expoiting?

i was wondering how one goes about finding exploits in programs and in websites…

because programs are compiled and idk how you would go about examining the code and stuff… do you have to decompile it? if so how do uk what language its coded in? because from what i've seen there are certain decompilers for certain languages…

and for websites if its coded in php you cant view the php by viewing the source. so how do you find exploits in their code?

i'm just asking cuz i'm curious :D

rockbll4 wrote: and for websites if its coded in php you cant view the php by viewing the source. so how do you find exploits in their code?

well by looking at the front end of a website you can usally work out how the person has coded it and what vfariables they use, and if they've added stripslashes() etc.

Finding exploits is also the reason why alot of serious enthusiast create labs to perform such test. Say I wanted to test a website setup on an apache server with PHP and javascript. I'll study the existing papers and books I've got laying around on how to setup and program a "secure" server and website. Then it's just a matter of playing around…creativity is 90% of finding new exploits (vulnerabilities). Being as you will know how you set up your system, you would at least have a place to start. If you happen to find something interesting, wipe out your system and reconfigure the entire setup….then try again. If your find is still successful, then find someone with a similar setup and test it on their systems. Still successful? Then you have found something worth publishing…

You have to think of it in the same way that the science teachers tell you to perform experiments in school…theory, create an experiment with control, verify your results, attempt to duplicate those result in other areas….