Techno Master's H@ck3r'$ Blog

WEBINAR

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:24:00 +0200

I will be hosting a

WEBINAR!!!

During the webinar we will be discussing a variety of hacking techniques and methods as well as answering your questions.

Dates will be available soon.

Please comment if you will be able to attend the webinar.

(For those of you who do not know, a webinar is an online seminar, basically, you join in with your comuter and have the ability to ask questions and interact)

See you soon.

A Double Tutorial - CSRF & SQL Column Truncation

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:28:00 +0200

So today we have a double tutorial...

We will be looking at 2 new hacking methods:

CSRF (Cross Site Request Forgery)

SQL Column Truncation

To begin we will look at CSRF, now CSRF is basically a hybrid between XSS (Cross Site Scripting) and LFI (Local File Inclusion)

Side Note: We will be looking at those 2 vulnerabilities at a later stage, this technique is very simple and straight forward, so a tutorial on XSS prior to this is not really necessary.

In CSRF, the victim is basically sent to a different page without his knowledge.

Say we have a website with a form that allows us to edit our profile, normally comprising of:

Avatar

Password

Email Address

Interests

Remember, an image stored on a website is always stored on a server and the image is retrieved every time that image loads...

Now say our form is set up with a text box as to where you must insert your server address for your new avatar, you need to instead of giving a server address, insert a script that will allow you to alter details of your profile.

So the first thing you will need to do, after logging in and navigating to the edit profile page, is to view the source code of the edit page.

You will notice that the form action has something similar to
.edit/profile.php
or something to that effect
So to begin with insert that line(the form action) into the avatar text box, next you insert a ?, so the text in the text box will be:
.edit/profile.php?

The question mark is always followed by a parameter and the parameter is whatever we want to edit on the profile, so next you need to view the source code again, and look for the line that allows you to change your password and see what it's name is, remember that as that is our parameter:
.edit/profile.php?password

Now finally, add an "=" afterwards directly followed by what you would like the password to be, for example:
.edit/profile.php?password=hacked

Now, lets imagine that a victim, for example Admin, goes to view your password for some reason, when the victim's browser goes to retrieve the image (the edit page we set) it will execute the edit profile page as the victim which would change whatever information we set it to change as, in this case, the password.

This will edit any user who views your image's information.
Typically, the password access you will gain will be that of a robot or spider, but with that access, you have a very good chance that gaining admin rights will now be relatively easy.

Next up is....

***SQL COLUMN TRUNCATION***

SQL Column Truncation is also a very simple and effective technique that can be used to hack websites.
Basically, SQL Column Truncation gives you the ability to duplicate usernames in an SQL database and therefore giving you access to that user account.

To begin, let us imagine that you have discovered that the admin's username is Admin, now, regardless of the password, you will be able to log in as Admin and also make use of administrative rights, to do this you need to understand a few things first.

An SQL database does not recognize spaces, that is why on many website registrations, your username and password may not contain a space, in SQL, a space is completely ignored, for example:

Hacking is awesome
will be stored as
Hackingisawesome

Also, the database table will have rules set that will determine how many characters may be stored in a cell, if that number is exceeded, the additional characters will be dropped and only the allowed number of characters will be stored, for example:

If the database only allows for 10 characters in the cell, and a user attempts to insert 15 characters, the first 10 will be stored and the last 5 numbers will be dropped, for example:

CookieMonster

will be stored as

CookieMons

"ter" has been dropped as they have exceeded the maximum amount of characters allowed to be stored.

Now, go to register a new account, next you need to view the source of the page, as there is a character limit added onto the SQL database, the web master would have added in HTML code to the username text box a maximum number limit, say you have discovered this to be 10.

In the textbox, insert Admin followed by 5 spaces, as Admin is 5 characters long and adding another 5 spaces will make the username 10 characters in total, the text box will restrict you from adding in any more characters.

Please Note: For the next step I will be using Tamper Data (a firefox add-on), if you would like information on how to do this without using Tamper Data, comment below.

