The latest software update for iPhone has a few new features you should know about, including an enhanced security feature to protect your Apple ID account from phishing and other attacks. Keep reading to see everything new that's included with iOS 16.3 for iPhone. The iOS 16 ...more
Compromised uTorrent clients can be abused to download a malicious torrent file. The malicious file is designed to embed a persistent backdoor and execute when Windows 10 reboots, granting the attacker remote access to the operating system at will. Torrent clients like uTorre ...more
Complex shell scripts can be implanted into photo metadata and later used to exploit a MacBook. In addition to obfuscating the true nature of an attack, this technique can be used to evade network firewalls as well as vigilant sysadmins. In this attack scenario, a malicious c ...more
Microsoft Office files can be password-protected in order to prevent tampering and ensure data integrity. But password-protected documents from earlier versions of Office are susceptible to having their hashes extracted with a simple program called office2john. Those extracted ...more
For lack of a better word, a missing iPhone sucks. Not only do you lose a physical device that cost you a small fortune, but there's also the probability you'll never see your precious data again. Hackers and thieves might, just not you. To keep this from ever happening, there ...more
Auditing websites and discovering vulnerabilities can be a challenge. With RapidScan and UserLAnd combined, anyone with an unrooted Android phone can start hacking websites with a few simple commands. RapidScan does an excellent job of automating the deployment of vulnerabili ...more
With Virtual Network Computing, you don't need to carry a spare keyboard, mouse, or monitor to use your headless computer's full graphical user interface (GUI). Instead, you can connect remotely to it through any available computer or smartphone. Virtual Network Computing, be ...more
Imagine for a moment that a VPN is like putting on a disguise for your computer. This disguise works to change your IP address, secure your traffic with encryption, and mask your location to bypass regional restrictions. This makes it a helpful tool for both whistleblowers and ...more
A router is the core of anyone's internet experience, but most people don't spend much time setting up this critical piece of hardware. Old firmware, default passwords, and other configuration issues continue to haunt many organizations. Exploiting the poor, neglected computer ...more
Social engineering makes headlines because human behavior is often the weakest link of even well-defended targets. Automated social engineering tools can help reclusive hackers touch these techniques, but the study of how to hack human interactions in person is often ignored. ...more
The Shadow Brokers, a hacker group known for its dump of NSA hacking tools in 2016, has just leaked their remaining set of data which implies that the NSA compromised SWIFT, the global provider of secure financial services, to spy on banks in the Middle East. The hackers have ...more
This tutorial was written with Windows 7 in mind, but the principle applies to all versions starting from 7. User Account Control (UAC) Processes in Windows run at different levels of integrity, representing the different amounts of "trust" they have to interact with the com ...more
Hello partners, first of all I would like to thank all those who have sent me positive feedback about my posts, to say that I'm always willing to learn and teach. I'm also open to answer the appropriate questions. Second i want to say sorry for the series i left in stand by m ...more
Welcome back, my novice hackers! New hackers often ask me the same question: "What is the easiest platform to hack?" My response is always the same—it is not a platform, but rather a particular piece of software that is easiest to hack, which is on nearly every client-side sy ...more
There are many impressive features on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but just like any other smartphone on the market, the most used one is the camera. How many times did you take a picture today? Or admire all the selfies in your gallery? Or upload a video to Instagram, Vine, or Sn ...more
Welcome back, my hacker trainees! A score of my readers have been begging for tutorials on how to hack Wi-Fi, so with this article, I'm initiating a new series dedicated to Wi-Fi hacks. This will probably be around 6-9 articles, starting with the basics of the technologies. I ...more
Ads aren't the only annoying part of navigating websites in Safari. Colorful banners, autoplaying videos, embedded objects, and other distracting elements can make it harder to read or watch what you want. Although ad blockers are one answer, they only get rid of advertisement ...more
The Digispark is a low-cost USB development board that's programmable in Arduino and capable of posing as a keyboard, allowing it to deliver a number of payloads. For only a few dollars, we can use the Digispark to deliver a payload to a macOS computer that will track the Mac ...more
Every summer for the last 26 years, hoards of hackers have descended on the Las Vegas Strip for DEFCON, the biggest hacker conference in the US. There's a wealth of talks every season (DEFCON 27 has at least 95 scheduled), and there have been some essential topics to learn fro ...more
