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“I will slaughter you”

daniel.haxx.se

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Re: “I will slaughter you”

#241

Post by aasasd »

oblio wrote: post #80
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #17

Some context: Daniel is the primary maintainer of curl (the ubiquitous utility and library for HTTP requests) [1] His name often shows up in the licensing disclosures/attributions of applications that include curl. The general opaqueness of modern software leads people to latch onto him and his email for all manner of things, and for non developers to attribute to him all sorts of bad motives ("You hacked me!"). This…

It's just the law of big numbers in play. Do something that impacts enough people and the crazies will for sure come out of the woodwork.

That's the exact reason why I don't leave my real information anywhere on public web. Or at least try not to.

Weird that people spend each day on Facebook and Reddit among unhinged bozos, and still fail to realize how it might not be the best idea to spam their name and location on the web for all to see.

Re: “I will slaughter you”

#242

Post by NoInkling »

duskwuff wrote: post #229
Cederfjard wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people are saying that not just because of the aggression, but also because the story is all over the place and makes little sense.

Precisely. The list of attacks (?) described in the email is an assemblage of meaningless phrases (like "favicon XML injection" and "JS stochastic Templating") and unrelated occurrences ("Solarwinds Oct/2020").

Don't forget the strange PDF - that coincidentally happens to mention Terry Davis on it?

Re: “I will slaughter you”

#243

Post by meowface »

ChrisRR wrote: post #142
Ndymium wrote: post #12

This feels to me like a person with some sort of mental illness or breakdown and delusions of grandeur and persecution. Their explanation doesn't make much sense. If I were Daniel, I wouldn't respond any further.

Sounds like someone who's developed a prototype which they had grand plans of selling for billions, which then got easily hacked because they don't understand security The $15k figure implies that's either a bill the hackers ran up on an AWS instance or what they valued their development at Edit: The blackmail line sounds like a ransomware attack

I disagree. I think this person may not have necessarily programmed anything serious before in their life. Or if they have, probably not a defense project.

If you read the follow-up emails - and apologies for the armchair psychiatry - I think this person is very likely in a psychotic state. Their messages sound very similar to what you find in the "BadBIOS" and other "gangstalking" communities. It's not really tethered to reality.

I think it's extremely likely the author is not a troll and possesses a sincere and high-confidence belief that powerful entities are tracking and persecuting him and that backdoors in lots of software, including curl, were placed by sinister organizations and used to facilitate spying on and attacking him. The software is perceived as a WMD or pathogen partly responsible for this incursion into his life and the damage he thinks has resulted. He's mad because he thinks Daniel is like the mayor of Flint, MI: the water is poisoning people and he's doing absolutely nothing about it. Of course you'd be angry!

This is why it's generally best to not reply to messages as extreme as these. Daniel will never be able to convince him he isn't actually the metaphorical Flint mayor. You just get sucked into a world that's very real to them and not real to you or almost anyone else. It's not possible and not a good idea to try to reason with someone like that.

Re: “I will slaughter you”

#244

Post by bch »

ardfard wrote: post #189
sokoloff wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Formula 1 cars don’t have keys...

The analogy to Formula 1 isn't apt either. It can be the wheel, the engine or the steer. But it's no way a whole "car".

There’s an automobile analogy for everything in computing (but woe to those who use the wrong one).

Re: “I will slaughter you”

#245

Post by rhencke »

dennis_jeeves wrote: post #226
shin_lao wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are dealing with a person with mental illness, because nothing is coherent. It's all made up. That's why you don't answer that kind of mail, the goal is to trigger a reaction from you.

>We are dealing with a person with mental illness, because nothing is coherent. It's all made up Seem like the average person to me :)

Have you ever sat down and had a long, and deep conversation with someone suffering from severe paranoid schizophrenia after they've experienced a psychotic break?

I assure you, you will quickly understand the difference.

Especially if that someone is your previously un-diagnosed friend and business partner.

Re: “I will slaughter you”

#246

Post by moltar »

shin_lao wrote: post #167
Nextgrid wrote: post #15

The general demeanor of that person, some of the lingo used like "rooting" or "federal server hijacking", the fact that in the screenshot he's using some text editor with ads in it to browse the offending code combined with the fact that he doesn't know what Curl is (if he did he wouldn't have sent this e-mail) screams "script kiddie" to me. I'm not sure whether this person is actually responsible for a multi-million…

We are dealing with a person with mental illness, because nothing is coherent. It's all made up. That's why you don't answer that kind of mail, the goal is to trigger a reaction from you.

Bingo! It reads very similar to the GitHub repo of an insane person that was posted here about a year ago. The one where I think he/she talks of special agents and has a bunch of random files with random stuff in them.

Re: “I will slaughter you”

#248

Post by agumonkey »

mr-wendel wrote: post #228
agumonkey wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - a solid (but wildly misplaced) basis in reality can you explain this more ? I recognize some traits of these in me and siblings but we're not on meth at all.. so I find the psychological flaws interesting. sorry about your friend too

You bet, and thanks for your condolences. In short, almost certainly this doesn't apply to you. The pattern is that in these scenarios, usually the people are quite intelligent and often accomplished. This gives them a repository of valid phrases and concepts to draw upon to breath legitimacy into their boogeymen. The evidence they present, however, is completely benign. That person, however, has quite the story they…

It really is what my father does. We're very analytical in his side of the family. We're also prone to narrow view when we have 'attacks' we make huge amounts of logical connections that explains (or try to) what we suppose is happening and it's near impossible to deal with us until the storm is over. A kind of paranoid burst. Maybe not to the extent of your friend but from your words it's really similar.

Re: “I will slaughter you”

#249

Post by hibbelig »

uh_uh wrote: post #93
Nextgrid wrote: post #15

The general demeanor of that person, some of the lingo used like "rooting" or "federal server hijacking", the fact that in the screenshot he's using some text editor with ads in it to browse the offending code combined with the fact that he doesn't know what Curl is (if he did he wouldn't have sent this e-mail) screams "script kiddie" to me. I'm not sure whether this person is actually responsible for a multi-million…

I thought that the ads are from Daniel's email client. Not that it detracts from your point.

Daniel wrote the email contains screenshots that look like they came from a phone, and the image shows one of them.

So the ad is from this Al guy.

Re: “I will slaughter you”

#250

Post by robin_reala »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #17

Some context: Daniel is the primary maintainer of curl (the ubiquitous utility and library for HTTP requests) [1] His name often shows up in the licensing disclosures/attributions of applications that include curl. The general opaqueness of modern software leads people to latch onto him and his email for all manner of things, and for non developers to attribute to him all sorts of bad motives ("You hacked me!"). This…

Not just people attributing bad motives, but the US government too: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/tag/visa/
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