This is one of the topics which I see frequently on any hacker community. So lets once and for all crack the SAM mystery.
What is SAM?
SAM (Security Accounts Manager) file stores all the user info and passwords of all the accounts of a computer using Windows NT family OS(Windows XP, Windows server 2003,etc.).So if you can somehow get this file you can get the passwords.
How can one find passwords from the SAM file?
There are three places where this file can be cracked from:-
i) From the original file
%systemroot%/system32/config
This file is locked to all users during the windows is running,so that you can't open it while you are working in windows. (Find out how you can use this file....Google dear friends).
ii) The system keeps a backup of this file in the
%systemroot%/repair/sam._
This file is available to all users at any time. So copy this file to any directory and crack the passwords using any good password cracker. I would tell you about one, not only coz its very popular but also that its free.(Find others yourselves the net has a gr8 many of them)
John the Ripper:- Its a dictionary cracker and will crack almost 80% of times you use it(unless the system admin has a knack in complicating things.)
iii) You can use PWDUMP to directly crack the passwords from the registry.pwdump uses .DLL injection in order to use the system account to view the password hashes stored in the registry.(Try to find out more about pwdump)
How to prevent people from cracking ur SAM file?
i) Try to avoid password which are dictionary words.
ii) Try to use special characters in ur password.
iii)Try to add non-printable ascii characters to your passwords.
Learning the OS's
Operating Systems form the heart and soul of computer systems. They are the set of programs which run the computer and help you process the data at such an incredible speed that it almost appears magical to everyone.
Now for anyone to be able to hack into any system will love to know the vulnerability of the OS running on the system. And so must you all(as u are aspiring hackers, right!). So lets start studying about OS in detail.
First and foremost study all there is to study about the basics of OS. The OS's may change but the concepts remain the same more or less.
Then install an earlier version of Windows(98 or 95). Now don't stare at me like that! I know that windows is BAD in terms of security, however it is a hackers heaven. You can try out all ur skills as a practice test here before venturing out. Play up with the OS, tweak the settings,registries and the codes(Did I say codes?). Try everything you can think of don't worry about crashing your system(Windows are meant to crash anyways
). If you worry about failure then remember that failures are pillars of success (But try not to build only pillars without any hope to ever building the roof).This will give you thrill and the boost to move forward.
Then go for the *nixes. Try to install all variants of linuxs that you can lay hands on (Don't worry they can be downloaded from the net free of cost). Read all the MAN pages religiously. Read all that you can find about UNIX and LINUX (including their fascinating history). Try out hands-on on all that you can on these OS.
This completes the basics of hacking. Do these and remember these three E's
Explore Experiment and Enjoy
You will be a hacker in the true spirit of the word.
Don't worry there will be more on this blog by me. Just be a little more active and post more questions. It will help us both.
Now for anyone to be able to hack into any system will love to know the vulnerability of the OS running on the system. And so must you all(as u are aspiring hackers, right!). So lets start studying about OS in detail.
First and foremost study all there is to study about the basics of OS. The OS's may change but the concepts remain the same more or less.
Then install an earlier version of Windows(98 or 95). Now don't stare at me like that! I know that windows is BAD in terms of security, however it is a hackers heaven. You can try out all ur skills as a practice test here before venturing out. Play up with the OS, tweak the settings,registries and the codes(Did I say codes?). Try everything you can think of don't worry about crashing your system(Windows are meant to crash anyways
). If you worry about failure then remember that failures are pillars of success (But try not to build only pillars without any hope to ever building the roof).This will give you thrill and the boost to move forward.Then go for the *nixes. Try to install all variants of linuxs that you can lay hands on (Don't worry they can be downloaded from the net free of cost). Read all the MAN pages religiously. Read all that you can find about UNIX and LINUX (including their fascinating history). Try out hands-on on all that you can on these OS.
This completes the basics of hacking. Do these and remember these three E's
Explore Experiment and Enjoy
You will be a hacker in the true spirit of the word.
Don't worry there will be more on this blog by me. Just be a little more active and post more questions. It will help us both.
