I have been looking for this footage for quite some time and I have been lucky enough to come across it again. Enjoy it! It is quite amusing I must say.

The reason I like this video so much is because it associates the hacker practice to the practice of the mentalists and the magicians. I do this association myself. Hacking is indeed like magic. Once you are shown the trick you are no longer impressed. But be aware, there are some genuine posers among the hacker circles just like there are some in the magic ones.

Over the past 20 years, overflow exploits have been the ultimate tool to compromise remote and local systems. We have studied them to an extend that allows us to find patterns in their structure and the structure of the software that is affected by them. This research has contributed for the creation of sophisticated platforms designed to discover vulnerabilities on their own and make the exploit writing process a child play. It still requires a lot of knowledge and skills but the tricks and techniques have lost their magic touch over the years.

On the other hand, Cross-site Scripting (XSS), Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF) and Client Side security is a largely misunderstood topic by the security industry. Many times, I find it very hard to translate the fundamental principles of the hacking practice to those who are less aware. Cross-site scripting is just a technique that people can easily learn and play with it but when it comes to using it in some real attacks; I can feel the general lack of understanding even among some well known Cross-site scripters. We have the same magical affect going on here. To some you may seam like a God but you know that in your circles you are known for selling cheap tricks.