What coding to learn for hacking/cracking?

[npiet1]

I've always been interested in the hacking/cracking stuff and would love to be able to do it myself or even just help improve what's already out there.
So I was wondering where do I start?
I don't know any language atm. I've tried learning C++ before but learning "hello world" type stuff is pretty terrible.

 

[ghjfdtg]

Hello world stuff is a necessary start. You need to know the languages. And ideally you know how code from these languages looks like after the translation by the compiler (meaning assembly language is important of which there is at least 1 flavour for each CPU architecture). Other often used languages are C and Python of which the later is often used to quickly build exploit data and other quick data conversion. People only use it because it's faster and easier writing a Python script instead of a full blown C/C++ tool for the task.

 

[Quantumcat]

You'll need a solid background in computer science before you can contribute to the hacking community. You'll need to either study it at university or be one of those few super motivated and very talented people that start learning when they're 12 and voraciously read everything they can get their hands on and naturally want to just try loads of things and fail and try and fail and try. If you're wondering where to begin sadly you're probably like the 99.9% of us who need to work at it. Spend a few years learning a variety of languages (python and JavaScript have low barrier to entry), MAKE a LOT of stuff - flesh out every idea you can think of and don't give up on anything so you can maximise your learning opportunities and then go through a few computer science courses on Udemy or similar (assuming you aren't interested in doing it at university) - look for things on data structures, algorithms, memory organisation, networking, operating systems, then if you work really really hard you might be in a position to contribute to hacking the Switch 3 in 2030.

Edit: also I recommend the Computerphile channel on YouTube if you're interested in that sort of stuff

 

[IC_]

hacking the Switch 3 in 2030.

Or the 5DS

 

[Cyan]

starting now is harder than if you did 20 years ago.
old CPU architecture were easier, software had more vulnerabilities, etc.
now almost everything is well protected and you need to know very well their architecture and language on a low level (memory bank access or each chipset memory, etc.) to find flaws in hardware, more than software.

Learning software development language is also needed to apply and test your exploit idea to the found vulnerability. C/java/python and also low level (ASM) for each CPU architecture is required.

it might not be funny to go back to old consoles, but it could give experience for future ones.
you could also check previous CCC conferences of Wii/PS3/3DS hacking just to get an idea of what and how it has been done. you don't really search, you need to understand how it works and see a flaw in how it's done and how you could abuse it.
There's also this write up about fusée gelée for switch by Kate Tempkin.
just for fun and give you an idea.