A Short Sample Of Ethical Hacking: Auto-shutdown Your Computer! dont use this for the wrong purposes...

[The Simpleton 2]

First off, ethical hacking is a touchy issue and most people would rather not learn about it lest they end up using it in the wrong way. But sometimes it helps to know a lot about how things are done in your operating system so that you may get out of a sticky situation someday. This here is a short sample of what you can do with a little knowledge of ethical hacking - this is just one small situation - there are thousands or maybe millions of others, but a start has to be made somewhere

 

Okay, so did anyone of you meet this situation where you switch on your computer and see a pop-up window which says "Windows is shutting down" and displays a timer? That's a smart little virus acting in the background, but did you know that you could prevent it with a simple command? Here's how you do it. This works only for Windows because such annoying viruses appear only in Windows

 

NOTE: 1) DO NOT USE THIS FOR ANY WRONG PURPOSES - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

 

2) I'm using this in Windows 7, so there will be some visual changes for XP users. I will say more

below.

 

==============================================================

 

1) On the Windows desktop, right-click and point to New-->Shortcut

 

 

2) Next you will get a window which asks for the location of the shortcut. In that, type this command:

 

shutdown -r -t <time>

replace the time with the number of seconds you would like before your computers shuts down. as an example, I have given 100 seconds.

 

 

3) Give the shortcut a name and click "Finish" - it will appear on the desktop.

 

 

It is important to have enough time to give the counter-command so keep a sensible time gap, like 30, 40 seconds. If you foolishly give less time, you might not have enough time left to give the counter command, resulting in the shutdown of the system!

 

4) Now to create the counter-command. Right-click on the desktop again, point to New-->Shortcut, and the command now is:

 

shutdown -a

The 'a' stands for 'abort' which cancels out the previous command, thus preventing shutdown of the system.

 

 

Give it another name and click "Finish"

 

 

5) So, want to test this out?! Simply doublt-click on the "virus" we created on your desktop, and you should see a popup window:

 

For XP users --> you will see a window which says something like "Windows is shutting down" and underneath it will be a countdown counter showing the number of seconds remaining to shutdown. I don't remember the exact thing since it's been a while I've used XP.

 

For Vista/7 users --> Based on the time you've set, you'll get a window like this:

 

 

6)Now, quickly, before the time runs out, double-click on the "anti-virus" we made and it will counter the shutdown, cancelling it.

 

For XP users--> The shutdown window will disappear, and maybe you won't get any other notification

 

For Vista/7 users--> You will simply get a notification like thus:

 

 

 

See how simple it is? Now imagine if somehow who got hold of your computer put the time gap as one second and put this in the startup folder, what would happen?! you wouldn't have any time to react at all! It is that scary......

 

Just a small clarification on the "virus" command:

 

"shutdown" is a function employed in the windows mechanism and has many options which you can access using the terminal(DOS prompt) in windows and typing "shutdown" at the prompt. some of the options are:

 

-r : restarts the system (we used this one in the example)

 

-s: shuts down the system

 

-a: abort shutdown

 

-l: logs off

 

-h: goes into hibernation

 

and there are more.......all this seems interesting to learn and can come handy in situations where you least expect it!

 

Well, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial please leave a comment about it and remember never use this for the wrong purposes!

[rayzoredge 2]

Speaking of unethical purposes... we were actually thinking about springing this one on our IT guy (who's not that smart to begin with) just to see his reaction. Only modifications we did to what TS wrote in his tutorial is that we used an Internet Explorer Icon, set the countdown to 10 seconds, and put up some official-looking malware message. Didn't include another shortcut to disable the countdown... it would literally be a race to hit Windows+R and type in "shutdown -a" to abort it, but then again, 10 seconds is a long time so not much of a race there. *ahem*So yeah... like TS said, ethical use only!

[Nameless_ 1]

Nice one... so, do you learn how to hack, The Simpleton? (and rayzoredge, of course)...I know a guy that's a few years younger that me, and he's not even in his teens or close to it that can hack his school's system files... Freaky huh? Of course, he would do it for ethical purposes *ahem* and do nothing about it *cough cough*...I think. I don't know why he would do something like that though. If I could, then I would totally redesign my school homepage because it's just so crap and looks like a really bad job stuck together. And it WOULD be for ethical purposes... after all, you don't find a site's main page completely redesigned with a better looking image for FREE, do you?And I won't touch anything else, I promised.(In reality though, I would probably wreck to whole site with my nooby programming skills of zero and shut the whole system down... depends on how you define ethical, right?Its the thought that counts....)

