What is a Keylogger?

Well if you have absolutely no idea about computer then you might not be familiar with the term “keylogger”, but if you do then you might have came across stories of the great keylogger. Believe me it’s pretty useful if you know how to use it. A keylogger is a type of surveillance software (considered to be either software or spyware) that has the capability to record every keystroke you make to a log file, usually encrypted. A keylogger recorder can record instant messages, e-mail, and any information you type at any time using your keyboard. The log file created by the keylogger can then be sent to a specified receiver. Some keylogger programs will also record any e-mail addresses you use and website URLs you visit.

Keyloggers, as a surveillance tool, are often used by employers to ensure employees use work computers for business purposes only. Unfortunately, keyloggers can also be embedded in spyware allowing your information to be transmitted to an unknown third party.

Keystroke logging

Keystroke logging, often referred to as keylogging or keyboard capturing, is the action of recording (or logging) the keys struck on a keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that the person using the keyboard is unaware that their actions are being monitored. It has uses in the study of human–computer interaction. There are numerous keylogging methods, ranging from hardware and software-based approaches to acoustic analysis.

A keylogger example of a screen capture, which holds potentially confidential and private information. The image below holds the corresponding keylogger text result.

Keylogger Applications

Software-based keyloggers

These are computer programs designed to work on the target computer's software. Keyloggers are used in IT organizations to troubleshoot technical problems with computers and business networks. Other legal uses include family or business people using them to monitor the network usage without their users' direct knowledge. However, malicious individuals may use keyloggers on public computers to steal passwords or credit card information.

From a technical perspective there are several categories:

• Hypervisor-based: The keylogger can theoretically reside in a malware hypervisor running underneath the operating system, which remains untouched. It effectively becomes a virtual machine. Blue Pill is a conceptual example. 
• Kernel-based: A program on the machine obtains root access to hide itself in the OS and starts intercepting keystrokes that pass through the kernel. This method is difficult both to write and to combat. Such keyloggers reside at the kernel level and are thus difficult to detect, especially for user-mode applications who don't have root access. They are frequently implemented as rootkits that subvert the operating system kernel and gain unauthorized access to the hardware, making them very powerful. A keylogger using this method can act as a keyboard device driver for example, and thus gain access to any information typed on the keyboard as it goes to the operating system. 
• API-based: These keyloggers hook keyboard APIs inside a running application. The keylogger registers for keystroke events, as if it was a normal piece of the application instead of malware. The keylogger receives an event each time the user presses or releases a key. The keylogger simply records it. 
• Form grabbing based: Form grabbing-based keyloggers log web form submissions by recording the web browsing on submit events. These happen when the user finishes filling in a form and submits it usually by clicking a button or hitting enter. This records form data before it is passed over the Internet. 
• Memory injection based: Memory Injection (MitB)-based keyloggers alter memory tables associated with the browser and other system functions to perform their logging functions. By patching the memory tables or injecting directly into memory, this technique can be used by malware authors who are looking to bypass Windows UAC (User Account Control). The Zeus and Spyeye Trojans use this method exclusively. Non-Windows systems have analogous protection mechanisms that need to be thwarted somehow by the keylogger. 
• Packet analyzers: This involves capturing network traffic associated with HTTP POST events to retrieve unencrypted passwords. This is made more difficult when connecting via HTTPS, which is one of the reasons HTTPS was invented. 
• Remote access software keyloggers: These are local software keyloggers with an added feature that allows access to the locally recorded data from a remote location. Remote communication may be achieved using one of these methods: 
  1. Data is uploaded to a website, database or an FTP server. 
  2. Data is periodically emailed to a pre-defined email address. 
  3. Data is wirelessly transmitted by means of an attached hardware system. 
  4. The software enables a remote login to the local machine from the Internet or the local network, for data logs stored on the target machine to be accessed. Most of these aren't stopped by HTTPS encryption because that only protects data in transit between computers; this is a threat in your own computer - the one connected to the keyboard. 

