After a lot of interruptions calls to duty, and rejected reorganization and rules variants, I finally got to play the game today. More on the end result later but here's a quick look.
The initial Rebel attack suffered heavy losses followed by a flank attack by Dominion cavalry.
A renewed assault fared a little better but ran out of steam when command control issues held up the reserves. This enticed the Dominion General to launch an attack by the Highlanders supported by cavalry and artillery.
The Rebel reserves finally made it to the front, threw the highlanders back and followed up, threatening the vital central hill.
\
Concentrated firepower halted the attacks and as the line wavered, the Gentlemen Pensioners charged home and broke the Rebel morale.
12 turns played out of 15 before Blue's army break point was reached.
Title: Audio Lead / Sound Designer Focus: Creating and implementing sounds, managing audio content Type: Full-time, permanent Last day to apply: Monday 15th of April 2019 /CLOSED Location: Malmö, Sweden (Doing remote work from EU/EEA countries welcome)
You remember it: a faint rustle in your periphery, dragging footsteps around the corner, a raspy breath. You still break in cold sweat when you hear that high-pitched screech that means a monster is near. All the iconic soundscapes that make Frictional games what they are.
We are now looking for an experienced audio designer to work in-house and continue this tradition of keeping a new generation of gamers on their toes with lovingly designed, eerie and memorable soundscapes.
What will you work on?
We are quite a small team, but we consider that our selling point. As a sound designer you will get to work on everything from small effects to the overall mood of the project. This means your contribution will greatly influence how the final game sounds, feels and evokes emotions.
Here are some of the things you will be working on:
Collaborating with designers to create soundscapes, taking both artistic and gameplay aspects into account.
Being a part of designing the overall mood of the game.
Creating some of sounds used for our monsters, machines and other otherworldly noises using libraries, or from scratch if possible.
Creating sound effects timed with specific events and animations.
Refining events by working with both our map editor and scripting tools.
Researching various technical features needed to achieve certain effects.
Handling the music, either by creating it or working with a musician.
All in all, helping the game world come to life.
We also encourage working outside of your area of expertise, and always learning new things. The more areas of development you are willing and able to take part in, the better! For example you are encouraged to participate in our fortnightly testing and leave feedback on other aspects of the game.
What are we looking for?
You have to be a European (EU/EEA) resident to apply. The person we're looking for is creative, driven and self-sufficient. With a remote team such as ours, the ability to organise your own work is a fundamental skill.
We have recently set up a central hub in Malmö, Sweden, and will help you move to our seaside city if it suits your situation.
Here are some essentials we require:
Hardware and equipment to work with.
We don't expect you to have a fully equipped home studio, but enough to work on most of the sounds. Additional equipment can be provided if needed, but it is important that you have the hardware needed to start working.
At least one year of experience in audio production for games.
Good understanding of sound and music, and how they affect the player experience.
Ability to challenge yourself, make bold creative decisions, and try non-conventional things.
A critical approach to your work, with the ability to take a step back and reflect.
A strive for structure, efficiency, and clarity.
Strong self-drive and ability to organise your own work.
Interest in and ability to do research for interesting sound and music solutions.
Love for working on a variety of tasks.
Fluency in English.
And here are some more techie skills:
Familiarity with FMod or Wwise.
Basic knowledge in programming.
Basic knowledge of creating maps in a level editor.
If you want to impress us:
Love for horror, sci-fi, and narrative games.
A major role in completing at least one game.
Experience in level design.
Strong game design skills.
What do we offer?
We make games, because that's what we love. But we know there are other things we love, like playing games, taking part in sports, or spending time with our families. We believe a healthy balance between work and life reflects positively on your work, which is why we don't encourage crunch.
We also offer:
Flexible working hours.
Opportunities to influence your workflow.
Variety in your work tasks, and ability to influence your workload.
Participation in our internal game Show & Tell sessions, so you'll have input into all aspects of the game.
Social security and holidays that are up to the Swedish standards.
An inclusive and respectful work environment.
An office in central Malmö you can use as much as you please.
Fun workmates, game and movie nights, and other outings!
Apply!
