This Wired story describes the recent contest created to decipher 10 increasingly difficult codes set by author Simon Singh in his international bestseller The Code Book. Quite interesting. There's also the step-by-step analysis of what the Swedish cryptographers did in their . . . . This Wired story describes the recent contest created to decipher 10 increasingly difficult codes set by author Simon Singh in his international bestseller The Code Book. Quite interesting. There's also the step-by-step analysis of what the Swedish cryptographers did in their How we Cracked the Code Book Ciphers The link for this article located at Wired/Codebook.org is no longer available. . Delve into the captivating competition orchestrated by Simon Singh, inviting specialists to unravel intricate codes and cryptograms.. deciphering codes,cryptography contest,complex ciphers,encryption challenge,code breaking. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
When the Pwn2Own contest began in 2007, it was dismissed by some in the industry as nothing more than a publicity stunt meant to inflate the egos of researchers while embarrassing software vendors. But as the fifth edition of the hacker challenge gets underway at the CanSecWest conference here this week, it has evolved into a display of some of the few things that are actually good and right with the security community.. The contest began as essentially a timed competition to see who could find and exploit a vulnerability in a fully patched MacBook Pro running the most current version of OS X. Researchers went at the machines for hours, trying to find a new bug and develop a reliable exploit for it. Win, and you got not only the computer that you'd exploited but a nice $10,000 cash prize. There were different thresholds for different machines, but both the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBooks lived through the first day of the contest without being compromised. Not so the next day. Researcher Dino Dai Zovi, who wasn't at the conference, found a new flaw in the Java implementation in QuickTime and called his friend Shane Macaulay, who was in Vancouver. Dai Zovi developed a browser-based exploit for the bug and Macaulay implemented it at the conference. The pair took down the 15-inch MacBook and the cash. Dai Zovi stayed up most of the night working on the bug and exploit, but within a few hours he had a reliable exploit, a new MacBook and some nice walking around money. Not a bad night's work. The link for this article located at ThreatPost is no longer available. . Since 2007, Pwn2Own has evolved from a simple hacking contest into a vital platform for showcasing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and innovation.. Pwn2Own Contest, Security Research, Bug Exploitation, Hacker Events. . Anthony Pell
Aaron Portnoy, TippingPoint Technologies Security Research Team Lead, has announced that the annual Pwn2Own contest will take place at this year's CanSecWest security conference on the 24th of March in Vancouver. To commemorate the 4th Pwn2Own contest, the total cash prize amount has been increased to $100,000 this year.. According to Portnoy, this year's event, which will take place over the course of three days, will focus on "two main technology targets". As with previous Pwn2Own events, the first portion of the contest will target web browser and operating system pairings. Over the course of the event, contestants will be able to attempt to exploit browsers ranging from Internet Explorer 7 & 8, to Firefox 3, Chrome 4 and Safari 4 on Windows 7, Vista and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. According to the rules, the exploits used should work with little or no user interaction. Apple's iPhone 3GS, RIM's Blackberry Bold 9700, a Nokia Symbian S60 phone and a Motorola Android-based phone will also be targeted. The browser and mobile contest will run concurrently and those interested in participating are asked to register by emailing
Registration for the DefCon 12 WarDriving Contest is now open. For the first time ever the Def Con WarDriving contest will be divided into two parts. A "Main Drive" that will run for the entire three days and four "Mini-Games" that allow contestants that would like to participate but do not want to invest the entire Con in WarDriving. . . .. Registration for the DefCon 12 WarDriving Contest is now open. For the first time ever the Def Con WarDriving contest will be divided into two parts. A "Main Drive" that will run for the entire three days and four "Mini-Games" that allow contestants that would like to participate but do not want to invest the entire Con in WarDriving. Registration takes place in the WarDriving Contest Section of the DefCon Forums (). Registration for the DefCon 12 WarDriving Contest requires forum registration. For more information about the DefCon 12 WarDriving Contest (Main Drive and/or Mini-Games) please visit the official contest page at WWWD Finance – Loans and lending advice. The DefCon 12 WarDriving Contest is sponsored by: FAB-Corp (https://fab-corp.com/) NetStumbler (www.netstumbler.org) Blackthorn Systems (https://blackthorninfosec.com/ Michigan Wireless () Good luck and have fun. Chris . Registration for the DefCon 12 WarDriving Contest is now open.For the first time ever the Def Con Wa. registration, defcon, wardriving, contest, first. . Anthony Pell
This week, we begin to reverse engineer the home-grown encryption algorithm discussed last week. Last week I offered you five examples of "encrypted" text that were generated by a home-grown crypto system. Your job was to reverse engineer the algorithm. . .. This week, we begin to reverse engineer the home-grown encryption algorithm discussed last week. Last week I offered you five examples of "encrypted" text that were generated by a home-grown crypto system. Your job was to reverse engineer the algorithm . Well, the week went by and folks did take a stab at it, but no one managed to break it yet. So I'm extending the contest another week. This article will provide the first part of the algorithm which should get you started. Once you get through this layer, you should be able to work through the solution in a few shifts.[2] If you break the code, write me email and the best writeup describing the algorithm will get a copy of Hacking Linux Exposed, Second Edition. So, let's look at the first part of my reverse engineering. We had only encrypted data to work with, and some idea of what acceptable contents would look like, in this case, normal English text. You might argue in an ideal world you would not have any idea what the plaintext would look like, but in the real world you can usually hazard a guess. For example if you find encrypted-looking text in a database, the field name will probably indicate what it is. If an email contains only an encrypted body, then it is likely composed of readable characters. The five encrypted strings were as follows: # String 1 !!@!1P!=P!?P!=P!?`!> `! @!A0!,P!> @!B@!A` # String 2 !T`!M0!TP!V0!X0!Y0!C@!P0!Y0!W0!UP!Y@!H@ ... . Join our coding challenge and immerse yourself in deconstructing a unique cipher system for an opportunity to triumph!. encryption challenge, cryptanalysis techniques, home-grown algorithms, code cracking contest. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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