Hacking with Kali Linux: A Beginner’s Guide to Cybersecurity and Penetration Testing

Introduction

The, first re,corde,d incide,nt of hacking happe,ne,d back in the, 1960s at the, massachuse,tts institute, of te,chnology using fortran. fortran was a compute,r program use,d in the, 50s, mostly for scie,ntific and e,ngine,e,ring purpose,s. in this incide,nt, fortran was use,d to make, fre,e, calls only to accumulate, massive, phone, bills.

Hacking, as most of us know it, is a proce,ss of finding vulne,rabilitie,s and using the,se, vulne,rabilitie,s to obtain unauthorize,d acce,ss to a syste,m to pe,rform malicious activitie,s. hacking is ille,gal, and the,re, can be, e,xtre,me, conse,que,nce,s for pe,ople, who are, caught in the, act. howe,ve,r, contrary to popular be,lie,f, the,re, is a form of le,gal hacking that is done, with pe,rmission. it’s known as e,thical hacking whe,re, a profe,ssional is hire,d sole,ly to pre,ve,nt or fix malicious hacking.

The, he,ro of e,thical hacking is kali linux. the, official we,bsite, state,s that kali linux is a linux configuration dire,cte,d at se,curity te,sting and pe,ne,tration. kali contains tools ge,are,d toward se,curity re,se,arch, as we,ll as re,ve,rse, e,ngine,e,ring.

We, are, going to le,arn all about pe,ne,tration te,sting, the, e,ffe,ct of kali linux, and how to use, kali linux to your advantage, to prote,ct your busine,ss, as we,ll as pe,rsonal data.

Offe,nsive, se,curity re,le,ase,d kali linux in 2013 as a comple,te, re,build, and it's aime,d toward the, ne,e,ds of pe,ne,tration-te,sting profe,ssionals, and all docume,ntation is tailore,d to those, alre,ady familiar with the, linux ope,rating syste,ms in ge,ne,ral.

To unde,rstand how to use, kali linux to your advantage,, one, must be,gin with the, basics of hacking, which include,s unde,rstanding the, diffe,re,nce, be,twe,e,n e,thical and une,thical hacking and the, type,s of hacke,rs who e,xist. additionally, we, must unde,rstand how cybe,rattacks work to know how to stop the,m.

In this book, we,’ll be, going ove,r all that make,s up e,thical hacking, as we,ll as cybe,rattacks and pe,ne,tration te,sting.

Chapte,r 1: what is hacking

Whe,n you think of hacking, you may imagine, some,thing along the, line,s of some,one, viole,ntly smashing a ke,yboard, zooming in on things while, controlling some,one, e,lse,’s compute,r, and saying things like, i'm in or hack e,ngage,d. or maybe, the, word hacking make,s you think of bre,aking into some,one,'s instagram account.

The, word hacking has pre,conce,ive,d connotations, and most pe,ople, don't quite, grasp the, whole, conce,pt that goe,s into the, proce,ss of hacking. hacke,rs have, a notorious re,putation. but the,re,’s a side, of hacking that most pe,ople, are,n’t aware, of: e,thical hacking. you don't he,ar about the, e,thical hacking in the, ne,ws, but the,re, are, pe,ople, out the,re, with the, same, job de,scription fighting the, malicious hacke,rs daily, and the,y ge,t the, bad re,p.

The, we,ll-known te,rm hacking state,s it is an atte,mpt to gain unauthorize,d acce,ss to data or a syste,m. so, ye,s, te,chnically, bre,aking into your e,x's instagram to re,ad the,ir dm's is a form of hacking, but the, te,rm re,fe,rs to anyone, with te,chnical skills in the, are,a of hacking. humans not only to gain acce,ss to accounts but also to stop some,one, e,lse, from gaining unauthorize,d acce,ss.

A history of hacking

Hacking has be,e,n around since, as e,arly as the, 1960s whe,n, in 1961, a group of mit stude,nts hacke,d the,ir mode,l trains hacking to modify the,ir functions. that is whe,re, the, te,rm come,s from. so the, te,rm hacking is not e,ve,n dire,ctly re,late,d to compute,rs! originally, hacking me,ant to e,xplore, and improve, some,thing.

In the, 1970s, phone, hacke,rs, or phacke,rs, made, the,ir de,but whe,n the,y e,xploite,d ope,rational characte,ristics in phone,s to gain acce,ss to fre,e, phone, calls, although the,y we,re, fairly rare,. at the, time,, compute,r hacke,rs we,re, not ye,t popular be,cause, so fe,w pe,ople, had pe,rsonal compute,rs.

This change,d in the, 1980s whe,n pe,rsonal compute,r use, gave, birth to the, first compute,r hacke,rs. this is no surprise,, since, whe,n the,re,'s a product, the,re, is always some,one, out the,re, willing to me,ss with the, product to the,ir advantage,. like,wise,, whe,n the,re,'s some,one, to me,ss with the, product, the,re, is some,one, to prote,ct it. the, birth of compute,r hacking le,d to the, birth of e,thical hacking, as we,ll. the, ‘80s was the, de,cade, we, first saw hacke,rs bre,aking into syste,ms to use, the,m for pe,rsonal gain. this ne,w type, of crime, naturally calle,d for ne,w le,gislation. in 1986, the, fe,de,ral compute,r fraud and abuse, act was first writte,n. the, act made, it a crime, for anyone, to acce,ss a compute,r use,d by a financial institution, a gove,rnme,nt age,ncy, or any organization involve,d in fore,ign comme,rce, or communication. this was mainly prompte,d by the, incre,ase, in pc use, by the, ge,ne,ral public.

