/dev/zero (devslashzero) on devslashzero's tech corner

Client-Side Database Access and Exposed Private Key

Fri, 03 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A client application handled database authentication locally, exposing a private key and allowing full database access.

Reconstructing a RAID-6 Array without Controller Metadata

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Recovered a 24 SSD RAID-6 array after controller failure without metadata.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t just operate systems.

I try to understand them.

Over the years, I ended up in environments where things didn’t work as expected. Sometimes because of complexity. Sometimes because of wrong assumptions. Sometimes because nobody really knew how the system behaved anymore.

So I started breaking things down.

Not destructively — but mentally.

Treating systems as black boxes. Observing behavior. Challenging assumptions. Reconstructing logic from the outside in.

At some point, I realized:

Principles of reverse engineering

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reverse engineering is not about tools.

It’s about understanding systems that were never designed to be understood and making them predictable.

Everything is a system

These things must always be kept in mind:

No component exists in isolation
What looks like a bug is often just the result of interaction between parts that were never meant to work together
Understanding the system means understanding the relationships — not just the components

Observe before you touch

Before changing anything (especially in production), observation is the key: