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This article is part of the series: Computer Hacking
Hobbyist hacker Technology hacker Hacker programmer
Hacking in computer security
Computer security Computer insecurity Network security
History
Phreaking
Hacker ethic
Black, grey, white hat Hacker Manifesto
Cybercrime
Computer crime List of convicted computer criminals Script kiddie
Hacking tools
Vulnerability Exploit Payload
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In common usage, a hacker is a person who breaks into computers.^[1] The subculture that has evolved around hackers is often referred to as the computer underground. Proponents claim to be motivated by artistic and political ends, but are often unconcerned about the use of criminal means to achieve them.^[2]

Other uses of the word hacker exist that are not related to computer security (computer programmer and home computer hobbyists), but these are rarely used by the mainstream media.

Contents 1 History 2 Artifacts and customs 2.1 Hacker groups 3 Hacking and the media 3.1 Hacker magazines 3.2 Hackers in fiction 3.3 Non-fiction books 4 Hacker attitudes 4.1 White hat 4.2 Grey hat 4.3 Black hat 4.4 Cyberterrorist 4.5 Script kiddie 4.6 Hacktivist 5 Common methods 5.1 Security exploit 5.2 Vulnerability scanner 5.3 Packet Sniffer 5.4 Spoofing attack 5.5 Rootkit 5.6 Social engineering 5.7 Trojan horse 5.8 Virus 5.9 Worm 5.10 Key loggers 6 Notable intruders and criminal hackers 7 Notable Security Hackers 7.1 Kevin Mitnick 7.2 Eric Corley 7.3 Fyodor 7.4 Solar Designer 7.5 Michał Zalewski 8 References 9 Related literature 10 See also

[edit] History

Hacking developed alongside "Phone Phreaking", a term referred to exploration of the phone network without authorization, and there has often been overlap between both technology and participants.

Bruce Sterling traces the roots of the computer underground to the Yippies, a 1960s counterculture movement which published the Technological Assistance Program newsletter.

[edit] Artifacts and customs

The computer underground^[1] is heavily dependent on technology. It has produced its own slang and various forms of unusual alphabet use, for example 1337speak. Writing programs and performing other activities to support these views is referred to as hacktivism. Some go as far as seeing illegal cracking ethically justified for this goal; the most common form is website defacement.^{[citation needed]} The computer underground is frequently compared to the Wild West: a male-dominated Frontier to conquer.^[3] It is common among hackers to use aliases for the purpose of concealing identity, rather than revealing their real names.

[edit] Hacker groups

The computer underground is supported by regular real-world gatherings called hacker conventions or "hacker cons". These have drawn more people every year including SummerCon (Summer), DEF CON, HoHoCon (Christmas), and H.O.P.E..^{[citation needed]} They have helped expand the definition and solidify the importance of the computer underground.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Hacking and the media

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (August 2008)

[edit] Hacker magazines

Main category: Hacker magazines

The most notable hacker-oriented magazine publications are Phrack and 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. While the information contained in hacker magazines and ezines was often outdated, they improved the reputations of those who contributed by documenting their successes.^[4]

[edit] Hackers in fiction

Hackers often show an interest in fictional cyberpunk and cyberculture literature and movies. Absorption of fictional pseudonyms, symbols, values, and metaphors from these fictional works is very common.^{[citation needed]}

Books portraying hackers:

• The cyberpunk novels of William Gibson — especially the Sprawl Trilogy — are very popular with hackers.^[5]
• Hackers (short stories)
• Snow Crash
• Helba from the .hack manga and anime series.
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
• Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

Films also portray hackers:

• WarGames
• The Matrix series
• Hackers
• Live Free or Die Hard
• Swordfish
• The Net
• The Net 2.0
• Antitrust
• Enemy of the State
• Sneakers
• Untraceable
• Firewall
• Eagleye

[edit] Non-fiction books

• The Hacker Crackdown
• The Art of Intrusion by Kevin D. Mitnick
• The Art of Deception by Kevin D. Mitnick

