RC RANDOM CHAOS

Articles

Long-form writing on tech, culture, and the edges of the internet.

GLM-5.2 binds to a port and opens a shell
local LLM securitycontrolled deployment

GLM-5.2 binds to a port and opens a shell

Running GLM-5.2 locally stands up a network service with host execution. The failure is untrusted input reaching an unbounded execution context.

8 min read
Google shipped power, not process
AI automationworkforce transformation

Google shipped power, not process

Google fired an engineer over a Workspace CLI because it never built the absorption layer that turns internal automation into sanctioned, owned infrastructure.

9 min read
Sandi Metz named the wrong abstraction
wrong abstractionsystems drift

Sandi Metz named the wrong abstraction

The wrong abstraction fails because systems resolve trust once by reference and never revalidate whether that reference still means what it did.

7 min read
SIGGRAPH 2023 shipped an unfuzzed ingest path
gaussian splattingbrowser exploitation

SIGGRAPH 2023 shipped an unfuzzed ingest path

Gaussian splats don't break browser memory protection. Their untrusted parsers do: integer overflow to OOB write in splat viewers, CWE-190 into CWE-787.

7 min read
The 9.x exposure with nothing to patch
data leakcloud misconfiguration

The 9.x exposure with nothing to patch

Why exposed DigitalOcean data needs no exploit, what defenders miss in telemetry, and how to escalate a leak responsibly.

7 min read
The age gate pockets your number and sells it
age verificationdata brokers

The age gate pockets your number and sells it

Age verification collects phone numbers, emails, and birthdates that never feed an age check, then sells them. By its data flow, it is a collection pipeline.

7 min read
The verification email is a reflection primitive
email bombingsubscription bombing

The verification email is a reflection primitive

Email verification flows that send mail on request become reflection primitives. Why subscription bombing passes SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and how to detect it.

6 min read
They kept a folder on everyone who objected
surveillance datadata governance

They kept a folder on everyone who objected

MSG built a dossier on facial-recognition activists. The exposure is one party holding identity data and the authority to target it with it.

7 min read
torch.load runs attacker code before the first denoising step
ML supply chaininsecure deserialization

torch.load runs attacker code before the first denoising step

A diffusion inpainting model can't execute a prompt. The real RCE is pickle deserialisation in the loader, custom nodes, and the agent around it.

7 min read
You authenticated nothing
social engineeringinfluencer trust

You authenticated nothing

Polymarket paid creators to present sponsored messages as organic. A breakdown of the social engineering mechanism: trust authenticated once, then rented.

8 min read
Your build trusts whatever it can find
supply-chain-securitysystems-drift

Your build trusts whatever it can find

A build system executed code because a name resolved, not because content was verified. How trust attaches to the reference and outlives the artifact.

7 min read
Copilot shipped CWEs in 40% of NYU's 2021 scenarios
AI code reviewsecure coding

Copilot shipped CWEs in 40% of NYU's 2021 scenarios

Why working AI-generated code still gets rejected in security review: functional correctness is not security correctness, and CWEs ride through clean output.

6 min read