Xeno Kovah
@xenokovah.bsky.social
Interested in reverse engineering, firmware, bluetooth, trusted computing, and training. Founder of OpenSecurityTraining2 https://ost2.fyi
New life philosophy (x.com/xenokovah/st...) is helping me understand my general anti-CTF sentiment and why I feel like CTFs are a waste of peoples’ lives: “Solve *problems*, not puzzles”. If they’re the same, great. But I’ve seen lots of CTF *puzzles* which don’t teach problem solving.
November 5, 2025 at 10:32 PM
New life philosophy (x.com/xenokovah/st...) is helping me understand my general anti-CTF sentiment and why I feel like CTFs are a waste of peoples’ lives: “Solve *problems*, not puzzles”. If they’re the same, great. But I’ve seen lots of CTF *puzzles* which don’t teach problem solving.
@districtcon.bsky.social looks like it has a pretty great lineup of talks and speakers this year (districtcon.org). I’ll be there too, talking about my new Realtek Bluetooth chip RE work
October 28, 2025 at 10:36 AM
@districtcon.bsky.social looks like it has a pretty great lineup of talks and speakers this year (districtcon.org). I’ll be there too, talking about my new Realtek Bluetooth chip RE work
🧵For those who are curious about the completion time distribution during the beta of my #OST2 BT2222 class, here it is. The average completion time was 8h25m, the median was 8h10m, the min was 3h50m, and the max was 15h22m
October 20, 2025 at 10:41 AM
🧵For those who are curious about the completion time distribution during the beta of my #OST2 BT2222 class, here it is. The average completion time was 8h25m, the median was 8h10m, the min was 3h50m, and the max was 15h22m
And a new paid 3-day training with @veronicakovah.bsky.social where we take you from the bottom of the stack to the top, to build the next generation of Bluetooth Low Energy hackers! (hardwear.io/netherlands-...)
Anticipate many more BT hackers in a couple years, and prepare accordingly ;)
Anticipate many more BT hackers in a couple years, and prepare accordingly ;)
October 13, 2025 at 11:51 AM
And a new paid 3-day training with @veronicakovah.bsky.social where we take you from the bottom of the stack to the top, to build the next generation of Bluetooth Low Energy hackers! (hardwear.io/netherlands-...)
Anticipate many more BT hackers in a couple years, and prepare accordingly ;)
Anticipate many more BT hackers in a couple years, and prepare accordingly ;)
a free workshop (hardwear.io/netherlands-...) (where you get to borrow some of my hardware to get a taste of my free 1-day #OST2 class ost2.fyi/BT2222)…
October 13, 2025 at 11:51 AM
a free workshop (hardwear.io/netherlands-...) (where you get to borrow some of my hardware to get a taste of my free 1-day #OST2 class ost2.fyi/BT2222)…
🧵Alright! I pulled off the hat trick 🎩 at hardwear.io this November! I've got a talk on 100% new firmware reverse engineering research (hardwear.io/netherlands-... tagline:SUFFERING BUILDS STRENGTH!)…
October 13, 2025 at 11:51 AM
🧵Alright! I pulled off the hat trick 🎩 at hardwear.io this November! I've got a talk on 100% new firmware reverse engineering research (hardwear.io/netherlands-... tagline:SUFFERING BUILDS STRENGTH!)…
WiFi security researchers: I want to get a TX amp to let my BT research tools connect back to further-away advertisers. I’m considering www.digikey.com/en/products/... . Is there a better option that’s used in the WiFi space that I could be considering?(Needs to work with USB BT dongles)
October 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
WiFi security researchers: I want to get a TX amp to let my BT research tools connect back to further-away advertisers. I’m considering www.digikey.com/en/products/... . Is there a better option that’s used in the WiFi space that I could be considering?(Needs to work with USB BT dongles)
If elected to the role of Global Supreme Documentation Overlord Czar, I promise a chicken in every pot, and a README.md in every subfolder!
October 6, 2025 at 10:39 PM
If elected to the role of Global Supreme Documentation Overlord Czar, I promise a chicken in every pot, and a README.md in every subfolder!
The abuse of the term “ROM” continues unabated… I love how they even spell it out here and still don’t see the problem…
September 25, 2025 at 9:31 PM
The abuse of the term “ROM” continues unabated… I love how they even spell it out here and still don’t see the problem…
Random trivia: I hadn’t looked at the spec for this before, but apparently BT Classic masks the opposite side of the key relative to BT Low Energy when two parties negotiate a lower-strength encryption key ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
September 25, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Random trivia: I hadn’t looked at the spec for this before, but apparently BT Classic masks the opposite side of the key relative to BT Low Energy when two parties negotiate a lower-strength encryption key ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My new talk on reverse engineering the firmware of Realtek RTL8761B Bluetooth chips has been accepted to @hardwear-io.bsky.social in Amsterdam in November. Abstract in image due to size limits.
September 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM
My new talk on reverse engineering the firmware of Realtek RTL8761B Bluetooth chips has been accepted to @hardwear-io.bsky.social in Amsterdam in November. Abstract in image due to size limits.
I’ve uploaded a good chunk of my Blue2thprinting data collected in Sweden at SEC-T to BTIDALPOOL.
And in honor of the Meshtastic workshops, I also added some Meshtastic UUIDs to CLUES which takes one from image 1 -> 2/3 (if you pass —verbose-print)
And in honor of the Meshtastic workshops, I also added some Meshtastic UUIDs to CLUES which takes one from image 1 -> 2/3 (if you pass —verbose-print)
September 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
I’ve uploaded a good chunk of my Blue2thprinting data collected in Sweden at SEC-T to BTIDALPOOL.
And in honor of the Meshtastic workshops, I also added some Meshtastic UUIDs to CLUES which takes one from image 1 -> 2/3 (if you pass —verbose-print)
And in honor of the Meshtastic workshops, I also added some Meshtastic UUIDs to CLUES which takes one from image 1 -> 2/3 (if you pass —verbose-print)
The next edition of @VeronicaKovah & my BLE security class will be at Hardwear.io Nov 17-19 in Amsterdam. We cover attack & defense at every level of the protocol stack and end with your choice of packet crafting or vuln hunting labs
hardwear.io/netherlands-...
hardwear.io/netherlands-...
August 12, 2025 at 11:06 AM
The next edition of @VeronicaKovah & my BLE security class will be at Hardwear.io Nov 17-19 in Amsterdam. We cover attack & defense at every level of the protocol stack and end with your choice of packet crafting or vuln hunting labs
hardwear.io/netherlands-...
hardwear.io/netherlands-...
If you, like me, are curious about the thousands of BT devices that are secretly making noise around us every day (and whether they’re vulnerable to exploitation), then this is the class for you. You can register here: forms.gle/MncQkVAL8Laq...
August 2, 2025 at 1:46 PM
If you, like me, are curious about the thousands of BT devices that are secretly making noise around us every day (and whether they’re vulnerable to exploitation), then this is the class for you. You can register here: forms.gle/MncQkVAL8Laq...
Heading to Vegas cons this year? Aren’t you curious about the tens of thousands of BT devices you pass on your way from your home airport to the venue? Since I opened the class early you may still have time to grab some hw and skill up on BT reconnaissance forms.gle/iKt3fw3eEb5W...
July 29, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Heading to Vegas cons this year? Aren’t you curious about the tens of thousands of BT devices you pass on your way from your home airport to the venue? Since I opened the class early you may still have time to grab some hw and skill up on BT reconnaissance forms.gle/iKt3fw3eEb5W...
