A hands-on guide to hacking computer systems from the ground up, from capturing traffic to crafting sneaky, successful trojans. This introduction to hacking covers everything you need to know to start your own journey to becoming an ethical hacker. With help from a lab setup that lets you hack along to each chapter, this book walks you through a variety of the most useful activities for any hacker. You’ll begin by capturing and viewing a victim’s traffic, then learn how to encrypt files and fake emails, and craft sophisticated social engineering attacks. In the later chapters, you’ll learn how to fuzz, write trojans and rootkits, and perform website exploitation. Along the way, you’ll develop a fundamental understanding of technologies like network protocols, websites, and the Linux operating system. You’ll also work with tools used by professional penetration testers, such as Metasploit and Wireshark, and go from setting up a virtual lab environment for small scale hacks that could take place in a coffee shop to expanding this skill in order to take over an extensive corporate network. This manual is a must for any programmer interested in learning the fundamentals of designing their own hacking tools. It takes a deep dive into many topics, but uses beginner-friendly explanations for those just starting out. Exercises at the end of each chapter help expand on what’s learned.