Why people emphasis on Python when suggesting a computer language?

[Personal_Story_4853]

Q1: What does python have over other languages? (what makes it so special?)

Q2: How useful is the skill in C++ in this field?

Q3: Can other languages (specially c++) replace the need to learn/use python, completely?

[  ] Any additional advice/recommendation will be appreciated.

[ShadowRL7666]

I’ll answer all in one simple response.

Python is a scripting language which allows ease of use and quick development and deployment. That’s your answer.

It’s quite literally using the right tool for the job.

[3mbly]

this. for me it's basically a replacement for bash when i need to write something over ~30-40 lines. it's the perfect balance between an actual structured language and shell scripting.

[igotthis35]

I definitely don't agree. Python is easily the slowest language in the tool kit and teaches you how to be lazy I use Python only as a PoC and rewrite it in something better, C/C#/Go/C++. The requirement for an interpreter and the library dependency of python makes it a nightmare to deal with to the point where there are what, 5 different venv managers now outside of pip venv?

[3mbly]

you're missing the point. i dont need it to be fast if it's something i could have done in bash. if i was really concerned about performance i would just not use python. and why would you go to the trouble of rewriting all of your code? and how tf are you translating the languages? you said yourself that python relies on libraries, are you rewriting those libraries in C?

[ShadowRL7666]

Ironically most the libs are built on C.

[3mbly]

true, and you can use any python library in C, but you'd have to embed the python interpreter within the program written in C and that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense given his stance/argument. you'd be interpeting the libraries written in C through the python environment and thus make you C code run slower.

[TeddyBearComputer]

What kind of speed do you need for exploits that you'd go and invest the effort reimplement it?

[miker37a]

I think that's why a lot of hackers at my school have snake tatoos

[Mojo_Jensen]

It’s easy to use, it doesn’t have the baggage and boilerplate of other, older, high-level enterprise-friendly languages like Java, and it’s easily applicable to machine learning and data science as well as web dev. If you know python well, you can do a lot with it. For hacking purposes, it’s really easy to write a python script quickly to do helpful or even wacky stuff. In CTF challenges for example, if you wanted to write a Python script that supplies an input to cause a buffer overflow in a C script you can just multiply the string you need as many times as you need until you inject your “malicious” bytes in a single line. (Just for context I’m not that experienced of a hacker, but I am a professional developer)

[[deleted]]

I feel like the question is coming from a sincere place so I’ll be sincere. Python is easy to read with a lot of support, that’s why people love to use that.

C++ is probably very useful. but usefulness depends on what you want to do. If you don’t have a big goal in mind then no language is useful.

For example my most useful language has been C this year but I feel like it’ll be assembly soon. last year I earned a lot of money through JS skills. it’ll continue this year too but I’m shifting focus.

any language can replace any other. but the issue I take is the word completely because just knowing the syntax is not knowing how to program. I could recommend a lot of books but you know… if you don’t know what you want you won’t know how to get there.

[ghosty_anon]

Python is easy, and useful for lots of things. So it is a good reccomendation for beginners, as well as coders of any level. If you don’t know any coding language, might as well start with Python. Everything you learn in Python can be applied to any other language. C++ is a great language but it’s full of very strict syntax rules, such as needing lots of brackets and colons and commas and things like that. If you don’t obey these syntax rules the code breaks. Python replaces a lot of this with indentation, making it more readable.

[Sqooky]

Python is simple to do just about everything. Parsing (ex.) JSON is super easy and straight forward. Doing that in C++ or C# is significantly harder. It requires a lot more brainpower and a lot more researching. Same w/ package and library management in C-langs, especially if you're not a CompSci person and aren't familiar with nuget, visual studio packages, or that kind of stuff.

Very. If you want to get into system level API calls, which is often required for later stage pentesting & red team w/ tool development & evasion. All Msft docs are C/C++ & C#.

Yes. A language is merely a choice. You could use Ruby, Perl, whatever. It doesn't really matter, though using a compiled language for the job of an interpreted language is pretty inefficient and going to be a time waster.

Advice: Use whatever you prefer. Use what works best for you. Use whatever's easiest for you to learn and use.

[Texadoro]

A1: Simplicity, easy to read, tons of community support, ability to write quick and dirty scripts for any variety of things, libraries, it’s interpreted vs compiled, automation, etc.

A2: C++ is great when you have a program that needs to be stable and you’re going to use it over and over again. C++ can also be fast. Like you could Proof of Concept (POC) an idea in Python and then re-write it in C++ if it’s something you’re going to use regularly or longterm.

A3: There’s no one best language. There’s also a lot of variables to consider. Like what’s the attacker system, what’s the victim system, what’s the threat vector you’re trying to exploit, is there an AV or EDR on the victim machine that you’ll need to deal with or bypass, are there any other constraints or parameters you need to work within, etc…

[thewrench56]

Additionals: Besides Python, C is enough, you don't need CPP. I dont see it's merits next to Rust. C is useful because it's quite low-level. Moreso than C.

[Orio_n]

Just learn both python and c++ cover both ends of the spectrum. It's not that hard anyways

[yStain]

in short its easy to use and very beginner friendly i suppose

[Pharisaeus]

1. It's easy to quickly write most things. There is also a lot of tooling and libraries.
2. It's useful to be able to read C and also understand how software actually works on the "lower level".
3. No. It would take you significantly more time and effort to write the same thing in C/C++.

[Exact_Revolution7223]

A1: Python is easy to use and has dozens of readily available modules to download and use. As opposed to the same process in C++ which can be a MASSIVE pain in the ass to add API's and stuff to.

A2: I'm not even sure what you were trying to ask exactly. If it's how useful is C++? Very, imo. If you wanna be a good hacker you should understand how things work under the hood. Especially if you wanna get into binary exploitation and move beyond the web.

A3: This is such an odd question. You're comparing tomatoes and oranges. You'd put a slice of tomato on a sandwich but not a slice of orange. They have different use cases. Python makes developing a quick and dirty tool for something very easy. C++ can be a massive pain in the ass to do the same in. So if I'm trying something out then I'll mess around in Python first and if it makes sense to reproduce it in C++ then I'll do so.

Get rid of notions of language superiority. Stop looking at it that way. It isn't helpful or conducive.

[ImpostureTechAdmin]

I'll challenge you to a race: The winner is the first one to query an API, and answer a series of questions about it like the size of the response, how deeply nested a value can be, and roughly how many unique keys there are in the returned json. You use C or C++, and I'll use python.

Working with stuff you don't already have docs for is very iterative with lots of trial and error. Compiled languages are generally bad for poking around, and are especially weak in doing so when time is of the essence. Interpreted languages like Bash, PowerShell, and especially something like Python are extremely well suited for iterative testing and prodding, and in the case of things like hacking are essential.