The microphone in a Windows computer is accessible to most applications running on the device at all times and completely without security limitations. Information gathered from recorded audio conversations taking place in the surrounding area of a compromised computer can be ...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
When building anything of a social nature, be it a local roller derby or softball team, a club dance night for chiptune, or building new technology markets, the community around those ideas are an important factor in helping these things not only come into existence but to gro ...more
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! As most of you know, I am strong advocate for using Linux as a hacking platform. In fact, I would say that without knowing Linux, you will never become a professional hacker/pentester. On the other hand, there are many here who come to Nu ...more
For those familiar with my old YouTube series, New in the Store, you will be excited to know that I am starting something very similar here on NextReality that's a bit more broad in scope. Have You Seen This? will take a look at HoloLens applications that are new in the Window ...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
A few days ago, I pulled up the Windows Store on my HoloLens and saw a few new applications. One that caught my attention was Oriental Museum, which lets you explore China's Forbidden City, and the other one is very similar free demo app called Secrets of Ancient Egypt by Link ...more
As technology continues to advance, we as consumers are privileged enough to be able to take higher quality photos and videos and listen to clearer and better-sounding music on our mobile devices. But sometimes we forget that there's a price to pay for that awesome content—eno ...more
After what appeared to be an issue with the Windows Store for HoloLens not showing many newer applications, including one that I had released over a month ago, Microsoft finally squashed the bug. So, at first glance, it would seem as if there were lots of new HoloLens projects ...more
Is your Mac starting to feel messy and sluggish after using iOS 8 on your iPhone every day? Even with all of the iOS-friendly features built in to Mac OS X Yosemite, your Mac can still feel kind of "old" in comparison to an iOS device—but it doesn't have to. Using the tips and ...more
Trimble is integrating its mixed reality applications into the DAQRI Smart Helmet to enable outdoor and on-site support for design, construction, and heavy industry as part of a collaboration the companies announced today. A provider of advanced solutions for industrial compa ...more
Code execution in Microsoft Word is easier than ever, thanks to recent research done by Etienne Stalmans and Saif El-Sherei. Executing code in MS Word can be complicated, in some cases requiring the use of Macros or memory corruption. Fortunately, Microsoft has a built in a fe ...more
Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 8, will hit stores everywhere on October 26th, and they hope this new version will shift the way we think about computers and their interfaces. In an effort to get as many early adopters as possible, Microsoft is even making their O ...more
To contemporize a popular quote, "A cluttered desk(top) is a sign of a cluttered mind." Of course, it's difficult to maintain a tidy desktop... as you read this, mine is cluttered with screenshots, folders, Word documents, videos, pictures, and apps. While a messy desktop is ...more
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! In this series, we continue to examine digital forensics, both to develop your skills as a forensic investigator and to avoid the pitfalls of being tracked by a forensic investigator. In earlier posts in this series, we examined registry fi ...more
While all of my previous Have You Seen This? posts have all focused on individual HoloLens apps in the Windows Store, this time I'll be sharing a couple at once. These holographic applications are really simple in scope, so there is not a lot to say about them, yet they are in ...more
Trying to figure out which music streaming service to subscribe to can be a difficult task when the playing field is so crowded. Each has its benefits, as well as downsides, so finding the right one for your needs and wants can take a lot of overwhelming research. But we've do ...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
Welcome back, my nascent hackers! One of the many reasons I write this blog is to help you keep the Internet free and open. Throughout human history, whenever a government or other powerful entity has wanted to subjugate a people or group, the first thing they do is isolate t ...more
The road to becoming a skilled white hat is paved with many milestones, one of those being learning how to perform a simple Nmap scan. A little further down that road lies more advanced scanning, along with utilizing a powerful feature of Nmap called the Nmap Scripting Engine. ...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
The newest update of the Firefox web browser was released yesterday, and whether you were upgraded automatically or manually, Mozilla is advising that you downgrade to Firefox 15.0.1 as soon as possible. Firefox 16 is Mozilla's latest release, and is apparently extremely susce ...more
