Hackavision

Recently I bought a gaming computer with some of the best specs out there (i7, gtx670, 16gig ram, ssd, etc) and decided to finally set up my own Pentesting lab so I can practice breaking and securing "real" boxes of my own. My current setup consists of my router connected to my apartment's WAN using DHCP, which issues private DHCP leases to the connected boxes on my network. I have a Windows 7 laptop of my own, a Windows 7 desktop host machine running VMs, and a Ubuntu 12.10 server for all my main Linux needs (I have SSH set up so I can access this box from work and other places). My friends also connect to this network via Wifi, so there are random Win7 and OSx computers connected to it. As for my virtualized boxes, I have Windows XP (different SPs), Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2012, Metasploitable 2, DVL (Damn Vulnerable Linux), BackTrack5R3 (I hack from this box), and a few other exploitable machines. I will be setting up a Windows Vista and a couple other *nix...

I'm seeing a lot of my viewers still use Windows, and since I haven't posted any Windows information yet (don't worry, I will!) I felt like posting a how-to on dual-booting (or single-booting) the penetration testing suite I use called Backtrack 5 would be very helpful to everyone viewing my blog. Here's a quick list of the things you'll need to install Backtrack 5: a USB stick with at least 2gigs of free space (mine is 8gigs), I would suggest 4gigs as a minimum. a computer to install it to (you can dualboot, or fresh install and overwrite a disk) an Ethernet Internet connection makes this easier in the updating stage.

I've written most of a how-to and explanation of how to use two programs, SSLStrip and Ettercap, to sniff networks and grab passwords even if a secure connection is used (HTTPS rather than HTTP), but I have to cover a few topics before I release it. First, I need to explain how to install SSLStrip for those people not using Backtrack 5, then I must explain ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) poisoning and spoofing, since this is an important part of using SSLStrip and Ettercap to grab passwords. If you're using Backtrack 5, like I mentioned before SSLStrip should be installed already and located in the "/pentest/web/sslstrip" folder and can be run by typing "python sslstrip.py" For the users not using Backtrack 5, follow the directions below:

Now that I've briefly covered some WEP/WPA cracking, lets install an important tool to our arsenal for issuing exploits and "payloads" (a name for exploits). This program is called "Metasploit" and is considered by many to be one of the most important hacking/pentesting tools around. It has an amazing array of exploits that can be used on many vulnerable machines, and when coupled with the vulnerability scanner Nessus (I'll cover this in the future) becomes a highly sophisticated tool we can use to hack into and secure our networks. I'm installing this on Ubuntu Gnome Backtrack 5 (the newest release), so if you're on a different GUI (like KDE) and aren't using BT5, some things might be different. NOTE: It may be useful for new users to check out my  Linux commands overview that I recently updated (the day this post was released). Hopefully you know the basics of Linux navigation and listing commands, so lets begin.

As my first "real" post, I'll explain the basics to installing an important suite that I use quite often and is one of the most important tools to pentesting networks called Aircrack-ng (ng stands for new generation, like IPng or IPv6). I use Ubuntu Backtrack 5 which comes preloaded with the aircrack-ng suite, but I'll explain how to install and configure this on a fresh Linux computer or laptop for those who aren't strictly into netsec and want to start or have fun with it. Before starting on Linux , make sure you have all the necessary kernel headers and other files necessary to run aircrack. Issue the command "apt-get install build-essential" and add the prefix "sudo" (super user do) before if you are not running as root. This should install all necessary files if you do not already have them, and  you should be ready to begin. Also, the aircrackng suite requires the "openssl-dev or libssl-dev" dependencies (thanks Anon in com...