Windows 10 has proved to be immensely popular (free upgrades certainly don't hurt), and with back to school time, there's a good chance you have a new computer running Microsoft's latest OS. You maybe you decided to go with a clean installation rather than an upgrade, or just ...more
I see many people posting the same thing on the internet. "How do I become a hacker? Where do I commence?" The definition of 'Hacker' varies from person to person. Personally, I call it someone who relishes fiddling with technology, one who has the mind to manipulate technolo ...more
Historically, battery life has not been a strong suit for machines running Windows. Poor decisions by hardware manufacturers combined with the resource-hogging behavior of Windows are to blame. However, Microsoft is trying to resolve this issue, once again, with the release of ...more
There are many hacks for increasing productivity, but so many depend on tricking your own mind or behavior. When it comes to motivation in the workplace, though, sometimes the space within which you work dictates how you behave and the work you produce. So if you want to incre ...more
Windows 95, which introduced the Start menu to the world, recently celebrated its 20th birthday! The feature was an instant hit, becoming a core component of Windows operating systems. Well, it was removed in the mistake that was Windows 8, but you should know by now that the ...more
In response to the success of Apple Pay and an attempt to stave off the appealing Samsung Pay service, Google is completely revamping Android's mobile payments system. Instead of just using Google Wallet as an app to make payments with your phone, a new service called Android ...more
Have you ever been using your computer when a friend randomly decides it's time to start up a text message conversation? You usually have to stop what you're doing on the desktop, then go pick up your smartphone and respond to the text. Then, if your buddy replies with another ...more
Not all batteries are created equal, but one thing's for sure—they all lose capacity over time. Thankfully, the advanced lithium-ion batteries in your MacBook and iPhone are meant to last for several years before they begin to lose their overall charge capacity. Of course, th ...more
Your average Android phone or tablet comes with quite a few apps already installed—even before you turn the device on for the first time. These pre-installed apps are certainly helpful when it comes to getting your feet wet with Android, but in many cases, they're not always t ...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
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! As most of you know, Mr. Robot is probably the best hacker TV show ever! This is a great show about a cyber security engineer who is being enticed to hack the very corporation he's being paid to protect. This show is so good, I began a series ...more
There is a huge myth that most Americans believe, and it might be the marketing triumph of the 20th century. We pay an absurd markup (Zero Hedge says as much as 280,000% for "designer" water) on something we can get for free because most of us believe that bottled water is hea ...more
Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated personal assistant, originally launch on Windows Phone, but is now built directly into Windows 10 complete with "Hey Cortana" voice search (take that, Apple). It can help you locate files, set up reminders, control music. Don't Miss: How t ...more
I am very new to Null Byte but I find much of its content and community incredibly interesting. I spent quite a bit of time just chronologically going through the posts and I noticed a common theme in many of the beginner posts. Many people seem to want to know the 'secret' or ...more
A while back, I wrote review of my favorite hacking movies of all time. Two of my key criteria were; (1) how realistic was the hacking, and (2) are the hackers portrayed as the "good guys." This past winter, a new hacker movie was released, appropriately named Blackhat starrin ...more
If you remember last time, we successfully uploaded picture with a small hidden PHP command executer embedded in it onto a server. Now, our goal is to take this a step further and get an interactive shell. To do this, we need to upload another file that either binds a port for ...more
Windows 10 is due to be released on July 29th, and the majority of existing Windows users should be eligible to upgrade to the newer version for free. But there's been a lot of confusion about which older versions of Windows will be eligible for the free update, and some unce ...more
There are many reasons to root Android, but for me, the most important one is to have the Xposed Framework. Xposed gives you access to hundreds of modules, which take away the need to manually modify core system files to add new features and functionality to your Android devic ...more
Although iOS 8.4 was just released, the team behind the iOS 8.3 jailbreak have updated their tool for the latest operating system, and will work on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. So if you've been wanting to get all your tweaks back, or want to start exploring all of Cydia's ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! One of the most important issues any hacker must address is how to get past security devices and remain undetected. These can include antivirus software, intrusion detection systems, firewalls, web application firewalls, and numerous others ...more
As glorious as a good drink (or five) can be, the aftermath of alcohol on the body is one of life's least enjoyable features. A few hours of fun can come at the expense of a day or two of feeling dead to the world, with an upset stomach, an aching body, and a headache that mak ...more