[edit] Hacker attitudes

Several subgroups of the computer underground with different attitudes and aims use different terms to demarcate themselves from each other, or try to exclude some specific group with which they do not agree. Eric S. Raymond advocates that members of the computer underground should be called crackers. Yet, those people see themselves as hackers and even try to include the views of Raymond in what they see as one wider hacker culture, a view harshly rejected by Raymond himself. Instead of a hacker – cracker dichotomy, they give more emphasis to a spectrum of different categories, such as white hat (“ethical hacking”), grey hat, black hat and script kiddie. In contrast to Raymond, they usually reserve the term cracker to refer to black hat hackers, or more generally hackers with unlawful intentions.

[edit] White hat

A white hat hacker breaks security for non-malicious reasons. This type of hacker enjoys learning and working with computer systems, and consequently gains a deeper understanding of the subject. Such people normally go on to use their hacking skills in legitimate ways, such as becoming security consultants. The word 'hacker' was originally used to describe people such as these.

[edit] Grey hat

A grey hat hacker is a hacker of ambiguous ethics and/or borderline legality, often frankly admitted.

[edit] Black hat

A black hat hacker is someone who subverts computer security without authorization or uses technology (usually a computer or the Internet) for vandalism (malicious destruction), credit card fraud, identity theft, intellectual property theft, or other types of crime. They are also known as "crackers".

[edit] Cyberterrorist

A Cyberterrorist uses technology to commit acts of terrorism. Their intentions are to cause physical, real-world harm to social, ideological, religious, political, or governmental establishments. Such as using DOS (Denial of Service) attacks to take down entire websites.

[edit] Script kiddie

A script kiddie is a non-expert who breaks into computer systems by using pre-packaged automated tools written by others. These are the outcasts of the hacker community.

[edit] Hacktivist

A hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to announce a political message.

[edit] Common methods

Computer security
Secure operating systems
Security architecture
Security by design
Secure coding
Computer insecurity
Vulnerability	Social engineering Eavesdropping
Exploit	Trojan viruses and worms Denial of service
Payload	Backdoor Rootkit Keylogger
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A typical approach in an attack on Internet-connected system is:

1. Network enumeration: Discovering information about the intended target.
2. Vulnerability analysis: Identifying potential ways of attack.
3. Exploitation: Attempting to compromise the system by employing the vulnerabilities found through the vulnerability analysis. ^[6]

In order to do so, there are several recurring tools of the trade and techniques used by computer criminals and security experts.

[edit] Security exploit

A security exploit is a prepared application that takes advantage of a known weakness.

[edit] Vulnerability scanner

A vulnerability scanner is a tool used to quickly check computers on a network for known weaknesses. Hackers also commonly use port scanners. These check to see which ports on a specified computer are "open" or available to access the computer, and sometimes will detect what program or service is listening on that port, and its version number. (Note that firewalls defend computers from intruders by limiting access to ports/machines both inbound and outbound, but can still be circumvented.)

[edit] Packet Sniffer

A packet sniffer is an application that captures data packets, which can be used to capture passwords and other data in transit over the network.

[edit] Spoofing attack

A spoofing attack involves one program, system, or website successfully masquerading as another by falsifying data and thereby being treated as a trusted system by a user or another program. The purpose of this is usually to fool programs, systems, or users into revealing confidential information, such as user names and passwords, to the attacker.

[edit] Rootkit

A rootkit is designed to conceal the compromise of a computer's security, and can represent any of a set of programs which work to subvert control of an operating system from its legitimate operators. Usually, a rootkit will obscure its installation and attempt to prevent its removal through a subversion of standard system security. Rootkits may include replacements for system binaries so that it becomes impossible for the legitimate user to detect the presence of the intruder on the system by looking at process tables.

[edit] Social engineering

Social Engineering is the art of getting persons to reveal sensitive information about a system. This is usually done by impersonating someone or by convincing people to believe you have permissions to obtain such information.