Open Tamper Data and start the tamper, tamper the request that will submit your registration form and then add an x to the end of your "Admin " string, therefore, you will now have this:
Admin x

(The x is there because if it wasn't there, the username would never be passed to the SQL database, because the moment the spaces were removed it would notice the duplicate data - The x can be any other character)

Now when that username is submitted, the entire username will be added to the cell (because of the x it is not equal to admin), but because it is 11 characters, which is too large for the database to handle, according to the rules set by the admin, the database will drop the additional characters, in this case, x.

After the character has been dropped, the database will now remove the spaces and store "Admin" as the final string, but because it is actually "Admin x", the database does not recognize it as Admin.

Finally, log in as Admin with the password you just set at registration and you will find that you are logged in with administrative rights.

--- Final Summary ---

Both these methods will get you admin access, the first thing that you should do after gaining access, should be to go and clear your logs.

Also remember, that when using the CSRF method that the victim WILL discover the password change the next time he attempts to log in, so you will have to log in immediately and attempt to grant yourself admin rights (There are multiple ways to achieve this)

Now, using the SQL column Truncation method, on the other hand, is a lot less likely to be discovered, but still is a possibility, you should also try and grant another one of your accounts admin rights and use your Admin account sparingly, also, you would have a better chance of remaining undiscovered if you clear the logs every time you log in as Admin.

Although, if the administrator were to check or clean the database, your database account may be discovered.

Well I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and please feel free to comment.
Peace Out!!!

Techno Master

Calling ALL Hackers

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:48:00 +0200

So, I know its been a really long time since my last post, but I have been really busy with exams and travelling and my website and starting my business etc...

Anyway, I am thinking about having a LEGAL hacking competition, all those who are interested please let me know by commenting on this post, details will follow according to the interest levels

Post again soon guys

JavaScript Injections

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Mon, 7 Nov 2011 22:34:00 +0200

JavaScript Injections

Ok, sorry it took so long to post this guys, but it's really difficult to balance college, work, running a blog, etc. Anyway, today we will discuss JavaScript injections and then also poisonous cookies.

Injection Basics

JavaScript injections are run from the URL bar of the page you are visiting. To use them you must first completely empty the URL from the URL bar. That means no http:// or whatever.

JavaScript is run from the URL bar using the javascript: protocol. I will only be showing you the basics of this, but if you already know javascript, you can expand on this using plain old javascript.

The two commands covered in this blog post are the alert(); and the void(); commands. These are pretty much all you will need in most situations. For your first JavaScript, you will make a simple window appear, first go to any website and then type the following into your URL bar:
javascript:alert('Hello, World');
You should get a little diagram box that says "Hello, World". This will be altered later to have more practical uses.

You can also have more than one command run at the same time:
javascript:alert('Hello'); alert('World');
This would pop up a box that said "Hello" and then another that says "World".

Cookie Editing

First off, check to see if the site you are visiting has set any cookies by using this script:
javascript:alert(document.cookie);
This will pop up any information stored in the site's cookies. To edit any information, we make use of the void(); command:
javascript:void(document.cookie="Field = myValue");
This command can either alter existing information or create entirely new values. Replace "Field" with either an existing field found using the alert(document.cookie); command, or insert your very own value. Then replace "myValue" with whatever you want the field to be. For example:
javascript:void(document.cookie="Authorized=yes");
Would either make the field "Authorized" or edit it to say "yes"... now whether or not this does anything of value depends on the site you are injecting it into.

Now its time for some...

Cookie Poisoning

A poisonous cookie is a user - edited cookie poisoned to perform a malicious attack. You can poison cookies with various different methods, e.g, scripts, SQL injections .

Here I will show you an example using SQL injections:

javascript:void(document.cookie="pass=' or 1=1--");

This will bypass login and you will either see a list of usernames or log in.

Thanks

Hope you enjoyed this article

Techno Master

Combining Files

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:00:00 +0200

Combining Files

Today I will show you how to combine files together using the Command Prompt, this can be very useful for hacking sites that are vulnerable to LFI(Local File Intrusion).

