advice re hacking for student

RedBern

Hi guys,
I'm asking for a bit of advice for a friend's son. He's doing computing at college and part of his dissertation is about hacking and the results of a virus.

He's getting into a flap about this - currently he's waiting for some software for his laptop which will help him study as he has dyslexia - so he's behind with his work and beginning to panic.

He's set up a virtual machine (so he tells me) and now he needs to hack into it etc - I know very little about computers but have a hunch that it can't be that difficult, and that he just needs to take his time and work through it. He needs to decide whether to continue with his dissertation or not.... in the next few days...

So - simple question - is it difficult? Serious question - thanks for your help.

CyCo_2

Hacking is, like anything, easy if you know how. It's certainly not something you can just do without any prior knowledge or experience. I guess it's like anything else, you need to start off small and then gain an understanding of the basics and work your way up from there.

Ximian

My response is "it all depends". Hacking can be very easy if the system being hacked is unpatched, ie. running older vulnerable versions of software. If there is a firewall in the mix then that limits attack vectors depending on how restrictive the firewall is.

What are the requirements for the hacking exercise? Are there any limitations to hacking the system, for example Firewall, Operating System/patched up to date? There are so many hacking tools available, most are free.

ladymarmalade1970

Hacking is hard. Very hard. Unless you are prepared to sit infront of a PC for days AND you have a particular target in mind you won't be successful. There are tools you can get to help you achieve this such as languard or access diver but these use brute force and dictionary attacks which are time consuming. If a site or person doesn't want to be hacked they can put in measures to spot stuff like this straight away. Even a PC with no firewall or AV running windows XP is stil hard to get into unless you know passwords or something about the person. There is a lot of investigative work involved. Of course, if his VM is on his same network its going to be easier but this is hacking from the inside and i wouldn't consider that real hacking.

fiddiwebb

You could also try asking on the security section boards at bleepingcomputer.com for more specific answers.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/

hubert_cumberdale

if he wants to have something running on a virtual machine that means he has full access to it then if he can get his hands on a RAT remote access tool. These generate a small .exe file that can be deployed onto a machine. Basically it gives you complete access and enables you to see the screen key logs files everything the main user can do.

The .exe file would need to be crypted runtime and scantime to ensure the antivirus's wont see it, which they wont becuase they are always a month or so behind because they are rubbish.

all of it is available on the net - is he doing an ethical hacking course or something

[Deleted User]

The first post is almost a 'how long is a piece of string' question, without any context of what is required it's difficult to be able to provide accurate answers.

I would have thought that the first, and best, place to go would be the college itself to provide extra assistance to those with recognised disabilities.

spakkker

It sounds an odd mix dyslexia and keyboards - he's not making his future easy.
Maybe he suspects this already.

debitcardmayhem

spakkker wrote: »

It sounds an odd mix dyslexia and keyboards - he's not making his future easy.
Maybe he suspects this already.

Not wishing to cast doubts on the post quoted, the young person may like to read this (as may others) regarding dyslexia and its pitfalls. I was privileged to meet this lady in my earlier life and I still treasure my experiences of her and her signed copy of the book.
Link

The experiences of Brenda Crowe who was diagnosed with dyslexia well into her later life , it is of course is a modern disease(in terms of recognition)

RedBern

thanks for the responses. He's done incredibly well so far without the software help that he's expecting to receive any day now. Thanks also for the link to the book - I'll pass that on to him.