If all of the above piqued your interest, we would love to hear from you! Send us your application 15th of April the latest - but the sooner, the better!
Please attach your:
Cover Letter
Why should we hire YOU?
CV
Link to your portfolio site
Link to a video reel demonstrating sound design abilities
A document describing a game soundscape you have worked on. Please write about the following:
What you worked on.
What you were going for with the design.
What went well in the project and what you would prefer to change in retrospect.
Please note that we require all the attachments to consider you.
Send your application to apply@frictionalgames.com!
By sending us your application, you give us permission to store your personal information and attachments.
We store all applications in a secure system. The applications are stored for two years, after which they are deleted. If you want your your information removed earlier, please contact us through our Contact form. Read more in our Privacy Policy.
You tap into your bioware to send a signal to your cadre you've spotted the guy you're targeting. You then slip into the crowd with the knowledge Taggert has already hacked her way into the local security cameras. You move onto a side street and kick in your cybernetics to get to the other end of the security dead zone he's heading toward. As expected, Taggert forwards you the view of him leaving her field of vision and you pick him up. He moves with confidence down an alley and to the back door of an antique shop.
-----
GeneFunk 2090 is a 5e based game set in a dystopian future where practically everyone has body hacks of one form or another. This is a more extreme type of a cyberpunk setting. Along with cybernetics there are genetic hacks and nanotechnology that live inside the body, and practically everyone has something, which also connects to the World Digital Sea (WDS)—an advanced of our current web.
I received a PDF version of GeneFunk 2090 for review purposes. The game book was released earlier this past January and was designed by James Armstrong and released through Crispr Monkey Studios.
Setting Overview
The book begins with a brief chronology of events leading up to the Earth of 2090. The world is a dystopian society for those who aren't part of the controlling corporate structure. Of course there are governments, but for all practical purposes they are marionettes dancing on the strings pulled by the executives. Those suits also have strings stretching far and wide into other aspects of society. Staying in a position of power requires activities that can't be done openly, even if everyone knows what's going on. That is where your group plays a part.
Cadres do the dirty work for the suits. These small teams are hired to do those tasks that would dirty the hands of the executives and give a bad appearance for the companies they work for. That means your cadre works on a contract which allows plausible deniability to your employer. Cadres start out small and through continued success can build credibility and experience to get high paying jobs.
Characters
GeneFunk 2090 uses the same structure as the 5e system for character creation. The structure of this section of the book jumps a little. The design structure presented in the initial overview isn't parallel in the structure for where the parts are listed. However, each section has the page numbers referenced for where to find the information. So even if it doesn't flow straight through the sections, you can still find what you are looking for.
Genomes
Genomes are equivalent to races in other settings. There are about 20 genomes to choose from. These go from different types of Engineered, Mutts, Optimized, Transhuman, and Unmodified. Genomes provide a template of the character and how they were modified before play begins. Although genomes may affect characters in somewhat predictable ways, the overruling factor is still the personality of the individual.
If the pre-created genome templates don't provide the style of character you desire, there is a sidebar on how to create new ones. Some genomes are better than others for classes, but like character disposition, any combination is possible.
Classes
There are around 20 character classes. These allow for all the archetypes you would expected from a cyberpunk setting. There are also some designed specifically for the GeneFunk setting.
The classes include pretty much everything you may be looking for, the name may different, and how they operate is adjusted to fit into the setting of this possible future Earth. Some characters even have spell like capabilities as they have learned how to hack another person's bioware.
Additional Information
There is a lot available in this 300+ page rule book. It covers what's needed to run a game or play a character. The book is designed for everyone at the gaming table and there's a section for the game master only. Its referencing makes easy to use to determine what you need to do in this brave new world you and your players are navigating through. This plays well into a setting that everyone is highly connected with the WDS and can access information pretty much on demand.
There are sections for determining missions and creating encounters. This includes non-player characters, creatures, and other entities (robotics) now part of the world. The structure for developing missions for your player's cadre was easy to work through for scaling the adventures as the characters advance in their abilities.
