What should a hacker know first? How to acquire hacking skills

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Are you a beginner pentester or are you looking for tips on where to start or how to become a hacker from scratch? We encourage you to explore and get started with this list of scanning programs to study your target and network. We looked everywhere for a beginner's guide, but couldn't find anything that was all in one, so we decided to create this article for beginners. Everything will be presented briefly. Here are our recommendations for the most popular and effective hacking and scanning programs. If you know the programs better, please leave your opinion in the comments.

1. – There is both a free and paid version. This tool has many purposes, but the most important one is Indicators for SQL Penetration and Cross Site Scripting.

It also has a built-in script parser. This security tool generates detailed reports that identify vulnerabilities in the system. Many developers use it to identify vulnerabilities in their programs and systems. A very useful tool for both hacking and identifying vulnerabilities.

2. Aircrack-ng is a complete set of network security tools, which includes:

(used for attacks on WEP and WPA)
(used to decrypt WEP and WPA captured packets)
(puts network cards in monitor mode)
(Package injector)
(represents a packet sniffer)
(used for virtual tunnel interfaces)
(stores and manages ESSID and password lists)
packetforge-ng (creates encrypted injection packets)
airdriver-ng (includes methods to attack clients)
(removes WEP cloaking)
airdriver-ng (for managing wireless drivers),
(manages the ESSID and can calculate the master key)
(gives access to the wireless card from other computers)
easside-ng (allows the user to run programs on a remote computer)
easside-ng (means of communication to the access point, without a WEP key)
tkiptun-ng (for WPA/TKIP attack)
wesside-ng (for WEP key recovery).

3. Cain & Abel or simply Cain. A cool tool for those who are starting to write scripts. It is more used as a password recovery tool. This tool allows the tester to recover various types of passwords by listening to network traffic, and cracking encrypted passwords using either a dictionary or Brute Force attack. The tool can also record VoIP conversations and has the ability to decode encrypted passwords, detect WiFi network keys and cached passwords. When used properly, the tester can also analyze routing protocols. The security tool by its nature does not exploit any software vulnerabilities or holes but simply identifies security flaws in standard protocols. IT security students use this tool to learn APR (Arp Poison Routing) Man-in-the-Middle attacks (). New versions of this program allow you to crack the most used and popular encryption algorithms.
4. – there’s no need for many words here. I think to this day this is the coolest thing for a MITM attack. It uses ARP poisoning to attack. Allows you to see everything that is happening on the network you are on.
5.John The Ripper– perhaps the coolest name for this kind of instrument. A very popular security tool, often abbreviated simply "John" used to crack passwords. Originally created for the UNIX operating system, it currently runs on all major operating systems. Until now, this tool is one of the most popular for testing passwords and cracking programs that provide security. The tool combines various password crackers into one compressed package, which can then identify types of password hashes through its own custom cracking algorithm.
6. – is a security project that provides information about vulnerabilities and helps test and detect intrusions. The open source project - known as , is used by security professionals to execute code on a remote target computer - for penetration testing, of course! But Hackers love it very much; it allows you to work wonders.
7. Nessus is another giant for vulnerability scanning. Nessus scans for different types of vulnerabilities. Those that check for holes that hackers can exploit to gain control or access to a computer system or network. The tools also scan for default and general passwords, which can be used and executed through Hydra (an external tool) and launch a dictionary attack. Other vulnerability scans include attacks against the TCP/IP stack.
8. is another massive giant security tool that has been around forever, and probably the most famous. Nmap has been featured in many movies, including The Matrix - just Google it and you'll see what we mean. Written in C, C++, Lua Gordon Lione (Fedor) Since 1997, Nmap (Network Mapper) is the de facto and best security scanner that is used to locate hosts across a computer network. To discover hosts on a network, Nmap sends specially crafted packets to the target host and then parses the responses. The program is very complex because unlike other port scanners. It sends packets based on network conditions taking into account fluctuations, congestion and more.
9. Kismet is a wireless network detector, analyzer, and an excellent intrusion detection security tool. With Kismet you can monitor and listen to 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n traffic. There are many Sniffers out there, but what makes Kismet different and very popular is the fact that it works passively - meaning that the program does not send any packets, yet is able to monitor wireless access points and wireless clients. It is open source and widely used.
10. – has been around us for centuries and is extremely popular. Wireshark allows a penetration tester to put a network interface in promiscuous mode and therefore see all traffic. This tool has many features such as the ability to collect data from a live network connection or read from a saved file of already captured packets. Wireshark is capable of reading data from a wide range of networks, from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP, and even loopbacks. Like most of the tools on our security list, captured network data can be monitored and managed using a GUI - which also allows plugins to be inserted and used. Wireshark can also capture VoIP packets (like Cain) and raw USB traffic can also be captured.

