Wireless Hacking Basic Knowledge

 

Wireless Network Sniffing :-

Sniffing is eavesdropping on the network. A (packet) sniffer is a program that intercepts and decodes network traffic broadcast through a medium. It is easier to sniff wireless networks than wired ones. Sniffing can also help find the easy kill as in scanning for open access points that allow anyone to connect, or capturing the passwords used in a connection session that does not even use WEP, or in telnet, rlogin and ftp connections.

Stations and Access Points :-

A wireless network interface card (adapter) is a device, called a station, providing the network physical layer over a radio link to another station.
An access point (AP) is a station that provides frame distribution service to stations associated with it.
The AP itself is typically connected by wire to a LAN. Each AP has a 0 to 32 byte long Service Set Identifier (SSID) that is also commonly called a network name. The SSID is used to segment the airwaves for usage.

Passive Scanning :-

Scanning is the act of sniffing by tuning to various radio channels of the devices. A passive network scanner instructs the wireless card to listen to each channel for a few messages. This does not reveal the presence of the scanner. An attacker can passively scan without transmitting at all.

Channels :-

The stations communicate with each other using radio frequencies between 2.4 GHz and 2.5 GHz. Neighboring channels are only 5 MHz apart. Two wireless networks using neighboring channels may interfere with each other.

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) :-

It is a shared-secret key encryption system used to encrypt packets transmitted between a station and an AP. The WEP algorithm is intended to protect wireless communication from eavesdropping. A secondary function of WEP is to prevent unauthorized access to a wireless network. WEP encrypts the payload of data packets. Management and control frames are always transmitted in the clear. WEP uses the RC4 encryption algorithm.

Detection of SSID :-

The attacker can discover the SSID of a network usually by passive scanning because the SSID occurs in the following frame types: Beacon, Probe Requests, Probe Responses, Association Requests, and Reassociation Requests. Recall that management frames are always in the clear, even when WEP is enabled.
When the above methods fail, SSID discovery is done by active scanning.

Collecting the Frames for Cracking WEP :-

The goal of an attacker is to discover the WEP shared-secret key. The attacker sniffs a large number of frames An example of a WEP cracking tool is AirSnort ( http://airsnort.shmoo.com ).

Detection of the Sniffers :-

Detecting the presence of a wireless sniffer, who remains radio-silent, through network security measures is virtually impossible. Once the attacker begins probing (i.e., by injecting packets), the presence and the coordinates of the wireless device can be detected.

Wireless Spoofing :-

There are well-known attack techniques known as spoofing in both wired and wireless networks. The attacker constructs frames by filling selected fields that contain addresses or identifiers with legitimate looking but non-existent values, or with values that belong to others. The attacker would have collected these legitimate values through sniffing.

Denial of Service :-

A denial of service (DoS) occurs when a system is not providing services to authorized clients because of resource exhaustion by unauthorized clients. In wireless networks, DoS attacks are difficult to prevent, difficult to stop. An on-going attack and the victim and its clients may not even detect the attacks. The duration of such DoS may range from milliseconds to hours. A DoS attack against an individual station enables session hijacking.

MAC Address Spoofing :-

The attacker generally desires to be hidden. But the probing activity injects frames that are observable by system administrators. The attacker fills the Sender MAC Address field of the injected frames with a spoofed value so that his equipment is not identified.

IP spoofing :-

Replacing the true IP address of the sender (or, in rare cases, the destination) with a different address is known as IP spoofing. This is a necessary operation in many attacks.

Frame Spoofing :-

The attacker will inject frames that are valid but whose content is carefully spoofed.

Wireless Network Probing :-

The attacker then sends artificially constructed packets to a target that trigger useful responses. This activity is known as probing or active scanning.

AP Weaknesses :-

APs have weaknesses that are both due to design mistakes and user interfaces.

Trojan AP :-

An attacker sets up an AP so that the targeted station receives a stronger signal from it than what it receives from a legitimate AP.

War Driving :-

Equipped with wireless devices and related tools, and driving around in a vehicle or parking at interesting places with a goal of discovering easy-to-get-into wireless networks is known as war driving. War-drivers (http://www.wardrive.net) define war driving as “The benign act of locating and logging wireless access points while in motion.” This benign act is of course useful to the attackers.
Regardless of the protocols, wireless networks will remain potentially insecure because an attacker can listen in without gaining physical access.