Hardware-based keyloggers

Hardware-based keyloggers do not depend upon any software being installed as they exist at a hardware level in a computer system.

• Keyboard hardware: Hardware keyloggers are used for keystroke logging by means of a hardware circuit that is attached somewhere in between the computer keyboard and the computer, typically inline with the keyboard's cable connector. There are also USB connectors based Hardware keyloggers as well as ones for Laptop computers (the Mini-PCI card plugs into the expansion slot of a laptop). More stealthy implementations can be installed or built into standard keyboards, so that no device is visible on the external cable. Both types log all keyboard activity to their internal memory, which can be subsequently accessed, for example, by typing in a secret key sequence. A hardware keylogger has an advantage over a software solution: it is not dependent on being installed on the target computer's operating system and therefore will not interfere with any program running on the target machine or be detected by any software. However its physical presence may be detected if, for example, it is installed outside the case as an inline device between the computer and the keyboard. Some of these implementations have the ability to be controlled and monitored remotely by means of a wireless communication standard.
• Firmware-based: BIOS-level firmware that handles keyboard events can be modified to record these events as they are processed. Physical and/or root-level access is required to the machine, and the software loaded into the BIOS needs to be created for the specific hardware that it will be running on. 
• Wireless keyboard sniffers: These passive sniffers collect packets of data being transferred from a wireless keyboard and its receiver. As encryption may be used to secure the wireless communications between the two devices, this may need to be cracked beforehand if the transmissions are to be read.
• Keyboard overlays: Criminals have been known to use keyboard overlays on ATMs to capture people's PINs. Each keypress is registered by the keyboard of the ATM as well as the criminal's keypad that is placed over it. The device is designed to look like an integrated part of the machine so that bank customers are unaware of its presence. 
• Acoustic keyloggers: Acoustic cryptanalysis can be used to monitor the sound created by someone typing on a computer. Each key on the keyboard makes a subtly different acoustic signature when struck. It is then possible to identify which keystroke signature relates to which keyboard character via statistical methods such as frequency analysis. The repetition frequency of similar acoustic keystroke signatures, the timings between different keyboard strokes and other context information such as the probable language in which the user is writing are used in this analysis to map sounds to letters. A fairly long recording (1000 or more keystrokes) is required so that a big enough sample is collected.

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What is Computer Hacking?

Computer hacking is the practice of modifying computer hardware and software to accomplish a goal outside of the creator’s original purpose. People who engage in computer hacking activities are often called hackers. Since the word “hack” has long been used to describe someone who is incompetent at his/her profession, some hackers claim this term is offensive and fails to give appropriate recognition to their skills. Hacking a computer is useful and harmful both at same time, and an important skill to pick up.

I know some of you even might be wondering to know how to hack Facebook account passwords? Before you try to hack any Facebook password, it is necessary to understand the real ways of doing it and also those that are simply scam that don’t work. I have covered some important topics in my previous article which will clear your facts about the term "hackers/hacking" and the different between Whitehack and Blackhat here: How to be a Hacker? Become an Ethical Hacker!

You also might be wondering what might be the best platform, or which OS is better for hacking. I have seen questions like, "What is the best computer for hacking". I want you to know that there are different platform on which hacking can be done. And different OS. It depends on what you wish to run. I am personally running Kali Linux on an external drive using virtualbox with an Alfa wireless card. For times when I don't want to boot into the native OS, I have a 32GB flash with persistence.

There are some basics hacking skills that everyone should know before they even trying to move on. Once you have a good grasp on everything in this section, you can move into the intermediary level. Skills like Basic Computer Skills, Networking Skills, Linus Skills, Virtualization, etc. You can find complete details on this here: What is a Hacker?

You should know that these skills can be used both for good purposes and bad purposes. Depends on what your intentions are. So there are two sides of a hacker. A good and a bad side. This is how the term 'whitehat' and 'blackhat' came up. If you use it to steal information or anything that is considered illegal, then you're considered a blackhat, but if you choose to help people or for other then stealing purpose you're considered the good guy, hence a whitehat or ethical hacker.

