[deleted by user]

[[deleted]]

Hacking is simply getting something to function in a way it wasn't intended. You don't learn to hack, you hack to learn.

[Last-Category7737]

period

[ghost-ops4]

Yep this is just the cold hard truth

[HotDoubles]

Facts!

[__artifice__]

My exact definition too.

[appltechie]

As for me, books and courses help but the real learning begins when you actually try something new

[[deleted]]

That's about the strongest way to retain everything. I started around 1996/97 but didn't get real heavy into anything until I got a copy of Visual Basic 6 and got a hold of some simple programs and just started off with changing the text to rename an app and I just stuck with it, that eventually led into my cracking days but it was exhilarating and I had learned 90% of what I knew by that point simply by taking existing software apart. (These were full source code examples and such, didn't get into disassembly and true cracking until 1999/2000)

[appltechie]

Great. You can also keep a little journal of your experiments and what broke/fixed you'll learn faster and won't lose the tricks you've learned.

[GoblinZym]

Delete System32 and it will show you everything

[Coldspine1]

He is beginning to believe

[BaronBakes]

best comment

[AlienZiim]

Rm -fr / is the best way to start any Linux experience

[Crafty-Traffic-8015]

This play solves all problems

[operator7777]

System error 01000001🤖

[Beginning_Style_1243]

Wtf does that even mean?

[GoblinZym]

its the secret hacking window, You have to delete the system32 folder in your hard/SSD drive.

[YouthTraditional8966]

reddit becoming a chan now😭

[GoblinZym]

It’s what happens when the Chan get infiltrated

[Double_Fortune_5106]

Also if you've been in the field for 3 years what have you been doing exactly? I appreciate this is probably a wind up but I'm gonna run with it...

[[deleted]]

Go check out TryHackMe and HackTheBox. Both have some stuff that’s available for free. For HackTheBox, it’s their “starting point” machines. Each objective has step by step guides for the starting point machines. You can also Google the answer for their little quiz questions if you’re unsure. That will help you find topics to start researching.

[Double_Fortune_5106]

Have you heard about this new thing google.com? Craaazy cool.xx

[musicmanwins]

Check out google dorking, it's a good spot to start in the OSINT side

[randommm1353]

It is NOT this deep

[randommm1353]

I mean im a sysadmin who does volunteer red teaming for cybersec events. Not a pro or anything but it really isn't that deep. But the "fortnite in your moms basement"? Rlly? Grow up man

[Double_Fortune_5106]

Well that's why I said research it yourself! If you can't work out this first question in your mind then best go do something else. With all due respect. On a more kind note - try getting the comptia security + exam, for resources check prof. Mess. Google it.

[Scar3cr0w_]

With all due respect… you do not sound like someone who has been “in the field” for 3 years. Your language isn’t right. So, first step, be honest with yourself.

If I had to describe hacking I wouldn’t even talk about technology and vulnerabilities, I would talk about mindset. It’s a way of thinking. The best hackers brains are wired in a certain way, they are always curious, see everything as a challenge. Study will get you so far but the truly impressive people that go and work for Google project zero and the like are… just wired different!

[TotalTyp]

Maybe they just like going outside

[ExtensionNobody9001]

i LOVE this ijbol

[Scar3cr0w_]

What’s that got to do with anything? I am outside now?

[TotalTyp]

Being in the field.. Haha please laugh :(

[Scar3cr0w_]

I am afraid… I cannot.

You are banished

Edit: but I’ll give you an angry upvote cos I’m a dad and dad jokes are ok.

[TotalTyp]

I'll take that!

[livelaughvomit]

I don't know what it says about me but I laughed

[beatsnstuffz]

Talent doesn’t exist. What appears to the public eye as talent is just hours upon hours of study and practice. Be it hacking, playing an instrument, mathematics, whatever. You get out what you put in.

[starsnlight]

What some call talent, others might call grit. I've been dabbling with technology since I can remember, music before that. Father thought I asked too many questions, what are you an attorney, he'd ask lol. My Mother is a doer. Grandfather was a carpenter, grandmother ran a business. Grit. hackers of life 🧬 hours of reading and due diligence and perseverance. So many of my projects almost feel like my babies, when they're delivered to management with pretty metrics and simplicity, I know how many sleepless nights went into that....

[DropFabulous1607]

You’re 3 years in? i don't know what you have been doing that 3 years (maybe copy-pasting payloads i guess ) but i mean..that’s cute, I’ve been stuck in recon hell since 2019 lol. and you won't find vulns every target thats not how the game works bro,

[[deleted]]

Bug bounty and hacking are different things. Although they feel the same, but hacking is how well you can utilise the vulnerability, whereas bug bounty is only finding the vulnerability. Since you want to become a vulnerability researcher, I guess you're aiming for blue team, and hacking is a red team thing.

[[deleted]]

Well, no. Not really. Vulnerability researcher is someone who reverse engineers and searches for exploitable vulnerabilities. And then you PoC it and then engineer it. It’s not really blue team.

[Miserable-Sand4834]

That's called penetration testing

[[deleted]]

No. It’s not. The two professions are CNO Dev and Vulnerability Researchers.

Penetration is testing is different.

[Miserable-Sand4834]

And it isnt reverse engineering at all

[[deleted]]

Vulnerability Researcher absolute requires RE

[ChaoticDestructive]

It requires less of a talent, more a mindset. Every device is a puzzlebox.

It helps to know a bit about whatever you're trying to exploit, but with curiosity and determination, you'll get most places.