Jamming the Air Waves :-

A number of consumer appliances such as microwave ovens, baby monitors, and cordless phones operate on the unregulated 2.4GHz radio frequency. An attacker can unleash large amounts of noise using these devices and jam the airwaves so that the signal to noise drops so low, that the wireless LAN ceases to function.

Tips for Wireless Home Network Security

• Change Default Administrator Passwords (and Usernames)
• Turn on (Compatible) WPA / WEP Encryption
• Change the Default SSID
• Disable SSID Broadcast
• Assign Static IP Addresses to Devices
• Enable MAC Address Filtering
• Turn Off the Network During Extended Periods of Non-Use
• Position the Router or Access Point Safely

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Information Gathering – First Step Of Hacking

 

What’s information gathering?

When it comes to getting a clear information gathering concept, the simplest way to define it would be the process of collecting information about something you are interested in. A practical example: gathering information with your eyes is called visual perception. In the same way, in the digital world, a lot of information can be gathered in different ways, not with your senses, but with several methods, tools and techniques.

Information gathering is a phase of penetration testing or ethical hacking. Where hackers or attackers gather the information as much as possible elated internal and external security architecture.

They have to face a target. The details of any system help the attacker to identify the vulnerabilities within it, which can be exploited and gain access in later faces.

If you have deep knowledge about the target reduces the focus area & brings you closer to the target. More information about target more possibilities to win.

If you have enough required details about the target, you are close to getting key to hacking.

For Example, You focus the target by mean of the range of IP address you have to go through, to hack target or regarding domain information or else.

What are the objectives of information gathering in cybersecurity?

Any basic cybersecurity information gathering process often includes these two types of data collection goals:

• Collecting network data: Such as public, private and associated domain names, network hosts, public and private IP blocks, routing tables, TCP and UDP running services, SSL certificates, open ports and more.
• Collecting system-related information: This includes user enumeration, system groups, OS hostnames, OS system type (probably by fingerprinting), system banners (as seen in the banner grabbing blog post), etc.

But there’s a lot more involved. Let’s learn about it, by exploring the most popular techniques used during this phase.

Information gathering techniques and methods

Ethical hackers use a big variety of techniques and tools to get this precious information about their targets, as well as locations and data collection software they’ll be using towards the information gathering goal.

Let’s look at the top information gathering methods used to gather information about any target.

How to gather information?

• Social engineering: This includes in-person chat, phone conversations and email spoofing attacks. What all these methods have in common is the psychology of human weakness, needed to get maximum data about the target.
• Search engines: Web crawlers can be used to fetch information about anything, and this includes companies, persons, services, and even real hacks, as seen in our previous article about Google Hacking.
• Social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks are great sources of information to build a profile, especially when targeting individuals.
• Domain names: These are registered by organizations, governments, public and private agencies, and people. Therefore, they’re a great starting point when you want to investigate someone. Personal information, associated domains, projects, services and technologies can be found by inspecting domain name information.
• Internet servers: authoritative DNS servers are a great source of information, as they often include every single surface point exposed to the Internet—which means a direct link to related services such as HTTP, email, etc.

All these techniques are really useful when combined with enterprise security tools. Keep reading to discover how to maximize your information gathering results by using some really cool infosec utilities.

Information gathering tools

There are a lot of tools to discuss when talking about information gathering, including one particular software we can’t avoid mentioning… that’s Kali Linux, one of the most popular cyber security linux distributions around.

We’ve written about the top Kali Linux tools before, but that was a general review of the most popular tools on that Linux distro. When it comes to information gathering, Kali Linux includes one of the biggest collections ever. To be precise, exactly 67 information gathering utilities will help you get all the valuable data you need during your infosec investigations. Creating a full list of all the information gathering tools available would be monumental, not to mention difficult.

That’s why we’ve created a summary of the top 12 most popular tools that, in our experience, may help you during your information gathering process:

