Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. So imagine it's November of
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 2: Right, a very long time ago in internet years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, you know DARFA,
Speaker 1: they had to form this specialized team SERT to respond
Speaker 1: to a computer virus.
Speaker 2: The Morris worm. Yeah, it was spreading through all these
Speaker 2: academic networks.
Speaker 1: Right. But here's the crazy part. It took twenty six
Speaker 1: hours for a digital warning about that virus to travel
Speaker 1: from Harvard to MIT. Oh wow, I mean today, a
Speaker 1: zero day exploit moves across the globe in milliseconds. But
Speaker 1: the truly counterintuitive part of modern cybersecurity it isn't actually
Speaker 1: the speed of the code.
Speaker 2: No, it's really not.
Speaker 1: It's the fact that, like ninety percent of a modern
Speaker 1: cyber attack doesn't even involve writing malicious code at all.
Speaker 1: It basically involves quietly googling.
Speaker 2: You, which is terrifying when you really think about it.
Speaker 1: It is. So our mission today is to take a
Speaker 1: stack of highly technical source material. Specifically, we're looking at
Speaker 1: excerpts from Sanjeebsina's Getting Ethical Hacking with Callie Linux, a
Speaker 1: great text. Yeah, and we want to extract the ultimate
Speaker 1: shortcut for you, the listener. We're going to decode exactly
Speaker 1: how ethical hackers operate, you know, how they think and
Speaker 1: how they train.
Speaker 2: Because I mean, it is an essential untangling of our
Speaker 2: modern reality. We live in an era characterized by just
Speaker 2: massive information.
Speaker 1: Overload, oh absolutely.
Speaker 2: And deeply interconnected infrastructure. The boundary between your physical security
Speaker 2: and your digital security, well, it dissolved years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's totally gone, exactly.
Speaker 2: So understanding this invisible battlefield it's no longer just a
Speaker 2: niche requirement for it professionals. It is foundational knowledge for
Speaker 2: literally anyone participating in the digital economy.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this because before we can talk about
Speaker 1: hacking into a system, we really have to establish what
Speaker 1: exactly we're trying.
Speaker 2: To protect, right, the core principles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the source material brings up the CIA triad plus
Speaker 1: one critical edition. So we've got confidentiality, integrity, and availa
Speaker 1: ability plus non repudiation.
Speaker 2: Which is a bit of a mouthful.
Speaker 1: It really is. Let's ground this with an analogy. So,
Speaker 1: if confidentiality is the locked front door, you know, concealing
Speaker 1: information and hiding your resources, right, keeping people out exactly,
Speaker 1: and availability is like the fire suppression system making sure
Speaker 1: the building doesn't burn down and remains usable.
Speaker 2: Okay, I like that.
Speaker 1: Then integrity, well, that functions as the tamper evidence seal
Speaker 1: on the safe inside. It just ensures the data hasn't
Speaker 1: been like secretly changed.
Speaker 2: Right. And then that fourth concept, non repudiation. It functions
Speaker 2: basically as the unalterable security camera footage.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good way to put it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It ensures the mathematical traceability of what a user does,
Speaker 2: so user can't just deny they performed a specific operation.
Speaker 1: Like an indelible receipt.
Speaker 2: Exactly. But what's fascinating here is the fundamental vulnerability built
Speaker 2: into the very concept of access control.
Speaker 1: Wait, really, access control is vulnerable?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because system dependent security mechanisms, like users with specific permissions,
Speaker 2: they require an underlying assumption of trust.
Speaker 1: Oh right. Trust is basically the ultimate single point of failure.
Speaker 2: It really is.
Speaker 1: Because you can have the most robust, you heavily encrypted
Speaker 1: access system on the planet, but if an authorized user
Speaker 1: goes rogue.
Speaker 2: Or if an attacker successfully impersonates an admin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, then the system just essentially turns around and
Speaker 1: protects the attacker, which I guess is exactly why zero
Speaker 1: trust architecture is such a massive priority now.
