HACKER'S TAY 2025 THE KERNEL » NETWORKS SERVERS * HARDWARE * SECURITY ENHANCE YOUR KNOWLEDGE WITH IN-DEPTH PROJECTS AND GUIDESRRR RAR DADRA RRR RR RRA Pie. DD, hab Do D.E) hi et Pie. DD, i hd RRR RR DRADER RRR RR RRR » Mi i I, I i RRR RADA RRR ARR RAB as cy ab‘Wilcome tothe 2025 eton of the Hacke’s Manual You hold in your hands 148 pages of Linux hacking tutorials, guides and features from the experts at Linux Format magazin - the home of open source software In this edition we've gone in hard for security Youll find guides to securing servers, geting _2 grounding in hacking, using security tools such as Kall and Fedora Securty Lab alongside solid features explaining how to protect your pracy online ‘sing established tok ike Tail. Gut we shoulder ive in fear! Hacking is ‘monumental fun. Nevermind setting up and plying with Linux, we take a look at hacking tablets, media servers, virtual machines, cloud servers, ‘mult-booting with Grub and much more. yout alte timid when it comes to the Terminal we even have a meaty reference section atthe back So dveinand enjoy!4 L FUTURE 4 TsHACKER'S MANUAL 2025Contents HACKER'S MANUAL 2025 Security Distros 10 Power up: Fedora! Get the lonciown on the latest Fedora release and discover its secrets, 18 30 years of Linux How a 21-year-old’s bedroom coding project took over the world. 32 Build the kernel It's the ultimate nerd credential, tune up your mn personal kern 40 Rescatux repair Explore one of the most famous rescue and repair systems powered by Linux. 6 | TeHackers Manual 46 54 62 68 Build your Linux fortress, Discover what threats are out there and what Qubes can do to protect your devices. Master hacking with Kali fe take you inside the ultimate hacking toolkit and explain how to u Secure chat Chat online without anyone snooping in on. what you have to say Secure your desktop Linux can thwart a majority of attacks on its own but we can help put a level 10 forcetield mputer Data recovery from darrGet to grips with the media system for desktops and embedded systems. Virtual Box Ensure you get the best out of your virtual systems with our essential guide. Nextcloud The break away, all new cloud storage and document system is ive forall Nagios Industry-level system monitoring so you can track all your Linux PCs. The terminal Fe 126 128 130 132 ike a [337 h the p cer and get to grips werful te Get started The best way to use the terminalis to dive in with both feet and start using it. Files and folders ‘We explain how you can navigate the file system and start manipulating things. Edit config files Discover how you can edit configuration files from within the text terminal ‘System information Interrogate the local system to discover all of its dirty little secrets, Contents Hacking Take your Linux skills to and beyond. 96 Hacker's toolkit Discover the tricks used by hackers tohelp keep your systems sate. 104 Linux on a Linx tablet Get Linux up and running on a low-cost Windows tablet without the hassle. 108 Multi-boot Linux Discover the inner workings of Grub and boot lots of OSes from one PC. 112 Build your own custom Ubuntu distro Why settle for what the existing distrubutions. have to offer? 116 LT Tng monitoring Get to know what all your programs are up to by tracing Linux app activity 120. USB multt-boot ‘We explain how you can carry multiple distros ona single USB drive. 134. Drive partitions Contra, edit and create hard drive partitions and permissions. 136 Remote access Set up and access remote GUI applications using XI. 138 Display control Sticking with the world of XII we take some rand for resolution control 140 Core commands 20 essential terminal commands that all Linux ‘web server admins should know. The Hackers Manual | 7peter oe ec ee Sac Seo Cee g . ar Ree eae ere. 8 ether eee rere TT Ce ee ee ete Dee ee Eee eee Over ea ee ee er Soe er ea erence hash alls new fee Eero ee peso prt Ute dapripacenaraar” install rails ~version=3.2 ee ee ee eae ec lera aE pauls ee : = a ome ee Peon no) aa or ms See eos oe er Ce pererneet aie aoe eee oer apper at pe ee eee SeabeesDistros Because if there was only one form of Linux, we'd be bored Power up: Fedora! Get the lowdown on the latest Fedora release and discover its secrets. 