Dailydave mailing list archives
Re: Exploit writing thoughts
From: "Halvar Flake" <halvar () gmx de>
Date: 7 Apr 2010 19:20:52 +0200
dave wrote:
One of the hard things about exploits (especially these days) is that you have to absorb a LOT of failure in order to get the spectacular results that are your bread and butter. Exploit devs have huge egos by way of necessity and are tenacious like an Overtown pitbull, so one of the harder parts of the job is to tell them to "give up, find another one".
There is also often a strange tradeoff involved: You can invest more time in finding bugs (not only mem corruption, but also all those wacky little things that I call "glue" bugs -- they help making the rest stick together). You do this in the hope of being paid back this time investment in the exploitation step. I like to call exploit development the "IKEA game". Each weird bug that you find is a random piece out of IKEA's spare parts depot. Your task is to build a chair that someone can sit on. You can "draw" an additional piece by spending more time reading the code. Often, you draw a piece, and then think: Ahh great, wtf am I supposed to do with *this* ? Sometimes, you end up with 3 coat hangers and some paper. Sometimes you get a full chair that is just missing a leg. Sometimes you get a can of superglue and two pounds of sawdust. The tenaciousness of most exploit devs is also reflected in "there is no failure, just a waiting loop until I get time to do another draw". You don't give up, you pick up something else while waiting for a good idea. Cheers, Halvar _______________________________________________ Dailydave mailing list Dailydave () lists immunitysec com http://lists.immunitysec.com/mailman/listinfo/dailydave
Current thread:
- Exploit writing thoughts dave (Apr 07)
- Re: Exploit writing thoughts gilhespy (Apr 07)
- Re: Exploit writing thoughts Halvar Flake (Apr 07)
- Re: Exploit writing thoughts Nate Lawson (Apr 07)
- Re: Exploit writing thoughts Marius (Apr 09)
- Re: Exploit writing thoughts Nate Lawson (Apr 07)