hacking apps
 

first off i would like to say that i have no interest in inflicting harm on others. i know that there are apps out there that pc users use for hacking purposes. are there similar apps for Mac OS X? my interests are purely to understand how and what they do, to use them on against my own machines not on others. it may be better to private message me or email me if you know of any apps so as to not give militious user any ideas.

There are some great apps out there for hacking on a Mac. If you are into the commandline variety, emacs rocks. The key combos can be very effective once you learn how to use them. If you are more into GUIs, I must recommend Project Builder. I do my hacking in PB all the time. It's the best IDE I have found. I've heard CodeWarrior is pretty nice too, but being a college student it is out of my budget. Above all else, no matter what app you use, the best hacking usually occurs in the wee hours of the morning, usually on a caffeine-induced high of some sort.

I'm sure this answers all of your questions, heh.

babertocci that was a wonderful reply. That is the correct usage of the word hacking. If you are interested in cracking then that's a different subject.

In any case, if you're asking about programs to do it, then you'd just become another script kiddy. If you want to be a real hacker or even cracker, then you must investigate, a lot. Learn assembler, learn about networks, TCP/IP, routing, Cocoa, Carbon, learn everything about unix, etc. etc.

You could also just buy everything O'Reilly sells.



v

ok i may have used the wrong politically correct terminology but you get what i am asking. so is breaking into other puters usually done via terminal (command line) app instead of a GUI app?

You may want to review the forum guidelines.

http://forums.macosxhints.com/misc.p...ge=1#rulesroad

Discussions of cracking is not appropriate here.

g4macuser, I was being facetious in my post. I was referring to hacking as in coding, not "hacking" as in cracking. Like it has been pointed out, asking how to crack is not something people here are going to discuss with you, even under pretenses of trying to protect yourself.

However, if you are interested in securing your box, I'm sure people will be glad to offer advice on what steps to taking. There are numerous threads here about various firewalls. I personally recommend ipfw as it offers a lot of power and flexibility in its rulesets. This thread has a lot of good info about ipfw. Another good measure to take for security is to have a virus scanner. Luckily, Macs don't have as many virus problems as Windows (I haven't gotten one in 12 years of using Macs, YMMV as always), but you should still have a virus scanner handy. Finally, there is the human element. If you aren't sure about what some app does or you don't trust the place you got it from, don't use it or try to find out more about it before installing it. A little common sense can go a long way.

If you have a good firewall setup, a virus scanner, and stay security conscious, your Mac will be *quite* safe. No computer will ever be 100% safe, but taking reasonable precautions will protect you from the vast majority of Bad Things™ out there.

That's not exactly how I read those the guidelines...
I believe Craig gets to make that decision.

Of course I leave any final interpretation to the moderators.

The part I am looking at is the fourth item in the list:
(emphasis mine)

Do with this what you will.

if you want the thread removed that is fine. i am more or less trying to learn how to protect ones self from the tools that are out there and how they are used hence the very first line of my original posting. i like to learn. you can't learn if you don't ask questions to things you don't know about. yes i know about firewalls but i know that there are ways throught them right? so i am curious as to how one gets through them so as to protect myself and others i know from these things happening. plan and simple. that is also why i mentioned it might be better to private message me or email so that people with militious intents do use the info in a wrong way.

that was suppose to be "don't use the info in a wrong way."

anyway great info here. thanks everyone for your help. i have just purchase the O'Reilly TCP/IP book for my reading pleasure.

that's a good place to start.

there is quite a lot to know before you'll be able to understand anything about cracking. so, get cracking!

i also recommend o'reilly's "practical unix & internet security" by garfinkel and spafford.

i don't think there are many practical GUI apps for cracking purposes directly; i don't think real crackers are all that fond of eye candy :D

I don't think shareing info violates the law. Sharing information doesn't violate the law, actually doing it is what gets you in trouble. You can't arrest someone for having a hammer, you can however arrest them for using that hammer to break into a store. Of course we're not even going into the DMCA that makes hammers illegal.

