Techno Hackers

Blocking Intruders From Using SSH

2012-01-24T17:56:00.002+06:00

There are number of ways through which you can achieve this:

Usually you don't need a SSH access from outside your network, so closing the SSH port (22) in your router. Thus now no one can access your system via SSH.

Or else you could use programs(OR)softwares like Fail2Ban or DenyHosts. These watches your logs for repeated failed login attempts from the same IP address, then adds that IP address to your firewall rules to block any further contact from there.

Thirdly, usually hackers assume that SSH generally runs on the default port 22, change it to some random number by editing /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change the listen directive to:

Listen 32145 (just an example)

now restart sshd using the command service sshd restart. The only disadvantage of implementing this step is that you have to specify the new port no. everytime you need to connect using SSH, but you can use an alias to take care of that:

alias newssh ssh -p 32145 (just an example)

Extend the Windows 7 Trial from 30 to 120 Days

2011-09-22T09:20:00.001+06:00

Now to perform the hack to extend the windows 7 trial mode follow the steps below:

You’ll have to find Command Prompt in the start menu (or search for it), and then right-click on it and choose Run as administrator. (very important)

Now simply type in this command

slmgr -rearm

Within a few seconds you’ll see this dialog box show up, saying that the command has completed successfully, at which point you’ll have to reboot your system.

Now after reboot, check your system properties again (you can check this by right clicking on My Computer and go to properties), you will be amazed to see this your activation period has again come back to 30 days.

ENJOY!!!

How to change root password IN linux without knowing it?

2011-09-19T10:49:00.001+06:00

I provide this information solely for educational purpose, any misuse of this article in any case will not be my fault and responsibility. Thus, dear friends use it for good.

Steps are as follows:
1) Startup your linux machine.
2) In the GRUB Screen, press "e" for edit.
3) After pressing "e" you will be prompted with three lines. Which shows the current disk in use for booting the system, the run level in which the system will boot, etc.
4) Now highlight the second line and again press "e".
5) You will able to edit that line, now at the end of that line type "1" (or) "single"
6) After typing "1" (or) "single" press "b" for boot. This will boot the system in single user mode. In linux single user mode usually doesn't require password for login.
7) After booting the system in single user mode, in the console or terminal type "passwd", which will ask you for setting the new password for root, change the password and login again as usual.

[ROOT PASSWORD IS CHANGED SUCCESSFULLY, ENJOY!!!!]

How to create a file without a name

2011-04-10T01:18:00.002+06:00

This trick will allow you to create files and folders without any name.
Just follow the steps as given below :-
1) Select any file or folder.
2) Right click on it, select 'Rename' or simply press 'F2'.
3) Press and hold the 'Alt' key. While holding the Alt key, type numbers '0160' from the numpad.
NOTE:Type the numbers '0160' from the numpad, that is, the numbers present on the right side of the keyboard. Don’t type the numbers which are present on top of the character keys.

4) Press Enter and the nameless file or folder will be created.
Reason : The file or folder that seems nameless is actually named with a single space.
But what if you want to create another nameless file or folder in the same directory ?
For this you will have to rename the file with 2 spaces.
Just follow the steps given below :-
1) Select file, Press 'F2'.
2) Hold 'Alt' key and type '0160' from the numpad.
3) Release the 'Alt' key. Now without doing anything else, again hold 'Alt' key and type '0160'.
4) Press 'Enter' and you will have second nameless file in the same directory.
5) Repeat step 3 to create as many nameless files or folders in the same directory.
(We have a problem with deleting these folders, to do so, start your computer in 'Safe Mode' and delete it from there.)

Delete AN "Undeletable" File

2011-04-06T23:16:00.004+06:00

STEPS:

1) Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open.

2) Close all open programs.

3) Click Start, Run and enter TASKMGR.EXE

4) Go to the Processes tab and End Process on Explorer.exe.

5) Leave Task Manager open.

6) Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory the AVI (or other undeletable file) is located in.

7) At the command prompt type DEL where is the file you wish to delete.

8) Go back to Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the GUI shell.

9) Close Task Manager.

Or you can try this

1) Open Notepad.exe

2) Click File>Save As..>

3) Locate the folder where ur undeletable file is

4) Choose 'All files' from the file type box

5) Click once on the file u wanna delete so its name appears in the 'filename' box

6) put a " at the start and end of the filename

(the filename should have the extension of the undeletable file so it will overwrite it)

7) click save,

8) It should ask u to overwrite the existing file, choose yes and u can delete it as normal

Here's a manual way of doing it. I'll take this off once you put into your first post gain.