Speaker 2: And the necessity of zero trust. It was actually foreshadowed
Speaker 2: way earlier than most people realize. Oh really when well,
Speaker 2: the text points to this nineteen ninety four Internet Architecture
Speaker 2: Board report. It's called RFC sixteen thirty.
Speaker 1: Six, nineteen ninety four. That's ancient, right, But.
Speaker 2: Even back then they recognized this terrifying shift. Hackers were
Speaker 2: transitioning from highly manual intrusions to frequent, sophisticated automated attacks.
Speaker 1: And when threats become automated, you can't just blindly trust
Speaker 1: the perimeter anymore.
Speaker 2: Exactly, you have to understand the exact physical and digital
Speaker 2: path that every single piece of data takes.
Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for us to understand
Speaker 1: that path? The source material introduces the OSI model, the
Speaker 1: Open System's interconnection reference.
Speaker 2: Model, right, developed by the ISO.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the seven layer cake that allows completely different
Speaker 1: computer systems to actually talk to each other.
Speaker 2: It's the universal translator of the Internet exactly.
Speaker 1: So let's trace a single web request down the layers,
Speaker 1: like shipping a physical package. You the user, you sit
Speaker 1: at layer seven, the application.
Speaker 2: Layer writing the letter.
Speaker 1: Basically, right, your request is just raw data. But as
Speaker 1: it travels down to layer four, the transport layer, that
Speaker 1: data gets chopped up into what are called segments.
Speaker 2: And that segmentation is super important. It provides flow control.
Speaker 1: Right, so it doesn't overwhelm the system.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and sequence numbers are added there, so the receiving
Speaker 2: computer actually knows how to reassemble all those chopped up
Speaker 2: pieces in the correct order.
Speaker 1: Okay, So then it drops down to layer three, the
Speaker 1: network layer. The segment becomes a packet, and this is
Speaker 1: the postal sorting facility right Basically, Yeah, this is where
Speaker 1: source and destination IP addresses get stamped onto it. And
Speaker 1: this is where hardware like routers.
Speaker 2: Live exactly, routers handle layer three, got it.
Speaker 1: Then we drop further to layer two, the data link layer.
Speaker 1: The packet becomes a frame.
Speaker 2: And that's where MSS addresses are added, the hard coded
Speaker 2: physical addresses of the network cards. Switches operate here.
Speaker 1: Right, switches at layer two. Finally it hits layer one,
Speaker 1: the physical layer. This is the delivery truck on the highway.
Speaker 1: The frame is translated into literal bits and bites.
Speaker 2: Just raw electrical pulses on a copper wire or light
Speaker 2: in a fiber optic cable.
Speaker 1: It's wild to think about, but I have always wondered
Speaker 1: why does an ethical hacker actually care so deeply about
Speaker 1: tracing these specific layers? Well, because, I mean, if everything
Speaker 1: on the modern web is protected by HTTTPS and to
Speaker 1: end encryption anyway, who cares about the layers?
Speaker 2: Ah? Because end to end encryption usually only protects the
Speaker 2: payload up at layer seven.
Speaker 1: Wait, really only layer seven?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the intermediate layers remain highly visible, and this brings
Speaker 2: up a huge distinction from the text between end to
Speaker 2: end encryption and link encryption.
Speaker 1: Okay, break that down for me.
Speaker 2: So in link encryption, the actual message is decrypted and
Speaker 2: re encrypted at every single intermediate host or router along
Speaker 2: the path.
Speaker 1: That sounds incredibly slow.
Speaker 2: It is. It's highly resource intensive and super rare for
Speaker 2: normal web traffic. With standard end to end encryption, the
Speaker 2: router is simply passing encrypted Layer seven payload along by
Speaker 2: reading the unencrypted Layer three IP headers.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. Okay, So if you are listening to this
Speaker 1: deep dive on a public Wi Fi network right now,
Speaker 1: your router is acting as that Layer three bouncer exactly,
Speaker 1: So an attacker intercepting the packets on that Wi Fi network.
Speaker 1: They don't even need to break your encryption to see
Speaker 1: what you're.
