Remote

Adam Katz

@adamhotep@infosec.exchange

mastodon 4.8.0-alpha.3+glitch

Sporadic poster of funny things, bastion of obscure knowledge. Day job in #antispam & #cybersecurity. "AI" destroys education, trashes the environment, and depends on slavery. My posts are a blur of humor, nerdy tech news, and politics (which use #uspol so you can filter them out).

Support freedom for 🎙️✊🏿🇺🇦🇵🇸🍉🇬🇱🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️♀️
he/they
Currently living in NYC 🇺🇸

I work at @TalosSecurity@mstdn.social but my posts only represent myself (and occasionally your mom).

#fedi22 searchable

0 Followers

806 Following

50 Posts

Joined November 20, 2022

I run:

:opensource::debian::linux::bash::firefox::vim::signal::donor:

Github:

https://github.com/adamhotep

Infosec Stack Exchange:

https://security.stackexchange.com/users/42391/adam-katz

Stack Overflow:

https://stackoverflow.com/users/519360/adam-katz

PGP Fingerprint:

F8EC 5C50 92BA 06CA 8DCA 8BA1 8EBA 15BA F4AD 9292

Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3w ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

A Flock technician called 911 because journalists were filming the installation of Flock cameras in public. Here's what the photographer said to the police: "There is an irony here that they're setting up these cameras that track all of our movements, that follow everywhere we go. But when I try to get video in public of him in public setting up a camera, he's afraid I'm following him?" https://www.investigatetv.com/2026/09/08/flock-worker-calls-police-investigatetv-reporter-filming-public-camera-installation/

Flock worker calls police on InvestigateTV reporter filming public camera installation

https://www.investigatetv.com/

Flock worker calls police on InvestigateTV reporter filming public camera installation

Questions about privacy and oversight surrounding Flock Safety's national camer network persist

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Neat insight into how Meta's chatbot works: https://mouse.dev/blog/muse-runtime-export/ Apparently, getting a chatbot to dump you its whole filesystem isn't notable: we've determined that the reported issue does not qualify as a valid vulnerability under the scope of our bug bounty system.

I asked Meta’s Muse for its filesystem and it sent me 6.8 GB | Mouse

I asked Meta’s Muse for its filesystem and it sent me 6.8 GB | Mouse

I asked Muse to archive the files it could see and send them to my Google Drive. It did.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Boosted by @heidilifeldman@mastodon.social

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/19/stephen-miller-trump-migrant-children “There’s some real animus towards the kids coming from Miller and his acolytes. And I think that it’s also very connected to the same reason that he wants to get rid of birthright citizenship. It’s about demographics, right? And he sees the kids as, like, the future generation that will, you know, continue a multiracial, multicultural vision of this country.” #uspol HT @heidilifeldman@mastodon.social

theguardian.com

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@zzt@mas.to there's financial incentive to this bogus claim: declaring AGI means they're decoupled from Microsoft, essential to their pending IPO When OpenAI says it has reached Artificial General Intelligence, […], that claim will have to be verified by an independent expert panel, Microsoft said. The revenue share agreement between the two companies will remain until that panel verifies AGI. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/28/open-ai-for-profit-microsoft.html

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@exocomics@mastodon.world

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3w ago

Replying to on mastodon.social

@ghostlinguist@mastodon.social @hrast@sunny.garden @GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social @darkwolf@hear-me.social This reminds me of how Phil Zimmermann explained the importance of PGP back in 1991: What if everyone believed that law-abiding citizens should use postcards for their mail? If a nonconformist tried to assert his privacy by using an envelope for his mail, it would draw suspicion. Perhaps the authorities would open his mail to see what he's hiding. Don't let the status quo get in the way of progress. Don't let corner cases justify stripping away essential liberties.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@catsalad@infosec.exchange

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Replying to

@fatsam@mstdn.social see also https://taylor.town/leaving-openai I'm leaving OpenAI to build Jurassic Park

I'm leaving OpenAI to build Jurassic Park

I'm leaving OpenAI to build Jurassic Park

Gonna send you back to the stone age.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Replying to

@jonny@neuromatch.social this is a very real and nasty problem. It's the same reason I prefer GPL-style licenses over "freer" Apache-style licenses: people are selfish and don't give back. Corporations are greedy and take. Bruce Perens is working on this at https://postopen.org but it's not even close to ready yet. I suggest a modified AGPLv3 that prohibits commercial use, noting that this means it'll never be compatible with GPL/AGPL content.

