More Code In Movies: Nmap Meets Snowden (nmap.org)

After Saturday's story about the code samples in the new movie Arrival, an anonymous reader reminded us of this classic essay at Nmap.org: For reasons unknown, Hollywood has decided that Nmap is the tool to show whenever hacking scenes are needed... While Nmap had been used in some previous obscure movies, it was The Matrix Reloaded which really turned Nmap into a movie star!
Nmap.org has a tradition -- the first person to notify them when new Nmap appears in a new movie wins a signed copy of Nmap Network Scanning "or a T-shirt of your choice from the Zero Day Clothing Nmap Store." (The site adds that "movie script writers, artists, and digital asset managers are also welcome to email Fyodor for advice.") And Nmap.org just added another film, Oliver Stone's new movie about Edward Snowden. In one early scene, Snowden is given a network security challenge at a CIA training class which is expected to take 5 to 8 hours. But with the help Nmap and a custom Nmap NSE script named ptest.nse, Snowden stuns the professor by completing everything in 38 minutes!
According to the site, even the movie's trailer features Nmap. Anybody else have their own favorite stories about code in the movies?

Comments

but can nmap hack the gibson?

[magical liopleurodon]

but can nmap hack the gibson?

How can they use that with such an evil license?

[jgfenix]

Someone could require to release the movies under the GPL

They should be using LISP

[Required Snark]

It looks stranger then C or block structured languages. The other choice would be PERL, which looks like a cat walked on a keyboard.

The other reason for choosing LISP is that aliens would have a better chance of understanding it. Being based on the Lambda Calculus. it represents a fundamental understanding of the theory of computation. It is likely that other intelligent species would recognize it. It's unclear that C or C++ show that any intelligent life exists on earth.

Re:They should be using LISP

[ArylAkamov]

The other choice would be PERL, which looks like a cat walked on a keyboard.

This is the most beautiful summary of PERL I have ever read.

Blackhat - erotic novel in a hex editor

[bravehamster]

In the movie Blackhat there's a screen where a hex editor is used to analyze some malware code. The hex code is just random nonsense, but the ASCII conversion contains lines from an erotic novel, but with each word reversed

Here's a screenshot:

http://imgur.com/VIWNahL

The text on the right says

Her lover one day takes O for a walk ....
in a section of the city where they never go the Montsouris Park. After they have taken a stroll in the park, and have sat together side by side on the edge of a lawn, they notice at one corner of the park, at an intersection where there are never any taxis, a car which, because

--

which comes from this:

https://archive.org/stream/The... ... O_djvu.txt

Re: one of the biggest issues with 'tech' movies

[Dutch Gun]

Well, duh, it takes a while for really large transfers. I mean, that's a lot of digital money to move through those internet pipes, right?

TRON: Legacy

[mccalli]

The seen where he is sucked into the computer. Someone really, really cared about the accuracy of that scene.

• He's using SunOS - period-acurate
• The projected keyboard actually did exist at or near the time of the original TRON
• He runs iostat
• When the laser gizmo starts powering up to digitise him, the iostat figures start going through the roof

Someone cared.

Re:one of the biggest issues with 'tech' movies

[The-Ixian]

Most of the time, when they want to show something "happening" it always seems like it is one of the following:

1. Cat of some text file, log or source code on a semi transparent console window
2. Custom script of output text (hello world type of thing) also on the transparent console window
3. Some custom GUI using Tk or Qt windows that open and close very fast and at least one progress bar
4. A map that zooms in/out
5. An image or video

Also, during any of these, the "hacker" is seen to be typing away madly at the keyboard but somehow doesn't seem to be using any key modifiers (CTRL, ALT, SHIFT) and doesn't appear to be directly affecting anything seen on the screen.

I am also amazed that people who are pressed for time (the owner of the computer is about to walk in the door) always seem to know exactly what they are doing even though they have (presumably) never seen this computer/software. I know if it was me, I would go to put in my USB thumb drive and find that the IT staff hot glued the port or the local AV is blocking the file transfer or it is a USB-C and I don't have an adapter so I try to e-mail it to myself but the e-mail program is password protected so I try to use web based mail, but my 2FA blocks access from this device so I have to dig out my phone, but I have no service so I try to connect to an open WiFi hotspot, but there is something wrong with it and I am not getting an IP address or the authentication gateway is broken..... and I'm caught by the guy walking in the door....