The Nemisis Guide to Hacking
Article One - Intro/Packet Sniffing
Level - Beg/Inter
By Nemisis (sbbutts@attbi.com/www.NemisisCommunications.com)

This document is soley for educational purposes.  I take no responsibility for 
anything you do, or say, after reading it.  In other words; Do not try this at 
home...(or anywhere else).


	Ok, So your new, and you want to learn how to hack.  Hacking isn't something you 
just learn in one day, and it isnt something your going to learn easily.  The best things 
you can do, are to read alot and ask questions.  Hacking is not a Skill you just learn, 
its the accumulation of knowladge.  If you read alot, and you understand how things work, 
then its not hard to hack.  If you know how something works, you can figure out a way to 
screw with how it works.  If you screw with how it works, that can be considered a bunch 
of diffrent things.  If you screw with how something works for the sole purpose of messing 
something up, then you are doing what some people would call a DOS attack.  Not Dos as in 
the operating system, but DOS as in Denial Of Service.  If you screw with something in 
order to get access to something else, you are exploiting a hole in security, or a flaw 
in programming.  Thats just a basic assesment of what you are doing.  I don't want you to 
go on reading this thinking your going to be exploiting servers by the time you finish 
reading this document.  Your not.  This is just another text file to add to your memory, 
and that will help you out overall when you put it together with the other knowladge you 
will come apon.

	Since your reading this right now, your heading in the right direction.  Before I 
start the first lesson, i'm going to give a few prerequisites to this article.  I'm 
modeling this series after TGTMHH (The Guide to Mostly Harmless Hacking).  It is what 
I read, when I first started out, and it is what you should read, before reading this.  
You can find it on many search engines, its all over the place.  

	With that being said, Packet Sniffing.  Packet Sniffing is getting in between 
the client and server, and intercepting, then relaying the data that you recive.  In this,
 you see exactly what is going on.  This is how the OSCAR protocol (AIM) was figured out,
it was how Yahoo! was figured out, and it was how a bunch of other Closed Protocols were 
figrued out.  Closed Protocols are protocols that the creator keeps to themselves, in 
order to prevent un-licensed clients from using the service.   

	To get in between the Client and Server, you need a packet sniffer of course.  
I can't recommend any really good ones, because I don't know of any for windows, but you 
can find some on download.com or if you just search the web.  A packet sniffer will show 
you the Binary, and the ASCII packet.  They are they same thing, but one is numbers 
(binary) and one is Letters and Numbers (Ascii/American Standard Code For Information 
Exchange).

	Now, at this point, your wondering what the point of a packet sniffer is, and 
what you can do with the information you get.  The point is too see exactly what is 
going on, behind the scenes, in order to better understand what is going on.  When 
you understand how what is going on, and how it works, you are more likely to find an 
exploit or DOS attack.  It is also much easier to interact with whatever your packet 
sniffing, on a behind the scenes basis.  

	The best, and most known example of this, is AIM Filter by Robbie Saunders.  
Before AIM Filter came out, all AIM programs were 'proggies' mainly made in Visual Basic, 
that used API to automate tasks for the user, and to send things that AIM normaly wouldn't 
let you just type in (like a Solid *).  I hated these programs.  All they did was execute 
pre programmed Macros, that saved a bit of time, but didn't take any real skill to make.  
Robbie, and some others, used Packet Sniffing to figure out the OSCAR protocol, and use VB 
as a middle man.  All info from AIM was sent to AIM Filter, and then to the server, and AIM 
Filter, could edit the outgoing and incomming packets.  That is the power of Packet 
Sniffing.

	Once you get the information, you would need to do something with it... If its 
Binary, you can use the ASC(string) function in vb to make it readable ASCII,  and from 
there code Modules and SUBS, to handle the data that comes in and out.  If your looking for
 a good source code to work with, to learn about packets, try AIM Filter.  Its avalible on
pscode.com

	Thats about it for now, I hope this gave you a better idea of what Packet Sniffing 
is, and what you in for, if you want to be a hacker.  I will be releasing more articles as 
soon as I can write them, and when I get more topic ideas.  


-Nemisis