Security research · weird software · birds

Hand me the thing that won't work.

I'm a hacker in the boring, useful sense: I take a problem nobody wants to touch and come back with something that runs. Wedding platforms, link shorteners with an attitude, access control for buildings — same instinct, different Tuesday.

$ currently solving a door that unlocks for the wrong people
Look at the receipts Telegram

What I actually do

— no framework evangelism, sorry

Fix the unfixable

The thing three people already gave up on. I like those. Usually the bug is two layers below where everyone was looking.

Poke holes, then patch them

Security research habits applied to my own work first. If I can get in through the side door, so can someone less polite.

Ship whole systems

Front end, back end, the database nobody wants to own, the deploy, the boring emails it sends at 4am. End to end or it isn't done.

Make hardware behave

Computer engineering by training. Door controllers, smartcards, software radios, boards that only speak in undocumented bytes — we get along fine.

Usually reaching for C, malloc-free Embedded firmware SDR / RF Javacard & smartcards BLE TypeScript React Node Postgres Linux Swift and whatever the problem demands

Things I built

— live, in use, occasionally by strangers

On the bench

— half-finished on purpose
C · Ethereum simple-rlp

A recursive-length-prefix serializer in C with no malloc anywhere. Runs on things that don't have a heap to spare.

SDR · RF HackRF + PortaPack firmware

Custom builds, Havoc files, and TempestSDR — pulling a monitor's picture out of the air, purely to prove it's possible.

Smartcards · BLE Secrets on a card

Javacard applets that hold keys and sign transactions, plus homemade AirTags on Apple's Find My network. Both more fun than they sound.


Got something broken, strange, or not built yet?

I'm not looking for a job. I'm looking for interesting problems — mine, yours, ideally weird ones.

Telegram — fastest github.com/akcotes
Archer Cotes · Caw Kenvahls Ltd. · Austin, TX Built by hand, obviously