Book Image

BackTrack 5 Cookbook

By : Willie L. Pritchett, David De Smet
Book Image

BackTrack 5 Cookbook

By: Willie L. Pritchett, David De Smet

Overview of this book

<p>BackTrack is a Linux-based penetration testing arsenal that aids security professionals in the ability to perform assessments in a purely native environment dedicated to hacking. BackTrack is a distribution based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution aimed at digital forensics and penetration testing use. It is named after backtracking, a search algorithm.<br /><br />"BackTrack 5 Cookbook" provides you with practical recipes featuring many popular tools that cover the basics of a penetration test: information gathering, vulnerability identification, exploitation, priviledge escalation, and covering your tracks.<br /><br />The book begins by covering the installation of BackTrack 5 and setting up a virtual environment to perform your tests.<br /><br />We then dip into recipes involving the basic principles of a penetration test such as information gathering, vulnerability identification, and exploitation. You will further learn about privilege escalation, radio network analysis, Voice over IP, Password cracking, and BackTrack forensics.<br /><br />"BackTrack 5 Cookbook" will serve as an excellent source of information for the security professional and novice alike.</p>
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
BackTrack 5 Cookbook
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Online password attacks


In this recipe we will use the THC-Hydra (Hydra) password cracker. There are times in which we will have the time to physically attack a Windows-based computer and obtain the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) directly. However, there will also be times in which we are unable to do so and this is where an online password attack proves most beneficial.

Hydra supports many protocols, including (but not limited to) FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle, Cisco, IMAP, VNC, and many more! Be careful though, as this type of attack can be a bit noisy, increasing your chance of getting detected.

Getting ready

The following requirements need to be fulfilled:

  • A connection to the Internet or intranet is required to complete this recipe

  • A computer that we can use as our victim

How to do it...

So let's begin the process of cracking an online password:

  1. From the Start menu select Applications | BackTrack | Privilege Escalation | Password Attacks | Online Attacks | hydra-gtk.

  2. Now that we have...