The Only True Guide to Learning
                              how to Hack
                              by R4di4tion

Disclaimer: There's nothing in this document incriminating, but just in
case, if you're retarded and get caught, it's your fault.

You stay up all night on the PC typing and typing. No, you're not
hacking. You're begging someone on IRC to teach you how to hack! Let's
look at the facts:

1. You're a luser and you're annoying. No one likes you if you ask
others how to hack without taking the least amount of innitiative.

2. You're not worthy of any title even resembling hacker, cracker,
phreaker, etc., so don't go around calling yourself that! The more you
do, the less likely you are to find someone willing to teach you how to
hack (which is an infinitesimal chance, any way).

3. You're wasting your time (if you couldn't infer that in the first
place). Many real hackers (not those shitty script kiddies) spend all
their insomniac hours reading and, yes even, HACKING! (Hacking doesn't
necessarirly (but usually does) mean break ing into another system. It
could mean just working on your own system, BUT NOT WINDOWS '9x (unless
you're doing some really menacing registry shit, in which case, you're
kind of cool).)

You're probably thinking, "Then what should I do. If no one's going to
help me, how can I possibly learn to hack?" Have you ever tried READING
(I assume this far that you are literate). Read anything and everything
you can get your hands on! I recomm end hitting a computer store and
looking for discount books (books that are usually out of date, but so
are a lot of the systems on the 'net, so they're still relevant!).
You'll be surprised what you can learn from a book even when you're
paying a dollar for every hundred pages. I recommend the following books
to start off with:

* Maximum Security I or II: this is not a guide to hacking, despite what
  you might have heard, but you can get enough info to learn the basics
  of how hackers hack! (Isn't that more fun than being lamed, email
  bombed, and kicked of IRC).

* Practical Unix and Internet Security (Sec. Edition): This is mostly a
  book about how to secure Unix (if you don't know what Unix is, either
  shoot yourself now, or read O'Reilly's Learning the Unix OS), but half
  of learning to hack is learning a syst em from the inside out. How can
  you expect to hack a site (w/o using a kiddie script, which i must
  restate, is NOT hacking) if you don't know how to use the system?!

* Linux Unleashed/Red Hat Linux Unleashed: these books are kind of cool.
  First of all, they come with Red Hat Linux (*sigh*, just go to
  www.linux.org and read everything there) 5.1 and 5.2 respectively (if
  you get the newest versions of the book, whi ch you should). Read
  everything you can from it.

* Sendmail in a nutshell: This is only after you read everything else.
  Sendmail, for those of you who still don't know, is a program that
  sends mail. It sounds stupid, but this is a buggy program, and usually
  is the avenue of attack many hackers take because of it's
  vulnerabilities.

* TCP/IP Blueprints: this will clear up a lot of things concerning
  TCP/IP.

* TCP/IP Administration: haven't read it, but can't wait to! (I've been
  bogged down by a lot of other REAL computer stuff).

After you've read them all, re-read them! Trust me, you gain a ton of
information the second time you read them just as you gain perspicacity
the second time through a movie with a twisted plot. Then, read a ton of
RFCs. RFCs are Request for Comments b ut the people who practically
shaped the Internet. Here is a good list of RFCs (the books above give
about the same list):

* RFC0760 - DoD Standard Internet Protocol

* RFC0792 - Internet Control Message Protocol

* RFC0819 - The Domain Naming Convention for Internet User Applications

* RFC0821 - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

* RFC0822 - Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages

* RFC0976 - UUCP Mail Interchange Format Standard

* RFC1123 - Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Applications and Support

* RFC1135 - The Helminthiasis of the Internet (Morris Worm)

* RFC1244 - Site Security Handbook

* RFC1521 - MIME (Multipurpose Internet Email Extensions) Part One

* RFC1522 - MIME (Multipurpose Internet Email Extensions) Part Two

* RFC1651 - SMTP Service Extensions

* RFC1652 - SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport

* RFC1652 - SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration

* RFC1675 - Security Concerns for IPng

* RFC1704 - On Internet Authentication

* RFC1739 - A Primer On Internet and TCP/IP Tools

* RFC1750 - Randomness Recommendations for Security

* RFC1825 - Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol

* RFC1891 - SMTP Service Extension for Delivery Status Notifications

* RFC1892 - The Multipart/Report Content Type for the Reporting of Mail
  System Administrative Messages

