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Monthly Archives: January 2008

Gathering entropy from children

Here is a trick I found that solved an old problem: How can coin flipping ever be fair if only one person chooses head or tail ?
I remember Chrissy complaining about that to Jack in an episode of “Three’s Company”. Above the humour, I remember thinking about fair coin flipping back then, many years before [...]

My name is Guillaume, and I want to be a hacker

I was reading the FAQ on how to be a hacker, from Eric Raymond. I recognized in me many of the hacker traits - maybe even some of the skills. But I use a handle, ixe013.
One thing for sure, I love to solve problems and build things. When I started this web site, I pondered [...]

Unlock any user’s session without losing data or killing processes

UPDATED Feb. 2nd 2008 : There is an enhanced version out, with better code, features and documentation.
A friend of mine wanted a special group of users to be able to unlock a workstation without losing any data. Putting those uses in the administrator groups was not a solution, because the default behaviour of Windows was [...]

Denial of service on Vista using Resource Monitor

Microsoft wants you to run with lower privileges. They went out of their way in Windows Vista. You are a member of the Administrative group in Vista, but you the group is for deny only in your token. When you elevate, you get a new token without that deny group. Just like an administrator removing [...]