Post Open

Building the successor to Open Source

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@netkitty@meow.social @catsalad@infosec.exchange got it!

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3w ago

RE: https://digipres.club/@foone/117277330901396809 Firefox is starting to get polluted by vibe-coded crap. If only the AI-free @servo@floss.social was moving along faster…

Quoting

Alice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️

@foone@digipres.club

All the widgets are bundled together into a single NewTab extension: https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/tree/main/browser/extensions/newtab which is vibecoded and it's also the one that does the ads

Open quoted post

Alice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️: "All the widgets are bundled together into a singl…" - digipres.club

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cR0w@infosec.exchange if you type Alt+Dot (or Esc,Dot), it shows the previous command's final argument. Do it again for the command before that. Alt+{2,Dot} (holding Alt, press 2 then Dot) gets the penultimate argument. Keep holding Alt so you can press Dot to go to older commands. #bash & #zsh

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@tinker@infosec.exchange one more: if your boss tells you to use a password manager, pick a secure one like MS Excel or Wordpress

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social take a look at QUIK, a fork of QKSMS. This recently started supporting emoji reactions compatible with both Google Messages and iMessage. It's understaffed and there might be good collaboration opportunities there.

GitHub - quik-sms/quik: The most beautiful SMS messenger for Android - Revived

The most beautiful SMS messenger for Android - Revived - quik-sms/quik

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

RE: https://mastodon.social/@donni/116916284572319761 JOIN US

Quoting

@donni@mastodon.social

You can just pretend to have your shit together. They don’t really check

Open quoted post

mastodon.social

donni saphire: "You can just pretend to have your shit together. …" - Mastodon

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

RE: https://c.im/@cdarwin/116942321109334514 It's a great day for … contract killers?! #uspol

Chuck Darwin: "Hiring a hit man is not a crime of violence -- ev…" - C.IM

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@jonhendry@iosdev.space @cR0w@infosec.exchange what, you don't have cute Animaniacs on your keyboard? 😜

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@jordan@sometimes.social @cR0w@infosec.exchange I had that issue upgrading Ubuntu to 26.04 (from a much older release), which moved from GNU to UUtils Coreutils but forgot to install the replacement. I went to the old standby of echo * but then also remembered that Debian systems all include BusyBox. Just run busybox ls instead. This was essential as various dpkg post install scripts needed ln, cp, rm, and more, so I temporarily symlinked (busybox ln …) these commands, in /bin, to busybox. Voila, the upgrade could complete.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@infobeautiful@vis.social here's a higher resolution copy. Sadly, this is #uspol

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

TIME Magazine's website now serves excessive ads—just to AI crawlers. This manipulates them to have favorable views of the advertised content without traceability. This technique could also help seed flagrantly bad information so we can get more glue in pizza. https://www.vincentschmalbach.com/time-serves-ai-bots-a-different-website/ #AI

TIME Is Serving AI Bots a Different Website, With Ads Built In

Vincent Schmalbach

TIME Is Serving AI Bots a Different Website, With Ads Built In

TIME is now serving two different versions of its website. Humans get the magazine. AI crawlers get a stripped down markdown copy with ads baked in that no person will ever see. I fetched one ordinary…

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

A drone that is 100% propeller, blurring to near-invisibility like the blades of a fan. It seems impractical to put a camera in there. Maybe a microphone array can account for the wind resistance and cancel out the motor? https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2026/07/new-spinning-drone-hides-in-plain-sight

