The following is a guest post by Anonymous915. This is the third part in a series of articles on his view of hacking. If you are interested in writing for MrCracker.com, click here. Otherwise, Enjoy.

I’m back. Being that summer was in session, let’s say school was out, and I disappeared for a while doing some stuff for business purposes. So last time I wrote, School of Hacks – Part 2, I emphasized the use or learning and understanding a UNIX/Linux Operating System. Based on the feedback, it goes without saying that learning Python is a popular response to learn next.

I plan to get you started on the right foot and in doing so, I anticipate we will program a strong password generator. The very first lesson of course, is this lesson: Installing Python on Linux. In part 2 of this series, I described the the meaning behind Linux distributions, most Linux distributions come with Python installed. However, I will show you how to install Python on Debian and Fedora Linux. I chose these two distributions because they are the two major distros other systems are based on. Ubuntu, Knoppix, Linspire and others are Debian based while Fedora is RPM based just as Mandriva, SUSE and all Red Hat versions.

RPM Based Python installation

• Boot up your favorite RPM based Linux ditro, I’m using Fedora.
• Go to the Python for Linux RPM page at http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.4/rpms/
• Download the Binaries for Fefora Core 3, they are i386 RPM
• When the download is complete, open a console and go to the python-2.4.2.4….. file
• Make sure you have root access, otherwise type the following commands

localhost:~$ su

Password: [enter your root password]

• Type in the following command

• rpm -1 python2.4-2.4-1pydotorg.i386.rpm

• you should get a message, to read message

cat /var/spool/mail/root | less

• You should be able to start Python by typing Python on the console. This command can also be used prior to installation or to see the Python version currently installed.

Debian based systems could also already be pre-installed with Python. However, if need be, installing on a Debian based system might be a little easier.
Debian Based Python installation

• Boot up your favorite Debian based ditro, I’m running Debian 5

• Open a console and make sure you have root access, otherwise type the following commands

localhost:~$ su

Password: [enter your root password]

• Type in the following command

localhost:~# apt-get install python

• At this point, you should be able to start Python on the console on a Debian based system.

Although this covers a broad range of distributions, the categories of Linux distributions also include Gentoo, a portage package distro.

• Start up Gentoo
• Download the Python ebuild
• Reference the Gentoo Python Developers Guide

If you can go to a console, and  type:

python <enter>
1+1 <enter>

you should see and answer of 2, if so, you have properly installed Python on Linux and this should get you started in programming Python.”"

The following is a guest post by Anonymous915. This is the second part in a series of articles on his view of hacking. If you are interested in writing for MrCracker.com, click here. Otherwise, Enjoy.

I’m glad to have seen a positive response on the first part of this series. Before I elaborate in programming in python or other hacking languages, I want to discuss with you the second important skill in hacking. In case you have not guessed it, if you want to become a hacker, you need know an Open Source UNIX operating system.

Can you hack in Windows?  Yes. Windows is a good operating system, and you can install Python and run programs in C on Windows. But Windows is not Open Source. Windows is distributed in binary, in other words, you can only install Windows and not change nor manipulate the code of the operating system (OS). An open source OS has the option to download the source code and contribute to it by programming features, utilities or tools for it. There are two lessons to be thought in this here skill today, and they go hand in hand. One, if you want to be a hacker, you have use and contribute to the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). This is a cultural trait. You can contribute in such a community as SourceForge, where you can download and develop FOSS. Hackers share software with their community, they test FOSS they didn’t program, write documentation for it, debug it, and eventually, write their own open source software. That is one reason why hackers use a FOSS UNIX Operating System. There are different variants of UNIX or UX operating systems, free or proprietary such as AIX, BSD, Solaris, SCO, HP-UX and the most popular, Linux, which leads us to the second lesson.

UNIX has been the operating system for scientist by scientists. It goes without saying, that hacking is a science. In the days before the Mac OS and Windows, UNIX was king and in the 1970’s, UNIX creators at Bell Labs, provided the source code to the OS to be taught in universities or enhanced by researchers. A US born professor at Vrije University in Amsterdam wrote his own UNIX (MINIX, or Minimal UNIX) and provided the 12,000 lines of C and Assembly code when you bought his book “’Operating Systems: Design and Implementation” by Andrew S. Tanenbaum. MINIX was created to teach university students how an operating system works. One student, Linus Torvalds, took the source code provided by the book in floppy disks, programmed a kernel, and according to his newsgroup post on compo.os.minix took “feedback on things people like/dislike in minix” and programmed “features most people would want”. As he shared it with the online community, like a good hacker boy that he was, it gained a lot of attention and within one month of releasing Linux 0.01 (or Linus UX) on the Internet, many hackers contributed to 0.02. Eventually Linux grew into the hundreds of Linux distributions today.

There are other Free OSS UNIX operating systems around that are used for hacking, these include FreeBSD and OpenSolaris. However, the importance to becoming a good hacker is to understand UNIX and how it works on the Internet. To do so, one must know the UNIX and Internet Fundamentals. The question here is now, what do you want read about next: should I contribute in detail on programming Python, or would you rather me show you the different ways to run Linux, including Live Distro, virtual or full installation or running Linux off a network. My next part of this series will depend on the reader, this is subliminally training you to a hacker lessons learned, contribute to this by commenting, and you’re on your way to becoming a hacker.”"

Have you wondered how to get BackTrack 4 running in the easiest way possible? Well you can stop now. No need to burn a disk or install it on your computer just to check it out, you can run it in a virtual machine right from your desktop. Many of you have heard of VMware and looked away because of all the five dolla sucky suckys it would take to afford it. Fortunately there exists a free alternative that is just as good, Sun’s VirtualBox (available for Linux, Mac, Windows) . In this video, I will show you how to get BackTrack 4 up and running in it.. oh and the process is the same for any other OS you wish to run as well.

One more thing… what is a Virtual Machine? Well without giving you a brainfart, it is simply a software that uses your host operating system’s resources (cpu,ram,hard drive) to launch and run another operating system within it. For a more technical explanation check out this Wikipedia article…here….just kidding, I’m going to keep you on this site as long as possible. Muaha, find it yourself! So here’s the video:


Get VirtualBox
Get BackTrack 4“”