Mneme: A Personal Knowledge Vault with a Brain
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Memory Leaks
Writing about cybersecurity, privacy and technology.
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Bringing Claude Code Skills into Neovim via ACP
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Modern Neovim Configuration for Polyglot Development
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Tuckman's Stages, Startup Edition
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Your Windows on Autopilot
Have you thought how much time you spend managing your windows? Each time you open a new window you have to decide where to place it and then move it or resize it. We do it so often that we take it for granted, but what if we could offload this task to the window manager?
Choosing the Right Keyboard for You
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A Practical Approach to Open-Source Funding
Relying on any piece of software creates a dependency and that’s fine as long as the risk is an educated choice and can be afforded. This risk goes beyond open-source, which might be the first that comes to mind. Organizations for their reasons can, and will, stop supporting software you or your organization rely on and in this case, there is nothing you can do about it. On the other hand, there…
User Experience, the Unseen Hero of Security Products
In the constantly changing field of cybersecurity, the importance of strong security solutions cannot be overstated. Companies invest heavily in all aspects of security, ranging from firewalls all the way to Intrusion Detection Systems. However, in the midst of all these innovative technological fortifications, there’s a silent yet crucial aspect that often goes unnoticed, the User Experience (UX)…
Monitoring a Web Server with Panther - Part 3 (Enrichment)
Last time , we built a detection that alerts us when an unexpected port is opened on the server. How about creating an alert whenever a successful SSH connection is established from a TOR exit node? I would never SSH to my personal server over TOR, so such activity would be a clear signal of compromise.
Monitoring a Web Server with Panther - Part 2 (Detection)
Last time we configured Fluentd to collect and transmit activity data from my personal server to Panther . Sinse then, I also onboarded more data sources using Zeek because “all data is security data”, and the more we have, the more sophisticated detections we’ll be able to build.
Monitoring a Web Server with Panther - Part 1 (Data Ingestion)
You’re reading this post from a web server that I’ve designed with security in mind - it has a minimal attack surface with only HTTP/HTTPS and SSH ports open, and SSH access is restricted to public key authentication only. I’ve also set up automated software updates, which has let me run this server worry-free for years.
Navigating the Minefield of Token Offerings — Part 2
Last time we highlighted how critical trust is in a decentralized environment (ironically) and especially in Token Offerings. One aspect of the damaged trust between the end users and the decentralized ecosystem is cybersecurity. A decentralized system is usually built from many different building blocks (subsystems) and each one of them can have a negative impact on the overall system, when it…
Navigating the Minefield of Token Offerings — Part 1
Token offerings have enabled companies to crowdfund their operations by issuing freshly minted tokens to users that are willing to trade them for profit or to get a cheap early access ticket to the upcoming services of the token issuer. This process despite its benefits, has also suffered from a series of incidents that have damaged the trust between the token issuers and the potential buyers.
Security and Privacy at Blocktopus
Our latest post was about the mission Blocktopus is on, to find the sweet spot between delightful User Experience and the friction that regulations introduce in the field of ICOs/STOs. This post will communicate the steps we’ve taken in order to harden Blocktopus and to communicate that we use the state of the art processes in order to protect the data we are honored with.
Blocktopus, the One-Stop KYC Gateway
Since the very first transaction on Bitcoin, the first Distributed Public Ledger, a decade ago, decentralization has evolved beyond the expectations that even cypherpunks had for it. Decentralization, apart from enabling digital transactions between parties without the need to trust a central authority, has enabled automation of financial agreements between parties, digital crowdfundings,…
Exploring Bit-Flipping Attacks on CBC Block Cipher Mode
Let’s explore how attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in crypto primitives. Specifically, we will dive into bit-flipping attacks on CBC block cipher mode. Assuming familiarity with CBC’s inner workings (if not, refer to the post on Padding Oracle attack ), we’ll demonstrate how simple it is to carry out such an attack.
The Padding Oracle Attack Explained
Previously , we explored how to forge a legitimate signature by intercepting a signed message, its authentic signature, and the length of the key used to sign it. Today, we’ll discuss how to decrypt ciphertexts without having knowledge of the key used to encrypt the original plaintext. All that is required to achieve this is for a decryption module to reveal whether the padding of the ciphertext…
Understanding Length Extension Attacks
Digital signatures are a crucial tool in the digital world, used to verify the authenticity and integrity of a message. Essentially, they provide a way to prove that you sent a piece of data and that it was not tampered with in transit. However, if the signature scheme is not designed correctly, it can be exploited in order to corrupt data without being detected.
Exploring Cross-Site Request Forgery Attacks
Today we are going to explore Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks and how they work. Although these attacks often start with social engineering tactics to entice a victim to click on a malicious link, we will bypass this aspect and focus only on the technical details of the attack.
Cracking Passwords with Hashcat
Last time , we dumped the dvwa database of DVWA , by exploiting an SQL injection in it. As part of this dump, we extracted the user passwords.
Automating SQL Injection Exploitation with Sqlmap
In the previous post , we demonstrated how to access user passwords in DVWA by exploiting its SQL Injection vulnerability. This time, we’ll use sqlmap , a powerful and easy to use tool that automates the SQL injection exploitation process, allowing us to dump entire databases with minimal effort.
Exploiting SQL Injections to Access User Passwords
In this post, we’ll demonstrate how to exploit SQL injections in the DVWA web app to access user passwords. SQL injections are similar to other attacks such as XSS and command injection where user input is not sanitized and can manipulate the vulnerable application.
Exploiting Command Injection Vulnerability in DVWA
In this post we’ll go through the process of exploiting command injection vulnerability in DVWA , and gain access to the server using Metasploit .
Understanding Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attacks
Cross-site Scripting (XSS) is a type of attack that allows an attacker to inject client-side instructions into a web application that is viewed by other users. This type of attack is very dangerous since an attacker can access the victim’s local storage and steal information like your session ID in order to deliver a session-hijacking, which can lead to identity theft within the web application.…
Brute-Forcing Login Pages with Kali and Hydra
In the last post of the #redteam series, we set up Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA) on our Kali installation. All the tools we need are already pre-installed in Kali, so let’s start using them.
Setting Up Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA)
Ever wanted to practice your web security skills without the risk of breaking the law or damaging real systems? That’s exactly what Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA) was designed for.
Hiding Your MAC and IP Addresses
Welcome to the start of my #redteam series! In these posts, I’ll walk you through various penetration testing techniques using Kali Linux as our platform. Kali comes pre-loaded with all the tools we’ll need, making it perfect for this type of work.
Signal App Translated to Greek
If you’re serious about privacy and security in your messaging, you’ve probably heard of Signal . It’s widely considered the gold standard for secure messaging, offering both excellent user experience and state-of-the-art security.
Expanding HTTPS Everywhere's Domain Support
Update: You no longer need HTTPS Everywhere to set HTTPS by default, major browsers now offer native support for an HTTPS only mode
TOR Hidden Services
You’ve probably heard of Tor (The Onion Router) as a tool for anonymous browsing, but did you know it can also help you create completely anonymous web services? Tor is a free, open-source network that routes your traffic through multiple servers, making it nearly impossible to trace back to you.
A Suite of Whitehat Rootkits for the Linux Kernel
Have you ever wondered what happens when an attacker gains complete control over your system? Rootkits are malicious programs that run at the kernel level of an operating system, essentially giving them god-like powers over your entire machine.