Firstly we will need to create documents to combine together:

(Note: These files are just example files, the files can be anything you want)

Firstly I will create an image file named: picture.jpg

Secondly, I will create a text file named: test.txt

Lastly, I will create a rar file named: combination.rar

Ok, next, create a folder and store all files to be combined in this folder

C:\Combine

Next step is to open Command Prompt

(Click Start, Run, type 'cmd' or 'command' - without the quotes', click enter)

Once in command prompt, go to the file where your files are stored

cd C:\Combine

You will now see the directory on display

C:\Combine>

Next, type copy /b

(The /b ensures the files are copied as binary files)

Type in, without the quotes, the following:

copy /b picture.jpg + test.txt + combination.rar newfile.jpg

press enter

The last file name is the name of the new file with combined files, you can chose this name

If you view this file normally, you will see a standard image, using the open with command to view the file using the appropriate program will reveal the hidden files.

Hope you enjoyed this

Peace Out

Techno Master

SQL Injection Attack - A Step-by-step video tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 12:17:00 +0200

Ok guys, continuing off of yesterday's blog of the SQL attack, we now have a step-by-step video tutorial, we are using the same methods and site as in the previous, this will just give you a better understanding of what is happening. Enjoy and don't forget to comment.

Important Sites:

Download vulnerable web environment:
http://www.securityoverride.com/infusions/pro_download_panel/download.php?did=33

SQL Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:02:00 +0200

*Only sites which users have the rights to or have been given special permission may be hacked, I accept no responsibility and can not be accountable for any illegal acts that take place in conjunction with the information on this blog*

So as I said, today's blog will be about SQL Attacks - I will be using a site created by CrashOverron setup on my localhost, to download the files to use the site, visit:

http://securityoverride.com/infusions/pro_download_panel/download.php?did=33

Ok, so I will be giving a step-by-step guide with screen shots(video will be uploaded tomorrow)

Step 1: Discover a website that utilize an SQL database

Here is a site with an SQL database

Step 2: Test the site for vulnerabilities

You start by typing in a logical statement at the end of the URL:
http://localhost/fake/index.php?page=products&id=1%20and%201=1--

As you will see in the screenshot below, the page has not changed compared to the original screen

Next, we will type an illogical statement at the end of the URL:
http://localhost/fake/index.php?page=products&id=1%20and%201=0--

As you will now see, there has been quite a drastic change to the page. This confirms that there is definitely a SQL vulnerability on this website.

Step 3: Find total number of columns

Next, we need to discover how many columns the SQL table has. To determine this, we use the ORDER BY command, by adding ORDER BY n (where n represents a number) we can determine how many columns there are

If there is no error then increase n by 1, continue to do so until you receive an error

Once you have received an error, take n - 1 = x

x = number of columns in the SQL table

(There is a possibility that there may be many many columns, if that is the case change your increment from 1 to 10, for example, until you can determine the exact number of columns)

Step 4: Display table names

You will now need to display all the table names so you can choose which table to use, firstly change 'id=1' to 'id=-1', we do this because there is no data in the array position, then add this to the URL:
union select 1,2,3,4 from information_schema.tables--

Union is basically the command that alerts the SQL tables it is needed
Select is the command to select certain information
1,2,3,4 is the amount of columns we have (all numbers MUST be entered)
from is telling the SQL database where to collect information from
information_schema is the MySQL master tool
.tables tells the information_schema that we are going to be interacting with tables
-- all SQL commands will need to end with double dash

so, no that we have that, you should see something similar to:

Now the numbers on screen are the only numbers you may edit, chose one and stick with it, in our case we will chose 2.

Now, substitute the number you chose for 'table_name' (without the quotes)

union select 1,table_name,3,4 from information_schema.tables--

you should now see a list of table names, scroll down until you see the tables you are dealing with(you should be able to work out which are human created tables):

So now we have two table names:

users
products

We will now be using the users table as this will obviously have user information in and more than likely passwords

Step 5: Display column names

Now that we know what table_name we want, we can start working on column name, column names are just as easily retrieved, just add
union select 1,column_name,3,4 from information_schema.columns--
after the 'id=-1'

Here we have substituted our chosen number, in our case 2, with column_name and changed information_schema.tables to information_schema.columns.

