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Paul 'Tony' Watson Interviewed
An anonymous reader writes "Whitedust is running an interview with Paul Watson. Watson, who discovered a flaw in TCP/IP that could allow attackers to reset connections last year, made a splash with the media. He talks about how he got his start in computer security, as part of the early warez scene, his work in the Air Force and the US Government, and his current projects. He is now working at the leading search engine in the world, Google."
Oh, THAT leading search engine. Thanks for clarifying.
I came to work at Google late last summer. It gets a lot of media buzz about being geek-sheik and super cool. I have worked at some really cool places before Google, but Google is so much more incredible than any media article or Slashdot post could ever describe. The best phrase I can think of would be nerd-nirvana (or should it be nerdvana?)
Folks, we are not doing a good job here. We need to bump up the number of Google stories per day.
"Watson, who discovered a flaw in TCP/IP that could allow attackers to reset connections last year, made a splash with the media."
So how does one go about discovering these "flaws"?
Is Paul Watson cool because he works at Google? Or is Google cool because it's where Paul Watson works?
"In regards to all the media attention, I think that by far the coolest thing to come from all that attention was when I was Slashdot'd. That was like getting the key to the city from the Mayor of Geekville."
Discovered? Late last year? I think I remember "discovering" then subsequently reading about this problem in one of my TCP/IP books many years ago. Does this have to do with inserting packets into a TCP stream that have the RST flag set? (I can't find any technical information on this...some of the dumbed-down articles have broken links, but no interesting information.)
...just my 2 gil.
Don't worry, like all dot-coms with "incredible" ideas and even more "incredible" toys in their work spaces, but very few profit producing products, Google's bubble will pop, the over-priced stock will whither, and Slashdot will move on to The Next Geek Orgasm.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
You're articles
:)
So are the comments
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
OMG! He mentioned me in his interview. Tony Watson talked about me in the second to last question.
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Check out this poll - I like nipples.
ccc.1asphost.com.codeworm
After seeing him point out that the government came to regard hackers as such a major threat, I couldn't help but think that our government brings on most of its own problems. The hiring and firing practices and I suppose the procurement processes are also completely fucked up and need to be modernized.
Our government will put people getting $50-$60K into a jet that costs $2B to build and that can carry very large nuclear payloads. They nearly crippled our navy's ability to wage war on other naval power through the SmartShip program, all because they wanted to save on the cost of a sysadmin's salary.
I'm a libertarian by persuasion and I want the government buying the very best and being competitive in its core competencies. I want them to hire the best and brightest, and pay them accordingly because it's cheaper to pay someone an above fair market wage to get the best talent than to have someone do billions of damage to your country's networks. Saving money should be secondary to the government getting everything it needs to carry out its core missions.
Someone who brings a tremendous wealth of networking experience should be elligible for a six digit salary starting out, just as they would in the private sector. I have no problem paying someone who's extremely good at computer security several hundred thousand dollars to do federal network security because as I said, it's cheaper to pay for good people who'll get the job done right.
We also need fewer regulations that protect job security. People who don't do jack shit for the public should be kicked to the curb even faster than they would in the private sector.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
"discovered a flaw in TCP/IP that could allow attackers to reset connections last year" So his flaw allows people to travel back in time - to last year - and reset connections?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
i think you meant to write "so do the articles" ;)
I was thinking "cool dude". Then I read that he drinks Corona, and it all just evaporated.
s/articles/comments
..but wasn't it an ICMP flaw rather than a TCP/IP flaw?
Hmmm. There a pattern here with google vs. the world (i.e. Microsoft Lee case)? If the original code was developed under a gov't contractor, much licensing/restrictions issues pop up.
Anyway cisco stuff has much things to exploit, just a matter of time... they're working on it at least.
Oh, and the non-understood ironys...
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
It all seems so obvious in hindsight, y'know?
BTW, he might have done better to call Dick Cheney, cause according to TFA, the US CERT team ignored him.
Human being (n.): A genetically human, genetically distinct, functioning organism.
This guy is a real arrogant bastard. Damn I wish I had his skills so I could also be! :(
It's nice reading an article about somebody who gets media attention and doesn't turn into a total tool (*cough*Steve Gibson*cough*), assuming they weren't a tool to begin with. On top of that, the guy makes his point that the vulnerability he writes about is serious without sensationalizing the whole thing.
It's not a bug, it's a feature. Some security products operate by inserting TCP reset signals to blog innapropriate connections. One company has had a patent on this method for years.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Word is that this guy is THE authority on General Protection Faults. I usually get a chance to work with him 1 or 2 times a week.
Watson didn't reset the connection last year, but discovered the flaw last year.
Attackers can reset connections last year?!?
Why didn't anyone tell me this before?
Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_ELSEIF in
He's cool because he's named after Windows utility.
Is it me or is slashdot turning into whinedot? Everytime an interview or article is posted all the trolls do is whine about it; be it a typo, spag or one sentance which has not been formed in the best possible way.
The thing is the slashdotting must generate more hits than people's posts...
So basically you just get a hardcore of about 5-10% of users who just feel the need to whine like little girls about every aspect of an article apart from the important one's.
Way to go! Give yourselves a massive pat on the back.
This is getting to be such a great place.
The really pathetic thing is that Google is just a search engine that makes money off of advertisements, a business model that has been around for about a decade. In fact, the exact mechanism Google uses was patented by Overture (acquired by Yahoo), which was the subject of a lawsuit that was settled when Google gave a massive chunk of shares to Yahoo.
All of the "hot R&D" that is going on, including the Summer of Code, is essentially throwing random feces against the wall and seeing what sticks. There's no planning, but ad hoc providing solutions to problems that may or may not be needed by most people. That's why Google is hiring so many "top engineers" from other companies, or just allowing anyone to compete in their competition; they cannot generate ideas internally and justify the price of their stock.
The dynamics governing the altitude of the stock price are exactly the same as the mechanisms governing the original Dot-Com bubble: The Theory of the Greater Fool. As long as Google generates publicity, more foolish people will believe that there is substance to the stock and create a demand that keeps the price unreasonably inflated.
It's so easy I can't believe nobody thought of it sooner - you just set all your packets TTL to -60.
i'm STILL waiting for an account paw...
Ir_dan
"...discovered a flaw in TCP/IP that could allow attackers to reset connections last year...."
Wow, a TCP/IP flaw that had existed for all that time but only allowed the exploit to work in 2004? It's a good thing that was so clearly described, because otherwise I might have become quite confused.