• Nmap: Our beloved network scanner will be always in the #1 position when it comes to data gathering tools. It can be used not only to scan ports and service fingerprinting, but also as a DNS enumeration and network mapping tool.
• Unicornscan: Combined with Nmap, it can give you the complete picture of any remote network or host, as it is able to perform asynchronous stateless TCP scanning with all variations of TCP flags, as well as TCP banner grabbing, async UDP Scanning, OS fingerprinting, and much more.
• Sublist3r: This is one of the best subdomain enumeration tools around, one that will help you create a virtual subdomain map of any website in no time. By using Google dorks and other search engines such as Baidu, Ask, Yahoo or Bing, it can also be used to perform a brute force subdomain discovery attack with wordlists, thanks to its subroute integration.
• DMitry: Its name stands for Deepmagic Information Gathering Tool, and is one of the top terminal-based tools when it comes to intel reconnaissance tasks. It will allow you to get any available data from any host, such as subdomains, email addresses, open ports, WHOIS lookups, server data, and more.
• OWASP Amass: Also known simply as ‘Amass’, this information gathering tool helps researchers and IT administrators create a full map of their digital assets by providing an easy way to perform DNS enumeration, asset location, and overall attack surface discovery.
• Axiom: This new tool is one of the best available when you need to get massive amounts of data in a limited time. It’s basically a dynamic infrastructure framework that helps system administrators and researchers build and deploy offensive and defensive security multi-cloud infrastructure in mere seconds, by using pre-installed tools based on OS images.
• Th3inspector: This infosec utility will enable you to fetch all kinds of website-related information, such as page data, phone number, ip addresses of HTTP and email server, perform a domain WHOIS lookup, bypass the Cloudflare proxy, check the age of your domain name, scan remote active services, subdomain mapping, and even work as a CMS detector.
• Devploit: This tool is used to extract DNS and domain data, including DNS lookups, WHOIS lookup information, reverse IP info, port scanning, DNS zone transfer, HTTP-headers, GEOIP lookup, subnet lookup, etc.
• Bettercap: Known as the swiss army knife for networking, it’s used mostly for network recon and information gathering, especially for WiFi, Bluetooth low energy devices and Ethernet networks.
• Traceroute: As one of the most popular network tools used to track the path of networks packets between one IP address to another, it’s a powerful recon tool that will let you gain critical network information about IP addresses and networking routes.
• WHOIS: The WHOIS command is a great source of data for fetching domain- and IP-related information, including tech and admin names, telephones, addresses, country, DNS servers, etc.
• Dig: Whenever you need to find current data about DNS records, Dig is one of the best tools there is to help you to accomplish that task, whether you want to get A, NS, TXT or CNAME records.

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TODAYZOO PHISHING KIT USED TO SWIPE MICROSOFT CREDENTIALS

 Microsoft has detailed an unusual phishing campaign aimed at stealing passwords that uses a phishing kit built using pieces of code copied from other hackers’ work.

A “phishing kit” is the various software or services designed to facilitate phishing attacks. In this case, the kit has been called ZooToday by Microsoft after some text used by the kit. Microsoft also described it as a ‘Franken-Phish’ because it is made up of different elements, some available for sale through publicly accessible scam sellers or reused and repackaged by other kit resellers.

Microsoft said TodayZoo is using the WorkMail domain AwsApps[.]com to pump out email with links to phishing pages mimicking the Microsoft 365 login page.

Microsoft says the attackers have been creating malicious AWS WorkMail accounts “at scale” but are just using randomly generated domain names instead of names that would represent a legitimate company.

In other words, it’s a crude phishing product likely made on a thin budget, but large enough to be noticeable. It caught Microsoft’s attention because it impersonated Microsoft’s brand and used a technique called “zero-point font obfuscation” – HTML text with a zero font size in an email – to dodge human detection.

Microsoft detected an uptick in zero-font attacks in July. TodayZoo campaigns in April and May of this year typically impersonated Microsoft 365 login pages and a password-reset request. However. Microsoft found that campaigns in August used Xerox-branded fax and scanner notifications to dupe workers into giving up credentials.

Microsoft’s threat researchers have found that most of the phishing landing pages were hosted within cloud provider DigitalOcean.

Those pages were identical to the Microsoft 365 signin page. Another unusual trait was that after harvesting credentials, the stolen information was not forwarded to other email accounts but stored on the site itself. This behaviour was a trait of the TodayZoo phishing kit, which has previously focussed on phishing credentials from Zoom video-meeting accounts.

But Microsoft researchers believe this phishing group is a single operation rather than a network of agents.

“While many phishing kits are attributed to a wide variety of email campaign patterns and, conversely, many email campaign patterns are associated with many phishing kits, TodayZoo-based pages exclusively utilized the same email campaign patterns, and any of those subsequent email campaigns only surfaced TodayZoo kits.

These lead us to believe that the actors behind this specific TodayZoo implementation are operating on their own,” Microsoft said. Microsoft says it informed Amazon about the TodayZoo phishing campaign and that AWS “promptly took action”.

