The interface is a complete blank canvas with a few buttons or other dialog boxes for data input and output.
Some software doesn't even have minimize, maximize, or close buttons! You have to rely entirely on ALT+F or forcibly closing it through Task Manager to shut it down!
This kind of software has a much uglier and more monotonous interface than the user-friendly software available on the market, and hackers write it solely for their own use. Therefore, they don't care about user habits at all. Some hackers are left-handed and write the software specifically for left-handed users, which is really difficult for ordinary people to use.
Chen Xu used the software he had written to instantly send out a large amount of spam. The scanner immediately showed that the other party's CPU usage instantly soared to 100%!
With the CPU at 100% load, the computer was practically unusable. Chen Xu immediately hacked into the QQ kernel to force the other party to automatically send a remote assistance invitation.
Success was within reach; all Chen Xu needed to do was connect to the other party's host, essentially establishing a direct bridge of communication. But at that very moment, the connection was suddenly severed.
Damn firewall!
Chen Xu turned around and saw Zhan Jing standing beside him with a smile. He was confident that although he had written all the software himself, Zhan Jing couldn't possibly be unable to understand it. Looking at the calm smile in her eyes, Chen Xu knew his actions were completely transparent. His plan had been laid bare before her, and even the disconnection was something she had anticipated!
Now Chen Xu's stubbornness flared up. He thought, "You're just a little girl. Even if I'm not as strong as you now, do you think I can't even break through your firewall?!"
Chen Xu has always had a stubborn streak; otherwise, he wouldn't have persevered in virtual training and progressed from a novice to a hacker with a certain level of skill.
Although he wasn't like Margaret Thatcher, who had to be number one from a young age, he also possessed a fierce, unyielding determination when he got serious!
So Chen Xu immediately turned his attention to the screen. "Hmph, if one method doesn't work, I'll try another. I refuse to believe I can't get past this firewall!"
After these attacks, Chen Xu had a pretty good grasp of the firewall's mechanism.
This firewall must have the function of listening to QQ or other software connecting to the external network, and then recording the corresponding data encoding in the firewall. Once it detects a data stream that exceeds the range of encoded data, it will launch an attack. When it encounters a flood attack, it will automatically close the port.
Simply put, this is how this firewall works. Before the firewall was turned off, Chen Xu could only intrude by following its rules.
In fact, Chen Xu could have used other methods to infiltrate the site, but seeing Zhan Jing's confident smile, he felt as if this girl had seen through everything. That feeling made Chen Xu very uncomfortable.
We absolutely must use QQ to hack into this computer!
Chen Xu continued his attack. The opponent had only blocked one port, but that didn't mean they had blocked all the others. QQ commonly uses ports 4000-4009, so he had a wide range of options.
Remote assistance is clearly not an option, as the target firewall is very strict about this. Sending files would increase the target's CPU utilization, which has been achieved, but Zhanjing's firewall clearly has very low CPU usage, so the firewall is barely affected.
Of course, there are still some impacts; the decreased system processing speed also slows down the firewall's response time. This is evident from the data streams; the data streams that previously harassed Chen Xu are no longer able to keep up with his pace. This is excellent proof.
Chen Xu typed rapidly on the keyboard, his expression not exactly ferocious, but extremely focused.
Data stream attack!
Chen Xu spent a minute writing another small program, a small software for data stream attacks. It could send the commands Chen Xu typed to the target host at a rate of fifty times per second, thus squeezing out the remaining capacity of the target firewall!
The firewall written by Zhan Jing is already quite powerful. Data flow analysis shows that it requires very few resources, meaning CPU and memory loads have almost no impact on it. This is because it allocates a dedicated memory region for its own operation. High memory usage has little effect on it.
Furthermore, this firewall also has a filtering function. If there is too much spam, it will automatically filter it, thus preventing DDoS flood attacks.
But Chen Xu's fingers flew across the keyboard as he manually entered command after command, using the software he had written to completely break down the other party's firewall!
Zhan Jing's expression turned serious for the first time.
Because she wrote the firewall herself, she naturally understood its mechanisms.
If Chen Xu simply uses spam to fill the system with information, there's no threat, because the system has detection capabilities. However, these detection capabilities are flawed. If Chen Xu uses a large amount of useful data in rotation to launch attacks, the system will run indefinitely until it exceeds its capacity, allowing the attacker to exploit a weakness!
