What is Hacking? Introduction & Types

What is Hacking? Introduction & Types

  June 17, 2018    Unknown

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What is Hacking? Introduction & Types

 What is Hacking?

Hacking is identifying weakness in computer systems or networks to exploit its weaknesses to gain access. Example of Hacking: Using password cracking algorithm to gain access to a system

Computers have become mandatory to run a successful businesses. It is not enough to have isolated computers systems; they need to be networked to facilitate communication with external businesses. This exposes them to the outside world and hacking. Hacking means using computers to commit fraudulent acts such as fraud, privacy invasion, stealing corporate/personal data, etc. Cyber crimes cost many organizations millions of dollars every year. Businesses need to protect themselves against such attacks.

Who is a Hacker? Types of Hackers

A Hacker is a person who finds and exploits the weakness in computer systems and/or networks to gain access. Hackers are usually skilled computer programmers with knowledge of computer security.

TYPES OF HACKER

Hackers are classified according to the intent of their actions. The following list classifies hackers according to their intent.

Ethical Hacker (White hat):

 A hacker who gains access to systems with a view to fix the identified weaknesses. They may also perform penetration testing and vulnerability assessments.

Cracker (Black hat):

 A hacker who gains unauthorized access to computer systems for personal gain. The intent is usually to steal corporate data, violate privacy rights, transfer funds from bank accounts etc.

Grey hat:

  A hacker who is in between ethical and black hat hackers. He/she breaks into computer systems without authority with a view to identify weaknesses and reveal them to the system owner.

Script kiddies:

  A non-skilled person who gains access to computer systems using already made tools.

Hacktivist: 

 A hacker who use hacking to send social, religious, and political, etc. messages. This is usually done by hijacking websites and leaving the message on the hijacked website.

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What is Social Engineering? Attacks, Techniques & Prevention

  June 16, 2018    Unknown

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What is Social Engineering? Attacks, Techniques & Prevention

What is Social Engineering?

Social engineering is the art of manipulating users of a computing system into revealing confidential information that can be used to gain unauthorized access to a computer system. The term can also include activities such as exploiting human kindness, greed, and curiosity to gain access to restricted access buildings or getting the users to installing backdoor software.

Knowing the tricks used by hackers to trick users into releasing vital login information among others is fundamental in protecting computer systems

In this tutorial, we will introduce you to the common social engineering techniques and how you can come up with security measures to counter them.

How social engineering Works?

• Gather Information: This is the first stage, the learns as much as he can about the intended victim. The information is gathered from company websites, other publications and sometimes by talking to the users of the target system.
• Plan Attack: The attackers outline how he/she intends to execute the attack
• Acquire Tools: These include computer programs that an attacker will use when launching the attack.
• Attack: Exploit the weaknesses in the target system.
• Use acquired knowledge: Information gathered during the social engineering tactics such as pet names, birthdates of the organization founders, etc. is used in attacks such as password guessing.

Common Social Engineering Techniques:-

Social engineering techniques can take many forms. The following is the list of the commonly used techniques.

·      
 Familiarity Exploit: Users are less suspicious of people they are familiar with. An attacker can familiarize him/herself with the users of the target system prior to the social engineering attack. The attacker may interact with users during meals, when users are smoking he may join, on social events, etc. This makes the attacker familiar to the users. Let’s suppose that the user works in a building that requires an access code or card to gain access; the attacker may follow the users as they enter such places. The users are most like to hold the door open for the attacker to go in as they are familiar with them. The attacker can also ask for answers to questions such as where you met your spouse, the name of your high school math teacher, etc. The users are most likely to reveal answers as they trust the familiar face. This information could be used to hack email accounts and other accounts that ask similar questions if one forgets their password.

·      
 Intimidating Circumstances: People tend to avoid people who intimidate others around them. Using this technique, the attacker may pretend to have a heated argument on the phone or with an accomplice in the scheme. The attacker may then ask users for information which would be used to compromise the security of the users’ system. The users are most likely give the correct answers just to avoid having a confrontation with the attacker. This technique can also be used to avoid been checked at a security check point.

·      
 Phishing: This technique uses trickery and deceit to obtain private data from users. The social engineer may try to impersonate a genuine website such as Yahoo and then ask the unsuspecting user to confirm their account name and password. This technique could also be used to get credit card information or any other valuable personal data.

·      
 Tailgating: This technique involves following users behind as they enter restricted areas. As a human courtesy, the user is most likely to let the social engineer inside the restricted area.

·      
 Exploiting human curiosity: Using this technique, the social engineer may deliberately drop a virus infected flash disk in an area where the users can easily pick it up. The user will most likely plug the flash disk into the computer. The flash disk may auto run the virus, or the user may be tempted to open a file with a name such as Employees Revaluation Report 2013.docx which may actually be an infected file.

