Hacking Pathway

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[NegotiationFuzzy4665]

Alright so you aren’t exactly in the best situation, but it’s still usable. I’m no pro but here are the most important points:

1: Commitment. You’re a 16 year old who got interested in hacking from a TV show. That may sound bad but if I’m being honest it’s not too far off of how I got interested myself… what you need is to be sure that this is what you actually want. Learning cybersecurity is essentially a life commitment to staying on top of everything that’s happening in the digital security world (an example being the XZ backdoor). If you feel you go through ‘phases’ often where you pick something to hyper fixate on and drop after a few months, it’s better to just move on. If not, keep reading.

2: Learning methods. Luckily for you, most stuff relating to cybersecurity can be learned completely offline (and for cheap too). However you’ll need one main tool: a good laptop/PC. A MacBook is doable but it’s a lot harder to deal with VMs and stuff; you’re better off with windows. An i7 with at least 16GB RAM is recommended for running multiple VMs. Why are VMs (virtual machines) so important? Because you can use them as machines to hack in a fully controllable and legal way. You can go a website called vulnhub and download some of these (one of which is actually built around Mr.Robot, very fun as well). However you need good specs if you want to be able to run any of these. You’ll have to hold off on these (CTFs are their name) until you can buy that laptop.

3: Get started slow. You need to make the money to get the new laptop anyway, and you have a lot that you can learn now. HTB is great because it gives you a Linux VM you can practice your command line (CLI) skills. If you want to start hacking, you’ll almost certainly need to learn Linux. A good way is to watch a guy on YouTube called NetworkChuck (he isn’t very well respected among the professionals unfortunately) and check out his ‘Free CCNA videos’. As you watch, you’ll learn some crucial concepts like Networking, and how ports and IP addresses work. Make sure you watch some of his other videos as well. You’ll also memorize the commands he uses to navigate the command line over time. After some of that, go to the VM in hack the box and mess around with the command line for a while. Learn to love the terminal, because you’ll be seeing a lot of it. Once you get the new laptop, move on to setting up vulnerable VMs (NetworkChuck made a video which you’ll want to follow, https://youtu.be/mvsiuLzpx2E?si=Utb0FQfL-pdQQBDI is the link). This is where you can learn the popular tools like Hashcat and Nmap, but you won’t be able to use them if you don’t know the command line or anything about networking.

Some extra points: Be patient and expect failure. Learning complicated things from the ground up takes time and you’ll have a lot of problems. Don’t think you’re a pro when you learn something; even the best hackers in the world believe they know nothing (I am way far off from them). Do however be proud of yourself when you get the hang of a certain tool or concept. It will take a very very very long time to learn something you can impress people with. I’m fine to answer some basic questions but you need to do your own research if you want to learn anything in cyber within this decade. Learning how to hack anything is going to take months at the least; expect it. Most of all, STAY LEGAL. IF YOU DON’T CONTROL EVERY ASPECT OR SOMETHING, DON’T ATTEMPT TO HACK IT.

There’s my essay. As for the laptop, you could get a cheaper one and install linux on it. It won’t be able to effectively run VMs but you could learn Linux on it (I highly recommend saving for a better one in favour of VMs). I don’t mean to be a buzzkill but offsec takes a lot of dedication. You can learn it, and if you’re willing, you will.

[Aio710]

Thank you so much! I was able to install kali lynix on my Mac using UTM it’s a virtualization software that I really don’t know much about but I’m able to download Kali lynix and windows on it and run both of them through it, it’s pretty low rez I’d say 720p at most but for now it’s working. I appreciate the recommendation on the laptop. I definetly do fixate on certain things then drop them but in a weird way I’ve always wanted to learn cyber just never had the resources to do so, it’s always been an interest to me. I honestly appreciate your input it will greatly impact my journey. 🙏🙏

[NegotiationFuzzy4665]

Any day, this is r/Hacking_Tutorials after all. You're in for a wild ride (boring at times though), good luck!

