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VOICE ARCHIVE

Thomas H. Ptacek

@tqbf
14 posts
2025-09-10
Congrats to everyone at SEAR for this; this is a crazy announcement. https://security.apple.com/...
2025-09-10 View on X
The Verge

Apple says the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air have Memory Integrity Enforcement, “industry-first, always-on memory safety protection”, like Microsoft and Google offer

Memory Integrity Enforcement is always-on safety protection designed to make life harder for spyware developers.

2025-06-03
I regret nothing! (Yet). https://fly.io/...
2025-06-03 View on X
Fly

A software developer explains how AI agents help automate tedious coding tasks, and addresses concerns like hallucinations, job losses, mediocre code, and more

Tech execs are mandating LLM adoption.  That's bad strategy.  But I get where they're coming from.

2024-10-25
Ivan this is simultaneously “security”, “cryptography”, AND “whatever” and you should talk to me and Deirdre and David about it on the show.
2024-10-25 View on X
MacRumors

Apple makes its Private Cloud Compute Virtual Research Environment publicly available for researchers, adds bounties for Private Cloud Compute vulnerabilities

Private Cloud Compute is a cloud intelligence system that Apple designed for private artificial intelligence processing …

2024-08-05
Nicholas Carlini is one of the sharper people I have ever met and I pay attention to anything he writes; this, on day-to-day utility of LLMs, rings pretty true to me. https://nicholas.carlini.com/ ...
2024-08-05 View on X
Nicholas Carlini

A Google DeepMind research scientist details some LLM use cases and argues LLMs are not overhyped and should be judged on what they can do, not what they can't

I don't think that “AI” models (by which I mean: large language models) are over-hyped.  —  Yes, it's true that any new technology will attract the grifters.  And it is definitely ...

2022-12-06
I'm sorry, I simply cannot be cynical about a technology that can accomplish this. https://twitter.com/...
2022-12-06 View on X
Stratechery

A look at the effects of ChatGPT, which has caused an explosion of interest in OpenAI's capabilities and led to questions about AI's impending impact on society

It happened to be Wednesday night when my daughter, in the midst of preparing for “The Trial of Napoleon” for her European history class …

2022-06-22
This MEGA attack is like the Power Falcons sketch from Key & Peele, where Paterson is the ECB Falcon, and Backendal is the unpadded RSA falcon, and Haller is the key reuse falcon, and Keegan-Michael Key plays the Bleichenbacher falcon getting shit on by the other falcons.
2022-06-22 View on X
Ars Technica

Researchers detail fundamental cryptography flaws in MEGA's end-to-end encryption scheme that could let the cloud storage service decipher stored files

Fundamental flaws uncovered in Mega's encryption scheme show service can read your data.  —  In the decade since larger … Source: MEGA: Malleable Encryption Goes Awry .

It really feels like Mega went out of their way to design an authentication protocol specifically to troll academic cryptographers; you could reasonably describe it as a deliberate donation to the CVs of these cryptographers. https://twitter.com/...
2022-06-22 View on X
Ars Technica

Researchers detail fundamental cryptography flaws in MEGA's end-to-end encryption scheme that could let the cloud storage service decipher stored files

Fundamental flaws uncovered in Mega's encryption scheme show service can read your data.  —  In the decade since larger … Source: MEGA: Malleable Encryption Goes Awry .

2022-04-25
Welp. It's the crypto bug of the year. Mark it down for April. Java 15-18 ECDSA doesn't sanity check that the random x coordinate and signature proof are nonzero; a (0,0) signature validates any message. Breaks JWT, SAML, &c. https://neilmadden.blog/...
2022-04-25 View on X
Ars Technica

Oracle patches a critical bug in Java 15 and above, which lets attackers forge TLS certificates and signatures, two-factor authentication messages, and more

A failure to sanity check signatures for division-by-zero flaws makes forgeries easy.  —  Organizations using newer versions …

2021-04-22
<3 https://twitter.com/...
2021-04-22 View on X
VICE

Signal's CEO says he analyzed a Cellebrite device, used to extract data from phones, that fell off a truck, and it is full of easily exploitable security flaws

One of the biggest encrypted chat apps in the world just showed how a device used to decrypt messages can be hacked and tampered with. Source: Signal Blog .

2021-02-16
I think this is directionally wrong, though not very wrong, but does a MUCH better job of engaging with the controversy than Yglesias did. I recommend reading this. https://noahpinion.substack.com/ ...
2021-02-16 View on X
Noahpinion

The NYT overstated the influence of both Slate Star Codex and the Rationalist community on Silicon Valley, and falsely portrayed the tech industry as right-wing

2021-02-15
I think this is directionally wrong, though not very wrong, but does a MUCH better job of engaging with the controversy than Yglesias did. I recommend reading this. https://noahpinion.substack.com/ ...
2021-02-15 View on X
Noahpinion

The NYT overstated the influence of both Slate Star Codex and the Rationalist community on Silicon Valley, and falsely portrayed the tech industry as right-wing

Stereotyping the tech industry as a bunch of secretive right-wingers isn't correct, and it isn't helpful.  —  11 hr ago

2019-09-24
Chef caves. Organizing works. https://blog.chef.io/...
2019-09-24 View on X
VICE

Code deployment toolmaker Chef says it will not renew an ICE contract, after an ex-employee deleted his open-source code in protest leading to customer downtime

Joseph Cox / VICE :

2019-09-08
Cosign all of this. Apple does astonishing technical work to secure the iOS platform, and this statement squanders the moral authority they earned. https://twitter.com/...
2019-09-08 View on X
Apple

Apple accuses Google's Project Zero of stoking fear by creating a “false impression of mass exploitation”, says the sophisticated attack was narrowly focused

And They're Wrong PYMNTS.com : Apple, Google At Odds On iPhone Security Flaws Tied To Attacks Michael Tsai : Apple Responds to Project Zero Abner Li / 9to5Google : Google stands by...

2019-09-07
Cosign all of this. Apple does astonishing technical work to secure the iOS platform, and this statement squanders the moral authority they earned. https://twitter.com/...
2019-09-07 View on X
@alexstamos

[Thread] Apple's response to Project Zero downplays exploits against an oppressed minority, discounts the risk of other targets, and ends in unseemly marketese

Apple's response to the worst known iOS attack in history should be graded somewhere between “disappointing” and “disgusting”. First off, disputing Google's correct use of “indiscr...