Overall
GeneFunk 2090 provides a good cyberpunk setting combined with the ease of use of the 5e system. James Armstrong has done a great job of providing the setting and having it work with the structure of an established system.
The game setting provides a lot of variability for players who desire to create unique characters. For newer players and those who want to get into the setting faster, there are archetypes available—there is always a time and place for a street samurai.
I've been a fan of cyberpunk for a long time. I read Phillip K. Dick's classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (wikipedia link) in the 1970s and watched his story when it was turned into Blade Runner (IMDb link). Genefunk 2090 is one of the better games I have played designed to bring cyberpunk to the tabletop.
-----
When you get back to your flat, the rest of your cadre is already there. "You identified what he picked up for transport, right?"
"You're not going to believe it." Taggart says as the rest of the crew tells you how she hasn't told anything yet.
You can see she is relishing the moment of having everyone focus on her.
"A toy. It's called a Power Rangers. Whatever suit's backing him is high up in a Corp though. That thing is worth a lot and probably hot."
Everybody turns to you. "Then we better snatch that thing real careful like so we don't have a corporate army coming down on us."
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Title: 3D artist Focus: Environment design Type: Full-time, permanent Last day to apply: 17th of June 2018
Frictional games are filled with terror, intrigue, mystery, and emotion. We want our environments to reflect that, from the shape of the landscape to the smallest rock, while subtly guiding players and helping to enhance the gameplay.
This is where you come in.
We are now looking for an experienced 3D artist, who will focus on environment design for our upcoming games. This means working closely with our gameplay programmers / designers, and using modelling, texturing, and design skills to create memorable, interesting, and functional environments for our players to experience.
What will you work on? We are quite a small team, but we consider it our strength. As an environment artist you will get to work on everything from props to high-level design. This means your contribution will greatly influence how the final game looks, plays, and evokes emotions.
Here are some of the things you will be working on:
Collaborating with designers to create level layouts, combining both gameplay and an artistic perspective.
Taking levels from whitebox to a polished product.
Creating basic models that make up the levels, such as walls and floors.
Modelling props of various complexity, both with and without the help of concept art, and often having to take gameplay concerns into account.
Constructing particle systems, both by drawing textures and using parameters in our editor.
Combining various techniques to create special effects, such as flowing water or fire.
We also encourage working outside of your area of expertise, and always learning new things. The more areas of development you are willing and able take part in, the better!
For some examples of our environments, please check the video above!
What are we looking for? The person we're looking for is creative, driven and self-sufficient. We have recently set up a central hub in Malmö, Sweden, and hope you can move over to our seaside city sometime in the future.
You have to be a European resident to apply.
Here are some essential skills we require:
Good understanding of composition and player guidance.
Ability to challenge yourself, make bold creative decisions, and try non-conventional things.
A critical approach to your work, with the ability to take a step back and reflect.
A strive for structure, efficiency, and clarity.
Strong self-drive and ability to organise your own work.
Interest in and ability to do research for interesting prop and environment solutions.
Love for working on a variety of tasks.
Fluency in English.
And here are some more techie skills:
Excellent skills in 3D software. Modo preferred.
Familiarity with Zbrush/Mudbox/similar.
Excellent skills in Substance.
Excellent skills in Photoshop or similar software.
Familiarity with issue-tracking software.
Experience in classic/non-PBR workflow.
Basic rigging and animation skills.
If you want to impress us:
Love for horror, sci-fi, and narrative games.
A major role in completing at least one game.
Great free-drawing skills.
Experience in level design.
Strong game design skills.
Experience kitbashing/working with modular sets.
What do we offer? We make games, because that's what we love. But we know there are other things we love, like playing games, taking part in sports, or spending time with our families. We believe a healthy balance between work and life reflects positively on your work, which is why we don't encourage crunch.
We also offer:
Flexible working hours.
Opportunities to influence your workflow.
Variety in your work tasks, and ability to influence your workload.
Participation in our internal game Show & Tell sessions, so you'll have input into all aspects of the game.
Social security and holidays that are up to the Swedish standards.
An inclusive and respectful work environment.
An office in central Malmö you can use as much as you please.
Fun workmates, game and movie nights, and other outings!