Learn Programming !!
So guys now that we have learnt how to use the net for our benefit,lets move on to the next level.
A hacker knows a number of programming languages.Those are his tools and believe me as there is a different tool for different situations, you will face situations where you find that you have to use a different programming language.
So here are a few languages which you have to have to know :-
i) You must know web designing languages including HTML,XHTML CSS,Javascript, vb script , mysql and php to learn to hack anything involving the internet. Also you may need to build a webpage where you will write about all your exploits. These languages are what you will need then.
ii) Thoroughly learn C or any of its variant(like C#, C++, etc.). By thoroughly I mean that you must be pretty good with programming big projects using this language, not just the "Hello World" stuff.
iii)Learn a scripting language like PERL(this is what I know, love and recommend but who cares for my advice,EH!!) or PYTHON. There are others but I don't know them and how can I recommend anything without first using it.
You will get a lot of good tutorials on the net for these languages. Just go to
Google and search for tutorials. A lot of them will be there choose one that suits your style.
Get source codes from the net(There aren't millions of them floating there, to be frank, but you can find some good ones there). Try to analyse them and tweak them for better output. Play with the codes a lot.
When you think you are ready you can get projects on the net and try to finish them to the end. You will love it when you finish them.
This is the end of todays topics.
Any doubts,questions,suggestions are are welcome.Feel free to express urselves guys.
Happy hacking!!!
A hacker knows a number of programming languages.Those are his tools and believe me as there is a different tool for different situations, you will face situations where you find that you have to use a different programming language.
So here are a few languages which you have to have to know :-
i) You must know web designing languages including HTML,XHTML CSS,Javascript, vb script , mysql and php to learn to hack anything involving the internet. Also you may need to build a webpage where you will write about all your exploits.
These languages are what you will need then.ii) Thoroughly learn C or any of its variant(like C#, C++, etc.). By thoroughly I mean that you must be pretty good with programming big projects using this language, not just the "Hello World" stuff.
iii)Learn a scripting language like PERL(this is what I know, love and recommend but who cares for my advice,EH!!) or PYTHON. There are others but I don't know them and how can I recommend anything without first using it.
You will get a lot of good tutorials on the net for these languages. Just go to
Google and search for
Get source codes from the net(There aren't millions of them floating there, to be frank, but you can find some good ones there). Try to analyse them and tweak them for better output. Play with the codes a lot.
When you think you are ready you can get projects on the net and try to finish them to the end. You will love it when you finish them.
This is the end of todays topics.
Any doubts,questions,suggestions are are welcome.Feel free to express urselves guys.
Happy hacking!!!
How to become a Hacker?
So now that you know what is a hacker, don't you wanna know how to become one.
I will tell you this in a step by step method.
Everyday (or may be in two days,at the most,if I am busy) there will be an article as to how to become a hacker. The topics will be in an increasing order of intensity and interest. So I advice you to read them chronologically.
Now this topic concerns How to start?
This is the most frustrating part.You wanna learn something and there is no one to tell you how to do it.Don't worry I will give you an hint as to how to start. This is based on how I started and how most of "them" start.
Learn to use the Internet
You may have heard that the Net is a vast ocean of knowledge. But howcome you have never found it. Its because you have never ventured into deep waters. Try to do it and use a trustworthy search engine as your helmsman.
I would suggest these two search engines:-
Try to search every thing and look out for new and interesting things which you may have never looked at.
Searching the net for a particular piece of information is like searching for a needle in a hay stack. But don't worry. There are lots of tutorials on the net as to how to search properly. Google for it(this means search for it in Google, try to learn this expression as you will find it very frequently on the various newsgroups and forums).
Join Forums, Newsgroups and Mailing lists
You can learn best in a peer to peer arrangement. So join forums and then search out for people who you think are almost at your level of learning and start sharing with them.
And remember that you are new to the community so don't blabber anything which you are not confident about(Hackers have a very good memory and they don't forgive and forget mistakes).
