One of the simplest reverse engineering tricks I use daily is the fact that a lot of functions in a compile binary will be in the same (or reversed) order that they were in the original code.

If you find an encryption function, you usually don't need to keep reversing the code flow until you find the decryption function. The developer probably wrote them both at the same time, so they'll probably be adjacent in the code. If you know what a function does, there's a good chance the function directly above and below it are related, so will be easy to figure out.

This says that Windows still has low-level OS support for punch card readers.

https://kevinboone.me/cpm-c.html

Not documented here though: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file

Could someone with Windows handy try `echo test > PUN` and see what happens?

I recently became aware of a true abomination: https://github.com/open-abap/open-abap-ssh

Someone seriously looked at a problem and went "I know, I'll implement an SSH client as a script running on my ERP system".

I don't know what problem they could have possibly had, and I hope to never find out.

I'm experimenting with #NixOS and it's all good so far, chezmoi works like a charm, successfully cleaned up some Debianisms, etc.

Then I ran into the problem of shebangs o.O

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/shebang-locations/28992/7

My colleague @nickmalcolm made a pretty cool vuln explainer video

https://youtu.be/ydg95R2QKwM

My university faculty made the news by banning condoms in this years freshman camp (don't ask...).

Now a midwife offered discount for anyone getting pregnant there.

I'm not sure if she is aware of the ratio of compatible reproductive organs in the Elecrical Engineering and Informatics faculty tho...

this is an absolutely fantastic license and i will certainly use it for some of my software https://github.com/meithecatte/bashfuck/blob/master/LICENSE

Part 2 of our new series on identifying and exploiting router vulnerabilities, including practical examples from real-world cases is now out:
https://medium.com/@odedvk/identify-and-exploit-vulnerabilities-in-routers-an-introductory-guide-technical-case-studies-d0f1a24d35ef

On C (and not only C) locales

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/commit/1e70e82baa9193f6f027338b0fab0f5078971fbe

#ragecommit

I do realize I'm screaming into a void, but writing this email was cathartic.

Top articles from this week: White hat hacker shines spotlight on vulnerability of solar panels installed in Europe http://dlvr.it/TBvXRM?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

CVE-2024-38063 (the Windows TCP/IP vuln) patch diff by @clearbluejar

https://gist.github.com/clearbluejar/d13fba26cab3a7ff2a995558d62cdd80?s=09

MIT gets rid of their Elsevier contracts:

“For MIT to continue to pay millions of dollars to corporations that lock up the scholarship that comes out of our own campus was just inconsistent with MIT’s history of supporting open education and research,” said Chris Bourg, Director of Libraries at MIT.

https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-knowledge-base/unbundling-profiles/mit-libraries/

@fafo presents: Gardena zu Rasterelektronmikroskop Adapter

Motherfucker!

#Saturday #IFoughtTheNutAndIWon

"Ukrainian hackers block work of Russian nuclear weapons manufacturer"

Reeks propaganda but here you go:
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/3896123-ukrainian-hackers-block-work-of-russian-nuclear-weapons-manufacturer.html

@netblocks confirms outage:

https://mastodon.social/@netblocks/112977887336541171

Outlook Unleashing RCE Chaos

https://media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2032/DEF%20CON%2032%20presentations/DEF%20CON%2032%20-%20Michael%20Gorelik%20Arnold%20Osipov%20-%20Outlook%20Unleashing%20RCE%20Chaos%20CVE-2024-30103%20%26%20CVE-2024-38021.pdf

#BHUSA24 #BHUSA2024

OpenAI: Disrupting a covert Iranian influence operation
OpenAI announced Friday (16 August 2024) that they identified and took down a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that were generating content for a covert Iranian influence operation identified as Storm-2035. The operation used ChatGPT to generate content focused on a number of topics—including commentary on candidates on both sides in the U.S. presidential election – which it then shared via social media accounts and websites.

The operation generated content about several topics: mainly, the conflict in Gaza, Israel’s presence at the Olympic Games, and the U.S. presidential election—and to a lesser extent politics in Venezuela, the rights of Latinx communities in the U.S. (both in Spanish and English), and Scottish independence. They interspersed their political content with comments about fashion and beauty, possibly to appear more authentic or in an attempt to build a following.

IOC provided.

See related The Hacker News reporting: OpenAI Blocks Iranian Influence Operation Using ChatGPT for U.S. Election Propaganda

#threatintel #Iran #influenceoperations #openai #chatgpt #disinformation #propaganda #IOC

I just released pdbconv, a program to convert PDB files between the plain old MSF format and the new MSFZ format that MS hasn't officially released yet.

It's available on github: https://github.com/ynwarcs/pdbconv

I also made a blog post describing the new format and what lead me to write the converter: https://ynwarcs.github.io/pdbconv-pdb-compression