The primary reason why we selected this topic is because we love &
enjoy “Snooping”. Since this topic interests us, we thought researching on this
topic would be stimulating.
“Only Passions, Great Passions can elevate the soul to great things.” Passion
is the trigger to Success & we have always been passionate about
Hacking & Breaking into Computer Networks. This perhaps is the first step
towards it, but it is quite LEGAL.
At the outset you may feel what the hell is Remote Access all
about??
Imagine being able to access the contents of a PC located on one end
of the world from the other sitting on a living room couch. This is what
Remote Accessing is all about.
Remote Access is the component that allows a user to access applications
and data on a remote computer over a network. Terminal Services is Microsoft's implementation of thin-client terminal
server computing, where Windows applications, or even the entire desktop of the
computer running Terminal Services, are made accessible to a remote client
machine. We may also access Desktops from different Operating Systems.
Without
further ado, let us begin our expedition of unveiling the steps involved in
accessing other Computers from ours. I hope you find the blog to be
Enlightening & Enjoyable or at least semi-coherent and relatively pain
free.
- ENABLING REMOTE ACCESS
- ACCESSING WINDOWS FROM UBUNTU
- ACCESSING UBUNTU FROM UBUNTU
- ACCESSING UBUNTU FROM WINDOWS
- TEAM VIEWER
- FILE SHARING
- REMOTE ACCESS TROJAN
(On Destination Computer, i.e. the PC you want to access)
Enabling Remote Access in Ubuntu
Enabling Remote Access in Windows
We need to go to Control Panel --> System
--> Remote Settings
To find the Remote Desktop Connection shortcut, click the Start
button, click All Programs,
and then click Accessories. To quickly open Remote Desktop Connection,
open the Start menu, and then type mstsc in the Search/Run box.
Note: This
feature is included with all Editions of Windows 7, but you can only connect to
computers running the Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise editions. For
other Editions, one needs to install other third party softwares like VNC or
Teamviewer.
In General tab, click Options. Now in
computer name, type the Remote Desktop’s ip address or host name and type the username
of desired user in the dialogue box and click connect.
On Successful Establishment of Connection, we need to logon on the other PC using the user password & we can then
find ourselves controlling everything & anything we wish to; as if we were
right in front of it .
Snapshot after Gaining Access
Once we gain Access, the other PC automatically gets locked (Although
it still shows it to be logged on ) .
Hmm .. Wondering where did your favourite Bugatti Veyron Wallpaper go ?!!
By default, Windows Remote
Desktop Utility (after establishing connection) changes the background
to black so as to enable faster access.
Using rdesktop
Open the Terminal from Applications--->Accessories--->Terminal
and enter the following command.
REQUIRED COMMAND
rdesktop -u <username> <ip address of the destination>
For eg: I accessed my friend's Windows Lappy from mine. So, I need to type
rdesktop -u Gitanshu 192.168.6.1xx
Snapshot After Gaining Access
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In the background, we can see my Desktop/Ubuntu Operating System .
Over VNC Software
Virtual Network
Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop sharing system that uses the RFB
protocol to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and
mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen
updates back in the other direction, over a network. VNC may be installed in a
Windows OS from http://www.realvnc.com & in Ubuntu, may be done by using the
given command in the Terminal.
sudo
apt-get install vncviewer
Once the VNCviewer is installed, all one needs to do
is to find the static IP address (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) or host name of the required
PC (which one wants to access ) . Then go to the terminal and enter:
REQUIRED COMMAND
vncviewer <ip address> or <hostname>
Whether one will be directly connected or prompted for
password or remote computer prompted to give access depends upon remote
computer’s “Remote Desktop” settings.
After connection, you can see the remote desktop
screen in a windows that pops up.
To close the connection, just close the window.
Using X Windows over SSH
Secure Shell (SSH) is a network protocol for secure
data communication. In linux, we normally use SSH to access Terminal of
other computer. However, if we try to access a Graphical Application
like ‘gedit’ from the terminal, we get an error “can’t open display”.
Hm... Wondering what to do now?
Alright .. Here is the Fix
The X Window System can do that for
you. The X window system is a computer software system and network
protocol that provides a basis Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and rich input
device capability for Networked Computers. In simple words, it brings the GUI
of remote computer to your computer without any display activity on remote
computer.
REQUIRED ALGORITHM
Go to the terminal and type:
ssh -X <username>@<ip address>
Note: THe
username can be omitted if user name of both remote desktop and remote user are
same.
This might look like a normal SSH. However if we open
a Graphical application, it doesn’t give us that annoying errors
but opens the window of that application. Now whatever changes you do in that
application like creating a file, it is saved in the remote computer.
To exit,we just need to type exit or logout.
Using VNC
There are many VNC applications available for windows
like tightVNC, RealVNC etc. We have used RealVNC here. It can be downloaded
from here.
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To access ubuntu from windows, one just needs to open
‘Run VNC viewer’ utility under RealVNC and just enter the staticip address of
ubuntu pc in server. The ip address of the Ubuntu as we know, can be accessed /
retrieved from ifconfig command in the Terminal.
TeamViewer is the utility that works on both Windows and Linux
platform. On installation, the Team viewer assigns our PC a specific ID which
is used by the remote user to connect. However the login password changes every
time we open the app.
It also
includes features like chat, VOIP, Video Call also.
One just needs to enter the partner ID and then password to gain access. ( In
pic, we have accessed Ubuntu from Windows).
It allows us to access the Remote
desktop and also provides an option for File transfer.
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access
to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio,
images, and video), documents, or electronic books. Common methods of storage,
transmission, and distribution used in file sharing include manual sharing
using removable media, centralized servers on Computer Networks,www-based
hyperlinked documents, and the use of distributed peer to peer networking.
Sharing File/Folder in Windows
To share a file or folder, right click on it and open
properties. Under Sharing Tab, click Share.
In the popped up File
Sharing window, add the user you want to share your file with
(Everyone/homegroup). For custom permissions, use Advanced Sharing.
Now when you have allowed sharing on your file/folder,
you can access it from other computer by entering the network path in Run
command.
Then a window may pop up asking
you to enter user name and password. After loggging in, you can view the
respective file/folder.
Sharing File/Folder in Ubuntu
To share a folder in ubuntu, right
click on the Folder and select SHARING OPTIONS. Click
Share this folder. It may ask you to install sharing service. Select
appropriate options and then click Create Share.
This can now be accessed from a
windows PC by entering ‘\\<ip address of destination PC>\’ in Run Command.
On a local network, the shared folders can be accessed through NETWORK
folder in both Windows and Ubuntu.
Alright, Food for Thought for prospective Hackers .
Abbreviated as RATs,
a Remote Access Trojan is a major type of Trojan horse
which provides attacker Complete Control of the victim’s system.
Attackers usually hide these Trojan horses in games and other small programs
that unsuspecting users then execute on their PCs. A RAT lets one access
practically almsot anything one can think of on the victim’s PC, be it
the webcam, change registries, hide taskbars or even crash the system :-P
Wicked Aint It !!??
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| Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_(computing) |
Wonderful Experience
We had an amazing experience researching & implementing on the Project. We were nervous about writing our first blog ever but as time passed, everything moved on smoothly, although we experienced a few hiccups in organisational stuff. We did spend some time on the Design aspect (marquee & the links :-D) of the blog. All in all, the blog was funtertaining :P as well as educational.
(*definitions taken from www.wikipedia.com)
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