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Google Tracking 270 State-Sponsored Hacker Groups From Over 50 Countries

 Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) on Thursday said it’s tracking more than 270 government-backed threat actors from more than 50 countries, adding it has approximately sent 50,000 alerts of state-sponsored phishing or malware attempts to customers since the start of 2021.

The warnings mark a 33% increase from 2020, the internet giant said, with the spike largely stemming from “blocking an unusually large campaign from a Russian actor known as APT28 or Fancy Bear.”

Additionally, Google said it disrupted a number of campaigns mounted by an Iranian state-sponsored attacker group tracked as APT35 (aka Charming Kitten, Phosphorous, or Newscaster), including a sophisticated social engineering attack dubbed “Operation SpoofedScholars” aimed at think tanks, journalists, and professors with an aim to solicit sensitive information by masquerading as scholars with the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Details of the attack were first publicly documented by enterprise security firm Proofpoint in July 2021. Other past attacks involved the use of a spyware-infested VPN app uploaded to the Google Play Store that, when installed, could be leveraged to siphon sensitive information such as call logs, text messages, contacts, and location data from the infected devices.

Furthermore, an unusual tactic adopted by APT35 concerned the use of Telegram to notify the attackers when phishing sites under their control have been visited in real-time via malicious JavaScript embedded into the pages. The threat actor is also said to have impersonated policy officials by sending “non-malicious first contact email messages” modeled around the Munich Security and Think-20 (T20) Italy conferences as part of a phishing campaign to lure high-profile individuals into visiting rogue websites.

“For years, this group has hijacked accounts, deployed malware, and used novel techniques to conduct espionage aligned with the interests of the Iranian government,” Google TAG’s Ajax Bash said.

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Why Hackers Use Linux ? And Popular Linux Operating Systems.

 

Why do Hackers use Linux :

Operating system Linux has amazing features that make it more dominating than others. It is an open source operating system and driven by its old version UNIX .

Due to its many benefits over any other OS, hackers prefer to use Linux. We know other operating systems are friendlier in use but Linux has many special features which make it more dominating than others.

Hackers are those who want to earn through their hacking capabilities, they break into a computer system or computer networks, and hack them to get profit from them.

Hackers always want to check their hacking capabilities, so they always look for more secure OS to perform their activities and Linux is the best choice for them.

Low cost

Linux is an open source OS so it’s easily available on the internet and the applications that run on it are free of cost. Hackers need not to spend time and money to buy licenses for Linux because it most of the software comes with General public license. This is also one of reason that Why do Hackers use Linux.

Also,Only Linux is that OS which doesn’t need to be rebooted occasionally to improve its performance. You don’t need to restart it again and again to maintain its performance. It doesn’t get slow or freeze up due to memory leaks, Linux OS can be used for years without any problem.

Maintenance

Maintaining Linux operating system is very easy. One can easily install the software. Linux is used for high-performance applications on server, and also for desktop applications and embedded systems.

Maintaining Linux is very easy because it has their own software repository. You can easily search the software.

Command line and graphical user interface

Due to its strong and highly integrated command line interface users are granted for easier access and control over their systems. Utilities built in Linux have greater functionality.

It is highly designed around strong and highly integrated command line interfacewhich others OS like window and mac don’t have. Hackers and other user are allowed to have great access their system. Only Linux can work well even if the hard disk is full, which is impossible for other operating systems.

Open source

To develop software you need to know the system code, how to develop the code how to modify it.

In Linux, it will be easy for you to learn the source code because it’s very easy and also all the applications of this operating system are open source which is the benefit. The Linux system can support the entire UNIX software package and all the files which are common to it.

Ease to Install and network friendly

Linux comes with the user-friendly installation as most of the Linux distributions are user-friendly. These distributions come with that tools which make it easy to install and also the additional software are very user friendly. Boot system of the Linux is very fast as compare to other operating systems.

It will work as an open source because it is contributed by the team on internet networks o it very easy to manage the network over it. There are many libraries and commands provided by Linux that can be used to test network penetrations. Due to its operating system reliability, it makes the network faster than any other operating system.This is also one of the reason Why do Hackers use Linux.

Multi-tasking and security

Linux is designed in that way it can do many things at the same time like if a large printing job is in the background, it will not slow down your work, you can easily do much work without getting disturbed by problems such as system hanging, slow processing like other operating systems.

