Vershun’s Brain Dump

Made a quick and dirty program that I ran last night.

So it sends a request for a “work unit” on a different server I have running a PHP script that builds some simple XML that looks something like:

<assignment>
<type>MD5</type>
<hash>6ded1c8c8b157a391e618ca39eb11e39</hash>
<prefix>Ab$x</prefix>
</assignment>

The program grinds through building MD5 hashes using the prefix and the next 2 characters.  Since this was just a test I’m only testing 126 characters so each work unit generates 15876 MD5 hashes and compares it to the target hash defined in the XML.

I made it so it’ll never find the hash because I wanted to test full work unit work so after it failed to find a match it returns its results to the server and requests a new assignment from the server.

Rinse.  Repeat.

So I got 57 hits during the testing phase with a return of 1128 work units.  This is roughly 18 million MD5 hashes tested.

I’m probably not going to pursue the MD5 collision thing (there’s much better ways of finding collisions instead of just brute forcing it anyway), but it’s an example of how hidden Flash applications can be used to put your traffic to work.

OK so I was going to just get rid of this blog but for whatever reason it has a PR rating so I might keep it around.  I’m definitely going to be changing quite a few things around here after I finish up the 3 projects I have queued up.  This blog will be moved to blog.vershun.com.  I’ll probably stop doing posts with any sort of substance (there’s pretty much none of that already) and instead become a lot more project-oriented, which is what vershun.com will be about.  This blog will truly be used as an outlet for my weird,which was its original intention (see identifying a zombie, smoking, and mediocre sex guide for more details).

BUT since I have a new server and haven’t posted in a while, here’s some random pictures.  I’m posting them just cause I’ve been playing with PS recently and have really nothing else to post right now.  Plus there’s not enough pictures on the internet yet.

The Badlands in South Dakota

The shores of New England are far cooler than beaches

These things are horrifying. There's no zoom on this but I was sure as Hell in my car at the time.

What's better to do in Salem than check out graveyards and abandoned buildings?

Lauren and Dave in Moab. Sheer cliff on all sides but back.

Through New Hampshire during autumn was the best drive I've ever taken.

Peruvian pelicans with a predisposition to petulance.

Bad picture but two of the best and brightest people I know, love, and miss. Amateur caving in Cusco.

Leaving the peak of Mt. Bierstadt, Colorado.

I might post again soon I have a few things I want to write I just haven’t gotten around to them.