Podcast
Security Cryptography Whatever
Hosted by Deirdre Connolly, Thomas Ptacek, David Adrian · EN
Some cryptography & security people talk about security, cryptography, and whatever else is happening.
12episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
AI Finds Vulns You Can't With Nicholas Carlini
Mar 2601:16:00Tap to summarizeReturning champion Nicholas Carlini comes back to talk about using Claude for vulnerability research, and the current vulnpocalypse. It's all very high-brow stuff, and the gang learns some bitter lessons.Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IDbFLu9Ug8Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2026/03/25/ai-bug-finding/Links:- https://red.anthropic.com/2026/zero-days/- https://unpromptedcon.org/- Black-hat LLMs - https://red.anthropic.com/2026/firefox/"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →Standardizing Pure PQC
Mar 1000:08:14Tap to summarizeStandardizing cryptography involves a lot of opinions. Luckily, the gamer presidents are on it. Come on, you all know the drill.This is the last time I do this."Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →Python Cryptography Breaks Up with OpenSSL with Paul Kehrer and Alex Gaynor
Feb 201:12:38Tap to summarizeThe Python cryptography module, pyca/cryptography, has mostly been a sane wrapper around a pile of C, so that users get performant cryptography on the many, many platforms Python targets. Therefore its maintainers, Alex Gaynor and Paul Kehrer, have become intimately familiar with OpenSSL. Recently, they declared that after many years of trying to make it work, they announced pyca/cryptography would be moving away from OpenSSL when supporting new functionality and exploring adding other backends instead. We invited them on to tell us about what has happened to OpenSSL, even after the investments and improvements following Heartbleed. No guests on this pod represent anyone besides themselves.Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEKBHI3rodYTranscript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2026/02/01/python-cryptography-breaks-up-with-opensslLinks:- https://cryptography.io/en/latest/statements/state-of-openssl/- Py Cryptography: https://cryptography.io- https://archive.openssl-conference.org/2025/presentations/Alex_Gaynor_Paul_Kehrer_The_Python_Cryptographic_Authoritys_OpenSSL_Experience.pdf- https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/08/16/alex-gaynor/- https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/media-libs/libsdl- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUIguklWwx0- https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc9180/- https://docs.openssl.org/3.3/man3/OSSL_PARAM/- https://openssl.foundation/- https://github.com/openssl/openssl/issues/17064- https://www.feistyduck.com/newsletter/issue_132_openssl_performance_still_under_scrutiny- https://github.com/topazproject/topaz- https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/1069- https://crystalhotsauce.com/- https://openssl-library.org/news/vulnerabilities/#CVE-2025-15467- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus- https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/+/aa202db1d7091b88b80f0a58c630c5c1aefc817d- https://www.ibm.com/products/open-sdk-for-rust-aix- https://dadrian.io/blog/posts/corporate-support-xz/- https://peps.python.org/- https://cryptography.io/en/latest/hazmat/primitives/asymmetric/ed448/- https://go.dev/blog/fips140- https://dadrian.io/blog/posts/roll-your-own-crypto/"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →The IACR Can't Decrypt with Matt Bernhard
Dec 3100:56:49Tap to summarizeThe International Association of Cryptologic Research held their regular election using secure voting software called Helios…and lost the keys to decrypt the results, leaving them with no choice but to throw out the vote and call a new election. Hilarity ensues. We welcome special guest Matt Bernhard who actually works on secure voting systems to explain which bits are homomorphically additive or not.Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euw_yqAQFI8Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/12/30/iacr-heliosLinks:- NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/world/cryptography-group-lost-election-results.html- IACR Memo: https://www.iacr.org/news/item/27138- https://www.iacr.org/elections/- https://vote.heliosvoting.org/faq- https://github.com/Election-Tech-Initiative/electionguard- https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/sec08/tech/full_papers/adida/adida.pdf- https://www.iacr.org/elections/eVoting/about-helios.html- https://www.iacr.org/elections/eVoting/- https://crypto.ethz.ch/publications/files/CrGeSc97b.pdf- https://electionguard.vote/- https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1901- https://freeandfair.us/blog/open-free-election-technology/- https://www.starvoting.org/- https://mbernhard.com/"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →Apple’s Memory Integrity Enforcement
Oct 3100:56:45Tap to summarizeApple announced its new suite of memory security improvements from the top of the stack all the way to the bottom, so we dug through what they did and how they did it (performantly). