A botnet is a computer infected with malware by hackers. These computers can be servers or ordinary consumer computers. A hacker will typically have a number of botnets for their use, either as stepping stones or for attacking others. Therefore, botnets are also known as zombie computers.
The existence of botnets is ironic, because each botnet is essentially a computer occupying a network cable. So when a hacker attacks, they order all their botnets to attack the target, sending spam to clog the network and overload the target's system. However, for a traditional hacker, hacking into someone else's computer is inherently against hacking principles.
However, without botnets, an individual's power on the internet is extremely limited, and they are easily caught. Therefore, many unscrupulous hackers use various methods to acquire botnets. While acquiring botnets, they also use them to generate greater profits, such as… stealing users' passwords!
This is how the infamous "Grey Pigeon" Trojan horse came about.
There are many variants of Grey Pigeon. Anyone with a basic understanding of programming can modify the source code to create a new Trojan and release it.
At that time, almost all computers in China were infected with this Grey Pigeon Trojan, becoming botnets for hackers. These botnets not only facilitated hackers' attacks but also allowed them to steal data from computers, such as online games and QQ accounts, creating additional value for the hackers.
However, this kind of hacker can no longer be called a hacker.
So now that hackers can't live without botnets, this paradoxical phenomenon has finally led ethical hackers to establish a rule: Trojans obtained from botnets must not be leaked, and their source code must not be released for exploitation by malicious individuals.
This is a benign Trojan; it does not monitor keystrokes, listen to passwords, cause no harm to the system, or steal any information from the other party.
It is forbidden to use botnets to maliciously attack others.
Profiting from broiler chickens is prohibited.
These principles, while adhering to traditional hacker principles, also adapt to the development of computers to the greatest extent possible.
Because a hacker without botnets cannot even protect his own security, thus violating the fundamental principle of hacking: the first priority for hackers is to protect their own security.
Therefore, these rules were released based on the general principles of hacking, which can be considered a way of keeping up with the times.
Zhan Jing said, "If you have a hundred botnets, you can have all one hundred of them attack that computer simultaneously. That way, you can break through the firewall much faster. And you should know that my firewall isn't actually very strong, especially since home computers have such poor hardware. Many servers now have systems to prevent DDoS flood attacks, and they're all 10G or 100G hardware firewalls. With just your computer, that kind of attack is just a tickle to someone else."
"The key to winning a hacker battle is technology, hardware, software, and botnets!"
Chapter 224 of the main text: Going to catch chickens?
Chen Xu's style is fierce, ruthless, and domineering. However, even the strongest can be overpowered; one person's strength is ultimately limited. If he could acquire many "botnets," his strength would reach a new level. Of course, if Chen Xu wants to improve further, he must also enhance his computer skills, which is inevitable.
A heavy sword has no edge; great skill appears effortless.
The path Chen Xu took may seem simple, but he was destined to pay a higher price for it. You should know that Yang Guo's ability to cut down trees with a wooden sword without breaking the sword was something he achieved after practicing in the sea for seven years.
A seasoned hacker commented on Kevin Mitnick's attack: simple and effective. He channeled all his computer knowledge into a single move, a move that no person, hardware, or software in the world could withstand.
But the strongest defense is the weakest. Mitnick's offense was unparalleled, but his defense was relatively weak. Ultimately, Mitnick was captured by the Japanese computer scientist, Itsuki Shimomura.
But SMMH, or rather Xiaomin, possesses an unparalleled shield! And this shield is truly unparalleled in the world! So, without even realizing it, it has already relieved Chen Xu of any worries.
Of course, some people regret that SMMH didn't appear a few years earlier. Then, Mitnick and SMMH could have clashed, and we would have known which was more powerful, the spear or the shield.
Ha, that's just wishful thinking on the part of those hackers. Kevin Mitnick hasn't touched a computer in years. Keep in mind that in this era of rapid advancements in computer technology, Mitnick, who hasn't touched a computer for years, and may never be able to touch one again, can only bid a sad farewell to his computer career. And more importantly, Xiaomin's defensive capabilities are eighty years ahead of the rest of the world!
This is an incredibly terrifying number, representing an insurmountable gap. In this world, in this era, no one can cause Chen Xu any trouble.
Therefore, all Chen Xu needs to do now is work hard. Strive to become the strongest spear in the world… He doesn't need to defend at all!
Chen Xu looked at Zhan Jing: "Then what do you think I should do? Go catch chickens now?"
