Hackavision

I'm afraid I've been very busy lately with a new job working overnights and figuring out all my college needs for moving in next month, but I've been doing a lot of research and reading on a few interesting topics so hopefully the next few posts will be very interesting. I've also updated a few of my posts including my wifi sniffing and securing your home network posts, so check those out! Today's post is about one of the most important netsec tools you will have in your arsenal. This program is called Nmap and is a free, open-source network auditing and security tool that we will use quite often while looking for vulnerabilities on networks. I will be explaining how to install and do some basic usage on Linux AND Windows (yay Windows!). I will be using my Backtrack 5 for Linux and Windows XP and hopefully get a Vista/Win7 part up as well.

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:

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...