Now you will see a list of column names, unfortunately, it is for the wrong table

Not to worry, just add in the WHERE clause, the WHERE clause tells the SQL database which source to take data from

union select 1,column_name,3,4 from information_schema.columns where table_name='users'--

we add 'where table_name='users'--' to the URL, this tell the query to pull data from the table with the table_name users

and we should get something similar to :

Some sites have magic quotes set up, in that case adding "table_name='users'--" will not work because the site will not allow the addition of quotes, in those cases we use the char() command, in the char() command just put the ASCII value of the table name as CSV(Comma Separated Values) between the brackets - this will be discussed more in the video -

Step 6: Reaping your rewards

Now it is finally time for you to be rewarded for all your hard work, there are two ways to do this next step, the quick way and the long way, first I will show you the long way as to ensure you understand what we are actually doing...

Substitute a column name with column_name, for example,

union select 1,user,3,4 from users--

you no longer need the information_schema command as the query is already running from the users table, we will now see a list of users

Now do the same for passwords, but substitute column_name with 'pass'

union select 1,pass,3,4 from users--

You will now see a list of passwords,

Use the user name from the first request, along with the password from the second request to log in.

The short method is to use the concat() command, in the concat() command, you request more than one column at a time - more details in video -

union select 1,concat(user,0x3A,pass),3,4 from users--

You can keep adding as much information as you need either by concatenating or by asking for each individually

(0x3A is the hex value for a colon :)

this will display as:
user: password

Remember the user name and passwords and proceed to login screen.

Step 8: Logging in

Ok, so I have shown you how to collect usernames and password and other information, now you need to log in,

Take note of a username and password and proceed to login screen

You will now be logged in as that user having full access to this account as if you were the account owner

Hope my tutorial was well understood, if you have any question or other input please comment.

A video of the SQL attackhas been created and will be uploaded as soon as the editing has been completed.

Thanks for checking out my blog and thanks again to CrashOverron for the website

See ya

Techno Master

The Hacker Manifesto and some hack related jokes

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:40:00 +0200

The Hacker Manifesto
by
+++The Mentor+++
Written January 8, 1986

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...

Damn kids. They're all alike.

But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?

I am a hacker, enter my world...

Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...

Damn underachiever. They're all alike.

I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."

Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...

Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.

And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...

Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

Now some hacking jokes:

Q: How many hackers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Zero. Nobody knew they were there.

Q: Why do computer scientists make such lousy lovers?
A: Cause they always want to do the job faster than before. And when they do, they say the performance has improved.

If only software dealers were as fastidious as restaurants.
A restaurant will give me the food for free if I find one bug in it.

PROGRAMMER'S DRINKING SONG 

                 100 little bugs in the code, 
                 100 bugs in the code, 

fix one bug, compile it again, 
                 101 little bugs in the code. 

101 little bugs in the code..... 

Repeat until BUGS = 0

If architects had to work like programmers

Dear Mr. Architect:

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion.

My house should have between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.

Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct all the deficiencies that exist in my current house (the floor of my kitchen vibrates when I walk across it, and the walls don't have nearly enough insulation in them).

As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of extra-cost features like aluminum, vinyl, or composite siding. (If you choose not to specify aluminum, be prepared to explain your decision in detail.)

Please take care that modern design practices and the latest materials are used in construction of the house, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. Be alerted, however, that kitchen should be designed to accommodate, among other things, my 1952 Gibson refrigerator.

To insure that you are building the correct house for our entire family, make certain that you contact each of our children, and also our in-laws. My mother-in-law will have very strong feelings about how the house should be designed, since she visits us at least once a year. Make sure that you weigh all of thses options carefully and come to the right decision. I, however, retain the right to overrule any choices that you make.

Please don't bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house: get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpet. However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers. Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the population in my area that they like the features this house has.

I advise you to run up and look at my neighbor's house he constructed last year. We like it a great deal. It has many features that we would also like in our new home, particularily the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the final cost.

Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.

You must be thrilled to be working on as an interesting project as this! To be able to use the latest techniques and materials and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can't happen very often. Contact me as soon as possible with your complete ideas and plans.

