The Dark Assassins Podcast

Apple just held their “Let Loose” event, where they unveiled new iPads. In this episode, we will discuss what these new changes are and the mind-blowing fact that if you want the latest and greatest Apple Silicon, you need to buy an iPad. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, review, and subscribe i...

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) “free money glitch” saga continues. In theory, gaining root access to any already authenticated RHEL system will allow you to access an infinite number of RHEL systems for free without having to register any of them. Also in this episode, we, once again, touch on how awesome Ansible is and how easily you can remove the friction induced by manually performing tas...

We talk a lot about software development and homelabbing, but where and how do you start? Today we start from zero and give you the road map for how to get started with software development and/or homelabbing, assuming you’ve never written a line of code or deployed a server or virtual machine in your life, but you want to do one or both of those. We are covering all of this and more on this episo...

In this episode, we explore why writing a simple HTTP server serves as the perfect introduction to both cybersecurity and software development. From understanding networking protocols to writing robust software by fortifying systems against security vulnerabilities, we look at why writing your own HTTP server offers valuable insights for those wanting a better understanding of not just software de...

Error handling and exception handling are crucial aspects of software development aimed at managing unexpected events and errors that may occur during the execution of a program. In this episode, we’ll take a look at some strategies for handling errors and exceptions, including error propagation, error recovery, and defensive programming techniques. We are covering all of this and more on this epi...

A massive backdoor exploit was found in the XZ Utils library, which is included with almost all Linux distributions, granting root access to an attacker just by logging in to a server via SSH. In this episode, we are covering the intricate workings of how the exploit works from building and including into the library itself, to actually exploiting. We are covering all of this and more on this epis...

The technology sphere has a lot of buzzwords, but what do they all mean? In this episode, we take a lighthearted look at the “true” meaning of some of these buzzwords. Also in this episode, we revisit our cache performance discussion from last week to show the real-world, absolutely mind-bending performance gains cache hits have. Finally, we talk about what it’s like to write code for MS-DOS. We a...

Have you ever wondered what it was like to write code back in the late 80’s and early 90’s or why minor tweaks to your code can cause massive performance improvements? In this episode, we are going back in time to the MS-DOS days to see what it was like to write software back in the day. We are also going to talk about cache performance and why optimizing your code to have more cache hits rather t...

Artificial Intelligence can be a powerful tool, but it is not without its pitfalls. In this episode, we tackle whether Large Language Models (LLMs) are worth using for software developers and if they do more harm than good, as well as looking at their pros and cons. Also this week, we look into the recent legislation “TikTok Ban” that just passed the United States House of Representatives and what...

Two of the most common architectures in software development are Monolithic and Microservices. Microservices might be the hip new kid on the block, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it's the best architecture for every software application. In this episode, we break down each architecture and compare what use cases suit which architecture to help you decide what is best for your next software...

The White House published a report calling for the reduction of memory safety vulnerabilities at scale and how creators of software and hardware can better secure the building blocks of cyberspace. In this episode, we dive deep into what memory safety is and the challenges associated with migrating all code to memory-safe programming languages. We will also look at what mitigation steps can be tak...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been all the rage for over a year now. Previously, AI was thought to only be relegated to datacenters with tons of GPUs, but now you can run Large Language Models (LLMs) in your very own homelabs! Speaking of homelabs, what do our AI overlords think of homelabs? We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this...

C++ has a lot of quality-of-life improvements compared to C. In this episode, we are diving deep into the C++ STL containers and smart pointers to try and determine if these quality of life improvements are actually worth using, like the C++ evangelists say. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, rev...

Honeypots are not only vessels for the sweet and sugary substance known as honey. They are also tools used by cybersecurity researchers and enthusiasts alike to lure in threat actors and analyze their movements, actions, malware, etc. In this episode, we will take a look at the use cases and goals of honeypots, as well as things to keep in mind or be wary of if you want to set one up yourself. We...

Technical debt is something no one wants but always seems to creep up on, and possibly overwhelm, code bases. But what is technical debt? In this episode, we will answer that question, as well as what procedurally generated graphics are and how they work. Lastly, we have a major milestone we would like to celebrate to cap off the episode. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The...

What is more important, cybersecurity or productivity? In this episode, we tackle one of the hot topics in the IT world. Should developers have administrator access to their devices? We look at both sides: how it can make developers more productive, but at the cost of security, or how it can make you more secure, but at the cost of developers being less productive. We are covering all of this and...

Productivity tracking applications are ubiquitous with professional software development, but that doesn’t mean it’s for the best. In this episode, we look at the pros and cons of using such applications to try and understand if they are even worth using in the first place for optimal performance of development teams and personal use. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dar...

Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility, especially the developers that write the applications and software we use every day. In this episode, we look at why secure coding is so important, what it is, some best practices about how to go about doing it, and why every developer should implement it when they write their code and not as an afterthought after the fact. We are covering all of this an...

It’s a new year, and that means it's time to start working on, or return to, personal projects. The Dark Assassins Podcast champions how beneficial personal projects are. Whether that is installing services or hardware in a homelab or developing your own software projects, regardless of the domain, personal projects not only give you enjoyment but also useful skills that enterprises are dying...

If you only had a set amount of money to rebuild your homelab from scratch, how would you do this? In this episode, we take a look at various possible homelab configurations, from the most budget-friendly options to creating a full-on datacenter. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, review, and sub...

In this episode, we take a look at some of the best open-source projects. We look at a wide range of projects, from things you can run in your homelab to everyday pieces of software, development tools, and more. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, review, and subscribe if you haven’t already. Also...

A recent flaw in Bluetooth could leave your devices vulnerable. What is it, and how can you protect yourself until patches are rolled out? Running macOS, on Linux? Yes, and it’s awesome and an excellent complement to any developer or homelabbers environment. Lastly, we discuss why you should never count out a programming language just because you don’t like it and how having a broad knowledge of m...

While controversial and not as common nowadays, with software moving towards a subscription model, software licenses, and specifically software license keys, played a pivotal role in the history of software development. In this episode, we look at what software license keys do, how they work, the information encoded in them, and the cybersecurity principles at play when generating and reverse engi...

Apparently, “common sense” cybersecurity measures aren’t so common, according to findings by the NSA and CISA. In this episode, we are taking a look at the “Top 10 cybersecurity misconfigurations” and how to mitigate or prevent them. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, review, and subscribe if you...

Why use a prebuilt library or program when you can just build it all from source yourself? In this episode, we're talking about why opting to build the libraries yourself can add a lot of flexibility to your build system. Also in this episode, we take a dive into ZFS cache and how to utilize it effectively, whether that is for a NAS or a hypervisor. Finally, we expose the truth about Thanksgiv...