University of Advancing Technology's Official Technology Blog

From the University of Advancing Technology’s (UAT) humble beginnings in the 1980s to its present-day status as an innovation hub, many Student Innovation Project (SIP) concepts have been hatched and brought to fruition here. Some SIPs continue to be developed after graduation, exemplifying the spirit of creativity and technological advancement that defines UAT. Other SIPs prove to be the perfect launching pad to propel the student into their future careers—which was certainly the case for Bradley Chavis, a 2021 dual-major graduate of the Advancing Computer Science and Network Technology (now offered as Network Security) programs.

Bradley’s SIP, H@xc0rd, was a simple yet powerful Discord bot designed for utilizing common network security tools without requiring any knowledge of Linux.

H@xc0rd's tools ranged from exploitation to reconnaissance, including Hashcat, Hydra, Nmap, Shodan, and many more. Each tool had its own custom-built help section to guide users on understanding what the tool was, how to use it, and how to interpret the results. Since many tools within the project could be intrusive to the local network it was hosted on, the bot owner could adjust who had access to which tool at any time, significantly limiting the chance of misuse.

Using H@xc0rd on the server it was hosted on was even simpler, as only a Discord account and basic knowledge of the platform would be needed. To use the bot, one simply had to use the specified prefix found in the packaged sub.js file and the command they wanted to run. For example, a “!ping” command would provide the bot's latency.

Users could crack a password hash with Java Ripper and showcase the results to everyone on the server without needing to export and share files repeatedly. Additionally, they could find out how many times a particular password had been compromised using the “!haveibeenpwned” command, which queried the Have I Been Pwned database and displayed the results.

To see all available commands, users could simply use the “!commands” function, which listed approximately 15 tools implemented in the project. Bradley Chavis and his project partner, David Austad (Network Security alum), consistently updated the tools within the project, removing and replacing them as necessary to ensure relevance.

If a tool wasn’t implemented but was desired, users had the freedom to add it themselves. H@xc0rd was built to allow new tools to be implemented in a matter of minutes.

One significant challenge during the project was making H@xc0rd run on systems other than Linux. Initially, it only ran on Linux, which conflicted with the goal of universal accessibility. The solution was Docker, a virtualization platform that allows Linux environments to run on systems that wouldn’t typically support them, such as Windows or Mac OS. Docker’s implementation enabled H@xc0rd to be hosted on nearly any operating system, with an install script to handle any issues.

The project aimed to be as user-friendly as possible, with install scripts automating the setup process on most Linux systems. This ease of setup ensured that anyone could start using H@xc0rd quickly and efficiently.

“You will never be limited with what you can do with this project, only by your imagination,” Bradley said back in 2021 of the project.

Through H@xc0rd, Bradley brought advanced network security tools to users' fingertips with ease and accessibility, revolutionizing how these tools could be used on Discord.

And even more than that, Bradley learned so much in the production of his SIP that he was able to gain a coveted network security job after graduating from UAT in 2021.

Leveraging a security intern position at Netskope that he completed during his time as a college student, Bradley started a new position as a compliance analyst for the company directly after graduation. He has remained at Netskope since then and has already received two promotions in that time. Today, Bradley is a Security Analyst II for Netskope and is nearing his four-year mark with the company. His success demonstrates what can be achieved with a UAT education!

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