How to be a hacker | Hacker News Reader

How to be a hacker

theguardian.com

55 pointsamadeuspzs44 comments

I thought this was going to be about bash, vi, SICP, cryptanalysis, emacs, asm, or maybe something about 3d printers, or fpgas, or soldering fine point smd ICs onto home stenciled PCBs.

This isn't about being a hacker at all. It's about doing some entry level penetration testing with a software suite designed for that purpose.

That was also my initial takeaway. To me hacking is about understanding how it all works. Using a tool isn't a problem but the guy that wrote the tool is a hacker, and you're only a hacker if you understand what it is you're doing well enough that you can solve unfamiliar problems that the tool doesn't already cover. Otherwise you are going to get stumped, which translates into getting caught.

To look at it another way: installing wordpress with some plugins doesn't make you a web developer.

Edit: I took this article's bait but I realized afterwards that this was all to ride off the recent Target fiasco.

Hacking meaning is complex. For me it means something ingenious, a way of creating or using a tool in a round about way. It's not even necessarily about computers. But it involves most of the time creative uses of technology. I mean, an passionate girl or boy can be a hacker, you don't even need a computer: electronic, craft, artists, vintage device, bicycles, motorbikes, food, biology, DNA, politics, sextoys, any activity field can be hacked.

If you use the penetration kit out of the box like you are supposed to do, I don't see any hacking here (even if it allows you to penetrate in a prestigious "open system").

In the opposite, if you hack a bit and can prove that you can open a car door with a computer and a network penetration tool, it start to be interesting.

Hacking is a huge field. Restrain it to computer networks rides is not fair, even if historically, it has been much more used by networks and telecoms people.

I think hackers are also people who create inestimable wealth. People who create a compiler, that will make possible for others to create languages, that will allow others to create tools, etc. are very strange. Why do they do that? Not because their boss ask them for.

A programming language is useless as far as you hadn't create something with it. Creation and hacking are very similar things.

I agree, it shouldn't be limited to computers.

I thought the article was going to be about hacking into computers.

I also thought the top HN comment would be a moan about the correct meaning of the word hacker!

"How to be a script kiddie" is more apt of a title.

This is embarrassing to actual infosec specialists and penetration testers.

You're not a hacker until a hacker calls you a hacker. (http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#hacker_alread...)

Definitely one of his more pretentious essays. I'll call myself whatever I want. Who made him 'hacker' gatekeeper?

I’ll call you a hacker whenever I decide to. Who made you the arbiter of whether you should be called a hacker?

Then who was the first hacker?

Doesn't matter. If there is no hacker you can call yourself a hacker without any other hacker complaining :D

It's hackers all the way down.

I don't know who was the (car 'hacker) but this one was the last in the recursive tail call:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1DFwtR755I

Kevin Flynn

Davinci

I call myself a hacker, and since I'm a hacker it's the truth when I call myself a hacker.

You're not an artist until an artist calls you an artist.

'Eye of the beholder, as always. To my grandmom, I'm an elite weapons-grade hacker because I hit Ctrl-B to bold something in MSWord rather than clicking the button for it.

Totally. For all my real life friends I am beyond comparison when it comes to computers. Reading people's comments around here or on SO makes me think I know nothing...

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Step 1: go on IRC

Step 2: change nick by adding 0x in front of your regular nym

Congrats you're a hacker

Interestingly enough that won't work. IRC nicknames are not allowed to start with a number. My alternative nickname from X-Istence is 0x58, and on IRC I go by x58...

Oh my God! The secret is out. We're no longer safe!

It's trivially easy to be a hacker, but luckily it's also trivially easy to defeat would-be hackers by keeping your computer up-to-date...

Right.

Yes, using nmap, metasploit and meterpreter totally makes you a hacker.

Not even Norton can protect you from those tools. I think you need to re-evaluate what you think you know about hacking.

Hmmm norton can not, but PF & SNORT can ;)

Seriously 'security' and 'Microsoft' do not play well in the same sentence.

It may not make you a hacker, but it sure makes your job of getting into someone else's computer a lot easier.

OP mentioned Burpsuite.

You're just being unnecessarily deflationist and reductionist. You're missing the article for its words (missing the forest for its trees).

Please enlighten me as to the point of this article then, because from my POV, it's a list of 'hacking tools' that you can use to be an entry-level 'hacker'.

This notion of being a hacker due to using a tool is preposterous. The only thing the article does is perpetuate the flawed understanding of computer security and hacking for the general public.

"We started with Linux" (that's a subheading, mind you!) — "That’s crucial for hackers, because although the temptation is to focus on their tools, the job is as much art as science" — "If you can get physical access to a network"...

Like, you're just not reading the article. You're just not. The fact that the OP mentions "getting physical" is an obvious counterexample to your criticism and reduction of "it's a list of "hacking tools"'. Can you see the narrative (the forest)?

No one calls Linux "a tool" in the sense you're talking about. The OP is saying, with that subheading, "If you're just some Windows [power?] user, you've got to radically change that" — or even further, "If you don't know that OS X is *nix, to say the least, you've got to radically change that".

I mean, it's The Guardian for Chrissake. What do you expect, a list of dotfiles with rich comments?

I thought it was great. Maybe I haven't heard of these tools before. Reading about them doesn't mean I know how to use them or have a thorough understanding of security, but it's a good place to start googling and learn more.

nmap is a fairly common used tool for more than testing. So is dig netstat sockstat nc tcpdump qmail djbdns pf s(sh|cp) traceroute also read your security and tuning man pages as a great place to start.

People, take note... This article was written for Guardian readers, not the elite HN hacking corps.

Since there are a number of links to Guardian articles posted here daily, I'd argue that the 'elite HN hacking corps' and Guardian readers are the same thing.

Unfortunately, a poorly thought through article. This article seems to only promote FUD regarding information security. I hope the overall goal of creating robust systems is not lost by calling out certain tools. Security through obscurity is not security.

Serious question: how insecure is Mac OS X to this kind of stuff?

How up-to-date with patches is that Mac OS X?

Safari doesn't have a great track record.

I'm going to put up 7 firewalls and buy a dog.

unplug the computer, stick it in a vault and hire armed guards.

... and hope no one bribes the guards.

Real hackers know Git. If you don't know Git, you don't know Shit. Am I right fellow hackers???

Only if your name is Mel:

http://foldoc.org/The+Story+of+Mel,+a+Real+Programmer

http://www.wps.com/J/LGP-21/mel-the-programmer.html

The man didn't even use patch or diff! Now git off my lawn kid!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com