Jun 4Member-onlyAdmin of One — A Powerful Way to Highly Limit Blast RadiusOne of the most important principles of cyber security is Admin of One. By reducing the number of devices a password can manage to a single device, the impact of a single admin password being compromised in a cyber attack such as ransomware can be drastically reduced. How Ransomware Happens When ransomware gangs…Cybersecurity4 min readCybersecurity4 min read
Published inInfoSec Write-ups·Sep 10, 2021Member-onlyHow Hackers Use Open-Source Intelligence to Ransomware CompaniesDemonstrating with a real company how a hacker can compromise an organisation in under 2 hours using OSINT and social engineering. Video Transcript Today I’ll be demonstrating how cybercriminals use open-source intelligence to create targeted and highly effective phishing emails that can establish a foothold for company-wide ransomware attacks. …Osint8 min readOsint8 min read
Published inInfoSec Write-ups·Aug 11, 2021Member-onlyHow I Bought a £240.00 Annual Subscription for Bargain £0.01I found a way to alter a premium subscription service price and bought it for a penny. This is how I did it. Whenever I’m bug hunting on a target that takes payments, I always try to buy something using a test credit card number as described in my write-up…Cybersecurity4 min readCybersecurity4 min read
Published inInfoSec Write-ups·Jul 22, 2021Member-onlyPre-Account Takeover by Reversing a Weak Email Verification Token AlgorithmI spoofed access to other people’s email in order to pre-steal user accounts before they are first registered. Here’s how I did it. One thing I always test while hacking on bug bounty programs is how applications generate tokens. …Cybersecurity7 min readCybersecurity7 min read
Published inInfoSec Write-ups·Jun 22, 2021Member-onlyCracking Encrypted Credit Card Numbers Exposed By APII found an API that exposed encrypted credit card numbers. Here’s how I cracked them to reveal the full card details. While hacking on a private bug bounty program, I found a graphql endpoint that exposed way more information about logged in users than it should have done. By playing…Cybersecurity6 min readCybersecurity6 min read
Published inInfoSec Write-ups·Jun 18, 2021Member-onlyOne Time Code Bypass With An Inverted Brute-Force Attack“We’ve sent a six-digit code to your email address. Enter it below to login.” We see them all the time while testing web applications. In order to verify your identity, the application sends a 6 digit numerical code to your registered email address or phone number. The purpose is to…Bug Bounty4 min readBug Bounty4 min read
Published inDigital Diplomacy·Nov 6, 2020Member-onlyWhy You Should Never Trust a Free Proxy ServerFree and open proxy servers promise anonymous internet access, but at what cost? In a world of ever-decreasing online privacy, it’s easy to get sucked into the ‘use an anonymous proxy to stay safe’ narrative. …Cybersecurity6 min readCybersecurity6 min read
Published inThe Startup·Oct 30, 2020Member-onlyHow Phishing Websites Use Captcha to Fool Browsers and PeopleEvading detection and building trust with Captcha challenges and Smishing attacks. This week I received another SMS Phishing attack which was almost identical to the previous Smishing attack I covered. There were two things that struck me as particularly interesting this time: The attack used the s.id …Cybersecurity5 min readCybersecurity5 min read
Published inThe Startup·Oct 25, 2020Member-onlyPhishing Email to Company Devastating Ransomware in 5 HoursHow hackers manually escalated from a malicious email to a devastating, company-wide ransomware takeover in under 5 hours. (This article aims to contextualize an excellent incident report by Thedfirreport.com. I’ve used my own experience to fill in the gaps to demonstrate how these attacks affect real people in real companies.) The Attack Started Like Many Others …Cybersecurity7 min readCybersecurity7 min read
Published inosint·Oct 2, 2020Member-onlyHow An Investigator Can Find Your Location From One PhotographEvery image you post online leaks information about you. This is how anyone can find your location using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Open Source Intelligence In Action — Geolocating a Photograph Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is the practice of using public or ‘open source’ information available on the internet to gather intelligence and gain insights on given targets. …Osint7 min readOsint7 min read
