FlorianApr 28, 2024
So ...let's face it. A LOT of folks in tech circles are somewhat amazed a fully #blind person can even find the power button on a computer, let alone operate it professionally. I am such a person, and I'd like to bust that myth.
It's also true that many #hacking tools, platforms, courses etc. could use some help in the #accessibility department. It's a neverending vicious circle.
Enter my new twitch channel, IC_null. On this channel, I will be streaming #programming and #hacking content including THM, HTB and who knows what else, from the perspective of a #screenReader user.
What I need, is an audience. If this is something you reckon you or anybody you know might be interested in, drop the channel a follow or share this post. Gimme that #infoSec Mastodon sense of comradery and help me out to make this idea an actual thing :) https://twitch.tv/ic_null #tryHackMe #streamer #selfPromo
IC_null - Twitch

Fully blind person hacking, coding and tinkering while using a screen reader. THM, HTB, accessibility, all the things.

Twitch
Show threadFlorianApr 29, 2024
Well ...that teaches me to go to sleep right after dropping an announcement like this :-O I did not expect even a tenth of the response this received, thank you all so much for that.
I realize the channel's looking kinda bare at present. The idea to do this os only a day or so old, so 🐻 with me while I set up an initial stream and such. If people are curious, the YouTube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/@blindlycoding has a number of archived game streams from my gaming channel, where I tackle #accessible #gaming, as well as a playlist on last year's Advent of Cyber on the TryHackMe event where I go through the challenges with a screen reader, critique the accessibility of a lot of them and overall trialed the format I want to pursue on the IC_Null channel. If people need a preview, that's where you go :)
Bevor Sie zu YouTube weitergehen

Show threadFlorianApr 29, 2024
We got up to 71 followers in not even a day. That is honestly meteoric.
Tomorrow at 3 PM EST I'll do a first #stream. We'll make us a #TryHackMe account, go through the new user flow, maybe do a room or two while looking at the various #accessibility gotchas we run into. In future streams we'll do similar for HTB, HTBA etc. as well as more #programming related things but tomorrow ...we leave pallet town all mozie-like. See you all then! #twitch #infoSec #selfPromo
Show threadFlorian
Just a reminder, we're blasting off at 3 PM eastern today at https://twitch.tv/IC_null. Be there or 🐝🟥 :) Cookie for anyone who catches why what I just did is an #accessibility blunder. Today on the Docket; #tryHackMe's #accessibility, as well as whatever tools we encounter along the way. See you there :) #twitch #streamer #AMA #selfPromo #goingLive
IC_null - Twitch

Fully blind person hacking, coding and tinkering while using a screen reader. THM, HTB, accessibility, all the things.

Twitch
Apr 30, 2024 at 5:38pmWeb
Show threadFlorianApr 30, 2024

and of course I get the VPN to work literally 10 minutes after ending stream. Welp ... can't be helped :) I unfortunately am also unable to archive the stream as Twitch did not store my desire to have streams be archived.
Therefore for those who weren't there a summary:
- TryHackMe has practically all of their form fields (login form, sign up form etc) improperly labeled by just a placeholder (e.g. rather than "password", the label is " Please make me strong.."), requiring the user to guess at what the field is meant to contain. Generally not a blocker, but annoying and sloppy.
- After onboarding, we picked the " JR Penetration tester" learning path.
- We worked through the first room. Simple web page-based offensive security simulation using gobuster and a hidden webpage.
- We figured out that Guacamole is used for remote access to the lab VM, a tool I have previously made sure is able to transfer audio.
- #ScreenReaders generally only have access to the host system, no remote machines, necessitating a screen reader to be running on the remote end to make that machine screenreader-accessible. This is easy enough to do, but THM's VMs are improperly configured causing audio to not work, therefore no screen reader can actually output speech. This is a rather easy to fix issue, they just ...haven't.
- We had no end of trouble getting VPN to work and I only got it to work after multiple regenerations of the ovpn file so that should be smoother next stream.
- We eventually completed the room by using the screen reader's OCR function liberally to interact with the secret web page which was tedious, but eventually got us the flag.

FOr now, schedule is tuesdays for ic_null content, wednesdays and saturdays for zersiax (gaming) content. If you want to see #accessible gaming, follow that account as well :) Going to try to squeeze in a second ic_null stream weekly as well, watch this space.