My Buffer Overfloweth...

While doing research into the latest assignment I found a pretty cool tutorial so you can try out your own Buffer Overflow attack. While I did not try it myself (I ain't got time for that!) and it looks like I will need a few more skills under my belt, it could be something to play around with in the future.

In other news, the government and law enforcement are corrupt. (But that isn't really news.)

Barrett Brown, a journalist, is now in serving a prison sentence of 5 years for federal charges of obstructing a search warrant, making Internet threats and being an accessory to unauthorized access of a protected computer.

In this case the obstructing a search warrant is for hiding his laptop, making Internet threats (towards the douchebag FBI agent that threatened his Mother and of course no charges were brought against the agent) and the last one is a load of bullshit;

The sentencing ends nearly three years of legal wrangling for Brown, who first attracted the attention of law enforcement officials in 2011 when he copied a hyperlink to data stolen in a hack of security think tank Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, from one Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel to another. The hack reportedly yielded 200 gigabytes of data, including e-mails and credit card information from Stratfor clients, which include the US Army, US Air Force and Miami Police Department. 

Despite Brown's lack of hacking skills, prosecutors argued that the act of posting a link to the data made him a party to the crime. Seeking to have the charge dismissed, Brown's attorneys argued in a court motion (PDF) that Brown did not "transfer" the stolen data but merely republished a public link to information that was already in the public domain.

 Now this is especially worrisome, even for the general public, because copying and pasting links is not a new thing nor is it hard. Anyone can do it and probably has done it.

While the hyperlink charge was ultimately dropped, Brown said the prosecution revisited the link charge during a December sentencing hearing as "relevant conduct" that should be considered in deciding Brown's punishment.

"The fact that the government has still asked you to punish me for that link is proof, if any more were needed, that those of us who advocate against secrecy are to be pursued without regard for the rule of law, or even common decency," Brown said in a presentencing statement to the court.

 We live in a time when we have governments spying on their own people and getting away with it. When whistle blowers are seen as anti-American and a society that values its privacy but condemns those that try to show the corruption. It is about time the people see the what is happening and do something about it.