Linux Basics

This is going to be a little introduction on Linux as a way to get you started. Strictly speaking Linux is just the kernel in the GNU/Linux operating system.

There are two reasons we should learn Linux. The first is that the majority of all servers in the world is running on Linux. If we want to hack those servers we of course have to understand how they work. The second reason is that the vast majority of all hacking-tools are only available on Linux.

So we are going to look at bit at some basic commands and basics of Linux.

Although there is only one Linux Kernel there are many Linux Distributions aka different versions. That is because the GNU/Linux OS is a mix of GNU software and the Linux Kernel. The GNU/Linux OS can be packaged in a million different ways, with different software pre-installed, with different configurations and different Graphical User Interface (GUI). The fact that you can configure the OS however you like has given rise to the many different versions. These different versions are usually called distros. There are hundreds of different distros and the most common ones are:

  • Ubuntu
  • Debian (Kali is Debian-based)
  • Redhat
  • CentOS
  • Arch

Kernel

The Kernel is responsible for talking between the hardware and the software, and to manage the systems resources. The Linux Kernel is a monolithic kernel, unlike the OSX and the Windows kernels which are hybrid. You can find the kernel file in /boot. It might look like something like thisvmlinuz-4.4.0-57-generic. In the beginning of time the kernel was simply called linux. But when Virtual Memory was introduced they changed the name to vmlinux to reflect that the kernel could handle virtual memory. When the kernel later became too big it was compressed using zlib , therefore the name was changed to vmlinuz.+

The Linux Kernel differs from Windows in that it contains drivers by default. So you don't have to go around looking for drivers like you do on a Windows machine when you want to install a printer, or something like that. And it is really easy to upgrade to the latest Linux kernel, all you have to do is this:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

# or

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Basics File Structure

Linux basics: https://xapax.gitbooks.io/security/content/linux.html

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