A powered-off MacBook can be compromised in less than three minutes. With just a few commands, it's possible for a hacker to extract a target's password hash and crack it without their knowledge. The goal in this article is to acquire a target's .plist file which contains the ...more
Threats to your privacy and security are everywhere, so protecting your data should be the highest priority for anyone with a smartphone. However, one threat many people overlook is the company who supplies the operating system your Android phone runs — Google. Google offers ...more
Networking is built largely on trust. Most devices do not verify that another device is what it identifies itself to be, so long as it functions as expected. In the case of a man-in-the-middle attack, we can abuse this trust by impersonating a wireless access point, allowing u ...more
Tossing an old Android smartphone with a decent battery into your hacking kit can let you quickly map hundreds of vulnerable networks in your area just by walking or driving by them. The practice of wardriving uses a Wi-Fi network card and GPS receiver to stealthily discover a ...more
Google released its "Android Security: 2016 Year in Review" report last month, and to no one's surprise, included its own flagship phones. However, one surprise on the list was the BlackBerry PRIV, which Google named one of the best Android devices for privacy. The PRIV was B ...more
Signal, the encrypted messaging app, has seen 1.4 million downloads in just the first quarter of 2017—roughly twice the downloads it received in the same period last year. Rani Molla at Recode attributes this to Donald Trump's inauguration, as the private messaging service saw ...more
Opera's web browser for Android, Opera Mini, now comes with integrated ad-blocking technology for a less cluttered browsing experience. More importantly, it decreases the amount of data being loaded, which Opera claims increases webpage loading times by 40 percent. This is in ...more
In recent years, Hollywood has taken a shine to hackers, with hackers appearing in almost every heist or mystery movie now. This can be both good and bad for our profession. As we know, whichever way Hollywood decides to depict our profession is how most people will perceive i ...more
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! I have already done a few tutorials on password cracking, including ones for Linux and Windows, WEP and WPA2, and even online passwords using THC Hydra. Now, I thought it might be worthwhile to begin a series on password cracking in general. ...more
Many of my aspiring hackers have written to me asking the same thing. "What skills do I need to be a good hacker?" As the hacker is among the most skilled information technology disciplines, it requires a wide knowledge of IT technologies and techniques. To truly be a great h ...more
With more people joining the internet scene each day it's important that it's security is.. well it has to be good. Of course everything can be hacked and that's the way hackers work. They know there IS a vulnerability but they don't don't know the rest. in this article i'll t ...more
Uh oh. Somebody screwed up big this time. It has recently been reported that Iraqi insurgents have used $26 software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. drones located in Middle East conflict zones. The drone (a remotely piloted aircraft) is considered one of the U.S. mil ...more
Smartphones are inherently bad for privacy. You've basically got a tracking device in your pocket, pinging off cell towers and locking onto GPS satellites. All the while, tracking cookies, advertising IDs, and usage stats follow you around the internet. So no, there's no such ...more
There have been concerns with how much personal information Google tracks and all the things they know about us. Of course, that's what makes Google services so useful, they can use that information to cater to each of us individually. So yes, it serves a purpose, but it's not ...more
Hacking Wi-Fi is a lot easier than most people think, but the ways of doing so are clustered around a few common techniques most hackers use. With a few simple actions, the average user can go a long way toward defending against the five most common methods of Wi-Fi hacking, w ...more
Telegram routinely boasts about its secure messaging for truly private conversations between two parties. However, default cloud chats in Telegram are only encrypted between client and server, not client and client, which means you have to be a little proactive in making sure ...more
Before we dive any further into getting your Mac ready for hacking, I wanted to continue on with the concept of encryption. In the last part, we talked about full disk encryption on your Mac, but now I want to quickly cover the encryption of disk images before we dive into man ...more
My first ever post on here was 'Keeping your hacking identity secret' and it did very well, and its not something I see here on null byte. So read along. Disclaimer: I didnt introduce you this subject in my last post, but I while do that now. First, I want to clarify that t ...more
Welcome back, my nascent hackers! In the conclusion of the Mr. Robot television series, Elliot and fsociety successfully completed their mission of encrypting all of Evil Corp's data with AES-128 encryption and destroying the key. Now that all of the data on Evil Corp's serv ...more
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! "How can I travel and communicate over the Internet without being tracked or spied on by anyone?" It's a question many Null Byteans have asked me, so I have decided to write a comprehensive article addressing this issue. There are a multitude ...more
