Blog posts
Advent of Code 2023 Day 1 Rust
I want to start off by saying, “I don’t know rust.” Not a shocker of a statement, I know. I know very little programming/scripting, what I do know is very limited (I’m most familiar with bash, I know a little python). Diving into rust, then, is a big endeavor. I’m starting this by going through 2023’s Advent of Code. The big problem is, I don’t even really know what questions to ask to work my way through the challenges.I Lied
I lied. If you so choose to go back and read “Post Def Con Plans”, you may notice that I mentioned I wanted to start doing “malware of the day” type posts. You may also have noticed I sure have not done that. I also have made very little progress on learning C. Such is life. I did however take (and pass!) the certs I mentioned, so at least I’m not totally a liar.PJMR, ECMAP, and Malware Stuff
As of today, August 30th, I have earned both the Practical Junior Malware Researcher and the eLearnSecurity Certified Malware Analysis Professional (now retired). I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the training courses, thoughts, and word vomit about these two for a little bit. I started this journey when I purchased the TCM course “Practical Malware Analysis and Triage.” This really sparked my interest in malware analysis and reverse engineering, and I gotta say it’s a fantastic introduction.Post Def Con Plans
Just over one year into my journey in infosec, I was able to go to Def Con 31. This was quite an adventure, but really this did more to clarify what I want to do moving forward than it did provide value in and of itself. To start with my experience at Def Con, I just want to get the first thing out of the way: why, why do people enjoy “linecon” so much?Am I Spying on Myself?
Yes, yes I am. Back almost a year ago, in Logfile_dump Week 15/22 I said that I tried to set up the combo of RITA/Zeek/MongoDB and Bettercap, like how Strand talks about in the BHIS webcast “No SPAN Port? No Tap? No Problem!” The idea being that Zeek needs packets to be able to zeek them, and then that can forward the logs to RITA in order to do beacon detection, but most people don’t have hardware that can get all those packets so Zeek isn’t going to work.About PShef
I’ve always poked at computers. When I was a little kid, a family friend was throwing away an old computer and we took it home, and I took the whole thing apart. I couldn’t figure out how to put it back together, but I wanted to make a ROBOT!!! Of course, I didn’t make a robot out of the old tower, and it ended up collecting dust in a box in the basement.
While the hardware stuff was always somewhat interesting, it wasn’t enough for me to try and make anything out of it as I grew older. But as I spent more time on the internet, I became extremely interested in privacy and security. I started devoting a lot of time into cleaning up the huge mess I made trying to let Google control my life. (Yes, I was a very early adopter of Google+ and tried to integrate everything I could into my Google account. I’ve regretted it ever since.)
While my jobs have varied from liquor store clerk to warehouse worker, I’ve made the commitment to make the career change into infosec. This blog will serve as documentation of my journey.