I need to learn about hacking. I need to learn, starting at a general level, how it works. Ultimately I'd like to be able to not only understand what all the hacking terms mean but, more importantly, how they work!

For example, I want to be able to take a piece of hackware and examine it, understand it, and know what it really does.

So, all that to say, what are some good resources for a novice?

Don,
   I appreciate the response... here's the problem. I'm enough of a noob that I don't even know what I'm looking for. I'd be happy to search, but my questions don't seem to turn up in a search.

I've been to many forums over the years, and I can appreciate the "Oh no, another noob. USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION!" sentiment... I guess I'll do some more digging, but honestly.... I am very much a noob. So much so that the topics I need to learn about are rarely discussed.

Thanks...

if you are unwilling or unable to learn how to search for the right material or be able to ask the right question, you may need to pick a different hobby.  there is an element of self learning, and having to ask a good question to get a good answer.

but since you are new, i'll help you.  looking at the various forums on this site, pick on the one that has the most posts, which happens to be this one "Ethical Hacking" which has 3000+ posts.  start looking at the topics of the threads, that should be a good start. 

if you are too lazy to do that, dont expect much help.

here's the link: http://www.ethicalhacker.net/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,54/board,22.0/

I'm pretty sure this exists here somewhere...

edit:
Here you go..

VMware Lab Thread

VMware Lab Article

Cheers guys!

I was just giving examples of the types of things i would be interested in reading up on from a quick browse.

Thanks again

Mambo

I say the quest for hacking starts at programming, in which case I'd learn basic programming like QBASIC where a lot of people start.

But honestly I think all the information you need to learn to hack comes from books. I figured I'd just post my suggested reads to you and others that read this topic just in case they come in handy at some point.

The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking (I consider this a beginner's book)
Hacking Exposed 5th/6th Edition (as well as the other Hacking Exposed books)
The Art of Deception and The Art of Intrusion (classic novels)
Stealing The Network Series (definitely covers those concepts + terms)
Hacking: The Art of Exploitation (for advanced readers)

Those are just books that I found VERY useful in my day, and Hacking Exposed is one of the best of books out there read by professoinals everywhere.

Programming books of any kind, I'd suggest C/C++ are good of course to be able to examine a piece of hackware and understand what it does. However, on top of that you may want to look into Socket Programming once you learn the language itself, that's where networking really comes in.

Learning the art of hacking comes with CRAP LOADS of reading, be prepared to read because that's where the quest to quench your never ending thirst for knowledge starts and seems to never end.

One more place to look would be packetstorm or any other similar website's database of whitepapers and other "hacker papers" released to the public. These can be very useful.

Hope I was helpful to somebody.


EDIT: Oh wow, how could I forget the very important SAMS Teach Yourself TCP/IP in 24 Hours? That book really goes into detail and provides a bunch of visual tables and figures for you visual learners... It's great.

If you don't have any programming foundation knowledge, QBasic is as good a place to start as any.   I started with Basic and moved to C.   

I said QBasic because I learned it very well when I was a only a kid in a few weeks if that. I saw enough to thrive for more powerful stuff.

I'm not sure how complex perl or any such scripting is compared to any BASIC languages because I havn't looked into them much but if they're anywhere near as easy then I'd suggest those instead for an introduction.

In my opinion, QBasic is the best way to jump into programming and see fast results, however, I agree that it's a basically useless language in today's world, almost as useless as your flaming.

Back on topic...