Hacking Team: Hardware

The field of hardware may seem distant from that of hacking, but in fact many advanced exploits require an understanding of how hardware works.

CPU

The CPU, or central processing unit, executes instructions from software. They are best at handling a few intensive calculations.

Sometime, CPU’s have a small weak embedded graphics processing unit. This helps reduce the cost of PC’s geared towards office work; a more powerful dedicated graphics card would go mostly unused.

GPU

The GPU, or graphics processing unit, is meant to handle many quick-to-compute calculations. As it may happen, many calculations needed to render lighting and other graphics fall into this category. Another example is cryptocurrency.

Because graphics cards are so good at parallel computation, they are the superior alternative to CPU’s when it comes to brute-forcing password hashes.

RAM

RAM, or random access memory, is extremely fast temporary storage in which running programs store information in.

You can image RAM like a row of thousands of cubbies. Every cubby has its own address. Because each cubby can only hold so much, a program may have to store its data over multiple cubbies.

Understanding how programs access RAM is arguably the most important element of hardware as it applies to hacking. Memory insecurities caused by erroneous programming are one of the most frequently exploited vulnerabilities.

PSU

The PSU, or power supply unit, converts the alternating current from your wall outlet to direct current that your computer can use.

HDD/SSD

Hard disk drives and solid state drives keep persistent data even when you turn off your computer. Remember, this is unlike RAM which requires power to store data. Typically, it is slower to access data on hard drives than SSD’s.

Note that most operating systems do not actually destroy the contents of a file when it is deleted, they simply mark the space the file occupied as free to be overwritten. These ‘deleted’ files can actually be recovered with the right tools. Recovery can be prevented by overwriting the file before deletion.