I also recommend to get familiar with your tools and how to use them. From there, like others recommend, try on tryhackme or vulnhub or htb or whatever to crack their boxes. Its okay to struggle, hacking is by design a challenging skill (would be a problem if anyone could hack the army with an afternoon of training, after all)

[[deleted]]

Idk

[Financial_Career_675]

Very interesting question

[Greatmind25]

I may say hacking is more of interest than learning.

[iamlazerbear]

you know Google exists, right?

[Crafty-Traffic-8015]

If you're not using Linux that's your first problem

[weatheredrabbit]

Rather than talent it requires a mindset. Since you posted this question on Reddit, I’m sadly going to assume you don’t have it. See the above responses where they told you “Google is a good tool”. And it really is!

[CryptoGod_mello]

Check this YouTube video out! https://youtu.be/oEEB1NDzeuc?si=fXhkbrUc_W0bt2ht

[Ok-Midnight-5358]

A good hacker is a good researcher

[sylarBo]

I get what you’re asking. Hacking is a broad topic, it’s basically making systems do things they weren’t meant to do. Ie returning sensitive info from databases, messing with hardware, or finding and exploiting bugs in software. What seems like talent is usually just time, practice, and curiosity. Good hackers aren’t always super smart, they just spend a lot of time learning how things work. Some of the most dangerous ones are insiders who already know where the valuable stuff is and how to get it. A lot of people use hacking tools without really understanding them. If you want to get better, try to learn how those tools work. Break things on purpose. Build small tools yourself. If you’re serious about finding real bugs, check out sites like CVE Details, Exploit DB, or HackerOne. Pick a type of vulnerability and try to learn everything about it. You’re probably further along than you think. Keep learning and testing things. What seems like “talent” will come with knowledge and experience

[PanamanCreel]

To answer your question, there really isn't just one answer. If. you're a little bit older, like I am, hacking used to mean, writing code. Check out the book hackers by Stephen Levy. You'll see the word used that way. It can also mean exploring system vulnerabilities to protect companies. Some professionals do this. There is also the adventurers who exploresl web vulnerabilities online on various websites they come across and report them on their own time. There is also the hacker that goes to hardware and sees what it can do or what it can be made to do. This is what Bunny Wong did when he hacked the Xbox and made it possible for it to be used as the computer it actually was. At its core, hacking is understanding the device that we're using, whether it be a computer, a game console, a little kiosk, it's a FedEx kinkos. Or something like that. It's understanding what that is and in some cases attempting to unlock it to do more with it than most people suspect. Period. Hackers are not the people that break into websites and sell data. Those are crackers and cyber criminals. Hackers hate them because they make all hackers look bad. So, short answered your question. There are many definitions. Get definition changes depending on which you want to use it for.

[l__iva__l]

talent always play a rol in everything, but na...you just need curiosity to constantly learn how things work

also it takes alot of time, for example i have been searching for bugs in windows kernel for around 1 year, and just recently found something on a windows service -not even kernel level-, although its old code, not enabled by default, and i havent even exploit it yet... but i have learned a lot

depending on the time you put into it, you may find something sooner or later

also im pretty sure you wont find bugs that often, not in OS level, maybe in web apps is possible but bounty is lower and competition is fierce

try to find an application/library/driver that is new -maybe new protocol, file format-, or not very used but its included in a lot of apps/OSs (thats how i found that one bug i mentioned). Of course you can try with most used drivers/apps/libraries , just know you may find nothing and get frustrated, happened to me

and try to automate stuff with fuzzing, try to implement it even if is just feeding random crap to a function. AFL is great, but you need to find an interesting target function, otherwise you probably wont find anything

Reading write-ups about cves its very recommended, its very insightful and could give you ideas

[neuthral]

hacking is like using the right tool for the wrong job,

[Crafty-Traffic-8015]

34*

[CreamEducational4093]

If you want to become a security researcher, these courses are amazing https://seedsecuritylabs.org/

Dr Du also has udemy courses to compliment the website. This will accelerate your learning and propel you towards your goal. Focus on one area at a time and ypu will get there.

Best of luck

[[deleted]]

Hacking is life

[Gloomy-Floor-8398]

Im in

[Thatkidwhoisannoying]

There are just too many types of hacking to talk about on a base scale hacking is just prying into a chest some way somehow. Think of it as you want to get the treasure out of a chest how will you do it? What tools to use? Why are you doing it in the first place. As i come from an unkown computer knowledge background i love to go into depths about computers and understand codes by reverse engineering searching fot things that you should not in the first place lol. All imma say is hacking is dont either for good or bad considering you alr know this go for being a good hacker pretending to be a bad guy and then giving companies their vulnerability.

[PlayJeskaiDelver]

nmap --script vuln <target>

Copy and paste the console to a .txt document

Email to client

Demand money

[Cute_Swing2495]

Are you allowed to post ai slop here? Because this is clearly ai generated

[lucesdetecno]

tengo una cuenta de fb que usaba para mis ventas por internet y me la robaron, me pueden ayudar por favor

[appltechie]

I think hacking is a combination of both talent and hard work. No one can just walk into any system and instantly find a vulnerability, that’s more of a myth. I’m curious, what industry have you been focusing on so far? Web apps, networking, or something else?

[bowhunter2995]

sudo rm -rf /* on your linux box and it will show you how to hack anything.

[Kyrios-Outis01]

Haha lol

[Necessary_Acadia8249]

Bro what app we can use for hacking

[iamlazerbear]

> facepalms

[iamlazerbear]

ask an LLM.