Linux is typically more secure as compare to other operating systems. Hackers need the more secure system to perform their Hacks, so most of the hackers were by the Linux for the hacking. Windows are more popular between average users and also among the programmersbecause it is more profitable to right the program in windows. So Linux is more securethan windows as less users use them.

Transparency

This is one of the main reason Why do Hackers use Linux.To utilize your hacks you must need to understand the operating system properly to large extent. You must need to have knowledge of OS which you are going to hack.

So for this, you need a system without any loopholes, Linux is completely transparent i.e. you can easily manipulate and watch the working of Linux.

This is not same with the Windows. Microsoft gives you to work only that what Microsoft want but on another hand, Linux was developed as an operating system that provides you more control over it rather than to make you do what you want.

You can control what you want to do which is basically necessary to hack a system.

>>>>>

So these were some features which make Linux operating system the best choice among the many hackers. Hacking has become the elite profession among the IT field.

This is because hacking requires the detailed knowledge of the IT concepts. So Linux is the much require for hackers to hack. Linux is typically more secure as compared to any other operating system, so pro hackers always want to work on the operating system which is more secure and also portable. Linux gives infinite control to the users over the system.

Due to its portability user can easily make the script in any of script language. So you need not target the same operating system to show your hacking capabilities, Linux is universal so you will not face any compatibility problems.

So acknowledge the above factors, hackers always want an operating system that provides maximum security to test their skills and also they need.

These are the main reasons Why do Hackers use Linux.

List Of Best Linux Operating Systems Usage In Hacking

Kali Linux

By far the most popular “hacking”/penetration testing Linux OS out there. (Link: https://www.kali.org/). Kali has a vast dimension of tools pre-installed and one can get up and running in a very short amount of time.

Parrot OS

Refined UI, lightweight and expert support are some of the USPs of this distro. (Link: https://parrotlinux.org/). Dedicated CDN’s mean lightning-fast downloads. Surfing the web privately has been made extremely easy on this OS.

BackBox

Based on Ubuntu, this OS consumes minimal resources and offers a simple and easy-to-use desktop manager (Link: https://www.backbox.org/). It has been specifically designed to reduce redundancies. Enables users to simulate attacks on applications or networks.

Black Arch

BlackArch Linux is an Arch Linux-based penetration testing distribution for penetration testers and security researchers. (Link : https://blackarch.org ) The repository contains 2743 tools. You can install tools individually or in groups. BlackArch Linux is compatible with existing Arch installs.

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Learn Basics of Computer Networking

 

Advantages of a Computer Network

• Helps you to connect with multiple computers together to send and receive information when accessing the network.
• Helps you to share printers, scanners, and email.
• Helps you to share information at very fast speed
• Electronic communication is more efficient and less expensive than without the network.

Clients and Servers

An important relationship on networks is that of the server and the client. A server is a computer that holds content and services such as a website, a media file, or a chat application. A good example of a server is the computer that holds the website for Google’s search page: http://www.google.com. The server holds that page, and sends it out when requested.

A client is a different computer, such as your laptop or cell phone, that requests to view, download, or use the content. The client can connect over a network to exchange information. For instance, when you request Google’s search page with your web browser, your computer is the client.

In the example below, two computers are connected together with an Ethernet cable. These computers are able to see each other and communicate over the cable. The client computer asks for a website from the server computer. The website is delivered from the server, and displayed on the client’s web browser.

Most requests and content delivery on networks are similar to, or are based on, a client to server relationship. On a network, the server can be located almost anywhere, and if the client has the address, it can access the content on the server.

Example:

Client: radio receiver in your car

Server: radio station

Computer Network Components

• Switches

Switches work as a controller which connects computers, printers, and other hardware devices to a network in a campus or a building.

It allows devices on your network to communicate with each other, as well as with other networks. It helps you to share resources and reduce the costing of any organization.

• Routers

Routers help you to connect with multiple networks. It enables you to share a single internet connection with multiple devices and saves money. This networking component acts as a dispatcher, which allows you to analyze data sent across a network. It automatically selects the best route for data to travel and send it on its way.

• Transmission Media

Transmission media is a carrier used to interconnect computers in a network, such as coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, and optical fiber cable. It is also known as links, channels, or lines.

• Access points

Access points allow devices to connect to the wireless network without cables. A wireless network allows you to bring new devices and provides flexible support to mobile users.

• Shared Data

Shared data are data which is shared between the clients such as data files, printer access programs, and email.

• Network Interface Card

Network Interface card sends, receives data, and controls data flow between the computer and the network.

