HACKER'S TOOLKIT 2022

Pretty boy and known pirate Jonni Bidwell shows how to tame your Parrot. Parrot Security OS, that is...

-  Jonni Bidwell

High-profile headlines involving the gerund 'hacking' are becoming increasingly common. Nary a day goes by without cybercrooks making off with millions of dollars worth of internet money (or "priceless" NFTs). Which is a shame because lots of the people defending against all this computer misuse would probably describe themselves as hackers, too. We'll continue this debate within, but the point is ransomware, denial of service attacks and even state-sponsored cyber operations are all on the rise.

In days gone by Linux users might have had reason to be aloof. In the early 90s when Linux was still young, there probably weren't that many people trying to attack it. And that's largely because there weren't all that many people using it. Within a couple of years though, that had all changed. Red Hat and OpenSUSE enshrined Linux's place in the server market. Now it's all over the cloud, on two billion phones, while some quirky individuals use it as a desktop operating system.

The computing ecosystem has become complex. So complex, in fact, that beyond the usual guidance - "don't click suspect links", "beware of email attachments" and "keep your software up to date" - there isn't much tangible advice we can impart to regular users.

So instead we look at the tricks used by hackers on both sides of the force. And we'll show you a new Linux distro in the form of Parrot Security OS. A veritable hackers' toolkit one might say, that will teach you the ways of pen-testing, network reconnaissance and exploitation. What could possibly go wrong?

The hacker knowledge website hackthebox.com has challenges and labs that use Pwnbox, a virtual, browser-based edition of Parrot Security.

Hack the planet/Parrot

Get started with a persistent USB install of Parrot Security OS