Speaker 2: Doing, right, because they just utilize traffic analysis. By monitoring
Speaker 2: layer three, an attacker observes the packet, sizes the frequency
Speaker 2: of transision and the destination IP addresses.
Speaker 1: So they might not know the exact words you are sending.
Speaker 2: But the rhythm and the shade of your data reveals
Speaker 2: a lot. It tells them if you are streaming a
Speaker 2: high dev video, or sending a small text file, or
Speaker 2: establishing a command and control connection to some offshore server
Speaker 2: that is so creepy.
Speaker 1: The metadata surrounding the communication is basically just as valuable
Speaker 1: as the communication.
Speaker 2: Itself, often more valuable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here's where it gets really interesting. So we understand
Speaker 1: the layers now, But how does a hacker actually begin
Speaker 1: in operation.
Speaker 2: It's probably not what you'd expect, right.
Speaker 1: You'd assume it starts with furiously typing green code to
Speaker 1: launch and exploit, But the source highlights this ninety percent rule.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Ethical hackers categorize attacks is either active or passive.
Speaker 1: An Active attacks attempt to actually alter system resources, right,
Speaker 1: like injecting a script.
Speaker 2: Yes, whereas passive attacks they just quietly learn or make
Speaker 2: use of information without affecting the system at all.
Speaker 1: And passive footprinting or reconnaissance that covers almost ninety percent
Speaker 1: of all hacking activity.
Speaker 2: It's huge directly mirrors advanced military strategy, you know, gathering
Speaker 2: enemy intel before a battle.
Speaker 1: Like casing a joint before a heist.
Speaker 2: Exactly because committing to an active attack without exhausting your
Speaker 2: intelligence gathering it's just a guaranteed failure. Active probing sets
Speaker 2: off alarms.
Speaker 1: Right, firewalls, log unrecognized IPS, Intrusion detection systems flag the behavior.
Speaker 2: But if an ethical hacker relies on passive footprinting, they
Speaker 2: can map the target's entire architecture early on. They can
Speaker 2: eliminate tools that just flat out won't work all without
Speaker 2: sending a single suspicious packet to the target.
Speaker 1: So the text details how this is primarily done through
Speaker 1: Google hacking.
Speaker 2: Or Google dorking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fascinating how search engines inadvertently index a terrifying
Speaker 1: amount of sensitive info. The hacker isn't using a complex
Speaker 1: tool or using Google like a scalpel.
Speaker 2: Right, using specific search operators.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So say you are mapping a government target, you
Speaker 1: restrict the search using psyche colon dot gov, and.
Speaker 2: You filter out false positives with a minus sign like
Speaker 2: tiger speed minus car right.
Speaker 1: Or if you want a specific file type that should
Speaker 1: never be public, you search inuralcolonadmin dot php or file
Speaker 1: type colon inc.
Speaker 2: And the mechanism behind why this works is what's really
Speaker 2: crucial here. Tell me the ethical hacker isn't actively probing
Speaker 2: that government server. Google's web crawlers did the active probing
Speaker 2: months ago.
Speaker 1: Oh so Google already did the.
Speaker 2: Dirty work exactly. Sometimes an admin misconfigures permissions, or a
Speaker 2: robots dot txt file fails to tell the crawler to
Speaker 2: ignore a directory, Google blindly indexes it.
Speaker 1: Wow, So by querrying Google's database with those specific operators,
Speaker 1: the hacker extract highly classified structural intel while.
Speaker 2: Leaving absolutely zero forensic trace on the target's actual network.
Speaker 1: That is wild. Okay, So footprinting gives you a highly
Speaker 1: detailed map of the enemy walls, but you can't test
Speaker 1: your digital explosives on the real wall. Right.
Speaker 2: That's illegal and highly dam You could crash the real.
Speaker 1: System exactly, So you have to build an exact, isolated
Speaker 1: replica of their infrastructure on your own machine, which brings
Speaker 1: us to virtualization, right.
Speaker 2: Using hypervisors like virtual box or VMware.
Speaker 1: It makes me think of like a flight simulator for hackers.