New spinning drone hides in plain sight

news.northwestern.edu

New spinning drone hides in plain sight

Like a propeller, new drone spins too fast for the human eye to see clearly. It’s about 10 times less visually perceptible than a conventional quadcopter.<br />

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

I stand happily corrected: they nominated Troy Jackson, a progressive https://flipboard.com/@npr/all-things-considered-ji18657oz/-/a-NXebt7O9TeSfqf3hjMw9cA%3Aa%3A3195441-%2F0

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Featherlight planets! https://apnews.com/article/super-puffs-cotton-candy-giant-light-planets-db1ebf1cb946e1c0bba67a5040bfc8a9 These two planets have densities comparable to a nice blob of shaving foam, fresh from the can.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

@RoguleTips@mastodon.social – I'm curious about your take on yesterday's game: #Rogule 2026-7-28 🧝 5xp ⛩ 221 👣 streak: 98 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⚔ 🦇🐀🦇👹🐉 🌰🍄 https://rogule.com I know these are random, including what goodies are present, but this level was very well "designed", which makes me wonder if 🐉 increases the odds of 🥃, 🛡️, 🗡️, and/or 🪓

Rogule - a dungeon a day keeps the Balrog away

A free minimalist online roguelike in your browser with a fresh dungeon generated each day.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@PavelASamsonov@mastodon.social it's also a baseball term referring to a five-base hit

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@funnysnarkyjoke.bsky.social that's from Mirrormask, an underrated circus-themed dark fantasy reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz (but not a musical). That character was waaay more nimble than Mitch

en.wikipedia.org

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

RE: @cwebber@social.coop

Every once in a while, we observe flaws in media players that allow exploits to be delivered by video files. These files often get free passes in security gateways.

Fortunately, it doesn't work by default. BleepingComputer wrote:

the RCE exploit requires ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) to be disabled, and that CVE-2026-8461 alone does not bypass this memory protection.
In theory, a separate information-disclosure bug in FFmpeg's FlashSV decoder could be chained with PixelSmash to bypass ASLR.

Christine Lemmer-Webber: "A vulnerability in ffmpeg allows remote code exec…" - social.coop

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

"Even drawing on a mustache has been reported as enough to fool age detection software."

https://www.theregister.com/2026/05/04/uk_online_safety_act_age_checks_subvert/

Like keeping booze away from teenagers or nudie mags out of the hands of young lads, slapping a big “restricted, 18+” label on parts of the internet hasn't stopped kids testing the limits. Those limits, according to UK online safety group Internet Matters, are easy to sidestep.

theregister.com

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

RE: @mhoye@cosocial.ca

Chrome prohibits first-class ad blocking extensions.
Chrome now installs a 4GB AI model.
Google is an ad company. They harvest your data.

Use Firefox or else a Chromium fork like Vivaldi.

mhoye but seasonally spooky: "Uninstall Chrome. https://www.thatprivacyguy.com…" - CoSocial

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jschauma We're in a downward spiral of layoffs funding datacenters to drive stocks up. Meanwhile, LLMs do students' homework and tech companies no longer hire junior devs. When we're overrun by model collapse and technical debt, we won't have anybody to dig us out: AI job apocalypse.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Replying to

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange Meta over shares more than just their own secrets: https://grapheneos.social/@metr0pl3x/117219473189649058

grapheneos.social

MetropleX: "Oversharing is NOT caring. Privacy is not just a …" - GrapheneOS Mastodon