1. Start

2. Run

3. Type: command

4. To move into a directory type: cd c:\*** (The stars stand for your folder)

5. If you cannot access the folder because it has spaces for example Program Files or Kazaa Lite folder you have to do the following. instead of typing in the full folder name only take the first 6 letters then put a ~ and then 1 without spaces. Example: cd c:\progra~1\kazaal~1

6. Once your in the folder the non-deletable file it in type in dir - a list will come up with everything inside.

7. Now to delete the file type in del ***.bmp, txt, jpg, avi, etc... And if the file name has spaces you would use the special 1st 6 letters followed by a ~ and a 1 rule. Example: if your file name was bad file.bmp you would type once in the specific folder thorugh command, del badfil~1.bmp and your file should be gone. Make sure to type in the correct extension.

Change the Default Location for Installing Applications/Softwares

2011-04-06T15:41:00.005+06:00

As the size of hard drives increase, more people are using partitions to separate and store groups of files.

Windows uses the C:\Program Files directory as the default base directory into which new programs are installed. However, you can change the default installation drive or directory by using a Registry hack.

Go to:-

1) Start > Run

2) Type regedit

3) Go to this directory
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

4) Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir by default, this value will be C:\Program Files. Edit the value to any valid drive or folder and windows will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs.

How to block website without using any software?

2011-04-05T13:36:00.001+06:00

Steps:

1] Browse C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

2] Find the file named "HOSTS"

3] Open it in notepad

4] Under "127.0.0.1 localhost" Add 127.0.0.2 www.sitenameyouwantblocked.com and that site will no longer be accessable.

5] Done!

-So-

127.0.0.1 localhost

127.0.0.2 www.blockedsite.com

-->www.blockedsite.com is now unaccessable<--

For every site after that you want to add, just add "1" to the last number in the internal ip (127.0.0.2) and then the add like before.

Example:

IE: 127.0.0.3 www.blablabla.com

127.0.0.4 www.blablabla.com

127.0.0.5 www.blablabla.com

How to change text on XP start button

2011-04-05T01:54:00.000+06:00

Step 1 - Modify Explorer.exe File

In order to make the changes, the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows needs to be edited. Since explorer.exe is a binary file it requires a special editor. For purposes of this article I have used Resource Hacker. Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems.

Download it from the link below:

Download Resource Hack Now

The first step is to make a backup copy of the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer. Place it in a folder somewhere on your hard drive where it will be safe. Start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at

C:\Windows\explorer.exe.

The category we are going to be using is "String Table". Expand it by clicking the plus sign then navigate down to and expand string 37 followed by highlighting 1033. If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38. The right hand pane will display the stringtable. We’re going to modify item 578, currently showing the word “start” just as it displays on the current Start button.

There is no magic here. Just double click on the word “start” so that it’s highlighted, making sure the quotation marks are not part of the highlight. They need to remain in place, surrounding the new text that you’ll type. Go ahead and type your new entry. In my case I used Click Me!

You’ll notice that after the new text string has been entered the Compile Script button that was grayed out is now active. I won’t get into what’s involved in compiling a script, but suffice it to say it’s going to make this exercise worthwhile. Click Compile Script and then save the altered file using the Save As command on the File Menu. Do not use the Save command – Make sure to use the Save As command and choose a name for the file. Save the newly named file to C:\Windows.

Step 2 – Modify the Registry

!!!make a backup of your registry before making changes!!!

Now that the modified explorer.exe has been created it’s necessary to modify the registry so the file will be recognized when the user logs on to the system. If you don’t know how to access the registry I’m not sure this article is for you, but just in case it’s a temporary memory lapse, go to Start (soon to be something else) Run and type regedit in the Open field. Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon

In the right pane, double click the "Shell" entry to open the Edit String dialog box. In Value data: line, enter the name that was used to save the modified explorer.exe file. Click OK.

Close Registry Editor and either log off the system and log back in, or reboot the entire system if that’s your preference. If all went as planned you should see your new Start button with the revised text.

What is Hacktivism?

2011-04-05T00:41:00.000+06:00

Hacktivism refers to hacking for a cause. These hackers usually have a social or political agenda. Their intent is to send a message through their hacking activity while gaining visibility for their cause and themselves.

Many of these hackers participate in activities such as defacing websites, creating viruses, DoS, or other disruptive attacks to gain notoriety for their cause. Hacktivisim commonly targets government agencies, political groups, and any other entities these groups or individuals perceive as “bad” or “wrong”.