[edit] Trojan horse

A Trojan horse is a program which seems to be doing one thing, but is actually doing another. A trojan horse can be used to set up a back door in a computer system such that the intruder can gain access later. (The name refers to the horse from the Trojan War, with conceptually similar function of deceiving defenders into bringing an intruder inside.)

[edit] Virus

A virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. Thus, a computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells.

[edit] Worm

Like a virus, a worm is also a self-replicating program. A worm differs from a virus in that it propagates through computer networks without user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Many people conflate the terms "virus" and "worm", using them both to describe any self-propagating program.

[edit] Key loggers

A keylogger is a tool designed to record ('log') every keystroke on an affected machine for later retrieval. Its purpose is usually to allow the user of this tool to gain access to confidential information typed on the affected machine, such as a user's password or other private data. Often uses virus-, trojan-, and rootkit-like methods to remain active and hidden.

[edit] Notable intruders and criminal hackers

[edit] Notable Security Hackers

[edit] Kevin Mitnick

Kevin Mitnick is a computer security consultant and author, formerly the most wanted computer criminal in United States history.

[edit] Eric Corley

Eric Corley (also known as Emmanuel Goldstein) is the long standing publisher of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. He is also the founder of the H.O.P.E. conferences. He has been part of the hacker community since the late '70s.

[edit] Fyodor

Gordon Lyon, known by the handle Fyodor, authored the Nmap Security Scanner as well as many network security books and web sites. He is a founding member of the Honeynet Project and Vice President of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.

[edit] Solar Designer

Solar Designer is the pseudonym of the founder of the Openwall Project.

[edit] Michał Zalewski

Michał Zalweski (lcamtuf) is a prominent security researcher.

[edit] References

Taylor, 1999 

Taylor, Paul A. (1999). Hackers. Routledge. ISBN 9780415180726. 

1. ^ ^{a b} Sterling, Bruce. "Part 2(d)". The Hacker Crackdown. McLean, Virginia: IndyPublish.com. p. 61. ISBN 1-4043-0641-2. 
2. ^ Blomquist, Brian (May 29, 1999). "FBI's Web Site Socked as Hackers Target Feds". New York Post. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
3. ^ Tim Jordan, Paul A. Taylor (2004). Hacktivism and Cyberwars. Routledge. pp. 133–134. ISBN 9780415260039. "Wild West imagery has permeated discussions of cybercultures." 
4. ^ Thomas, Douglas. Hacker Culture. University of Minnesota Press. p. 90. ISBN 9780816633463. 
5. ^ Staples, Brent (May 11, 2003). "A Prince of Cyberpunk Fiction Moves Into the Mainstream". http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/opinion/11SUN3.html?ex=1367985600&en=9714db46bfff633a&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND. Retrieved on 2008-08-30. "Mr. Gibson's novels and short stories are worshiped by hackers" 
6. ^ Hacking approach

[edit] Related literature

• Clifford Stoll (1990). The Cuckoo's Egg. The Bodley Head Ltd. ISBN 0-370-31433-6. 
• Code Hacking: A Developer's Guide to Network Security by Richard Conway, Julian Cordingley
• Kevin Beaver. Hacking For Dummies. 
• Katie Hafner & John Markoff (1991). Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-68322-5. 
• David H. Freeman & Charles C. Mann (1997). @ Large: The Strange Case of the World's Biggest Internet Invasion. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-82464-7. 
• Suelette Dreyfus (1997). Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier. Mandarin. ISBN 1-86330-595-5. 
• Bill Apro & Graeme Hammond (2005). Hackers: The Hunt for Australia's Most Infamous Computer Cracker. Five Mile Press. ISBN 1-74124-722-5. 
• Stuart McClure, Joel Scambray & George Kurtz (1999). Hacking Exposed. Mcgraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-212127-0. 

[edit] See also

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Hacking

• Wireless hacking
• Cyber spying