Apply? Apply! If all of the above piqued your interest, we would love to hear from you! Send us your application 17th of June the latest - but the sooner, the better! Please attach your:
Cover Letter
Why should we hire YOU?
CV
Portfolio
Link or PDF
Preliminary work test
See the test below
Examples of works that have inspired you or blown you away
PDF, screenshots preferred.
Please note that we require all the attachments to consider you.
Send your application to apply@frictionalgames.com!
Preliminary work test After 3 years of failed experiments, Professor Kim finally managed to reverse gravity. However, the professor died just as he succeeded, and the whole thing ran amok.
The player enters the research facility where the experiments took place. As they go through the level, they gradually learn about what the professor was trying to achieve. At the end they're met with a revelation, and see the disturbing results of the experiment. As they reach the end, the level must loop in a way where the player finds themselves near the entrance, where they first started.
We are looking for a simple design, done as a rough 3D sketch/white box. You are free to write notes and do paint-overs on top of the 3D.
This test is a first step in the evaluation process, showing us your basic skills, so we are not looking for you to spend a lot of time on it. Imagine this as a quick proof of concept you would present before doing a pitch or a design.
We will evaluate your artist vision, creativity as well as level design skills.
Put everything as a collection of images into one folder on Dropbox, Drive or similar, and send the link to us.
Privacy Policy By sending us your application, you give us permission to store your personal information and attachments.
We store all applications in a secure system. The applications are stored for two years, after which they are deleted. If you want your your information removed earlier, please contact us through our Contact form. Read more in our Privacy Policy.
XSStrike is really advanced XSS exploitation and detection suite, which contains a very powerful XSS fuzzer and provides no false positive results using fuzzy matching. XSStrike is the first XSS scanner that generates its own payloads. Download xsstrike and test it out.
It also has built in an artificial intelligent enough to detect and break out of various contexts.
FEATURES:
Powerful Fuzzing Engine
Context Breaking Intelligence
AI Payload Generation
GET & POST Methods Support
Cookie Support
WAF Fingerprinting
Handcrafted Payloads to Filter and WAF Evasion
Hidden Parameter Discovery
Accurate Results
DOWNLOAD XSSTRIKE – ADVANCED XSS EXPLOITATION SUITE
Smart Contract Exploitation and Hacking Course Announcement
What Is this:
For those who have been hitting me up on twitter and YouTube for more blockchain smart contract exploitation content this blog is for you. I have posted a video below explaining what this is and included a course outline of the content we are providing free for everyone. I was actually told recently that I am crazy for giving out this level of detailed content and training for free.. However, I believe in the original hacker ethic code from long ago, that information should be freely available for everyone!! In this frame of mind, the only pay for content will be if you wish to go the extra mile. For the person who wants to prove to themselves or others that they learned something via a certification package with detailed exam prep targets and guides, followed by a final exam CTF and reporting write-up.
So I hope you enjoy this content. The content and walk through labs will be all free. This content will be posted regularly over the next few months 90% of it is already written and ready to go.
We will start off with the differences between Solidity and other languages and do a quick coding overview before we start hacking. This way everyone is on the same page when we start looking at coding examples of vulnerable targets or reviewing case study code. Then we will cover a wide range of typical issues that effect decentralized applications(DApps) and smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. How to spot them and exploit them with full walk-through style learning. Subjects we have already released (Re-Entrancy, Integer Attacks, Authorization) have been updated with new code, new examples, and case studies etc. Some of the learning content will be the same but with a lot of newly added content. And in the case of Authorization completely re-written and expanded on.
Basically this course was created to get the information out there in a clear concise way. Because when I started researching blockchain hacking all I found was a paragraph here and there on something that was overly technical or completely theoretical. I couldn't find any clear concise learning or examples. This drove me nuts trying to figure everything out, until I gave up and just coded my own vulnerabilities and hacked them. So hopefully this fills the knowledge gap to offer a clear and concise, Zero Fluff resource to those on the same path.
