27 INSANE Dev Hacks You’ve Never Seen—Until Now!

Ready to have your mind blown? From sneaky CPU stunts to vintage cartridge wizardry, these 27 under-the-hood feats will make your inner hacker drool. Get out your rubber ducky and let’s dive in! 1. Hijack with Eval: When Your JS Becomes a Landmine const payload = "alert('Gotcha!')"; window.eval(payload); Never let untrusted data reach eval()—it’s like handing the user the keys to your vault. 2. Smuggle Code via Format Strings char buf[64]; snprintf(buf, sizeof buf, user_input); A rogue %n in that input? Boom—that’s a classic format string attack. Keep your printf parameters lean. 3. Cache Timing Spies volatile char addr = &secret_data[index 4096]; addr; Measure access times to leak bits—welcome to cache timing attacks. 4. Fuzz Testing Frenzy afl-fuzz -i inputs/ -o crashes/ -- ./vulnerable_binary @@ Automate your bug hunts with fuzzing. Garbage in, treasure out. 5. Silent Coroutines in Python async def whisper(msg): await asyncio.sleep(1) print(msg) asyncio.run(whisper("Top secret")) Use coroutines to juggle tasks without threads—and dodge deadlocks. 6. Bruteforce with GPUs hashcat -m 0 -a 3 hashes.txt ?a?a?a?a?a?a When CPU’s too slow, let your graphics card run a brute-force attack. 7. XSS Cocktail Hour fetch('/steal?c='+document.cookie) Never trust user HTML—that’s the gateway for cross-site scripting. 8. Bank-Switching on Microcontrollers PORTB = 0x02; // select bank 2 memcpy(ptr, data, 256); Like NES games, tiny IoT boards still use bank-switching to punch past 64 KB limits. 9. Deadlock Bingo synchronized(a) { synchronized(b) { / … / } } synchronized(b) { synchronized(a) { / … / } } Lock resource A then B… or B then A. Congrats, you’ve created a deadlock! 10. Fault Injection for Fun echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/fsi0 Flip bits at random and watch your kernel tremble—that’s fault injection. 11. Sniffing Secrets with Branch Prediction if(index { doB(() => { doC(() => {}); }); }); Messy nesting or nefarious loader? Callbacks can hide shady logic. 20. Buffer Overflow Redux char buf[16]; gets(buf); Still the king of C exploits—never use gets() without a muzzle. Read about buffer overflows. 21. Dictionary Crack Parties john --wordlist=rockyou.txt hashes.txt Fancy brute force? Nah—dictionary attacks are faster when users pick “password”. 22. Direct Threading Exploits Interpreter builders love direct threading for speed, but jump tables can be hijacked. 23. Decompile & Profit ghidra Load that binary, follow the breadcrumbs—decompilation reveals the skeleton. 24. Cache Hierarchy Shuffles for(size_t i=0; i 0); } Macro-ized unrolling at its weirdest—meet Duff’s device. 27. Dynamic Dispatch Detours Base obj = new Derived(); obj->virtualMethod(); V-tables rule OOP—but can be patched in memory. Explore dynamic dispatch. Your Turn to Break Stuff

May 9, 2025 - 15:35

27 INSANE Dev Hacks You’ve Never Seen—Until Now!

Ready to have your mind blown? From sneaky CPU stunts to vintage cartridge wizardry, these 27 under-the-hood feats will make your inner hacker drool. Get out your rubber ducky and let’s dive in!

1. Hijack with Eval: When Your JS Becomes a Landmine

const payload = "alert('Gotcha!')";
window.eval(payload);

Never let untrusted data reach eval()—it’s like handing the user the keys to your vault.

2. Smuggle Code via Format Strings

char buf[64];
snprintf(buf, sizeof buf, user_input);

A rogue %n in that input? Boom—that’s a classic format string attack. Keep your printf parameters lean.

3. Cache Timing Spies

volatile char *addr = &secret_data[index * 4096];
*addr;

Measure access times to leak bits—welcome to cache timing attacks.