[The Simpleton 2]

Speaking of unethical purposes... we were actually thinking about springing this one on our IT guy (who's not that smart to begin with) just to see his reaction. Only modifications we did to what TS wrote in his tutorial is that we used an Internet Explorer Icon, set the countdown to 10 seconds, and put up some official-looking malware message. Didn't include another shortcut to disable the countdown... it would literally be a race to hit Windows+R and type in "shutdown -a" to abort it, but then again, 10 seconds is a long time so not much of a race there. wink.gif
*ahem*

So yeah... like TS said, ethical use only! rolleyes.gif biggrin.gif

lol yeah a lot of people try to do that as a prank and in most cases it's harmless. It's okay to pull the leg of someone you know just for the fun of it, but when that "fun" moves on to unknown territories that's when the danger begins.....

Nice one... so, do you learn how to hack, The Simpleton? (and rayzoredge, of course)...
I know a guy that's a few years younger that me, and he's not even in his teens or close to it that can hack his school's system files... Freaky huh? Of course, he would do it for ethical purposes *ahem* and do nothing about it *cough cough*...

I think. I don't know why he would do something like that though. If I could, then I would totally redesign my school homepage because it's just so crap and looks like a really bad job stuck together. And it WOULD be for ethical purposes... after all, you don't find a site's main page completely redesigned with a better looking image for FREE, do you?

And I won't touch anything else, I promised.

(In reality though, I would probably wreck to whole site with my nooby programming skills of zero and shut the whole system down... depends on how you define ethical, right?

Its the thought that counts....)

No, I haven't yet reached the level to be called a 'hacker/cracker' yet but I do keep an eye out for things like these. In my opinion, it isn't hard at all to learn top-notch (un)ethical hacking - all you need is time and patience, which most people don't have. If you follow the life of the most well-known hackers, you'll notice that they spent a lot of time on their computers, leaving out social life and studies and so on. But most people can't afford to do this as they're busy with a lot of other things. That's why the most successful hackers have the most boring social life

[Nameless_ 1]

lol yeah a lot of people try to do that as a prank and in most cases it's harmless. It's okay to pull the leg of someone you know just for the fun of it, but when that "fun" moves on to unknown territories that's when the danger begins.....
No, I haven't yet reached the level to be called a 'hacker/cracker' yet but I do keep an eye out for things like these. In my opinion, it isn't hard at all to learn top-notch (un)ethical hacking - all you need is time and patience, which most people don't have. If you follow the life of the most well-known hackers, you'll notice that they spent a lot of time on their computers, leaving out social life and studies and so on. But most people can't afford to do this as they're busy with a lot of other things. That's why the most successful hackers have the most boring social life

Yeah, when my mum heard about it from my brother (he's my brother's friend), she was like, Oh no!!! Don't do that or else you will end up in jail!!!

But I was interested in hacking before then. Have you heard to the site hackthissite.com?
Yeah, well, I signed up there, I got pass like, two levels and then I got stuck.

At python, because I couldn't program. So I gave up.
I must say, I myself don't have much of a social life, but at school I'm fine because I'm everyone's friend. The problem with being everyone's friend though, is that you don't "belong" in a group yourself and therefore you are not considered as a "group member" of the group, which mean that you don't get to go out often, which is fine by me, because that means that my mum says yes whenever someone does ask me out, and I can work on stuff like Xisto and reasearching on my favourite topics...

