Why Do Need to learn Unix For Bug Bounty!

We need to learn unix basics to understand the concepts because, most of the modern apps and web service use them for their backend services, so if you want to hack them, you need to learn them first!

To understand, consider this scenario. Let’s say you wanna build a house, but in order to build a house, first we need a land right?

Now what to learn in UNIX?

Since our goal is to Hack, we can’t go and use the UI of the vulnerable system to get the data. Usually when we find a vulnerability, most of the time we’ll be accessing the victim system with the help of commands and keywords to exploit them. so it’s the most basic thing to learn.

For example: To Read a file, cat command is used

Some of commonly used commands:

• whoami – To know the current user details
• sudo – To get admin access
• find – To locate a specific file
• file – To get information about the selected file
• cd – To navigate through directory
• ls – To list the current files in the directory ( ls -a to access the hidden files, sometimes files are being hidden, and we can see using them this command, these files start with a .(DOT) )
• passwd – To change password

I have just provided some samples, but in reality we use more such commands depending on the operation. Learn them as much as you can and make a note of it.

Next We need to know the directory names where important files are stored

For example, where do we keep all the money and jewels in our home? we’ll keep them in a locker or in a safe place right. Same applies for computers, We need to know those places to access sensitive information like admin password and other important files.

• Root directory – where everything is stored
• /tmp/ – where our temporary data are stored
• /var/www/ – where our websites data are stored
• /etc/shadow – where our passwords are stored
• /etc/cron.daily – where auto scheduled files are stored

Also compared to windows and mac, UNIX is the most powerful and secure operating system, It could be little difficult for users at the beginning, but trust me it will surely help you in the future.

Unix is also used as a backend database storage area to store all kinds of data like our

• Name
• Age
• DOB
• Email
• Address
• Banking details
• Persona pictures, files etc

with the help of languages like MYSQL, SQLite databases, so when we learn their working and commands, it will be easier to exploit the data and retrieve the sensitive files using certain commands.

Major Reasons Include:

• You can almost do anything with unix, they are the base OS for all other systems
• It is adaptable and very easy to install any tool or package for our purposes and customizable
• Unix has it’s OS version for security like kali linux, parrot os – specifically designed for security testing
• And there are 1000 more reasons to learn this!!

Now How can I install a Unix os in my computer ?

Nowadays it is very simple, you don’t need to manually boot the os or do any complex operations. With the help of virtualization technology we can do that in just 10 minutes.

check out this excellent step by step tutorial on how to install the security testing os – Kali linux in your machine here