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

I like this daily web game: guess the year given clues about what happened then. It's a bit arbitrary and, like Wordle outside of Hard Mode, you can hunt for more digits (and there are only so many digits), but it has a fundamental flaw in its sharing mechanism tipping the hand too much. Take the game from Sunday: #pastpuzzle en-582 🟩🟥🟥🟨 (-225) 🟥🟨🟨🟥 (+216) 🟩🟩🟨🟨 (+27) 🟩🟩🟩🟩 (0) 4/4 🟩 https://www.pastpuzzle.com The first clue talks about a physicist and a scientific community, so it's clearly pretty recent, yet I guessed a year that was 216 too far in the future. This game only lets you guess dates that have happened, so we know there's a ceiling of 2026-216 = 1810. If you guess 1765 as our first guess based on this, you'd get 🟩🟥🟥🟥. Now you know it's 1800-10, but not 1805-07. If that and either clue doesn't do it, guess 2013 for 🟥🟩🟨🟩 and you've solved it in three.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Artem Lytkin has implemented Doom with just regular expressions. A giant pile of search-and-replace—14M in just one frame! This is magnificent: https://4rh1t3ct0r7.github.io/doom-regex/ #regex #doom h/t @hackaday@hackaday.social

4rh1t3ct0r7.github.io

DOOM on regex - find & replace as a computer

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-companies-destroying-rare-books "Good" news: Some companies have solved both the slop-fed-slop model collapse issue and the copyright lawsuit issue Bad news: it requires buying old books, scanning them, and then destroying them so nobody else can use that knowledge or prove plagiarism or copyright violation

AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almost No Copies Remain

AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almost No Copies Remain

AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them -- even if they're exceedingly rare.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net consider @hackaday@hackaday.social

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 1w ago

Replying to on fediscience.org

@petersuber@fediscience.org Thank goodness—zombies get a new wind whenever they can sense nearby brains…

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@vicfroh@mastodon.social if I say "ketchup cures measles", that's market manipulation.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Replying to on mastodon.social

@zackwhittaker@mastodon.social they recruited the Lycos dog?

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@xabean@infosec.exchange my last phone had an inoperable USB port too. I used magnetic charging and SyncThing over wifi. Then it got really picky about my charger; only one of my four worked, so when I travelled, I brought it with me. It's a giant stand.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@toddhorowitz@fediscience.org true. Mainers have a line and he crossed it, but the line was more generous due to a desire for a progressive. The people really wanted someone who can represent the working class and I doubt the Democrat delegates will respect that. #uspol

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Replying to

@lberrymage@infosec.exchange interesting. I'll have to read that in detail when I have more time. Thanks!

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@catsalad@infosec.exchange ooh! Where do I get that app?

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@tychotithonus@infosec.exchange It's called a "yellow team" when they also have serious dental hygiene issues 🪥

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

https://electrek.co/2026/08/04/waymo-co-ceo-camera-only-self-driving-tesla/ Reliability lives on what Dolgov called an “exponential ladder of nines.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk calls it the “march of the nines.” Getting to 90% or 99% is the easy part. Every additional nine of reliability takes roughly ten times more effort than the one before it. Nope! Each nine in precision is exponentially harder, not geometrically.

Waymo CEO explains why Tesla’s camera-only self-driving falls short

Waymo CEO explains why Tesla’s camera-only self-driving falls short

Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov explains why camera-only self-driving, the approach Tesla bets on, flattens out before it reaches full autonomy.

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

I sure hope the #aiCollapse heralds a new tech bubble due to all of the massive datacenters offering rock-bottom prices because they're desperate for tenants. Hopefully a new era for non-AI video rendering, too. (Don't worry about the carbon footprint, most AI DCs will go under)

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Energy storage is hard. It's also necessary to pair with many #renewable sources like solar, wind, and tidal, which do not provide continuous power. There are a few ways to do it, such as salt pits to store heat and pumping water uphill for hydroelectric power on demand. Now there's one more: lifting concrete slabs and then lowering them to spin turbines: https://boingboing.net/2026/07/06/post-china-built-a-40-story-tower-that-stores-wind-powe.html

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Adam Katz @adamhotep@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Replying to

@lberrymage@infosec.exchange you can also do menus with hidden checkboxes. The CSS looks something like input[type="checkbox"], input[type="checkbox"]:not([checked="checked"] + div.menu { display:none } Use to target that hidden checkbox. (This is from memory)

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