[rob86 2]

Anyone get caught up in the "hacking" scene? I did when I was younger. I wasn't an elite hacker by any means, I never used any onion peelers or high tech microscopes, but I did do some stuff! It was an interesting experience for sure, but I wouldn't suggest anyone get involved with "unethical" hacking. I was young and stupid, rebellious and completely unconcerned about the trouble I caused people. That period of my life ended when I ended up seeing on multiple news websites that I had been traced to my location for "cyber crimes". Apparently I had been "watched" for at least a month and I let my guard down and they knew what I was doing and where I lived! I was paranoid for weeks that I was going to be arrested in the near future. I never did get in trouble though, but regardless, it was a horrible experience! I would never do that stuff again.There was a lot of " virtual gang warfare" too. I remember there was a real camaraderie between groups, and when one person did damage to someone else's computer (over something stupid like a girlfriend!), or even attempted to, everyone would rush to their defense and start going all out trying to attack the person. I remember one common "tactic" was to take a person's entire ISP (well their part of it) offline so they, and anyone in their CITY couldn't connect! Can you imagine?! This was common stuff! This was often done to the most technically proficient person, because they couldn't defend themselves against it and help the other people who were involved. I didn't do too much of that, I never really considered taking down an ISP a very safe thing to do. People did some other real unethical stuff too. Another thing that people did was to trace someones phone # and post it all over the web with stuff like "I'm a bored 18 year old female, looking for someone to talk on the phone to" and they would be constantly bombarded with phone calls...There was a lot going on with hacking back then, it doesn't seem so common now. Though I wouldn't know, I haven't been too interested in computers for a few years. I think everyone has fire walls, big websites take internet security more seriously and patch holes better etc. You wouldn't believe how many of the big websites were completely vulnerable.. I took "the big G" offline once. I remember knowing it was a bad idea, but it sounded so thrilling to try it, then when I succeeded, reality set in and I was like, oh my god, I shouldn't have done that!It was a long time ago though.. when you're young.. you think you're smarter than everyone else and invincible. You don't really seem to realize that you're causing people a lot of problems either. My behavior was immature and stupid! I don't recommend doing any of that stuff!As for defacing school websites, well that's a funny story. I hacked into my school website in school, and defaced it with a very mature "School Sucks!". Later that year, I became webmaster of the school webpage and was GIVEN the password I already worked to find out. Irony..Let me repeat, unethical hacking is bad! It's bad for all involved! It's bad for the victims, and bad for the offender if they get caught!This has very little to do with the original post doesn't it? I think that shut down commands useful, I wish I had known it a long time ago. I used to want to shut my computer off by itself if I fell asleep, now I just leave it on 24/7.

[The Simpleton 2]

Wow rob you sure have an impressive profile I agree that the temptation of hacking is really very addictive, It makes you do things that you never imagine that you would do. Then again, learning about everything related to hacking can prove useful in the future in ways unimaginable. I have a small suggestion for you rob - how about you try ethical hacking for linux? You have lot of experience in Windows and I know you're starting out in Linux, so how about it?

This has very little to do with the original post doesn't it? I think that shut down commands useful, I wish I had known it a long time ago. I used to want to shut my computer off by itself if I fell asleep, now I just leave it on 24/7.

Yup most of us have been talking about ethical hacking a lot in this thread and less about the original topic Anyway, auto-shutdown is useful for people who like to keep their sytems on for most of the day. They can trigger the command sometime before they retire to bed or go to college, etc and save a lot of power by shutting down! In my country it isn't uncommon to see people leaving their systems on 24/7 but the majority of us shut down our systems at night due to fear of the electricity bill!!!

[Nameless_ 1]

Wow rob you sure have an impressive profile I agree that the temptation of hacking is really very addictive, It makes you do things that you never imagine that you would do. Then again, learning about everything related to hacking can prove useful in the future in ways unimaginable. I have a small suggestion for you rob - how about you try ethical hacking for linux? You have lot of experience in Windows and I know you're starting out in Linux, so how about it?


Yup most of us have been talking about ethical hacking a lot in this thread and less about the original topic Anyway, auto-shutdown is useful for people who like to keep their sytems on for most of the day. They can trigger the command sometime before they retire to bed or go to college, etc and save a lot of power by shutting down! In my country it isn't uncommon to see people leaving their systems on 24/7 but the majority of us shut down our systems at night due to fear of the electricity bill!!!

I agree... that's pretty impressive. But I swear, if I was to give you my school's website you will have no problem in hacking it, it's just so crap, like one of those homemade sites. I reckon they should get a proper website designer and actually make it look pretty. I actually might give it to you in a PM if you want...

But anyway... the big "G" that you're talking about is Google right? Wow, that's really really cool!!! I want to try that, but then again, maybe not. And this thread is really going out of topic... ...

