The Terminal app allows you to control your Mac using a command prompt. Why would you want to do that? Well, perhaps because you’re used to working on a command line in a Unix-based system and prefer to work that way. Terminal is a Mac command line interface. There are several advantages to using Terminal to accomplish some tasks — it’s usually quicker, for example. In order to use it, however, you’ll need to get to grips with its basic commands and functions. Once you’ve done that, you can dig deeper and learn more commands and use your Mac’s command prompt for more complex, as well as some fun, tasks.
Curated Mac apps that keep your Mac’s performance under control. Avoid Terminal commands, avoid trouble.
Look Like a Hacker! (Batch File): In this quick and easy Instructable you can trick your friends into thinking that you hack! Introduction: Look Like a Hacker! (Batch File) By BatchProgrammer Follow. More by the author: In this quick and easy Instructable you can trick your friends into thinking that you hack! Is it possible to put your self in harm by copying this and pasting it on a command prompt just to look cool and doing it twice.like i am soooo scared rn. Thats 50 top Terminal commands, I wanted to go to 100 but I couldn’t find 100 good commands. If you have any tips please leave a comment below explaining what the tips does and why you like it. If you just want to leave a comment you can, just be clear, since garbled comments are hard to understand.
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How to open Terminal on Mac
The Terminal app is in the Utilities folder in Applications. To open it, either open your Applications folder, then open Utilities and double-click on Terminal, or press Command - spacebar to launch Spotlight and type 'Terminal,' then double-click the search result.
You’ll see a small window with a white background open on your desktop. In the title bar are your username, the word 'bash' and the dimensions of the window in pixels. Bash stands for 'Bourne again shell'. There are a number of different shells that can run Unix commands, and on the Mac Bash is the one used by Terminal.
If you want to make the window bigger, click on the bottom right corner and drag it outwards. If you don’t like the black text on a white background, go to the Shell menu, choose New Window and select from the options in the list.
If Terminal feels complicated or you have issues with the set-up, let us tell you right away that there are alternatives. MacPilot allows to get access to over 1,200 macOS features without memorizing any commands. Basically, a third-party Terminal for Mac that acts like Finder.
For Mac monitoring features, try iStat Menus. The app collects data like CPU load, disk activity, network usage, and more — all of which accessible from your menu bar.
Basic Mac commands in Terminal
The quickest way to get to know Terminal and understand how it works is to start using it. But before we do that, it’s worth spending a little time getting to know how commands work. To run a command, you just type it at the cursor and hit Return to execute.
Every command is made up of three elements: the command itself, an argument which tells the command what resource it should operate on, and an option that modifies the output. So, for example, to move a file from one folder to another on your Mac, you’d use the move command 'mv' and then type the location of the file you want to move, including the file name and the location where you want to move it to.
Let’s try it.
Type cd ~/Documentsthen and press Return to navigate to your Home folder.
Type lsthen Return (you type Return after every command).
You should now see a list of all the files in your Documents folder — ls is the command for listing files.
To see a list of all the commands available in Terminal, hold down the Escape key and then press y when you see a question asking if you want to see all the possibilities. To see more commands, press Return.
Unix has its own built-in manual. So, to learn more about a command type man [name of command], where 'command' is the name of the command you want find out more about.
Terminal rules
There are a few things you need to bear in mind when you’re typing commands in Terminal, or any other command-line tool. Firstly, every character matters, including spaces. So when you’re copying a command you see here, make sure you include the spaces and that characters are in the correct case.
You can’t use a mouse or trackpad in Terminal, but you can navigate using the arrow keys. If you want to re-run a command, tap the up arrow key until you reach it, then press Return. To interrupt a command that’s already running, type Control-C.
Commands are always executed in the current location. So, if you don’t specify a location in the command, it will run wherever you last moved to or where the last command was run. Use the cdcommand, followed by a directory path, like in Step 1 above, to specify the folder where you want a command to run.
There is another way to specify a location: go to the Finder, navigate to the file or folder you want and drag it onto the Terminal window, with the cursor at the point where you would have typed the path.
Here’s another example. This time, we’ll create a new folder inside your Documents directory and call it 'TerminalTest.'
Open a Finder window and navigate to your Documents folder.
Type cd and drag the Documents folder onto the Terminal window.
Now, type mkdir 'TerminalTest'
Go back to the Finder, open Text Edit and create a new file called 'TerminalTestFile.rtf'. Now save it to the TerminalTest folder in your Documents folder.
In the Terminal window, type cd ~/Documents/TerminalTest then Return. Now type lsand you should see 'TerminalTestFile' listed.