"Chicken catching" means capturing or exploiting compromised computers. Although Chen Xu didn't directly exploit compromised computers, he was familiar with the term and the methods involved. In fact, the previous "Beacon Fire" virus, in a sense, was also a type of compromised Trojan. Computers controlled by them could be used as compromised computers. Without Chen Xu, anyone who clashed with X would likely face immediate global cyberattacks!
"You don't need a lot of botnets. A skilled hacker might have a thousand, which is already quite good. After all, antivirus software is so advanced these days, and botnets aren't easy to acquire," Zhan Jing continued. "The quantity of botnets is one requirement, but quality is even more important. The network speed needs to be good, the machine speed needs to be fast, and the online time needs to be long. Otherwise, you'll find that when you want to find botnets, many of the ones you've captured aren't even turned on. You should know that many hacker wars take place at night, and it's best to choose a specific group as your botnets, such as a high-end server room. This way, the quality of the botnets will be very high."
Seeing her speaking so fluently, Chen Xu couldn't help but ask, "Um, Zhan Jing, how many 'meat chickens' do you have?"
Zhan Jing smiled slightly, avoiding the question. She continued, "Sometimes, a strange situation arises where you and your opponent are using the same batch of compromised computers. To avoid this, you must regularly scan your compromised computers for viruses, leaving only your own backdoors and deleting other people's Trojans. This kind of battle for compromised computers is common among hackers."
Chen Xu and the others couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. They hadn't expected something like this to happen.
Zhan Jing smiled faintly and shook her head: "Actually, this is very tiring work. So I don't recommend you have too many botnets. Like me, I have to do a full virus scan on my botnets every month. It's like raising children. It's very tiring."
Everyone laughed; those present were all computer experts… Gao Xiaojie temporarily ignored them… he could understand Zhan Jing's words. Actually, the botnet itself didn't need to be so complicated, but the problem was that to obtain a high-quality botnet, this level of complexity was necessary.
Some users only know how to play games and chat on computers. They know nothing about security, so their computers are full of viruses... Just one scan with antivirus software will show at least four figures.
Therefore, such computers often become zombie computers, or botnets, used by one, several, or even dozens of hackers.
However, the quality of these botnets is really poor. They carry so many viruses that they can't be fast at all, and some of these viruses can even infect the hackers themselves through network connections.
Ha. These kinds of botnets. Advanced hackers wouldn't even consider them. Only some ordinary hackers don't care much. Because for hackers, botnets are like their weapons. And weapons need to be polished to a high standard, which ordinary hackers don't pay attention to. And some people who can't even be called hackers also use these botnets to make money.
For example, when the "Grey Pigeon" Trojan horse outbreak occurred, many people directly sold broiler chickens, with each chicken fetching 3 to 5 yuan. Some people who caught a lot of chickens could catch a thousand a day, which was incredibly profitable!
"What about us?" Zhong Ziyu asked Wu Yuan anxiously.
"You guys are different from Chen Xu, and I'll explain that to you in detail later. Also, including Chen Xu, many of you haven't done well enough in the details. But Chen Xu's style is there; his offensive approach can compensate for his shortcomings in the details. However, you two need to think about this carefully. I'll discuss this with you separately later. Heh, Xiaojie, don't make that sour face. Look, I've read some of this Chinese language book, and it seems quite good. It's very suitable for a newcomer like you to learn from. So after this hacker competition, don't look at assembly language and C++ for now; focus on Chinese language first. Building a solid foundation is the most important thing."
Gao Xiaojie looked distressed. Did that mean all her hard work over the past six months had been wasted?
Then she glared at Chen Xu, poking him with her finger: "You! You! You're so disloyal! When did the SMMH boss pass this Chinese language secret manual to you? You didn't even take it out! Ugh, you're so disloyal! Let's eat! Treat us to dinner!"
Chen Xu scratched his head awkwardly and said that his boss didn't want him to spread the word, but he couldn't disobey him. It was after he finished making the game "The Legend of Jin Yong".
Gao Xiaojie pouted angrily, but Chen Xu ignored her, knowing she was born in the Year of the Dog. She grumbled for a while and then calmed down on her own.
"So you mean I'm going to catch chickens right now?"
Zhan Jing said, "It's not just you, Wu Yuan and Zhong Ziyu, you also have to go. Within three days, Chen Xu, your requirement is 1,000 broiler chickens, and Wu Yuan, you and Zhong Ziyu each only need 500."
