hackxr

[hackxr]

so close to finishing the tweaks i wanted to make to this blog. i think... hopefully will start reaching out via opens/memes...

[hackxr]

Do you use Winamp or VLC? We gotta ask the important questions.

♯ [!!!] » Acc░ss ▓rant▒d~:

The laugh that’s pulled out of her echos that of pebbles being rolled against concrete, involuntary and unexpected. Then she realizes it’s a serious question.

”VLC — obviously.”

There’s no hesitation in her response — it’s barely a question in her mind. As a Unix main, what other answer was there anyway?

“ B e s i d e s — it’s open-source. So, ya know, I can make the tweaks I want.”

She definitely didn’t create her own, ‘special’ versions of VLC with little hooks that would call back to her always listening servers. And she definitely didn’t post them up on fake websites that looked like near identical copies of the real VLC website.

No — definitely not.

[hackxr]

Taking my muses hat off for a moment to alert you to a real cybersecurity situation.

[hackxr]

[hackxr]

What's your favorite kind of flower? Checkered Fritillaria looks like a missing texture.

♯ [!!!] » Acc░ss ▓rant▒d~:

Sen7inel barely caught the question through the wired earbuds that blasted noise from her old mp3 player, plastered with layers of stickers, as if to drown out the world around her.

“Huh—?” A pale hand snaked up from her pocket and yanked one of the buds out of an ear to let it hang limply against her front, the edge of her hood pulling back just slightly to rest halfway back on the crown of her head. “—Checkered whatnow?”

Gray orbs scan over the stranger holding the bouquet of various flowers that had been standing in line in front of her, looking for any tells or micro-expressions that might indicate an underlying motive around the otherwise innocent question. She found none —

            — but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one.

The hacker was tired — dark circles under her eyes and a mess of unkept blonde hair that she’d run her fingers through too many times fraying out over her face indicated as such. She’d been up for at least 22 hours, staring at a screen, trying to fuzz an application she’d found exposed to the internet while sleuthing for a gig that had seg faulted when she’d injected more than 500 characters into one of the text boxes. Her half-written buffer overflow that refused to cooperate nearly led her to throw her keyboard across the room…

… Which meant she needed a break. And for once, she took it — and wandered several blocks to a shop as the cloudless morning broke that had drip coffee just the way she liked it: strong, black, and thick as motor oil.

“ U h . . . ” She hadn’t been expecting this question, let alone to talk with anyone save for the few words traded with the barista. Eyes flicked down to the array of colorful flowers held in the strangers hands. And that was when the tickle hit the back of her throat, the minuscule bits of pollen finally inhaled.

For a moment, she tried to remember when she last took her allergy meds. Yesterday? Two days ago? Time had warped during her binge hacking session and she wasn’t the best at being… consistent.

Still, she held back the urge to cough and retort ‘a dead flower’. Why did the outdoors seem to want to kill her every chance it got?

“… I’m uh… actually allergic so… can’t say I have one…” Steel hues flicked back up to the stranger, avoiding direct eye contact and instead staring at the persons mouth that was curved into a friendly smile that she didn’t trust. “But uhhh… I always found those fly trap things kinda… entertaining.”

She paused, the briefest flashback of being shooed out of her mothers garden intruding uninvited on her train of thought — which she quickly banished, shoved deep in to the trenches of her mind where forgotten thoughts should stay. The loose earbud twirled between her thumb and index finger as she debated plugging it back in to signal the end of the brief conversation. But — apparently — that was ‘rude’. And she had at least three more people ahead of her before she could place an order. So, begrudgingly, she made herself continue the conversation — albeit in the only way she knew how.

Geek-speak.

“Missing texture, h u h ? Kinda like MissingNo in Pokémon Red?”

[hackxr]

for muses that are getting to know each other

❝ what's your favorite color and why? ❞

❝ can i come with you? ❞

❝ you have a nice smile, has anyone ever told you that before? ❞

❝ how do you take your coffee? ❞

❝ sorry, what was your name again? ❞

❝ it just occurred to me i never asked you what your last name is. ❞

❝ actually we've met before. ❞

❝ i've heard a few things about you. ❞

❝ care to join me? ❞

❝ i'm not really sure why i trust you. ❞

❝ i don't usually talk this much, it just feels easy to say stuff when you're listening. ❞

❝ i know we don't know each other that well but if you wanna talk about it... ❞

❝ could you help me with something? ❞

❝ do you like it here? ❞

❝ are you new around here? ❞

❝ you can ask me anything you want. i promise i'll answer truthfully except the things i feel like lying about. ❞

❝ i don't mean to be too forward, you just seem like you could use a friend right now. ❞

❝ you can come with me. i mean if you don't have anyone waiting for you. ❞

❝ we're friends now. you can ask me for help. ❞

❝ do you like this music? i can change it. ❞

❝ what are your favorite snacks? ❞

❝ really? i wouldn't have guessed that about you. ❞

❝ do you mind if i ask about it? ❞

ACTIONS:

VISIT: for sender to go to receiver's home for the first time

VISITED: for receiver to go to sender's home for the first time

CRYING: for sender to see receiver cry for the first time

CRIED: for receiver to see sender cry for the first time

BEGIN: sender and receiver are on their first date together

TRIP: our muses go on a group trip but end up stuck together, away from the rest of their friends.

