The majority of successful attacks on computer systems via the Internet can be traced to exploitation of security flaws in software and operating systems. These few software vulnerabilities account for the majority of successful attacks, simply because attackers are opportunistic – taking the easiest and most convenient route. They exploit the best-known flaws with the most effective and widely available attack tools. | Hacking for Dummies Access to other peoples systems made simple some extra database lore . Introduction The author is not responsible for any abuse of this information. It is intended for educational use only. You may be quite shocked at how vulnerable you are As an afterthought I added a section on database access due to a number of requests. The majority of successful attacks on computer systems via the Internet can be traced to exploitation of security flaws in software and operating systems. These few software vulnerabilities account for the majority of successful attacks simply because attackers are opportunistic - taking the easiest and most convenient route. They exploit the best-known flaws with the most effective and widely available attack tools. Most software including operating systems and applications comes with installation scripts or installation programs. The goal of these installation programs is to get the systems installed as quickly as possible with the most useful functions enabled with the least amount of work being performed by the administrator. To accomplish this goal the scripts typically install more components than most users need. The vendor philosophy is that it is better to enable functions that are not needed than to make the user install additional functions when they are needed. This approach although convenient for the user creates many of the most dangerous security vulnerabilities because users do not actively maintain and patch software components they don t use. Furthermore many users fail to realize what is actually installed leaving dangerous samples on a system simply because users do not know they are there. Those unpatched services provide paths for attackers to take over computers. For operating systems default installations nearly always include extraneous services and corresponding open ports. Attackers break into systems via these ports. In most cases the fewer ports you have open the fewer avenues an attacker can use
