Learn to hack
This page aims to compile high quality resources for hackers for both the experienced and inexperienced. All books listed on this page can be found on Library Genesis.
Make sure that you follow good OPSEC when carrying out your operations! See OPSEC
General Resources
Resources that assume little to no background knowledge:
Resources that assume minimal tech background:
- (book) Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking
- Bassterlord Networking Manual (translated)
- Bassterlord Networking Manual v2.0 (translated)
- Translated: Conti playbook
- LockBit 3.0 CobaltStrike: LockBit 3.0 Guide
Resources that assume a tech or hacking background:
- (book) The Hacker Playbook 3
- Hack Back! A DIY Guide
- https://github.com/ForbiddenProgrammer/conti-pentester-guide-leak
- Flexispy Hack Back
- Liberty Counsel Hack Back
- Catalan Police Union Hack Back
- https://book.hacktricks.xyz
The Bug Hunters Methodology:
- https://github.com/jhaddix/tbhm
- Application Analysis: https://youtu.be/FqnSAa2KmBI
Practice labs:
- https://www.hackthebox.com
- https://academy.hackthebox.com
- https://www.pentesteracademy.com
- https://lab.pentestit.ru
- https://overthewire.org/wargames
Appsec:
Malware, a collection of malware source code and binaries:
- https://github.com/vxunderground/MalwareSourceCode
- https://github.com/ytisf/theZoo/tree/master/malware
General references
General resources you may find useful for learning.
OWASP Top 10 is a broad consensus about the most critical security risks to web applications. See TryHackMe's room for practical OWASP Top 10 learning and their Juice Shop.
Recommended Reading - The Library
See recommended reading books that will aid you in your learning. See recommended reading in the library
Operational security
Operational security (OPSEC) is crucial for protecting oneself from surveillance and maintaining anonymity while conducting hacktivist operations.
Recommended Measures
Any illegal hacktivity should be done from an encrypted and separate computer or virtual machine, with all traffic router over Tor.
For more information on recommended operational security measures, see Opsec Measures
Secure Messaging
Best practice for secure messaging includes proxying connections over Tor and using end-to-end encryption for messages.
Recommended Applications
For Jabber/XMPP, make sure to enable OTR or OMEMO encryption. For email use PGP for encryption. For file sharing use onionshare.
For more information on recommended applications, see Secure Messaging Applications
Initial Access
There are many ways to get a initial access into a targets network, from phishing, buying credential access, buying infected machines in corporate networks, password spraying, performing a targeted penetration test and spray and pray scanning for vulnerabilities and hacking in. Here we list some resources in these regards.
For more information on gaining a foothold, see Initial Access Tactics, techniques and procedures
Scanning and Recon
For scanning and recon tools, see Scanning and Recon. Make sure to make use of your tool's documentation and read the help menu (-hh/-h/--help).
Search Engines
Search engines are a useful tool for gathering information and intelligence from publicly available sources. Some are paid and some are free. Make sure to operate good OPSEC whenever placing a purchase for any service that will be used in your recon on a target.
For more information on recommended search engines, see Search Engines Resources
OSINT
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) refers to the collection and analysis of information from publicly available sources.
For more information on recommended tools and resources, see OSINT Tools and Resources
Post exploitation
C2 Frameworks
C2 Matrix. Open source and closed source command and control (C2) frameworks. Go to popular forums to find cracked projects such as cobalt strike.
Windows
Find common vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in a windows environment to escalate your privileges: winPEAS
- https://lolbas-project.github.io
- Living off the land. Evading detection with Sysinternals: https://live.sysinternals.com (\\live.sysinternals.com\tools)
- mimikatz: https://github.com/gentilkiwi/mimikatz/releases
- https://github.com/fortra/impacket
- Disable Defender
- Windows - Using credentials
Active Directory
Active Directory General Tools & resources you may find useful for learning.
See Active Directory for learning resources and tools.
