Sunday, March 6, 2011

Google as proxy.

Many jobs and schools block access to certain sites. However, it is very difficult for anybody to block access to google. By using google with either of these two methods, you can gain access to blocked sites very easily.

Blocked web site, huh? Need a proxy?

1: The first and most common way of using google to bypass blocked sites is just to search for the site and then clicked the “cached” link that appears on google. Easy, simple, and frequently works for static information.

2: Passing the site through google translator works well as well. Here’s the URL to use:
Code:

http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.blocked.com

(where blocked.com is the site that you wish to visit)

This translates the site from english to english and works because the ip address will appear as google instead of you. Here’s a link to tech-recipes passed through the translator as an example. You can actually do this with any langpair. Change en|en in the URL above to spanish by using es|es and it still works.

3: Unique method that have not seen described before is to search through google mobile. Google mobile will “convert as you go” very similiar to the translation method above.

Just search for your site with google mobile and click on the link it provides. Here’s is tech-recipes brought up through google mobile search. Once again, this will allow you to bypass any blocks because the IP request comes from google not for you.

Like the translation method above, google will continue to “proxy” as you continue to visit links through the site.

Private and Public IP Addresses

What are Public IP & Private Ip Addresses ?

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are usually of two types: Public and Private. If you have ever wondered to know what is the difference between a public and a private IP address, then you are at the right place. In this post I will try to explain the difference between a public and a private IP addres in layman’s terms so that it becomes simple and easy to understand.

What are Public IP Addresses?

A public IP address is assigned to every computer that connects to the Internet where each IP is unique. Hence there cannot exist two computers with the same public IP address all over the Internet. This addressing scheme makes it possible for the computers to “find each other” online and exchange information. User has no control over the IP address (public) that is assigned to the computer. The public IP address is assigned to the computer by the Internet Service Provider as soon as the computer is connected to the Internet gateway.

A public IP address can be either static or dynamic. A static public IP address does not change and is used primarily for hosting webpages or services on the Internet. On the other hand a dynamic public IP address is chosen from a pool of available addresses and changes each time one connects to the Internet. Most Internet users will only have a dynamic IP assigned to their computer which goes off when the computer is disconnected from the Internet. Thus when it is re-connected it gets a new IP.
You can check your public IP address by visiting www.whatismyip.com

What are Private IP Addresses?

An IP address is considered private if the IP number falls within one of the IP address ranges reserved for private networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN). The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the following three blocks of the IP address space for private networks (local networks):

10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 (Total Addresses: 16,777,216)
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
(Total Addresses: 1,048,576)
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
(Total Addresses: 65,536)

Private IP addresses are user for numbering the computers in a private network including home, school and business LANs in airports and hotels which makes it possible for the computers in the network to communicate with each other. Say for example, if a network X consists of 10 computers each of them can be given an IP starting from 192.168.1.1 to192.168.1.10. Unlike the public IP, the administrator of the private network is free to assign an IP address of his own choice (provided the IP number falls in the private IP address range as mentioned above).

Devices with private IP addresses cannot connect directly to the Internet. Likewise, computers outside the local network cannot connect directly to a device with a private IP. It is possible to interconnect two private networks with the help of a router or a similar device that supports Network Address Translation.
If the private network is connected to the Internet (through an Internet connection via ISP) then each computer will have a private IP as well as a public IP. Private IP is used for communication within the network where as the public IP is used for communication over the Internet. Most Internet users with a DSL/ADSL connection will have both a private as well as a public IP.

You can know your private IP by typing ipconfig command in the command prompt. The number that you see against “IPV4 Address:” is your private IP which in most cases will be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.2. Unlike the public IP, private IP addresses are always static in nature.
Unlike what most people assume, a private IP is neither the one which is impossible to trace (just like the private telephone number) nor the one reserved for stealth Internet usage. In reality there is no public IP address that is impossible to trace since the protocol itself is designed for transperancy.


