What does pwn mean in server exploitation (in CTFs)? - ctf

Pwn - I know that this is a category in CTFs in which you exploit a server to find the flag.
there is a library called pwntools, it's a CTF framework and exploit development library in python.
What I can't understand is why is it called "PWN" and is it an abbreviation?
pwn is also owning/dominating someone, but does this definition fit?
Thanks for helping ^^

It is litereally just that. Owning the server. You're looking to far into it and forgetting the background in which this culture has risen.

In the context of internet/hacking slang, it indeed means that your server (or data or anything else) has been taken over control, that you "lost the game".
I think this is an abbreviation from "pawned", from the verb "to pawn", used in games, though I can't find a reliable and authoritative source for it (same as current wiktionary word article is stating).
I feel like it has roots in the chess game (where you used pieces called "pawns").
It sounds like "owned" and "punched". It might also be some invented word.

Related

Lidars in Drake

I want to simulate lidars. I saw that a class DepthSensor was mentioned in the documentation, but I have not found its actual implementation. For now, I am planning on using the RgbdSensor class and use only the height I need of the depth point cloud I receive to simulate my lidars.
Just to get your input on that, maybe I missed something, but is there a specific class for lidars, and how would you go about adding lidars to a simulation?
Thanks in advance,
Arnaud
You've discovered an anchronism in the code. There had previously been a lidar-like sensor (called DepthSensor). The extant documentation refers to that class. The class's removal should've been accompanied by a clean up of the documentation.
The approach you are taking is the expected approach given Drake's current state.
There has always been an intention to re-introduce a lidar-like sensor in Drake's current architecture. It simply hasn't been a high priority.
I'd recommend you proceed with what you're currently doing (lidar from depth images) but, at the same time, post an issue requesting a lidar-like query with specific focus on the minimum lidar-properties that you require. A discussion regarding how that would differ from what you can actually get from the depth images would better inform of us your unique needs and how to prioritize it. (You can also indicate more advanced features that you need less but would be good to have, of course).
As for the question: how would you go about adding lidars?
That's problematic. Ideally, what you would need is ray-casting ability. The intent is for QueryObject to support such a query, but it hasn't happened yet. (It's certainly the underlying technology we'd have used to implement a LidarSensor.) In the absence of that kind of functionality, you'd essentially have to do it yourself in the most horrible, tedious way imaginable. I'd go so far as to suggest that it's not feasible with the current API.

how I can translate changes made in Cheat Engine into my game.exe

I have a game I am looking to modify a bit by altering the exe code, something I have a little bit of experience with (low level hacking HEX only as I do not have source code of game).
I found a trainer that writes into the game.exe memory to do things like increase health, money etc. The trainer itself can do many things, one of which is preventing enemies from dropping loot once they are killed. This is the function that I wish to embed in the game.exe.
I have found the address of this function in Cheat Engine and have successfully written new data into memory to prevent the look drops. Now my task is how to make this permanent in the game.exe?
Does anyone know how I can translate the changes I make in Cheat Engine into my game.exe so that I no longer need a trainer to make the changes?
Cheat engine does not, as far as I'm aware, have the capability to permanently patch the .exe file. To do this you will want to use OllyDbg which does allow it.
You have already found the address's you need in CE and you can use these in OllyDbg to go right to where you need to change stuff.

Print contents of rpg file in human-readable format

Context
A friend of mine is having trouble printing source code to a human readable format.
The compiled (I assume) programs of their welding robot have the .rpg extension. They want to collect print-outs in human-readable format, possibly for backup or future reference.
Their supplier can provide the software that accomplishes this, be it at a considerable cost (and possibly: an annual license). Because of this, my friend decided to ask me if a easier/cheaper solution exists.
Examples & Pictures
The files can be read on the console of the robot, an example:
I've done some minor research and I'm fairly sure this is the Report Program Generator (RPG) language developed by IBM. The Assembly-like syntax seems to match; it might be one of the later versions of the language.
My friend has send me an example .rpg file, the contents seem binary with some string literals scattered throughout. Screenshot of the contents of an example file in hexadecimal:
The Question
There is not much, if any, clear information to be found online so I suppose I have multiple questions (for anyone that might know more about this):
Is this (first image) Report Program Generator (RPG) code?
Does the .rpg file contain compiled or processed code? Maybe an intermediate format?
Is it possible to convert files as shown in the example, back to source-code or human-readable format, kind of 'disassemble' it?
If anyone knows more, don't hesitate to give me any information or ask more details if necessary. Thanks in advance!
And maybe not an important question but still something that bugs me (and might indicate I'm on the wrong track):
If this is indeed an RPG program, why would the compiled/processed binary have the .rpg extension, shouldn't the source-file have that? This leads me to believe I'm either (a) assuming the wrong things (the language, etc...) or (b) this is an intermediate format, easier for machines to read, that has to be interpreted by some kind of runtime system.
I don't think that's any version of IBM's RPG language. RPG does have a MOVEL opcode, but it doesn't have any of the others.
Also, all the versions of the IBM language have been intended for business programming. I doubt that it would have been used for robotics.
My guess is that's a proprietary language of the company that makes the robot.
There are some similarities but it does not look like IBM RPG language.
RPG sources are in fact source physical file members. They are not stored in the "traditional" file system but in OS/400 libraries. Therefore RPG sources have no extension. They can be converted to Integrated File System stream file though.
I can't answer this question I'm afraid as it's unknown language to me.
I expect possibly that the OP misidentifies the file type/extension; that the extension is actually .prg, and the files serve as instructions for a Panasonic Industrial Welding Robot. The following forum [drilled down to Panasonic Robots] bills itself as the biggest Industrial Robots Supportforum worldwide!; perhaps a good place to ask about those images provided in the OP, and the inquiry about getting source from what appears to be a binary instruction stream.
FWiW, the first image seems to show that the Ezed utility [on the console] gives that human-readable format, so then the question might be how to get that saved and then how to transfer that elsewhere; e.g. what type of comm ports and file transfer utilities are available from whatever platform/OS.

