Ansible playbooks are YAML files with target host/group information, command execution and some loops and logic. A playbook is a blueprint of an operation on our managed nodes. Playbooks are the first step towards managing infrastructure as code.
Continue reading “Getting started with Ansible playbooks: more steps towards DevOps”Author: Tom's IT Cafe
A shadow in the digital world, bringing bold operational security strategies to those who value anonymity. I talk about security, but I never leave a trace.
Getting started with Ansible for managing our personal lab – ad-hoc commands
After we installed Ansible and tested that it works well, then we want to make it work for us. There are three methods Ansible can operate. The first one is running so called ad-hoc commands with the ansible command line tool. The second option is to write re-usable code (playbooks, roles and variables) and run them with the ansible-playbook command. Both commands use the push mechanism to interact with the controlled nodes. A third option is a tool called ansible-pull that (as its name suggests) pulls the configuration onto a managed machine from a source code management repo. Let’s take a look at the easiest method, the ad-hoc commands first!
Continue reading “Getting started with Ansible for managing our personal lab – ad-hoc commands”Windows as Ansible control host in WSL2
We all want to work smarter, not harder. (Or at least some of us…) Automating the repetitive tasks was always a huge leap forward even before the “DevOps times” when we wrote shell scripts and Perl code to create automation out of the box. Today we have the luxury of choosing between a lot of automation and orchestration frameworks.
Continue reading “Windows as Ansible control host in WSL2”Basic BASH for SysAdmins – 01: The Shell
BASH is the GNU Project‘s shell that stands for the Bourne Again Shell. It is one of the most commonly used shells on the Linux and BSD systems. It is conform to the IEEE POSIX P1003.2/ISO 9945.2 standard. At the time of writing this article the current version of BASH is bash-5.2.
Continue reading “Basic BASH for SysAdmins – 01: The Shell”TryHackMe | Attacktive Directory [write-up]
Microsoft Active Directory can be found at every medium/large organization (99% according to the THM room). This is why it is a common target for black hats and other malicious actors. In the Attacktive Directory room we can learn a lot about targeting the services in an AD.
I use the THM in-browser Kali Linux for this task!
Continue reading “TryHackMe | Attacktive Directory [write-up]”A closer look at SQL and SQL Injection
We worked with SQL nowadays, and we used some SQL Injections in the web browser and in Burp Suit, but what is an SQL Injection by the way? Let’s make a step back and look at the databases and SQL a bit!
Continue reading “A closer look at SQL and SQL Injection”How to brute force a web application password with Burp Suite? Basic dictionary attack in practice!
With Burp Suite we can initiate dictionary attacks against a website. This time in this simulated attack we will brute force the login field of the Juice Shop web application. We already know the email address of an admin user, so we have to make sure to find the right password.
Important note: hacking in the wild is illegal! Do NOT do it out of the lab, unless you are a penetration tester with a signed contract!
Continue reading “How to brute force a web application password with Burp Suite? Basic dictionary attack in practice!”How to brute force FTP users and passwords with Hydra? Ethical Hacking in real life!
In this article we will investigate other functionalities of the Cyber Security test tool Hydra. In one of the previous articles we cracked a user password on a Linux system through SSH. In this example we do not know the exact username of any FTP user. We will create a list of possible usernames along our password list. All of these operations happen in a personal lab.
Important note: hacking in the wild is illegal! Do NOT do it out of the lab, unless you are a penetration tester with a signed contract!
Continue reading “How to brute force FTP users and passwords with Hydra? Ethical Hacking in real life!”How to backup VMWare Workstation Player machines?
The Workstation Player of VMWare is a lightweight and free desktop virtualization hypervisor for non-commercial users. We can learn about virtualization and use it for practicing for free. We can run Windows, Linux and BSD systems on our host machine. The Workstation Player supports Windows and Linux as host for virtualization.
The free solution comes with some limitations. The following technique will let us to take backups or snapshots of our virtual machines. Only use it for personal practice and learning! Business and nonprofit use is considered commercial use!
Continue reading “How to backup VMWare Workstation Player machines?”How to run multiple instances of the same distro in WSL?
Microsoft WSL is a very good technology when we want to run Linux applications on our Windows computer. When we install a distro from the Microsoft Store we can only install one instance of it. But with some work we can have multiple instances of the same distro.
Continue reading “How to run multiple instances of the same distro in WSL?”How to break in web applications using Burp Suite? Real web hacking in practice as a Penetration Tester!
The OWASP Top 10 is a standard awareness document that lists the most common weaknesses of modern web applications. Burp Suite will help our application security testing along the Developer Mode of the browser. We will break in to the OWASP Juice Shop, the most modern and sophisticated insecure web shop.
Important note: hacking in the wild is illegal! Do NOT do it out of the lab, unless you are a penetration tester with a signed contract!
Continue reading “How to break in web applications using Burp Suite? Real web hacking in practice as a Penetration Tester!”TryHackMe | Kenobi [write-up]
In this room we practice to enumerate and exploit vulnerabilities on Linux servers.
How to crack passwords with John the Ripper? Password hacking in real practice as an Ethical Hacker!
In the first part of this series we found out a user’s password with Hydra with simply attacking his account via SSH. It is a so called “dictionary attack”, and because of the lack of security measurements we could get into the remote system.
In this exercise we continue our Ethical Hacking journey and we will find a way to get root privileges on the remote machine. This is called privilege escalation.
Important note: cracking passwords in the wild is illegal! Do NOT do it out of the lab, unless you are a penetration tester with a signed contract!
Continue reading “How to crack passwords with John the Ripper? Password hacking in real practice as an Ethical Hacker!”TryHackMe | Vulnversity [write-up]
Let’s walk through the Vulnversity room of tryhackme.com. This write-up is written for educational purposes. Please do not use it for cheating or skipping the tasks.
How to brute force and crack SSH passwords with Hydra? Ethical Hacking in real practice!
In this presentation we will crack the password of a general Linux user via SSH in our personal lab. The machine from which we start the attack is a Kali Linux box, and the attacked machine is an ordinary Debian Linux on which a user set a weak password. Unfortunately the security settings are weak on the target host, so we have a great chance for success. We already know the name of the user.
Important note: cracking passwords in the wild is illegal! Do NOT do it out of the lab, unless you are a penetration tester with a signed contract!
Continue reading “How to brute force and crack SSH passwords with Hydra? Ethical Hacking in real practice!”
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