SITUATION: our muses are acquainted because one of them is their friend's roommate. muse a shows up when their friend isn't there and ends up hanging out with muse b one on one.

GO: our muses go to a zoo or theme park together and get lost.

INVITE: sender cooks for receiver for the first time

INVITED: receiver cooks for sender for the first time

TOGETHER: our muses spend the night for the first time

TRY: our muses hooked up and are hanging out the next day

COMFORT: sender is going through a break up and receiver offers to cheer them up

COMFORTED: receiver is going through a break up and sender offers to cheer them up

OFFER: sender gives receiver a ride to the airport/picks them up

OFERED: receiver gives sender a ride to the airport/picks them up

AID: sender helps receiver redecorate

AIDING: receiver helps sender redecorate

[hackxr]

[hackxr]

      🄳🄾🄽'🅃 🄵🄾🅁🄶🄴🅃 🅃🄾 🄻🄾🄲🄺 🅈🄾🅄🅁 🄱🄰🄲🄺🄳🄾🄾🅁

♯ [!!!] » Indie Hacker OC // 21+, MDNI; ♯ [!!!] » Penned by tonik // Mid-millennial & casual AF; ♯ [!!!] » Est. 2013 // Rebooted 2025; ♯ [!!!] » AU // OC // Crossover Friendly; ♯ [!!!] » Open to short, long, plotted, dark, suggestive, shenanigans, etc.;

 [ roo7 ] [ query ] [ da7a ] [ manual ]

[hackxr]

♯ [!!!] » Acc░ss ▓rant▒d~:

"- -- -- Oh, come onnnnn.         It was just a  f u c k i n g  joke!"

The faintest flicker of a shit-eating grin pulls at the corner of her mouth, but she manages to keep it together.

"I mean, you are really blowing this out of proportion."

[hackxr]

[hackxr]

IN THIS MOMENT — SANCTIFY ME

[hackxr]

♯ [!!!] » Acc░ss ▓rant▒d~:

        "- -- -- fucking hell. This coffee sucks ass."

[hackxr]

Hidden messages found on various circuit boards

[hackxr]

    Ｓｅｌｆ                 » Proclaimed «                                 D̘̠͎͟͝a̷̵̩̖͔̼͙r͘҉̤k̹͖̲̰̰̝̘̲͟n͕͈̻͙̠̤̪̞e̪̹͉̖͠ͅt̹̬̟̞͚͉͟                                                       Kιηg

Indie Hacker OC // 21+, MDNI; Penned by tonik // Mid-millennial & casual AF; Est. 2013 // Rebooted 2025; Multi [ verse // ship // fandom ]; OC // AU // Crossover Friendly; Dark / suggestive themes likely, shenanigans definitely;

                          » da7a || manual || query || dir «

[hackxr]

Your summer reading list: An Introduction to Cybernetics. W. Ross Ashby - 1963.

[hackxr]

♯ [!!!] » Acc░ss ▓rant▒d~:

She listened. Waited. Expecting a reaction more akin to a panic or concern that usually occurred during these little encounters she'd had in the past when the tech stack of an unfortunate organization hit her radar and something popped.

CTOs of financial firms offering hush money personally to preserve their appearance in the industry. Information Tech Officers from logistics corps screaming to have their data returned before morning — hemorrhaging millions every hour trucks, ships, and planes sat idle. InfoSec VPs from nearly every vertical, terrified of being tomorrow’s headline as the next scapegoat fired to make it seem like the victim company was ‘doing something.’

All of them posturing to some degree to preserve themselves over actually giving a shit about investing in their architecture. She used to take it more seriously. Used to create ominous video messages with glitched out text like those Anonymous kids. Then that turned... boring. Now, it was just sport. A  l a z y  tap on the glass. A warning to the capitalists that thought they were untouchable while doing the bare minimum to save a dime for the sake of stakeholder ‘profitability’.

But this one…

No panic.

Barely even an undercurrent of concern.

Irritation? Sure. But that was it. Didn't even make a demand. She was almost offended.

Who the hell was she talking to?

There was little chance this was some blue team security tech or incident responder. Too cool. Too calm. None of that underlying twitchy fear of losing their job. Not legal either — lawyers opened with threats, not admissions. This one… sounded like a man nursing a migraine while rotating knives between his fingers and reading off a script handed to him by PR.

And there was an air of authority behind his bullshit press statement that indicated someone with a higher pay grade. And suits only pick up the phone when something important is at risk.

Which begged the question -- what had she tripped over?

With a few clicks, Sen7inel opened up the recon files from her quick peruse she took through the network earlier for another review on screen, internally cursing herself for being too lazy to run a more intensive scan. The subnet had looked like a dead zone — endpoints barely whispering with heartbeat pings and encrypted packets. No standard traffic patterns she’d expect from a healthcare environment -- or one remotely similar. No EHR syncs. No timed burst batches of med data.

