Security Testing Journal Entry | w/e Friday June 14, 2024 - "Big Gemini Energy" Ed.

Highlights for the week

HUGE NEWS! This week as I've been moving along through the interview process for a QA Specialist role at a Consultancy. Great pay, with seemingly cool people, working on an awesome product. No word on acceptance yet as I have to make 1 more interview. Overall, dare I say: Prayers answered!

Big gemini energy this week as the birthday/father's day falls on the same day. Enjoying both as I've decided to take the weekend off from the gym.

What We’re Grateful For

1. Grateful for a loving wife. We managed to get through these dark times without being at each other's throat. On the same page regarding finances.
2. Gratful for a wonderful mom who gave me a lot more $$ for my birthday than I was expecting.
3. Grateful for fatherhood, both being a dad and understanding what it takes to be a dad (we don't always get it right, but we try).

What We Loved

1. The promise of a new job is truly what I've been loving most this past week.
2. The Cybrary course has been really eye-opening. Learning something new every day.

What We Learned

1. Cybrary - Learned some invaluable lessons with LFI/RFI and File upload vulnerabilities that I hadn't known before.
2. Burp Suite - pivoting off of the Race conditions and onto GraphQL. That seems more relevant.
3. Automation - some light work with mobile; finally getting around to learning JAVA with Playwright; Security suite is coming along nicely.
4. "Husb..." - exciting chapter as we get to learn about the founder of the Order. The story ballooned.
5. Medium Blogging - I'm going to start ramping up the "Security 4 N0obs series" and catalog my journey better.

What We Longed For

1. Really truly hoping to hear something soon. I'm in the red with finances.

What We Loathed

1. Nothing this week. Rejection letters don't phase me any more.

Security Testing Journal Entry | w/e Friday June 7th, 2024 - "Tech Interview Fears Conquored" Ed.

Highlights for the week

So this week was the tech interview and boy-howdie! how I prepared. I got on the code path and just went at it daily. As much as I prepared, I was still nervous the night before. On the day of, I was a little anxious, more so because of how much it mattered and not for how I was going to do. Interviewers were pleasant and cool people.

How I think I did on the tech interview:

1. Overall: B+
2. Attitude: A
3. Aptitude: B

What I did right:

1. Overall, I was proud of myself for overcoming my fears and ineptitude and doing well with the coding exercises
2. I demonstrated understanding of some core concepts
3. I spoke at length of tech. arch., and testing principles
4. I was asked about security and did the best I could not to ramble

Where I should have done better:

1. I got asked to sketch out a web architecture and mapped out an e-commerce app. It could have been better
2. I have no bkgd in FinTech so that might be points against
3. I needed to have spent more time understanding the "why" of feature to code tests better (missed the copy that showed a formula that was part of the output
4. Page objects were not declared properly - I use POM and there were errors thrown with how I declared them in the test
5. I jumped right into the code without really understanding the scope of the feature .. but it worked to my advantage since the tech issues impacted time
6. I was asked about using Cucumber and expressed my opinion on it as "cumbersome" which might be a strike since its what is used for the backend

What We’re Grateful For

1. Grateful that I am healthy and capable
2. Grateful that I get to have a roof over my head, a full 'fridge, and a loving home
3. Grateful for a wonderful wife, son, and family
4. Grateful for the opportunity to make it to the tech interview of a potential great employer

What We Loved

1. Preparation for the tech interview. Did as well as I could

What We Learned

1. Cybrary - learned a few new techniques with Pen Testing for SQL Injection; On to LFI
2. Royal Security Pen Test - "paused" .. the priority was the job interview!
3. Automation w. Appium - coded a few tests for android
4. Automation w. Playwright/JS - several tests for different components to help practice for interview
5. "Husb ..." - new chapter leading up to a major conflict; 2 new 'sisters' and origins .. fun!
6. Burp Suite - Race Condition: paused! Shall resume this weekend, or next week
7. Been practicing hackerrank for fun .. and as a way of overcoming my incompetence {GET SOME!}

What We Longed For

1. As always, a good job, with good pay and benefits, working with cool people, doing cool things [Consultancy feels like the right move!]

What We Loathed

1. Anxiety and overlooking the obvious because of nerves

Security Testing Journal Entry | w/e Friday May 31, 2024 - "Prayers Answered (somewhat)" Ed.

Highlights for the week

Big time highlight of the week: Landed 3rd round for a consulting company in lower NYC. Finance industry, great pay, great people, doing something awesome! Let's not f** this up!

What We’re Grateful For

1. Grateful for a wonderful family .. as always.
2. Grateful to have the means to make it another month with the bills paid.
3. Grateful for Slack and network connections. This lead to a new job opportunity {all appendages crossed!}.

What We Loved

1. Mentee (France) has strong PM/BA experience; amazing culture regarding Indian marital customs.
2. Mentee (US) has reached A+ status; progressing with GRC.

What We Learned

1. Cybrary - SQL injection w/o using SQLMap - enumerating site with union select.
2. Playwright w. Python security framework is progressing nicely.
3. Playwright w. Javascript -- must practice.
4. Burp Suite - Race Conditions: paused.
5. "Husb ..." back on with another exciting chapter.

