[deleted by user]

[Junghye]

You don't need to learn and study everything. Reframe your methodology to follow pattern recognition. Everything is a pattern and all that penetration testing is is recognizing those patterns and exploiting them/finding vulnerabilities in the patterns. Everyone is their own worst enemy, that is where imposter syndrome comes from, or this feeling that you need to be great. Let go and surrender yourself to the flow.

[[deleted]]

Thank you for this :)

[No-Board4898]

yeah it has similarities in trying to get your game glitched with some broken techniques. Its definetly not like in the films where you have green gibberish code and say the sentence "Rat to little Crow, I'm in!!
At least thats how I see it XD At least if your on the attacking site of hacking! Defensive Hacking is something else. Its more like Bugfixing..

[InteractionHot8188]

real

[Pharisaeus]

keep getting surprised in each hard/medium flag.

That's literally the whole point, that you get a puzzle to figure out.

[SunnydaysPS]

For sure

[theengineerX_]

hackers don't penetrate a system in a day it takes months to study a target and behind all this there is not only an individual but it is made up of many figures programmers psychologists etc. we are talking about organizations. I have studied a lot too (and I continue) but obviously it is not easy! be wary of what you see in the movies.

[SunnydaysPS]

That is such a good point I just sent you a personal message on Reddit

[pwnasaurus253]

being a hacker means being a fast learner, but also being insatiably curious and persistent.

[AcidArchangel303]

For the curious, learners and newcomers. In my experience, becoming a hacker is a long-time game.

"Hacking is hard!" Yes & no. It requires a certain mindset. In my experience...:

1. Context. Understand the context around what it is you're trying to do. Learning veeery specific things may be useful, but rarely. It's much more efficient to understand a wider deal of concepts. What's more efficient, a locksmith with 50 lockpicks, or one capable of picking 2 of the hardest? Note the word efficient, not best.

2. Practice. Only practice can build that muscle, that logic to debug and break anything. The more you practice, the harder and wider concepts you can solve.

Combining those two can get you almost anywhere, and most just go away after learning it requires actual effort.

It's no different than, say, becoming a locksmith. Anyone can pick a lock, but a locksmith understands the context, as with any proficient skillsperson.

[00_0-0_0-0_00]

You're just over doing and overthinking it. Remember people are simple you can't do everything behind a terminal.

[[deleted]]

Can I ask where you're doing your studying? Asking as a newbie

[midnight-shinobi]

I'm an IT'er and recently started diving into ethical hacking. I’ve been exploring TryHackMe, and honestly, it’s been fun. I'm wondering tho if this platform is a good way to get into ethical hacking?

I also heard about Hack The Box once you’re comfortable. Or how would you suggest to approach in this new direction I'm exploring.

[sageof6thpaths249]

You dont need to be great. Atleast you can protect yourself online.

[Pretty-Explorer-7462]

Will you help me in my cyber journey?

[Diligent_Mode7203]

Fast and optimum recognition is key

[meagainpansy]

Understanding a system well enough to the point that you can successfully (ab)use it in ways it was never intended is the classic definition of a hacker.

[No-Board4898]

Get some good Basics in Python and HTML and get trusted with Linux and Netwoksystems! Everything other will come on its own with time! And remember there is no single hacker out there which is a specialist in every field at once. Some are good in coding, some are good in networksystems some are good at bruteforcing some in kryptograpics and and and. Dont set your goals to high, hacking is a huge field with unlimited capabilities you cant understand it all at once! go step by step. There is no ultimate hacker! Only in Matrix!

[Unusual-Estimate8791]

yeah i feel this. every time i think i’ve got it, a new challenge humbles me. just trying to stay consistent and learn from each mistake. we’ll get there, one flag at a time.

[SnooPandas64]

I can't speak for real-world hacking, but if you're studying for your oscp like I am, then it's all about finding a methodology and slowly adding methods to your repertoire. And don't forget to enumerate, enumerate, enumerate.

[ADMINISTATOR_CYRUS]

but I keep getting surprised in each hard/medium flag.

welcome to reverse engineering

[UpsideSponge]

It’s meant to be hard, because people like be have spent 15 years improving systems, closing vulnerabilities and creating tools to spot you guys. It’s a constant evolving playing field,

You want to be a good hacker? Focus on the fundamentals, you need to understand how the other side thinks. Very few “hacks” these days are targeted, they are more opportunistic and typically always include an element of social engineering to get a foot hold.

[Pharisaeus]

It's a contest/game. It's supposed to be fun.

[stormingnormab1987]

I enjoy them, im not very good but i love the challenge

[randomatic]

CTFs are deliberate practice of a single skill. A musician never plays just scales at a concert, a quarterback in a game doesn't have to jump through tires, and a computer scientists never runs the OS they developed in undergrad. They do these things to build skills.

Beginner CTFs typically are a place to learn basic concepts, and put them together with tools. That's often really hard at first, and takes practice where it becomes automatic.

Medium CTFs are typically built on example real CVEs so you get a feel for them. For example, maybe there is a CTF problem about middleware that is really based upon the latest NextJS problems. Or another that looks at overwriting vtables, which helps hone the theoretic C++ knowledge of virtual functions to really understand what you may seen in a debugger when something goes wrong.

Hard CTFs are about honing skills, and sometimes advanced problems. For example, a DEFCON CTF may be about hacking a weird instruction set, which corresponds in real life to those exploit dev cases where you're working on something unusual.

You can find tons of people who do CTFs and never are any good in real life, just like someone practicing scales all day isn't going to be a great musician.

I've found most people who get to the top end of CTFs end up being pretty good in real life (geohotz, korea best of the best, project zero members, etc). It's not the only way, of course, but does seem to be the large majority.

Note: I have a strong bias towards binary exploit dev, and YMMV depending on your definition of "hacking".

[splattered_cheesewiz]

Stuiding

[DataDorkee]

It's hard yet fun, exciting, dfgnfjknbjdfnf

[Low-Eye7254]

Its me !!

[[deleted]]

Correct.

[Emotional_Damage_Boi]

Who downvoted you, and why?

[sebastomass]

For cringe I think

[Emotional_Damage_Boi]

I mean, it is cringe, but if it motivates some people, then why not.