Speaker 1: You can crash the digital plane a thousand times, unplug
Speaker 1: it and no one gets hurt.
Speaker 2: Or a CDC biocontainment lab.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's a great analogy.
Speaker 2: When researcher study a highly infectious physical virus, they use
Speaker 2: a negative pressure sealed biolab. A hypervisor does the exact
Speaker 2: same thing digitally.
Speaker 1: So you can poke, prod detonate malware inside the virtual machine,
Speaker 1: and the hypervisor ensures the digital air never flows back
Speaker 1: into your actual hard drive.
Speaker 2: Precisely and inside that secure lab. Ethical hackers deploy highly
Speaker 2: specialized Linux distributions.
Speaker 1: Because regular operating systems just abstract a way too much
Speaker 1: of the networking right right.
Speaker 2: A consumer OS is for ease of use. Hackers need
Speaker 2: an OS designed specifically for penetration and anonymity.
Speaker 1: So the text towards a few of these. You have
Speaker 1: Kali Linux, which is basically the industry standard. It has
Speaker 1: over six hundred specific security tools preloaded.
Speaker 2: Then there's black Arch, which is just massive. It's a
Speaker 2: seven gigabyte file containing over nineteen hundred tools.
Speaker 1: Nineteen hundred that's insane. And then there's QUEEBSOS, which uses
Speaker 1: sandboxes to quarantine apps. Oh and the text mentions metasploitable too.
Speaker 2: Ah, yes, metasploitable two is interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not a tool set. It's actually a Linux
Speaker 1: machine intentionally built full of gaping security holes.
Speaker 2: Right. You run it inside your hypervisor just so you
Speaker 2: have a live, vulnerable patient to practice on.
Speaker 1: It's basically a crash test dummy. But what really caught
Speaker 1: my eye was how the text compares the anonymity of
Speaker 1: an OS like TAILS versus in pretty OS.
Speaker 2: Right, two very different approaches to staying hidden.
Speaker 1: How does TAILS actually achieve zero trace like?
Speaker 2: Practically Well, TAILS is designed to run entirely within the
Speaker 2: computer's RAM random access memory. Okay, it actively refuses to
Speaker 2: mount the host computer's hard drive, and because RAM is
Speaker 2: volatile memory, the absolute second you pull the tail's USB
Speaker 2: drive out or just cut the power exactly, the memory
Speaker 2: is wiped clean. By the laws of physics. It physically
Speaker 2: cannot write an enduring record of what you did.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Furthermore, Tails forces every single packet of your network traffic
Speaker 2: through the tour network uses what's called onion.
Speaker 1: Routing right, onion routing, meaning the data is encapsulated in
Speaker 1: multiple layers of encryption like an onion, and it bounces
Speaker 1: through several global nose before hitting the regular internet exactly.
Speaker 2: But the text contrasts this with in pretty os.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and pretia uses the IP network and something called
Speaker 1: garlic routing. So what is the mechanical difference there?
Speaker 2: It directly addresses the traffic analysis vulnerability we discussed earlier
Speaker 2: with the OSI model.
Speaker 1: Oh right, the Layer three rhythm and shape stuff exactly.
Speaker 2: Onion routing encrypts a single message in layers. A really
Speaker 2: sophisticated adversary watching the network could still potentially correlate the
Speaker 2: timing and size of the packet's entering and exiting.
Speaker 1: Tour because it's still just one message moving through, right.
Speaker 2: But garlic routing bundles multiple distinct messages from entirely different
Speaker 2: applications together into one single encrypted block.
Speaker 1: Oh like flows in a bulb of garlic exactly. So
Speaker 1: if I'm watching Layer three, I just see one massive,
Speaker 1: uniform block of data moving I have no idea if
Speaker 1: it's one large file or fifty small messages from fifty
Speaker 1: different users.
Speaker 2: Precisely, it makes traffic analysis exponentially more difficult it's highly
Speaker 2: evasive of surveillance radar.