What We Longed For

1. As always ... a decent paycheck. 17 months of unemployment is no way to live life.

What We Loathed

1. Ghost jobs! Literally the worst thing ever is seeing a job you know you can do and not hear back from recruiters.

Security Testing Journal Entry | w/e Friday May 24, 2024 - "So Many Ideas, So Little Time" Ed.

Highlights for the week

Quick note this week to express the excitement and enthusiasm for work done. Going to keep it short & sweet, but there's alot to be rejoicing in.

What We’re Grateful For

1. Another week that I'm grateful for new connections on slack - potential job lead!
2. Grateful for another on-site opportunity - easy money!
3. Super-excited for the experience of mentorship - watching them shine is all the joy one could ask for!

What We Loved

1. Progress on the security framework - I mean, wow!

What We Learned

1. Appium Automation - got the iOS tests purring!
2. Security Automation - the clean up has started. Leveraging Allure for results ... looks amazing!
3. Cybrary WAPT - Finally finished the enumeration module for distinct protocols. I really need to get back to Metasploit and learn Hydra!
4. Burp Suite - Race Condition module. It's coming along, but finding it a bit tedious. Will grind through it.
5. "Husb ..." - baby step forward. Gotta wrap up this story soon. It ballooned in an amazing manner.

What We Longed For

1. I'll keep saying it .. a good job, with great people, doing cool sh**, for great pay and benefits

What We Loathed

1. It's been a positive week ... nothing really worth writing about

Security Testing Journal Entry | w/e Friday May 17, 2024 - "Dankful" Ed.

Highlights for the week

As it happens, this was a great week full of a bunch of small wins coupled together. Sure the job hunt continues, but there's a lot to be hopeful about.

What We’re Grateful For

1. Having friends in important places to provide meaningful feedback.
2. Having a mentor also providing great feedback.
3. Having a roof over my head, food in the 'fridge, and a bed to sleep on.
4. Grateful to have the energy to make it another weak UE.

What We Loved

1. As always: the small wins, the grind, and the persistence to push through the hardwork, even when it feels frustrating at times.
2. Looking forward to this week's onsite test.

What We Learned

1. Automation, pt. 1 - Appium with Pytest: It took a couple of days and several hours of research before finally putting together a comprehensive suite for testing android and ios apps on mobile. On to the testing! Blog in the works!!
2. Automation, pt.2 - Successfully migrating security tests to new repo. Now for the tedius decoupling from the target project to make it more portable.
3. Pen Testing - moving through my current project, but going through Cybrary lecture. Learned some really interesting things. More to come.

What We Longed For

1. A good job
2. More time! My writing has taken a back seat to ongoing projects and shifting priorities.

What We Loathed

1. Lack of response from jobs I've applied to. The grind is getting old!
2. Trolls on reddit! Getting downvoted for being right and contesting a crap statement is the worst thing about that forum.

Security Testing Journal Entry | w/e Friday May 10, 2024 - "Mother's Day" Ed.

Highlights for the week

Another cool on-site test engagement this weekend. Pretty excited about that. Security automation tests in python - the project is coming along nicely. Seeing my mentee accomplish another interview .. amazing!!

What We’re Grateful For

1. As I've stated before, always grateful for health, a roof, bed, family
2. Grateful that I get to wake up and tackle the day head-on
3. Grateful to be constantly learning

What We Loved

1. A new pen test engagement .. always fun. Grinding one day, one test at a time!

What We Learned

1. Cybrary - Pen Testing: Thought it was going to be a waste of time .. boy how wrong I was. Learned some fun things.
2. U-Test: Learned a little about API testing and more.
3. Automation: Azure {paused; trial expired}. Security + Python - working like a charm
4. Burp Suite: Fell behind on "Race Condition" tests. Need to finish next week.

What We Longed For

1. As always, need that good job

What We Loathed

1. Lack of response from recruiters. They reached out to me, I responded, then crickets!

Security Testing Journal Entry | w/e Friday May 3, 2024 - "May the 4th Be With You .. Always!" Ed.

Highlights for the week

Mildly uneventful week. Managed to complete another pen test, completed the refactor of API security tests, and kicked off a campaign to automate some manual pen tests. Overall, a pretty good week.

What We’re Grateful For

1. Happy that I got to add another pod/live stream to my menu, this one deals with Cybersecurity news!
2. Grateful for good health and well-being
3. Grateful to have a full refrigerator (despite the absence of income)
4. Grateful for another month with a roof over my head
5. Thankful that a recruiter reached out to me and forwarded my application (finger's crossed)

What We Loved

1. Mom's birthday - we're talking. She still has yet to acknowledge what she's done, but I'm not one to hold grudges.
2. May is great for "Star Wars Nerds" (5/4) and Cinco De Mayo! As well as Mother's Day!

What We Learned

1. Automation - Learned to refactor API tests using Clients and improved syntax
2. Automation - Learned to write automation tests for DOM-Based XSS and Stored XSS .. more to come
3. Security - completed OrangeHRM Pen Test. Really happy with how the report looks and the progress made. Next week - mobiles!
4. "Husb..." - another week gone and no writing done. Gotta fix that and finish this.

What We Longed For

1. Need a job

What We Loathed

1. The lack of a job