How to Hack Websites & Servers from Scratch : Step by Step Tutorial for Beginners

NOTE: I'm going to provide the common methodology that is followed when hacking a machine/network/server. This tutorial will give you a good understanding & an overview about professional penetration testing in a black box (attacker) point of view. It is designed to give you an idea on how an attacker can break into your system, what I am gonna say will increase your awareness & will open the door for you to go out & educate yourself easily. I gathered this information from various sources and tutorials, i have changed many things, clarified many parts, given some references, and put a lot of information together. I'm still a learner & on the way to my goal. However, this won't prevent me from teaching others what i have learned so far & don't worry, i'm not going to provide you with any info that i'm not sure about yet. It is not the best tutorial out there, but at least it is a good starter. I will speak in a hacker (attacker or blackbox) point of view. I write this tutorial for educational purposes only.

NOTE: No scans will be initiated against any systems/server until the outline of the system/server owner assessment plan is confirmed as acceptable to owner.

Tools Used during penetration testing are freely available on internet:

1. NESSUS
2. OpenVAS Server
3. OpenVAS Client
4. Nmap
5. Nikto
6. SQLix download here or here
7. SQLMap
8. Metasploit

Before you hack a system, you must decide what your goal is. Are you hacking to put the system down, gaining sensitive data, breaking into the system and taking the 'root' access, screwing up the system by formatting everything in it, discovering vulnerabilities & see how you can exploit them, etc ... ? The point is that you have to decide what the goal is first.

The most common goals are:

1. Breaking into the system & taking the admin privileges.
2. Gaining sensitive data, such as credit cards, identification theft, etc.

You should have all of your tools ready before you start taking the steps of hacking. There is a Unix version called backtrack. It is an Operating System that comes with various sets of security tools that will help you hack systems (penetration tests).

You should set the steps (methodology) that you plan to take in your journey before you do anything else. There is a common methodology followed

by hackers, i will mention it below. However, you can create your own methodology if you know what you are doing.

Steps need to be followed to hack a server is as cited below:

1. Do a manual review of the target system or server to get an overview of the target. This is phase-1 and known as Reconnaissance.
2. Second step is Service enumeration. Here you have to use Nmap to determine what services are open and available for manual testing. This is phase-2 and known as Scanning. To know how to perform Enumeration and footprinting attack, visit this link.
3. The third step is Scanning target to find the vulnerabilities. This is also part of phase-2 Scanning. For this you have to use NESSUS or OPEN VAS. These tools will scan all open ports, regardless of common and defaulted settings. This will confirm listening services and check those against a database of exploitable services. To see if you are running any services that are mis-configured or vulnerable to exploits. To know how NESSUS works visit this link. If you want to working of NESSUS...OR How to use NESSUS visit this link. To visit NESSUS video tutorials available on internet visit this link.
4. You can also use Nikto. It will used to check the web server(s) for mis-configurations and exploitable web applications. To know how Nikto works visit this link.
5. After all these scanning, play with SQL. Use SQLiX and Sqlmap for this. You can also use few more SQL tools, softwares and techniques. To know these underground SQL tips n tricks visit this link.
6. The next step is to get access on system using the vulnerabilities found. This is phase-3 known as Gaining Access on remote system. This you can achieve using Metasploit software. To know how to use metasploit, visit this link. Here you will all the available video tutorial for metasploit. A very good to start. Using these videos you can easily learn how to use metasploit. The most up to date video for Metasploit 3 can be found here: Exploring Metasploit 3 and the New and Improved Web Interface – Part 1 & Exploring Metasploit 3 and the New and Improved Web Interface – Part 2. A good flash tutorial that shows you step by step how to use it: Metasploit at Iron Geek. There’s a presentation by HD Moore himself at Cansecwest 2006: csw06-moore.pdf And a couple of videos spawned from that here: Computer defense – TASK Presentation
7. The next step is to maintain you access on the compromised system. This is phase-4 and known as Maintaining Access.
8. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP AND THE LAST PHASE. This is phase-5 known as Covering Tracks. After you activities, you must remove all your track records....;) othet wise you know...IT act is very strong.

This tutorial is designed to provide you with recommendations for securing your server against the majority of attackers. Below are some sample reports showing Nessus and OpenVas. It is recommended that always run multiple scanning tools. Never rely on a single automated scanning. Automated scanners miss a lot and are prone to false positives.

Nessus Scan Multiple Hosts

Sample Report

OpenVas Scan Multiple Hosts

Sample Report

Nessus Scan (CentOS5)

Sample Report

OpenVas Scan (Centos5)

Sample Report

Nessus Scan Report (RHEL4U4)

Sample Report

OpenVas Scan Report (RHEL4U4)

Sample Report

Nessus Scan (Ubuntu 810)

Sample Report

OpenVas Scan (Ubuntu 810)

Sample Report

Nessus Scan (Win2k3)

Sample Report

OpenVas Scan (Win2k3)

Sample Report

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