running other boxes

[greifvogell]

a couple weeks ago someone got on my network and started messing around with my registry, I got them off (pulled the plug) and no harm was done. My question is how did they take remote control of my box, I could easily write a program to do what they were doing, but it would have to be installed and run on that box. I have tried making telnet connections with other computers on my network with no success, and when I tried net use it said no folders where shared or something like that. btw I want to figure as much out as possible on my own, but everywhere I ask just tells me to google it or whatever and I get the same results...any help would be greatly appreciated

[int3grate]

Is your computer behind a hardware firewall or NAT router? If not, you better get your ass up and go get one. At the very least, you should have a software firewall running on your computer. I don't know for sure, but if I had to guess your probably running a warez version of Windows XP that's unpatched and doesn't even have SP2 installed (which comes with "windows firewall"). If this is the case, it is trivial to gain remote access to your machine (by exploiting one of the many windows vulnerabilities). It's such a major problem, that most ISPs block a lot of the ports that attackers use to compromise Windows systems.

[n3gat1ve]

This is a great question, and one I am interested in as well. int3grated didnt answer it at all though. I've been learning the ins and outs of metasploit framework, and its got some really great tools, i just cant get any of the exploits to work yet, but I'm hangin in there. Lately I;ve been trying to get into my father in laws Windblows XP sp2 box with no avail...

[int3grate]

I think before you start to learn a tool like metasploit, you better be able to lock down your own box. There's no point in using a tool like metasploit, if you don't know how it works. From looking at your posts, you need to spend more time learning about basic networking. Then maybe once you get a good handle on that, you can start to learn about application security issues. There's a bunch of good books you can buy, but you don't seem interested in learning anything (just having people spoon feed you), so I won't waste my time listing them.