#week06

[intothecrevices]

Sky was on fire today.

[conestogacillustrationyear3]

Weekly illustration

Deanna Hieber

[frankfoo3-blog]

Week 06: Buffer Overflow Practice Questions 1.0 Basic

1.0 Basic

I actually don’t have c programming set up at home, can’t seem to figure out how to get gcc working 

So I logged onto my school directory

I compiled basic.c with dcc and got some error messages out 

Warning: the gets function is dangerous and should not be used 

Bless Andrew Taylor 

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to look at the code itself while trying to figure it out, I assume not

So from what I remember, the most basic way to to do a buffer overflow is to just pass into a string that’s too large 

Okay I got a runtime error - stack buffer overflow 

dcc explanation - access past the end of a local variable

Make sure the size of your array is correct

Make sure your array indices are correct

Oh, it printed out a portion of the code

if (team == ‘B’) {

win();

Okay wait I think I’ve got it 

So there’s two variables, name and team

I’m putting data into name, if I can overflow into the variable team with the letter B, I get to run the win function 

20 “A”’s and it’s still working, lets try 30

30 “A’s still working 

32?, 32 A’s and it broke 

31 “A”s working fine, I think we’ve found the size of variable name 

I realised that maybe I shouldn’t be using dcc, so I recompiled with gcc

Yeah I think dcc is checking for this

Hmm, 32 A’s work fine now 

64 gives a seg fault 

I ended up just pasting in a lotttt of “B”’s 

And I got

We can leave this here, because it is never called.

Our flag is safe.

Flag: COMP6841{Hey_Look_Ma_I_Made_It!}

Segmentation Fault

So it’s not clean but it got the job done 

[supercoolsecurity]

Week 6. Security Everywhere

I was watching a video lecture on echo360 to catch up on some work and saw that my lecturer was typing in the pin to the ipad that is used during the lecture. Similarly, a few weeks later the notification of logging into icloud pops up showing the lecturer’s personal email address. Within this email address is the lecturer’s name and six digits which closely resemble the a birth date. 

Risk: So, all this is recorded on echo, if an attacker wanted to access this lecturer’s personal details, the ipad can easily be taken and logged in using the pin in the recording. 

Also learning from the talk last week regarding passwords, we only require a few pieces of information of an individual to determine the possible passwords to an account. So since we already know the name and possible dob the third piece of information can be found somewhere on the ipad. 

Otherwise, it is also possible that some sites are already logged on/ have details saved. i.e. unsw portal. 

Prevention and plan for the future: 

I guess a lesson that can be learn is that we can’t always keep everything a secret, but keep your personal information to yourself. 

If you don’t need to share information don’t

[yiaun97]

Protest 101: Social Media

The Early Days...

Life was tough during 14th century England. Workers were forced to work with a minimum wage while some had to work without pay due to the feudalism. Adding insult to injury, taxes were raised in order to fund the war with France. Subsequently, people were starting to realise the importance of freedom; they want equal rights. It escalated to an open rebellion when the people of Essex refused to pay their taxes. Local leaders contacted countryside communities through letters, they rallied and marched to London (Bbc.com 2019). The revolution was ultimately a failure; however, The Peasant’s Revolt was an early example of an organised protest among the common folk.

21st Century

Centuries later, London was occupied by protestors yet again. During the 2011 London Riots, the city was in flames, buildings looted and destroyed. It was the largest post-world-war era disorder in UK’s history (Vice 2016). The protest was triggered by the shooting of Mark Duggan, disadvantaged communities took this opportunity to protest the unequal treatment of the police specifically over the excessive use of stop and search (Vice 2016). Unlike in ancient times, the method of communication had significantly evolved with the aid of technology. Nowadays, protestors and activists seek technology solutions that are straightforward and reachable (Sigal and Biddle 2015). As social media has become a crucial part of life, it was used as the medium to organise the London Riots. 

According to Sigal and Biddle (2015), story-elements bring people to protest or start a movement together. The movement started when netizens gathered on a Facebook page to mourn the death of Duggan (Halliday 2011). The initial sadness subsequently transforms into anger, thus triggering the riots. To prevent more chaos, Facebook and Twitter were closely monitored by the authorities, they were ready to react. As the main social media platforms were under governance, protestors pivoted to another platform (Youmans and York 2012). BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) became the designated platform for protestors to deploy or rally people. It was a better alternative as BlackBerry phones were common among teens, it’s a free text messenger and most importantly it is UNTRACEABLE. BlackBerry refused to shut down its services (MailOnline 2011); but agreed to enable police to track and arrest users who spread ‘fake news’ (Halliday 2011). Law enforcement was heavy and they ultimately put an end to the riots.