Phases of Malicious Hacking

2011-04-04T23:46:00.000+06:00

Attackers use to follow a fixed methodology for breaking into a system. For understanding the methodology taken by a hacker, firstly, we need to understand the anatomy of an attack for taking countermeasures on that. The Steps a hacker follows can be broadly divided into five phases, which include pre-attack and attack phases. The five phases are:

1) Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the firstly preparatory phase where an attacker makes a systematic attempt to locate, gather, identify, and record information about the target of evaluation prior to launching an attack. It involves network scanning either external or internal without authorization. Here, hackers use to find out as much information as possible about the victim. There are two categories of reconnaissance techniques which consist of active and passive reconnaissance.
Passive reconnaissance involves gathering information regarding a potential target without the targeted individual’s or company’s knowledge. Passive reconnaissance can be as simple as watching a building to identify what time employees enter the building and when they leave. However, it’s usually done using Internet searches or by Googling an individual or company to gain information. This process is generally called information gathering methods.
Sniffing the network is another means of passive reconnaissance and can yield useful information such as IP address ranges, naming conventions, hidden servers or networks, and other available services on the system or network. Sniffing network traffic is similar to building monitoring: A hacker watches the flow of data to see what time certain transactions take place and where the traffic is going.
Active reconnaissance involves probing the network to discover individual hosts, IP addresses, and services on the network. This usually involves more risk of detection than passive reconnaissance and is sometimes called rattling the doorknobs. Active reconnaissance can give a hacker an indication of security measures in place, but the process also increases the chance of being caught or at least raising suspicion.
Both Passive and Active reconnaissance can lead to the discovery of useful information to use in an attack. For example, it’s usually easy to find the type of web server and the operating system (OS) version number that a company is using. This information may enable a hacker to find vulnerability in that OS version and exploit the vulnerability to gain more access.

2) Scanning
Scanning involves taking the information discovered during reconnaissance and using it to examine the network. Tools that a hacker may employ during the scanning phase can include dialers, port scanners, network mappers, sweepers, and vulnerability scanners. Hackers are seeking any information that can help them perpetrate attack such as computer names, IP addresses and user accounts.

3) Gaining Access
This is the phase where the real hacking takes place. Vulnerabilities discovered during the reconnaissance and scanning phase are now exploited to gain access. The method of connection the hacker uses for an exploit can be local area network (LAN, either wired or wireless), local access to a PC, the Internet, or offline. Examples include stack-based buffer overflows, denial of service (DOS), and session hijacking. These topics will be discussed in later posts. Gaining access is known in the hacker world as owning the system.

4) Maintaining Access
Once a hacker has gained access, they want to keep that access for future exploitation and attacks. Sometimes, hackers harden the system from other hackers or security personnel by securing their exclusive access with backdoors, rootkits, and Trojans. Once the hacker owns the system, they can use it as a base to launch additional attacks. In this case, the owned system is sometimes referred to as zombie system.

5) Covering Tracks
Once hackers have been able to gain and maintain access, they cover their tracks to avoid detection by security personnel, to continue to use the owned system, to remove evidence of hacking, or to avoid legal action. Hackers try to remove all traces of the attack, such as log files or intrusion detection system (IDS) alarms. Examples of activities during this phase of the attack include steganography, the use of tunneling protocols, and altering log files. Steganography and use of tunneling for purposes of hacking will be discussed in later posts.

Types of Hackers

2011-04-02T00:57:00.000+06:00

Hackers can be broadly classified on the basis of why they are hacking system or why the are indulging hacking. There are mainly three types of hacker on this basis

● Black-Hat Hacker

A black hat hackers are individuals with extraordinary computing skills, resorting to malicious or destructive activities. That is black hat hackers use their knowledge and skill for their own personal gains probably by hurting others. These black hat hackers are also known as crackers.

● White-Hat Hacker

White hat hackers are those individuals professing hacker skills and using them for defensive purposes. This means that the white hat hackers use their knowledge and skill for the good of others and for the common good. These white hat hackers are also called as security analysts.

● Grey-Hat Hackers

These are individuals who work both offensively and defensively at various times. We cannot predict their behavior. Sometimes they use their skills for the common good while in some other times he uses them for their personal gains.

Introduction to Ethical Hacking

2011-04-01T02:30:00.000+06:00

Ethical Hacking is the science of testing computers and networks for security vulnerabilities and plugging the holes you find before the crackers (Bad guys) get a chance to exploit them. Computers are vulnerable to many types of threats that can inflict various types of damage resulting in significant losses.

Hacker can be defined as the person who maliciously breaks into systems for personal gain. Technically, these criminals are crackers i.e criminal hackers. Crackers break into systems with malicious intent. They are out for personal gain, fame, profit and even revenge. They modify, delete, and steal critical information, often making the other person miserable.