First off, Flash is vulnerable to by far the most awesome hack I've ever seen (there's also a good summary of that paper). The attack has several different steps with integer overflows and failed memory allocations, but the heart of the matter is that the Flash player uses a 2-step process to validate that the code it's running is probably safe, ( Read more... )

I often listen to the radio station 93.1 JACK FM, which plays a lot of kinds of rock. In Las Vegas, however, 93.1 is The Party and plays dance music. Driving from one city to the other, there was a part in the middle where I could pick up both stations, which was pretty strange. I only got one of the stations at a time (with intermittent static), ( Read more... )

This weekend I went to Defcon 0xF with psifer and inferno0069, and it was a blast.

• I stopped at Arby's for lunch on the way there. I wanted two roast beef sandwiches and a small fries, the total of which came to $7.63. I then looked at their menu, and saw they still do the "5 items for $5.95" thing. So I canceled my original order and instead got two roast beef ( Read more... )

Coming back from DEFCON, I felt like Jack, coming down the beanstalk to announce that "there are giants in the sky! There are big, tall, terrible* giants in the sky!" I was introduced to a whole new world with new ways to look at everything. I had no idea most of that stuff was out there and accessible to me. Everyone seemed more knowledgable about ( Read more... )

In about 15 hours, I'm getting on a plane to go to Las Vegas for DEFCON! After it is over, I'm driving to LA with some former Mudders, and getting a new life. The next time I update this journal, I should have a new address, a new cell phone (my first ever! the last of the cell-less ranks are falling, my friends), and possibly a new car. To keep ( Read more... )

The schoolyear is now over, and although I didn't finish everything I wanted to, enough got done. I graduated, and the ceremony was alright, all in all. The most amazing part, in my opinion, was at the very beginning. We were all dressed in our caps and gowns and medals, and started to walk down to the tent near the library where the real ceremony ( Read more... )