To change the name of the file, type this, pressing Return after every step:
cd~/Documents/Terminal Test
mv TerminalTestFile TerminalTestFile2.rtf
That will change the name of the file to 'TerminalTestFile2'. You can, of course, use any name you like. The mv command means 'move' and you can also use it to move files from one directory to another. In that case, you’d keep the file names the same, but specify another directory before typing the the second instance of the name, like this:
Terminal can be used for all sorts of different tasks. Some of them can be performed in the Finder, but are quicker in Terminal. Others access deep-rooted parts of macOS that aren’t accessible from the Finder without specialist applications. Here are a few examples.
Copy files from one folder to another
In a Terminal window, type ditto [folder 1] [folder 1] where 'folder 1' is the folder that hosts the files and 'folder 2' is the folder you want to move them to.
To see the files being copied in the Terminal window, type -v after the command.
Download files from the internet
You’ll need the URL of the file you want to download in order to use Terminal for this.
cd ~/Downloads/
curl -O [URL of file you want to download]
If you want to download the file to a directory other than your Downloads folder, replace ~/Downloads/ with the path to that folder, or drag it onto the Terminal window after you type the cd command.
Change the default location for screenshots
If you don’t want macOS to save screenshots to your Desktop when you press Command-Shift-3, you can change the default location in Terminal
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [path to folder where you want screenshots to be saved]
Hit Return
killall SystemUIServer
Hit Return
Change the default file type for screenshots
By default, macOS saves screenshots as .png files. To change that to .jpg, do this:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
Press Return
killall SystemUIServer
Press Return
Delete all files in a folder
The command used to delete, or remove, files in Terminal is rm. So, for example, if you wanted to remove a file in your Documents folder named 'oldfile.rtf' you’d use cd ~/Documents to go to your Documents folder then to delete the file. As it stands, that will delete the file without further intervention from you. If you want to confirm the file to be deleted, use -i as in rm -i oldfile.rtf
To delete all the files and sub-folders in a directory named 'oldfolder', the command is rm -R oldfolder and to confirm each file should be deleted, rm -iR oldfolder
Just because you can use Terminal to delete files on your Mac, doesn’t mean you should. It’s a relatively blunt instrument, deleting only those files and folders you specify.
Another way to free up space
If your goal in removing files or folders is to free up space on your Mac, or to remove junk files that are causing your Mac to run slowly, it’s far better to use an app designed for the purpose. CleanMyMac X is one such app.
It will scan your Mac for files and recommend which ones you can delete safely, as well as telling you how much space you’ll save. And once you’ve decided which files to delete, you can get rid of them in a click. You can download CleanMyMac here.
As you can see, while Terminal may look scary and seem like it’s difficult to use, it really isn’t. The key is learning a few commands, such as those we’ve outlined above, and getting to know the syntax for those commands.
However, you should be careful when using Terminal, it’s a powerful tool that has deep access to your Mac’s system files. Check commands by googling them if you’re not sure what they do. And if you need to delete files to save space, use an app like CleanMyMac X to do it. https://powerfultesting205.weebly.com/hack-run-for-mac.html. It’s much safer!
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Just about every geek and nerd that wants to be a hacker always wants to skip straight to the good stuff, and it’s no wonder why. There’s a certain amount of mystery, intrigue, and awe in being able to used advanced tools (such as those found on Kali Linux like Metasploit) to hack into another computing system. Hackers have been around for decades now, and are frequently present in action and thriller films, such as The Matrix. And to be fair, we’ve gone through some detailed guides that show how to use these tools.
For instance, we’ve already covered NMAP, Metasploit, and other similar tools. But there’s one big problem. These tools work almost exclusively at the command line, or in Linux, the BASH shell. And even the highest quality guides are flawed – especially in the hands of a newb. You see, a single article can’t hope to cover every eventuality, caveat, an ‘gotchas.’
Computers are composed of individual parts made all around the world, and assimilated as a hodgepodge of different manufacturers’ parts. The amount and type of memory, wireless card, processor architecture, HDD or SDD, peripheral devices, and more vary greatly from system to system, and Kali (or for that matter, Linux) can’t hope to to run exactly the same on every different piece of hardware.
Even if you’re hacking guide is highly detailed, chances are that you’ll run into a surprising error that doesn’t fit in nicely with your guide’s 12 easy steps. And most guides can’t hope to account for every single error. Doing so would lie far outside the scope of the guide.
As such, it’s imperative that hackers and penetration testers who want to learn how to hack have a solid foundational knowledge of common BASH shell concepts. Look folks, though they may not be the most ‘sexy’ commands, there are some simple commands that you need to know like the back of your hand.
If you get caught on the job not knowing how to run these simple commands, you’re likely going to get laughed out of the office – and perhaps even be handed a pink slip. So, today we’re going to be talking about general purpose BASH commands that you really need to know before moving on to advanced hacking topics. Basically, you need to be comfortable in a command line environment, so let’s start with one of my favorites: network interface configuration commands.
