Getting in to hacking

Diddums x

Diddums x

Diddums x

Caporegime
Joined
24 Oct 2012
Posts
26,272
Location
Yer nan's knickers
Something I've been curious about for as long as I can remember. I've been watching loads of youtube vids which have fired up that curiosity again.

This thread will be for me to ask questions, ponder thoughts and maybe even inspire others to look in to it.

First port of call is hardware. I'll need to install Kali Linux and my PC is windows 10, not sure whether to get a cheapo used laptop or dual-boot on my PC. I reckon a laptop might be the way to go so I can still use my PC for guides and videos and whatnot as I go.

I've also got a Raspberry Pi here in my drawer which I can tinker with.

I doubt I'll ever get to the point of bug hunting or anything but it'll be a bit of fun for a while.

My first question in case anyone has any tips is regarding legality. I have no intention of doing anything shady but would still like to crack wifi passwords and stuff, so I guess I need to set up some form of dummy network, anyone got any pointers?

I'll update this as I go with any progress or resources I find, but if you've got any wisdom to add please do :D
 
I work in IT Security, have been a hacker in the past. Happy to help you out in any way with advice, suggestions etc.

So long as you aren't attacking systems without permission you're fine. Breaking your own WiFi for example is absolutely ok.

Up the ram on your PC and install VirtualBox - this will allow you to make a virtual network and install virtual machines to play with, including Kali. Also install Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on your machine and you can have command line Kali in a cmd window.

Also get yourself a TryHackMe subscription - you can try the free tier first - it's a great platform for learning.
 
Last edited:
Moley said:
I work in IT Security, have been a hacker in the past. Happy to help you out in any way with advice, suggestions etc.

So long as you aren't attacking systems without permission you're fine. Breaking your own WiFi for example is absolutely ok.

Also get yourself a TryHackMe subscription - you can try the free tier first - it's a great platform for learning.
Click to expand...

Excellent, exactly the kind of input I was hoping for. Thanks Moley :)
 
Going down the virtual route is cheaper/flexible, it also means if you break something, it's just a case of flatten the virtual environment and start again.
 
I seem to recall it's easy enough to sniff for WPA handshakes and dictionary attack them. But it takes a heck of a lot longer these days, due to routers coming with passwords of at least 8 alphanumeric characters.

This is why I keep my own Wi-Fi password ~32 characters long, with uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols and characters.

Watching Virgin Media engineers trying to login to my router when they visit to fix a fault usually generates a sigh then a chuckle, as I tell them the login password consists of 32 alphanumeric characters. :D
 
Last edited:
Senior security consultant here. Also happy to help. Always was into computers and programming early.

P.s don’t install Kali, just run it on a VM. Nobody runs it as a main OS, we just boot it up when needed :)

We didn’t have all the (mostly) free hacking networks when I started, HTB, TryHackMe etc. We had IRC channels and overthewire or Google to find random websites to have a pop at. Everything now can learned in a free, legal way without repercussion and tonnes of support.

I will add - definitely pick up a language, python probably your best bet. And learn some bash scripting. The Linux terminal is so powerful for data manipulation and running scripts, quick one liners and loops to process data etc.

Either way, enjoy it, and if you wanted to pivot into it as a career it can be very lucrative once you’ve honed your skills.
 
Last edited:
Diddums said:
My first question in case anyone has any tips is regarding legality. I have no intention of doing anything shady but would still like to crack wifi passwords and stuff, so I guess I need to set up some form of dummy network, anyone got any pointers?

I'll update this as I go with any progress or resources I find, but if you've got any wisdom to add please do :D
Click to expand...

Diddums in 6 months time, leaning out of the back of a police car:

nJosIZM.gif



Dunno if you've seen this site before but it might be a good place to start:

www.hackthissite.org

HackThisSite

HackThisSite.org is a free, safe and legal training ground for hackers to test and expand their ethical hacking skills with challenges, CTFs, and more.
www.hackthissite.org www.hackthissite.org
 
Another thing to complement the likes of hackthissite and general Kali tomfoolery is capture the flag style 'games'. One that I like is https://www.picoctf.org/ which has a kind of gaming achievement point scoring system. The disadvantage is that some challenges are user set and either not good or not well explained. It's still worth doing though.
 
Pointless nowadays surely, AI is taking over this realm quite quickly making human hacking roles fatly redundant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom