Rebooted Dreams
My Path to Becoming a Whitehat (Part I)
Curiosity noun
cu·ri·os·i·ty | kyoor-ee-os-i-tee
Definition of curiosity:
1: the desire to learn or know about anything
// The cat’s natural curiosity led it to investigate its new environment.
2: the imaginary archnemesis of the cat
// Ser Paws survived another day of exploration, without falling victim to Curiosity’s evil trapsPart I: Early Days
So, tell me... what was I like as a kid?
I expected her to tell me about how I was the perfect little child - perfectly obedient and never causing any trouble.
C'mon, I was a perfect little gentleman... wasn’t I?!
My mother cackled. Quite loudly, I must admit. You, she began saying, with a reminiscent smile on her face, were always up to something. You were too curious for your own good.
I was a curious kid. I was always tinkering with things, taking them apart, putting them back together, and figuring out how to make them better.1 I was always asking questions, relentlessly. I didn't take things for granted. I was always scouting a new problem to solve, a new challenge to tackle. I was always looking for a new way to have fun - searching for something new to learn about. And those days, I was always looking for a new way to surprise my brother.
Back then, I wondered how many times I could scare my brother by popping out from various hiding spots in the house. Saturday mornings were the perfect opportunities, when I could surprise him as he zombie-walked into the kitchen, still half-asleep. One morning, I finally mastered the surprise.
My brother was growing accustomed to my antics; he thought that he was ready for me. He peeked around the fridge (my usual hiding spot).2 I was nowhere to be found and he was utterly confused. Today, I was lying prone under the kitchen table, ready to pounce like a tiger in the Sunderbans (I was reading a lot of National Geographic at the time). He checked by the cabinets, no luck. He looked in the bathroom, but to no avail. A smile crept across his face as he thought that he was safe this morning. As he opened the fridge, I crawled out and clawed at his pajama pants. My poor brother screamed so loud, I'm sure the whole neighborhood could hear his squeal. And, I smiled so wide, I'm sure the neighbors in the next town could see my grin.
Other days, I was curious about things like how much extra allowance I could squeeze out of my mother for doing my usual chores. Could I make enough to buy a new video game? Maybe I could hand down some of the work to my brother for a cut? What about to buy a new pair of Jordans before school started? One day over the Thanksgiving holidays, I drafted a contract proposing my new allowance, detailing the bounty for completing each chore. Short story: it was quickly signed - without negotiation. I learned a lot about negotiation that day.
However, there is one thing that I could never figure out as a kid. It always got the best of me: the dreaded blue screen of death (bsod).
Dear Computer, I cannot fix you. I will reboot you into safe mode. I will roll you back with a system restore. This is the best I can do.
I’m not going to tell you about the countless weekends I tied up the phone lines over our blazing fast 56K connection to research “how to fix a blue screen” and “how to stop getting viruses.” I’m not even going to tell you about the steam coming out of my ears whenever another Trojan horse found its way past all the bulletproof free anti-virus and malware protection (with overlapping firewalls) that I could install. But, I will tell you that my curiosity about computers finally led me to a great answer to that classic question every child is asked during Thanksgiving, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Your chatty aunt, the uncle that only comes over when there's a feast, and that neighbor that invited themselves over, were the adults that loved asking this question. Instead of taking the question seriously, I’d usually share a new career related to math (since I loved it) like being an actuary or statistician. But this Thanksgiving I was in college preparation mode - both colleges and curious adults wanted to know what I would do for my rest of my life. I was ready.
A whitehat hacker. I said it loudly and proudly. The crickets chirped, equally loudly and proudly.
Errrrmm... a programmer? Smiles and nods of approval followed.
That’s nice! Good for you! I hear that programming jobs are in high demand! Are you going to be the next Steve Jobs?
In my mind, I had a grand vision of finally putting those perky viruses to rest. When I learned that even large trusted companies were fighting blue screens, having their systems hacked, and falling victim to cyber attacks, I was amazed. Then, I learned that there were actually teams of people (whitehats) that were responsible for keeping the blackhats out - this sounded pretty cool to me. Fortunately, I was able to meet one of these cool whitehats.
I had a wonderful mentor in high school, Mr. W, that introduced me to the world of cybersecurity. He taught an amazing cyber security course that I attended on weekends at NYU. I learned how to reverse engineer applications, adore their technical subtleties, come up with creative solutions, and even pass notes in binary.3 I had the opportunity to approach networks from an attacker’s point of view and run analyses with awesome penetration testing tools. To this day, I can still remember staying up late at night to work through CTFs.4 Solving those challenges felt a lot like playing video games, instead of learning.
“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.” Fred Rogers
And, I loved that I could learn, while having fun. I was hooked.5 I already saw myself as a whitehat hacker, although my journey was just beginning. My next stop would take me deep into the woods of New Hampshire.
To be continued...
Allow me to clarify: when I say "tinkering" I actually mean "breaking" - ooops. Admittedly, it was a lot more breaking than fixing. To this day, I still carry a fond memory of disassembling and reassembling my first (Compaq) computer at the T4 program. Thank you Mr. G for leading the program. I was so proud of myself that day.
The fridge was undoubtedly the coolest hiding spot. It was followed by the living room drapes (for a dramatic entrance, of course), under the bed (a classic undercover hideout), and even the washing machine (yes, it was a tight fit).
01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100001.
CTFs are capture the flag competitions. They are a series of challenges that test your technical skills. My favorite was Hack This Site.
I am currently hooked on researching potential security vulnerabilities in Uniswap v4 hooks. Here's a 'awesome' list if you're curious about hooks as well.