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GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

nebusec.ai

61–70 of 209 posts

Re: GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

#61

> This is the same shape as many other life-cycle bugs [...] Claude-ism detected. IME with Claude Code an object does not have a type or definition, apparently, but rather a shape (or at least it reaches for that word before more technically-accurate ones). Problems are not of a similar class or type, but of the same shape. Functions are not defined by their signatures but by their shape. Who talks like this and how…

Except that working with Claude has me saying things like shape lately. I think I like it.

Re: GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

#62
post #48
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're probably right that the article was AI-assisted, but (if so) it's important not to confuse that with the thing the article is about. Google wouldn't pay $90k for a hallucination. I don't mean that as a criticism—the question of how to receive AI-processed content is chaotic right now. I'm working on a post about that here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48887149 . Btw, Nebula Sec is a YC startup…

A thing that notably triggers my allergies is that if significant human effort went into something, a few paragraphs written by a human seems like a trivial additional investment; if that last touch is missing, it's really hard for me to extend the benefit of the doubt that there really is something there. Obviously this is only one signal among many, one that can be overruled, but the ick remains regardless.

It frankly doesn't matter how much human effort went into finding the vulnerability, it just matters if it exists, how severe it is, and how easy it is to exploit.

Re: GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

#63

Has anyone in infosec ever seen the term "use after free" before LLMs? Or is this basically an acronym claude invented? I say this because I see claude use this term all the time like its common knowledge but in 15+ years in tech never seen it myself. I've seen all kinds of terms used to describe memory errors: memory corruption, heap corruption, stack corruption, whatever, just never this acronym.

yes, it’s a very common term in infosec. I haven’t heard the “UAF” acronym before though

I've heard of use after free, but I've only heard UAF to mean Ukraine Armed Forces.

Re: GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

#64
post #60
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-native speakers have learned and improved their English for decades by trial-and-error, let’s stop using that as an excuse to use LLMs. I have been there, and making mistakes is how one learns to communicate effectively in another language. If one doesn’t put effort in their writing, I am not going to put effort to read whatever slop they put out instead. Simple as that.

What you say implies that people should "learn and improve their English" before posting their work to HN. I'm not with you on that, and here's why: we're trying to optimize for the most-intellectually-interesting site, not the most-English site: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... , even though people do have to post in English here. That may sound like too fine a distinction, but it isn'…

Pie-in-the-sky synthesis: translation is easy these days, so maybe non-english writers can and should just write in their own native language and let the readers provide their own translation. Perhaps English no longer needs to be the lingua anglais of western tech writing :p

Re: GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

#66
post #45

> This is the same shape as many other life-cycle bugs [...] Claude-ism detected. IME with Claude Code an object does not have a type or definition, apparently, but rather a shape (or at least it reaches for that word before more technically-accurate ones). Problems are not of a similar class or type, but of the same shape. Functions are not defined by their signatures but by their shape. Who talks like this and how…

I think you're probably right that the article was AI-assisted, but (if so) it's important not to confuse that with the thing the article is about. Google wouldn't pay $90k for a hallucination. I don't mean that as a criticism—the question of how to receive AI-processed content is chaotic right now. I'm working on a post about that here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48887149 . Btw, Nebula Sec is a YC startup…

You should put a note in Find a Cofounder not to do that as well. Huge turnoff for me, though I guess a great filter.

Re: GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

#67

> This is the same shape as many other life-cycle bugs [...] Claude-ism detected. IME with Claude Code an object does not have a type or definition, apparently, but rather a shape (or at least it reaches for that word before more technically-accurate ones). Problems are not of a similar class or type, but of the same shape. Functions are not defined by their signatures but by their shape. Who talks like this and how…

talking about data and function shapes is quite common in functional programming world

https://blog.jle.im/entry/functors-to-monads-a-story-of-shap...

Re: GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

#69
post #60
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-native speakers have learned and improved their English for decades by trial-and-error, let’s stop using that as an excuse to use LLMs. I have been there, and making mistakes is how one learns to communicate effectively in another language. If one doesn’t put effort in their writing, I am not going to put effort to read whatever slop they put out instead. Simple as that.

What you say implies that people should "learn and improve their English" before posting their work to HN. I'm not with you on that, and here's why: we're trying to optimize for the most-intellectually-interesting site, not the most-English site: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... , even though people do have to post in English here. That may sound like too fine a distinction, but it isn'…

[deleted]

Re: GhostLock, a stack-UAF that has existed in all Linux distributions for 15 years

#70
post #60
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-native speakers have learned and improved their English for decades by trial-and-error, let’s stop using that as an excuse to use LLMs. I have been there, and making mistakes is how one learns to communicate effectively in another language. If one doesn’t put effort in their writing, I am not going to put effort to read whatever slop they put out instead. Simple as that.

What you say implies that people should "learn and improve their English" before posting their work to HN. I'm not with you on that, and here's why: we're trying to optimize for the most-intellectually-interesting site, not the most-English site: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... , even though people do have to post in English here. That may sound like too fine a distinction, but it isn'…

I don’t buy it, Dan, because non-native English speakers were somehow managing to produce, publicize, and communicate before LLMs did the heavy lifting for them. Perhaps they had human assistance before, but the slop that’s so endemic today reminds us of its value.
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