PS: My wife has just told me that she disagrees with many of the instructions I've given you in this letter. As architect, it is your responsibility to resolve these differences. I have tried in the past and have been unable to accomplish this. If you can't handle this responsibility, I will have to find another architect.

PPS: Perhaps what I need is not a house at all, but a travel trailer. Please advise me as soon as possible if this is the case.

The top ten signs that your co-worker is a computer hacker

10. You ticked him off once and your next phone bill was $20,000.

9. He's won the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes three years running.

8. When asked for his phone number, he gives it in hex.

7. Seems strangely calm whenever the office LAN goes down.

6. Somehow he/she gets HBO on his PC at work.

5. Mumbled, "Oh, puh-leeez" 95 times during the movie "The Net"

4. Massive RRSP contribution made in half-cent increments.

3. Video dating profile lists "public-key encryption" among turn-ons

2. When his computer starts up, you hear, "Good Morning, Mr. President."

1. You hear him murmur, "Let's see you use that Visa card now, jerk."

NEW VIRUSES:
GOVERNMENT ECONOMIST VIRUS: Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine.
NEW WORLD ORDER VIRUS: Probably harmless, but it makes a lot of people mad just thinking about it.
FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT VIRUS: Divides your hard drive into hundreds of little units, each of which do practically nothing, but all of which claim to be the most important part of the computer.
PAUL REVERE VIRUS: This revolutionary virus does not horse around. It warns you of impending hard disk attack---once by LAN. Twice if by C:.
POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS: Never calls itself a "virus," but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism."
RIGHT TO LIFE VIRUS: Won't allow you to delete a file, regardless of how old it is. If you attempt to erase a file, it requires you to first see a counselor about possible alternatives.
ROSS PEROT VIRUS: Activates every component in your system, just before the whole thing quits.
MARIO CUOMO VIRUS: It would be a great virus, but it refuses to run.
OPRAH WINFREY VIRUS: Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands back to 200MB.
AT&T VIRUS: Every three minutes it tells you what great service you are getting.
THE MCI VIRUS: Every three minutes it reminds you that you are paying too much for the AT&T virus.
TED TURNER VIRUS: Colorizes your monochrome monitor.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENNEGGER VIRUS: Terminates and stays resident. It'll be back.
DAN QUAYLE VIRUS: Prevents you system from spawning and child processes without joining into a binary network.
GALLUP VIRUS: Sixy percent of the PCs infected will lose 38 percent of their data 14 percent of the time (plus or minus a 3.5 percent margin of error).=<

Car break trouble

A Software Engineer, a Hardware Engineer and a Branch Manager were on their way to a meeting. They were driving down a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes on their car failed. The car careened almost out of control down the road, bouncing off the crash barriers, until it miraculously ground to a halt scraping along the mountainside. The car's occupants, shaken but unhurt, now had a problem: they were stuck halfway down a mountain in a car with no brakes. What were they to do?

"I know," said the Branch Manager, "Let's have a meeting, propose a Vision, formulate a Mission Statement, define some Goals, and by a process of Continuous Improvement find a solution to the Critical Problems, and we can be on our way."

"No, no," said the Hardware Engineer, "That will take far too long, and besides, that method has never worked before. I've got my Swiss Army knife with me, and in no time at all I can strip down the car's braking system, isolate the fault, fix it, and we can be on our way."

"Well," said the Software Engineer, "Before we do anything, I think we should push the car back up the road and see if it happens again."

I have a Microsoft waiter

Patron: Waiter!

Waiter: Hi, my name is Bill, and I'll be your Support Waiter. What seems to be the problem?

Patron: There's a fly in my soup!

Waiter: Try again, maybe the fly won't be there this time.

Patron: No, it's still there.

Waiter: Maybe it's the way you're using the soup; try eating it with a fork instead.

Patron: Even when I use the fork, the fly is still there.

Waiter: Maybe the soup is incompatible with the bowl; what kind of bowl are you using?

Patron: A SOUP bowl!

Waiter: Hmmm, that should work. Maybe it's a configuration problem; how was the bowl set up?

