The Purple Team Journey by Ozz961

GUI: Graphical user interface The Windows Desktop, aka the graphical user interface or GUI in short, is the screen that welcome you once you log into a windows machine.  Traditionally, you need to pass the login screen first. The login screen is where you need to enter valid account credentials; usually, a username & password of a preexisting Windows account on that particular system or in the Active Directory environment (if it's a domain-joined machine).  https://assets.tryhackme.com/additional/win-fun1/win-desktop2.png The above screenshot is an example of a typical Windows Desktop. Each component that makes up the GUI is explained briefly below. 1.The Desktop 2.Start Menu 3.Search Box (Cortana) 4.Task View 5.Taskbar 6.Toolbars 7.Notification Area The Desktop The desktop is where you will have shortcuts to programs, folders, files, etc. These icons will either be well organized in folders sorted alphabetically or scattered randomly with no specific organization on the d...

 UDP: User Datagram Protocol. UDP is a stateless protocol that does not require a constant connection between the two devices for data to be sent. UDP is used in applications that can tolerate data being lost, or in an unstable connections is not the end-all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advantages of UDP:  1. UDP is much faster than TCP. 2. UDP leaves the application to decide if there is any control over how quickly packets are sent.  3. UDP does not reserve a continuous connection on a device as TCP does. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disadvantages of UDP  1. UDP does not care if the data received or not.  2. It is quite flexible to software developers in this sense. 3. This means that unstable connections result in a terrible experience for the user. --------------------...

Transfer Control Protocol (TCP) is a connection-oriented protocol requiring a TCP three-way-handshake to establish a connection. TCP provides reliable data transfer, flow control and congestion control. Higher-level protocols such as HTTP, POP3, IMAP and SMTP use TCP ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The TCP/IP protocol consists of four layers and is arguably just a summarized version of the OSI model. These layers are: - Application - Transport - Internet - Network Interface Information is added to each layer of the TCP model as the piece of data  traverses it (encapsulation / decapsulation) TCP must establish a connection between both a client and a device acting as a server before data is sent. This process is named the Three-way handshake. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TCP packets contain variou...

Ports 101: Practical. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) 21 This protocol is used by a file-sharing application built on a client-server model, meaning you can download files from a central location. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Secure Shell (SSH) 22 This protocol is used to securely login to systems via a text-based interface for management.    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 80 This protocol powers the World Wide Web (WWW)! Your browser uses this to download text, images and videos of web pages. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) 443 This protocol does the exact same as above; however, securely using encryption...

Layer 1 - Physical This Physical Layer is one of the easiest layers to grasp. This layer references the physical components of the hardware used in networking and is the lowest layer. Devices use electrical signals to transfer data between each other in a binary numbering 1s and 0s.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layer 2 - Data Link The data link layer focuses on the physical addressing of the transmission.  It receives a packet from the network layer and adds in the physical MAC address of the receiving endpoint. MAC: Media Access Control. NIC: Network Interface Card.  NIC comes with a unique MAC address to identify it. MAC addresses can be spoofed.  The job of the data link layer to present the data in a format suitable for transmission. The physical address is used on this layer to identify where exactly to send the information. --------------------------------------------------------...

 A Primer on Subnetting ------------------------------- Subnet Mask As we've previously discussed throughout the module so far, Networks can be found in all shapes and sizes - ranging from small to large. Subnetting is the term given to splitting up a network into smaller, miniature networks within itself. Think of it as slicing up a cake for your friends. There's only a certain amount of cake to go around, but everybody wants a piece. Subnetting is you deciding who gets what slice & reserving such a slice of this metaphorical cake. Picture Subnets use IP addresses in three different ways: * Identify the network address * Identify the host address * Identify the default gateway ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Purpose of a Network Address: This address identifies the start of the actual network and is used to identify a network's existence. For example, a device with the IP address of 192.16...

 Introducing LAN Topologies LAN: Local Area Network. ---------------------------------------------- 1- Star Topology ---------------------------------------------- * The main premise of a star topology is that devices are individually connected via a central networking device such as a switch or hub.  This topology is the most commonly found today because of its reliability and scalability - despite the cost. * Because more cabling & the purchase of dedicated networking equipment is required for this topology, it is more expensive than any of the other topologies. *  more maintenance is required to keep the network functional. * if the centralized hardware that connects devices fails, these devices will no longer be able to send or receive data. ---------------------------------------------- 2- Bus Topology * This type of connection relies upon a single connection which is known as a backbone cable.  This type of topology is similar to the leaf off of a tree in t...

* A Bit of Background on Linux Linux is a command line operating system based on Unix. There are multiple operating systems that are based on Linux. Linux is just another operating system and one of the most popular in the world powering smart cars, android devices, supercomputers, home appliances, enterprise servers, and more. -------------------------------------------- Linux powers things such as: - Websites that you visit. - Car entertainment/control panels. - Point of Sale (PoS) systems such as checkout tills and registers in shops. - Critical infrastructures such as traffic light controllers or industrial sensors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flavors of Linux The name "Linux" is actually an umbrella term for multiple OS's that are based on UNIX (another operating system). Thanks to UNIX being open-source, variants of Linux comes in all shapes and sizes - suited best for what the system ...