[The Simpleton 2]

This is why even talking about this stuff is risky! If any innocent fellow reads all of the above posts then he would somehow get an impression that since all of these guys are saying the this is wrong, it must be cool to do it! And then even that innocent guy can get really skilled in this field and after that it depends on whether he chooses to become a blackhat or a whitehat. *sigh* I've seen many people going over to the dark side and it all started with a conversation similar to this....

[SpiderVV 0]

Nice thing. I used to do this to my school mates like 3 years ago, I'd put a shortcut called Internet Explorer and then with another friends help I made a CMD window appear saying "Starting IE..............." and then "You're installing a virus on your computer, please wait.". My friend made the thing take like 30sec and a window appearing saying "Virus Located on C:/Windows! Do you wish to delete?". Obviously they'd click Yes and the PC would just turn off

[-Sky- 0]

Technically that is not "hacking". That's just a small tweak/shortcut and a quicker way of shutting down/logging off/restarting/hibernating etc your computer. It's not doing anything to your PC that is unauthorized or something like that. Creating shortcuts for a command is not exactly hacking.But nice tutorial on how to quickly turn off/restart etc your PC.

[rayzoredge 2]

Sky, I actually believe that technically, it IS hacking. Hacking is something that you do to utilize something in an abnormal/atypical way to achieve a different effect or result. For example, I can use a 1L soda bottle to hold my soda as intended, but I could also cut off half of the bottle (once it's empty) to use the bottom portion as a plant pot of sorts. This would be hacking in its true definition. It is also the case when you use SHUTDOWN.EXE to masquerade it as something else other than what it truly is. In this case, we use it with the available switches as a prank and not really as what it should be. Does it do the same thing? Yes, so it's not a hack. Are we doing something else with it? Yes, so it is a hack. Depending on how you look at it, it is and it isn't.

When most people think about hacking, they think about the whole computer-whiz image, mostly the blackhat variant that hacks into government systems to disrupt operations or to feed millions of dollars into a Swiss bank account. What they may not think about are the legitimate "whitehat" hackers masquerading as "software security specialists" or anything like or pertaining to that title, the people that hack to produce undesired effects and to find exploits and vulnerabilities in software to help developers fill in the holes. They also don't think about the normal, day-to-day things that they might be doing that IS considered hacking, like recycling the 1L soda bottle I presented with before. LifeHacker is a great website devoted to hacking anything and everything (including computer applications), and you can definitely use some of those tips to make life easier.

[Nameless_ 1]

This is why even talking about this stuff is risky! If any innocent fellow reads all of the above posts then he would somehow get an impression that since all of these guys are saying the this is wrong, it must be cool to do it! And then even that innocent guy can get really skilled in this field and after that it depends on whether he chooses to become a blackhat or a whitehat. *sigh* I've seen many people going over to the dark side and it all started with a conversation similar to this....

Just like this? Well... they must've have a pretty strong motivation. I for one will probably give up after one day when I learnt that I had to learn programming on Python and all that to hack.

But yes. hackthissite.com is actually a good site to start from if you really want to start hacking. Unfortunately they don't give you tutorials, just allows you to hack into the thing and their site, so you'll have to learn from the members there on the chat program, or cheat (that's what I did, which was dumb of me because I didn't know what I did after that), or learn from other websites...

But that means that you can hack successfully and still not get caught, because it's legitimate!!!
(I don't know about being government approved though...)

Nice thing. I used to do this to my school mates like 3 years ago, I'd put a shortcut called Internet Explorer and then with another friends help I made a CMD window appear saying "Starting IE..............." and then "You're installing a virus on your computer, please wait.". My friend made the thing take like 30sec and a window appearing saying "Virus Located on C:/Windows! Do you wish to delete?". Obviously they'd click Yes and the PC would just turn off

Wow... that is just so cool!!! And they'll probably like:
"What? What happened?"

But yeah. I mean, if it's harmless and doesn't do any damage, then I don't think there's any harm in inserting a small virus like that. Just to have al laugh at and show off to your friends...

[akira550 0]

addition.. try putting this one after the -t = timer.. -c " commnet" e.g -c " this is a fake virus"

[The Simpleton 2]

addition.. try putting this one after the -t = timer.. -c " commnet" e.g -c " this is a fake virus"

using this "comment" scares some people and many pranks were played in this way, that's why I didn't suggest it in the first place...