CTF Exam:
If you do enjoy this series over the next few months and want to challenge your skills and certify that you learned something we will be also offering pay for certification bundle that includes Decentralized Application (DApp) targets and detailed lab guides as preparation for a final exam against a more comprehensive CTF certification challenge target. More info on this as the months progress.
Bug Bounty of Sorts:
These labs are completed but we are working on a way to deliver the content which requires me to code up a course delivery software. So feel free to hack the course delivery software once its up, if you break in or bypass authorizations I will give you the full course for free provided you help me fix it. :P
Pre- Requisites:
This is more of a intermediate / advanced course with a white box code approach to bug hunting and a dynamic approach to application hacking and exploiting targets, with that said you will need the following pre-requisites:
Ability to code in some language and understanding of coding concepts.
Application hacking or development background with firm understanding of vulnerabilities
Contact Info:
As this is free, I only ask that you provide constructive feedback as we are creating other more advanced hacking courses on random subjects we are interested in. Most of which will be free. And feedback helps us not do things which are not useful and integrate new ideas where they make sense.
In this post we will show why Gridcoin is insecure and probably will never achieve better security. Therefore, we are going to explain two critical implementation vulnerabilities and our experience with the core developer in the process of the responsible disclosure.
In our last blog post we described the Gridcoin architecture and the design vulnerability we found and fixed (the good). Now we come to the process of responsibly disclosing our findings and try to fix the two implementation vulnerabilities (the bad).
Update (15.08.2017): After the talk at WOOT'17 serveral other developers of Gridcoin quickly reached out to us and told us that there was a change in responsibility internally in the Gridcoin-Dev team. Thus, we are going to wait for their response and then change this blog post accordingly. So stay tuned :) Update (16.08.2017): We are currently in touch with the whole dev team of Gridcoin and it seems that they are going to fix the vulnerabilities with the next release. TL;DR The whole Gridcoin currency is seriously insecure against attacks and should not be trusted anymore; unless some developers are in place, which have a profound background in protocol and application security.
What is Gridcoin?
Gridcoin is an altcoin, which is in active development since 2013. It claims to provide a high sustainability, as it has very low energy requirements in comparison to Bitcoin. It rewards users for contributing computation power to scientific projects, published on the BOINC project platform. Although Gridcoin is not as widespread as Bitcoin, its draft is very appealing as it attempts to eliminate Bitcoin's core problems. It possesses a market capitalization of $13,530,738 as of August the 4th 2017 and its users contributed approximately 5% of the total scientific BOINC work done before October 2016.
A detailed description of the Gridcoin architecture and technical terms used in this blog post are explained in our last blog post.
The Issues
Currently there are 2 implementation vulnerabilities in the source code, and we can mount the following attacks against Gridcoin:
We can steal the block creation reward from many Gridcoin minters
We can efficiently prevent many Gridcoin minters from claiming their block creation reward (DoS attack)
So why do we not just open up an issue online explaining the problems?
Because we already fixed a critical design issue in Gridcoin last year and tried to help them to fix the new issues. Unfortunately, they do not seem to have an interest in securing Gridcoin and thus leave us no other choice than fully disclosing the findings.
In order to explain the vulnerabilities we will take a look at the current Gridcoin source code (version 3.5.9.8).
WARNING: Due to the high number of source code lines in the source files, it can take a while until your browser shows the right line.
Stealing the BOINC block reward
The developer implemented our countermeasures in order to prevent our attack from the last blog post. Unfortunately, they did not look at their implementation from an attacker's perspective. Otherwise, they would have found out that they conduct not check, if the signature over the last block hash really is done over the last block hash. But we come to that in a minute. First lets take a look at the code flow:
In the figure the called-by-graph can be seen for the function VerifyCPIDSignature.
Then we call a function to verify the CPID used in the block. Due to the massive changes over the last years, there are 3 possible verify functions. We are interested in the last one (VerifyCPIDSignature), for the reason that it is the current verification function.
In the last function the real signature verification is conducted [Source]. When we closely take a look at the function parameter, we see the message (std::string sMsg) and the signature (std::string sSig) variables, which are checked. But where does this values come from?
