Who cares, as long as I get a paid software for free!

Well, that is what most people think. Software cracking is not new to the IT world.

Note: The use of this post is for educational purpose only.

Software cracking is the art of bypassing various licencing mechanisms, inorder to make the software free or skip its registration. The various ways in which this can be done is by “Looping the trial version of the software” or by “Jumping the registration blocks” of the code, both of which result to making the software free.

Software key generators were also used, which is very related to “Jumping the registration blocks”, key generator for any software can be found simply by searching “94fbr <software name> ” on google.

While the first technique is tedious, but does not involve software reverse engineering, thus the code is not manipulated, so there are less chances of software misbehaviour, but it requres the user to uninstall and reinstall trial softwares. So people prefer cracked softwares with the other choice, but what people forget is that these prelincensed versions ( as they’re called in the IT World)  can be dangerous. As the software is modified at the code-level the person cracking the software can introduce breakthroughs where the software can have malicious affects onto the system it installs in.

This lead to the biggest hacking category of all time: The Buffer Overflow attacks. Being a nightmare to software developers. The BO attacks use code addresses and make the software behave anomly while the user is unaware of it.

Buffer overflow attacks: Buffer Overflow definition & example.

But it gave rise to a number a new era of progamming languages that exploited these defects, one of them being Java, which checks for abnormal conditions by throwing exceptions. Various OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) came into developing modern programming methodologies and tools, Buffer Overflow Protection methods.

Thus it is not safe to use cracked softwares, specially if it is used in a corporate workstation.

Stay tunned for more! Take Care and have a Cyber Safe day! Adios.

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Yep, you’ve heard that correctly!

Kali is an open source penetration testing framework, designed specially for penetration testers.

The earlier version of Kali was known as BackTrack, Kali can be said as the ultimate tool for performing penetration testing activities. Built upon the open sourced Linux kernel, Kali too is a Freeware.

A penetration tester is a person who tests the vulnerability of a system by checking how deep he/she can penetrate into it.

Penetration testing require a loot of tools, some of which even need to be licensed, this reduces the application of penetration testing activities, thus and open source operating system, yes you’ve heard that correctly Kali is a open sourced operating system designed specially for penetration testing activities, it is an entire OS dedicated for just a single purpose.

It might only include some small tools, right?

No, that’s incorrect, Kali has a vast repository of tools which have been designed by professional hacker and penetration testers. Some of the greatest tools included in Kali are:

1. Reaver for cracking Wi-Fi passwords without using a predefined list.

2. John-the-reaper: offline password cracking tool.

3. Metasploit Framework: An entire array of tools  for penetrating into systems (Linux or Windows)

and many more…

The entire listing of tools can be found here: http://tools.kali.org/tools-listing

Thus Kali is a one-stop arsenal to all of the weapons required for penetration testing.

Kali can be download for free from:  https://www.kali.org/downloads/t

Note: The main purpose of this article is to create awareness and must be used for educational purpose only.

Thank You, take care, and have a cyber-safe day!

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I get window applications for free, so isn’t that open-source?

Well that isn’t correct. An open source system is a system that is developed collaboratively with a number of developers having there fair share of contribution to the entire system being developed. On the other way round closed source systems are the sytems that are developed in closed environment, and are generally proprietary (owned) systems.

Note: The main purpose of this article is provide its readers apt knowledge about open source systems and thier differences from closed source systems, it does not in anyway intends to promote or demote any product in particular.

The most common example of open source system are the Linux distributions, (Ubuntu, RedHat, Debian, BackTrack, Android etc. ) and closed source systems are Windows, Mac OS etc.

So how does it affect the common man?

Well as the open source system are collaboratively developed it has less number of bugs, since there are a number of expert developers who go into the development process. Apart from this they also have better upgrades and are updated as per the market needs.

Consider this, Windows XP was released in the year 2001, the next major version of Windows (Windows Vista ) was released in 2007. It took 6 years for the guys at Microsoft to upgrade their system. Now consider Ubuntu, Ubuntu 14.04 was released on April 14 2014, the next major release Ubuntu 14.10 was released on October 23 2014. What??? , yes that is true, it took only 5 months for the guys working for Ubuntu to upgrade their OS. Amazing isn’t it?

That my dear friend is the power of open source systems, they have been delivering great and amazing system throughout their timeline, which includes major names like, RedHat for Servers, Kali for penetration testing, Android for Mobile Devices & Ubuntu for desktops, open source has it all.

So next time you decide on implementing a information system do consider open source options 😉

Take care & have a cyber-safe day!

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Hacking is hacking, what-so-ever means it may be!

Well this is the thinking of most of the people around the world, but to put some light onto this topic, there are 2 kinds of hackers around the world; 1st are those who have a malicious intent while they hack into someone’s system or access their personnel info, 2nd are those who have a benevolent intent of hacking into someone’s system just to find all the vulnerabilities and to make the owner of the system aware of the various flaws the system has.