If you are a Professional Penetration Tester or a Hacker, then you already know how to use these wonderful Programs. Hacking and pentesting tools are easy, neat, and fun to learn. The people who created them were brilliant programmers and made everything very convenient to use.

How to become a hacker? You have probably asked this question more than once, so HelpU decided to look into this issue and write your point of view about it.

Hacker is not just a buzzword, it is the name of an entire subculture. A kind of elite among computer scientists. Do not rush to doubt this word. There’s just an opinion that a hacker is an intruder who just wants to harm someone and do something unpleasant. In fact, this is completely wrong! The creators of viruses, thieves of confidential information, hackers of programs and websites are not exactly hackers. A hacker is not a pest, but rather a helper. In fact, one could say that hackers created the Internet and the World Wide Web, the Unix operating system. They help program developers find errors and correct incorrect sections of the program code. Let's take a closer look at who a hacker is, how he differs from other people, and how you can become one. How to become a hacker, even from scratch?

The hacker emblem is a symbol of the attitude towards hacker culture. The emblem depicts a “glider” - one of the figures in the game “Life”.

So, a program cracker is not a hacker, in computer slang he is a cracker. From the word crack - to break. Anyone who breaks a program or website can be called a cracker, but he will be very far from a real hacker. The main difference between them: a cracker causes harm, a hacker brings benefit. Apart from the fact that hacking is a criminal offense and can lead to an actual criminal sentence, such hacking actions cannot inspire an iota of respect. That’s why hackers, to put it mildly, don’t like crackers.

However, let's add more specifics and discuss what it takes to become a hacker. Since a hacker is an excellent programmer, then knowledge of programming languages is needed. If you don’t have such knowledge yet, then it’s okay, everything can be mastered, although not in one day. And not even in a year. But you can start now and gradually improve your skills. What can I say, sometimes you have to improve yourself all your life in order to always be at the peak. Python would be a good choice as a first programming language. This is quite a powerful and flexible tool. Java is great for a second language.

To become a real master, simply learning one or two programming languages is not enough. To do this you need to think algorithmically. A programming language is just a tool. Pasta fork. The main thing is to have pasta, and you can eat it with any fork. Ideally, mastering the language only takes a couple of months to learn the operators and relate them to your style of writing an algorithm. Therefore, it is important to learn two or more languages that are very different from each other in order to master all aspects of creating algorithms.

A serious step in improving professionalism and programming skills will be mastering the C language - the main language of the Unix operating system. However, you shouldn’t start with it, it will be extremely difficult. Perl is actively used for system administration and website administration. Even if writing it from scratch is not a priority task, then being able to read and modify code on it is a must. Well, the LISP language is also quite important. Ultimately, having mastered it, you will gain serious skills in algorithmization.

Ideally, you need to master all 4 of the listed programming languages - Python, C, Perl, LISP. Besides the importance of knowing these languages, they are very different in their approaches to programming and each will make an important contribution to its own development.

Actually, programming techniques are quite difficult to teach. Most hackers are self-taught; they learned everything they can do themselves. We can only give general recommendations. Programming skill consists of two important parts - the ability to read code and the ability to write it. Training in both processes can be combined. Take good sources, read, understand how they work, write your own based on them. There is no problem with this, because a hacker is a good-natured person who happily shares his developments with others. You can find many programs, utilities, even operating systems created by hackers and whose source code is available. It can be read, analyzed and modified.

Since we're talking about operating systems, let's touch on the issue of arranging a hacker's workplace. Of course, this is a computer on which you need to install an operating system. It will not only ensure the operation of other tools, but in itself can serve as a source of knowledge. Therefore, a closed-source OS is completely unsuitable for this. It is better to use a Unix-based distribution - it can be either Linux or some system based on the BSD kernel. In addition, most Internet servers are based on Unix. Therefore, if you want to become an Internet hacker, then without knowledge of Unix, it will not work. In addition, under Unix you can run any other operating system - Windows, Mac, etc., if you need it.

The Internet and WWW are part of our lives; we can’t live without them now. Therefore, it is important to master the World Wide Web very well. Not just travel through it, but work with it. Before mastering serious programming languages, you can learn the hypertext markup language of web pages - HTML. It is extremely easy to learn, and the process of mastering it will help in the future. In addition, there are a lot of sensible guides on learning HTML. Create a home website or just a page for yourself. Subsequently, along with the growth of your knowledge and skills, you can modernize your site and run experiments on it.

Another important point. You must know English. Some hackers for whom English is not their native language prefer to discuss technical issues in English, and if you do not know it, access to much of the information will be blocked. In addition to English, of course, knowledge of your native language must be five points. A letter with grammatical errors will obviously not add points to your reputation.

