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How To Become A Hacker

How To Become A Hacker

A talk to engineering students at BSAITM, Faridabad. Inspired by the famous essay by Eric Raymond, with the same title.

Pratul Kalia

March 10, 2010
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Transcript

  1. How To Become
    A Hacker
    A talk and an open discussion

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  2. Hacker?
    • A hacker is not a criminal
    • Not a bad guy
    • Not a nasty loser who will “break into
    emails/cause financial loss”
    • In short...
    • What you know, is WRONG

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  3. Origins
    • MIT, as always
    • Amazing programmers and system
    architects
    • Real example: Kevin Mitnick

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  4. From Oxford
    • “a programmer for whom computing is its
    own reward; may enjoy the challenge of
    breaking into other computers but does no
    harm; "true hackers subscribe to a code of
    ethics and look down upon crackers"

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  5. Ankit Fadia
    • He fails it

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  6. Ankit Fadia
    • He fails it
    • He fails it

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  7. Ankit Fadia
    • He fails it
    • He fails it
    • He fails it

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  8. Ankit Fadia
    • He fails it
    • He fails it
    • He fails it
    • And...
    • HE FAILS IT.

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  9. But why?
    • Years of computer security research
    • Authentic work
    • He has...
    • MTV What The Hack!
    • Books with documented “hacks”
    • No verified claims

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  10. Certification courses
    • Waste of time/money
    • Well, not always.
    • Eventually, the question must be asked...
    • Are You Satisfied?

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  11. Cracking stuff
    • Or cracking Facebook, Orkut, Gmail, Yahoo!
    or most other popular services
    • Do I have your attention?
    • The simple answer is...
    • YOU CAN NOT.

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  12. Cracking stuff
    • Are you thinking “Oh really now?”
    • What you see is not what it is
    • The answer lies in 3 points...
    • Cryptography
    • Social engineering

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  13. Cracking stuff
    • Albert Einstein once said...
    • “Two things are infinite: the universe and
    human stupidity; and I'm not sure about
    the the universe.”
    • We know he was right :-)

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  14. Cracking stuff
    • One way cryptography
    • Algorithms with collisions
    • Salts
    • Sheer smartness

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  15. Cracking stuff
    • Social engineering means...
    • इसका तो कट गया !
    • Keyloggers, phishing and MIT

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  16. HTBAH?
    • Learn the hacker attitude
    • The world has too many problems
    • No problem should be solved twice
    • Freedom is good
    • Learn how to ask questions on anything
    and everything
    • Attitude is NOT A SUBSTITUTE for
    competence

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  17. HTBAH?
    • Learn how to write code. Real code.
    • Read real code. Improve it.
    • Learn how to use Linux/UNIX/BSD
    • Learn how to use the Internet
    • Learn how to write proper English

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  18. BRAG TIME
    Before we move to questions, it is necessary
    for me to brag about my achievements
    and prove my authenticity...

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  19. whoami
    • http://pratul.in
    • ex-Google Summer of Code intern
    • Open source contributor
    • Code runs on 4000+ websites
    • And the usual...
    • http://www.google.com/search?q=pratul+kalia

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  20. Questions!
    • I will not fry you if you ask a stupid one
    • This might be your best chance
    • Now ask.

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  21. View Slide