·      
 Exploiting human greed: Using this technique, the social engineer may lure the user with promises of making a lot of money online by filling in a form and confirm their details using credit card details, etc.

Social Engineering Counter Measures

• Most techniques employed by social engineers involve manipulating human biases. To counter such techniques, an organization can;

  • To counter the familiarity exploit, the users must be trained to not substitute familiarity with security measures. Even the people that they are familiar with must prove that they have the authorization to access certain areas and information.
  • To counter intimidating circumstances attacks, users must be trained to identify social engineering techniques that fish for sensitive information and politely say no.
  • To counter phishing techniques, most sites such as Yahoo use secure connections to encrypt data and prove that they are who they claim to be. Checking the URL may help you spot fake sites. Avoid responding to emails that request you to provide personal information.
  • To counter tailgating attacks, users must be trained not to let others use their security clearance to gain access to restricted areas. Each user must use their own access clearance.
  • To counter human curiosity, it’s better to submit picked up flash disks to system administrators who should scan them for viruses or other infection preferably on an isolated machine.
  • To counter techniques that exploit human greed, employees must be trained on the dangers of falling for such scams.

  Most techniques employed by social engineers involve manipulating human biases. To counter such techniques, an organization can;

  • To counter the familiarity exploit, the users must be trained to not substitute familiarity with security measures. Even the people that they are familiar with must prove that they have the authorization to access certain areas and information.
  • To counter intimidating circumstances attacks, users must be trained to identify social engineering techniques that fish for sensitive information and politely say no.
  • To counter phishing techniques, most sites such as Yahoo use secure connections to encrypt data and prove that they are who they claim to be. Checking the URL may help you spot fake sites. Avoid responding to emails that request you to provide personal information.
  • To counter tailgating attacks, users must be trained not to let others use their security clearance to gain access to restricted areas. Each user must use their own access clearance.
  • To counter human curiosity, it’s better to submit picked up flash disks to system administrators who should scan them for viruses or other infection preferably on an isolated machine.
  • To counter techniques that exploit human greed, employees must be trained on the dangers of falling for such scams.

  
  

  
  
   
  SUMMARY

• Social engineering is the art of exploiting the human elements to gain access to un-authorized resources.
  
  
• Social engineers use a number of techniques to fool the users into revealing sensitive information.
  
  
• Organizations must have security policies that have social engineering countermeasures

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Cryptography Tutorial: Cryptanalysis, RC4, CrypTool

  June 15, 2018    Unknown

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Cryptography Tutorial: Cryptanalysis, RC4, CrypTool

Information plays a vital role in the running of business, organizations, military operations, etc. Information in the wrong hands can lead to loss of business or catastrophic results. To secure communication, a business can use cryptology to cipher information. Cryptology involves transforming information into the Nonhuman readable format and vice versa.

In this article, we will introduce you to the world of cryptology and how you can secure information from falling into the wrong hands.

What is Cryptography?

Cryptography is the study and application of techniques that hide the real meaning of information by transforming it into nonhuman readable formats and vice versa.

Let’s illustrate this with the aid of an example. Suppose you want to send the message “I LOVE APPLES”, you can replace every letter in the phrase with the third successive letter in the alphabet. The encrypted message will be “K NQYG CRRNGV”. To decrypt our message, we will have to go back three letters in the alphabet using the letter that we want to decrypt. The image below shows how the transformation is done.

The process of transforming information into nonhuman readable form is called encryption.

The process of reversing encryption is called decryption.

Decryption is done using a secret key which is only known to the legitimate recipients of the information. The key is used to decrypt the hidden messages. This makes the communication secure because even if the attacker manages to get the information, it will not make sense to them.

 The encrypted information is known as a cipher.

What is Cryptanalysis?

Cryptanalysis is the art of trying to decrypt the encrypted messages without the use of the key that was used to encrypt the messages. Cryptanalysis uses mathematical analysis & algorithms to decipher the ciphers. The success of cryptanalysis attacks depends

• Amount of time available
• Computing power available
• Storage capacity available

The following is a list of the commonly used Cryptanalysis attacks;

• Brute force attack– this type of attack uses algorithms that try to guess all the possible logical combinations of the plaintext which are then ciphered and compared against the original cipher.
• Dictionary attack– this type of attack uses a wordlist in order to find a match of either the plaintext or key. It is mostly used when trying to crack encrypted passwords.
• Rainbow table attack– this type of attack compares the cipher text against pre-computed hashes to find matches.

What is cryptology?

Cryptology combines the techniques of cryptography and cryptanalysis.

Encryption Algorithms

MD5– this is the acronym for Message-Digest 5. It is used to create 128-bit hash values. Theoretically, hashes cannot be reversed into the original plain text. MD5 is used to encrypt passwords as well as check data integrity.  MD5 is not collision resistant. Collision resistance is the difficulties in finding two values that produce the same hash values.