Hacker is not just a profession or hobby. It's a lifestyle. Therefore, a hacker must be in a hacker environment, among colleagues and associates. And in order for them to accept you as an equal, you need to earn respect and recognition. You can tell yourself “I’m a hacker” as much as you like, but you will only be a real hacker when others say about you “you’re a hacker.”

The most important thing for a hacker-programmer, of course, is to program. Write interesting and useful programs and distribute them for free along with the source code. Learned it yourself, tell someone else. The people who earn the most respect in the hacker community are the authors of powerful and useful software, they created truly useful programs that are now used by millions of people and distribute them freely, open source, so that anyone who needs such a program can get it .

It is also important to help other hackers, debug their programs. Find and fix errors, test open source programs. Debugging a program always takes a lot of time. And success depends on how quickly and efficiently all the errors were found. A good tester will always find something to do with himself. If you're a new hacker, the best way to build relationships and improve your knowledge is to find an open source program that requires debugging and testing. You will learn a lot and build a reputation for yourself in the process.

In addition, among hackers you can always find something to do for the benefit of society, and you can’t forget yourself. Be sure to share information you receive or find, such as guides, FAQs, and other materials. Development of documentation for programs, moderation of mailing lists and subscription lists. All this is not as exciting as working with source codes, but it is very useful for recognition by the hacker community as well.

As for professional qualities - we briefly went over them, we can also touch on the personal sphere of the future hacker. You don't have to be a bespectacled nerd to become a hacker. You can lead a completely measured social life. But if you decided to take up hacking because of failures in your personal life, why not. Then nothing will stop you from concentrating on this area of activity. It’s good if you’re into science fiction, there will be something to talk about besides straight hacker topics.

And, perhaps, the last thing. Sign with your real name. Nicknames are used by those who have something to hide, for example, crackers. A hacker is not a pest, he does useful things, and he has no one to hide from.

Denial of responsibility: This article is written for educational purposes only. The author or publisher did not publish this article for malicious purposes. If readers would like to use the information for personal gain, the author and publisher are not responsible for any harm or damage caused.

Very often you can hear from young people that they would like to become hackers. As a rule, people talking about this are new to the field of Internet and computer technology. The desire in itself is laudable, however, it is doubtful that they understand what they are talking about.

If you conduct a survey among ordinary users what, in their opinion, hackers do, most of them will immediately give the answer: writing viruses, hacking credit cards, flooding other people's mailboxes with streams of spam. All these answers will be incorrect, since the person who performs all these actions is not a hacker at all, but a cracker who specializes in hacking, and, by and large, is a criminal who is worthy not of admiration, but of punishment provided for by the legislation of many countries.

If this is not a hacker, then who can be called this word? If you turn to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, it will tell you that hackers are highly qualified specialists with perfect knowledge in the field of computer and information technology. This definition seems somehow dry and devoid of any romance, however, this is exactly so.

I also suggest watching the video tutorial.

Having figured out who hackers are, let's try to figure out how to become a hacker yourself, and what needs to be done for this?

Firstly, anyone who decides to become a hacker must acquire one of the versions of the Linux OS, as well as master and be able to use all the capabilities that a computer puts in your hands. Currently, there are computers in almost every apartment, but not everyone knows how to use something other than Spider Solitaire.

Of course, the Windows system is much more widespread in our country, but its distribution comes into the hands of the user compiled into machine code, unlike the files that make up the kernel of Linux-based operating systems. In addition, the vast majority of servers are run by Unix-like operating systems, so you will have to abandon the use of Windows.

Secondly, you will need to explore all the possibilities provided by the Internet, as well as have skills in the languages PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML. If you're serious about becoming a hacker, these are the languages you can't do without. In addition, with the help of this you will begin to understand how different browsers work. If you have never programmed before, knowing languages will be a great help in this matter, teaching you to think the way programmers think.

Third, learning serious programming languages cannot be avoided. At first glance, they may seem like some kind of Chinese writing, but the devil is not as scary as he is painted, you just need to take it and start studying them. The best language option that will help the future hacker the most is the C language. It is certainly more complex than many other languages, but it is organized more strictly than many other options, and knowledge and a thorough understanding of it will make it easy to understand any other tongue. In addition to C, you will need to learn C++, ASM and Python.

Learning programming is necessary so that the user clearly understands and understands all the processes that occur inside his computer. If this knowledge is not there, then you will never be able to achieve results as a hacker.

Fourth, in order to become a hacker, you will need to study English at a fairly high level, since it is the language that members of the hacker community from all over our planet communicate with each other. The population of our country, like most other countries in the post-Soviet space, traditionally treats the study of foreign languages with lukewarmness and completely in vain. To become a hacker, you will need to be aware of all the latest developments in the IT field, which, as a rule, occur in Western countries, and you can only learn about them in time from English-language sources.

