6
P R O C E S S M A N A G E M E N T
At
any given time, a Linux system typically
has hundreds, or sometimes even thousands,
of processes running simultaneously. A
process
is simply a program that’s
running and using
resources. Examples of a process include a terminal,
web server, any running commands, any databases, the
GUI
interface, and much more. Any good Linux administrator—and par
ticularly a hacker—needs to under stand how to manage their processes to
optimize their systems. For example, once a hacker takes control of a target
system, they might want to find
and stop a certain process, like an antivirus
application or firewall. To do so, the hacker would first need to know how to
find the process. The hacker might also want to set
a scanning script to run
periodically to find vul nerable systems, so we’ll also look at how to schedule
such a script.
In this chapter, you’ll learn to manage those processes. First, you’ll
learn to view and find processes and how
to discover which processes
are using the most resources. Then, you’ll learn to manage processes by
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Chapter 6
running them in the background, prioritizing them, and killing them if
necessary (no blood involved). Finally, you’ll learn
to schedule processes to
run on specified days and dates and at specific times.