And we meet again Crackers! Welcome to my 7th post (Part-2), this tutorial will explain about some more basics of Batch Scripting, with C00L Scripts, which in turn will help you learn and understand better #1 Script: Freezer: ----------------- @echo off :A start goto :A --- ...more
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! Have you ever wondered where the physical location of an IP address is? Maybe you want to know if that proxy server you are using is actually out of your local legal jurisdiction. Or, maybe you have the IP address of someone you are corres ...more
Hi everyone! In the previous part of this series we introduced remote code arbitrary execution via buffer overflows using all of our past experiences. As I said back then, today I'll be explaining the other way you may use to redirect execution flow: using a NOP sled, along ...more
Thanks to leaks and hard working developers, rooting tools for brand new Android devices are usually available right around the time of the smartphone's release, if not earlier. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are no exception. CF Auto Root, by renowned dev Chainfire, has n ...more
What Is IPython? IPython is a richly featured replacement for the standard python interpreter. It offers a wider range of functionality, that the standard interpreter, which generally ships with python, sorely lacks. It's a great tool for learning Python faster than you would ...more
Hello, hackers and engineers! Today we are going to dive a tiny bit deeper into the secrets of psychology, and how we can use them with hacking and social engineering attacks. For those of you that haven't looked at any of my other social engineering tutorials, I always tell ...more
Deep down at the core of Android lies the system kernel, which serves as a bridge between software and hardware. Custom kernels can be installed in place of the stock offering, and these are generally optimized for better performance or increased battery efficiency. If you've ...more
Edit: Some of the methods I show you may be difficult, or not work at famous or high quality hotels. Welcome back, my excited hackers! Right now I am on vacation in the wonderful city of Tulum, Mexico. I thought it would be a great idea to teach you guys yet another social en ...more
While Kobe beef cows get massaged, American dairy cows are taking a real beating. Many people are cutting back on dairy while a growing number of people are discovering that they're lactose intolerant. As the public's disdain of cow's milk grows, milk sales themselves are at a ...more
Your iPhone's home screen is a tricky thing. You can sort your collection of apps in any order you'd like, but where you place those apps is a totally different story. App and folder placement follows a strict grid on iOS from left to right, top to bottom. No exceptions, and t ...more
The 13-megapixel camera on the OnePlus One is capable of taking some pretty impressive shots, but the stock CameraNext app doesn't do the hardware justice. When compared to the camera app that ships on the ColorOS version of the One, you can immediately see an increase in clar ...more
There are certain foods and beverages that can actually brighten your smile or improve your dental health when you chew or sip them. Once you understand their chemical properties or textures, you can look to items you already have in your cupboards or refrigerator to help keep ...more
Christmas trees, once decorated and brightly lit, are the penultimate holiday decoration, but authentic pines lose their brilliance fast without any nourishment. Plus, they are major fire hazards without regular hydration. But watering one requires a lot of sliding around on t ...more
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! A short while ago, I introduced you to regular expressions. Regular expressions are a language that is particularly useful for finding complex text patterns in streams of data. Although first developed for Perl, regular expressions are use ...more
Getting a new phone is exciting, but having access to its exclusive apps ahead of its release is what we're all about here on Gadget Hacks. If you have a Galaxy Note 3, you've probably only had it for a year or less, so upgrading to the Note 4 may not be a viable option when ...more
Shortly after the official release of iOS 8, news outlets like BGR, Gizmodo, and Huffington Post were instructing iPhone 4S users to refrain from updating (which were practically regurgitations of an Ars Technica piece). I'm not here to sway you in one direction or the other, ...more
I hate to break it to you, but you're probably here because you were trolled. Thanks to a Photoshopped image making rounds across Twitter, Apple fans were tricked into believing that iOS 8 allowed them to lock individual apps, accessible only through a passcode or fingerprint ...more
There are a ton of great new features in iOS 8, and one of the most interesting (and perplexing) ones is called "Family Sharing." By utilizing this feature, you are creating a continuity among all of the iOS devices in your family, granting members the ability to share apps, ...more
The build.prop file in an Android device is home to many system-level values and settings. Everything from screen density to video recording quality is covered in this file, and people have been editing these entries to get new functionality and better performance since Androi ...more