However, this defect has prerequisites; it's not that you can simply write two commands to put the system under this load.
Chen Xu's coding speed is now very fast; he can input a command almost every two seconds and have the software run accordingly. These commands are all basic QQ commands, which the firewall can recognize. These commands are different from those junk instructions that are used to block information; those junk instructions can be automatically blocked, but these correct instructions have to be accepted.
Zhan Jing couldn't help but look at Chen Xu in a new light. She hadn't expected his foundation to be so solid. Could it be thanks to that book, "Chinese Language"?
Chen Xu's expression was serious; at this moment, he didn't care about Zhan Jing's expression behind him at all. Instead, he was completely immersed in inputting commands.
At this moment, he truly had to thank the Chinese Language and Literature Department and Xiaomin for giving him such a solid foundation of knowledge. The saying "You only realize how little you know when you need it" applies to many people precisely because their foundation is weak!
Chen Xu's typing speed is also very fast now. Because he is very familiar with the commands, he spent two minutes writing more than fifty commands and then let the software use these commands randomly to communicate with the other computer.
This method worked; the other party's firewall immediately slowed down. Chen Xu then forcibly broke into the other party's QQ core and used the previous method to open remote assistance. At this point, the other party's firewall was overloaded and did not respond.
However, Chen Xu knew that this lack of response was only temporary; the firewall was still working, just much slower. This slowdown would only last a few seconds to a minute. If he couldn't use that time to shut down the firewall, all his previous work would be in vain!
A dozen seconds. That was enough for Chen Xu!
Chen Xu quickly accessed the other party's computer, and the first thing he did was open the Task Manager in the background to find the process of the firewall.
Let alone a hacker, even someone with some computer knowledge can grasp the system processes, so Chen Xu immediately saw that the process named cc.exe should be the key process of the firewall.
Chen Xu clicked close, and damn it. A dialog box popped up saying that unauthorized closure was not allowed?
This is a special option configured in many antivirus software and firewalls. Unless it's disabled through legitimate means, such as forcibly closing it using a system process, it will refuse to execute.
This is a setting to prevent hackers from forcibly closing the process. Chen Xu was so excited that he didn't even think of it. How could Zhan Jing not be subject to this setting?!
Then you should immediately use the normal method to disable this firewall.
Chen Xu right-clicked on the firewall in the background and then turned it off, but a dialog box popped up saying: "Please enter your password!"
Depend on!
There's even this trick up your sleeve?!
But Chen Xu also mentally slapped himself. This was a perfectly normal method, okay?!
Setting passwords in antivirus software to prevent malicious uninstallation has always been a common practice for antivirus software and firewalls. However, for products from large antivirus companies, this method is completely ineffective… Simply put, deleting the password file on the computer directly cracks the password. Chen Xu knew the location of the password files for antivirus software like Kaspersky, Avast, Kingsoft, and Jiangmin. Although there is protection, it can be deleted using unlocking software like Unlock. But for this unknown firewall, Zhan Jing certainly wouldn't have stored the password file in the software folder. She'd just randomly shoved it somewhere on the C drive; how would he find it?!
More importantly, there wasn't enough time.
If Chen Xu couldn't disable the firewall within ten seconds, he would be kicked out. Although he could re-enter, it would be a very troublesome matter. And if he wanted to test passwords, the computer's processing speed was simply insufficient!
Because the other computer was already quite slow, according to the software settings, it was executing one command after another. However, since the computer executed commands very quickly when the system was fast, it didn't matter at that time.
However, when the computer is slow, it's equivalent to slowing down the computer's processing speed countless times. Chen Xu could certainly test the password, but before that, the firewall would have to do one more thing: kick him out.
What to do, what to do?!
Chen Xu was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. With little time left, how could he uninstall this damn firewall?!
Chapter 223 Attack Methods
At this moment, Zhan Jing said from behind him, "You can try the registry."
"Registry?!" Chen Xu was taken aback, then exclaimed with delight, "That's right, that's exactly what I was planning to do. Hmm? Isn't your registry encrypted?"
Zhan Jing smiled calmly: "I'm already quite surprised that you've managed to get this far. The registry is very simple; you can give it a try."