Patron: You brought it to me on a saucer; what has that to do with the fly in my soup?!

Waiter: Can you remember everything you did before you noticed the fly in your soup?

Patron: I sat down and ordered the Soup of the Day!

Waiter: Have you considered upgrading to the latest Soup of the Day?

Patron: You have more than one Soup of the Day each day?

Waiter: Yes, the Soup of the Day is changed every hour.

Patron: Well, what is the Soup of the Day now?

Waiter: The current Soup of the Day is tomato.

Patron: Fine. Bring me the tomato soup, and the check. I'm running late now.

[Waiter leaves and returns with another bowl of soup and the check]

Waiter: Here you are, Sir. The soup and your check.

Patron: This is potato soup.

Waiter: Yes, the tomato soup wasn't ready yet.

Patron: Well, I'm so hungry now, I'll eat anything.

[The waiter leaves.]

Patron: Waiter! There's a gnat in my soup!

The check: 
Soup of the Day . . . . . . . . . . $5.00 
Upgrade to newer Soup of the Day. . $2.50 
Access to support . . . . . . . . . $1.00

Ok so thats it for today's blog guys, hope you enjoyed this less serious blog -- Coming up SQL Attacks

Check You L8r

Techno Master

Feel free to comment...

Questions people have always wanted to ask, but didn't know who to ask

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:13:00 +0200

The answer to the age-old question: What is the difference between a hacker and a cracker?

A hacker is a person intensely interested in the arcane and recondite workings of any computer operating system. Most often, hackers are programmers. As such, hackers obtain advanced knowledge of operating systems and programming languages. They may know of holes within systems and the reasons for such holes. Hackers constantly seek further knowledge, freely share what they have discovered, and never, ever intentionally damage data.

A cracker is a person who breaks into or otherwise violates the system integrity of remote machines, with malicious intent. Crackers, having gained unauthorized access, destroy vital data, deny legitimate users service, or basically cause problems for their targets. Crackers can easily be identified because their actions are malicious.
(Special thanks to http://newdata.box.sk/bx/hacker/ch03/ch03.htm for the definitions)

Different types of hackers:

Black Hat:

Black hat is used to describe a hacker (or, if you prefer, cracker) who breaks into a computer system or network with malicious intent. Unlike a white hat hacker, the black hat hacker takes advantage of the break-in, perhaps destroying files or stealing data for some future purpose. The black hat hacker may also make the exploit known to other hackers and/or the public without notifying the victim. This gives others the opportunity to exploit the vulnerability before the organization is able to secure it.
The term comes from old Western movies, where heroes often wore white hats and the "bad guys" wore black hats.

White Hat:
White hat describes a hacker (or, if you prefer, cracker) who identifies a security weakness in a computer system or network but, instead of taking malicious advantage of it, exposes the weakness in a way that will allow the system's owners to fix the breach before it can be taken advantage by others (such as black hat hackers.) Methods of telling the owners about it range from a simple phone call through sending an e-mail note to a Webmaster or administrator all the way to leaving an electronic "calling card" in the system that makes it obvious that security has been breached.
While white hat hacking is a hobby for some, others provide their services for a fee. Thus, a white hat hacker may work as a consultant or be a permanent employee on a company's payroll. A good many white hat hackers are former black hat hackers.
The term comes from old Western movies, where heros often wore white hats and the "bad guys" wore black hats.

Grey Hat:
Gray hat describes a cracker (or, if you prefer, hacker) who exploits a security weakness in a computer system or product in order to bring the weakness to the attention of the owners. Unlike a black hat, a gray hat acts without malicious intent. The goal of a gray hat is to improve system and network security. However, by publicizing a vulnerability, the gray hat may give other crackers the opportunity to exploit it. This differs from the white hat who alerts system owners and vendors of a vulnerability without actually exploiting it in public.
(Special thanks to http://www.whatis.com )

Famous Hackers:

Black Hats:

Jonathan James
Adrian Lamo
Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Poulsen
Robert Tappan Morris
Vladimir Levin
Donald Lloyd
David Smith
Michael Calce
Mark Abene

White Hats:

Stephen Wozniak
Tim Berners-Lee
Linus Torvalds
Richard Stallman
Tsutomu Shimomura

That's all for now

Hope you enjoyed today's blog

Techno Master

A brief overview of hacking - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:28:00 +0200

Ok, so let's begin the second part of our hacking overview. There are many different methods of hacking, many different people who hack and many different reasons for the hacks. We are firstly going to look at common methods of hacking.

