Ricardo Alves

@opqam
19 Followers
21 Following
50 Posts
Network Security Engineer at Natixis
Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering Enthusiast.

New blog post!

๐Ÿงฎ Ints Arenโ€™t Integers and Floats Arenโ€™t Real

Some musings on x86 flags, the CMP instruction, floating point quirks, and why 0.1 + 0.2 might actually break a bridge ๐ŸŒ‰

Also: CTF fun, more TPM stuffssess, and a reminder that breaking stuff on purpose is still the best way to learn ๐Ÿงจ

Read here: https://dreaming-of-dragons.blogspot.com/2025/07/ints-arent-integers-and-floats-arent.html

#assembly #ctf #floatingpoint #reversing #linux #cybersecurity #infosec

New blog post up ๐Ÿ•ต๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ

๐Ÿง… Playing With Bits: Of Malware Labs, Steganography and Narnia

A peek into hiding data in images, setting up a simple but safe malware lab, and revisiting the OverTheWire Narnia wargame ๐Ÿง™โ€โ™‚๏ธ

Read here: https://dreaming-of-dragons.blogspot.com/2025/06/playing-with-bits-of-malware-labs.html

#malwareanalysis #steganography #ctf #reversing #cybersecurity #linux #hacking

@davidcampey

Hey. Because it's really really simple. The header has only 3 or 4 entries and it has no compression nor any encryption.

It's possible to do on other mediums, of course, but it's extra work, and I only wanted to manipulate bits in a meaningful way. :)

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Built a couple of small Python tools:

One writes hidden messages into .ppm images using basic steganography.

The other extracts those messages back out.

Itโ€™s just a proof of conceptโ€”but feel free to explore or reuse if you're curious.

More details coming in my next blog post.

Just wanted to give a quick heads-up.

Happy poking. ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿš

๐Ÿ“Ž You can grab them here:

https://github.com/OPQAM/MigratingCoconuts/tree/master/Python_Rebuild/Week_3

#steganography #infosec #hacking #python #lowlevelstuff

Playing with the least significant bits of my weekend

๐Ÿ… Experimenting with steganography โ€” hiding messages inside simple image and sound files.

Iโ€™m building a Python script to embed and extract hidden data, mostly to better understand binary manipulation and file formats. ๐Ÿ•ต๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Beats working out at the gym.

#Tinkering #Cybersecurity #Python

So it goes. Part I

๐Ÿงฉ Been poking at eval() and exec() in Python โ€” they're deceptively powerful. One stray input and you're one __import__ away from a shell.
Remote Code Execution (RCE) isnโ€™t just old news โ€” itโ€™s still real, still nasty in the wrong hands.

๐ŸŒฒ Pythonโ€™s ASTs let you trace what a script really does without running it โ€” but just one layer of obfuscation, and they fall apart.

Small tools, deep cuts. Keep digging.

#PythonSecurity #ReverseEngineering #Cybersecurity

New Blog Post: Why Wonโ€™t You Power Off?

Linux wouldnโ€™t shut down my ThinkPad x260.

โŒ It wasnโ€™t heat.

โŒ It wasnโ€™t ACPI.

โœ… It was the TPM.

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Troubleshooting recap

โš™๏ธ BIOS tweaks

โ˜• Real fix that worked

๐Ÿ”— https://dreaming-of-dragons.blogspot.com/2025/05/why-wont-you-power-off.html

#Linux #ThinkPad #TPM #Debugging #ACPI #SysAdmin #TechBlog

โœ‰๏ธ Ever opened an email and felt like... someone knew?

A friend of mine was on vacation when a client emailed her โ€” and later followed up with:

"I know you opened our email. Can you please reply?"

She hadnโ€™t replied. Just opened the email.

So... how did they know?

You might want to learn more about the spy pixel.

It's cool stuff, I promise:

๐Ÿ‘‰ How a Spy Pixel Crashed Into My Friend's Vacation

๐Ÿ”— https://dreaming-of-dragons.blogspot.com/2025/04/how-spy-pixel-crashed-into-my-friends.html

#privacy #infosec #cybersecurity #spypixel #blogpost

How a Spy Pixel Crashed Into My Friend's Vacation

embedded programming dreaming of dragons

๐Ÿ”Š "Securing Your Website (Part 2): Cloudflare Tunnels, WAF Traps, and More Hands-On Security"

So, after setting up Cloudflare Tunnels to bypass my ISP restrictions and adding some basic WAF rules, I kept digging some more into Cloudflare's security features.

๐Ÿ“Œ Automating tunnel restarts with systemd
๐Ÿ“Œ Testing custom WAF rules to trap bots.
๐Ÿ“Œ Experimenting my own rules for loopholes.

๐Ÿ‘‰ https://dreaming-of-dragons.blogspot.com/2025/03/securing-your-website-part-2-cloudflare.html

#CyberSecurity #Cloudflare #Networking #WAF #ITSecurity

Securing Your Website (Part 2): Cloudflare Tunnels, WAF Traps, and More Hands-On Security

embedded programming dreaming of dragons