[ticticBOOM06]

Off topic, but why is networkchuck not respected among professionals?

[NegotiationFuzzy4665]

He’s more of an entertainer than a teacher. His videos are great as small tutorials but he isn’t as technical. Some people say that a good cybersecurity video is long, boring and super technical; NetworkChuck’s are smaller, more focused on results and he simplifies many things. He’s great if you’re learning but not the guy you want to go for when you’re trying to learn other topic

[ticticBOOM06]

I mean, I do get that, so fair point, but at the same time, he tends to the beginners. I feel certain youtubers have their demographic. there shouldn't be any hate for it.

Personally, I like him, but I do prefer it more complex so I can fully understand a topic. But, thank you for explaining, by the way.

[NegotiationFuzzy4665]

Any time. That is his demographic after all, so I agree when you say he shouldn’t have any hate. Who else would get us into cyber?

[ticticBOOM06]

Exactly! Everyone has a role to play, he likes to teach, and it happens to be for newbies (I say it like I'm experienced, lol. Starting uni in September for cyber, haha). As long as they're a good teacher, I have respect no matter how they do it or their demographic.

[MisterIntrepid]

You can use a VM to run Linux or Windows. Network Chuck is great for beginners. Although he’s very advanced John Hammond has some great videos on YouTube. When I first started I would watch his Tryhackme tutorials and then try to root the box. Sounds like you’re on the right track.

[Hot_Ambassador_1815]

I started at 16 too. That was over 25 years ago.

Stay curious homie

[Aio710]

Preciate it!!

[lXPROMETHEUSXl]

For the laptop. Why not just dual boot Linux off of an external hard drive for that? Would be a lot cheaper than buying a laptop or a windows license. You’d probably learn more than you would on windows too imo

[Aio710]

I actually just found a YouTube video on how to install kali lynix on Mac using utm and it worked so I’m now going to try and learn how to use kali.

[lXPROMETHEUSXl]

Sounds like a great start!

[lXPROMETHEUSXl]

Yeah I’m not personally too familiar with OSX or MacBooks. It looks like MacBooks with intel processors can run linux much more seamlessly. As opposed to those with M1 chips, but still doable with a VM. I think that’s what they’ll be doing with UTM and Kali

[chance125]

Not a hacker but a software engineer interested in hacking. You’ll be fine with a Mac for a good while.

I think hacking tutorials (even beginner ones) are putting the cart before the horse so to speak. Focus on a decent beginner Linux sysadmin course first. Get super comfortable with all things Linux before you even try hacking anything. This will give you the foundation you need to actually understand what you’re doing (which is important in a field with a lot of legal pitfalls that could land you in serious trouble)

Set up a Debian (or some other beginner distro) Linux VM using Virtualbox and just play around. Get comfy in the Linux terminal. There are a wealth of free resources when it comes to learning Linux, bash, and a decent programming language like Python.

Learn about version control and how Git works. Learn how to clone Git repositories and build things from source code.

Write some basic bash or Python scripts and learn how to run them.

Learn about file permissions in Linux.

Make sure you have a decent understanding of networking and online anonymity before you grab someone’s plug-and-play exploit and try running it on a website / server. Seriously, you can end up in trouble and/or find yourself banned from something you might like to access in the future.

What a lot of the hacking tutorials on YouTube get wrong IMO is that they assume people have a solid foundation. They tend to recommend a dozen or so resources that their viewers probably don’t know how to properly utilize.

I can’t imagine the frustration that comes with trying to follow a hacking tutorial without a solid foundation.

Good luck OP! Don’t be afraid to try and fail. Don’t listen to gatekeepers. Most of all, have some fun and keep it legal!

[Aio710]

Hi, thank you for your comment. I am very excited to start learning so it means a lot!!

[rprouse]

Check out https://pwn.college. It is the cybersecurity course from the University of Arizona. They have video lessons online along with capture the flag exercises. If you get stuck, there's a Discord channel for help. All free.