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Getting the Internet Protocol or the IP Address of a remote
system is said to the most important step in hacking of a system.
Sometimes, however we get an IP in order to get more information on
someone or some host.
But, how can an IP Address be used to get more
information on the location etc of a system?
Well, this manual is
aimed at answering just this question.
Actually, the IP address (Actually the entire TCP/IP
Protocol) is structured or designed such that one cannot tell as to
in which country a system having the given IP is situated, by simply
looking at it. An IP Address has no fields, which tell you the
country in which the computer using it resides in.
So, all myths
like ‘The Second or the third field of an IP stands for the country
in which the system using it resides’ are definitely false and
untrue.
However, yes sometimes one can guess or deduce as to in
which country and even in which city the system using an IP resides
in, by simply looking at the first three fields of the IP. Let us
take an example to understand what I mean to say by this. Now,
before I move on the example, let us understand how exactly IP
Addresses are awarded to you.
Firstly, your ISP registers at the central authority and
gets a particular range of IP addresses between which the various
customers (people who dial into their servers) can be awarded IP
addresses. Most ISP’s are given a Class C network Address. A class C
Network address contains a 24-bit Network Prefix (the first three
fields) and an 8-bit Host number (the last field). It is referred to
as "24's" and is commonly used by most ISP's.
******************
HACKING TRUTH:
For the benefit of beginners, I have included below a
snippet from one of my earlier manuals, which explains IP Addresses
better: (Even if you are not a newbie, I do suggest you read the
below snippet, as it might just be helpful.)
Like in the real world, everyone has got an individual Home
Address or telephone number so that, that particular individual can
be contacted on that number or address, similarly all computers
connected to the Internet are given a unique Internet Protocol or IP
address which can be used to contact that particular computer. In
geek language an IP address would be a decimal notation that divides
the 32- bit Internet addresses (IP) into four 8-bit fields.
Does the IP
address give me some information or do the numbers stand for
anything?
Let take the example of the following IP address:
202.144.49.110 Now the first part, the numbers before the first
decimal i.e. 209 is the Network number or the Network Prefix.. This
means that it identifies the number of the network in which the host
is. The second part i.e. 144 is the Host Number that is it
identifies the number of the host within the Network. This means
that in the same Network, the network number is same. In order to
provide flexibility in the size of the Network, here are different
classes of IP addresses:
Address Class
Dotted Decimal Notation Ranges
Class A ( /8 Prefixes) 1.xxx.xxx.xxx through
126.xxx.xxx.xxx
Class B ( /16 Prefixes) 128.0.xxx.xxx through
191.255.xxx.xxx
Class C ( /24 Prefixes) 192.0.0.xxx through
223.255.255.xxx
The various classes will be clearer after reading the next
few lines.
Each Class A Network Address contains a 8 bit Network
Prefix followed by a 24-bit host number. They are considered to be
primitive. They are referred to as "/8''s" or just "8's" as they
have an 8-bit Network prefix.
In a Class B Network Address there is a 16 bit Network
Prefix followed by a 16-bit Host number. It is referred to as
"16's".
A class C Network address contains a 24-bit Network Prefix
and a 8 bit Host number. It is referred to as "24's" and is commonly
used by most ISP's.
Due to the growing size of the Internet the Network
Administrators faced many problems. The Internet routing tables were
beginning to grow and now the administrators had to request another
network number from the Internet before a new network could be
installed at their site. This is where sub-netting came in.
Now if your ISP is a big one and if it provides you with
dynamic IP addresses then you will most probably see that whenever
you log on to the net, your IP address will have the same first 24
bits and only the last 8 bits will keep changing. This is due to the
fact that when sub-netting comes in then the IP Addresses structure
becomes:
xxx.xxx.zzz.yyy
where the first 2 parts are Network Prefix numbers and the
zzz is the Subnet number and the yyy is the host number. So you are
always connected to the same Subnet within the same Network. As a
result the first 3 parts will remain the same and only the last part
i.e. yyy is variable.
***********************
For Example, if say an ISP xyz is given the IP:
203.98.12.xx Network address then you can be awarded any IP, whose
first three fields are 203.98.12. Get it?
So, basically this means that each ISP has a particular
range in which to allocate all its subscribers. Or in other words,
all subscribers or all people connected to the internet using the
same ISP, will have to be in this range. This in effect would mean
that all people using the same ISP are likely to have the same first
three fields of their IP Addresses.
This means that if you have done a lot of (By this I really
mean a lot) of research, then you could figure out which ISP a
person is using by simply looking at his IP. The ISP name could then
be used to figure out the city and the country of the person. Right?
