Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: Publishing exploit code - what is it good for


From: ChayoteMu <chayotemu () gmail com>
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:51:12 -0700

I'm not too sure if this would help much but from a student standpoint
I understand FAR more about how the security works by knowing how to
break it, which only really works if I have source code and so
full-disclosure exploits. I KNEW what a shellcode and buffer overflow
were for years but I only UNDERSTOOD it after I read "Hacking: The Art
of Exploitation" because it broke it down for me (excellent book BTW).
Now I understand how an overflow exploit works, but don't understand
how a particular one works against a particular program without the
exploit code that I can go over and go "Oh, so that's how it does it."
The idea is that the next generation of security pros (and the current
ones I assume) need the information to be a step ahead by
understanding the tricks used by the exploit, otherwise they're always
playing catch-up to the latest exploit.

On 6/30/05, devnull () rodents montreal qc ca
<devnull () rodents montreal qc ca> wrote:
[Because of all the broken autoresponders on bugtraq, the header From:
is a bitbucket.  Use the address in the signature to reach me.]

Quote: " If I speak to an end-user organization and they express
legitimate needs for exploit code, then I'll change my opinion."

Well, I'm not an end-user organization, but as an end user[%], the
major benefit I see to full disclosure is that it appears to be close
to the only thing that has any real success at getting vendors to fix
bugs.  (In general.  There certainly are vendors that stay on top of
things without needing the prod of public exploit disclosure.  But they
are notable by their rarity.)

[%] "End user" is not the only hat I wear.  It's just the one I'm
    wearing here.

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-- 
"To catch a thief, think like a thief. To catch a master thief, be a
master thief."
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