• SHA– this is the acronym for Secure Hash Algorithm. SHA algorithms are used to generate condensed representations of a message (message digest). It has various versions such as;

• SHA-0:  produces 120-bit hash values. It was withdrawn from use due to significant flaws and replaced by SHA-1.
• SHA-1:  produces 160-bit hash values. It is similar to earlier versions of MD5. It has cryptographic weakness and is not recommended for use since the year 2010.
• SHA-2:  it has two hash functions namely SHA-256 and SHA-512. SHA-256 uses 32-bit words while SHA-512 uses 64-bit words.
• SHA-3: this algorithm was formally known as Keccak.

• RC4– this algorithm is used to create stream ciphers. It is mostly used in protocols such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to encrypt internet communication and Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) to secure wireless networks.
• BLOWFISH– this algorithm is used to create keyed, symmetrically blocked ciphers. It can be used to encrypt passwords and other data.

Hacking Activity: Use CrypTool

In this practical scenario, we will create a simple cipher using the RC4 algorithm. We will then attempt to decrypt it using brute-force attack. For this exercise, let us assume that we know the encryption secret key is 24 bits. We will use this information to break the cipher.

We will use CrypTool 1 as our cryptology tool. CrypTool 1 is an open source educational tool for crypto logical studies. You can download it from https://www.cryptool.org/en/ct1-downloads

Creating the RC4 stream cipher

We will encrypt the following phrase

Never underestimate the determination of a kid who is time-rich and cash-poor

We will use 00 00 00 as the encryption key.

> Open CrypTool 1

Replace the text with Never underestimate the determination of a kid who is time-rich and cash-poor

Click on Encrypt/Decrypt menu

• Point to Symmetric (modern) then select RC4 as shown above
• The following window will appear

• Select 24 bits as the encryption key
• Set the value to 00 00 00
• Click on Encrypt button
•  You will get the following stream cipher
  
  

Attacking the stream cipher

> Click on Analysis menu

• Point to Symmetric Encryption (modern) then select RC4 as shown above
• You will get the following window

• Remember the assumption made is the secret key is 24 bits. So make sure you select 24 bits as the key length.
• Click on the Start button. You will get the following window

• Note: the time taken to complete the Brute-Force Analysis attack depends on the processing capacity of the machine been used and the key length. The longer the key length, the longer it takes to complete the attack.


• When the analysis is complete, you will get the following results.
  
  
• Note: a lower Entropy number means it is the most likely correct result. It is possible a higher than the lowest found Entropy value could be the correct result.
• Select the line that makes the most sense then click on Accept selection button when done

  Summary

  • Cryptography is the science of ciphering and deciphering messages.
  • A cipher is a message that has been transformed into a nonhuman readable format.
  • Deciphering is reversing a cipher into the original text.
  • Cryptanalysis is the art of deciphering ciphers without the knowledge of the key used to cipher them.
  • Cryptology combines the techniques of both cryptography and cryptanalyst.

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INTRODUCTION OF FOOT PRINTING

INTRODUCTION OF FOOT PRINTING

  June 14, 2018    Unknown

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INTRODUCTION OF FOOT PRINTING 
•  Foot Printing

This is the first step that the hacker goes through. The hacker simply pulls out the information of the organization using various techniques and tools. So foot printing is also called information gathering. The hacker can possibly find organization domain names, IP addresses, network blocks, its ports, remote access information and so on. Hackers use various techniques in gathering organization’s information. For example, going through the company’s web site is the very first step. In the career tab of the site there can be information about the employee and their skills they are looking for. The skills section can have vital information of the company like which devices they are using which OS they are using etc. The hacker also uses whois lookup to find information about the network and domain name as well. Similarly hacker searches company’s article, news or any other information published that can be helpful. Security personnel can use this information to secure the organization network infrastructure.

Scanning

After getting some surface knowledge of the network now it’s time to scan the network. Scanning, also called port scanning is a technique used to scan the network devices or system to find the vulnerabilities or open doors than can be used to enter the network or system. However, there are three types of scanning: –

1.     Network Scanning: – This scan is done to actually find the systems that are online. You don’t want to waste your time playing with the system that doesn’t even exist. Ping sweep is a popular method done to find the systems that are running or online.

2.     Port Scanning: – In this scanning different tools are used to identify the services or applications are running on those system. Here, TCP/IP ports are scanned. Nmap is a popular tool just to do this.

3.     Vulnerability Scanning: – Now, to make the attack more specific, automated tools are used to find vulnerabilities. In this scan the operating system and its version number is identified. The hacker use weakness of the OS to penetrate the system.

