How to Hack a Gmail Account

Every day there are many people that are searching and trying to find out how to hack a Gmail account.  As I’m sure you know this is Google’s free email solution that is coupled with other free services like Google Docs and Google Drive. And as we would all expect from a Google service, it is incredibly secure. In fact, to even setup an account, there are several verification steps designed to weed out bots, fake accounts, and hackers. Not only do you need to link another email account to Gmail, but you also have to use phone verification to identify yourself before your account is activated.

With so many security features, it may seem that Gmail is an impenetrable iron fortress that hackers can’t ever hope to break into. Unfortunately, that is not the case. There are a variety of methods that hackers can use to hack these accounts, and you need to be aware of them if you have any hope of avoiding becoming a victim.

Disclaimer

It can’t be said enough: no one should abuse this knowledge and actually attempt to break into a Gmail account. Doing so is illegal and it could land you in a boatload of trouble, not to mention violating moral principles such as the right to privacy. We are looking at this purely from and academic perspective, and knowing how black hat hackers operate will increase your skills and knowledge as a white hat hacker.

Method 1: The Keylogger

A keylogger is probably one of the most effective and popular ways to hack all kinds of information. Though some services are so strong that even the most talented hacker would have trouble finding vulnerabilities, more often than, all of these security features can be undone with a keylogger.

A keylogger is a type of software (or hardware) that runs in the background of the target’s computer, and it records every single keystroke they enter. Though many advanced hackers employ complex methods of installing keyloggers remotely, such as embedding the program in P2P file downloads and other types of software, even novices can install these programs if they have access to the target’s computer. However, some keylogger programs have tools that help the attacker complete the installation remotely, such as Realtime-Spy.

And hardware keyloggers are even easier to install, because they typically look like a PS2 jack of USB flash drive that can easily be inserted into the back of a desktop computer – without the target being any the wiser. Many of them are even undetectable by the latest antirust and anti-spyware software.

Method 2: Phishing

Phishing still remains and extremely effective way for hackers to steal login credentials, payment card information, and a multitude of other types of data. Essentially, the hacker tries to setup a website (with a bogus URL) that looks and behaves exactly like another website – which is Gmail in this scenario. All the attacker really needs to do is copy the web code from the login screen, add a small amount of PHP code, and then harvest usernames and passwords.

After the false phishing site has been setup, the hacker then sends links to the bogus site to all of their victims. A careless user won’t see that the URL is slightly different and consequently send their username and password straight into the hands of the attacker. Then the phishing site typically redirects the user to the genuine site to avoid suspicion. Though there are a lot of phishing filters and web URL blacklists that attempt to stamp out phishing, there are always new phishing sites popping up and there is nothing we can do to eliminate them completely.

Method 3: Social Engineering

Social engineering has remained another effective alternative for hackers to steal users’ login credentials for decades. The idea is to impersonate another individual or to dupe the target into willingly forfeiting their login credentials, and there are several ways to do this.

The first way is to create a false account that has an address that looks like it belongs to a friend, acquaintance, or colleague of the victim. Then there are a variety of lies a hacker can tell such as they need your login information to recover their account, etc. In addition, hackers often mimic administrators or Google employees in an effort to garner more trust from their victims.

Some spam emails claim that Google was recently hacked and that they need your username and password to check if your account has been compromised. But Google employees will never ask you for your account information, so remember that you should never hand over your login credentials to a third party – even if they seem to be legitimate.  

Method 4: Stealing Cookies

There are a number of ways to steal cookies from other users’ sessions and to inject the into your own web browser. Tools like Firecookie, Wireshark Cookie Injector, GreasMonkey for Firefox, and a myriad of other tools will allow you to sniff out a cookie on the local LAN and then use that cookie to hijack the user’s session.

The easiest place for a hacker to perform this attack is on public Wi-Fi networks like those found at cafes, but some hackers engage in war driving to find weak or exposed wireless networks. The bottom line is that once the cookie has been stolen, the attacker can then login to the account and read emails, send emails, and change account settings to block the original user.

Final Thoughts

Though an average user typically doesn’t stand a fighting chance against a skilled hacker, there are certainly a variety of measures that can be taken to minimize the chance of being hacked. First and foremost, make sure you never give your password out to another individual – even if they’re your friend. Secondly, always make sure that you log out of Gmail when you are finished perusing your email to prevent becoming the victim of session hijacking. And last but not least, everyone should be regularly scanning their computer with antivirus and antispyware software to help decrease the chance of becoming infected with a keylogger and other similar types of dubious programs that lead to someone hacking your Gmail account as well.

WEAK PASSWORDS : How hackers exploit this Loophole

WEAK PASSWORDS : How hackers exploit this Loophole

Users are the weakest connect between any security policy . The users are fooled into clicking on the phishing links and running the malware .

How Hackers Target Easy passwords

But even to this day , the most crucial security loophole remains to to be a weak password . Password that do not follow the required security measure in them can be defined as weak or easy passwords . The most common examples of weak password is the password that is too short (vulnerable to bruteforce attack) or that can be guessed easily (vulnerable to dictionary attack)

Everybody knows better, but our lousy memories somehow convince us it is okay to choose a password that will be easy to remember.

Turns out, your easy-to-remember password may also be incredibly common–and thus easy for hackers to guess. According to an annual listing created by password management security firm SplashData, many people

“continue to put themselves at risk for hacking and identity theft by using weak passwords, easily guessable passwords.”

After analyzing over 2 million passwords scraped from various password dumps, SplashData ranked the top 25 worst offenders, starting with ‘123456,’ and followed closely by ‘password.’

The ridiculous obviousness of many users’ passwords won’t come as a surprise to most security pros. And indeed, some sites do try to force users into selecting stronger passwords, enforcing a minimum length (as evidenced by the third worst password, ‘12345678’) or requiring that numbers and letters both be included (enter ‘abc123’ and ‘passw0rd’ in 13th and 24th places respectively).

The weak passwords list does suggest that in a few cases, users are actually trying with slightly less obvious-seeming choices while using keyboard patterns as memory triggers. This wouldn’t be a bad strategy if it weren’t also entirely too common, with ‘qwerty’ showing up in 4th place, ‘1qazwsx’ (the left two columns on the keyboard) in the 15th spot, and ‘qwertyuiop’ sitting a little lower in 22nd position.

Rounding out the list are a variety of common words, like football, baseball, princess, and starwars. Your own social circle likely inspires a few individuals in your mind that are likely offenders with those credentials.

Passwords: ‘123456’ and ‘password’ are too short, so some users switch to ‘12345678’

It isn’t just individuals who should be concerned. Good quality passwords reduce the hackability of websites and other systems. To assist organizations with buttoning up this common weakness, the National Institute of Standards and Technology provides recommendations for developing and enforcing policies for password length and complexity.

As for individual recommendations, SplashData suggests three simple actions:

• Use passwords or pass-phrases with a
• minimum of twelve mixed types of characters
• avoid reusing passwords on different websites
• and consider using a password manager to organize and protect your passwords.

Oh, and don’t worry… when you forget your new bullet-proof password it can generally be retrieved with a “super-secure” query for your mother’s maiden name or the city where you were born. (And yes, we’re being sarcastic, because anybody with a Facebook account could find those details for many of us in a matter of minutes.).