It works in the movies
Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
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Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#12Well, the original definition of the word "hacking". Hacking on keyboard to exploit keypress timings, key combinations and key buffer overflows.
The original definition of "hacking" was "hacking code together". Move fast and break things. There are a lot of us OG and TNG hackers here. It's kind of the SV spirit. "Cracker" is the term used commonly - as in "crack the nut"; i.e. gain access to systems / break copy protection etc. Then you have the phone guys, the phreakers, whistling for free calls.
Hacking (in the modern 'computer' sense) has been used since at least the late 50s and early 60s and used to mean experimenting with any technical machine or system. It wasn't until the 70s when it primarily became connected with programming.
Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#13In middle school long ago, I was using one of the library search computers. They ran Windows XP and were locked down to the point where you couldn't open anything except the software that was running and you had no access to the desktop. One day I was rapidly mashing the "Search" button in the native book-searching software they were using - for no reason at all - and it suddenly opened an Explorer window out of nowhere showing everything in the filesystem. I could reproduce it easily with rapid-enough clicks. I still have no idea why that happened.
Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#14Does anyone know why lockscreens in Linux have been such a joke? I remember trying Ubuntu couple years ago and when waking up my laptop it would show me my entire desktop with all the information displayed right there in the open for about 10-20 seconds before suddenly engaging the lockscreen. All you had to do was close the lid and open it again and you could just copy whatever was on the screen before the lock scre…
Because X11 is such a joke. The problem is solved by wlroots and layer-shell, other Wayland compositors probably have similar things. Swaylock works 100%ly reliable until now (For me). I had problems with every other X11 screenlocker I used in the past. My unusual setup with a docking station and two monitors on it often caused crazy bugs.
Edit: For me stuff
Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#15Does anyone know why lockscreens in Linux have been such a joke? I remember trying Ubuntu couple years ago and when waking up my laptop it would show me my entire desktop with all the information displayed right there in the open for about 10-20 seconds before suddenly engaging the lockscreen. All you had to do was close the lid and open it again and you could just copy whatever was on the screen before the lock scre…
Bad design in X11 which can't be fixed. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25801693
Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#16Does anyone know why lockscreens in Linux have been such a joke? I remember trying Ubuntu couple years ago and when waking up my laptop it would show me my entire desktop with all the information displayed right there in the open for about 10-20 seconds before suddenly engaging the lockscreen. All you had to do was close the lid and open it again and you could just copy whatever was on the screen before the lock scre…
I've seen Windows do that too. It's not just Linux.
My guess is that these lock screens are all bolted on afterwards rather than being in the design from the ground up.
Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#17Does anyone know why lockscreens in Linux have been such a joke? I remember trying Ubuntu couple years ago and when waking up my laptop it would show me my entire desktop with all the information displayed right there in the open for about 10-20 seconds before suddenly engaging the lockscreen. All you had to do was close the lid and open it again and you could just copy whatever was on the screen before the lock scre…
slock has never surprised or disappointed me.
Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#18For anyone interested there is something called fuzzing that uses usually code coverage based heuristics to generate data to find bugs.
For example LLVM's lib fuzzer uses instrumentation to track code coverage and mutates data to find invalid behaviour.
https://llvm.org/docs/LibFuzzer.html
It uses a compiler pass to insert code to branch points functions calls etc. I think it uses genetic algorithms to increase coverage by changing the data.
There are others that work in similar ways one of them is. https://github.com/google/AFL
Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#19Step 1: Gather timings of key presses from a lot of kids. 2: Use ML to learn how to simulate it. 3: Sell it as a service, labeling it KaaS. 4: Profit, then go to jail because of a misunderstanding. But seriously, is there such a tool to automate this?
There's also model based testing and property based testing. QuickTest in Haskell and Erlang can generate test cases for your code.
Re: Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
#20Does anyone know why lockscreens in Linux have been such a joke? I remember trying Ubuntu couple years ago and when waking up my laptop it would show me my entire desktop with all the information displayed right there in the open for about 10-20 seconds before suddenly engaging the lockscreen. All you had to do was close the lid and open it again and you could just copy whatever was on the screen before the lock scre…
Because X11 is such a joke. The problem is solved by wlroots and layer-shell, other Wayland compositors probably have similar things. Swaylock works 100%ly reliable until now (For me). I had problems with every other X11 screenlocker I used in the past. My unusual setup with a docking station and two monitors on it often caused crazy bugs. Edit: For me stuff
What's your take on the issues listed by formerly_proven[0]?