The world of root is upon us, folks. While the LG G3 has be available for purchase for a couple of months now, rooting had been a shaky subject. International and T-Mobile variants enjoyed root from day one, while various security patches left the AT&T and Verizon Wireless var ...more
With Safestrap bringing custom recovery functionality to the AT&T and Verizon Wireless variants of the Samsung Galaxy S5, it's high time we covered this process for all other versions of the GS5. If you're not familiar with the term "custom recovery", it's a piece of software ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Continuing with my series on how to crack passwords, I now want to introduce you to one of the newest and best designed password crackers out there—hashcat. The beauty of hashcat is in its design, which focuses on speed and versatility. It ...more
When it's most important for me to browse the web incognito, I always seem to forget to enable private browsing. If that sounds like you, it's time you stop making that mistake for good. Manually deleting the cache and browser history is a thing of the past, and as it turns ou ...more
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! In previous guides, we have used one of the most powerful hacking platforms on the planet, Metasploit, to perform numerous hacks. They ranged from exploiting Windows XP and Windows 7/8 vulnerabilities, to installing a keylogger and turning ...more
One of the best things about the Nexus line of devices is the ease with which one can achieve root. Plug your phone into your PC, download a couple files, type a few commands, and you can be rooted within 30 minutes. No muss, no fuss, no carrier-locked bootloaders. But it too ...more
Safari has some cool new features in iOS 8, but the app that seems to have gotten the biggest update so far is Messages. A lot of the new Messages features were discussed during Apple's developers conference, but we found many others and picked out our favorite hidden ones bel ...more
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers and those who want to catch my aspiring hackers! As most of you know, this series on digital forensics is inspired by the motivation to keep all of you all out of custody. The more you know about the techniques used by law enforcement and for ...more
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! As you have probably discovered by now, the file system in Linux is structured differently from Windows. There are no physical drives—just a logical file system tree with root at the top (yes, I know, roots should be at the bottom, but this ...more
Like Costco's price codes or the tags on your bread, the numerical codes printed on those sticky little fruit and vegetable labels can reveal a lot of information to us consumers. Once you understand the codes, you can look at that little label (also known as PLU, or "price lo ...more
Look away from this screen and try to remember the sound of your childhood hero's voice. Did you do it? Do it again, and this time pay attention to your eyes. There's a good chance your eyes stayed centered as you decided on who your hero was, moved slightly up and to your le ...more
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! In previous tutorials, I have shown you how to scan the globe for vulnerable servers and write simple scripts in BASH and Perl to perform other reconnaissance tasks. In a very recent guide, I taught how to scan vulnerable servers for Heartbl ...more
Sometimes, stock just doesn't cut it. When you're sick of the limitations in Sense on your HTC One, a new ROM can be a ray of sunshine. By installing a custom ROM, you can add or unlock new features in Sense, or you can get a pure Android experience instead. It's all up to you ...more
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Recently, I demonstrated a hack where you could redirect traffic intended for one site, such as bankofamerica.com, to your fake website. Of course, to really make this work, you would need to make a replica of the site you were spoofing, or ...more
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! A short while ago, I did a tutorial on conducting passive OS fingerprinting with p0f. As you remember, p0f is different from other operating system fingerprinting tools as it does not send any packets to the target, instead it simply takes ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! In a previous tutorial on hacking databases, I showed you how to find online databases and then how to enumerate the databases, tables, and columns. In this guide, we'll now exfiltrate, extract, remove—whatever term you prefer—the data from ...more
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! I recently began a new series on digital forensics to help tenderfoot hackers from being detected and ultimately, incarcerated. In this installment of that series, we will look at recovering deleted files. This is important to hackers beca ...more
In my first tutorial on Linux basics, I discussed the importance of hackers using Linux and the structure of the directory system. We also looked briefly at the cd command. In this second Linux guide, I'll spend a bit more time with changing directories, listing directories, c ...more
Forum member Luciano posted a terrific guide on adding hacks to our phone by editing build.prop. The article was great, but one of best things I saw in it was the "What You'll Need" section: A current nandroid/backup of your device. Having current and complete backups of you ...more
Do you ever wonder how all these celebrities continue to have their private photos spread all over the internet? While celebrities' phones and computers are forever vulnerable to attacks, the common folk must also be wary. No matter how careful you think you were went you sent ...more