Enumeration

After information gathering and scanning, now enumeration is done to gather more specific information of devices name, services, and network resources. This is done actively by sending quires to the destination. By using different methods hacker finds the user name so that it can be used in further penetration of the system. Here, any level of user is valuable because even low level user’s privilege can be increased by using DumpSec tool. When you enter into the system with no username or password and session is maintained, then this session is called null session. Hacker is able to enter to the system this way by using NetBIOS null session to obtain the usernames, policies, services and more. Once the usernames are obtained then its privilege is increased by using GetAcct tool which makes the attack more confident.

Conclusion

After knowing these vulnerabilities, you can take several measures to prevent the attack. SNMP service must be disabled or remove SNMP agent. TCP ports 137, 135, 139 and 445 must be blocked to prevent null session attack. Company’s IT information must not be revealed in articles or websites or in recruitment processes. These are some of the countermeasures that need to be taken to prevent these three first steps of hacking. If the first steps are stopped then the system is more likely to be secure than it used to be before.

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UNDERSTANDING CONCEPT OF TROJAN AND HOW TO MAKE TROJAN HORSE:-

UNDERSTANDING CONCEPT OF TROJAN AND HOW TO MAKE TROJAN HORSE:-

  June 13, 2018    Unknown

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UNDERSTANDING CONCEPT OF TROJAN AND HOW TO MAKE TROJAN HORSE:- 

WHAT IS TROJAN?

In computing, Trojan horse, or Trojan, is any malicious computer program which is used to hack into a computer by misleading users of its true intent. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek story of the wooden horse that was used to help Greek troops invade the city of Troy by stealth.

EXAMPLE:-

Let me give you an example suppose you have got an email from your friend telling you to download an application which seems very useful and you install it.Once you have installed that application the person who send it to you will have full access to your computer using his Trojan Horse. He is able to view anything on your PC, open any file ,besides he also has the access to your webcam which I believe is scary !

There is a difference between a Trojan Horse and a Virus. Virus inject the files/system to make it unusable , It cannot create a copy of  itself.On the other hand Trojan Horse gain the remote access to the administration , Trojan Horse once installed all the files of your PC can be accessed by a attacker .

Types of Trojan Horse :-

1.     Perfect Keylogger : Records keystrokes , so basically everything that you are typing will be recorded.

2.     Botnets : It is a network of Trojan Horse. It is used to control or steal data from lots of devices.

3.     Spyware : Records stuff like  keystrokes , audio , webcam , screen ,browser logs.

That was some basic introduction on Trojan Horse . Trojan Horse can be made using any programming language but RAT software’s can be used to make Trojan Horse without coding. one such RAT software is DARK COMET.There are other Trojan horse also like the famous ones are beast, cyber gate, girlfriend etc.

Now I am going to show you How to make a Trojan Horse with the help of a very user friendly tool DARK COMET and also how to protect yourself from these things.

HOW TO MAKE A TROJAN HORSE STEP BY STEP GUIDE:-
Step 1 : Download the Software:-
First of all you need to download DARK COMET from the internet.Extract the zip file and install DARK COMET on your PC.After successful installation you will be able to see the icon on your desktop as you see here in the screenshot.

Step 2 : Full Editor Mode:-

Double click on the DARK COMET .Accept the terms and conditions.A screen will appear on the top left of the screen you will see an option “RAT COMET” Click on it and then select server module and click  on full editor as shown here in this screenshot.Now you are set to make a Trojan Horse.

Step 3 : Configuring the Trojan Horse:-

After clicking on full editor you will get all the options listed in a user friendly manner. you can choose what message will appear when your victim will click on the icon then you can also choose options like disable firewall , choose persistent process (if killed then it will come back) , you can choose your icon and there are lots of stuff to chooseaccording to your needs.

But one thing you have to take care is in this we are making reverse connection. we have to write our IP address and port number so that instead of attacker connecting to the victim , the victim gets connected to the attacker.This thing is known as Port forwarding.

On the right side there will be an option called network settings.There type in your IP address and change the port number to 999 as DARK COMET  listen on port 999.In case you don’t know how to find out the ip address. since mostly people use windows operating system all you need to do is open your command prompt and type ‘ ipconfig ‘ and press enter , your IP address will be displayed on the command prompt.So your Trojan Horse is now fully configured.

Step 4 : Testing Our Trojan Horse:-

 After you have completed all this just click on build the stuff and your Trojan Horse will be created.Here I have created a Trojan Horse called Facebook hacker ,You can try if your icon works properly or not in a parallel operating system through VMware Virtualization .You need some social engineering techniques so that your victim is convinced that it is a useful application and they should install it in their PC.As soon as your victim double clicks on this icon you will gain complete access to your victim’s PC.Now you can wreak havoc on their PC.

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