The network interface commands are also exceptionally useful for troubleshooting connectivity problems. Also, note that with few exceptions, the following commands are mostly universal. That is, they can be utilized on almost all varieties of Linux, and some of them can even be used in an OSX environment since Mac OSX is a descendant of BSD.
For reference, we are going to be taking a closer look at how to make shell configurations regarding the following topics:
Network interfaces
Canceling commands
Default gateways and routes
Piping commands
Viewing and killing processes
File system navigation
Many of these topics will be useful to those wishing to test for Linux certifications such as the Comptia Linux+ or LPI certs. To put it bluntly, you should really know these basics before trying to run advanced packet capture and Metasploit demos. So, without further adieu, let’s start with the network interface commands.
Network Interfaces
Whether using an internal wireless card in your laptop, Ethernet, or an external USB wireless interface, you had better darn well know how to configure them. Just about all of the wireless hacking demos we’ve run involve configuring a wireless interface in some way, and you need to know how read their current configuration. So, let’s start with the basics. The following command pulls up current interface configuration data:
ifconfig
Those of you who have worked in the Windows command prompt can easily remember this command, because it only has a single character that varies from the Window’s ipconfig command. Go ahead and run it, and notice that all of the data is separated by interface.
This command is incredibly useful because it will quickly display encapsulation type, MAC address, IP address, broadcast address, subnet mask, transmit and receive packet-count, total information sent over the interface, and other useful information. But it doesn’t show all the available data for that interface. For a more detailed report of interface data, simply run the following command:
ifconfig -a
In the command listed above, the -a parameter indicates ‘all.’ It will show incredibly detailed information that is useful to network engineers, and can help troubleshoot network interface problems. If your terminal window is getting too messy, you can simply enter the clear command to clear things up a bit. Also, you can run ifconfig followed by an interface’s name to only display parameters for that individual interface.
Furthermore, you’re going to need to know how to bring an interface online and offline (or up and down). Often times, after making a configuration change to an individual interface, it’s necessary to ‘bounce’ the interface by bringing it down, and then bringing it up again. You do need to have administrative privilges to run these commands. Also, note that if you’re running a live version of Linux – such as one installed on a bootable USB flash drive like Ubuntu Live – you’ll likely need to precede the commands with the sudo command.
So, for instance, if I wanted to reset my Ethernet interface, I would run the ifconfig eth0 down command. After waiting for a decent amount of time (30 seconds at least to be safe), I’d then run the ifconfig eth0 up. Note that the interface’s name includes a zero rather than the letter of the alphabet sandwiched between ‘N’ and ‘P.’ Your interface names may differ, too, so just run the ifconfig command to display the interfaces’ names.
And arguably, one of the largest reasons that Linux is so powerful is due to it’s command line. You can make configurations within seconds without having to go through long and contrived GUI windows to find the correct setting. It would be a good idea to know how to change IP address information on a per-interface basis as follows:
ifconfig eth0 10.1.1.2
ifconfig eth0 netmask 255.255.255.0
ifconfig eth0 broadcast 10.1.1.255
In order, these commands will set the IP address, subnet mask, and broadcast address of the specified interface – which is eth0 in this example. Next up, you’ll also want to know how to set an interface in promiscuous mode. This is an undoubtedly crucial tool for most kinds of wireless hacking, so let’s first define what this mode does.
Through various network mediums and address types (such as broadcast frames on wireless interfaces or broadcast data like ARP protocol data), an interface can be presented with frames that weren’t addressed to the receiving interface. The default action of the interface is to drop these packets, since it’s not the intended destination. However, many attacks leverage the information contained within the frames and packets.
By setting the interface in promiscuous mode, the interface will receive and process the frames that weren’t intended for it, and instead send them to the CPU for processing. Use the following command:
ifconfig eth0 promisc
This mode of operation is frequently used in a lot of different network tools, such as protocol analyzers and packet captures. If you want to shut off promiscuous mode on an interface, simply run the following command:
ifconfig eth0 -promisc
Canceling a Command
Sometimes, for whatever reason, you may find that a command has frozen, locked up, or is simply taking too long to complete. Linux novices typically find this incredibly frustrating, and don’t know how to cancel the command. Instead, they simply close out the terminal window and open a new one – but there’s a much simpler way. Simply issue the following command hotkey to cancel currently running command or one that is hanging:
ctrl + c
To test it out, run something like a ping command. For instance, ping Google’s DNS servers with the ping 8.8.8.8 command. You’ll notice that the shell will continue pinging the server on an endless loop. To stop the ping operation, just run the ctrl + c command and it should terminate.