Speaker 1: But there's a catch, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: The trade off is that the IWOP network is a
Speaker 2: closed loop. You generally cannot access regular websites. You're restricted
Speaker 2: to ebsites which end in dot.
Speaker 1: I two p Okay. So we have our intel from
Speaker 1: passive footprinting, and we have our secure biolab running Collie Linux.
Speaker 2: This is where the training wheels finally come off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the source makes it very clear. The mouse goes away,
Speaker 1: you strip away the graphical user interface, the GUI, and
Speaker 1: you rely on the rock command.
Speaker 2: Line, because a graphical interface is inherently a vulnerability in
Speaker 2: ethical hacking. Really how so Well, it represents a layer
Speaker 2: of abstraction. It hides what the machine is actually executing.
Speaker 2: And more importantly, a GUI limits you entirely to the
Speaker 2: specific actions the original software developer anticipated you'd want to take.
Speaker 1: If the button doesn't exist, you are just stuck. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the difference between using a tourist phrase book to
Speaker 1: order food versus actually speaking the language fluently.
Speaker 2: That's a perfect analogy. The command line.
Speaker 1: Gives you fluency, so the text covers the essentials like
Speaker 1: PWD for print working directory or l'sus A to expose
Speaker 1: hidden files, right.
Speaker 2: And potted plus x to make a script executable.
Speaker 1: But the real power comes from stringing commands together, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Like say we used our Google dorking from earlier
Speaker 1: to find an exposed, multi gigabyte server log file. We
Speaker 1: wouldn't just open that in a standard text editor, right,
Speaker 1: It would crash the program.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would freeze your computer. Instead, you'd utilize the
Speaker 2: grip command to search the raw text for specific patterns,
Speaker 2: IP addresses or password fields.
Speaker 1: Oh. Nice.
Speaker 2: And you combine that with the pipe operator, that vertical
Speaker 2: bar character on your keyboard.
Speaker 1: What does the pipe do?
Speaker 2: It takes the output of one command and instantly feeds
Speaker 2: it as the input to the next command. So you
Speaker 2: filter gigabytes of noise down to a single exposed credential
Speaker 2: in milliseconds, entirely in memory.
Speaker 1: That is so incredibly powerful, And that fluency really culminates
Speaker 1: in combining Collie Linux with the Python programming language, specifically
Speaker 1: to manipulate sockets.
Speaker 2: Yes, sockets are crucial.
Speaker 1: The text describes sockets as the virtual bi directional end
Speaker 1: points of a communication channel you know, between two processes, right,
Speaker 1: I know whenever my computer talks to a server, it
Speaker 1: creates a socket. But the text teaches you how to
Speaker 1: write your own local web server in Python from scratch.
Speaker 2: It does.
Speaker 1: But wait, with over six hundred pre built tools and Collie,
Speaker 1: why would an ethical hacker spend the time coding their
Speaker 1: own server.
Speaker 2: Well, if we connect this to the bigger picture, it
Speaker 2: all comes back to evading signature detection.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, okay.
Speaker 2: If you use a pre built Collie tool, the target's
Speaker 2: firewall or intrusion detection system will likely recognize the predictable shape, timing,
Speaker 2: and headers of that specific tool's traffic because it has.
Speaker 1: A known signature, like a known fingerprint.
Speaker 2: Exactly. But by writing a custom Python script using raw sockets,
Speaker 2: you define the exact granular parameters of the communication.
Speaker 1: You completely bypass the signature because you just invented a
Speaker 1: totally new one exactly. So the text breaks down the
Speaker 1: two primary parameters you control, connection oriented versus connection less sockets?
Speaker 2: Right, TCP verus UDP.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so connection oriented uses TCP or soft stream. It's
Speaker 1: highly reliable. It establishes a dedicated path, keeps it open
Speaker 1: for a continuous back and forth verification, and ensures every
Speaker 1: packet arrives.
Speaker 2: In order right, and then connection less uses UDP or
Speaker 2: socket e DRAM, and that.
Speaker 1: One just fires packets at the target without waiting for
Speaker 1: a receipt to verify they arrived.
