About Roger Smith

Posts by Roger Smith:

Security 105: Seasonings (or Salts and Peppers)

Passwords, Security, Software , , , , , 0 Comments

What on earth is a salt? And why are you using the word as if it’s a definite article instead of the normal “pass the salt, please”?

A salt is a randomly generated sequence of letters and numbers, which are coupled with another input (in this case the user’s password) and entered into a one-way formula (i.e. a hash is taken of the entire coupling). The result of this one-way formula is then stored in the database, in place of the password (and alongside the salt). This combination extends the users’ password to such a length that an effective rainbow table would need to be gigantic. More →

Security 104: Improper Password Storage

Passwords, Security, Software , , , , 0 Comments

Now that you have a basic grounding in hashing and encryption, it’s time to get our hands dirty! This post is going to feature a bit of pseudocode for your enjoyment.

There used to be a time when it wasn’t outrageously irresponsible to simply convert a password to a different format for storage. Something like this, for example:

set password = binary(entered_password);

(… Actually, I lie. That’s always been bad. This is called “security by obscurity” and has never, ever, EVER been safe.) More →

Security 102: What is Hashing?

Security, Software , , , , 0 Comments

Welcome to our second blog post on basic security! Last week we were discussing encryption, and it’s ability to convert information between its’ encrypted and unencrypted states, using a ‘key’ to perform the conversion. This week, we’ll take a look at hashing, the one-way bridge of the security world. Remember, most of this analogy comes courtesy of this StackOverflow answer. More →

Security 101: What is Encryption?

Security, Software , , , 0 Comments

While doing some security reading for my internship last week, I saw hashing and encryption mentioned quite a bit, and had originally thought the two terms interchangeable, believing that a hash was the result of an encryption. I was wrong though, and needed to find the difference. Luckily, Eric pushed me in the direction of a good analogy, which you can find on the ever-trusty StackOverflow. More →

Good Code: Part Five of Five – Maintainable Code

Hints and Tips, Programming, Software , , , , , 0 Comments

Welcome back to our five week series, where we explore five aspects of code that should really be fundamental to code being described as “good”. This week we bring you the lucky last in the series, part five. So far we have covered Correctness, Understandability, Efficiency, and Testability.

Much of the series is built upon Sara Falamaki’s talk, entitled “Happy Hackers == Happy Code”, which Eric attended at Linux.conf.au 2010 in Wellington. More →

Good Code: Part Four of Five – Testable Code

Hints and Tips, Programming, Software , , , , 0 Comments

Welcome back to our five week series, where we explore five aspects of code that should really be fundamental to code being described as “good”. This week we bring you part four. So far we have covered Correctness, Understandability, and Efficiency.

Much of the series is built upon Sara Falamaki’s talk, entitled “Happy Hackers == Happy Code”, which Eric attended at Linux.conf.au 2010 in Wellington. More →

Good Code: Part Three of Five – Efficient Code

Excel, Hints and Tips, Programming, Software, VBA , , , 0 Comments

Welcome back to our five week series, where we explore five aspects of code that should really be fundamental to code being described as “good”. This week we bring you part three, after having covered Correctness in Part One and Understandability in Part Two.

Much of the series is built upon Sara Falamaki’s talk, entitled “Happy Hackers == Happy Code”, which Eric attended at Linux.conf.au 2010 in Wellington. More →

Good Code: Part Two of Five – Understandable Code

Hints and Tips, Programming, Software , , , , , 1 Comment

Welcome back to our five week series, where we explore five aspects of code that should really be fundamental to code being described as “good”. This week we bring you part two. If you missed the first blog of the series, you can catch it here: http://blog.gravitycomputing.co.nz/?p=638

Much of the series is built upon Sara Falamaki’s talk, entitled “Happy Hackers == Happy Code”, which Eric attended at Linux.conf.au 2010 in Wellington.

More →

1 2 3 4 5