The Windows 10 desktop and microphone can be livestreamed without using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) software and without opening any ports on the target computer. A hacker with low user privileges can monitor and exfiltrate a target's every move and private conversation in r ...more
It's common for IoT devices like Wi-Fi security cameras to host a website for controlling or configuring the camera that uses HTTP instead of the more secure HTTPS. This means anyone with the network password can see traffic to and from the camera, allowing a hacker to interce ...more
The macOS 10.14 security update tried to make parts of the operating system difficult for hackers to access. Let's take a closer look at how its new feature works and what we can do to spoof the origin of an application attempting to access protected data. Apple introduced so ...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
The latest Star Wars movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story, has grossed almost $350 million worldwide during its first month in theaters. This is a good opportunity to discuss how hackers can use media hype (in this case, Hollywood movie hype) to disarm an unsuspecting Windows user i ...more
Kali Linux is established as the go-to operating system for penetration testing, but in its default configuration, it's less than ideal for regular desktop use. While in many scenarios, a live boot or virtual environment can resolve these issues, in some situations, a full ins ...more
If you want to follow Null Byte tutorials and try out Kali Linux, the Raspberry Pi is a perfect way to start. In 2018, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ was released featuring a better CPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet built in. Our recommended Kali Pi kit for beginners learning e ...more
Design flaws in many routers can allow hackers to steal Wi-Fi credentials, even if WPA or WPA2 encryption is used with a strong password. While this tactic used to take up to 8 hours, the newer WPS Pixie-Dust attack can crack networks in seconds. To do this, a modern wireless ...more
After testing a series of Android 8.0 builds, Essential hit the reset button and jumped to Android 8.1 Oreo. The beta program didn't last long, as Essential has now released the official 8.1 update to the masses. The features from the 8.0 betas are all still there, plus a few ...more
The Watch Dogs video game series came out in 2014, enamoring audiences with the idea of a seemingly magical smartphone that could change traffic signals, hack web cameras, and even remotely control forklifts. This may sound like science fiction, but The Sonic uses a customized ...more
Our smartphones are full of personally-identifiable information. So much of what we do with these devices is tracked and recorded to make our experience more streamlined and personalized. For many users, that's a fair trade — but for privacy-minded folks, it's a raw deal. And ...more
The Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized computer that can crack Wi-Fi, clone key cards, break into laptops, and even clone an existing Wi-Fi network to trick users into connecting to the Pi instead. It can jam Wi-Fi for blocks, track cell phones, listen in on police scanners, ...more
What if the code you are trying to reverse engineer is obfuscated or somehow corrupted? What if no way is left? Here comes what I like to call (wrongly and ironically) the "brute force of reverse engineering". Before I even start, as always, I wanted to apologize for any uncl ...more
Some websites require you to perform a verification task so they know you're human and not a bot. It helps websites curb spam, abuse, unauthorized access, and cyberattacks but also adds an obstacle for anyone trying to visit their content. If you find it more of a nuisance tha ...more
Your iPhone has a powerful feature that can keep your secrets hidden from other people, and you'll never have to worry about sharing or showing someone something embarrassing or incriminating ever again. No matter who you are, you likely use your iPhone's Photos app a lot sin ...more
You may not have thought of dorks as powerful, but with the right dorks, you can hack devices just by Googling the password to log in. Because Google is fantastic at indexing everything connected to the internet, it's possible to find files that are exposed accidentally and co ...more
One of the most common web application vulnerabilities is LFI, which allows unauthorized access to sensitive files on the server. Such a common weakness is often safeguarded against, and low-hanging fruit can be defended quite easily. But there are always creative ways to get ...more
If you want to use your iPhone with another carrier, all you have to do is contact the original carrier to request an unlock, which is usually granted in a few days. Unfortunately, you need to meet specific criteria to officially carrier-unlock your iPhone, like paying off the ...more
There's always an iPhone in our list of top phones for privacy and security, due in large part to advanced security measures like Face ID, consistent iOS updates, and easy ways to prevent unwanted access and excessive data sharing. However, some of those options actually do th ...more
In the previous article, we learned how to set up our VPS, configure our PHP server, and developed an in-depth understanding of how the payload works. With all that taken care of, we can get into disguising our payload to appear as an image and crafting the note in the greetin ...more