Security researcher Nadim Kobeissi has discovered that the Windows 8 SmartScreen feature, meant to screen downloads for malicious software, actually reports the data about which applications users are installing to Microsoft. He also says that "the Microsoft server is configur ...more
You've protected your Ubuntu system from physical attacks, annoyed network hackers, and sandboxed potentially malicious applications. Great! Now, the next logical steps to locking down your OS include thoroughly auditing Ubuntu for weak points, using antivirus software that re ...more
At the Augmented World Expo Europe press conference in Munich today, RE'FLEKT will unveil the addition of remote video calling to their RE'FLEKT One enterprise augmented reality platform, in addition to ARKit and ARCore apps that demonstrate the platform's capabilities. Like ...more
Each day, we read about another security breach somewhere in our digital world. It has become so commonplace that we hardly react anymore. Target, J.P. Morgan, iCloud, Home Depot, and the list goes on and on. Those are just the big ones that get reported in the news. Millions ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! As hackers, we often take for granted that nearly all of our hacking tools and operating system are free and open source. I think it's important to examine a bit of background on how we arrived at this intriguing juncture in the history of ...more
Hola my fellow hackers! I promised you the tutorials on setting up RAT's and Botnets, but before jumping into those, i want you to know about the precautionary measures and detection of RATs which might be on the system without your prior knowledge. Of course the Anti-virus do ...more
"You can never know too much" is a saying you hear all the time. Funny thing is, I have no idea where it originated, and neither do most of the people who continually say it. Nevertheless, it's a statement that very few would argue with. Thanks to the internet, gaining access ...more
Determining the antivirus and firewall software installed on a Windows computer is crucial to an attacker preparing to create a targeted stager or payload. With covert deep packet inspection, that information is easily identified. This attack assumes the Wi-Fi password to the ...more
Looking to inject a little more processing juice into your HoloLens? Unity can fix you up with the Standalone Universal Windows Platform Holographic Emulation. While its name appears to have skipped the marketing department in the decision-making process, the tool enables dev ...more
Configuring user accounts is extremely important for those with a family shared computer or anyone using a work computer. Assigning different accounts with their own distinctive accessibility, customizations, and applications is the best way to manage a computer with multiple ...more
Remote Desktop gives you access to your Windows 8 PC or device from wherever you are to run your applications and access your files remotely. Left an important document on your work computer? Want to run a legacy x86 desktop app from your Surface? You can use Remote Desktop ...more
This morning, in an early morning session at GDC 2017, Brandon Bray, a senior program manager lead at Microsoft, revealed a mixed reality headset made in collaboration with Acer—a different headset than the one we saw from Acer at CES 2017 earlier this year. Also at the event, ...more
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! When we are trying to find vulnerabilities in a website to attack, we need a solid web server vulnerability scanner. Internet-facing web apps can open enormous opportunities for us as they are often riven with vulnerabilities and can often ...more
Hello friends! This tutorial will teach you how to build a local pentesting lab on your Linux machine which will enable you to easily install common web applications so you can practice locating and exploiting their known vulnerabilities (or discover new ones!). In particular, ...more
Once you've installed Ubuntu with security in mind and reduced the possibility of network attacks on your system, you can start thinking about security on an application level. If a malicious file is opened on your system, will an attacker be able to access every file on the c ...more
My first encounter with a phablet was late last year with the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, having never touched or even seen its highly-acclaimed and pioneering predecessor. Initially, I was a bit overwhelmed by the enormous screen and taken aback by the dated st ...more
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! Several of you have written me asking how to crack passwords. The answer, in part, depends upon whether you have physical access to the computer, what operating system you are running, and how strong the passwords are. In this first install ...more
If you've ever needed to prove you have remote access to a device, or simply want a way to convince someone their computer is haunted, SSH can be used to make a device begin to show signs of being possessed. Spooky Action at a Distance If you need to prove you've got remote ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! After the disaster that was Windows Vista and the limited and reluctant adoption of Windows 8 and 8.1, Windows 7 has become the de facto standard operating system on the desktop/client. Although the most valuable information to the hacker ...more