No — this appeared quieter. Cleaner. Sterile.

'Interesting.'

Her head tilted slightly. “Oh, come now, Mr. TRICELL.” It oozed from her mouth with saccharine mockery, a fiendish curl of a grin creeping upward. “You, me, and the dark corners of the internet all know pharma corps know how to move product around -- regardless of your system status. I'd bet good money that there's a number of shipments that are never logged that make it to their final destination just fine."

Alright — maybe she was leaning into the rumors from the cesspool of conspiracy theorists that hid out in the deepest trenches of the net. Maybe she read some. Maybe she made some up herself. She definitely made some up herself. But it was hard not to after the accusations that had been publicly and privately hurled at Umbrella during its downfall.

And when would she get another opportunity to throw such accusations around to see if she could make a pharma exec choke?

She leaned forward now, elbows on the desk, chin resting on folded hands. Her tone dropped — not louder, but closer. "Besides,” she murmured, "I didn't see any lifesaving going on behind that subnet." A beat, then more pointed, "which means that's not what you're actually mad about… huh?"

A lone Linksys E4200's logs are empty. They should be full of useless telemetry to seed 𝚕𝚌𝚐_𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚍().

[𝚃𝚃𝚈 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚍, 𝙿𝙸𝙳 𝟾𝟸𝟶𝟹.]

Like any sitting duck, it has been inevitably shot, and the digital gore of one dusty, obscure backup server connected through LAN with file transfers has enabled a cascading, unprecedented breach to occur in a facility that he doubts this attacker is aware of the true significance of.

Why did it always fall to him - or Excella - to speak to whatever jester of the hour jingled by?

This duty — like tucking a tail between the legs — bruises his ego. And though he can play the part, it does not necessitate he desire to.

Naturally, it falls to him to answer. Wesker is the only one of two options that retains any modicum of IT knowledge, even if it's tailored to the long-defunct Z-series. He reclines with a sigh in his chair, a printed incident report — the only thing he trusts to be true in this room — in one hand, an unplugged Ethernet cord being twirled idly in the digits of his other.

Bone conduction carries the attacker's voice. The first string to pull will be guilt — "You do realize you're currently disrupting the availability of life-saving pharmaceuticals to hospitals, yes?" It is delivered smoothly, but the wry hint isn't lost.

Keeping the attacker on longer will allow internal teams more time to mount a defense, which currently consists of isolating the router by pulling services offline one-by-one, going under like glittering lights - green, yellow, then red...

"They will be dealt with." There is something restrained in that.

...and it's less time for them — no, her — to grep valuable data that would provide the RSA keys to—

In bitter hindsight, Wesker had known it was a bad idea. He'd warned the engineers when they decided to trim operating cost by scaling back infrastructure, nixing the upper-level's physical firewall.

So, when it was child's play to break in to the E4200, he was unsurprised. After all...

No firmware updates for three years.

Front-facing...

Not connected to Snort.

No matter how much you slather on top of it, you were bound to be found if your foundation wobbled.

He scoffs at her tone - she sounds so unbothered, careless. What kind of hacker exposes their vocal biometrics so freely? When he next speaks, his voice is measured calm — "We take data breaches very seriously here at TRICELL." There's a crackling pause as he breathes in an audible sigh, waiting for demands impatiently. This insolence detracts from important work.

[hackxr]

♯ [!!!] » Acc░ss ▓rant▒d~:

"Listen—"

There's the barest quirk of her brow from under her hood — a momentary flex, involuntary, mixed with amusement and something else. Challenge perhaps. Or thrill — that familiar, stupid, addictive jolt up her spine she always got when she danced on the precipice of poking the proverbial bear and waiting to see if it would bite.

Of course, it helped that she was on one end of the wire, audio distorted, mask pulled over her nose, and traffic heavily encrypted with assumedly miles of space in between her and one on the other end.

"— it's not my fault your techs missed one firewall on their latest patch cycle. I just so happened to be in the digital neighborhood to notice."

A beat. Considering. Debating how far to push.

"But hey — that's really not bad compared to other corporate monoliths of similar size, ya know. So, don't beat them up too badly. I'm sure they just need to…” a hand raises, waves around flippantly, “… update their network documentation. Or something."

Sen7inel reclined back in her worn computer chair, sprawling lazily, her oversized hoodie a shrug from falling off one shoulder, and twirled a freshly rolled join between her fingers.

"Oh — before you worry — don't. I locked the door on my way out, free of charge — you're welcome, by the way. Not a lot going on there, seemed like a dead end. Really didn't even expect you to find my calling card, let alone that quickly."

What she didn't mention was that they would have to pay the price for the ridiculously long admin password she’d changed on the firewall to unlock that door — or hard reset it to regain access. Either way, it was a small price to pay for poor cybersec hygiene, and she'd maintain a foothold on the network to keep snooping around in the meantime.

@progenitorensis