The, 1990s was marke,d by the, first high-profile, arre,sts re,late,d to hacking. ke,vin mitnick, ke,vin poulse,n, robe,rt morris, and vladimir le,vin we,re, among the, first to ge,t arre,ste,d for ste,aling prope,rty software, as we,ll as le,ading digital he,ists. this was also whe,n the, te,rm cracke,rs, me,aning those, that crack into digital e,ncryption code,s (e,.g. passwords and such), be,gan to be, use,d.

During the, late, 2000s, the, hacking of major companie,s like, e,bay, amazon, and microsoft ofte,n dominate,d the, he,adline,s. this was particularly true, whe,n ne,ws broke, in e,arly 2000 that the, inte,rnational space, station’s syste,m had be,e,n bre,ache,d by 15-ye,ar-old jonathon jame,s.

Mode,rn-day hacking has be,come, more, sophisticate,d than e,ve,r. hacktivists groups, ransomware,, and highly classifie,d docume,nt re,le,ase,s are, a daily proble,m. in mode,rn time,s, the, e,thical hacke,rs are, ne,e,de,d more, than e,ve,r to prote,ct and pre,ve,nt hack attacks. the, information available, to e,ve,ryone, make,s it all the, e,asie,r for hack attacks, but it make,s prote,ction available, as we,ll.

Hacking is not always black and white,, and the,re, are, diffe,re,nt type,s of hacke,rs and type,s of hacking. the, major type,s of hacke,rs are, divide,d be,twe,e,n e,thical, une,thical, and some,whe,re, in be,twe,e,n.

E,thical hacke,r

In the, re,al-world e,xample,s, you would call an e,thical hacke,r the, fire,fighte,r of the, group; the,y put out fire,s and save, innoce,nt live,s. the,y are,, more, ofte,n than not, hire,d by a gove,rnme,nt or a law age,ncy to prote,ct data and re,solve, any harm cause,d to individuals or busine,sse,s. a small busine,ss can also hire, an e,thical hacke,r to prote,ct the, company’s data use,d maliciously or attacke,d by a malicious hacke,r.

Une,thical hacke,r - the, cracke,r

The, une,thical hacke,r, also known as the, cracke,r, is the, criminal that ge,ts his information and asse,ts ille,gally by ge,tting into a de,vice, without the, owne,r’s knowle,dge, or conse,nt. the, inte,nt of this hacking is malicious. this type, of hacke,r cause,s financial harm, ste,als confide,ntial data, e,mbe,zzle,s funds, disrupts busine,sse,s, and spre,ads incorre,ct data, among othe,r things.

The, gre,y hat

The,n the,re, is the, hacke,r who isn’t comple,te,ly e,thical or une,thical; he,’s the, pe,rson that ste,als to fe,e,d the, poor. he, falls in the, gray are,a be,twe,e,n the, two othe,r type,s of hacke,rs. this gray are,a is whe,re, the, name, gre,y hat ste,ms from. an e,xample, of a gre,y hat hacke,r would be, a hacke,r who is hire,d to prote,ct a particular database, and the,n use,s that acce,ss to confide,ntial data for pe,rsonal gain. you may not conside,r the,m criminals, but the,y won't be, ge,tting any me,dals soon. the,n you have, your hacktivists, groups such as anonymous, that use, hacking for political and social me,ssage,s. finally, the,re, are, the, kiddie,s, or non-skille,d pe,ople, who use, alre,ady-made, tools to gain acce,ss to syste,ms. this is whe,n you gue,ss some,one,'s face,book password be,cause, you want to se,e, if the,y we,re, whe,re, the,y said the,y we,re, last night.

Type,s of hacking

As you can te,ll, hacking isn’t as simple, as gue,ssing some,one,’s password and logging into the,ir accounts. the,re, are, actually nume,rous type,s of hacking that you ne,e,d to be, familiar with.

Phishing

The, conce,pt of phishing come,s from the, e,ve,ryday activity of fishing. the,se, type,s of hacks use, e,mail or some,time,s phone, to pose, as a le,gitimate, institution to obtain important information that can hurt an individual or a busine,ss. he,nce,, the,y throw the, hook to fish for a victim. this usually works by first te,lling the, victim the,y’re, a truste,d organization, the,n asking for confide,ntial data.

The, first phishing lawsuit was file,d in 2004 against a californian te,e,nage,r who cre,ate,d a copy of the, we,bsite, calle,d ame,rica online, whe,re, he, re,trie,ve,d cre,dit card information from visitors. one, of the, first and most popular phishing e,mails was the, infamous nige,rian prince, e,mail, which was an e,mail from a prince, who was stuck and ne,e,de,d your he,lp to ge,t back to his millions. today, most of us don't fall for the, nige,rian prince, scam, but phishing is still alive, and proble,m for millions of inte,rne,t use,rs. the, pre,vale,nt phishing -e,mails are, mostly e,asy to spot. the,y share, a se,nse, of urge,ncy, unusual se,nde,r and suspicious hype,rlinks. it is whe,n a we,bsite, is copie,d and looks like, the, re,al thing that things can ge,t complicate,d. banking we,bsite,s can ofte,n be, targe,ts of phishing be,cause, of the,ir e,xte,nsive, acce,ss to cre,dit card numbe,rs and se,nsitive, information.

Virus

The, purpose, of a virus is to corrupt re,source,s on we,bsite,s. just like, in a human body, the, virus can change, forms, corrupt the, he,althy programs, and se,lf-propagate,. and just like, in with us, the,re, are, ple,nty of viruse,s that can attack your malware,.

Tophe,r crypte,r virus is one, of the, most dange,rous type,s of viruse,s be,cause, of its ability to comple,te,ly take, ove,r the, compute,r, le,ading to the, spre,ad of furthe,r viruse,s. a