Let me take an example to stress as to how cumbersome but easy (once
the research is done) the above method can be.
In my country, say there are three main ISP’s:
ISP Name Network Address Allotted
ISP I 203.94.47.xx
ISP II 202.92.12.xx
ISP III 203.91.35.xx
Now, if I get to know the IP of an e-pal of mine, and it
reads: 203.91.35.12, then I can pretty easily figure out that he
uses ISP III to connect to the internet. Right? You might say that
any idiot would be able to do this. Well, yes and no. You see, the
above method of finding out the ISP of a person was successful only
because we already had the ISP and Network Address Allotted list
with us. So, what my point is, that the above method can be
successful only after a lot of research and experimentation. And, I
do think such research can be helpful sometimes.
Also, this would not work, if you take it all on in larger
scale. What if the IP that you have belongs to someone living in a
remote igloo in the North Pole? You could not possibly get the
Network Addresses of all the ISP’s in the world, could you?
Note: In the above case, you also get to know the city of
the system using the given IP, as most ISP’s use different network
addresses in different cities. Also, some ISP’s are operational in a
single city.
So, is there a better method of getting the location of an
IP? Yes, Reverse DNS lookups hold the key.
Just as DNS lookup converts the hostname into IP address, a
Reverse DNS Lookup converts the IP address of a host to the
hostname. By hostname, what I mean to say is that it given us the
name of the remote system in alphabets and numbers and periods. For
Example, mail2.bol.net.in would be a hostname, while 203.45.67.98
would not be a hostname.
The popular and wonderful Unix utility ‘nslookup’ can be
used for performing Reverse DNS lookups.
So, if you using a *nix box or if you have access to a
shell account, then the first this to do is to locate where the
nslookup command is hidden by issuing the following command:
' whereis nslookup '
Once you locate where the utility is hidden, you could
easily use it to perform both normal and reverse DNS lookups. As
this is not a manual on using the ‘nslookup’ command, I will simply
giving a basic relevant outline. In order to get a more detailed
description of how this works or how to use it, read the *nix man
pages or the documentation.
We can use ‘nslookup’ to perform a reverse DNS lookup by
mentioning the IP of the host at the prompt.
For Example,
$>nslookup IP Address
Note: The below IP’s and corresponding hostnames have been
made up. They may not actually exist.
Let us say, that above, instead of IP Address, we type
203.94.12.01 (which would be the IP I want to trace)
$>nslookup 203.94.12.01
Then, you would receive a response similar to:
mail2.bol.net.in
Now, if you carefully look at the hostname that the Reverse
DNS lookup, gave us, then the last part reveals the country in which
system resides in. You see, the ‘.in’ part signifies that the system
is located in India. All countries have been allotted country codes,
which more often than not are the last part of the hostnames of the
systems located in that country. This method can also be used to
figure out as to which country a person lives in, if you know his
email address. For Example, if a person has an email address ending
in .ph then he probably lives in Philippines and if it ends in .il
then he lives in Israel and so on. Some common country codes are:
Country Code
Australia .au
Indonesia .id
India .in
Japan .jp
Israel .il
Britain .uk
For a complete list of country codes, visit:
http://www.alldomains.com
http://www.iana.org/domain-names.html
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General Extra Tip: To get the complete list of US State
Abbreviation codes, visit:
http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/abbr_state.txt
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Windows users can perform Reverse DNS queries by
downloading an utility called Samspade from: www.samspade.com
Another method of getting the exact geographical location
of a system on the globe is by making use of the WHOIS database. The
WHOIS database is basically the main database, which contains a
variety of information like contact details, name etc on the person
who owns a particular domain name. So, basically what one does in a
WHOIS query, is supply the WHOIS service with the hostname on which
he wants more information. The WHOIS service then replies with the
information stored in its database.
This method can be used to get some pretty accurate
information on a particular IP or hostname; however, it is probably
of no use if you are trying to point out the exact location of a
dynamic IP. But, again this can be used to get atleast the city in
which the ISP used by the victim is situated.
You can carry out WHOIS queries at: http://www.allwhois.com
You could also directly enter the following in the location
bar of your Browser and perform a WHOIS enquiry.
Enter the following in the location bar of your browser:
http://205.177.25.9/cgi-bin/whois?abc.com
Note: Replace abc.com with the domain name on which you
want to perform a WHOIS query.
This method cannot be used to get the contact address of a
person, if the IP that you use to trace him, belongs to his ISP. So,
either you need to know the domain name (which is registered on his
name) or have to remain satisfied knowing only the city (and ISP)
used by the person.
Say, the victim has registered a domain name and you want
to use it to find out the city in which he resides. Now, one thing
to remember in this case is that, if the victim has registered the
domain name using any of the various free .com registration services
like Namezero.com etc, then the domain name would probably be
registered on the company’s name and not the victim’s name. So, a
WHOIS query will give information on the ISP and not the victim.
*****************
NEWBIE Note: The WHOIS service by default runs on Port 43
of a system. Try performing a WHOIS query by telnetting to Port 43
and manually typing out the query. I have never tried it, however,
it might be fun.
***************
Yet another and probably the second most efficient method
(after Reverse DNS queries) of tracing an IP to its exact
geographical location, is to carry out a ‘traceroute’ on it. The
‘tracert’ or ‘traceroute’ commands give you the names or IP’s of the
routers through which it passes, before reaching the destination.
Windows users can perform a trace of an IP, by typing the following
at the command line prompt:
C:\windows>tracert IP or Hostname
For more information about the usage and syntax of this
command, type: ‘tracert’ at the command prompt.
Anyway, now let us see what is the result, when I do a
tracert on my IP. Remember I live in New Delhi which is a city in
India. Watch the names of the hostnames closely, as you will find
that they reveal the cities through which the packet passes.
C:\windows>tracert 203.94.12.54
Tracing route to 203.94.12.54 over a maximum of 30 hops
1 abc.netzero.com (232.61.41.251) 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms
2 xyz.Netzero.com (232.61.41.0) 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms
3 232.61.41.10 (232.61.41.251) 9 ms 11 ms 13 ms
4 we21.spectranet.com (196.01.83.12) 535 ms 549 ms 513 ms
5 isp.net.ny (196.23.0.0) 562 ms 596 ms 600 ms
6 196.23.0.25 (196.23.0.25) 1195 ms1204 ms
7 backbone.isp.ny (198.87.12.11) 1208 ms1216 ms1233 ms
8 asianet.com (202.12.32.10) 1210 ms1239 ms1211 ms
9 south.asinet.com (202.10.10.10) 1069 ms1087 ms1122 ms
10 backbone.vsnl.net.in (203.98.46.01) 1064 ms1109 ms1061
ms
11 newdelhi-01.backbone.vsnl.net.in (203.102.46.01) 1185
ms1146 ms1203 ms
12 newdelhi-00.backbone.vsnl.net.in (203.102.46.02) ms1159
ms1073 ms
13 mtnl.net.in (203.194.56.00) 1052 ms 642 ms 658 ms
So, the above shows us that the route taken by a data to
reach the supplied IP is somewhat like this:
Netzero (ISP from which the data is sent) ---> Spectranet
(A Backbone Provider) -----> New York ISP ---> New York Backbone ->
Asia --> South Asia -> India Backbone --> New Delhi Backbone -->
Another router in New Delhi Backbone ---> New Delhi ISP.
So, basically this tracert does reveal my real location,
which is: New Delhi, India, South Asia. Get it?
Sometimes, doing a ‘tracert’ on an IP, does not give useful
information. You see in the above example, the hostnames returned
revealed the city or country in which the system is located.
Although, more often than not, you will get such helpful hostnames,
sometimes the hostnames returned are very vague and unhelpful.
So what do you do then? Well, fret not. Simply do the below
procedure.
Let us say that the trace ends at the hostname abc.com.
This is very vague and gives absolutely no clue as to where the
system is located. However, what you could do is, launch your
browser and visit: http://www.abc.com Now, abc.com is probably an
ISP and an ISP, will definitely give its location and the cities in
which it operates. So, you could still have a good chance of
learning the definite city of the victim.
A very interesting utility is the VisualRoute utility,
(http://www.visualroute.com) which traces a hostname or IP and shows
the path taken by the packet to reach the destination on a world
map. It is very useful and reveals some excellent information.
However, it sometimes does tend to be inaccurate.
**********************
HACKING TRUTH: Say you have found out the ISP of a person
and simply want to learn as to in which country the person resides
in. However, visiting the ISP website doesn’t help. Nor does the
hostname help. So, what do you do? Well, one thing that you could do
is, try connecting to Port 13 of the ISP. This is the port, which
simply displays the system time. It will tell you how many hours
ahead or behind the system is from GMT time.
**********************
Well, this basically brings us to the end of this manual.
Before I sign off, I would like to make it clear that it extremely
difficult and surprising if someone is able to get the exact contact
address of a person by simply knowing his IP. (Without taking help
or breaking into the person’s ISP) Anyway, hope you liked this
manual. Goodbye.
Credits:
By Ankit Fadia ankit@bol.net.in
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