Welcome back, my novice hackers! The worst thing that can happen to any hacker is being detected by a security admin, the security technologies (IDS, firewall, etc.), or a forensic investigator. Every time we send a packet to our intended target, that packet contains our IP ...more
As much as I love eating weird foods, when it comes to my favorite food, there is only one simple choice: cheese. Since cheese is my favorite to eat, it should come as no surprise that it's one of my favorites to make as well. Don't Miss: 11 Ways to Keep Cheese Fresh for as L ...more
Instagram makes it easy to view a public account without that person or business knowing unless, you know, your finger accidentally slips and hits the like button on a post. Aside from that, if you're careful, you can browse anonymously through an account without anyone notici ...more
Slowly but surely, Microsoft seems to be steering Windows in the direction of Google's Android. First, they released Windows 10 as a free upgrade, mainly because they wanted to cash in on the revenue that they hoped would come when more users had access to the Windows Store. T ...more
After my hard drive crashed recently, I lost everything. Old college essays, half-written stories, short films, and most importantly, all of the photos that I had saved from the past five years... all gone. Since I didn't back up my hard drive (stupid mistake #1), or upload p ...more
Ready to try and sew-in your own weave? It's a big decision. As with everything that concerns our hair, we struggle with the pros and cons and often dwell on what could go wrong. Pixie cut. Perm or not? New shade (of pink, purple, or blue). These are all major decisions becaus ...more
Thrift stores! As a Steampunk, they can be your best friend, but it's easy to make a tragic mistake. This hands-on guide will help you navigate the murky waters of successful thrifting in order to find the hidden gems that will make your Steampunk outfit complete! Thrift Stor ...more
When you take a screenshot on your iPhone, it's automatically saved to your Photos app. You can ignore the screenshot thumbnail or swipe it away, but you shouldn't. If you open the screenshot editor instead, you'll gain access to your iPhone's most useful screen capture tool: ...more
SCRABBLE. To some it's just a game, but to me it's life or death. Well, not really, but it feels that way anyway. On a normal weekend, a game becomes much like Jon Thomas' "friendly game of death Scrabble." Video: . When I'm playing a game of SCRABBLE, my friends are not frien ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Many new hackers come from a Windows background, but seldom, if ever, use its built-in command-line tools. As a hacker, you will often be forced to control the target system using just Windows commands and no GUI. Although we would love to ...more
While many people may use Bluetooth every day, the majority don't know how it works or that it can be hacked. Bluetooth hacking gives a clear window into the world of the target. Nearly every device has Bluetooth capabilities, and people store a great deal of personal info on ...more
SSH is one of the most common protocols in use in modern IT infrastructures, and because of this, it can be a valuable attack vector for hackers. One of the most reliable ways to gain SSH access to servers is by brute-forcing credentials. There are a few methods of performing ...more
Baking powder and baking soda are two staples almost everyone has around that seem to last forever. But a lot of people don't know that they eventually start to lose their potency after enough time on the shelf. If you can't remember when you bought it, it's probably time for ...more
YouTube is the third most popular website in the world, after Google and Facebook. Millions of subscriptions happen each day on YouTube, with over 800 million unique users visiting each month. In that timespan, roughly 4 billion hours of video are watched, with 72 hours of vid ...more
Ever since the introduction of Google's SafetyNet feature, it's been an ongoing battle with apps trying to detect root access. For a while, there was a lot of back and forth between Magisk and certain apps. Pokémon GO was a high profile example of an app aggressively checking ...more
White or light-colored dinnerware is a classic: it looks crisp, clean, and elegant. The only problem is that after you've used it for a few years, the surfaces bear a lot of grey scuff marks from forks, spoons, and knives being dragged across the surface. It's tempting to don ...more
When joining a new network, computers use the Address Resolution Protocol to discover the MAC address of other devices on the same network. A hacker can take advantage of ARP messages to silently discover the MAC and IP address of network devices or actively scan the network w ...more
JavaScript is one of the most common languages used on the web. It can automate and animate website components, manage website content, and carry out many other useful functions from within a webpage. The scripting language also has many functions which can be used for malicio ...more
Beginners learning brute-forcing attacks against WPA handshakes are often let down by the limitations of default wordlists like RockYou based on stolen passwords. The science of brute-forcing goes beyond using these default lists, allowing us to be more efficient by making cus ...more
French toast is one of those things that everybody kind of knows how to make, but few people know how to do really well. And while the dish originally does hail from France (its original name, pain perdu, means lost or wasted bread), it has become a beloved American breakfast ...more
