Do you need to learn programming if you want to become a hacker?
This is one of the most asked questions by beginners and the answer is NO.
No, you don’t need to understand all that complicated code if you want to become a hacker.
So should I end this article here? Naah…this topic requires some serious discussion so you can decide if you need to learn programming or not.
So lets imagine there are 3 friends named Skid, Anon and Elite, they all want to become hackers and they chose different paths. Now let me introduce you to them,
Skid:
This guys doesn’t know anything about programming. He learned hacking from step by step tutorials like How to hack a website with SQLMap or How to bypass windows 7 password. So he is good at using tools that are mostly used by hackers but he doesn’t know what happens in background of those tools i.e. how those tools work. So whenever he runs into a problem he has no idea whats wrong and he uses Google to find solution.Anon:
This guy knows what is programming but he finds it boring and hard to learn. He knows how computers work, how Internet works and his has a good understanding of basic hacking concepts. He can use hacking tools too but unlike the Skid he knows what he is actually doing with the hacking tools i.e. how those tools work. So he has a better understanding of the situations he works in and can solves 50% of the problems he face right away.Elite:
This guy knows programming and finds it fun to write programs. He also knows how computers and Internet work. He has also good knowledge of hacking concepts. He can use hacking tools and can also create his own with the knowledge of programming. With the deep understanding (due to programming) of things he can solve most of the problems he encounters in his journey.
So which one you want to be? Elite? Why? Why not Anon? Anon can do all the stuff as Elite except creating programs and solving problems.
Wait what? Problems? What kind of problems? Lets find out.
After completing their studies they needed a job for living so they went for interview together.
interviewer asked them what kind of job they are looking for? Pentester (a hacker who is hired by companies to check if their systems are secure or not).
Hmm so he asked them if they wanted the job of Pentester or a Programmer. Skid and Anon said Pentester and Elite said I am good at programming too but I will prefer the Pentester as hacking is my passion (Interviewer somehow impressed).
Interviewer said, Ok boys I will give you a challenge. You have to change our website’s homepage to a page saying “Hire Me!” and I will hire the first one to do that.
They agreed and started to try everything they could.
The skid has no idea where to start from. He checked for XSS and SQL Injection vulnerability but the website didn’t have one. Then he used vulnerability scanners to scan for vulnerabilities and they did pointed out to some vulnerabilities but he didn’t know how to use that report (LOL). Then he tried to hack the server itself with Metasploit but the server was patched to all the known vulnerabilities so he failed to exploit it too. So he spent his most of the time searching Google for things he could try to hack into the website.
In the other room Anon decided to hack into the server first but he failed because it was not vulnerable to any of the exploits available in Metasploit or exploit-db.com . Then he performed a vulnerability scan of the website and there were some vulnerabilities too but they were not serve enough to give him access to change the homepage of the website so he just kept trying to find a way.
In the other room there was Elite, he ran multiple vulnerability scans on the website and looked at the results but the vulnerabilities were not serve enough. He didn’t wanted to waste time so he fired up Metasploit and tried some suitable exploit but they all failed as the server was patched. Then he started to fuzz (we will learn about that later) the server and he came to know that the server has a vulnerability but sadly it was a new vulnerabilty so there was no exploit for it. But he was able to write exploits (he knew programming) and he wrote one. And in no time he was into the server, he went to the directory (folder) where the homepage of the website was saved and changed it with a simple HTML document saying “Hire Me!”.
In the other room, Anon found a Remote Command Execution vulnerability after analyzing the source code of the website and he was very happy. But it was too late as Elite hacked the website alread and got hired.
I will just leave this story here. So do you want to become Skid? Lol no. Anon? Much better. Elite? Yes.
So always keep in mind that Skid was a hacker and but he had not any knowledge but he was a hacker. Anon had knowledge and he was a hacker but he will met a dead end whenever something “New” happens. And then there comes the Elite, he had knowledge and write programs to automate his stuff. He can program his own malware, his own exploit and can deal with vulnerabilities better than Skid (lol why are we still counting him) and Anon.
So I think you want to learn programming now but which programming is good to start with?
The next article will explain that too.
Till then keep reading..keep learning.