Learning Some More Linux (and Cryptography)

Caesarian Cipher set to encrypt input text by replacing each letter with the letter 19 spaces away from it, counterclockwise.

I continued with the Bandit wargame this week, only completing 6 more levels. It has gotten quite a bit harder since it started demanding at least an intermediate-level understanding of IP/TCP/UDP, "Daemons", and different kinds of encryption, all of which were nearly foreign concepts to me prior beginning the game. The first two concepts I picked up fairly quickly. Encryption, however, is a whole 'notha ballpark. It's also one of the key components of cybersecurity, unsurprisingly. There are SO many different types of encryption, and many of them are still used today in internet protocols. I've gained a basic understanding of SHA-1 and SHA-2 encryption by using SSH to play Bandit. In order to develop a better foundation for learning encryption methods, however, I figured I would start at the roots - cryptography. Understanding how to spot patterns in encrypted data in order to discern the encryption method is one of the most important (and coolest) skills to have as an ethical hacker. This week, I ran through a number of different cryptographic ciphers. The simplest one I came across was the well-known Caesarian Cipher, which I've included above. I think I'll spend another week on ciphers before I move onto the more advanced topics - cryptographic algorithms. This will help me understand why SHA-1 is so insecure in the modern day, and probably open my eyes to many other types of encryption.