4. Fuzz Testing Frenzy

afl-fuzz -i inputs/ -o crashes/ -- ./vulnerable_binary @@

Automate your bug hunts with fuzzing. Garbage in, treasure out.

5. Silent Coroutines in Python

async def whisper(msg):
    await asyncio.sleep(1)
    print(msg)

asyncio.run(whisper("Top secret"))

Use coroutines to juggle tasks without threads—and dodge deadlocks.

6. Bruteforce with GPUs

hashcat -m 0 -a 3 hashes.txt ?a?a?a?a?a?a

When CPU’s too slow, let your graphics card run a brute-force attack.

7. XSS Cocktail Hour

Never trust user HTML—that’s the gateway for cross-site scripting.

8. Bank-Switching on Microcontrollers

PORTB = 0x02;  // select bank 2
memcpy(ptr, data, 256);

Like NES games, tiny IoT boards still use bank-switching to punch past 64 KB limits.

9. Deadlock Bingo

synchronized(a) { 
  synchronized(b) { /* … */ } 
}
synchronized(b) { 
  synchronized(a) { /* … */ } 
}

Lock resource A then B… or B then A. Congrats, you’ve created a deadlock!

10. Fault Injection for Fun

echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/fsi0

Flip bits at random and watch your kernel tremble—that’s fault injection.

11. Sniffing Secrets with Branch Prediction

if(index < size) victim_buffer[index * 4096];

Mistrain the predictor and side-channel out data—hello, Spectre and branch prediction.

12. Dead Code Timebombs

if(false) {
  system("/dangerous");
}

Unused paths may hide dead code ripe for re-activation.

13. Disassemble Me This

objdump -d vulnerable_bin

Peek at raw opcodes with disassembler magic.

14. Dirty Backdoors in Firmware

if(flag == 0xdeadbeef) open_uart_console();

Hidden admin backchannels? That’s the essence of a backdoor.

15. Code-Golfed Malware

main(){*(int*)0=0;}

Obfuscate and shrink—welcome to code golf meets nastiness.

16. In-Memory Code Injection

void *mem = mmap(0, len, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_PRIVATE, -1, 0);
memcpy(mem, shellcode, len);
((void(*)())mem)();

Map, copy, execute—classic code injection.

17. Crypto PRNG Fails

import random
random.seed(1234)
token = random.getrandbits(128)

User-visible seeds break CSPRNG.

18. Hardware RNG Hijinks

Cosmic rays? Electronic noise? Your hardware’s supposed to be random—but is it? Check out hardware RNGs for the nitty-gritty.

19. Callback Hell Gateways

doA(() => { doB(() => { doC(() => {}); }); });

Messy nesting or nefarious loader? Callbacks can hide shady logic.

20. Buffer Overflow Redux

char buf[16];
gets(buf);

Still the king of C exploits—never use gets() without a muzzle. Read about buffer overflows.

21. Dictionary Crack Parties

john --wordlist=rockyou.txt hashes.txt

Fancy brute force? Nah—dictionary attacks are faster when users pick “password”.

22. Direct Threading Exploits

Interpreter builders love direct threading for speed, but jump tables can be hijacked.

23. Decompile & Profit

ghidra

Load that binary, follow the breadcrumbs—decompilation reveals the skeleton.

24. Cache Hierarchy Shuffles

for(size_t i=0; i<big; i+=stride) dummy += arr[i];

Tune stride to map L1, L2, L3—learn your cache (computing) topology.

25. Computer Viruses 2.0

From classic boot-sector worms to modern polymorphic nasties—study the computer virus lifecycle before you unleash one (for research, of course).

26. Duff’s Device Loop Sorcery

register int n = (count + 7) / 8;
switch(count % 8) {
  case 0: do { *to = *from++;
  case 7:     *to = *from++;
  // …
  } while(--n > 0);
}

Macro-ized unrolling at its weirdest—meet Duff’s device.

27. Dynamic Dispatch Detours

Base* obj = new Derived();
obj->virtualMethod();

V-tables rule OOP—but can be patched in memory. Explore dynamic dispatch.