About

If you’ve made it to this page, you’re at least a little curious. So let me tell you a bit about myself.

I haven’t always been obsessed with coding, ethical hacking, and Linux like I am today. Growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, sometimes I didn’t even have a computer, just a phone. Even with gaming, I go through long phases, like now, when I don’t really play. Ironically, I got into gaming more during college than as a kid. Riding bikes and motorcycles was always more my kind of thing rather than staring at a screen.

Journey

Since 2019–2020 life has shifted significantly for me. I still touch grass from time to time and love riding but with more time on my hands I started to get serious about learning to code and have built a solid foundation in web development and security.

I still don’t have a decent machine (yes, really), which never helped, I’m sure. It’s a real issue, but I make do with what I have for now. While not as bad off as the fella who made a Neovim plugin (I forget which one; I saw it on r/neovim) on Android using Termux, but still…not good! So yea, I use a lot of free tiers to bridge the gap. One silver lining, though, is you really have to know it well and then monitor it all closely, which has been a great way to learn. Pro tip: Only add the initial amount needed for the verification and the amount you plan to spend in total on a monthly basis. It’s just so easy to mess up even with alerts, budget settings, and all that stuff.

Stuff I Work With

• Linux Administration & Security – I live in Linux but still visit Windows from time to time to stay up to date with it and not forget stuff. Mostly for PowerShell, Windows based programming tasks, testing/WinDbg, and some hacking type stuff. But Linux is my home and main environment. For my desktop and servers I like using yadm + mise to keep my config, languages, and tool management neat. Sometimes devcontainers too, depending on what I am doing and where (low-spec PC strikes again) and just tons of other CLI and dev tools between desktop and servers.

• Web Dev & Programming – I’ve worked with a lot of frameworks and Node.js stuff: React, Next.js, Astro, Vue, Solid, Svelte and Angular. As of now I am most confident in JavaScript/TS (yea), Python, C/C++, and Rust in that order. Trying to change this by putting in more time with the others and building some new projects.

• Hosting & DevOps – I run multiple machines and servers for self-hosted applications (with and without) Docker. I also have servers for simulating real-world attacks and defenses as well as for backups and public-facing things. I know Oracle Cloud and AWS, but have used Digital Ocean, Linode, and Google Cloud some too but not enough where I can say I “know” them like I do AWS and Oracle (especially the CLI). Lately I’ve been learning to work with the kernel more, building my own modules and drivers, experimenting with Linux From Scratch, and following tutorials. I’ve also made several builds, including some with coreutils and others using only BusyBox, all running on custom kernels I built and tested in QEMU for learning purposes.

• AI & Generative Tools – Been having a lot of fun with AI, from just using it and building simple tools, learning to integrate it into workflows and automations, especially with MCP servers. All the way to the opposite side of breaking and tricking models with prompt injection. It’s been incredibly useful for learning and working with new stuff. Of course, it’s important not to take outputs at face value, blindly trusting generated code. MCP servers allowing integrations and context-aware workflows get much better results and are a great help making tools even better. Gotta be careful though as there can be privacy and security implications with AI tools or can be just straight up malicious…not a vibe.

What’s Next?

Now that I have significantly strengthened my programming, hosting, infrastructure, project management skills, and more. I want to spend more time in security research and bug bounties. Some areas I’d like to improve along the way:

• Web Security – I know a little bit beyond the basics of web vulnerabilities like XSS, SQLi, CSRF, SSRF, IDOR, and so on, but I still need more real-world experience and to refine my bug bounty reporting. Instead of spending so much time on platforms like TryHackMe, HackTheBox, and DVWA, and spend more time in the wild looking for bugs. I’ve already spent a lot of time with Burp Suite, Nuclei, Wireshark/tshark, Metasploit and other popular recon and exploit tools, working to get more comfortable and establish a solid workflow.

• Low-Level – Get better at low-level functional type programming focusing less on web dev type stuff, maybe build some CLI/TUI tools that can be used in my security research and recon. Get a few good projects under my belt in C, Rust, and maybe Go and continue adding to my general knowledge of C/C++, Python, JS/TS, Lua, and others.

• Android Development – My focus has always been the web, but mobile really interests me too. I just don’t know where that fits into the future. Like I am familiar with and can use ADB, Fastboot, add custom roms, but never built anything with Kotlin or Java or even got into APK modding or anything like that. Not a huge priority, but something I would like to explore more eventually.

• Reverse engineering & binary analysis - Lastly, I want to get a better handle on assembly and tools like Ghidra, WinDbg, BinaryNinja, it is still a bit of a dark art to me. While I am comfortable with debugging code with DAP in Neovim, GDB, and even WinDbg, I probably need to work on breaking down more complex binaries and get a better grip on it all.

Let’s Connect

Finding the time for everything is definitely a challenge. The balancing act of building, breaking, and always learning. It’s a lot! I’ll eventually niche down as I transition from half “web dev/skid” to more security and low-level development. But for now, I’m really enjoying the journey and learning new things. Hopefully with this blog, I can share some interesting things, get better at writing, and maybe meet cool people along the way. If you’re interested in learning more, working together, or supporting me, feel free to reach out on:

• X
• Github
• Or any other social media!