Open-source data scraping is an essential reconnaissance tool for government agencies and hackers alike, with big data turning our digital fingerprints into giant neon signs. The problem is no longer whether the right data exists, it's filtering it down to the exact answer you ...more
Your smartphone stays with you everywhere you go, so it's only a matter of time before you spill coffee all over it or drop it on the ground. For some of you, it has already happened, perhaps even multiple times. That's why we thought it was important to find out which flagshi ...more
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! So many readers come to Null Byte to learn how to hack Wi-Fi networks (this is the most popular hacking area on Null Byte) that I thought I should write a "how-to" on selecting a good Wi-Fi hacking strategy. Many beginners come here looking t ...more
Word games fit perfectly with the on-the-go nature of mobile gaming. They're easy to pick up whenever you feel like exercising your brain, but they're also fairly easy to put down when you need to get back to the real world. The main draw of word games is that they're great f ...more
Whether it's for handling your business's social media account or just for personal reasons, like trolling an ex-girlfriend's page (not that I've ever done that) or posting on behalf of your pup, there are instances where having two different Facebook accounts on one device is ...more
Steganography is the art of hiding information in plain sight, and in this tutorial, I'll show you how to use Steghide — a very simple command line tool to do just that. In addition, I'll go over a bit of conceptual background to help you understand what's going on behind the ...more
Applications like Apple Maps, Google Maps, and Waze save every location you visit or search for as a way to speed up future searches and to find commonly-frequented places. But what if you go somewhere unsavory and don't want anyone knowing? You can at least make sure that an ...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
As mentioned before, the Home button is one of the most important keys on your Samsung Galaxy S3, and pretty much all Android devices for that matter. However, when it comes to customization, it's rather tame. If you've ever used Activator on a jailbroken iPhone, you know the ...more
Welcome back, my novice hackers! Reconnaissance is one of the most important preparatory steps to hacking. As I have emphasized many times before here on Null Byte, you must know the operating system, the ports, the services, the applications, and sometimes even the language ...more
It's finally out. After months of testing, iOS 13 is available to install on your iPhone, which means over 200+ new features you can use right now. The update, released on Sept. 19, can be installed over the air or from a restore image using iTunes in macOS Mojave and older or ...more
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! Over the years, we have examined multiple ways to own, exploit, or compromise a system. On the other hand, we have not spent a lot of time on denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. For those of you who are new here, a denial of service is basica ...more
In this project, you'll learn step by step how to modify a microwave oven transformer into a high-current device that can pump out 800 amps of electrical current, which is enough amperage to melt metal. If you liked the Metal Melter you saw in my previous project, here's how y ...more
No matter what the clean freaks out there try to tell me, I still drink my Los Angeles tap water without a care in the world. I figure that I've already consumed much more heinous things in my lifetime. Street vendor "steak" burritos comes to mind. However, if there's easy ac ...more
There's a lot of cool features rumored to be included in next year's HTC One 2 (M8), the follow up to the flagship HTC One smartphone, including a fingerprint scanner, Android 4.4 KitKat, and Sense 6.0, but it's just too far away to get really excited about yet. Besides, that ...more
When researching a person using open source intelligence, the goal is to find clues that tie information about a target into a bigger picture. Screen names are perfect for this because they are unique and link data together, as people often reuse them in accounts across the in ...more
Having a dust- and water-resistant phone is truly useful, but it comes with a price. In order to achieve this functionality, Samsung had to literally plug up any holes in the Galaxy S5, and this included the charging port. The small cover that keeps dust and water at bay, and ...more
With all the talk about privacy concerns recently, Google's name keeps coming up because they are a very data-driven company. As an Android user, they know basically everything about you based on your device usage. That can easily scare some people off who are worried about th ...more
Particular vulnerabilities and exploits come along and make headlines with their catchy names and impressive potential for damage. EternalBlue is one of those exploits. Originally tied to the NSA, this zero-day exploited a flaw in the SMB protocol, affecting many Windows machi ...more
If your Android device wasn't manufactured by Samsung, chances are it uses on-screen navigation buttons. Colloquially referred to as "Soft keys," these have become commonplace due to their flexibility, as well as the fact that manufacturers don't have to include extra hardware ...more