Now, this is the end of this post. I'll back with some good post tomorrow. Till then happy hacking!!
I will tell you this in a step by step method.
Everyday (or may be in two days,at the most,if I am busy) there will be an article as to how to become a hacker. The topics will be in an increasing order of intensity and interest. So I advice you to read them chronologically.
Now this topic concerns How to start?
This is the most frustrating part.You wanna learn something and there is no one to tell you how to do it.Don't worry I will give you an hint as to how to start. This is based on how I started and how most of "them" start.
Learn to use the Internet
You may have heard that the Net is a vast ocean of knowledge. But howcome you have never found it. Its because you have never ventured into deep waters. Try to do it and use a trustworthy search engine as your helmsman.
I would suggest these two search engines:-
Try to search every thing and look out for new and interesting things which you may have never looked at.
Searching the net for a particular piece of information is like searching for a needle in a hay stack. But don't worry. There are lots of tutorials on the net as to how to search properly. Google for it(this means search for it in Google, try to learn this expression as you will find it very frequently on the various newsgroups and forums).
Join Forums, Newsgroups and Mailing lists
You can learn best in a peer to peer arrangement. So join forums and then search out for people who you think are almost at your level of learning and start sharing with them.
And remember that you are new to the community so don't blabber anything which you are not confident about(Hackers have a very good memory and they don't forgive and forget mistakes).
Now, this is the end of this post. I'll back with some good post tomorrow. Till then happy hacking!!
Who is a Hacker?
You may have sometimes wondered "Who is a Hacker?".
This is a study to tell to exactly what do u mean by a hacker.
Let's start with two of the most famous and trustworthy definitions ever found.
This one is from Wikipedia (More about it later, its a story in itself) :
A hacker is a person who creates and modifies computer software and computer hardware, including computer programming, administration, and security-related items.
In computer programming, a 'hacker' is a programmer who hacks or reaches a goal by employing a series of modifications to exploit or extend existing code or resources.
In computer security, a hacker is a person able to exploit a system or gain unauthorized access through skill and tactics. This usually refers to a black hat hacker. There are also white hats (ethical hackers), and grey hats.
In other technical fields, hacker is extended to mean a person who makes things work beyond perceived limits through their own technical skill,such as a hardware hacker, or reality hacker.
More
This one is from "How To Become A Hacker" Eric Steven Raymond (One of the best place to learn how to be a hacker) :
There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term ‘hacker’. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the Unix operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work. If you are part of this culture, if you have contributed to it and other people in it know who you are and call you a hacker, you're a hacker.
More
I think this would be more than enough for you to know what is a hacker. However as every study has a conclusion I conclude by stating that a hacker is anyone who has got the zeal to pursue knowledge and has got the guts to give it all away. The best example (according to me) being Linus Torvalds.
This is a study to tell to exactly what do u mean by a hacker.
Let's start with two of the most famous and trustworthy definitions ever found.
This one is from Wikipedia (More about it later, its a story in itself) :
A hacker is a person who creates and modifies computer software and computer hardware, including computer programming, administration, and security-related items.
In computer programming, a 'hacker' is a programmer who hacks or reaches a goal by employing a series of modifications to exploit or extend existing code or resources.
In computer security, a hacker is a person able to exploit a system or gain unauthorized access through skill and tactics. This usually refers to a black hat hacker. There are also white hats (ethical hackers), and grey hats.
In other technical fields, hacker is extended to mean a person who makes things work beyond perceived limits through their own technical skill,such as a hardware hacker, or reality hacker.
More
This one is from "How To Become A Hacker" Eric Steven Raymond (One of the best place to learn how to be a hacker) :
There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term ‘hacker’. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the Unix operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work. If you are part of this culture, if you have contributed to it and other people in it know who you are and call you a hacker, you're a hacker.
More
I think this would be more than enough for you to know what is a hacker. However as every study has a conclusion I conclude by stating that a hacker is anyone who has got the zeal to pursue knowledge and has got the guts to give it all away. The best example (according to me) being Linus Torvalds.