30 years of Linux How a 21-year-old’s bedroom coding, project took over the world, Build the kernel Its the ultimate nerd credential, tune up your own personal kernel, here's how. Rescatux repair Explore one of the most famous rescue and repair systems powered by Linux. The Hackers Manual | 9Distros ~ Power up: Fedora! Not all heroes wear capes. Jonni Bidwell has got a brand new Fedora to discuss and these hat jokes are un-brim-leavable. he first lok at an updated distro is always fun Last autumn we get b | petersenii ae ee ee et eis ee enon try ee eee eer eer rete nr coming from another distro, though, you might be curious about Fedora. eee ear eae ere et eet es you. Never mind what you might have heard it's really no more advanced entree eee eee nen ae enters Tend eet ere at eras ee a eee eee eee ea er eee eer CS eee Pe oreur et ect Se ere ‘Now you can potentially get software that's, ee ees ered erecta ae eons Se eer er pee eens 10 | he vackers allFedora is for all You don't need to be some sort of geek to don a Fedora. 2 trailblazer. In one sense it guides CentOS ‘Stream, which in turn sets the road map for the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). From a desktop point of view, it's often the frst (ahem, Arch BTW) to-adopt new features (such as Wayland, Btrs, ‘ulkan). Thanks to its (roughly) sbemonth release cadence it equa the interim Ubuntu releases. and is ‘way ahead of Ubuntu’s two-yearly Long Term Support (LTS) offerings as concerns new software, Updating your OS twice yearly sounds lke a pain, and indeed itused tobe. Partly for that reason, partly due to the ‘extra hoops required to install proprietary software, ‘and partly because earlier Fedora releases didn't quite hhave Ubuntu’ level of user friendliness, Fedora has often been putin the ‘intermediate distribution rubric. That's just not true any more ~ the OS updates are ‘seamless, and Fedora is every bit as user-friendly as ‘modern Ubuntu, Indeed, in an era when the Ubuntu team is taking alot of flack for its design decisions (in reverse chronological order: Snaps. diagnostic data, replacing the Unity desktop with a franken-Gnome, and partnering with Amazon), Fedora is enjoying ‘Widespread recommendation as a beginner's of ‘gamer’s'cistribution, The matter of proprietary Software (which once involved manually adding a third party repository) is now solved by clicking a simple tickbox in the installer. This one click gives you access to the repos forthe Nvidia graphics driver, Google ‘Chrome, and the PyCharm integrated development environment (IDE) for Python No place like Gnome Fedor’ flagship release fers the most atu experience ofthe Gnome desktop you cand So, Certhout the ely of exersion) you wont gta Dock St the bottom of your sree a ejtem ty or Ubu Site aplication hdeators. This Gnome a the Gore Govlopers intended look makes Gnome seem mil or pertaps lypermoder Ane thet seers tobe Something userseer ovo ate. We show you the andl eyboard shortcuts and eventing coe you reed to embrace the Gnome worfon ror tho page YeuT sti se some crism ~ Gnome in generals a bloated desitop but nan era when Windows instal Want 64GB of space and almst as mach memory. that txt ser ess vad, Groe a aly fstured desktop envrorment complete wih tegrated document searching (which egies aig database), fcelerated rendering (equiing a graphics card less than about 5 years of), and an easy log for tisabng optional services. Ii aost crt run tn ary hraare that could run Windows 7 But food machines villbea change. and ther are more F edora Linux has always been something of fe cee suitable desktops (such as LXt and Xfce) and distros (Guch as Bodhi or Lubuntu) out there Fedora makes it easy to instal the Nvidia driver, and has done so for some time. This time, though, wee spared another headache because the package now supports Secure Boot. So,you won't have to (asin previous releases) ether disable Secure Boot or ‘manually sign the module and enral your own MOK keys. Since the proprietary Nvidia driver isn’t included on the live medium, and in the unlikely event your card requires there's an option to start with basic ‘graphics inthe Troubleshooting boot menu. Fedora >IMP~30" fs avaiable in Fedora’ repo, even though ‘hasn't been released a5 we write this. Fedora giveth and Fedora taketh For alongtime. Fora hasbeen pushing Weyland (8s opposed tothe ageing: dsp server asthe default graphis protocol Gnome With Fedora, the Inenrabe march tons the etirenent of X the graphs thing, nt the hte pa that used tobe areasonable socal media platform) takes another step as Keres banished fom the detout statis stil avaiabein the repostores