About Me
Principal Lab Architect at HackTheBox since January 2021. Review and test boxes for release on the platform. Automate and reduce boring work.
Before working at HTB, 19+ years of information security / technical analysis work in the US public and private sectors. Experience in SOC/CIRT, Threat Intelligence, Red Teaming, Threat Research.
CTF addict.
Information Contributions
Mentions in Media / Research
- SANS Internet Storm Center Daily Podcast [August 6 2024] - Shared analysis and demo of OFBiz exploitation [Site] [Audio] (Starts @ 3:17)
- CIPHER: Cybersecurity Intelligent Penetration-Testing Helper for Ethical Researcher [27 July 2024] - Research on LLM training for penetration testing - [Site]
- CyberWire Daily Podcast [September 15 2022] - Discussed research on a PayPal phishing scheme. [Site] [Audio] (Starts @ 21:35)
Blog Posts
- HackTheBox Blog: Exploiting the Looney Tunables vulnerability on HTB (CVE-2023-4911), by 0xdf - 11 October 2023
- HackTheBox Blog: Introducing Hack The Box Seasons: A new way to test your hacking might, by 0xdf - 17 February 2023
- HackTheBox Blog: It is Okay to Use Writeups, by ippsec and 0xdf - 11 February 2022
- HackTheBox Blog: How to Create a Vulnerable Machine for HackTheBox, by 0xdf and ippsec - 29 Sept 2021
Conference Talks / Interviews
- Regular speaker on weekly HTB: Cube Talks - Jan 2024 - Present
- Gupshup Talk @ BSides Pakistan - 23 Nov 2024
- Seer Spotlight - Hack Red Con - 13 Feb 2024
- USCG Cyber Rush Week - Cyber Competitions Panel - 6 June 2023
- HTB Stories #11 - Cyber Horror Stories w/0xdf & Dinosn - 27 Oct 2022 [YouTube]
- HTB Stories #3 - 0xdf - Creating HTB Machines - 30 Sept 2021 YouTube
- H@cktivityCon 2021 - Analyzing Phishing Documents 101 - 18 Sept 2021 [YouTube]
- Source Zero Con 2021 - Analyzing Phishing Documents 101 - 26 May 2021 [YouTube]
HackTheBox Events
- Cyber Apocalypse 2024 Hacking Workshops - Going Beyond Root on Beginner Forensics Challenges - 8 Mar 2024 [YouTube]
- Uni CTF Workshops - Some Forensics Challenge from Last Year - 7 December 2023 [YouTube]
- Cyber Apocalypse 2023 Hacking Workshops - Forensics Challenges Walkthroughs - 17 March 2023 [YouTube]
- Cyber Apocalypse 2022 Hacking Workshops - Tips and Tricks for Forensics Challenges - 13 May 2022 [YouTube]
- Cyber Santa Is Coming To Town - Hacking Pary - Forensics Challenges - 14 Dec 2021 [YouTube]
Open Source Contributions
- Author of PyHTBcli, a command line tool for interacting with HackTheBox, available on PyPi (Unmaintained).
- Significant contributor to htb-api, a Python library used to interact with the HackTheBox API.
Notible CTF Accomplishments
SANS Holiday Hack Challenge
- 2023 Super Honorable Mention - Solution
- 2022 🏆 Best Overall Answer 🏆 - Solution
- 2021 🏆 Best Technical Answer 🏆 - Solution
- 2020 Honorable Mention - Solution
- 2019 Super Honorable Mention - Solution
- 2018 Honorable Mention - Solution
- 2017 Honorable Metnion
- 2016 Honorable Mention
- 2015 Honorable Mention
Flare-On Challenge
- 2024 - Completed all challenges (124th out of 242 finishers, 5,324 players)
- 2022 - Completed all challenges (231st out of 494 finishers, 5,345 players)
- 2021 - Completed all challenges (252nd out of 341 finishers, 4,578 players)
SANS Netwars
Top 3 finishes:
| Event | Category | Finish | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| SANSFIRE | Core Netwars, Individual | 1st | 19 July 2024 |
| Tournament of Champions | Core Netwars, First Time Team (w/ Ippsec) | 2nd | 17 Dec 2021 |
| Tournament of Champions | Core Netwars, Veteran Team (w/ Ippsec, PwnEIP, kfiducua, and enordbo) | 1st | 16 Dec 2019 |
| Tournament of Champions Europe | Core Netwars, Veteran Team (w/ Ippsec, PwnEIP, kfiducua, and enordbo) | 1st | 24 July 2019 |
| Tournament of Champions | Core Netwars, Veteran Team (w/ Ippsec, PwnEIP, kfiducua, and enordbo) | 1st | 17 Dec 2018 |
| SANSFIRE | Core Netwars, Individual | 1st | 20 July 2018 |
| Tournament of Champions | Core Netwars, Team | 3rd | 18 Dec 2017 |
| SANS Rocky Mountain | Netwars, Individual | 2nd | 14 July 2016 |
Neutrino Cannon
Member of the Neutrino Cannon CTF Team. The team wins mostly without me, but I’ve contributed to some successes.
HackTheBox
Dedicated HackTheBox player, reaching highest rank of 4 on the global leaderboard on 2 March 2019.
Certifications
- Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)
- GIAC Defending Advanced Threats (GDAT)
- GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM)
- GIAC Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester (GXPN)
- GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst (GCFA)
- GIAC Certified Forensic Examiner (GCFE)
- Splunk Certified Power User
- Splunk Certified User
Some or all of these have expired…
Generated Challenges
HackTheBox
Machines
- Agile - 4 March 2023
- Support - 31 July 2022
- ScriptKiddie - 6 Februrary 2021
- RE - 20 July 2019
- SecNotes - 25 August 2018
Challenges
- Hypercraft - 14 July 2023 as challenge in HTB Business CTF
- Relic Maps - 18 March 2023 as challenge in Cyber Apocalypse CTF, now on HTB
- MBCoin - 15 July 2022 as challenge in HTB Business CTF, now on HTB
- Diagnostic [Forensics] - 10 June 2022
- PersistenceIsFutire [Forensics] - 14 May 2021
- emo [Forensics] - 20 Nov 2020
- oBfsC4t10n2 [Forensics] - 24 April 2020
- oBfsC4t10n [Forensics] - 1 Nov 2019
Hackvent
- 2022 Day 3 - gh0st