. Notice that password cracking is a good technique only if you already have the hash of password.
   • Trying every possible password while logging to remote machine is not a good idea, as it's easily detected by intrusion detection systems, pollutes system logs, and may take years to complete.
   • It's often much easier to find another way into a system than cracking the password.
7. Get super-user privileges. Try to get root privileges if targeting a *nix machine, or administrator privileges if taking on Windows systems.
   • Most information that will be of vital interest is protected and you need a certain level of authentication to get it. To see all the files on a computer you need super-user privileges - a user account that is given the same privileges as the "root" user in Linux and BSD operating systems.
   • For routers this is the "admin" account by default (unless it has been changed); for Windows, this is the Administrator account.
   • Gaining access to a connection doesn't mean you can access everything. Only a super user, the administrator account, or the root account can do this.
8. Use various tricks. Often, to gain super-user status you have to use tactics such as creating a buffer overflow, which causes the memory to dump and that allows you to inject a code or perform a task at a higher level than you're normally authorized.
   • In unix-like systems this will happen if the bugged software has setuid bit set, so the program will be executed as a different user (super-user for example).
   • Only by writing or finding an insecure program that you can execute on their machine will allow you to do this.
9. Create a backdoor. Once you have gained full control over a machine, it's a good idea to make sure you can come back again. This can be done by backdooring an important system service, such as the SSH server. However, your backdoor may be removed during the next system upgrade. A really experienced hacker would backdoor the compiler itself, so every compiled software would be a potential way to come back.
10. Cover your tracks. Don't let the administrator know that the system is compromised. Don't change the website (if any), and don't create more files than you really need. Do not create any additional users. Act as quickly as possible. If you patched a server like SSHD, make sure it has your secret password hard-coded. If someone tries to log-in with this password, the server should let them in, but shouldn't contain any crucial information.

Warnings

• Although you may have heard the opposite, don't help anyone patch their programs or systems. This is considered extremely lame and leads to being banned from most hacking communities. And if you would release a private exploit someone found, he may become your enemy — and he's probably better than you are .
• Don't delete entire logfiles, instead, just remove only the incriminating entries from the file. The other question is, is there a backup logfile? What if they just look for differences and find the exact things you erased? Always think about your actions. The best thing is to delete random lines of log, including yours.
• Hacking into someone else's system may be illegal, so don't do it unless you are sure you have permission from the owner of the system you are trying to hack or you are sure it's worth it and you won't get caught.
• Never do anything just for fun. Remember it's not a game to hack into a network, but a power to change the world. Don't waste that on childish actions.
• Be extremely careful if you think you have found a very easy crack or a crude mistake in security management. A security professional protecting that system may be trying to trick you or setting up a honeypot.
• If you aren't confident with your skills, avoid from breaking into corporate, government, or military networks. Even if they have weak security, they could have a lot of money to trace and bust you. If you do find a hole in such network, it's best to hand it to more experienced hacker that you trust who can put these systems to good use.
• Misusing this information may be a local and/or federal criminal act (crime). This article is intended to be informational and should only be used for ethical - and not illegal - purposes.

Things You'll Need

• A (fast operating) PC or laptop with a connection to the Internet.
• A Proxy (optional)
• An IP scanner
• Petaflops Help