Step-by-Step Guide to Ethical Hacking: Learn the Basics in 2025

         

Ø WHAT IS HACKING ?

Hacking is the act of gaining unauthorized access to a computer system, network, or digital device. The term “hacking” is a major area of concern in cybersecurity. The threat of hacking is a serious matter that should be taken seriously to prevent cybercrime and protect data breaches. It has both disadvantages and advantages.

 The word “hack” was first recorded in 1955 during a meeting at MIT.

 

Ø OPERATING SYSTEM

In simple words, an operating system is an interface between a computer user and computer hardware. It helps us to communicate and work with computers. The operating system used for hacking for beginners is “KALI LINUX”.

 

Ø KALI LINUX

Linux is one of the most powerful operating systems. As a matter of fact, mobile OS-Andriod is powered by Linux.

Linux has various open source distributions such as Ubuntu , Red Hat , Backtrack , Kali etc. We will be using Kali Linux as our choice of OS to learn hacking.

Kali is an operating system designed by hackers for hackers and something that we might with regularly in your learning journey.

 

There are two ways to use Kali Linux: [Installation]

v  Either boot a system with Kali and have a dedicated system.

v  Or virtually install Kali in your Windows or  Mac system.

 

PREFERRED: The second way, and to do this we will need a software called Virtual Box in which we will virtually install Kali Linux.

 

v OVERVIEW

After installing Kali Linux, you will probably using it throughout your hacking career, in order to make you more comfortable let’s have a basic overview of this operating system.

 v  The first thing that we see on the taskbar is the application tab. Notice that, it contains a lot of applications pre-installed. That’s why Kali is one of the good choices for hackers.

v  Next up is places tab, it shows the most common places in the file system. Basically, its like a shortcut to the Linux File Manager.

v  Next up at the center is the data and time section.

v  Finally, the last part of the Kali interface is the Favourites tab at the left. As the name suggests it contains the favourite applications. It contains various applications like Firefox, Browser, File manager, Terminal, and other applications.

v  The applications tab contain categorized according to hacking stages.

 

Ø LINUX COMMANDS

Open up the Kali Linux Terminal. It will look something like this as sown below:

                                     

                              root@kali:-#

 

As a hacker, you will be using a lot of tools in Kali. Most of these tools can be accessed only via terminal. Only a few have a graphical user interface.

 

·       COMMANDS

 

v  pwd: It prints the current working directory.

v  ls: This command is used to list information or content in a particular file\folder.

v  cd: It is used to change the current working directory. Example:- cd, Deskop.

v  mkdir: Create a new folder.

v  man: Displays the help manual for a particular command. Example:- man , ls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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