G4, I'm not saying that your reasons aren't legitimate, it's just that you were approaching it from the wrong side. Learn everything you can about unix and you will be on the right track. All you really need is the terminal and all the wonderful utilities/apps* it lets you use; the hard part is the knowledge necessary to make it a tool (or even a weapon).



v


* e.g.: telnet for comunicating to specific ports, ssh for remote usage, gcc for compiling, vi for writting code or otherwise, various utilities for analyzing traffic, etc. etc.

P.D: I'm not saying I'm a hacker either, I can only wish some day to be denoted as such, but it will take many many years.

i was actually eyeing that book in the back of the tcp/ip book (i also recommend o'reilly's "practical unix & internet security" by garfinkel and spafford.). looks like it could be very interesting. i bet i could drop a $1000 in a book store in about 20 mins. with all the books that i have been looking at lately. l again everyone for your help and suggestions. no ill will to anyone and i hope i didn't suggest any on anyone. it is obviously a touchy subject. i was watching a show on the hacking/cracking on The Learning Channel and one of the cracker dudes made the comment that if you want to learn how to steal you don't get a cop to show you, you get a thief (and the tools they use). that i guess was the avenue i was taking here. cheers.

no worries. this thread hasn't crossed any lines. vonleigh said it best. it isn't illegal to carry a hammer (on some airlines). it is illegal to do _harm_ with a hammer. and harm is defined by the current mores of a society.

the best crackers are sought out to be hired by interests who need high security, because of their learned skills.

it is learning the skills, rather than their application, that you might concentrate on at this time (we've got a few years to worry about you). your morals will direct you with what to do with them.

and that's where we hope you use them for beneficial purposes, not nefarious or malicious intents.

regards,

simon bar sinister

i personally despise the thought of people going into others puters without permission to cause mayhem. i am linked up to my moms and a friends computer via TB2. i only go on with their knowledge to do updates and help trouble shoot problems. i will not go to the dark side. a few years, decades would probably be more accurate :-)

well, we were just a little worried, since it seemed
"you don't know the power of the dark side" as Lord Vader used to say.

o'reilly's "practical unix & internet security" by garfinkel and spafford

there's about 80 pages online at amazon.com...

from some of the less favorable reviews, it looks pretty basic, still a good start if that's what you need. although, perhaps a more general computing introduction in more depth is better. a lot of security stuff is pretty obvious, once you have a stronger computing background. and, the less obvious stuff isn't going to be available, generally, or if it is, won't be clear to you unless you have more general computing knowledge.

read all you can for free online, and keep exploring how your computer, operating systems, applications and network work.

just buy the books you need to fill gaps in your knowledge, and browse through first to make sure they meet your needs.

a good introductory programming course at your local college will really help you understand basic things you must know.

as far as hacking apps for Mac OS, as you've learned here, this is the wrong place to be asking- for more reasons than forum policy. it's like the old saying "if you have to ask, then I can't tell you".

at least have enough imagination to try searching google, if you don't have the skills or patience and can't handle the simple task of finding secrets that way, you really have no business to be running blindly amok with "hacking" apps.

good luck and have fun, and always remember to ignore as much bad free advice as you can!


HTH

i was just trying to take the unmanlike way of asking for help when i was lost :-)

My apologies, I misunderstood your request.

I thought you meant something more like "I have this app, and I want to crack it, can you help?" Maybe that's still acceptable, maybe it isn't.


But if discussion of an illegal act is fine, then I'd like to know why there aren't any "Where are the warez?" threads out on the forum.

re: g&s's book. it covers quite the gamut, is general and broad, but covers a good deal of philosophy that doesn't come out in dry, cookbook style approaches.

--
free advise is usually very expensive.

I am very intregued as to one thing. The orginal purpose of this post was to say that the poster wanted to know how to understand how a program might work, and you answered that you use project builder. does this mean you can decompile programs using project bulider? This is something I have always wanted to know how to do. I thought it wasnt possible, but I have been told it is. Would someone care to elaborate? Again I would like to point ou this is purely for interests sake, and I am aware that there is tons of Open Source code i can look at but I am interested in the answer to this question.

Many thanks

hacking in the sense of coding is done in PB. good luck finding a decompiler anywhere. learn assembly language if you want to know what a program which you lack the source for does.

also, http://freaky.staticusers.net has good information on mac cracking. go to his board for your discussion needs.

The dark side has no power at all...