Default Gateway and Routes
Every competent network engineer and penetration tester should have a firm grasp on routing technologies. It’s fairly atypical to setup custom routes for an individual computer, because that function is typically controlled by routers. Nevertheless, you should know how to view your Linux system’s routing table. And the command couldn’t be simpler, as follows:
route
The most practical purpose for this command is to check and verify your default route. In a home setting, the default route is going to almost always be your wireless router. But in corporate and professional network environments, there may be more complex configurations.
Piping Commands
One of the wonderful and powerful qualities of the BASH shell is that one command’s output can be used as input for another command. These features are unbelievably flexible, and allow for command formatting and complex configurations. However, we’re only going to be discussing the most rudimentary of piping techniques today.
You may have noticed that sometimes when entering a command, the entire shell window fills up with loads of text that all flit by in fractions of a second. If you want to read the output page by page, you can simply pipe it to the less command. The pipe symbol is located directly above the enter key on most keyboards, and looks like a solid vertical line. The syntax to pipe command output to less follows:
[command] | less
We’re going to be using this in the services and daemons section, but for now test it out on a simple command. For instance, issue the following command:
ifconfig -a | less
Doing so will display your network interface information one page at a time. Now you can use the arrow keys to move up and down the output, or hit the spacebar to move down an entire page. If you want to exit the output display, simply type the ‘q’ key to quit and be returned to the command prompt.
Viewing and Killing Currently Running Processes
There are a seemingly endless number of process running diligently in the background of your Linux system. It would be of great benefit to know how to view them and potentially kill them. Sometimes a process might malfunction, and even cause a memory leak. There are so many processes that, for the sake of this demonstration, we’re going to be piping the command output to less. Run the following command:
ps aux | less
Note that there are actually several ways to view currently running processes, too. Alternatively, you can use the jobs or top commands. They will show you related information, such as the owner, process ID, and other vital information about background processes.
However, once in a while, you may need to shut one of these processes down. It’s rare for a process to render a Linux system completely unusable. Nevertheless, runaway and zombie background processes aren’t uncommon in a Window’s environment. And you should also consider that Linux is susceptible to viruses more than ever before. So, being able to kill a process is crucial. Simply use the following command:
kill[process_id]
For example, if I wanted to kill my Firefox process because it crashed and wasn’t behaving properly, I would issue the command as follows:
kill 17648
It’s just a matter of looking up the process ID before running the kill command.
File System Navigation
Though understanding the entirety of the Linux file system lies far outside the scope of this guide, knowing how to navigate the file system from the command line is one of the most basic and fundamental skills. The first command you need to know relates to knowing which directory you reside in.
In Linux, this is known as your current working directory. And the command to display that information is known as the print working directory command, as follows:
pwd
By default, you’re likely in the home directory. To change directories, simply use the following command:
cd [directory]
For instance, if I wanted to change to the root directory (assuming I had root privileges), I would type ‘cd /’. Also, if you simply wanted to move up one level to the next highest directory, you can issue the ‘cd ./’ command. But knowing what files and folders are available for navigation requires you to run the list command. Doing so will show you all files and folders within your current working directory. The basic command is as follows:
ls
This command will simply display common files and folders, but it has several useful parameters to display more information. If you wished to view the read, write, and edit permissions for the current user or group, simply issue a long-listing command as follows:
ls -l
This command will also display when a file was created or last edited, though it won’t display hidden files. If you’re trying to make a configuration change to an application file, it will likely be hidden, so simply run the following command:
ls -a
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Note that all of the hidden files and folders will be preceded with the ‘.’ character. There are actually a lot of different flags that can be used with the ls command, but this should suffice for basic file system navigation. Between the ls, cd, and pwd commands, you should be able to navigate throughout your HDD/SDD’s Linux file system by only using the terminal.
Final Thoughts
These don’t make up every foundational command that you should learn in order to be competent using the BASH shell. However, these are certainly some of the most important from a perspective of penetration testing and hacking. In particular, you should learn the ifconfig and route commands, and know them like the back of your hand.
If you’re new to the BASH shell, I’d learn these commands – and learn them well – before pursuing harder tutorials. But after using the shell for a while, perhaps as little as a week or two, they should become second nature to you. And having the ability to pull up all of this information on the fly is what makes Linux so powerful.
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You won’t have to navigate through a tedious organization of text fields and GUI windows. Though Windows does have the CMD prompt, it isn’t anywhere near as powerful as the BASH shell. Once you factor in the ability to write and run scripts and use advanced tools like Metasploit, you’ll begin to understand what makes Kali Linux so formidable. Stay tuned for more tutorials as well, because we’ll run through tutorials to help demystify the most popular Kali command line tools that hackers and penetration testers use to break other computing systems.