The registry is crucial to a system; how software runs is entirely determined by the registry. Many gamers have experienced this: after reinstalling the system, some games located on other drives become unplayable.
That's because the registry key is missing. When the system is reinstalled, the registry is reset to zero, so games that require registry keys will naturally not be able to run.
Chen Xu immediately searched for the keyword "CC.exe" in the registry and simultaneously began writing a small piece of software. The function of this software was to search for all registry keys related to cc.exe and delete them.
During this time, Chen Xu was kicked out of the firewall again, but he quickly and skillfully re-entered, bringing the software with him. After deleting the key registry entries, Chen Xu right-clicked and disabled the firewall... Success!
There is no option to ask for a password!
It was a success!
Chen Xu quickly uninstalled the firewall, then turned off QQ flood attacks, and created a text document on the other party's desktop. He typed the sentence: "I've entered."
This offensive has finally come to an end.
Chen Xu wiped his sweat; it was finally over. While this attack and defense wasn't exactly thrilling, the process was still quite eventful, and it made him see his shortcomings in both offense and defense. Zhan Jing's probing tactics were indeed quite effective.
Looking around, Wu Yuanzhong and Ziyu were still fighting hard. He had achieved his goal of becoming the fastest, but this made Chen Xu feel somewhat disappointed... because he felt that his level had improved a lot, but it seemed that he was getting further and further away from Zhan Jing.
This doesn't mean that his skills improved while Zhan Jing's improved at a much faster pace. Rather, it means that the more he learned in the field of hacking, the more he realized his own insignificance and ignorance.
The main issue is that Chen Xu's current gap with Zhan Jing is too large. As the saying goes, "a glimpse of the leopard through a tube reveals the whole picture." Chen Xu can see the difference in their abilities just from this firewall. While he is now quite proficient in Chinese language and literature, he doesn't yet have the skill to create such a firewall.
And it's quite obvious that Zhan Jing held back in the end.
The fact that the registry information wasn't encrypted is a clear indication of this. Registry information isn't unprotected by encryption, but Zhan Jing didn't do so, clearly leaving herself an out. And what if she had done so…?
It seems Chen Xu won't be able to find a solution for the time being. Moreover, this was merely an attack specifically targeting the firewall, and no one on the other side was in charge of it. If a skilled expert were in charge, the situation would be entirely different.
Furthermore, Chen Xu could sense that Zhan Jing's firewall wasn't her most prized creation. If this girl truly went all out, how vast would the gap be between him and her?!
Although Chen Xu's current strength is still lacking, his discerning eye has been honed. Zhan Jing's strength is almost on par with any of the top domestic fighters he has ever encountered. Recalling his battle with Snake that day, Chen Xu had a feeling... her strength might even be comparable to some of the members of Snake!
A brilliant female hacker?
Chen Xu was startled by his own thought. Logically, Zhan Jing's abilities couldn't possibly be that strong. And if she were that powerful, why would she be wasting her time at university? Snake was, after all, the world's undisputed number one hacker organization… although that title was largely undeserved.
Is Zhanjing's technology really that advanced?
Chen Xu only vaguely sensed that he couldn't have a truly equal conversation with Zhan Jing, so he couldn't estimate her true level. But a man's intuition... whether it was a sixth or seventh sense or something else, told him that Zhan Jing was definitely not that simple.
Chen Xu completed the task quickly... He took a little over twenty minutes... This put a lot of pressure on Zhong Ziyu and Wu Yuan. As for Gao Xiaojie... This girl can be completely ignored. She's so anxious she's almost crying, but she can't even get through the door.
That's the difference. Wu Yuan and Zhong Ziyu had a foundation, while Gao Xiaojie and Chen Xu started formally learning programming and hacking at the same time. However, Chen Xu had Xiao Min's constant guidance, while Gao Xiaojie, although she had Zhan Jing, a very skilled master, required her to start from the basics... It's like the orthodox cultivation method of a esoteric sect—the initial stages are very difficult, but there's no risk of going astray. Her future achievements will be far greater than those who climb the ladder through crooked means.
But now, all the girl can do is feel frustrated.
After waiting for another ten minutes or so, Zhong Ziyu finally completed the task with great effort. He used a Trojan horse implantation method to disguise a Trojan horse and open a backdoor for entry. However, according to Zhong Ziyu himself, this Trojan horse was created by Yingnian Zaofei, and he did not yet have the skill to solve it.