• Local Operating System

A local OS which helps personal computers to access files, print to a local printer and uses one or more disk and CD drives which are located on the computer.

• Network Operating System

The network operating system is a program which runs on computers and servers. It allows the computers to communicate via network.

• Protocol

A protocol is the set of defined rules that allows two entities to communicate across the network. Some standard protocols used for this purpose are IP, TCP, UDP, FTP, etc.

• Hub

Hub is a device that splits network connection into multiple computers. It acts a distribution center so whenever a computer requests any information from a computer or from the network it sends the request to the hub through a cable. The hub will receive the request and transmit it to the entire network.

• LAN Cable

Local Area Network(LAN) cable is also called as Ethernet or data cable. It is used for connecting a device to the internet.

• OSI

OSI stands for Open Systems Interconnection. It is a reference model which allows you to specify standards for communications.

Unique Identifiers of Network

Hostname:

Every device of the network is associated with a unique device, which is called hostname.

IP Address:

In order to send and direct data across a network, computers need to be able to identify destinations and origins. This identification is an IP—Internet Protocol—address. An IP address is just a set of four numbers between 1 and 254, separated by dots.

Length of the IP address is 32-bits. IPv6 address is 128 bits. An example of an IP address is 173.194.43.7.

Firewall :

A function typically performed by routers, this filters traffic between networks and can protect them from interference or attacks.

DNS Server:

DNS stands for Domain Name System. It is a server which translates URL or web addresses into their corresponding IP addresses.

MAC Address:

MAC (Media Access Control Address) is known as a physical address is a unique identifier of each host and is associated with the NIC (Network Interface Card). General length of MAC address is : 12-digit/ 6 bytes/ 48 bits.

Port:

Port is a logical channel which allows network users to send or receive data to an application. Every host can have multiple applications running. Each of these applications are identified using the port number on which they are running.

Uses of Computer Networks

• Helps you to share resource such as printers
• Allows you to share expensive software’s and database among network participants
• Provides fast and effective communication from one computer to another computer
• Helps you to exchange data and information among users via a network.

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Programming Languages Used In Hacking

 

Why is Programming Important for Hackers?

Before understanding the best programming languages for hacking, you must walk through the importance of programming in hacking.

• Imperative to Know Coding:

Hacking involves breaking protocols and exploiting a network; thus, being a hacker requires you to understand the languages of the software that you are focusing on. Having zero coding knowledge will limit your opportunities in the future. Hence, it is imperative to have a knack for programming.

• Analyze Code:

Knowing programming will help you dissect and analyze a piece of code. You can also write your scripts and be able to modify the available scripts if the situation asks. At such times, having nil knowledge of programming knowledge will be a hindrance. Programs also help you automate multiple tasks, which would typically be time-consuming.

• Helps in Penetrating Target Fields:

Codes enable you to penetrate different fields you want to hack. It will help you identify the plan and strategy behind an attack. Programming allows you to comprehend the working of the target system or application before carrying out an exploit.

Best Programming Languages for Start Hacking

Let us see what programming language hackers use and see the best hacking language if one decides to go in the ethical hacking way.

1. Python

Python, the de facto hacking programming language, is heralded as the greatest hacking programming language, and with good reason. This complex programming language is also used by ethical hackers for scripting their on-demand hacking programs on the go. Python lets us do almost anything if used the right way, from checking the credibility of corporate servers to automating most of the hacking programs.

Why Python is Popular-

• Exploit Writing: Python is a general-purpose programming language and used extensively for exploit writing in the field of hacking. It plays a vital role in writing hacking scripts, exploits, and malicious programs.
• Availability of Ready-Made Modules: An outstanding feature that makes hacking easy with Python is the availability of ready-made modules. Several modules are available depending on the target, for example, OS modules, socket modules, and a lot more. You also use Python socket programming for discovering vulnerabilities in a system.
• Massive Community: Python has an enormous community that helps with third-party plugins daily. Since Python is an easy-to-read language with a simple syntax, it is helpful for beginners. You can easily write automation scripts using Python, and it makes prototyping much faster.
• The interpreted design of Python allows it to run without compilation being required.
• An easy-to-read language that is useful for ethical hackers to start with.
• Has a wide group that every day wields valuable 3rd-party plugins/library.
• One of the best programming languages for web server hacking.
• Writing scripts for automation makes it reasonably simple.
• Python helps to identify the target network easily and makes prototyping a lot easier.