You've probably heard of RCS messaging. The new standard has been promoted by Google as their answer to iMessage and is the backbone behind the new "Chat" features in Android Messages. With RCS, Android phones will now enjoy enhanced messaging like iPhone users have had for ye ...more
If you're looking to keep your conversations private, look no further than Telegram. Its cloud-based chats are secure and its optional end-to-end encrypted chats even more so, but you can't really prevent someone in the conversation from sharing your messages. However, you can ...more
Text conversations can get confusing fast. In the time it takes to type up a response to your friend, they can send you one, two, three, or more messages. Once you send the original reply, it no longer makes sense in the context of the chat. Clear up the confusion with Faceboo ...more
Apple's macOS operating system is just as vulnerable to attacks as any Windows 10 computer or Android smartphone. Hacker's can embed backdoors, evade antivirus with simple commands, and utilize USB flash drives to completely compromise a MacBook. In this always-updated guide, ...more
After a hacker has configured Metasploit on a remote private server, created a resource script for automation, and created a simple payload, he or she can begin the process of remotely controlling someone's Windows 10 computer with just a few moments of physical access — even ...more
Due to the overnight success of smartphones, millions of people are connecting with others. Currently, over 15 million text messages are sent every minute worldwide. Most of this communication is happening in the open where any hacker can intercept and share in the discussion ...more
In a world increasingly regulated by computers, bugs are like real-life cheat codes. They give you the power to break the rules and do good or bad without ever leaving your seat. And government agencies around the world are discovering and stockpiling unreported bugs as cyberw ...more
When it comes to hacking guides, most are written from the perspective of a Linux user. There are a few outliers, but it's mainly Linux, which leads to the idea that Linux is the only OS that's viable for hacking. This couldn't be further from the truth. A properly set up Appl ...more
When Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19.3 billion back in 2014, we all knew this was coming—it just took longer than we thought. But starting today, the data mining became official, and now, information from your favorite messaging app is no longer out of reach for the world' ...more
Got some seriously sensitive information to keep safe and a spare-no-expenses attitude? Then the new Solarin from Sirin Labs is the smartphone for you and your $17,000. The Solarin is touted as the world's most secure smartphone. The makers of the Android-based phone packed i ...more
At their annual I/O event, Google introduced their latest app to the public: Allo. The messaging app is the company's latest and most powerful entry into the expanding world of similar apps, with one twist—the inclusion of artificial intelligence. Allo by Google. Pre-register ...more
It's a given that if you're driving, you or someone you know has Waze as a go-to on their smartphone. The Google-owned crowdsourced navigation app is one of the best for avoiding traffic, roadblocks, and even cops. But a new academic study and report from Fusion suggest that ...more
The desktop browser market has some stiff competition going on, but Opera has always been able to maintain its market share by offering innovative features such as a data saver option. With over 350 million users, it's safe to say folks are appreciative of the efforts being ma ...more
T-Mobile's credit-checking system was recently hacked, and this one is about as bad as it gets. The names of 15 million customers, their date of birth and social security number, as well as driver's license numbers and additional information was illegally accessed, meaning the ...more
One of Android's biggest strengths, when compared to other mobile operating systems is its open file structure. Google introduced a built-in file manager with Marshmallow that provides basic file management, but like with most apps on Android, there are alternatives. Third-par ...more
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! Awhile back, I demonstrated one of my favorite little tools, netcat, which enables us to create a connection between any two machines and transfer files or spawn a command shell for "owning" the system. Despite the beauty and elegance of th ...more
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! There's an evil dictator hellbent on destroying the world, and in one of our last hacks, we successfully compromised his computer and saved the world from nuclear annihilation. Then, we covered our tracks so no one would know what we did, a ...more
When you're sending sensitive information via email, it's best to do so with end-to-end encryption. Even better, set the email to destroy itself after a set amount of time for a little piece of mind. Sending a self-destructing email message is a cinch in ProtonMail for Androi ...more
If you're using Telegram for its "Secret Chats" feature, which provides end-to-end encryption for your messages, then I'd highly recommend locking down the app itself with a passcode, PIN, or password. While your phone itself may have a secure lock screen already, if that gets ...more
Hi! Let me get started on this subject as it is a very "touchy" subject. We all want to "hack" these days, and that's logical. Te be real honest here, i was inspired once by the words someone from the Null byte community said. In the (near) future, wars will be ended by comput ...more
