Yes, this is a how-to-start-hacking topic. Yet another one.. I hope this topic will guide new hackers out there in the right direction. Or the direction which I see as right anyway.
Getting into the hacker mindset
By Seci of Evilzone.org
I have seen this board(Evilzone), and IRC- having a lot of people asking; Where to start? But there are few real good answers. There has been answers, but I can understand the issues surrounding answering, making none of the answers complete. And to be honest, there is no answer. Only guidence. Where to begin is not one fixed point. It will totally depend on what aspects of hacking you want to learn(first?). As well as your definitions of a hacker or and hacking.
Lets start off by getting some definitions straight. These are not facts, but rather how I like to see things. And how most other experienced hackers like myself views things. There are no right or wrong. But my understanding is that Evilzone got many of the same point of views as me, therefore I believe the coming definitions will fit smoothly for anyone browsing Evilzone and are willing to learn. If you disagree with my definitions you better have a good reason why. Or not. Who am I to judge.
<definitions>
A hacker is a knowledgeable person with a mindset fit to crack any challenge. He or she might even enjoy the challenge more than the end product. In general a hacker is creative, not destructive. But destruction will most likely happen at some point. A hacker will never let his challange go without a real fight. A hacker will act professional in all situations, speak properly and remain calm in any situation. And last but not least, a hacker has a lot of fun.
Hacking is in very broad words; Fixing, modifying or make something do something it was not designed to do. This is the stereotypical definition of hacking. Hacking is not limited to computer related stuff. This is an important note. However, the word hacking is today mostly used for the idea of computer-hacking.
Software exploitation is hacking because you are making the software do something it was not designed for.
Web-application exploitation is hacking because you are making the software run in a way the designer did not intend.
Reverse engineering is hacking because programs was not designed to be decompilable.
Social engineering is hacking because you are making people do something they would not have done without modification of the situation.
And so on.
</definitions>
Now we have laid down some ground rules for the coming words. Many of you probably already knew this. But this is a beginner topic. So we have to start with the basics.
Lets jump back to the question; Where to start?
Again, you have to pick a more narrow topic within the bounds of hacking. But then again, how can you do that when you do not know its aspects. I will try to list most of the aspects of hacking, but this is no way a complete list;
The stereotypical computer-hacker topics:
Software exploitation
- Exploiting user-input vulnerabilities like bufferoverflow to gain control over programs that was not intended to be controlled.
Will require a in-depth understanding of computer logics and programming. C/++, ASM, Perl or and Python are key languages that should be learned. In order to perform software exploitation you will need to know how to code vulnerable code, how to spot it and how to NOT code vulnerable code.
Can be used to hack almost any system, locally and remotely.
How to start:
- C# / VB
- Perl / Python
- C / C++
- Assembly
- Hacking theory ( Bufferoverflows )
Web-application exploitation
By far the most used method to get publicity now-days. Exploitation of server-side scripts and programs running web interfaces. Typical topics: Remote File Inclusion(RFI), Local File Inclusion(LFI), SQL injection, Cross Site Scripting(XSS) and Cross Site Request Forgery(CSRF). There will be other topics to, either mix-ups of the ones above, similar ones or completely different ones.
Must-know languages: PHP, HTML, Javascript, SQL and one of the following Perl, Python, C/++
You should also have good knowledge on TCP/IP stuff.
How to start:
- HTML
- Javascript
- PHP
- SQL (MySQL)
- Perl / Python
- C / C++
- Hacking Theory ( RFI, LFI, XSS, SQLi and SCRF )
Software modification
Changing software to do as you want it to. Typically called cracking, reversing or patching. This will allow you to remove or add things like license, mods, hacks to all sorts of applications.
To do this, you need an in-depth understanding of programming languages, compilers, linkers and IDE's. As well as understanding computer logic and machine code translated to Assembly. You will need to know how to work with a debugger and decompilers and disassemblers.
You probably need to know Assembly, C/++, Perl/Python and more wont hurt.
How to start:
- C# / VB
- Perl / Python
- C / C++
- Assembly
- Hacking theory ( Debugging, patching and mods )
Less computer related hacking:
Social Engineering
The ability to manipulate people into doing things they would not normally do in the given situation. Straight up tricking people.
To do this, you simply need to Practice. Don't force it, just act natural. Understand concepts of trust and so forth.
Many major hacks have been pulled off like this.
How to start:
- Chat around
- Chat some more
- Body language
- Facial expressions
- Trust concepts
- Psychology
- Start doing small scale engineerings
- Have fun
In addition, maybe except Social Engineering. In-depth computer logics, concepts and understanding are a must. But you don't really need to think about it that much, as you will gain that by learning to code, using your computer and so forth.
I will end this text here for the moment. This tutorial is not complete, maybe it will. Some time. There about a million more words that could be written. More to come later.
Notes:
- Hacker behavior
- Maturity
- Proper writing
- Coding is the key to all success
- How to start coding
- Coding project
- Make projects
- Make plans
- Write down ideas
- Follow your ideas
- Share your ideas
- Use Google
- Set goals
- Follow your goals
- Hacker mind set in every day life
- Good jobs
- Lots of money to be made
- Most importantly, have fun