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IP Address and IP Classes

Every host on a TCP/IP network needs to have a unique address, similar to you needing a unique address for your house. With this unique address, it is possible to send data from host to host.
Every packet contains addressing information in the header, and the IP address in the header is used to route packets. If several people on your street had the same address, the post office would have a difficult time sorting mail. For a similar reason, IP addresses are unique on each network. IP addressing is simply configuring each TCP/IP host with a valid IP address.

For access to the Internet, a host must have an IP address that identifies not only the host address (like a house number) but also identifies the network address (like a street number). An administrator needs to be aware of proper addressing techniques so that the hosts on the network will function correctly. TCP/IP addresses are based on 32-bit addresses.

IP Address classes



IP addresses are divided into five IP classes:
IP address class A
IP address class B
IP address class C
IP address class D
IP address class E

All IP addresses are placed in a particular class based on the decimal values of their first octets. In the first octet, an IP address can start with a decimal value between 1 and 255.

IP class A addresses have first octets with a decimal number from 1 to 127. Example:
27.x.y.z
102.x.y.z

IP class B addresses have first octets with a decimal number from 128 to 191.Example:
128.x.y.z
151.x.y.z

IP class C addresses have first octets with a decimal number from 192 to 223.Example:
192.x.y.z
223.x.y.z



IP class D addresses have decimal values from 224 to 239 in the first octet, and the 4 leftmost bits are 1110.Example:
224.x.y.z
239.x.y.z

The last IP address class of addresses is IP class E. IP class E addresses range from 240 to 255 in the first octet, and the 4 leftmost bits are 1111. Example:
240.x.y.z
255.x.y.z

The system of IP class addresses has been set up to help ensure assignment of unique IP addresses. DHCP discover, DHCP offer, DHCP request, and DHCP acknowledgment are are four steps in getting an IP address from a DHCP server.

Computer IP Address Configuration



To find out local what is My IP address and possible TCP/IP networking problem follow next steps:
  • If you use win9x/ME go to start-run and type winipcfg, and then press ENTER
  • For win2k/xp or wista go to start-run (Windows Wista user go to Windows button), type cmd and then ENTER. At the DOS prompt type ipconfig and you'll see DNS suffix, IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. For more info type ipconfig /all
  • For Macintosh select the TCP/IP control panel from the Apple menu's "Control Panels" sub-menu. The TCP/IP control panel window will open and display your ip address.

Dummy Virus Files On USB To Protect From Virus Infection

USB drives are one of the most important gifts of technology to us. Any one who works on a computer has got a USB drive in his inventory and it has been there for like a decade and nothing has been able to replace them yet and Yes, today also I will inform you a little bit more about USB drives. USB flash drives are normally removable and rewritable, also they are much smaller than a CD or a floppy disk, yet they can store much more data than them. Most of them weigh much less than 30gms and their storage capacities can be upto 256GB. Some drives allow more than 1 million write cycles and have a 10 year data retention cycle. Nowadays there is no need to carry a large briefcase or even a laptop for that matter and you can easily carry any file type you want if you have a USB flash drive with you.

Now with every pro there is a con and for that matter the con with USB drives is that, they are more vulnerable to viruses than any other data storage device since they are inserted and used on many different computers other than the owner’s. The problem with an antivirus is that it will work on a computer and it wont work on the USB drive itself. There had to be a solution for this and today we have found out that for you. So this is a new application called the USB dummy protect. What this little application does is that it creates a dummy.file and this file takes all the free space. This in turn leaves no free space for the virus to get into.

Capture

This is not an antivirus and this application fills all the free space available in the drive so that whenever you insert your USB drive into someone elses computer, you have to delete the dummy file in order to save some other file. This is a really simple logic as any other file would not be able to enter your USB drive without your permission.

It will not be able to protect you from all the things but still it is better to have something rather than nothing. Sometimes it doesn’t work if there is more than 2GB free space on your FAT drive or sometimes it just wont work as well. So I hope that all these bugs would be fixed in the upcoming updates and then it will work fine.