Data can be injected into images quickly without the use of metadata tools. Attackers may use this knowledge to exfiltrate sensitive information from a MacBook by sending the pictures to ordinary file-sharing websites. Continuing on the topics of DPI evasion, payload obfuscat ...more
This time it's serious. Really. The largest web security vulnerability of all time went public on Monday, April 7th, 2014, resulting in widespread panic throughout the Internet as system administrators scrambled to secure their websites from the OpenSSL bug known as Heartblee ...more
Popular chat apps like Messenger allow us to communicate with friends and family across iOS and Android phones alike. However, that interconnectivity doesn't mean both apps are the same. While Facebook has made strides to close gaps between these two platforms, chat heads rema ...more
WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Facebook, has several important privacy and security-related features, including end-to-end encryption, screen lock, read receipts, and two-step verification. If you're an avid WhatsApp user, you'll be happy to know there are more p ...more
The latest film addition in the American-produced Millennium series, The Girl in the Spider's Web, was just released on Blu-ray a few days ago. As you could expect, the movie has many hacking scenes throughout, just like the previous English and Swedish language movies centere ...more
Note-taking apps are a dime a dozen on the Play Store. However, due to their inability to sync across devices, many can't compete with Google Keep. Mozilla decided to throw their hat in the ring with Notes by Firefox, and unlike others, their notes app syncs easily with one of ...more
The first question people ask me when they come to my apartment is usually "What's your Wi-Fi password?" While I'm happy to give my friends free access to the internet, it's hard to walk each person through my secure password. Luckily, there's a way to create a QR code that wi ...more
A massive leak appeared the web today, and it's got some huge security implications for every iPhone on the market. On the plus side, it also has some potential for enabling deep-level modifications and jailbreak tweaks. GitHub user ZioShiba posted the iBoot source code for i ...more
With Signal's class-leading end-to-end encryption, you can be sure your messages will remain secure as they travel to the recipient. However, once the message arrives, its privacy is completely dependent on the receiver, who could share it anywhere if they wanted. To patch thi ...more
It can be hard to get all of your friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances to jump on board with the more-secure email system ProtonMail, but that doesn't mean you can't still send them encrypted emails. Best of all, they won't even have to install any other apps or exten ...more
While it's easy enough to take a screenshot of an end-to-end encrypted Telegram chat thread using an iPhone, it's an entirely different story on Android phones. Telegram disables screenshots for Secret Chats by default on Android, and not everyone can turn it on. Sometime in ...more
While using end-to-end encryption may be enough security for most of your messages in Telegram, you can go a step beyond this by sending messages that disappear after an allotted amount of time. This prevents you from having to manually delete the message at a later time, so y ...more
If the recent "state sponsored" Yahoo hack wasn't enough motivation for users to stop using their services, the latest news about Yahoo should be. Joseph Menn, a reporter at Reuters, just revealed that Yahoo created a custom email wiretap service for the US government. Last y ...more
Greetings fellow hackers. This tutorial is about creating "safe" passwords. This is different from strong passwords. Safe passwords is just creating a password that is not used by someone else or colleague, my definition. But how do you prevent something like this from happeni ...more
Hello! This is my first post on this awesome website! I know that Windows exploits are less common than the more advanced hacks, but I found something I deem pretty cool and figured why not share it with you all. Alright, enough about me, lets begin. Warning: This resets your ...more
CEO's of IT companies doesn't know this because they are not a hacker. Only a true hacker can become a successful Security head officer. Head of Security: Well let me tell you something my good friend. Many companies we have today they are still getting attacked from hackers ...more
Whether you are sending your phone in for repairs or finally selling it to upgrade to a new flagship, you are going to need to make sure all of your personal data is removed from your device. Deleting your messages and pictures manually is a good to protect yourself from aver ...more
Smartphone users often wish for a privacy, where no one is able to poke his/her nose in their personal stuff. Unfortunately, none of the smartphones have been able to guard their privacy in this fashion. Smartphones usually come up with none or almost negligible built-in secur ...more
Welcome back, my novice hackers! As we saw in my first tutorial on Facebook hacking, it is not a simple task. However, with the right skills and tools, as well as persistence and ingenuity, nothing is beyond our capabilities. One of the cardinal rules of hacking is: "If I ca ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! In recent weeks, the Heartbleed vulnerability of OpenSSL has been dominating the information security headlines. This vulnerability enables an attacker to extract data from the server's memory that may contain authentication credentials, co ...more