Green Hackerz: September 2013

Hello GreenHackerz Readers..

This Article is about to create Wi-Fi Hotspot in Windows 8 is not new but may be useful who want to create their laptop as a Wi-Fi Hotspot w/o third party tool. So Let's Start ....

Apart from Start Orb and classic Start Menu, what most Windows 7 users, who decided to take Windows 8 for a spin, miss in Windows 8 is ability to create ad-hoc network. If you’re a power users, you might’ve noticed that Windows 8 doesn’t include an option to create and setup ad hoc network connection to share files and internet with Wi-Fi enabled computers and devices. Windows 7 ad hoc connection feature does nothing except creating a shared connection with separate IP address to register the device on the virtual network. This allows users to use router’s default or specified DNS server address to easily connect to internet. Even though Windows 8 comes with ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) feature to allow devices to connect to yours PC internet connection, it doesn’t allow creating a wireless network connection to share the internet. In this post, we will look at some tools that let you easily create and manage ad-hoc connections in Windows 8.

Using Windows Netsh Utility

The Network Shell (netsh) utility is basically developed to let users configure network devices in

Now, first you need to check weather your network interface supports virtualization or not. Simply, run the following command to view Hosted network supported status.

netsh wlan show drivers

In case, it says No, you will need to update your both client and server editions of Windows. The support for configuring WLAN using netsh was first introduced in Windows Vista, and it’s now available in Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Using netsh wlan command, one can easily use hosted network (virtualization) feature to create a virtual wireless connection. The Hosted Network is WLAN feature, which is designed to implement virtualization of physical network adapter. Since it plays a vital role in creating a virtual wireless adapter, it’s used by a majority of virtual Wi-Fi hotspot applications, such as Virtual WiFi Router, MyPublicWiFi, Marfi etc. So, if your NIC supports wireless hostednetwork / virtualization feature, then you can create an ad hoc wireless connection and turn your PC into Wi-Fi hotspot.

As stated earlier, both Windows 7 and Windows 8 natively support configuring ad hoc wireless connection using the netsh commands. In order to create an ad hoc connection in Windows 8 using netsh utility, run CMD with administrative privileges’; just type cmd on Start Screen, right-click it and select Run as administrator.

network adapter’s driver. If your NIC supports virtualization, you’re good to go. Now,

enter the following commands to configure an ad hoc wireless connection.

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<network name> key=<passkey>

Once the hosted network has been set to allow, you need to start the mode to create an ad hoc connection. Just enter the command below.

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

If it says “hosted network couldn’t started”, you need to disable current wireless network device and then enable it. You may also need to refresh network adapter list from Device Manger to install a virtual network device driver.

When the hosted network is started, enable ICS for newly created Wi-Fi connection, so that you can share your internet connection with others. In order to enable ICS feature, head over to Network and Internet –> Network Connections, and open Properties dialog of network device (which is connected to internet). Now, open Sharing tab, enable Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection, and then choose the newly created ad hoc connection from the list. In our case, it’s Wi-Fi 2, as shown in the screenshot below.

Once the internet connection is shared, check the IP address assigned to newly created ad hoc connection from TCP/IPv4 Properties. If it doesn’t assign IP address, then run netsh wlan start hostednetwork command in CMD.

After following the above steps, you will be able to connect Wi-Fi enabled devices with your Windows 8 PC.

Enjoy Wi-Fi HotSpot In Windows 8... :)

Hello GreenHackerz Readers...

DNS hijacking (sometimes referred to as DNS redirection) is a type of malicious attack that overrides a computer’s TCP/IP settings to point it at a rogue DNS server, thereby invalidating the default DNS settings. In other words, when an attacker takes control of a computer to alter its DNS settings, so that it now points to a rogue DNS server, the process is referred to as DNS hijacking.

As we all know, the “Domain Name System (DNS)” is mainly responsible for translating a user friendly domain name such as “google.com” to its corresponding IP address “74.125.235.46″. Having a clear idea of DNS and its working can help you better understand what DNS hijacking is all about.

How DNS Hijacking Works?

As mentioned before, DNS is the one that is responsible for mapping the user friendly domain names to their corresponding IP addresses. This DNS server is owned and maintained by your Internet service provider (ISP) and many other private business organizations. By default, your computer is configured to use the DNS server from the ISP. In some cases, your computer may even be using the DNS services of other reputed organizations such as Google. In this case, you are said to be safe and everything seems to work normally.

But, imagine a situation where a hacker or a malware program gains unauthorized access to your computer and changes the DNS settings, so that your computer now uses one of the rogue DNS servers that is owned and maintained by the hacker. When this happens, the rogue DNS server may translate domain names of desirable websites (such as banks, search engines, social networking sites etc.) to IP addresses of malicious websites. As a result, when you type the URL of a website in the address bar, you may be taken to a fake website instead of the one you are intending for. Sometimes, this can put you in deep trouble!

What are the Dangers of DNS Hijacking?

The dangers of DNS hijacking can vary and depend on the intention behind the attack. Many ISPs such as “OpenDNS” and “Comcast” use DNS hijacking for introducing advertisements or collecting statistics. Even though this can cause no serious damage to the users, it is considered as a violation of RFC standards for DNS responses.

Other dangers of DNS hijacking include the following attacks:

Pharming: This is a kind of attack where a website’s traffic is redirected to another website that is a fake one. For example, when a user tries to visit a social networking website such as Facebook.com he may be redirected to another website that is filled with pop-ups and advertisements. This is often done by hackers in order to generate advertising revenue.

Phishing: This is a kind of attack where users are redirected to a malicious website whose design (look and feel) matches exactly with that of the original one. For example, when a user tries to log in to his bank account, he may be redirected to a malicious website that steals his login details.

How to Prevent DNS Hijacking?

In most cases, attackers make use of malware programs such as a trojan horse to carry out DNS hijacking. These DNS hijacking trojans are often distributed as video and audio codecs, video downloaders, YoTube downloaders or as other free utilities. So, in order to stay protected, it is recommended to stay away from untrusted websites that offer free downloads. The DNSChanger trojan is an example of one such malware that hijacked the DNS settings of over 4 million computers to drive a profit of about 14 million USD through fraudulent advertising revenue.

Also, it is necessary to change the default password of your router, so that it would not be possible for the attacker to modify your router settings using the default password that came with the factory setting. For more details on this topic you can read my other post on How to Hack Ethernet ADSL Router.

Installing a good antivirus program and keeping it up-to-date can offer a great deal of protection to your computer against any such attacks.

What if you are already a victim of DNS hijacking?

If you suspect that your computer is infected with a malware program such as DNSChanger, you need not panic. It is fairly simple and easy to recover from the damage caused by such programs. All you have to do is, just verify your current DNS settings to make sure that you are not using any of those DNS IPs that are blacklisted. Otherwise re-configure your DNS settings as per the guidelines of your ISP.