"A thousand?!"
Five hundred?!
Zhan Jing looked at them and smiled calmly: "There's nothing we can do about it. The hacker competition is just around the corner. After you capture the botnet, you'll need to practice how to control it, how to write programs to control it, and how to remove viruses and install software on it. These are all very troublesome things. We don't have much time left."
"But catching a thousand chickens in three days..." Chen Xu felt a little dizzy.
How do we catch them? Should we create a virus ourselves and spread it?
We don't know if the chicken we caught was good or bad!
Chickens that get poisoned so easily are definitely not good chickens! It's like how stray dogs can eat whatever they want on the street, but trained dogs won't even glance at a delicious-smelling bone on the road. Catching a thousand broiler chickens is no problem, but catching a thousand high-quality broiler chickens is a huge problem!
Where to start?
As mentioned before, Chen Xu is a very hardworking young man. When faced with a problem, he usually doesn't think about how to avoid it, but rather how to solve it. This kind of character is truly commendable.
Seeing Chen Xu deep in thought, Zhan Jing smiled slightly: "Good botnets are generally for high-end users. But if you want a botnet that's online 24/7, or most of the time, you can't choose those companies that only have 9-to-5 jobs. If you choose them, you'll be in big trouble if you encounter enemies at night."
"But it's hard to find computers that are always on. Or, could I find some in China and some in the US? Divide them by time zone, that way I can guarantee I'll always have botnets!"
Zhan Jing smiled: "That's a good method; many people actually do it this way. So you can start with some IT companies in the UK. No, no, no, the US won't work. Because the hacker competition is scheduled to start at 7 PM, by which time most Chinese companies have already closed. At 7 PM in the US, it's only 6:30 AM Eastern Time, so they haven't started work yet. As for the US West Coast and the mountain region, it's even earlier. And when it's 7 PM Beijing time, it's 11 AM London time, and people haven't closed yet. Even during lunch breaks, computers are still on. Or you could hack into some software companies in Brazil; when it's 7 PM in the US, it's 8 AM in Brazil. That might be a bit early, so you'll have to decide. My suggestion is still London, or even later places like New Delhi, Moscow, or Cairo. But you should know that some British companies are easy targets because their hacking skills are really poor. If you hack into Moscow, you might alert the Russian military and civilian hackers… You should know that the world's most powerful civilian hackers aren't from the US, but from Russia."
Chen Xu had also heard of Russian hackers. Well, to put it in a disrespectful, or perhaps very respectful way... they were a bunch of lunatics!
Let's take a classic example.
On October 25, 2011, Microsoft released the renowned Windows XP operating system.
This system is undoubtedly familiar to everyone, as it's an incredibly classic operating system. Its lifespan was over ten years, or even longer. The later Windows Vista operating system is generally considered inferior to XP. And when Windows 7 was released in 2009, its operating system was still unknown.
Microsoft had high hopes for this operating system at the time, and of course they also knew that Microsoft's biggest enemy was piracy.
Microsoft has suffered immense losses due to piracy. For one thing, several years ago, Microsoft attempted to penetrate the Chinese market with Windows 95, recognizing its enormous potential. However, it's important to remember that Windows 95 was released at a price of 1995 RMB!
At that time, not many people could afford this operating system!
However, Windows achieved tremendous success in China, but the reason for this success was not Microsoft, but rather piracy.
At that time, across China, the ratio of pirated to genuine software usage was almost one in ten million. Only one in ten thousand or ten thousand computers might have a genuine operating system… In reality, this was a policy secretly implemented by the government to promote the distribution of pirated software. Or rather, they didn't oppose it… and that was enough.
After the release of Windows 95, Microsoft virtually unified the mainstream operating system globally, making its adoption in China inevitable. However, the Chinese government wouldn't allow Americans to come to China, a country with a relatively underdeveloped economy at the time, and rob it of its profits. Keep in mind, how much was 2000 yuan worth in mainland China in 1995? Back then, a civil servant in a medium-sized city earned less than 1000 yuan a month!
So after its disastrous defeat in China, Microsoft learned its lesson and took many precautions to prevent piracy when preparing to release XP, its groundbreaking product.
At the time, a Microsoft spokesperson confidently declared: XP will not be pirated!
However, on October 24, 2001, the day before the official release of Microsoft XP, several Russian websites were already offering fully cracked versions of the Windows XP operating system for download…
This cracked version is affectionately known as the "Russian cracked version".