* RFC1893 - Enhanced Mail System Status Codes

* RFC1894 - An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status
  Notifications

* RFC1918 - Address Allocation for Private Internets

* RFC1920 - Internet Official Protocol Standards

That's it for now. If anything else interests you about the Internet,
try to look up an RFC for it.

Read anything you can about Internet security in general (but not stuff
like "How to Hack" (but keep reading this!)). Subscribe to mailing
lists. Some of my favorites are bugraq, happy hacker (interesting
stuff), and MC2. By now, you should be advanced enough to breeze through
Carolyn Meinel's "Guide to (mostly) Harmless Hacking." It's got
something interesting stuff, but not enough to be "3l1t3."

Okay, now for the big step: the step from lamer to hacker! If you have
not already, install Linux. Now it's okay for you to go online to usenet
groups and ask for help installing Linux, 'cuz quite frankly, if pretty
fucking hard! NEVER, EVER, EVER expe ct to get it on the first try just
right. The best place I know for help on Linux installation is:
http://www.xmission.com/~howardm/ The guy who runs this, Howard Mann, is
really nice, and he'll help you out if you email him (a lost art of
netiquete). The next thing to do is learn programming. I reco mmend
learning C++ first because it will help you understand a lot about
programming, it's easy to use, and is a lot like the other programming
languages you should also learn. Read these books:

* Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days: the name says it all

* Learning Perl: an AMAZING book on learning Perl

* Programming Perl: the next step after Learning Perl

* Perl Cookbook: the next step after Programming Perl

* Core Java (Volume I & II): these books are by the makers of Java. Java
  is a really cool language to say the least, but you should at least
  learn C++ before so you can understand classes.

Now, you may be saying I may have been a bit hypocritcal by saying not
to ask how to hack but to ask about installing Linux. The thing is that
Linux people are usually pretty nice, and the people who are Linux gurus
want more than anything for Linux to p rosper, and are willing to help
you out. Oh, by the way, if you've installed Linux the way you want it
(which does not include throwing you Linux box out the window and
yelling, "I LIKE THIS JUST FINE!"), congratulations. You have now earned
my respect.

Okay, I mentioned kiddie scripts earlier, and I'll follow up on it now.
Kiddie Scripts are auto hacking programs that will do all the work for
you. You don't want that. I do condone downloading them and learning
from them, but don't become a script kid die. The only place they go in
life is jail (not where you want to be).

Now, you should know a great deal about hacking. You have a compendium
of information at your fingertips with a mental index. You want the best
advice? Don't hack. Odds are, you will get caught, and then it goes down
on your criminal record, and unles s you did something
fan-fucking-tastic, like hacking the white house security cameras and
get video of Slick Willie getting a BJ, you can pretty much kiss your
computer future goodbye, cuz no one will hire a convicted hacker. If you
do hack, be a white h at hacker. For example, upon breaking into a site,
leave a note maybe including how to contact you (not through the phones,
mail, real email address etc., do it through a hotmail account or
something) or how to fix it. They may be nice enough to offer you a job!
That's right, there are some people who get paid to hack and do what
they love.

In conclusion, you may have noticed that this was not a real guide to
hacking. That's because there is no one resource for hacking. This was a
guide to LEARNING how to hack, which, if you want to be a real hacker,
you will have to do. There is no one w ay to hack. (If so, it would be a
lot easier for system administrators to keep you out!) It's a variety of
different tricks as well as the ability to keep up with current
vulnerabilities in software and hardware. You should also learn how to
program. Even though Kevin Mitnick was infamous among the hacker culture
for being the most wanted cracker, he couldn't even write his own
exploits! That's pretty sad. Please use whatever information you have
wisely and responsibly, and distribute it only to people who are worthy
of it.