Tools for searching full text in iOS bundle

Sorry for the generalized question...I have been hunting for a long time and haven't found anything I can use or easily adapt yet. I'd really appreciate any pointers!
I'm building a reference app that will contain several textbooks in plain-text format. I want the user to be able to perform a search, and get a table back with a list of results. I have a working prototype, but the search logic that I wrote isn't all that smart and it's been hell trying to make it better.
This is obviously a fairly common problem so I'm looking for a tool that I could adapt to the task. So far I've found Lucene (http://vafer.org/blog/20090107014544/) and Locayta (http://www.locayta.com/iOS-search-engine/locayta-search-mobile/)
Lucene appears to have been last updated for iOS 2...I don't even know if I'll be able to rework it myself. Maybe.
Locayta would probably work great, but a commercial license is $1,000 and I may not soon recoup that with this app, as it's a niche market.
Thanks!
We stumbled upon the same predicament where I work, and have yet to decide on a solution.
Locayta seems promising, but barring that, I've looked into SQLite's FTS3/FTS4 as well.
The only issue seemed the lack of a way to match partial words. It's easy to search for fields that contain whole words (eg. "paper" matches "printer paper", "paper punch", and "sketch paper"), or words that start with something (eg. "bi*" matches "binder", and "bicycle"), but there's no built in way to match a suffix.
If you don't require that functionality, FTS3/FTS4 might work.
I see you mentioned in the follow-up that your SQLite didn't recognize FTS3(), and I had the same issue at first.
Apparently it's not bundled into the iOS version by default, instead you have to download the SQLite3 amalgamation, and include it in the project manually. As found at is FTS available in the iOS build of SQLite?
Also note, the SQLITE_ENABLE_FTS3 variable is not enabled by default, you just have to add it to the configuration as detailed at http://www.sqlite.org/fts3.html#section_2
Hope this helps.
If you can translate plain C code to iOS Objective-C, then Apache Lucy (a loose "C" port of Lucene) might be worth a look.

Setting up help for a Delphi app

What's the best way to set up help (specifically HTML Help) for a Delphi application? I can see several options, all of which has disadvantages. Specifically:
I could set HelpContext in the forms designer wherever appropriate, but then I'm stuck having to track numbers instead of symbolic constants.
I could set HelpContext programmatically. Then I can use symbolic constants, but I'd have more code to keep up with, and I couldn't easily check the text DFMs to see which forms still need help.
I could set HelpKeyword, but since that does a keyword lookup (like Application.HelpKeyword) rather than a topic jump (like Application.HelpJump), I'd have to make sure that each of my help pages has a unique, non-changing, top-level keyword; this seems like extra work. (And there are HelpKeyword-related VCL bugs like this and this.)
I could set HelpKeyword, set an Application.OnHelp handler to convert HelpKeyword requests to HelpJump requests so that I can assign help by topic ID instead of keyword lookup, and add code such as my own help viewer (based on HelpScribble's code) that fixes the VCL bugs and lets HelpJump work with anchors. By this point, though, I feel like I'm working against the VCL rather than with it.
Which approach did you choose for your app?
When I first started researching how to do this several years ago, I first got the "All About help files in Borland Delphi" tutorial from: http://www.ec-software.com/support_tutorials.html
In that document, the section "Preparing a help file for context sensitive help" (which in my version of the document starts on page 28). It describes a nice numbering scheme you can use to organize your numbers into sections, e.g. Starting with 100000 for your main form and continuing with 101000 or 110000 for each secondary form, etc.
But then I wanted to use descriptive string IDs instead of numbers for my Help topics. I started using THelpRouter, which is part of EC Software's free Help Suite at: http://www.ec-software.com/downloads_delphi.html
But then I settled on a Help tool that supported string ID's directly for topics (I use Dr. Explain: http://www.drexplain.com/) so now I simply use HelpJump, e.g.:
Application.HelpJump('UGQuickStart');
I hope that helps.
We use symbolic constants. Yes, it is a bit more work, but it pays off. Especially because some of our dialogs are dynamically built and sometimes require different help IDs.
I create the help file, which gets the help topic ID, and then go around the forms and set their HelpContext values to them. Since the level of maintenance needed is very low - the form is unlikely to change help file context unless something major happens - this works just fine.
We use Help&Manual - its a wonderful tool, outputting almost any format of stuff you could want, doc, rtf, html, pdf - all from the same source. It will even read in (or paste from rtf (eg MSWord). It uses topic ID's (strings) which I just keep a list of and I manually put each one into a form (or class) as it suits me. Sounds difficult but trust me you'll spend far longer hating the wrong authouring tool. I spent years finding it!
Brian

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