It is real easy to use this application as all you have to do is Unzip the .exe file and run it.

Download USB Dummy Protect v1.1.

How to remove Virus from USB Drives

One of the ways by which a virus can infect your PC is through USB/Pen drives. Common viruses such as ’Ravmon’ , ‘New Folder.exe’, ‘Orkut is banned’ etc are spreading through USB drives. Most anti virus programs are unable to detect them and even if they do, in most cases they are unable to delete the file, only quarantine it. Here are the things which you can do if you want to remove such viruses from your USB drives

Whenever you plug a USB drive in your system, a window will appear similar to the one shown below

USB

Don’t click on Ok , just choose ‘Cancel’. Open the Command Prompt by typing ‘cmd‘ in the run box. In the command prompt type the drive letter: and press enter . Now type dir /w/a and press enter.

This will display a list of the files in the pen drive. Check whether the following files are there or not

  • Autorun.inf
  • Ravmon.exe
  • New Folder.exe
  • svchost.exe
  • Heap41a
  • or any other exe file which may be suspicious.

If any of the above files are there, then probably the USB drive is infected. In command prompt type attrib -r -a -s -h *.* and press enter. This will remove the Read Only, Archive, System and hidden file attribute from all the files. Now just delete the files using the command del filename. example del Ravmon.exe. Delete all the files that are suspicious. To be on a safer side, just scan the USB drive with an anti virus program to check whether it is free of virus or not. Now remove the drive and plug it again. In most of the cases, the real culprit turns out to be the “Autorun.inf” file which mostly gets executed when someone clicks Ok in the dialog window which appears above. Thus the infections can spread

Security Tip

Disable the Autoplay feature of USB drives. If you disable the Autoplay feature of USB drives, then there are lesser chances of the virus spreading. A tool which can perform such a function is Tweak UI. Download it from here install it.

Tweak UI

Run the program. Now you can disable the Autoplay feature of the removable drives as shown above. By following the above steps, you can keep your USB drives clean. If there are any other methods which you use, then share it with me through comments.



How to protect your computer from virus in pen drives

Trouble:

We have received lot of problems where computers got infected easily by the viruses in the pen drives, pen drives have become one of the most easiest carriers of various types of viruses these days.

We will tell you how pen drives normally infect your computer systems and how can you open pen drive safely and back up your important data.

How a virus in your pen drive infects?

Most of the active viruses infect your windows system as soon as you double click on the Pen Drive icon in your my computer. As virus always creates a autorun.inf file which is a system ,hidden and a read only file on your pen drive. It point to the main virus file which is also located on the pen drive. When user double clicks on the pen drive files pointed by the autorun.inf got executed which copies the virus files on your system.

The image below shows the Autorun file entries in some special characters when you right click on the drive.

virus-pendrive

Let’s see how can you protect yourself by following certain practices.


Fix:

Let’s discuss these practices one by one:

1. Disable Autorun on Your Pen Drive:

  • Open to Start >> Run and type “gpedit.msc” (without quotes) and press enter. This will open Group policy editor.
  • Browse to Administrative templates >> System >> double click on Turn off Autoplay click on Enabled and Under Settings >> Select All Drives in the drop down and click OK (as shown in the image below)

disable-autoplay

2. Scan Your Pen Drive:

Whenever you insert your pen drive / portable drive into USB port on your system make sure to run a virus scan with your anti virus before opening your pen drive contents in windows explorer.

3. Use FreeCommander:

FreeCommander is again a file explorer like windows explorer, so you just need to download it by clicking here and install it.

After installing open your pen drive through FreeCommander (as shown in the image below)

freecommander-usbdrive-virus

Check if there are some additional files like autorun.inf , Funny UST Scandal.avi.exe ,Ravmon.exe ,New Folder.exe etc or any other file which you have not copied or created, delete all these suspicious files on your pen drive.

4. Use your virus infected pen drive: You can also use your virus infected pen drives to copy your important data in worst circumstances.