If you are interested in hacking and computer security instead of trying to do anything illegal there are many good alternatives to consider. We suggest learning an alternative operating system such as Linux, setting up computer networks, reading security news, and learning a programming language.

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Exploiting Google's Parameter 'q' to show Visitors/Bots with Fake Keywords and Google's Open-Redirect Issue

As mentioned earlier in one of my thread (http://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=5044562) I reported a bug in the param 'q' which can be used to generate visitors/bots with fake keywords, that not even Analytics can detect. Since there's no actual fix to the bug according to Google, I had to post a thread. I wrote them everything they needed to know about the bug, solution to fix it and the reproduction steps, including a proof-of-concept video.

Reproduction steps:

1. Suppose I want to send traffic to my client. Let's say his website is onlinecarsblog . com or whatever. Of course he wants targeted traffic, and what's more convincing than traffic coming straight from Google with the keyword "Buy Cars, etc."? Well, here's the trick.

2. This is the URL; www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CBoQFjAAahUKEwjVr6fbvfTIAhUJmJQKHYYeAqA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNGug_CqO9cxLI8dHdn-CceO8_ie5w (I'm using Facebook link's as an example.)

3. The "q=" query determines the keyword that Analytics or any other traffic stats' website will show. So if you change it to "something", traffic will be shown to be coming from Google with the keyword "something".

4. "usg" is a unique id for each URL. facebook . com will have "usg=AFQjCNGug_CqO9cxLI8dHdn-CceO8_ie5w" and facebook.com/anything will have a different unique usg. So don't mess with it unless you know what you're doing.

Attack scenario:

An attacker can use this to manipulate stats in Analytics.

Proof of Concept:

In my video I have demonstrated how this can be used to manipulate Analytics to show visitors/bots with fake keyword.

Google's Response:

When I first reported this to Google these were the responds to my emails.

Open-redirect issue -

I had also found another param bug which could lead to open-redirect issue once the user logs in. An attacker/hacker could use it to redirect the victim to it's phishing page, or inject an exploit hosted on it's server. Not only the same URL had open-redirect issue but it would try to POST another param with some data that one could log, but it was useless according to GOOGLE. As of now I choose not to discuss it much. Once it get's fixed, I'll update the post with information on how I managed to do it. Google respond:

When I described it as an open-redirect issue, and use it to describe a phishing scenario, this is what they responded with:

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What is a Hacker?

In the computer security context, a hacker is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, challenge, enjoyment, or to evaluate those weaknesses to assist in removing them.  In this controversy, the term hacker is reclaimed by computer programmers who argue that someone who breaks into computers, whether computer criminal (black hats) or computer security expert (white hats), is more appropriately called a cracker instead. Some white hat hackers claim that they also deserve the title hacker, and that only black hats should be called "crackers".

History

In computer security, a hacker is someone who focuses on security mechanisms of computer and network systems. While including those who endeavor to strengthen such mechanisms, it is more often used by the mass media and popular culture to refer to those who seek access despite these security measures. That is, the media portrays the 'hacker' as a villain. Nevertheless, parts of the subculture see their aim in correcting security problems and use the word in a positive sense. White hat is the name given to ethical computer hackers, who utilize hacking in a helpful way. White hats are becoming a necessary part of the information security field. They operate under a code, which acknowledges that breaking into other people's computers is bad, but that discovering and exploiting security mechanisms and breaking into computers is still an interesting activity that can be done ethically and legally. Accordingly, the term bears strong connotations that are favorable or pejorative, depending on the context.

During the 1990s, the term "hacker" originally denoted a skilled programmer proficient in machine code and computer operating systems. In particular, these individuals could always hack on an unsatisfactory system to solve problems and engage in a little software company espionage by interpreting a competitor's code.

Unfortunately, some of these hackers also became experts at accessing password-protected computers, files, and networks and came to known as "crackers." Of course, an effective and dangerous "cracker" must be a good hacker and the terms became intertwined. Hacker won out in popular use and in the media and today refers to anyone who performs some form of computer sabotage.

