@4Dgifts the original Morris buffer overflow for sure.

Just because of the Pandora's box it unlocked.

@4Dgifts Perhaps a less traditional pick, but the bypass of copy protections on music CDs using a black marker.

It’s a beautiful example of the challenges of securing something when the owner has physical access, fair use ethics, understanding storage layout, and creative manipulation.

https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,1731.0.html

@4Dgifts Not exactly an exploit—technically a counter-exploit—but the DirecTV Black Sunday Kill was a thing of beauty.

https://blog.codinghorror.com/revisiting-the-black-sunday-hack/

@4Dgifts not as glamorous as the deepest ones but working around xss defense by building javascript out of punctuation brings me joy.

https://hackaday.com/2012/08/13/writing-javascript-without-using-any-letters-or-numbers/

the 'windows metafile files just call any old gdi escape' one is among my all time favorites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Metafile_vulnerability

@4Dgifts I don't have any vulnerability recommendations but I love that concept.

Well ok, I think at least an honorable mention should go to WinNuke and the weird AOL proggies, just because so many people had memories of messing with those lol

@4Dgifts
Shellshock, because it was such an unbelievable WTF.

Spectre, Meltdown, and all of the related microarchitectural issues. I was working in the VPS business when Spectre and Meltdown were announced in 2018. Was it ever a stressful year. Those are vulnerabilities, not exploits, though.

I remember telling someone: "Next time I hear Spectre or speculative execution, I'm gonna have a meltdown." And I had a few that year.

Seriously, speculative execution was a gift that kept on giving.

@4Dgifts witty worm.

https://www.icir.org/vern/papers/witty-imc05.pdf

@4Dgifts NSA's EternalBlue for its historical and philosophical significance. EternalBlue clearly demonstrates that undermining a common good is a terrible idea, and that such information will inevitably leak and become accessible to those with less technological resources.

There was so much fallout from that exploit, particularly WannaCry. I remember listening to a radio program where some US gov. computers were affected by WC and thinking about the irony.