and well=ho yuhow to rstalitnter is worth noting hat there stil an X server intl, the form of Xnayand the ransiaton back-end that tows old app that dont support Wayland torun The now commercially loaned Res database has azo been replace bythe FOSS trendy Vale, Python 2 rally gone nth release, ike the para inthe Monty Python sketch, One ofthe fe reasons vas pt around was that twas required by GIMP. Btn September 2024, was announced that GIMP 3, hich s finaly ree of thecal anguage, would be incucedin Fea 4 We've been banging on about mgraingt Python fra longtime £0 hope any packages you use have ao upgraded Otherwise they. to, wilhave ound themes deprecatec The Hackers Manual | 11Distros Popping on Fedora Grab yourself a cup of tea and a USB. It’s time to fortify and update your system with Fedora (and tea). {grab the ISO from https:// .[Link], I's only a couple of gigabytes. so hopefully wont take long to fetch. Best make a cup of tea anyway, justin case. Next youl need a USB stick (4G8 or higher) {and a tool for writing toi. We always, recommend Etcher (nttps://etcher. jo) because it's cross-platform and pretty much self-explanatory to use see the top tp let for more detail. ie Fedorais a breeze. Firs. ar? Dowscte Once t's written, you need to tell Ur ce your BI0S or UEFI to boot from the Moston SB stick You might be abe to got Fag _pop-upboot menu with F2 0 FI, Guinean oF you may have to it Del or F2 (or Ropes» anyother Key come) to enter the femssom> | interface and configure the boot order from there. Mowewsres! 0 got stuck boot no your previous OS You can iSiEawine access UEFI settings rom Windows by hoaing down Tennainn ed the Shift key while pressing the Shutdown button inthe (Downloads ané Start menu, In Linux, you can run sudo systemetl reboot — tee cmadsx_mwarniiace to force the ive. Sms 2 ‘Once the desktop i loaded, youl see some Son shorteut icons inthe Dock at the tom, an overview ofthe desktop (withthe welcome screen), and a fraction of another desktop tothe right. The latter isn't some graphical aberration, but it's where you'd click if you wanted to use anew virtual desktop, More on that later. This view asa whole is Gnome's Overview mode. Keyboard shortcuts We mentioned that your Gnome workflow vl be made much smoother you grok couple of keyboard shortcuts So, without further ado,le's aval you ot few We've already covered te Super key to toggle the Overview, and yout ready be familar with AtTab fr suiting between appatons. Hee ae Some others: SupertA Show all appiations Supers Show calendar an otiteations ‘SupersLeft/Right Te window on to it pl ew) ‘SupertUp/Down Maximise restore a window ‘Super+Page Up/Down Suite vital desktops ‘SupertShiftePage Up/Down .. Move window to another desktop Ifyou DuckOuckGo for "gnome keyboard shortcuts you finda handy cheat sheet with the ot ‘Oh we akmast forgot ~ Gnome has bun screen reorder, oo involves 2 bitof finger gymnasts (Cir+AltShit+R) buts great tol for making postmodern desktop videos. 12 |The Hacker’ Manual > An unblemished Gnome desktop, withthe status menu ‘open for easy access to common dials. ‘and can be summoned at any time with the Windows, ‘or Super to use the OS-agnastic term, key. Click on the desktop and well get on with instalation, Ifyou want to explore Fedora risk-free, though, click Not Now and you can explore the live environment. ‘hiss very similar to how Fedora will ook and act once installed, albeit a tad slower due to it running off USB. Go back tothe Overview with the Super key, and elick the grid of dots atthe right ofthe Dash. This shows. allthe apps currently installed. There are a few more ina real installation, Bt you'll the see core Gnome applications as well s the LibreOfice suite. You can ‘search for an app by typing the first few characters (no need to click anywhere) and then hitting Enter once it's highlighted. When you're ready. fre up the installer. Perfect partitioning ‘Once you've chosen your loeale settings you're presented vith an installation surnmar. You" see anexclamation mark inthe Installation Destination section, so click that. Automatic Instalation is easiest ‘and ifyou already have an empty disk it's only a matter of single click to set up. If there's data onthe disk where you want Fedora to lve, and you're sure you {ont want it, lick the Reclaim Space box atthe bottomeft. This lets you delete whatever partitions you don't want. f you have more advanced partitioning