So there are hackers that do hacking for good?

Well, the above statement is logically correct, the good-doing hackers are often termed as “White Hat Hackers” while its counterpart are the “Black Hat Hackers”.

The white hat hackers are also termed as “Ethical Hackers” , they do hacking for good, they also report as soon as they find any vulnerabilities. To say it the other way round they perform hacking activities under ethics and permission of the victim.

The idea behind getting a system ethically hacked is to find all the vulnerabilities from in the system from a Hacker’s perspective.

Ethical hacking today is one of the most creative and exciting job today, many information security professionals have taken up courses for ethical hacking to keep their systems safe for being hacked by black hat hackers. Not only do ethical hackers have respect but they are also some of the most job loving personalities.

Take care and have a cyber-safe day!

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What? Really!, is it even possible?

Well those were my friend’s statement when I explained this.

While hacking Google isn’t really possible but there are certain tweaks that are possible for us to search better and more deeper than what we regularly do.

Note: Please note that the main purpose of this article is to create awareness, and should be used for educational purpose only.

So what is Google hacking? 

Does it mean defacing the Google webpage?, No it doesn’t. The first step towards hacking is a collective step called “Footprinting” , which basically implies for collecting as much informataion about the victim as possible.

The information can be of a wide spectrum, it does not only imply to the personal information of the victim, it could also be the victim’s environment details, for example a hacker by footprinting learns that for a XYZ victim, a Company name ABC services and maintains the desktops of the victim’s working organization, thus knowing this the hacker can simply make a phone call, and make himself present as the ABC Company’s Administrator & can ask for various passwords, which even the victim presents to the hacker.

All this is only possible if the hacker has a desirable amount of information.

Google hacking is a way to extract information much deeper than normal search operations. Google hacking uses some useful commands to make the most of Google, consider this, you need to specifically search files with PDF format, then using Google hacking its much simpler than searching “XYZ PDF”. Google hacking which is also called Google Dorks has a large number of useful commands, the above search could be done very easily by simply typing “filetype:pdf XYZ” which makes Google search all its links for files with the PDF extension.

The entire set commands is called the Google Hacking Database and is abbrevated as GHDB.

GHDB: https://www.exploit-db.com/google-hacking-database/

So be sure that none of your information is openly available. 😉

Tc and have a cyber safe day!

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Why am I doing this? , even the most stupidest thing on earth can pass this!

Well that is incorrect, to make it correct “even the most smartest computer on earth could’nt solve that! “. Yes you’ve heard it right! CAPTCHA is solved impeccably by humans but not by our computers! Amazing isn’t it?

Well CAPTCHA forms a great validation mechanism for companies willing to justify whether the operator of a system is a human or the computer itself. CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers & Humans Alike” Phew! that was long one. Well the name completely describes its purpose, its a test that distinguishes between humans and machines.

CAPTCHA was invented basically to keep ‘bots’ as they are called or in other words computer scripts to do stuffs that are intended for humans. So it is a test that only humans can pass.

So how does CAPTCHA work?

Well CAPTCHA is a test that is very analogous to what we used to feel about our childhood teachers, its a test created by our teachers, yet no teacher can ever pass it, they can olny grade it! well so is with CAPTCHA, no computer can ever pass it, all the computer can do is judge the correctness of the answer.

The reason behind even the most smartest computers failing to pass CAPTCHA is due a missing link in computer evolution, AI (Artificial Intelligence). CAPTCHA is based on the idea of Alan Turing that computers can’t think, all they can do is simulate that they’re intelligent. Computers only process information but don’t understand them. Hence computers fail in character , image and audio recognition, they can only process them but not understand them, hence they fail.

Uses:  CAPTCHA is used in many real world scenarios,

1. For website login to prevent Brute-Force Attacks. 
2. For e-Polling to prevent bots from casting votes.
3. For verifying the user of the computer (i.e a human or a bot).

So at the end you can say that you’re more intelligent than your computer, cause of CAPTCHA! 😉 and next time when you see a website having CAPTCHA don’t morn, be happy cause that website has lesser changes to fail or is more secure than a non-CAPTCHA one!

Stay tuned for more, Thank You & have a cyber safe day!

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Ahh i’m safe i have a difficult password for all my accounts! no one will dare crack it!

Well this kind of thinking is wrong, there are many ways apart from password cracking that a user can crack your web based accounts.

Websites like Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo! etc, use great measures to protect the online accounts from being cracked, but its not the same always. People know today that it is almost impossible to get access to another person’s Facebook account, still i somehow managed to get access to my friends FB account, who like me is also a student of IT, this is how i managed to get access of his account and how he failed to prevent me.

