Blog

  • FEATURED

    I got a letter of appreciation from Cambridge University

    • General
    • by Jacob Riggs
    • 02-10-2021
    4.86 of 115 votes

    Recently, I received a letter of appreciation from Cambridge University after responsibly disclosing a critical vulnerability. The letter reads:We appreciate you taking the time, and effort, to inform us responsibly and ethically regarding these security issues. My report was well received and their triage and remediation efforts were swift.Thanks, Cambridge.

  •

    I hacked the Ministry of Defence so they sent me this coin

    • General
    • by Jacob Riggs
    • 28-09-2021
    4.84 of 159 votes

    The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) sent me a VDP challenge coin for my finding and responsible disclosure of a critical (9.6 CVSS) severity vulnerability. Together with the coin was a small thank you note.Thank you! The Ministry of Defence takes the security of our systems seriously. To show our appreciation for all your time and effort, we would like

  • How I stumbled over a vulnerability in the Vatican

    4.85 of 145 votes

    This is my write-up and walkthrough for a simple low-complexity but potentially high-impact vulnerability I identified within files hosted on the Vatican web app. This started as me looking for a domain to set up a dedicated BIND9 service on a new DNS server I was building. I was looking for a domain, and for reasons I won't go into

  • FEATURED

    I hacked the Dutch government and all I got was this t-shirt

    • General
    • by Jacob Riggs
    • 04-05-2021
    4.91 of 253 votes

    The NCSC-NL (National Cyber Security Centre – Netherlands) sent me a ‘lousy’ t-shirt on behalf of the Dutch government. Together with the t-shirt was a thank you letter.Thank you for bringing a vulnerability to our attention. Together with vulnerability reporters like you we can increase the resilience of Dutch society in the digital domain and better protect our systems and

  • Why I choose to keep my employer information hidden

    4.86 of 164 votes

    The security community widely accepts that participating in social media within a white-hat capacity can naturally bring about undesirable interactions. This is why many security professionals opt to maintain a strict separation between their online activities and their personal lives. The reality is that one can no longer freely participate in social media whilst also remaining independent from the consequences

  • [CTF] HTB Buff write-up walkthrough

    4.28 of 188 votes

    This is my write-up and walkthrough for the Buff (10.10.10.198) box user flag. Buff is a Windows machine with multiple CVEs which are relatively easy to identify. I found this box much simpler than some of the others in my recent write-ups and would definitely recommend it to anyone new to CTFs. When commencing this engagement, Buff was listed in HTB