The Carrot's Blog https://carrot.dev/icon.png Totally Legal Content 2024-02-06T01:22:41.600Z https://carrot.dev/ Kevin Dai Hexo A nasty bug and why assembly is for cool kids https://carrot.dev/2023/02/05/2023-asm/ 2023-02-05T23:22:49.000Z 2024-02-06T01:22:41.600Z Why should we learn assembly? In a quest to speed up code for my compilers course, I encountered quite a neat but nasty little critter. This is why you should learn some assembly! Reverse Engineering the MacOS AHCI Kernel Driver https://carrot.dev/2021/03/10/2021-appleahci/ 2021-03-10T01:13:25.000Z 2024-02-06T01:22:41.600Z Patching the MacOS kernel drivers for fun. This was the story of untangling the inner workings of `AppleAHCIPort.kext`, by an amateur. Really, I don't know what I'm doing. Digital Circuits: The Incomplete Introduction https://carrot.dev/2020/12/26/2020-digital1/ 2020-12-26T03:36:21.000Z 2024-02-06T01:22:41.536Z This is an overview of digital circuitry covering topics such as logic levels and the operation of transistors within integrated circuits from the perspective of hobbyists. Holst's The Cloud Messenger: Thematic Analysis https://carrot.dev/2020/08/13/2020-holst1/ 2020-08-13T20:21:43.000Z 2024-02-06T01:22:41.536Z I hope to shed some light on one of Holst's hidden gems; take some time to admire, analyze and discuss various aspects of this forgotten masterpiece of late-Romanticism. Cute Proofs: What's up with 0? https://carrot.dev/2020/08/11/2020-div0/ 2020-08-11T18:20:36.000Z 2024-02-06T01:22:41.536Z A collection of small, fun and cute proofs that are quite small, fun and cute. Today, let's talk about dividing by zero (not exactly your garden-variety proof here). Exploiting Spidermonkey Part 1 (CVE-2019-9791) https://carrot.dev/2020/05/01/2020-firefox_part1/ 2020-05-01T05:28:36.000Z 2024-02-06T01:22:41.536Z This long overdue post of a close look at a vulnerability within the Javascript engine of 64-bit Firefox 65 on Linux (Ubuntu 18.04). I have never written a single browser exploit, so this should be fun. Turing Adventures: Memory and GC https://carrot.dev/2019/09/05/2019-turing/ 2019-09-05T20:05:33.000Z 2024-02-06T01:22:41.536Z Welcome to the "Turing Adventures" series where I look back at my adventures with an educational language called "Turing" - which was widely used in the Ontario Computer Science 10 curriculum. Today, we'll attempt to add a garbage collector to a language that's pretty garbage. Hopper: Are your license checks secure? https://carrot.dev/2019/06/09/2019-hopper-part1/ 2019-06-09T18:50:30.000Z 2024-02-06T01:22:41.536Z We'll explore reverse engineering Hopper v4. We'll go through how they do their license checks and see if we can bypass that.