Wu Yuan was even slower. He didn't have Chen Xu's strength, nor did he have a master as powerful as Zhong Ziyu, so he was a bit slower. He finished the task more than half an hour after Chen Xu, and it was only thanks to Zhan Jing's guidance that he completed it.
That basically concludes the preliminary assessment. As for Gao Xiaojie, well, there's no need to wait for her anymore; she gave up in frustration. She sat there looking pitifully at Zhan Jing, like a poor little puppy.
Zhan Jing smiled helplessly: "Xiaojie, wait a moment. Your situation is quite serious, I'll tell you later." She looked at Chen Xu: "To be honest, your performance today really exceeded my expectations. It's not just that you were the first to break through the firewall, but also because of your attack method. Solid foundation, crude and simple but very practical attack techniques... Did the Chinese language teach you all of this?"
Chen Xu nodded. The foundation was naturally the Chinese language instruction, while the attack methods were a matter of his personal style. This was also related to Chen Xu's learning method. Because no one had taught him before, his attack methods were particularly limited. And Chen Xu himself was intelligent; he actually managed to find a path that suited him within this limited set of attack methods.
Like Ah Fei in Gu Long's novels, Ah Fei never formally learned swordsmanship; he figured it out on his own. There were no fancy moves, just one thing... speed! Astounding speed!
There's also Yang Guo's Xuan Tie Sword Technique. It emphasizes the principle of a heavy sword with no edge, and great skill appearing effortless. Don't underestimate this seemingly simple technique; it often represents a bold and valiant move born of profound wisdom.
"Raise your hand!" Gao Xiaojie raised her hand and said, "Chen Xu's attack methods are too one-dimensional. He's just a brute. He likes to target one point and smash it relentlessly, as if he wants to smash through the firewall with a hammer. Jingjing, you can teach him."
“It’s not like that,” Zhan Jing slowly shook her head and said, “The complexity and intricacy of attack methods are just one means of attack. Xiao Jie, you need to understand that no two leaves in this world are exactly alike. Nor are any attack methods exactly the same. The ultimate goal of a hacker’s intrusion is to break into the other party’s computer. Once that goal is achieved, any means are acceptable.”
"In my opinion, Chen Xu's style is actually very encouraging. Heh, don't look at me like that. You have to understand that when hackers of similar skill levels are attacking and defending, the attack method is often the key factor in determining the outcome. And if Chen Xu's attack method is accompanied by excellent hardware and software conditions, his attack will be very strong, so strong that even if the opponent is more skilled than him, he may still be defeated."
"I'm that awesome?!" Chen Xu was also stunned.
Zhan Jing continued, "A heavy sword has no edge, and great skill appears effortless. Some hackers are cunning and use a variety of methods, but some hackers are just like this. Take Kevin Mitnick, for example, the world's number one hacker. There was a saying that when Mitnick launched an attack, no one could stop him. From this, you can see how terrifying he was. Legend has it that Mitnick controlled tens of thousands of zombie computers, and the attack programs he wrote himself were even more domineering and ferocious. Once he launched an attack, even the most advanced hardware firewalls could not stop his power."
"Now you all have some understanding of hackers, and you should know that many of their methods involve exploiting computer vulnerabilities, or rather, rules—finding loopholes within the bounds of computer rules. Therefore, a flood attack like the Mitnick attack is the simplest, most practical, and most effective attack method. Few people can withstand this type of attack. Xiaojie, do you think this attack method is still primitive, monotonous, and useless?"
Gao Xiaojie was speechless. She knew her knowledge and understanding of computers were far inferior to Zhan Jing's. But she was still somewhat unconvinced and said, "If that's the case, then we only need to practice the simplest attack method, right? Why bother with anything else?!"
Zhan Jing smiled and shook her head: "It's not as simple as you think. The reason this move is so fierce and unstoppable is simply because the person using it is too powerful, so powerful that no enemy can withstand a single blow. But you have to know, how many people can reach that level now? It requires extremely high strength as a backing to achieve this. So Chen Xu, besides improving your attack efficiency and power, there is another very important point for you: you need to obtain 'meat chickens,' a lot of them."