This was the first cracked version of Windows XP, and many later versions, such as Tomato Garden, were derived from it. What's even more admirable about Russian hackers is that they targeted Microsoft not for personal profit. While this approach isn't commendable, no backdoors were found in the entire Russian cracked version of XP.
Some people, when releasing popular software like this, like to insert Trojans or even backdoors. This is especially true for operating systems; for example, the cracked version of Tomato Garden contains a serious backdoor. It was intentionally left in! This backdoor program wasn't in the genuine XP version; it was added later by someone.
This led to Tomato Garden being immediately criticized within the industry, and its reputation was ruined.
This move by the Russian hackers infuriated Microsoft employees to the point of almost vomiting blood!
How is that possible? How could they have released a pirated copy before ours was even released?! Pirated copies are being released faster than the official ones?! How is that possible?!
Subsequent investigations revealed that several major Russian hacker groups had collaborated to open a backdoor on Microsoft's internal servers. They then secretly downloaded Windows XP at a rate of 20KB per hour for a full month! Using this painstakingly painstaking method, they managed to download the complete internal version of Windows XP, successfully cracked it, and released it the day before Microsoft's official release—all to deliver a severe blow to Microsoft!
That was a resounding slap. I heard that Bill Gates was so angry that he almost had to be hospitalized. In the end, Microsoft launched a major purge, directly purging several senior executives and security personnel.
Russian hackers have become famous worldwide after this incident!
Frank Wenden, a security expert at a British technology security consultancy, commented on Russian hackers: "Russian hackers can do amazing things with fairly limited equipment. They are quite clever and always hide their tracks very well. Moreover, Russian hackers have excellent programming skills. They are not like so-called hackers in the United States or elsewhere, who simply download a program from the internet without knowing what they are doing. These Russians clearly know what they are going to do."
Especially the St. Petersburg hackers. Those guys are capable of anything.
In October of that year, they hacked Microsoft; in 1999, multiple websites of NATO and the US government were paralyzed in protest against the US military action against Yugoslavia… The St. Petersburg hackers could use an ordinary computer and a telephone line to withdraw money from Citibank and even break into the Pentagon's computer systems! …That's how terrifying they are!
However, Russian hackers have a good reputation; they are highly skilled, have a good track record, and rarely fail to complete a task. Moreover, these guys mostly roam the internet as "cyber mercenaries," and people are constantly seeking their services. They have thousands of computer geniuses working for computer companies in the US and many European countries. Therefore, there's a rumor in online hacker circles that there are two types of hackers you should never mess with: first, Jewish hacker organizations, because Jews are very wealthy, controlling a third of America's wealth! Jews are also very intelligent, and most importantly, they are very united! Unless you're Hitler, don't mess with Jews!
Secondly, never provoke those Russian lunatics! They're a bunch of shameless and reckless animals!
So after some consideration, Chen Xu, adhering to the principle of picking the easiest option, temporarily chose London and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Chapter 225 Locking on the Target
The area along the M4 motorway west of London to West Wales is known as the "M4 Corridor," or "Silicon Valley of the UK." It is the heart of the UK's IT industry and home to many large technology companies, including multinational corporations such as Intel, Microsoft, and HP. Berkshire and Thames Valley, in particular, are home to nearly 40 percent of the UK's tech giants.
This is also where Chen Xu was preparing to "catch chickens".
That night, Chen Xu went to London to "catch chickens"... Of course, this doesn't mean his people went there, but rather that he was using the internet to search for targets in London. He was looking for IP addresses with the most computers connected to them, and then began filtering his targets.
Sort by number, Chen Xu saw that one IP address belonged to more than 30,000 subdomains. Hmm, if he could hack them all at once, he would be rich. However, Chen Xu glanced at the real address of this IP and immediately dismissed the idea... Damn, that's the address of MI5 and its subordinate agencies under Parliament, along with the British Computer Security Centre!
If Chen Xu dares to go there, wouldn't he be courting death?!
Hmm, let's scroll down further. This one's not bad, with eight thousand subdomains... But Chen Xu was defeated again after seeing the name: Cambridge University Computer Research Centre.
Ahhh! You have to understand, Chen Xu isn't SMMH anymore! He's just an ordinary hacker with some skill level. How could he dare to mess with someone in a place like this?! Chen Xu finally set his sights on the M4 corridor.