Blog

Longer notes on security work, learning, and practical writeups outside the CTF archive.

Climbing Stairs from Two Angles

LeetCode's Climbing Stairs problem looks like a simple dynamic-programming challenge, but a closer look connects Fibonacci numbers, binomial coefficients, and Pascal's triangle.

2026-07-05 12 min read

Teaching AI to hack Joomla so I can skip my homework

How a manual SQLi hunt turned into an AI-assisted Joomla audit, two assigned CVEs, and a surprisingly valid way to pass a university lab.

2026-06-13 15 min read

Funny Java Strings?

Java Strings are immutable, interned, optimized, and surprisingly easy to misunderstand when secrets are involved. This post digs into String pooling, reflection, Base64 copies, library APIs, and why ...

2026-05-27 9 min read

HTB CPTS

My experience completing the Hack The Box Certified Penetration Testing Specialist (HTB CPTS) certification. I share the journey, rough timeline, exam tips, and tools that helped me succeed.

2026-03-23 8 min read