The IT era has gone way ahead than anyone on this planet could even imagine, from complex algorithms to simplicity everything is ever evolving. Also web development has taken growth beyond vision, we now have the power to integrate complex DBs using PHP to interactive UIs using AJAX. But with all this evolution, there is one thing that has failed to evolve, the naivety of human beings. While i type this there are not less than 10 naive web users who just have been compromised at some part of the globe.

Lets take example of Facebook, they have a very talented security team who continuously manages and monitors suspicious activities across the globe. One can say that it is nearly impossible to break their authentication protocols, but still it can be done by making use of the naivety of the owner of the web account.

Vulnerabilities of Web based Login

Following are the vulnerabilities of web based login that uses passwords. Passwords come under the “Something We Know” technique for authentication, thus if you know the password, you own the account. At such scenarios, it is very essential to make note of some points as follows:

• Is the link of the webpage correct?: This comes under Phishing, where the hacker tries to manipulate the source code of a original webpage, such that on clicking the login button the credentials are sent to hacker. This kind of attack was once very popular, The attacker tries to send the malicious link to the victim either using a mail account or by getting physical access to the victim computer.
  
  Ways to Prevent Phishing attacks:1. Always check the URL, this is the best method to check whether the page is the correct one or a phishing page.2. Check for the SSL Certificate. Every web based social networking website or a website that undergoes monetary transaction has a SSL Certificate, and also the URL starts as HTTPS://….. indicating that the identity of the website owner is verified by a trusted third party (TTP). With these websites it always secure to do monetary transactions.
  Tip: HTTPS based websites have a small padlock, this can be a visual hint indicating that the web page is secure.3. Never attend to E-Mail links that say login here to access your web account until and unless the sender’s address looks appropriate.
• Is the computer having public access?: Sensitive information should never be transferred from computer that have public access, the main reason behind this is because a large number of phising softwares are available that are simply untraceable, and can steal even login activities.
  One such example is of a Key Logger, (that is how a got access to my friends FB account 😛 ) A key logger or a keystroke logger is a open source software available to keep a record of keys pressed. Well that’s not it, some modern key loggers can even detect the software keyboard presses (i.e. keys pressed on the On Screen Keyboard)  . I used the family key logger available from : http://www.safeandfreefiles.com/family-key-logger-5-07-full-download-with-crack-2/ but many are available online.
  
  Prevention measures:  There is not much that you can do, but you can prevent it from happening by using the following tips:1. Do not access via public computers, such as college PCs, or Cyber Cafes etc.2. Check for anti virus programs, well it is for sure that almost every major anti virus program blocks a keylogger, it is always safe to check for one before performing any transactions.3. Check for malicious softwares in installed programs under control panel.

  4. Use web based keyboards provided by certain websites.

Well that’s all from this post, stay tuned for more, adios & have a cyber safe day.

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Does keeping login passwords make your computer secure?

Well, it doesn’t. There are many ways by which even the login passwords could be cracked there are several ways by which the cracking could be prevented. Following is a list of methods to secure a user computer their best practices and also ways by which their security could be hampered.

Note: Please do make a note that the following document is just for educational purpose and it serves as a base for knowledge to prevent malicious activities.

Protection Methods and Ways they could be hampered.

• WinLogin Authentication:  The most largely used and trusted way of securing a Windows based PC, this is what most of us think, but it isn’t true, there are many ways to crack windows login password,1. By Removing the password: This is what i think, is the simplest method to break into a windows PC, as Windows OS saves its login passwords at the SAM (Security & Accounts Manager) it saves them in a hashed format,(a hash is a cryptography technique that is used to provide confusion, i.e change the original characters in random text) so instead of cracking the hash function simply the entry in the SAM file could be removed. This can by done by a tool called pogo stick which is available for free, at: http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html , The details for the same are provided on the webpage.2. By doing a bruteforce attack: The most naive form of attack, here all the attacker does is tries various permutation and combinations of the password, the success of the attack completely depends on the creativity and common sense of the attacker.
  Preventing Bruteforce attacks: Choose passwords that are not familiar or passwords that don’t have any resemblance to the real world. By doing this the task of the attacker is increased.

  3. By finding the password: This technique is not a suggested one for cracking the windows passwords as it requires to crack the hashed passwords stored in the SAM file, Software tools like Rainbow hash crack, John The Ripper etc. all of which are avail for free.
  
  

• BIOS Password: Not so famous as the WinLogin, this method provides the owner of the system a bottom level security for their PC. As the BIOS is the most foremost thing that loads into a PC the above methods can be prevented by keeping a BIOS Password.But even BIOS authentication can be bypassed, BIOS store the passwords and usernames into its hardwired memory, the only way it does remember it after every logout session is due to the CMOS battery, thus removing the CMOS would reset the BIOS Authentication.
• Thus all the possible methods we discussed have some bypass mechanisms, so its always better to use a third party software, which have better authentication mechanisms and protocols. Stay tuned for more tips, and have a cyber safe day!

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