If we go backwards in the function call graph we see that in VerifyCPIDSignature the sMsg is the string sConcatMessage, which is a concatenation of the sCPID and the sBlockHash. We are interested where the sBlockHash value comes from, due to the fact that this one is the only changing value in the signature generation. When we go backwards, we see that the value originate from the deserialization of the BOINC structure (MiningCPID& mc) and is the variable mc.lastblockhash [Source, Source]. But wait a second, is this value ever checked whether it contains the real last block hash?
No, it is not....
So they just look if the stored values there end up in a valid signature.
Thus, we just need to wait for one valid block from a researcher and copy the signature, the last block hash value, the CPID and adjust every other dynamic value, like the RAC. Consequently, we are able to claim the reward of other BOINC users. This simple bug allows us again to steal the reward of every Gridcoin researcher, like there was never a countermeasure. Lock out Gridcoin researcher The following vulnerability allows an attacker under specific circumstances to register a key pair for a CPID, even if the CPID was previously tied to another key pair. Thus, the attacker locks out a legit researcher and prevent him from claiming BOINC reward in his minted blocks.
Reminder: A beacon is valid for 5 months, afterwards a new beacon must be sent with the same public key and CPID.
Therefore, we need to take a look at the functions, which process the beacon information. Every time there is a block, which contains beacon information, it is processed the following way (click image for higher resolution):
In the figure the called-by-graph can be seen for the function GetBeaconPublicKey.
In the last function GetBeaconPublicKey there are different paths to process a beacon depending on the public key, the CPID, and the time since both were associated to each other. For the following explanation we assume that we have an existing association (bound) between a CPID A and a public key pubK_A for 4 months.
The case, if a different public key pubK_B for the CPID A was sent via beacon.
The existing public key for the CPID is expired
After 5 months a refresh for the association between A and pubK_A is required.
When an incoming beacon is processed, a look up is made, if there already exists a public key for the CPID used in the beacon. If yes, it is compared to the public key used in the beacon (case 2 and 3). If no public key exists (case 1) the new public key is bound to the CPID.
If a public key exists, but it was not refreshed directly 12.960.000 seconds (5 months [Source]) after the last beacon advertisement of the public key and CPID, it is handled as no public key would exist [Source].
Thus, case 1 and 4 are treated identical, if the public key is expired, allowing an attacker to register his public key for an arbitrary CPID with expired public key. In practice this allows an attacker to lock out a Gridcoin user from the minting process of new blocks and further allows the attacker to claim reward for BOINC work he never did.
There is a countermeasure, which allows a user to delete his last beacon (identified by the CPID) . Therefore, the user sends 1 GRC to a special address (SAuJGrxn724SVmpYNxb8gsi3tDgnFhTES9) from an GRC address associated to this CPID [Source]. We did not look into this mechanism in more detail, because it only can be used to remove our attack beacon, but does not prevent the attack.
The responsible disclosure process
As part of our work as researchers we all have had the pleasure to responsible disclose the findings to developer or companies.
For the reasons that we wanted to give the developer some time to fix the design vulnerabilities, described in the last blog post, we did not issue a ticket at the Gridcoin Github project. Instead we contacted the developer at September the 14th 2016 via email and got a response one day later (2016/09/15). They proposed a variation of our countermeasure and dropped the signature in the advertising beacon, which would result in further security issues. We sent another email (2016/09/15) explained to them, why it is not wise to change our countermeasures and drop the signature in the advertising beacon. Unfortunately, we did not receive a response. We tried it again on October the 31th 2016. They again did not respond, but we saw in the source code that they made some promising changes. Due to some other projects we did not look into the code until May 2017. At this point we found the two implementation vulnerabilities. We contacted the developer twice via email (5th and 16th of May 2017) again, but never received a response. Thus, we decided to wait for the WOOT notification to pass by and then fully disclose the findings. We thus have no other choice then to say that:
The whole Gridcoin cryptocurrency is seriously insecure against attacks and should not be trusted anymore; unless some developers are in place, which have a profound background in protocol and application security.
Further Reading
A more detailed description of the Gridcoin architecture, the old design issue and the fix will be presented at WOOT'17. Some days after the conference the paper will be available online.