Types of Hackers

White hat

A white hat hacker breaks security for non-malicious reasons, perhaps to test their own security system or while working for a security company which makes security software. The term "white hat" in Internet slang refers to an ethical hacker. This classification also includes individuals who perform penetration tests and vulnerability assessments within a contractual agreement. The EC-Council, also known as the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants, is one of those organizations that have developed certifications, course ware, classes, and online training covering the diverse arena of ethical hacking.

Black hat

A "black hat" hacker is a hacker who "violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain" (Moore, 2005). Black hat hackers form the stereotypical, illegal hacking groups often portrayed in popular culture, and are "the epitome of all that the public fears in a computer criminal". Black hat hackers break into secure networks to destroy, modify, or steal data; or to make the network unusable for those who are authorized to use the network. Black hat hackers are also referred to as the "crackers" within the security industry and by modern programmers. Crackers keep the awareness of the vulnerabilities to themselves and do not notify the general public or the manufacturer for patches to be applied. Individual freedom and accessibility is promoted over privacy and security. Once they have gained control over a system, they may apply patches or fixes to the system only to keep their reigning control. Richard Stallman invented the definition to express the maliciousness of a criminal hacker versus a white hat hacker who performs hacking duties to identify places to repair.

Grey hat

A grey hat hacker lies between a black hat and a white hat hacker. A grey hat hacker may surf the Internet and hack into a computer system for the sole purpose of notifying the administrator that their system has a security defect, for example. They may then offer to correct the defect for a fee. Grey hat hackers sometimes find the defect of a system and publish the facts to the world instead of a group of people. Even though grey hat hackers may not necessarily perform hacking for their personal gain, unauthorized access to a system can be considered illegal and unethical.

Elite hacker

A social status among hackers, elite is used to describe the most skilled. Newly discovered exploits circulate among these hackers. Elite groups such as Masters of Deception conferred a kind of credibility on their members.

Script kiddie

A script kiddie (also known as a skid or skiddie) is an unskilled hacker who breaks into computer systems by using automated tools written by others (usually by other black hat hackers), hence the term script (i.e. a prearranged plan or set of activities) kiddie (i.e. kid, child—an individual lacking knowledge and experience, immature), usually with little understanding of the underlying concept.

Hacker Tools

There now are more than 100,000 known viruses with more appearing virtually daily. The myriad of hackers and their nefarious deeds can affect any computer owner whether an occasional home user, e-mailer, student, blogger, or a network administrator on site or on the internet. No matter your level of computer use, you must protect your computer, business, or even your identity. The best way to know how to protect your computer is to understand the hacker's tools and recognize their damage.

Hacking vs. Cracking

Malicious attacks on computer networks are officially known as cracking, while hacking truly applies only to activities having good intentions. Most non-technical people fail to make this distinction, however. Outside of academia, its extremely common to see the term "hack" misused and be applied to cracks as well.

Viruses, Exploits, Worms, and More

The term computer "virus" originated to describe machine code command inserted into a computer's memory that, on execution, copies itself into other programs and files on the computer. Depending on the hacker's intent, the design of a virus can merely be an inconvenience or have very serious consequences up to a potential catastrophe.

Generally, a virus is a piece of software, a series of data, or a command sequence that exploits a bug, glitch, or vulnerability. Each example is appropriately termed an "exploit." An exploit causes unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur in a computer's operating system or applications while propagating itself within the computer.

An exploit and operates through a network security vulnerability or "hole" without previous access to the vulnerable system is a "remote" exploit. An exploit that needs prior access to a system is termed a "local" exploit. These are usually intended to increase the hacker's access privileges beyond those granted by a system administrator.

Worms are simply viruses that send copies over network connections. A bomb resides silently in a computer's memory until set off by a date or action. A Trojan horse is a malicious program that cannot reproduce itself, but is distributed by CD or e-mail.

