Lesson 2: Your new address book

2005-07-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

The internet is a tricky thing. Imagine, if you will, that the internet used addresses like we do today,

The New Scum Web Comic
3rd Computer on the right
Aplus Datacenter, CA

It probably looks very funny, and for a good reason. It is. The creators of the internet (thank you Al Gore!) have made it just a tid bit easier. Instead of

Tony's Hookah Lounge
3rd Computer on the right
Aplus Datacenter, CA

You instead have:

216.55.154.174

This number is called an IP address and it stands for Internet Protocol. While I'll get into the IP protocol a bit more in future lessons, I'm just going to show you the tip of the internet iceberg today.

IP's are organized into what are known as Octets. Each group of numbers in front of a "." is an octet. So, you have 4 octets per IP. (This ip scheme xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is known as IPv4. ARIN the American Registry for Internet Numbers is starting to phaze in what is known as IPv6 due to the increasing scarcity of IPv4 numbers.).

Now for the fun part. Every single computer on the internet has an IP address. EVERY SINGLE ONE! Just like every house has an address, every american has a SSN (Well, the legal ones at least!), every computer has one. Here's how you can find out what yours is.

First, Open up a command prompt window by going to "Start" > "Run..." and typing in "CMD".

Now, type "ipconfig". You should see some text that explains different details about your network connection along with a line that says your IP address.

NOTE: If you find that your address is either 192.168.xxx.xxx or 10.xxx.xxx.xxx then you my friend are behind what is known as a router. Routers are special devices that take 1 PUBLIC IP and let multiple users share it! Knowing what we do now about IP's and that every computer that accesses the internet needs one, you'll know that your computer will have two IP's! One for the NETWORK and one that is PUBLIC. To find your public IP address go here:

http://www.whatismyip.com

In the world of hacking IP addresses are a must. I'm not about to say you can't do it with out knowing about IP addresses...Wait, yes I am. Until next time, happy hacking!

Next Time -

LESSON 3:
SSH & TELNET - Opening the doors on vulnerable systems

Lesson 1: Google is your friend

2005-07-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

So everyone asks me, "Miles how did you become a network security analyst?" And my answer usually is, "By fucking your mom." But, today I've decided to share the wealth. That's right script kiddies, time to learn how to be "@ 1337 h4x0r". Or some bullshit. Anyways, here's your first lesson.

GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND.

Anytime your looking for some random things to hack, goto google. It's one of the best farmers of legit information, so why not be the best farmer of illegit info? Take this for example:

allinurl: admin mdb

By searching for that term in google, you'll get a list of Access Databases that are called admin! Now isn't that nifty? Since usually admin databases include some very nifty information, you can find all sorts of cool tricks! All in all, the "allinurl:" command and the "inurl:" command are very usful tools. Here's one that I particularly like, webcams!

inurl:indexFrame.shtml Axis. That one is a good one!

One important thing to remember when doing these kinds of things is that the internet is a great resource! (ie. All the examples I've used today can be found at http://johnny.ihackstuff.com). There is an abundance to be learned from ye ol' information super highway. So don't give up! Just keep trying! Almost 90% of the crap on johnny's site doesn't work now, but in later issues of this post I will start to reveal some more, lesser known exploits!

Have fun, hackers!

Hacking for Dummies

Lesson 2: Your new address book

Lesson 1: Google is your friend