28c3: The Science of Insecurity

Why HN readers recommended it

HN commenters call it one of the best security talks and the standard introduction to LANGSEC, which they use to argue for simpler, well-specified input formats.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

28c3

Topic

language-theoretic security

Format

talk

Level

intermediate

HN recommenders in dataset

9

HN mentions in dataset

13

Recommendation years in dataset

2012–2024

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Meredith Patterson's astonishing CCC talk on computing and linguistics. It's a tour de force, presenting a systematic and practical proposal for how we can build an open and secure future for computing. I can't imagine a better example of the joys of inter-disciplinary thinking. [VIDEO]

• > 1. Simpler formats for file representation and data interchange. When someone tries to add an extra bitfield option, say no. When they keep trying, get a wooden stick with "no" written on it. Part of the disease of modern computing is bloated specs. > …

• Item [8] was mentioned in this talk: [VIDEO] by Meredith Patterson. She contends, and it seems sound to me, that the time has passed to be "tolerant when accepting," and that you should instead only accept regular grammars or, at worst, context-free grammars as input …