How to backup your important data when your pen drive is infected with a virus

a. Insert your pen drive into the usb port, if it detects your drive you will see it in my computer.

b. Now don’t double click on your drive, rather open the pen drive contents by typing the drive letter.

For Example: type g: and press enter if your pen drive is shown as new g drive under my computer.

c. Copy your important files from your pen drive close the window and format your pen drive after then.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

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What is ethicalhacking-guide.blogspot.com

ethicalhacking-guide.blogspot.com is definitely not a blog that promotes or encourages computer hacking (unethical), but rather it is a Computer Security related website. In fact, Computer Hacking and Computer Security are the two concepts that goes hand-in-hand. They are like the two faces of the same coin. So with the existence of close proximity between Hacking and Security, it is more likely that people often mistake our blog to be one that promotes Hacking. But in reality, our goal is to prevent hacking. We believe that unless you know how to hack (ethically), you cannot defend yourself from malicious hack attacks. Know Hacking but No Hacking!

Hacking Strategies

Malicious Hacker Strategies :
As there are steps to develop any software so as Every hackers do follow some predefined rules or steps to hack into the system. They are

1>Reconnaissance:- The basic information gathering about the target system.

2> Scanning:- Scanning the target system for open ports and services running on the open ports etc.

3> Gaining Access:- Gaining the actual access of the particular target system by exploiting the system.

4> Maintaining Access:- Keeping the access of the system even after leaving the system so as not to perform all the steps from the scratch.

5>Clearing Tracks:- To remove the footprints if any so as to remain undetected from the victim.

Types Of Hacker

1. White Hat

A white hat is the hero or good guy, especially in computing slang, where it refers to an ethical hacker or Penetration tester who focuses on securing and protecting IT systems.

White Hat Hackers, also known as Ethical Hackers, are Computer Security experts, who are specialized in penetration testing, and other testing methodologies, to ensure that a company's information systems are secure. Such people are employed by companies where these professionals are sometimes called sneakers, tiger teams or red teams.

2. Grey Hat

A grey hat, in the hacking community, refers to a skilled hacker who sometimes acts legally, sometimes in good will, and sometimes not. They are a hybrid between white and black hat hackers. They usually do not hack for personal gain or have malicious intentions, but may or may not occasionally commit crimes during the course of their technological exploits.

3. Black Hat

A black hat is the villain or bad guy. It refers to a hacker that breaks into networks or computers, or creates computer viruses. Black Hat Hackers (also called "crackers") who are specialized in unauthorized penetration of information systems. They may use computers to attack systems for profit, for fun, or for political motivations or as a part of a social cause. Such penetration often involves modification and/or destruction of data, and is done without authorization and hence they should not be confused with ethical hackers.

4. Phreaker

Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a subculture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, like equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. As telephone networks have become computerized, Phreaking has become closely linked with computer hacking. This is sometimes called the H/P culture (with H standing for Hacking and P standing for Phreaking). The term "phreak" is a mixture of the words "phone" and "freak", and may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. "Phreak", "phreaker", or "phone phreak" are names used for and by individuals who participate in phreaking.

5. Script Kiddies

In hacker culture, a script kiddie, occasionally script bunny, skiddie, script kitty, script-running juvenile (SRJ), or similar, is a derogatory term used to describe those who use scripts or programs developed by others to attack computer systems and networks.It is generally assumed that script kiddies are like amateur kids who lack the ability to write sophisticated hacking programs or exploits on their own, and that their objective is to try to impress their friends or gain credit in underground hacker communities.

6.Hacktivists

Some people describing themselves as hacktivists have taken to defacing websites for political reasons, such as attacking and defacing government websites as well as web sites of groups who oppose their ideology. Hacktivist is a mixture of the words Hacker and Activist. Their activities include many political ideals and issues. Hacktivism is a controversial term. Some argue it was coined to describe how electronic direct action might work toward social change by combining programming skills with critical thinking. Others use it as practically synonymous with malicious, destructive acts that undermine the security of the Internet as a technical, economic, and political platform.