- This guide is for ethical hackers only and will not dip into any black hat subjects.
- Becoming an ethical hacker/ Penetration tester takes a lot of dedication.
- Only practice your hacking skills on target that you have authorization for such as CTFtime.
- Please make sure that you have verify any code that you have downloaded before you use it.
This repository is for people who meet these requirements for these below:
- Absolute beginners to hacking
- No or limited experience
- Who need a push in the right direction.
The term 'Hacking' is the gaining of the unauthorized usage of a system or computer to gain data. This data could be files, documents, videos, pictures or information. Hacking in itself can be a broad subject with sub-subjects including:
- Web applications
- Mobile applications
- Reversing Engineering
- Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)
- Cryptographic
- Binary Exploitation
- And more!
| Types of hackers | Description |
|---|---|
| White Hat Hacker | A white hat hacker is can also defined as an ethical hacker. This type of hacker would normally be paid by an employer and have authorized access to a system to search for vulnerabilities. This can be also known as a penetration Testing. |
| Grey Hat Hacker | All areas in life have a grey area as well, this is also right for hacking as well. A grey hat hacker could be someone that access a system to find vulnerabilities to report to the owner of the system for some compensation. If the owner refused to pay, then the hacker could upload the vulnerability online for a zero-day exploit. The grey hat hacker intention was to do good but resulted in malicious outcome. |
| Black Hat Hacker | A black hat hacker falls on the other end of the scale to a white hat hacker. This hacker relies on knowledge to break into systems and computers to gain a personal or financial gain. Theses hackers could be new to the hacking community and not understand the implications of breaking into unauthorized systems or criminal masterminds or even state sponsored hacking teams. |
The first step towards getting into the hacking field is to take a step back and evaluate if this truly what you want.
Getting into hacking requires dedication, prior IT knowledge and a lot of coffee!
If you have dedication, but lack any IT knowledge, this is your first step, remember you need to walk before you can run!
Theses are the top topics in order of priority to learn and revise before getting into the hacking field:
- Basic IT Knowledge
- Networking Knowledge
- Linux Skills
- Coding Skills
- Doing basic troubleshooting and how to process it.
- Fixing computers and learning the internal hardware.
- Understanding basic security within computing.
- Mastering Virtualization and the settings.
Online resources for these subjects are:
- What is the internet and how does it work?
- Learn about internet protocols i.e TCP/UDP.
- Learn about logical port.
Online resources for these subjects are:
- Book - Microsoft Windows Networking Essentials
- Tool - Cisco Packet Tracer
- Youtube - Introduction to Networking
- Udemy - Complete Networking Fundamentals
- Linux commands and text editors i.e VIM
- Understanding packages and user managements
- Getting to grips with processes and filesystem.
Online resources for these subjects are:
- Website - OverTheWire Bandit
- Website - TryHackMe Linux Room
- Book - The Linux Command Line
- Udemy - Linux Mastery
- Guide to Linux Terminal
- THe ability to read code and understand the output.
- Learn a language that will help develop you as an ethical hacker (i.e Python, C++).
- Gives a new perspective to problem solving.
Online resources for these subjects are:
They is no ONE or BEST method of getting into hacking but this is the my opinion on a good path that any beginner could follow.