Techniques

Vulnerability scanner

A vulnerability scanner is a tool used to quickly check computers on a network for known weaknesses. Hackers also commonly use port scanners. These check to see which ports on a specified computer are "open" or available to access the computer, and sometimes will detect what program or service is listening on that port, and its version number. (Firewalls defend computers from intruders by limiting access to ports and machines, but they can still be circumvented.)

Finding vulnerabilities

Hackers may also attempt to find vulnerabilities manually. A common approach is to search for possible vulnerabilities in the code of the computer system then test them, sometimes reverse engineering the software if the code is not provided.

Brute-force attack

Password guessing. This method is very fast when used to check all short passwords, but for longer passwords other methods such as the dictionary attack are used, because of the time a brute-force search takes.

Password cracking

Password cracking is the process of recovering passwords from data that has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system. Common approaches include repeatedly trying guesses for the password, trying the most common passwords by hand, and repeatedly trying passwords from a "dictionary", or a text file with many passwords.

Packet analyzer

A packet analyzer ("packet sniffer") is an application that captures data packets, which can be used to capture passwords and other data in transit over the network.

Spoofing attack (phishing)

A spoofing attack involves one program, system or website that successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and is thereby treated as a trusted system by a user or another program — usually to fool programs, systems or users into revealing confidential information, such as user names and passwords.

Rootkit

A rootkit is a program that uses low-level, hard-to-detect methods to subvert control of an operating system from its legitimate operators. Rootkits usually obscure their installation and attempt to prevent their removal through a subversion of standard system security. They may include replacements for system binaries, making it virtually impossible for them to be detected by checking process tables.

Social engineering

In the second stage of the targeting process, hackers often use Social engineering tactics to get enough information to access the network. They may contact the system administrator and pose as a user who cannot get access to his or her system. This technique is portrayed in the 1995 film Hackers, when protagonist Dade "Zero Cool" Murphy calls a somewhat clueless employee in charge of security at a television network. Posing as an accountant working for the same company, Dade tricks the employee into giving him the phone number of a modem so he can gain access to the company's computer system.

Hackers who use this technique must have cool personalities, and be familiar with their target's security practices, in order to trick the system administrator into giving them information. In some cases, a help-desk employee with limited security experience will answer the phone and be relatively easy to trick. Another approach is for the hacker to pose as an angry supervisor, and when his/her authority is questioned, threaten to fire the help-desk worker. Social engineering is very effective, because users are the most vulnerable part of an organization. No security devices or programs can keep an organization safe if an employee reveals a password to an unauthorized person.

Social engineering can be broken down into four sub-groups:

• Intimidation As in the "angry supervisor" technique above, the hacker convinces the person who answers the phone that their job is in danger unless they help them. At this point, many people accept that the hacker is a supervisor and give them the information they seek.
• Helpfulness The opposite of intimidation, helpfulness exploits many people's natural instinct to help others solve problems. Rather than acting angry, the hacker acts distressed and concerned. The help desk is the most vulnerable to this type of social engineering, as (a.) its general purpose is to help people; and (b.) it usually has the authority to change or reset passwords, which is exactly what the hacker wants.
• Name-dropping The hacker uses names of authorized users to convince the person who answers the phone that the hacker is a legitimate user him or herself. Some of these names, such as those of webpage owners or company officers, can easily be obtained online. Hackers have also been known to obtain names by examining discarded documents (so-called "dumpster diving").
• Technical Using technology is also a way to get information. A hacker can send a fax or email to a legitimate user, seeking a response that contains vital information. The hacker may claim that he or she is involved in law enforcement and needs certain data for an investigation, or for record-keeping purposes.

Trojan horses

A Trojan horse is a program that seems to be doing one thing but is actually doing another. It can be used to set up a back door in a computer system, enabling the intruder to gain access later. (The name refers to the horse from the Trojan War, with the conceptually similar function of deceiving defenders into bringing an intruder into a protected area.)

