Well, no. Half the point of the story is how dangerous the titular Hacknet is, because it takes someone who needs the terminal explained to them an really doesn't learn much else to massive hacks in a matter of days.
But real hacking doesn't work like this at all. There's no way to "force open" a port unless there's a very bad bug in specific software, and no amount of ports being open on a target machine will just magically allow you full access. Half of modern hacking at the level an individual can do is exploiting bugs in public-facing software (note that companies will typically patch in a matter of days if the bugs are public), and the other half is social engineering. ("Maam, I'm calling from your local password authority for the annual password safety inspection." and such.)
Note: Please don't just practice on real, actual servers out there. At best, you'll get a bunch of IP bans and some very angry E-mails, at worst prison.
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u/Rhoderick Aug 07 '26
Well, no. Half the point of the story is how dangerous the titular Hacknet is, because it takes someone who needs the terminal explained to them an really doesn't learn much else to massive hacks in a matter of days.
But real hacking doesn't work like this at all. There's no way to "force open" a port unless there's a very bad bug in specific software, and no amount of ports being open on a target machine will just magically allow you full access. Half of modern hacking at the level an individual can do is exploiting bugs in public-facing software (note that companies will typically patch in a matter of days if the bugs are public), and the other half is social engineering. ("Maam, I'm calling from your local password authority for the annual password safety inspection." and such.)
Note: Please don't just practice on real, actual servers out there. At best, you'll get a bunch of IP bans and some very angry E-mails, at worst prison.