Omar

platform security @playstation. previously @okta, @spotify

[Omar @byte_how]

Do you like games? Do you like security? Come work with me @PlayStation ! We’re looking for staff/principle security engineers to join the console security team. Really cool work and interesting research! DMs open :)

[cr3ghost @cr3ghost]

This is the type of malware game hackers build to bypass kernel anti-cheat. The same techniques can be used by malware authors to evade EDRs.

A UEFI bootkit that injects into Microsoft's own Hyper-V at ring -1 before the OS even loads (easier than building a custom hypervisor from scratch).

Four phase bootloader. Hypervisor VM-exit interception. EPT page shadowing. MSR virtualization. EFI memory map ghosting. TPM measurement spoofing.

Reads like malware. Because it is. Videos and full technical breakdown in the link.

Author: https://t.co/iHtxyJSbwy

#ReverseEngineering #Malware #AntiCheat

[Omar @byte_how]

This has been the best intro book to electronics I’ve encountered so far. I love it so much! I just wrapped up Part 1, which introduces the necessary foundational concepts and math in easy to grasp prose. Things are derived from first principles with no unreasonable logical leaps

[Omar @byte_how]

Sometimes I get a stark reminder like this, that my twitter feed is a bubble. People absolutely losing their minds in the comments without understanding what Riot is doing

[Riot Games @riotgames]

congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight

[Dustin Holden - MakeMHz @LoveMHz]

I’ve been keeping a secret for 5 years…

For the first time, I’ll reveal the hidden 5th USB port on the original Xbox and how @MakeMHz spent the last year making the impossible possible with over 250,000 software patches. 🧵

[Omar @byte_how]

Twitter replies seem to have become exclusively these 2 LLM patterns and its so fucking annoying:

- Restates exactly what the post said in different words
- "Its not just X, it's Y!"

Its exhausting. Who wants this?

[Omar @byte_how]

@GuShuYan186441 Hi GuShuYan, please take a look at the job description linked above and apply if you feel like it fits your background and interests!

[Omar @byte_how]

PlayStation is hiring for a mid level software engineering role on our Audio Team. Really interesting embedded development work on audio processors if you or someone you know is a skilled C/C++ developer!

Job Description below

[Omar @byte_how]

@outerspace2k Hi Vinayy, I personally have not seen much Java in my time here so I'm not sure what kinds of roles exist for that, I'm sorry. The PlayStation Careers page is your best listing for what's out there

[Omar @byte_how]

https://t.co/DxRsm8chIR

[thomasmahler @thomasmahler]

Since my whole timeline is full of people swooning about @dark1x claim that getting from one point of Crimson Desert’s map to another took a whopping 4 hours, let me share what’s going through my mind:

I’ve been doing Level Design for 17 years now - I designed most of the levels / world for the Ori games and I’m still supervising LD on Wicked, so I think I can share some valuable insight.

I always find it a bit worrying when everyone gets excited about ‘oh my god, they crafted an insanely huge world!’.

In fact, I have basically the exact opposite reaction, which is more like: ‘Oh no, they started with a huge terrain, I hope they had an army of level designers to actually create a meaningful world instead of just a procedurally crafted, empty husk.’

I know how difficult it is to design good levels and how much time it takes us to build ours - so just hearing that, I already know that there’s likely not going to be a lot of actual good level design in Crimson Desert.

And I actually don’t want to sound too disparaging or ruin anyone’s fun because Crimson Desert certainly looks insane and I can’t wait to play it myself either, but I also know how important and how underrated good level and world design is for a title and what the effect is if you have to OK huge, but empty worlds.

I’d say at this point even some of the best studios in the world weren’t able to crack that nut. Even Nintendo struggled for a long time with the world size of Breath of the Wild and ultimately they had to put hundreds of devs on it to fill it up with content, but even their content then mostly consisted of ‘oh, here’s another Korok Seed!’ and other such lukewarm experiences.

Since procedural level generation produces pretty crappy results and since we don’t have AI yet that can actually create well designed levels, the only way out of feeling like being in an empty world is to make every inch interactive. Minecraft did that and it was quite genius - but I doubt that’s what CD is going for.

I understand the allure of ‘they created an entire universe!’, but be careful what you wish for: In Gaming Worlds, huge usually also means extremely shallow.

[Valentin Ignatev @valigo]

The worst thing about dealing with C (and C++ to an extent) code is understanding and debugging macros that you didn't write. Here are a couple ways of how to deal with them!

[Omar @byte_how]

I dunno if it's because I'm old now, but every time I see "It's X times bigger than Y!!!" I get immediate dread

bro I just want a good story I can finish after work, but I'm happy there's a lot to see

[Culture Crave 🍿 @CultureCrave]

Details for 'Crimson Desert' ⚔️

• Playable area is 2X the size of 'Skyrim' and it's a larger map than 'Red Dead Redemption 2'

• You can ride a dragon, bear, raptor, or pilot a mecha

• Single-player only

• You can capture any enemy and turn them into a city for rewards

• You can own a house and cook

• Has web-swinging like Spider-Man

• There are explorable sky islands that are 'very important to the game'

• Development took over 7 years

Releasing on PS5, Xbox, and PC March 19

[Omar @byte_how]

@LogitechG https://t.co/iOKkk75kji

[Omar @byte_how]

Seems that @LogitechG forgot to renew their cert for their macOS app, and now everyone using their mice and keyboards loses all the extra functionality... including me

Great, thanks.

[Marcin Krzyzanowski @krzyzanowskim]

that's new. somebody ask me to merge change of CNAME for github page

[Omar @byte_how]

Saw this talk pop up on my feed, watched it

“decomp2dbg is SO COOOOL”

Find the speaker’s Twitter

Gem after gem after gem

Instant follow, turned on notifications

[Zion Leonahenahe Basque @mahal0z]

My talk on decomp2dbg-related tomfoolery is on Friday at 4pm, MST, @CactusCon Conf (Mesa), Track 2. If you can't make it in person (understandable), register for free @ https://t.co/ADUtuKzSht to get a link to the stream. Talk desc: https://t.co/SbPXrC0NRd

[Omar @byte_how]

@tiggr_ There's a 10 year old Frostbite bug that will hang GPUs and crash the game. AMD, NVidia, old, new, it doesn't matter. The crash will get you. 38 pages of feedback for you to dig through here

https://t.co/jhQlyqjZeA

[Omar @byte_how]

@IGN what the hell is this cropped video? postage stamp on desktop

[Omar @byte_how]

@m_franceschetti "When a cloud outage is detected, the incident response team enables Backup Mode for all Pod devices affected"

How is backup mode activated if your cloud is down?

[Omar @byte_how]

@fth0mas Thank you!