If you're one who likes to tinker with Android, TWRP is the first thing you should install. It replaces your phone's stock recovery mode interface and adds over a dozen advanced features to your device—most notably, the ability to flash ZIPs that can modify practically every a ...more
Go to a chain supermarket, and chances are you'll see one type of garlic—maybe two or three if you're lucky. However, there's a mouthwatering slew of Allium sativum out there, far beyond those papery white bulbs most of us encounter at the nearest Stop 'n' Shop. While most re ...more
Every day we pass bridges, whether it's a foot bridge, a highway overpass, a span over water, or a viaduct over a valley. We pass on these structures without even thinking of the engineering genius that went into their design and construction, let alone the science behind thei ...more
Aluminum foil is one of those things that every cook, experienced or just starting out, has in their kitchen. And while we may think we know how useful this handy material can be, there are hundreds of ways we could be utilizing tinfoil to make our lives a whole lot easier. 1 ...more
Cases and stickers are always great, but they aren't the only way to customize an iPhone. The software on your device is full of customization options, from a better-looking home screen and cooler lock screen wallpapers to app icon changes and a system-wide dark mode. There's ...more
Thanks to Apple's new extensibility features in iOS 8, developers are now able to create extensions for their apps that let you perform actions in notifications, widgets, and in stock Apple apps without having to open up the specific app itself. Check out: The Coolest 33 Feat ...more
Kodi, formerly known as XBMC, is one of the most versatile media players available. With it, you can play virtually any internet and media file in a large variety of formats, and it can be used on practically every single operating system out there, including iOS 10. Kodi, an ...more
Users on Android could customize their app icons for some time, but it's a relatively new addition to the iPhone. You could change icons since iOS 12, but it really took off in iOS 14 and got even better in iOS 14.3. Still, it's not as easy as on Android, and you'll see a noti ...more
If I were to lose access to the entire internet for the rest of my life, one of the websites I would miss the most would have to be Wikipedia. Wikipedia has ended countless arguments, informed me of how old and single some of my favorite actresses are, and helped me brush up o ...more
A perfectly cooked roast potato is a study in contrasts: the outside should be crisp, crunchy, and salty, while the inside is tender and fluffy. Too often, however, roast potatoes come out overcooked, greasy, and tough. But never fear! With this handy guide, you'll be able to ...more
In Apple Music, loving and disliking songs is a great way to teach Apple's subscription service what type of tunes you like and which you don't. While it also seems like it should be an excellent way to keep track of songs you enjoy in the wild, there's no clear way to view al ...more
One thing that gets overlooked on Facebook is the amount of videos you can watch, and I'm not just talking about videos uploaded directly by Facebook users—I mean everything ever shared—YouTube, Vine, Instagram, Vimeo, etc. Sometimes one of those videos is just so good that y ...more
Navigating and editing text is an essential part of any operating system, and with iOS 13, Apple has made some significant changes. Some things remain the same when working with text, but there are many updates to moving the cursor, scrolling, and selecting, cutting, copying, ...more
WhatsApp, like other popular messengers on iOS and Android, shows when recipients have read your sent messages with a blue double check mark indicator. On the flip side, for those of you who are bad at replying promptly or don't feel like replying at all, you can disable "read ...more
Old people are usually perceived as wise and enduring, whereas an old smartphone, like my iPhone 4, becomes the butt of a joke every time I take it out of my pocket. I mean, come on, it's not like I'm still rocking one of these... And if I was, I guarantee you wouldn't beat my ...more
It used to be that you only had to worry about maids rummaging through your belongings in your locked hotel room. But now anyone with 50 bucks of hardware and some programming skills can hack their way in—as long as it's locked by keycard. At the Black Hat security conference ...more
Apple has finally given us a decent file manager in iOS 11. The new "Files" app replaces the not-very-old iCloud Drive app that appeared in iOS 9, but you can still access your iCloud Drive files in the new Files app, as well as files from third-party cloud services. A nice im ...more
Organizing contacts is a bitch, especially on the iPhone. Some contacts will have multiple entries, you can only delete contacts one by one, and certain types of contacts can't be deleted at all. If that isn't enough to make you pull your hair out, then I don't know what will. ...more
Anonymity is something that doesn't exist today. Everything you do in the world is tracked, from the purchases you make to surfing the internet—even taking pictures on your iPhone. Everything you have ever said and done on the internet is still there—somewhere. This is called ...more
While still extremely awesome, the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch is limited as to what you can download on to it, especially apps. It also doesn't have its own internet access (only Bluetooth), so apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Vine have yet to make their way to the Gear ...more