I wish you success! Until next time!

1. – There is both a free and paid version. This tool has many purposes, but the most important one is Indicators for SQL Penetration and Cross Site Scripting.

2. Aircrack-ng is a complete set of network security tools, which includes:

(used for attacks on WEP and WPA)
(used to decrypt WEP and WPA captured packets)
(puts network cards in monitor mode)
(Package injector)
(represents a packet sniffer)
(used for virtual tunnel interfaces)
(stores and manages ESSID and password lists)
packetforge-ng (creates encrypted injection packets)
airdriver-ng (includes methods to attack clients)
(removes WEP cloaking)
airdriver-ng (for managing wireless drivers),
(manages the ESSID and can calculate the master key)
(gives access to the wireless card from other computers)
easside-ng (allows the user to run programs on a remote computer)
easside-ng (means of communication to the access point, without a WEP key)
tkiptun-ng (for WPA/TKIP attack)
wesside-ng (for WEP key recovery).

It’s unlikely that you sat quietly in your room for 20 years, studied well, obeyed your parents in everything, never deceived anyone, never took anything from anyone else in your life, and then, bam, you wanted to become a cyber hacker. Most likely, this already lives in you: you are easily carried away by the search for an original solution, you absorb computer knowledge like a sponge, you can’t stand manuals, you trust only your own trial and error method, and professional literature is only one of the assistants. And now a grain of truth has begun to sprout in your head, a desire to stand on the other side of the law. Not for the sake of money, purely out of curiosity. Where to begin?

Learn a language

Since you have decided to become a hacker, then you probably know English perfectly. If not, then any of your further tasks will become twice as complicated - first, with a dictionary, you will look for what exactly you are hacking, and only then look for ways - again with a dictionary. In addition, if your career takes off, then it’s a good idea to know the basic part of some other languages - Spanish, German, French. It will be useful in life, and it won’t hurt in work. Developers also sometimes come across as ignorant.

Choose a specialization

As with any other hobby, it is important to decide on a specialization as soon as possible. No, of course, you first need to start by studying the shell of applied hardware - applications and operating systems, then move on to a larger level. The main thing to remember is that there are dozens of types of attacks and hacking techniques: it will take years to master everything at a decent level. Therefore, if you are ambitious and want to not just try, but achieve serious success, decide on your area of work and develop skills in this direction. With due persistence, within six months you will have your first significant scalp on your account.

Read the literature

Although a good hacker is distinguished by the fact that all his knowledge is gained empirically, it would be foolish to try to surpass many years of security experience without using the experience of others. Here's where to start your literary excursion: "The Art of Deception", "Hacking: the Art of Exploitation", "The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing","Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide". After mastering them, at least you will no longer have stupid questions like “where to go” and “what to do.”

Don't listen to anyone

The whole essence of a hacker's activity lies in research rather than sabotage. Therefore, if you have your own head on your shoulders, never take other people’s criticism seriously, do not believe in the existence of a “right” path and do not succumb to provocations. If hackers don't do what they like, then who will?

Keep the rhythm

No matter how excitingly you get caught up in a new hobby, don’t rush to get involved in serious projects. Gradually study your chosen business, learn not only to destroy, but also to create. And of course, try to immediately kill the desire to hack something big and famous. This is fraught not only with the possibility of running into an insurmountable wall, but also with receiving a very real sentence.

Challenge

At the same time, do not rush to rest on the laurels of your first successes. While people on the other side are working to create more and more ideal protection, your task is to keep up with the times and look for flaws and patterns in it. No one calls for immediately winning the jackpot at the competition Pwnium, but it is necessary to think seriously about this, and most importantly, to strive for this.

Find a suitable job

To catch a criminal, you need to think like him. To bypass the built defense, you need to get into the team that creates it. This will greatly help accelerate professional growth, partially monetize your passion, and in general, it may make you think about the correctness of your chosen side.

However, there is an alternative universal option - just change your occupation. On the one hand, this way you will approach your favorite business with great enthusiasm and a fresh mind, on the other hand, you will not fall out of society. After all, even the most malicious hackers must have a personal life.

Stop being afraid

And in general, it’s enough to spend at least 10 seconds in any search engine to realize that there are a huge number of ways in the world (competitions, competitions, work) that allow you to thoroughly stretch your brain and at the same time make money. Today, information protection is, literally, an international problem, connected, among other things, with the main threat to humanity - terrorism. Therefore, if your inquisitive mind wants, and most importantly can, hack something, but is critically afraid of getting punished for it, a huge number of IT companies will be ready to cooperate with you.

What should a hacker know first? How to acquire hacking skills

Learn a language

Choose a specialization

Read the literature

Don't listen to anyone

Keep the rhythm

Challenge

Find a suitable job

Stop being afraid

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