2. JavaScript

JavaScript has overtaken PHP’s position as the de facto language of the internet, thanks to the recent launch of Node.JS. So, for hacking web applications, it has been the strongest programming language. Security professionals also emulate the technique of writing cross-site scripts in JavaScript by black hat hackers. As this hacking coding language and its back-end equivalent can manipulate front-end web components, it has become a common language for hacking complex web apps.

Why Javascript is Popular-

• Web Hacking: Currently, JavaScript is one of the best programming languages for hacking web applications. Understanding JavaScript allows hackers to discover vulnerabilities and carry web exploitation since most of the applications on the web use JavaScript or its libraries.
• Cross-Site Scripting: JavaScript can be used to read saved cookies. It is used to develop cross-site scripting programs for hacking. Additionally, JavaScript is also used to spread and reproduce malware and viruses quickly.
• Node.js: With the release of Node.js, JavaScript now supports backend development. This implies a larger field of exploitation. A hacker can use JS to snoop the typed words, inject malicious code, and track browsing history, to name a few.
• JavaScript can quickly manipulate the DOM of the browser, making it a viable option for creating Internet worms.
• Because JavaScript can create desktop cross-platform applications, it could be used by hackers for attacks such as buffer overflow and stack overflow.

3. PHP

PHP is an acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor, a dynamic programming language based on modern CMSs such as WordPress and Drupal. Since most of the internet’s personal websites are based on these CMSs, PHP’s in-depth understanding is a must to compromise those networks. So, if the specialty is web hacking, then one must improve his PHP skills.

Why PHP is Popular-

• Web Hacking Techniques: Hypertext Preprocessor or PHP is a server-side programming language used to build websites. Understanding PHP will help hackers understand web hacking techniques better.
• Server-Side Scripting: PHP is used in server-side scripting. Using PHP, you can write a custom application that alters a web server and makes the target server susceptible to attacks.
• Application in Web Domains: PHP is one of the most powerful server-side languages used in most web domains. Learning PHP helps you fight against malicious attackers. Popular Content Management Systems run on a foundation of PHP; hence, PHP helps you protect or compromise websites.

4. SQL

SQL stands for Structured Query Language for ethical hackers and is one of the most common hacking programming languages. To query and fetch information from databases, this programming language is used. Since most web-based software stores useful information in some database, SQL is the best programming language for breaking into corporate databases, such as user credentials. Any ethical hacker would not be able to combat database attacks without a full understanding of SQL

Why SQL is Popular-

• Database Interaction: Next on this list of the best programming languages for hacking is SQL. Having an in-depth knowledge of SQL enables you to comprehend a database’s structure, thereby helping you decide which scripts or tools to deploy.
• Hacking Databases: SQL is used for web hacking; it is undoubtedly the best programming language for hacking large databases. Counteracting a database attack is close to impossible without a good understanding of SQL.
• SQL Injection: Using SQL, hackers can perform SQL injection attacks. Hackers use SQL to develop various hacking programs based on SQL injection. SQL injection attacks help hackers view and modify confidential information from databases.
• Black hat hackers use this language to build SQL injection-based hacking programs.
• To acquire unhashed passwords, SQL is also used by hackers to run unauthorized queries.
• MySQL, MS SQL, and PostgreSQL provide common SQL databases.

5. C Programming

It is no wonder that C, the holy grail of modern programming languages, is still commonly used in the security industry. When it comes to accessing low-level hardware components such as RAM, the low-level nature of C offers an advantage over other languages used for hacking programming. When they need to exploit machine hardware and resources at a lower level, security professionals often use this language. C also gives the ability for penetration testers to write blazing fast programming scripts for sockets.

Why C is Popular-

• Exploit Writing and Development: C, the mother of all programming languages, is used massively in the security field; it helps with exploiting writing and development. The low-level nature of C proves better than compared to other programming languages used for hacking.
• Access Hardware: Hackers use C programming to access and manipulate system resources and hardware components such as the RAM. Security professionals mostly use C when they are required to manipulate system resources and hardware. C also helps penetration testers write programming scripts. Learning C will also help hackers get an overview of the structure of operating systems.
• Create Shellcodes: C is also used to create shellcodes, rootkits, exploits, build undetectable malware, keyloggers, and more. Sometimes, it is also advisable to learn both C and C++ as they both come in handy for hackers.
• C is a fast programming language at a low level.
• Most modern systems are designed using C, like Windows and Unix, so mastery of this language is necessary to understand these systems fully.
• After breaching a system, C is also used to obtain low-level access to memory and system processes.
• To simulate the library’s high-jacking attack, veteran security professionals also use C.