When you don't want somebody you're calling to know the real phone number associated with your iPhone, whether it's for privacy reasons, to avoid being called back, or to prevent being ignored, there are multiple things you can do to block it on their caller ID. Some of the b ...more
A great many S8 and S8+ users have undoubtedly spent quite a bit of time figuring out ways to unlock their new Galaxy in as few steps as possible. One of the most endearing features of previous Galaxy models was the ability to unlock the phone by pressing the home button and m ...more
If you're all out of prank ideas for April Fool's Day, we've got a few that your Apple-loving friends will enjoy (or hate?). You can have a little bit of fun if you don't have access to their iOS device or Mac, but for the best pranks, you will need access to their devices, ev ...more
Like the majestic mountain structure it's named after, Apple's latest version of OS X, El Capitan, goes a little deeper to expand on the foundation laid by Yosemite. While the update may not be as monumental as some have hoped, it is an improvement and includes tons of useful ...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
Welcome back, my amateur hackers! Many of you here are new to hacking. If so, I strongly recommend that each of you set up a "laboratory" to practice your hacks. Just like any discipline, you need to practice, practice, and practice some more before you take it out to the rea ...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
Private Browsing mode finally lives up to its name in Apple's huge Safari 17 update for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. So whether you search for things you don't want anybody to know about or want to ensure websites and trackers aren't eavesdropping on your activity, you'll want to up ...more
Apple's Gatekeeper security software for macOS (Mac OS X) is vulnerable to remote attacks up to version 10.14.5. An attacker that's anywhere in the world can exploit MacBooks and other Mac computers by sharing a single ZIP file. The vulnerability was discovered by Filippo Cav ...more
While there isn't as much personal data residing on your Apple Watch as there is on your iPhone, it's still a good idea to set a passcode for it and lock it up when you're not using it. If you don't, while it's charging or otherwise off your wrist, others may be able to sneak ...more
Over the years, we've seen security breach after security breach, as well as high-profile data scandals where collected personal information was misused by companies. Apple makes customer privacy a priority, so there have been few issues to worry about when it comes to its ser ...more
In 2013, Offensive Security released Kali Linux, a rebuild of BackTrack Linux derived from Debian. Since then, Kali has gone on to become somewhat of a standard for penetration testing. It comes preconfigured with a collection of tools accessible by a menu system, tied togethe ...more
Some iOS and iPadOS apps give you an option to lock them behind Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, but there aren't many. While there's no setting on iOS and iPadOS to lock any app behind Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, some third-party developers incorporate the feature the ...more
RedRabbit is an ethical hacking toolkit built for pen-testing and reconnaissance. It can be used to identify attack vectors, brute-force protected files, extract saved network passwords, and obfuscate code. RedRabbit, which is made specifically for red teams, is the evil twin ...more
If it has an internet connection, it's got a huge attack surface for hackers. But what makes your phone even more dangerous is its portability and the collection of sensors it houses that can be just as good at tracking you as the camera and mic. That is why one of the first ...more
Microsoft's built-in antimalware solution does its best to prevent common attacks. Unfortunately for Windows 10 users, evading detection requires almost no effort at all. An attacker armed with this knowledge will easily bypass security software using any number of tools. As ...more
Many popular IoT devices have terrible security. For instance, a hacker who's on the same Wi-Fi network as a Sonos speaker can assume direct control over the device's behavior. If an IoT device doesn't secure the messages used to control it over a network, it's easy for somebo ...more
Step 1: What Exploit Development Is and Why Should I Be Interested on About This Topic An exploit is a piece of software, a chunk of data, or a sequence of commands that takes advantage of a bug or vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur ...more
Apple last month released iOS 17.2, its biggest iPhone software update since iOS 17.0, with 60 new features. Now, as of Jan. 22, we have iOS 17.3. Overall, it's not the behemoth software update that iOS 17.2 was, but it has a few exciting new things you'll definitely want to k ...more
There are countless tutorials online that show how to use Netstat and Tasklist to find an intruder on your computer. But with a few PowerShell functions, it's possible for a hacker to evade detection from the almighty command line. Before we dive into the technical sections, ...more
What appears to be an ordinary MP4 may have been designed by an attacker to compromise your Linux Mint operating system. Opening the file will indeed play the intended video, but it will also silently create a connection to the attacker's system. Understanding the Attack Whi ...more