First, there are many different ways to hack and get access to secure information, some may be simpler than others, but generally, they can all be just as successful and useful as all the others, about 99.999999999% of the time you will HAVE to combine more than one of these methods during a hacking session to successfully complete the hack.

SQL Attacks

An SQL attack is the method where a hacker will breach the login form by accessing the data in the SQL database of the website, and searching through row and column names, will eventually discover a user password, preferably an Admin password. This method is more commonly used with the Information_Schema command, but it all depends how the webmaster has the set up his login site.

LFI / RFI

An LFI or RFI (Local File Intrusion / Remote File Intrusion) is when a hacker locally or remotely adds a dangerous script into a server, website, etc and therefore gains control to login info, sensitive info, access to all files, etc.

Social Engineering

Social Engineering is all about making other people give you the information you need, normally, a hacker will phone in posing as a employee who has forgotten his login details or needing confidential information immediately, he then gets the other person to give him the information, allowing the hacker access on to the system. Social engineering has become increasingly popular as it saves time and resources.

Brute-Force

Brute force is a method of password cracking, when a hacker does a brute force attack, he runs a program that tests multiple passwords and encryption types until the password has been cracked. The problem with brute force is the amount of combinations available and the amount of time it can potentially require to crack the encryption.

Rainbow Cracking

Rainbow cracking uses rainbow tables to crack passwords, rainbow tables are lists of code with every available combination of a certain encryption, rainbow cracking is much quicker and effective, although creating your own tables is very time consuming and rainbow table files are very large files. You can purchase rainbow tables online as well.

Dictionary Crack

Dictionary crack is used when the hacker at least knows that the password is an actual existing word, the hacker then runs a program which tests a whole list of words in reference to the password, if the password is an actual word, this is a very quick and effective method.

There are many many more methods and I will go into most of them in more detail in later blogs, but here are a few common methods.

Another quick add-in before I end off today's post is anonymity, anonymity is making sure nobody knows who you are, this is very important in the hacking world as hacking is illegal, if you are an expert, you can build scripts to delete the log files, but there are multiple problems to this approach, the best method is to not even be logged on the site, to stay anonymous, you can hack through a proxy server, hiding your actual IP, this method works great if you understand which proxy servers you should be using. The next best thing is to use the TOR web browser, TOR is an anonymous web browser, which disguises your true IP address and also does not allow sites to store cookies or other personal information.

To get TOR visit:
https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en

Thanks.

Techno Master

A brief overview of hacking - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Lemuel Botha) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:10:00 +0200

So to start off I will start by giving an overview of what hacking is, the oxford dictionary defines a hacker as: ' a person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data. informal - an enthusiastic and skillful computer programmer or user.' The rest of the world probably has a total different thought about the subject, but do people actually realise all the good hackers do for the rest of humanity...No, the world just looks at the 'evils' of hackers, although most hackers have never done a single malicious hack. A hacker is just a person who has found a world where he/she can just be themselves, hackers respect each other irrespective of race, gender, status, nationality, etc. we are all equals, and will all help one another when we are struggling.

Lets look at all the good hackers have done for the rest of humankind:

Hackers debug software before other internet users download it, therefore creating a more stable computing environment
Hackers delete companies' spam lists, stopping even more spam swamping your inbox
Hackers also help stop viruses from swarming the internet
Hackers also help debug most of your favourite websites

Infact most of the sites you visit daily were created by a hacker or a group of hackers, Facebook was developed by a very talented hacker named Mark Zuckerberg, Google was created by 2 hackers named Sergey Brin and Larry Page, there are many more - you can go and research them if you would like.

So there is the end of part 1, part 2 soon to follow.

Peace Out

Techno Master