alok  

@[email protected]
98 Followers
36 Following
163 Posts

Previously: security engineer at Square, co-author of HackLang, put the 's' in https at Facebook. Maker of CTFs.

I coach engineers (ICs) and small companies: https://www.quaxio.com/coaching

Bloghttps://www.quaxio.com/
alok  Feb 2
Lynnesbian Jan 27

sometimes when i feel my code has too many confusing states, i like to stop, take a deep breath, and open the MSDN page for the MsoTrioState enum.

MsoTrioState is "a tri-state Boolean value". it has five possible values. only two of them are supported.

the only supported values are true and false.

alok  Jul 18, 2025
I recently built Crossabble (https://crossabble.com/) a free web weekly word game. I wrote some technical stuff here: https://www.quaxio.com/building-crossabble/. Hope you enjoy and/or learn something new!
Crossabble #5

Free word game. Each clue reveals a word. Each row's answer adds or removes one letter from the previous row.

alok  Dec 16, 2024
Thoughts on AWS Nitro Enclave ⇔ AWS KMS interactions: https://zxs.ch/2024/12/15/thoughts-on-aws-nitro-enclave-kms-interactions/
Thoughts on AWS Nitro Enclave ⇔ AWS KMS interactions

At Zxs, we have been involved in several AWS Nitro Enclave-related projects. We have noticed a few areas where the AWS documentation doesn’t clearly mention some cryptographic considerations. We have discussed these issues with the security team at AWS and we understand that their hands are tied: they can’t easily change their existing design/APIs and they don’t want to risk confusing their developers by appending their documentation.

Zxs
alok  Dec 16, 2024
Confidential computing at 1Password: https://blog.1password.com/confidential-computing/
Confidential computing at 1Password | 1Password

Confidential computing is a new technology that enables 1Password to bring its end-to-end encryption model into the cloud.

1Password Blog
alok  Nov 4, 2024

Square/Block's annual CTF is happening this month: https://squarectf.com/

It's an annual tradition going back to 2014!

Square CTF: hacking competition!

Compete to solve security-related challenges.

alok  Jun 3, 2024

PagedOut! issue #4 is out: https://pagedout.institute/download/PagedOut_004_beta1.pdf

Lot's of great content in there.

alok  Apr 24, 2024
anfractuosityOct 28, 2023
Simple demo illustrating remanence of data in RAM - https://github.com/anfractuosity/ramrecovery
GitHub - anfractuosity/ramrecovery: Simple demo illustrating remanence of data in RAM (see Cold boot attack) using a Raspberry Pi. Loads many images of the Mona Lisa into RAM and recovers after powering off/on again.

Simple demo illustrating remanence of data in RAM (see Cold boot attack) using a Raspberry Pi. Loads many images of the Mona Lisa into RAM and recovers after powering off/on again. - GitHub - anfr...

GitHub
alok  Apr 21, 2024
https://twitter.com/gynvael/status/1726201121537135013
Gynvael Coldwind (@gynvael) on X

My first program in Python! I still find this syntax a bit confusing with no { } etc. def main( line0: print("Hello World!"), line1: print("What's your name?"), line2: (x := input("Name plz: ")), line3: print(f"Your name is: {x}") ): pass

X (formerly Twitter)
Show threadalok  Apr 21, 2024
And let’s not even talk about how the game’s mortgaging system makes little to no sense.
alok  Apr 21, 2024
Free parking in monopoly (the board game) makes no sense for a pro-capitalism game. Players should be allowed to own the parking lot and charge parking fees me thinks.