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's much faster, but it's less reliable.
Speaker 1: So why does this matter so much?
Speaker 2: Because by mastering these parameters in Python, an ethical hacker
Speaker 2: exerts ultimate control over the environment. You're no longer just
Speaker 2: sending data through the application layer. You were directly manipulating
Speaker 2: the very fabric of the OSI layers we discussed earlier. Wow,
Speaker 2: you control the exact mathematical shape of the packet at
Speaker 2: layer three. In layer four, and that allows you to
Speaker 2: slip past automated the filters completely undetected.
Speaker 1: You are literally handcrafting the delivery mechanism on the network layer.
Speaker 1: That is just a profound level.
Speaker 2: Of access, it really is.
Speaker 1: So to quickly recap the journey we've taken today based
Speaker 1: on this deep dies into the source material. We started
Speaker 1: by establishing the fundamental mission of protecting the CIA triad,
Speaker 1: and we saw the critical vulnerability of trust. Then we
Speaker 1: climbed down the seven layer architecture of the OSI model
Speaker 1: to understand how encapsulation and traffic analysis actually.
Speaker 2: Work, which led us to the ninety percent role.
Speaker 1: Yeah, discovering that modern hacking is largely the passive art
Speaker 1: of Google reconnaissance. Then we stepped into the secure, negative
Speaker 1: pressure bio labs of virtualization.
Speaker 2: Exploring how operating systems like tails and in pretty os
Speaker 2: mechanically ensure anonymity.
Speaker 1: And finally we stripped away the interface entirely. We saw
Speaker 1: how hackers manipulate raw Python sockets to bypass signature detection
Speaker 1: and maintain absolute control over the network layers.
Speaker 2: You know. Engaging with this material it really strips away
Speaker 2: the perceived magic of the Internet.
Speaker 1: It totally does.
Speaker 2: It replaces this illusion of a seamless digital world with
Speaker 2: a stark mechanical reality.
Speaker 1: And it's a mechanical reality that you, the listener, are
Speaker 1: participating in right this very second. Absolutely, I really want
Speaker 1: you to remember, every single time you open a web browser,
Speaker 1: those seven OSI layers are firing. Your data is being
Speaker 1: chomped into segments, stuffed into packets, stamped with MSc addresses,
Speaker 1: into frames, and fired across the world as raw electrical bits.
Speaker 2: And somewhere out there, an automated script might be quietly
Speaker 2: doing passive reconnaissance on your canner.
Speaker 1: It's a lot to take in because.
Speaker 2: The infrastructure supporting our daily lives is vast, remarkably fragile
Speaker 2: and constantly under observation by unseen actors.
Speaker 1: Which leads to a final pretty shilling thought to leave
Speaker 1: you with. The text mentions those nineteen ninety four warnings
Speaker 1: about the shift toward automated attacks right, and it notes
Speaker 1: how heavily interlinked and vulnerable are modern physical power grids
Speaker 1: and air transportation systems have become since then.
Speaker 2: They're completely intertwined now, so.
Speaker 1: As automated attacks grow exponentially in their frequency, speed, and complexity,
Speaker 1: it raises this terrifying prospect. Will the human element of
Speaker 1: ethical hacking, like the people sitting in front of the
Speaker 1: command line writing custom Python socket scripts, Will they eventually
Speaker 1: be entirely replaced by AI driven defense and attack systems.
Speaker 2: It's a fascinating and deeply unsettling question.
Speaker 1: Are we heading toward a silent, endless war of bot
Speaker 1: versus bot fighting deep inside the physical layers of our
Speaker 1: national infrastructure executing maneuvers it speeds the human brains stems.
Speaker 1: We cannot comprehend That is.
Speaker 2: The future of the invisible battlefield.
Speaker 1: The ultimate burglar of the future might no longer be
Speaker 1: a person sitting quietly in a library halfway across the world.
Speaker 1: It might just be an algorithm endlessly checking invisible digital
Speaker 1: doors until the end of time. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: on the deep dive. Stay curious and we'll catch you
Speaker 1: next time.