Intro to Computer Hacking

How can I hack?

It's a common enough question, asked on nearly every hacking board across the web, and yet, no one seems to be able to answer it.

One reason for this is the fact that the vast majority of people who really don't have, want, or need a clue. Then there's a small minority who have a good basic knowledge but simply not enough conviction to teach. Then there's the tiny minority who really know the ins and outs of computer systems, they can program exploits, bug fixes, and can generally fix, or find out how to fix nearly any problem. These are the people referred to as computer experts. An even smaller percentage of people again are called hackers. Hacker is a term that over recent time has been changed and exploited by the media to mean someone who breaks into and destroys a computer system. I don't like these people. These are the people who give true hackers a bad name. By dictionary definition, a hacker is someone who has an extraordinary ability to push a computer system, or program, to work beyond expected boundaries, "He hacked away at the program all night until he got it to work". A Hacker, in the true meaning should be respected, the modern interpretation, someone who breaks systems is traditionally known as a cracker.

The biggest reason for someone to truly want to become a hacker is to learn. There's no bigger reason than this. The simple craving to learn about, change, understand and improve a computer system and/or program is the single biggest goal for any hacker. Maybe the second biggest reason behind hacking is freedom. To understand this you must fist understand what I talked about in the previous paragraph, that hacking is not breaking systems, but improving them. Any one who considers themselves half knowledgeable about the Internet should have heard of Gnu/Linux. If you haven't please refer to http://www.linux.org/info/index.html. Linux and the GNU project embody the spirit of what I consider to be a true hacker goal. The ideas of freedom, improvement and development should be at the heart of every hacker's life. The Internet itself is another representation of this ideal. There is no one owner of the Internet; anyone can access it for no costs other than that of a phone call. The Internet is the single biggest source of information the world has ever seen. It contains information on billions of subjects, the vast majority of which is absolutely free. A person with a connection to the Internet can access information on everything from quantum computing to the exploration of mars, from pro-anarchy to pro-capitalist. It allows all this information to be accessible to everyone with no discrimination on the basis of age, colour, religious or political orientation. That's enough of a rant on freedom now. I'm sure most people are reading this to find out what it takes to become a hacker.

A hacker, as I have previously explained, is a person who has a craving for knowledge. If you don't have the will to learn continuously, spend countless hours reading, researching and improving then hacking defiantly isn't for you. Many people will give up after a few months, many I'm sure didn't even make it to this far into the document, if you did then well done, keep reading, in time, you will learn to truly enjoy hacking away at your own programs and helping others too. I am by no means a hacker; neither do I claim to be. However, I have been reading, learning and sometimes even contributing for quite a while now, and hopefully this document will allow you to do the same. Enough talk. This is where you start to learn.

As by now you will know, the main aim of hacking is knowledge. Before you can even hope to understand how to improve software you must fist understand how the current software works. Since most newbies (Newbie n. Someone who has little knowledge or experience with computer systems and/or programs) I assuming will be using a version of the Windows OS (OS - Operating System) Since you wish to learn how to hack I am assuming you have quite a strong grasp of the basics or Windows such as how to run programs, navigate your hard disk, install new software, hardware etc. If you do not know how to do this use the built in help function by clicking Start -> Help, or use your favourite search engine, I suggest google.com as it's probably the largest in the world. Learn how to use everything about your OS, including MS-DOS. To open a MS-DOS prompt, or shell Click on Start -> Programs -> MS-DOS Prompt , if this fails or the link isn't there for some unknown reason click Start -> Run and then type 'command.com'. This will run the program command.com, which is located in the c: directory of your hard disk. There are various programs that can be run from the dos prompt, which are very useful in basic hacking techniques.

Intro to MS-DOS

MS-DOS is a command line OS which is the basis for most windows OS's. It has many internal commands such as copy, cd, cls, ren, del. And several external commands including sys, move, format, deltree, syscopy. Internal commands are commands which are built into the command.com program and so can be run in any MS-DOS with no dependencies, External commands are commands which are not built into command.com, they are external programs which are usually found in c:windowscommand but can be found anywhere. In DOS, to find out what a command does you can type 'command /?' at a dos prompt where command is the name of the command you wish to learn about. This is invaluable and if you ever need to find out what a command does, this is the first thing you should try. Next I am going to explain some basic MS-DOS commands which will be useful during your exploration of the web.

ping

Usage: ping [-options] hostname.domain

Output:

Pinging yahoo.com [66.218.71.112] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.218.71.112: bytes=32 time=306ms TTL=45

Reply from 66.218.71.112: bytes=32 time=430ms TTL=45

Reply from 66.218.71.112: bytes=32 time=295ms TTL=45

Reply from 66.218.71.112: bytes=32 time=340ms TTL=45

Ping statistics for 66.218.71.112:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum