A Simple Website Hacking using Linux and Konqueror

I want this article to be real simple so that new Linux users (KDE based) would have fun exploring the power of Linux and its browser Konqueror. This tutorial will show you how to access restricted websites, password protected websites, or members' only area by changing the "USER AGENT" of Konqueror into GoogleBot 2.1.

Konqueror

Konqueror is the default browser of KDE based Linux. Some Linux Distribution that uses KDE and Konqueror are SUSE, Mandriva, and Kubuntu. Konqueror is a very flexible browser and yes, very powerful too.

User Agent

Almost every internet browser has the capability to adjust the user agent. A user agent is the client application used with a particular network protocol; the phrase is most commonly used in reference to those which access the World Wide Web. Web user agents range from web browsers to search engine crawlers ("spiders"), as well as screen readers and braille browsers used by people with disabilities.

When Internet users visit a web site, a text string is generally sent to identify the user agent to the server. This forms part of the HTTP request, prefixed with User-agent: or User-Agent: and typically includes information such as the application name, version, host operating system, and language. Bots, such as web crawlers, often also include a URL and/or e-mail address so that the webmaster can contact the operator of the bot. The user-agent string is one of the criteria by which crawlers can be excluded from certain pages or parts of a website using the "Robots Exclusion Standard" (robots.txt). This allows webmasters who feel that certain parts of their website should not be included in the data gathered by a particular crawler, or that a particular crawler is using up too much bandwidth, to request that crawler not to visit those pages.

How To Change the User Agent

Simply open Konqueror, and from "TOOLS>Change Browser Identification>Other" and set it to "Googlebot 2.1".

The Application

In order for you to understand how this really works, follow this steps as an example:
1) go to http://www.windowsitpro.com/WindowsScripting/Article/ArticleID/46794/46794.html you will NOT see the FULL article because only members may read the full article.
2) Change the User Agent of Konqueror to Googlebot/2.1
3) Go back to the same page and reload/refresh it and you can read the full article.