6. Ruby

One of the best programming languages for hacking multi-purpose corporate systems, Ruby is syntactically very similar to Python. Although both languages are great at automating common hacking programs, Ruby is much more web-focused. Ruby is arguably one of the best programming languages for hacking due to the superior flexibility it offers while writing exploits. This is why Metasploit, the most infamous penetration testing framework, chose Ruby as its base language.

Why Ruby is Popular-

• Several hackers have used Ruby to exploit corporate systems. Ruby is often used to write either small or large scripts and is used interchangeably with Bash scripting.
• If someone wants to master the art of writing efficient exploits, Ruby is important.
• This language borrows many of Smalltalk’s syntactic elements and is an excellent choice for writing programs for quick hacking.
• Having breached a network, Ruby is also used by veteran hackers to write CGI scripts.
• With the Rails framework, several next-generation web applications are created, making Ruby the best choice for breaking them.

7. Java

Java is now the industry’s most commonly used programming language. It drives several “legacy” and new web servers, such as Apache Tomcat and Spring MVC. Also, Java code now runs on more than 3 billion mobile devices with the launch of Android. So, this language, despite what many may assume, is still important. Java is the language if you’re looking for the best programming language for hacking into mobile devices.

Why Java is Popular-

• Much like C++, Java is also commonly used to reverse engineer paid applications by hackers.
• Professional penetration testers use it extensively to curate scalable servers for delivering payloads.
• For professional ethical hackers, Java makes it possible to build state-of-the-art hacking programs.
• Java is dynamic, contrary to C++. This means you can run them on any platform that supports Java once you write your hacking programs with Java.
• The development of hacking programs for the Android framework is integral to a deeper understanding of Java.

8. Assembly

It is a complicated low-level programming language that is used for hacking primitive systems. Assembly language helps a hacker manipulate systems straight up at the architectural level. It is also the most appropriate coding language to build malware like viruses and trojans. Assembly is also the go-to choice if you want to reverse engineer a piece of software that has already been compiled.

Why Assembly is Popular-

• Assembly language provides the ability for hackers to exploit devices at the architectural level explicitly.
• You can easily alter the processor accesses and execute instructions with Assembly for compromised systems.
• To create computer viruses and other malware, this is the de-facto language.
• With Assembly, you can easily create complex hacking programs that exploit disrupted services.
• Assembly, while difficult to learn, is the best language for time-critical work.

9. Perl

Perl codebases still occupy a significant portion of corporate tools, despite what you might think. While this language of hacking programming has long lost its appeal, Perl is still used by many old systems. This is still one of the best programming languages for hacking into such old computers, as it was the go-to solution for creating legacy Unix applications. A polyglot hacker would use Perl to craft various parts of its hacking programs, from building exploits to building payloads and backdoors.

Why perl is Popular –

• Perl still holds value in the hacker community for exploit writing. It is a great language that can help you manipulate Linux text files and create tools and exploits.
• Perl is still the best language available on Unix systems for manipulating text files.
• With this language, the extensible nature of Perl enables hackers to create a wide range of hacking programs.
• Perl is bundled with the most popular systems, enabling many systems to run Perl scripts.
• It also comes integrated with common web databases, so it can be effortless to break those stores by mastering Perl.

10. Bash

The HyperText Markup Language – HTML is the standard markup language used to create web pages. HTML also finds its use in developing hybrid mobile and desktop apps. HTML is considered an easy language to learn. Hence, it is While not quite a full-fledged programming language, if an ethical hacker wants to master hacking programming, proficiency in Bash is a must. In most Unix systems, Bash is the default command shell, and every major server is built on top of Unix. So, after he has obtained access to a network by using a mix of hacking programs, modifying the device itself is handy for Bash. It can be thought of as the latest hacking programs’ Swiss army knife and is a must for security enthusiasts.

Why Bash is Popular-

• Bash helps to automate the bulk of the hacking programs that are used to infiltrate a network.
• If someone is looking to build highly complex scripts that require the filesystem and directory tree to be changed, then Bash is the best option for scripting.
• To use hacking programs like NMAP, Armitage, and Metasploit properly, a deep understanding of this command shell is necessary.
• Complex shell scripts allow penetration and manipulation of hard-to-break systems by being able to write and understand them.

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