A Bug Hunter's Diary

Seemingly simple bugs can have drastic consequences, allowing attackers to compromise systems, escalate local privileges, and otherwise wreak havoc on a system.

A Bug Hunters Diary follows security expert Tobias Klein as he tracks down and exploits bugs in some of the worlds most popular software, like Apples iOS, the VLC media player, web browsers, and even the Mac OS X kernel. In this one-of-a-kind account, youll see how the developers responsible for these flaws patched the bugs—or failed to respond at all. As you follow Klein on his journey, youll gain deep technical knowledge and insight into how hackers approach difficult problems and experience the true joys (and frustrations) of bug hunting.

Along the way youll learn how to:
–Use field-tested techniques to find bugs, like identifying and tracing user input data and reverse engineering
–Exploit vulnerabilities like NULL pointer dereferences, buffer overflows, and type conversion flaws
–Develop proof of concept code that verifies the security flaw
–Report bugs to vendors or third party brokers

A Bug Hunters Diary is packed with real-world examples of vulnerable code and the custom programs used to find and test bugs. Whether youre hunting bugs for fun, for profit, or to make the world a safer place, youll learn valuable new skills by looking over the shoulder of a professional bug hunter in action.