For a long time the most interesting thing about me was the thing I didn't openly talk about. I spent years being on the 'bad' side of the industry's fence. Modding savegames, cracking programs, reverse engineering games and anti-cheats for personal gain. Looking back, it was mostly me making other people's lives harder, and somehow that's also how I ended up with a career in security.
At the time of writing, I've spent almost a decade on the defending side, building anti-cheat, anti-piracy and DRM systems. Before that, I spent about as long doing the complete opposite: bypassing them and spending countless hours in IDA figuring out how other people's code works. Real 'It Takes a Thief' shit (the crappy Discovery show).
Why I'm writing now
Most of what I've learned lives in my head, in private chats, or in internal docs I literally can't share, which is honestly a waste. Reverse engineering knowledge gets passed down through write-ups, forum posts, video walkthroughs and research papers. I learned by absorbing what other people took the time to share. This is me paying some of that back.
The timing of this is pretty good too. AI tooling is changing how reverse engineering actually gets done, and I have opinions about where it helps and where it confidently makes things up. I'd rather write down both honestly than pick a team. I'm 'pro-AI' in the sense that it speeds up people who already know what they're doing, not in the sense that it lets someone skip over a decade of experience because they are paying a premium for a model that can carve something worthwhile out of a vague prompt. /rant
What's here
All my posts go in one of four categories — why four? I can't make the SIMD pun on the front page without four (finally, a legitimate use for an em dash):
- Vibe Coded: side projects I build fast and for fun. Sometimes they'll get promoted into something worthwhile that isn't slop.
- RE with AI: reverse engineering with models in the loop, including the parts that go wrong.
- Sans-AI: doing things 'the old way' (isn't that crazy?) with debuggers, disassemblers, an IDE and a ton of patience.
- Thoughts: research notes, miscellaneous rants, and security musings like this one.
What you won't find: AI-slop text or articles, downloadable cheats or source to said cheats, working bypasses, or anything that could be used to harm experiences in games or applications that are still live.
If you liked something you read here or think I got something wrong, please feel free to let me know on X at @justmazz.