Double-Edged Sword

Without a doubt, social media is important if one is to become an activist. The power of social media as a tool to rally the people can no longer be denied. Nonetheless, it is unsafe. Fundamentally, a social media platform is not designed as a tool to organise movements and protests. Social media’s core purpose is to connect people and gain revenue, it is a business-oriented service (Youmans and York 2012). Hence, they comply with government requests in order to keep their services intact. Moreover, there is no solid proof that social media companies will not ‘sell-out’ to tyrants or despotic regimes to undermine their consumer base. Therefore, activists have to proceed with caution when wielding the influence of social media.

References:

Bbc.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/z2c2pv4/revision/1 [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Halliday, J. (2011). London riots: BlackBerry to help police probe Messenger looting 'role'. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-blackberry-messenger-looting [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Halliday, J. (2011). London riots: how BlackBerry Messenger played a key role. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-facebook-twitter-blackberry [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Mail Online. (2011). 'It's unbelievable BlackBerry Messenger hasn't been shut down': Mayor's aide calls for ban on riot 'tool'. [online] Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023924/London-riots-2011-BlackBerry-Messenger-shut-unbelievable.html [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Sigal, I. and Biddle, E. (2015). FCJMESH-007 Our Enduring Confusion About the Power of Digital Tools in Protest. The Fibreculture Journal, (26), pp.290-296.

Vice. (2016). What the 2011 Summer Riots Were Really About. [online] Available at: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/kwkbde/england-riots-2011-five-years-later-analysis [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Youmans, W. and York, J. (2012). Social Media and the Activist Toolkit: User Agreements, Corporate Interests, and the Information Infrastructure of Modern Social Movements. Journal of Communication, 62(2), pp.315-329.

[jeonjungkk-blog]

Week 06 - Sixth Update of 20-Time!

Actual Status Updates:

Progress? Significant progress this week as well! During classI was able to accomplish my previous goal of doing the line art of the Kiki’s Delivery Service piece of the masterpiece! Due to less time during 20-time (30 minutes), I was not able to work on the large piece, but I have an entire day free, therefore I will use my time wisely during that time to complete coloring Kiki as well as color part of the large piece as planned.

Adjustments? Generally, no significant adjustments were made this week, but the only change I did was some slight posing and facial expression Kiki originally had in the drawing. It did somewhat change the emotion the drawing gave, but it represented my visualization of how it would originally look like well. 

Any challenges? No large challenges took place this week, rather the only problem was the slight rush I had when completing the line art as the decrease of time took place, but I was still able to accomplish it in time.

Overall progress: 

Still on track? Of course! I was able to accomplish the goal I set last week and will continue to follow my original schedule I had set out for myself. 

What are you going to do next week? Begin sketching the “My Neighbor Totoro” piece of the masterpiece and hopefully finish it during class in time.

Thank you so much for following the development of my masterpiece and I hope you’ll continue to view my updates :)

-Alex

[intothecrevices]

I swear I didn't fall off a cliff and die. My mental health did. Buuuut I feel I have bounced back, somewhat. Interviewed for and got a decent paying job, not data science, but hey it's a job that pays. Tho it starts in May so I'll keep applying for better options for the time being. Going on a trip next week. Been feeling a bit (what's the word???) skittish? fidgety? hmmm not quite. Just feeling this little bug in my brain telling me to make shit. It's been a while so it's nice to have this feeling back.

Anyway got some 30 something pictures that I'll queue up for the next few days.

[michellange10]

WEEK07 HW #6 - Nami Matcha

Nami Matcha Home Page

Note: Left is original, right is my mockup

Directive: I am going to make Nami's home page more inviting and create more space for their current matcha collection.

My experience:

Compared to Cha Cha Matcha's mockup, I think I had an easier time redesigning Nami's home page. I am a longtime fan of Ashley Alexander, Youtuber and creator of Nami Matcha, so I was already familiar with her down-to-earth branding. I added more warmth to the page by changing the pale yellow of the original design to a warmer butter yellow, which aligns with Nami's branding. It also adds more contrast to the off-white background used for the product display. Another big change in the mockup is introducing the arch. It's a round shape that adds softness and coziness to the website design.