Antivirus & EDR Evasion
- https://s3cur3th1ssh1t.github.io/Bypass_AMSI_by_manual_modification/
- https://s3cur3th1ssh1t.github.io/Customizing_C2_Frameworks/
- https://s3cur3th1ssh1t.github.io/Powershell-and-the-.NET-AMSI-Interface/
- https://www.blackhillsinfosec.com/tag/sacred-cash-cow-tipping/
- https://blog.securityevaluators.com/creating-av-resistant-malware-part-1-7604b83ea0c0
- https://www.ired.team/offensive-security/defense-evasion
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO3PjJIiBIE
- https://github.com/matterpreter/DefenderCheck
- https://github.com/RythmStick/AMSITrigger
- https://amsi.fail
- https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/blob/master/Methodology and Resources/Windows - AMSI Bypass.md
Linux
- Rooting: Rooting linux
- Stabilizing shells
- Linux - Evasion
- Linux - Persistence
- Tips, Tricks & Hacks Cheat Sheet: https://github.com/hackerschoice/thc-tips-tricks-hacks-cheat-sheet
Backdoors
- Gsocket: https://github.com/hackerschoice/gsocket
- PHP: https://github.com/epinna/weevely3
- Reverse Shell Generator: https://www.revshells.com
- Meterpreter: https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/blob/master/Methodology%20and%20Resources/Reverse%20Shell%20Cheatsheet.md#meterpreter-shell
- Blog: https://dhilipsanjay.gitbook.io/ctfs/tryhackme/tryhackme/linuxbackdoors
- Database: https://www.adminer.org
- PAM: Pluggable Authentication Module
- DNS: https://github.com/iagox86/dnscat2
Office 365 & Azure
- Extremely in-depth technical info on everything https://o365blog.com
- https://www.synacktiv.com/en/publications/azure-ad-introduction-for-red-teamers.html
- https://blog.xpnsec.com/azuread-connect-for-redteam
- AAD Connect Cloud Sync: as local admin impersonate or retrieve managed password of the provagentgMSA account to dcsync.
- https://www.blackhillsinfosec.com/webcast-getting-started-in-pentesting-the-cloud-azure
- https://github.com/dafthack/CloudPentestCheatsheets/blob/master/cheatsheets/Azure.md
- https://www.inversecos.com
Tools
- https://github.com/nyxgeek/o365recon
- https://github.com/dirkjanm/ROADtools
- https://github.com/fox-it/adconnectdump
- https://github.com/LMGsec/o365creeper
- https://bloodhound.readthedocs.io/en/latest/data-collection/azurehound.html
- https://github.com/rvrsh3ll/TokenTactics
- https://github.com/nyxgeek/onedrive_user_enum
- https://github.com/dafthack/MSOLSpray
- https://github.com/dafthack/MFASweep
Destruction
There may be times during a hacktivist operation when you come to the end of your hack, you've fully compromised your target, exfiltrated everything you can/want and now before finally leaving the network and leaking all the targets secrets online you want to cause chaos and destruction. As was seen by Guacamaya where they used sdelete64.exe -accepteula -r -s C:\*
to wipe systems attached to Pronicos domain you might also want to do the same for Linux and Windows systems in your operations, maybe you want to recursively print a text file with your manifesto across a system/network, encrypt files beyond recovery or just delete everything.
See Chaos and Destruction for different ways to achieve this!
Hacking Misc
API Hacking
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are the plumbing of today’s financial services and FinTech infrastructure, enabling FinTechs to embed banking into their apps and banks to offer a more unified experience to their customers demanding more from their bank (Knight). APIs can be exploited and aid in data exfiltration and taking advantage of an existing service.
See Hacking APIs
IoT Hacking
Product-specific Hacking
GSuite
https://www.slideshare.net/dafthack/ok-google-how-do-i-red-team-gsuite
VMware
- Exploiting vCenter to add vSphere user: https://github.com/HynekPetrak/HynekPetrak/blob/master/take_over_vcenter_670.md
- VMware Workspace ONE Access and Identity Manager RCE via SSTI. CVE-2022-22954: Unauthenticated server-side template injection. Mass Exploit
RocketChat
- Account hijacking and RCE as admin: https://edbrsk.dev/content/real-cases/how-I-compromised-300-stores-and-a-spanish-consultancy
Microsoft Exchange
ProxyLogon is dead. It's mitigated by Defender. ProxyShell is not. AMSI catches unmodified public exploits.
- ProxyShell: https://github.com/dmaasland/proxyshell-poc
- Improved proxyshell-poc: https://github.com/horizon3ai/proxyshell
- ProxyShell (webshell via New-MailboxExportRequest): https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/documentation/modules/exploit/windows/http/exchange_proxyshell_rce.md
- ProxyShell (webshell via New-ExchangeCertificate): https://gist.github.com/dmaasland/0720891aaf6dec8d3b42a5b92c8d6f94
- Polymorphic webshells: https://github.com/grCod/poly
- ProxyShell (no webshell, dump mailboxes via PowerShell): https://github.com/Jumbo-WJB/Exchange_SSRF
- Export all mailboxes:
foreach ($mbx in (Get-Mailbox)){New-MailboxExportRequest -mailbox $mbx.alias -FilePath "\\127.0.0.1\C$\Folder\$($mbx.Alias).pst"}
- Proxylogon, proxyshell, proxyoracle and proxytoken full chain exploit tool: https://github.com/FDlucifer/Proxy-Attackchain
- Automatic ProxyShell Exploit: https://github.com/Udyz/proxyshell-auto