Just 94 days after the release of iOS 7, the team over at evasi0n have once again gifted us with their latest jailbreaking software for the newest version of iOS. The first iteration of evasi0n7 contained Chinese malware, but the subsequent release removed the malicious Chines ...more
A core concept that has resonated through societies of the world over the course the last few hundred years is "knowledge is power." And understanding that concept gives us the drive to push further forward and learn as much as we can on a subject. At the moment, that subject ...more
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! Recently, Microsoft released a new patch (September 8, 2015) to close another vulnerability in their Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 operating systems. The vulnerability in question (MS15-100) enabled an attacker to gain remote access to any ...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
Google doesn't get enough credit for it, but they definitely make some of the best phones for rooting and modding. Heck, if you want to replace the entire operating system on a Pixel, you can do it pretty easily. It all starts with the bootloader. On Android, the bootloader i ...more
Thanks to Magisk, you don't have to lose root when updating to Android 11. The popular systemless rooting tool already achieved superuser access on Google's latest OS, even before the official release. It's currently in its experimental stages so the process is trickier than u ...more
Apple's grand reveal of iOS 8 at WWDC in San Francisco is still a few days away, but that doesn't mean there isn't any speculation as to what features and enhancements might come packed in the new mobile operating system. With iOS 7's complete UI overhaul not even a year old, ...more
While SSH is a powerful tool for controlling a computer remotely, not all applications can be run over the command line. Some apps (like Firefox) and hacking tools (like Airgeddon) require opening multiple X windows to function, which can be accomplished by taking advantage of ...more
The beauty of free apps is that, well, they're free. But as we all know, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Sometimes these "free" applications are only feature-limited mini versions, or they're so littered with ads that opting to pay for it is the only way to actually en ...more
Microsoft Build 2017, the first of Microsoft's big developer conferences for the year, is just a few weeks away. This very popular conference, which has been going on since 2011, is known to sell out fast. In 2015, it sold out in under an hour, and in 2016, in less than 5 minu ...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
Everyone listens to music. I've got over 3,000 songs in my iTunes library, but am always looking for more, and I'm sure you are too. You can never have enough tunes to rock out to, right? If you're using Windows 8 like I currently am, these are some of the best apps in the Win ...more
If you have ever wanted to mod your Android device, your new best friend is easily going to be Team Win's TWRP custom recovery. This gives you access to file flashing on the fly, which can include such things as Magisk for root access, or even a custom ROM to replace the stock ...more
In my first few articles, we focused on operating system hacks. These hacks have been primarily on older operating systems such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003. Although these operating systems were first released, in some cases, almost 10 years ago, the ...more
In this first part of my series on getting started with Windows Holographic, we are going to cover everything you need to get set up for developing HoloLens apps. There are many pieces coming together to make one single application, but once you get used to them all, you won't ...more
TouchDevelop is a browser-based programming tool that allows anyone to build your own Windows 8 apps directly from any touchscreen device, including iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone, Android, PC and Macs. Once the script is created and the app proves to work, it can be placed in th ...more
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! Let's continue to expand our knowledge of digital forensics, to provide you the skills necessary to be a digital forensic analyst or investigator, as well make you a better hacker overall. In your attempts to enter a system or network undet ...more
Here are a couple of quick bits, and also a little bit of a teaser. If you know of my old YouTube channel and are a developer, you may be aware of the "Scale and Rotation System" tutorial series I did. I then started working for Next Reality and never finished it. Since then, ...more
When I first started with HoloLens development last April, one of the first things I created was a window. The purpose of that window was to be attached to a wall and give the illusion of being in a different space—an effect that is often referred to as a "magic window" effect ...more