Computer virus

A virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. By doing this, it behaves similarly to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. While some viruses are harmless or mere hoaxes, most are considered malicious.

Computer worm

Like a virus, a worm is also a self-replicating program. It differs from a virus in that (a.) it propagates through computer networks without user intervention; and (b.) does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Nonetheless, many people use the terms "virus" and "worm" interchangeably to describe any self-propagating program.

Keystroke logging

A keylogger is a tool designed to record ("log") every keystroke on an affected machine for later retrieval, usually to allow the user of this tool to gain access to confidential information typed on the affected machine. Some keyloggers use virus-, trojan-, and rootkit-like methods to conceal themselves. However, some of them are used for legitimate purposes, even to enhance computer security. For example, a business may maintain a keylogger on a computer used at a point of sale to detect evidence of employee fraud.

Tools and Procedures

A thorough examination of hacker tools and procedures may be found in Cengage Learning's E|CSA certification workbook.

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Everything you need to know about Hacking | Hacking Tools, Hacking Techniques, Hacking Websites.

Hacking is the art of creative problem solving, whether that means finding an unconventional solution to a difficult problem or exploiting holes in sloppy programming. Many people call themselves hackers, but few have the strong technical foundation needed to really push the envelope.

Criminals using hacking techniques can cost corporations, governments, and individuals millions of dollars each year. While the media focuses on the grand-scale attacks that have been planned for months and executed by teams and countries, there are thousands more that aren't broadcast. Book 'The Most In-depth Hacker's Guide' focuses on the everyday hacks that, while simple in nature, actually add up to the most significant losses. Attackers are using common techniques like social engineering, wireless hacking, and targeting and surveillance to gain access to valuable data. It will give you a complete picture of programming, machine architecture, network communications, and existing hacking techniques. This book contains detailed descriptions of potential threats and vulnerabilities, many of which the majority of the information systems world may be unaware. Author Dawood Khan spent many years as an inside penetration testing team leader, proving these threats and vulnerabilities exist and their countermeasures work. His contributing authors are among the best in the world in their respective areas of expertise.

Use it to follow along with the book's examples as you fill gaps in your knowledge and explore hacking techniques on your own. Get your hands dirty debugging code, overflowing buffers, hijacking network communications, bypassing protections, exploiting cryptographic weaknesses, and perhaps even inventing new exploits.

Link to hardcover book: http://www.lulu.com/shop/dawood-khan/the-most-in-depth-hackers-guide/paperback/product-22468179.html

Link to e-book: http://www.lulu.com/shop/dawood-khan/the-most-indepth-hackers-guide/ebook/product-22468005.html

The Author

"Book or Volume "The Most In-depth Hacker’s Guide: Volume: 1” is tremendously complex to write,

particularly without support of the Almighty GOD Allah. I express heartfelt credit to My Parents without

them I have no existence. I am more than ever thankful to my teacher Sir. Khair Ullah for the inspiration

which I got to write the book. I am also thankful to my friends and partner who facilitated me. I am sure this will book make creative and constructive role to build your life more secure and alert than ever before.

For hacking you need to have a basic knowledge of programming. The information provided in this eBook is to be used for educational purposes only. My soul purpose of this book was not to sell it but to raise awareness of the danger we face today, and yes, to help teach people about the hackers tradition. I am sure this will book make creative and constructive role to build your life more secure and alert than ever before." - Dawood Khan

Reviews

We have listed some of the reviews given to the book.

"The book introduced me to a ton of tools and methods for performing physical penetration-tests. It will be an invaluable resource when planning this portion of a penetration-testing methodology or program. There's even some tech wins and tech challenges in the book!" 

"I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in physical penetration-testing. The book makes excellent references to the other material and content available on the Internet and in print form." 

"As a personal protection specialist, my world as a professional bodyguard has been greatly enhanced by absorbing the information provided by the authors of The Most In-depth Hacker's Guide. Having operated for years in the low tech world, this book serves as my reminder that physical security and technical crimes go hand in hand." 

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