needs, use either ofthe custom options. Our intial install occupied just ver 76B, but ideally you'd want upwards of 40GB for your rot partton. Fedora’ detauitBtrs partition scheme willbe better than fine for most people. Btrs i a next generation filesystem that is designed to be fast and robust thas buit-n snapshot and RAID capabiltie, as well as checksumming to mitigate against stent> 1s easy to instal alongside other distros: the minimum required |s specifying root and EF partitions. data corruption. You only get that for free, though. if Fedorais allowed its oun drive. Otherwise partitions ‘can be configured manually using either gparted or Fedora’s own blvet too When you're happy with your arrangement, click Done at the top-left (nothing gets written or deleted at this stage). Then click Begin Installation, whereupon the installation begins and there's no going back. Once i's done, click Finish Installation to return to the lve ‘environment. When you're ready to see ifthe install, ‘worked, click the status icons in the top-riht, then Click the power icon (topight ofthe pop-up menu), and then click Restart. Fingers crossed. you're greeted by another welcome screen and invited to stat the setup process. Don't worry ~itonly takes two ticks. You're asked to set a couple of privacy options, enable the third-party repositories we mentioned earlier, and set up a username and password. f you are setting up ‘business machine, you can also configure an Active Directory domain (just hit the Enterprise login button), ‘The Welcome tour introduces you to the Gnome desktop, starting with the Overview, then working, through some three-finger touchpad/touchscreen ‘gestures: trple-inger swipe left/right to switch virtual desktops, and tr-dgit swipe up to bring up the Overview. Simples. I's worth reiterating that you can search not ust applications, but ‘documents from your Home folder, Contacts, software and more. You ‘can even run irine calculations: try typing 2+2 into the Overview. ‘Other Gnome apps can add their ‘own search facility to the Overview, making it even more all-powerful ‘One of the most talked about features in Gnome 47 isthe option [Link] accent colours. This might not sound ike much, butitis a ‘surprisingly big change. For a long time, Gnome 3 (without ‘any extensions) hasn't had ary proxision for custom theming, beyond backgrounds and light/dark themes. Now you can choose from nine (count ‘em) colours f you don't like ary of them, you can set your own with thirc-party tooling, Fedora ‘access these new accent options {rom the Settings app. Open the status menu in the top-ight, and Click the cog. Or open the Overview (with the Super key) and type the first few letters of settings .You'l find the colourful options in the ‘Appearance tab ‘Super settings The Settings panels a one-stop shop for system configuration you don't ike the dea of Grome Searching and inderng the les in your Home directory (ard sharing them among other Gnome op), you can tur this of orrestict what sets indexed, rom the Search tab you peter natural touchpad or scree! seraling this and other options are available from the Mouse And Touchpad area If you're prvacy conscious, you can turn of automatic problem reporting (enonymised) td configure location sarees rr the Privacy Are Securt tab, Gnome can integrate wth all manner of nine services (Nertloud, Google. Microsoft 365 and Exchange, and more), so you can access your lous storage ena covkacts or whatever fro the rebar Gnome app The est ofthe Settings pages angel se explanatory. s0 wel leave yout igure out Mult monitor (ané HOP suppert continues to get better and better in Gnome, youre the Kind of person who unplugs an extra monitor without frst moving applications oft (you savage. you). Gnome has your tock in ths situation, applications are nt banished ofthe edge ofa rerrarg screen butre gracauly located to another display you were to plus back in that same monitor applications are automagically teturned there as though nothing had happened Fractional scaling has gotten evn better in Gnome 47 and shouldbe avaible without further action for HOPI cspays.n version past, you's have to manually tenable itusing a GSeting eyo fce bly text, then runing apps trough Xwayand & > Online accounts are simple to set up in Gnome. All your ‘which well get [Link] the meantime, ¢alendars, contacts and cloudy paraphernalia can be Integrated, The Hackers Manual | 13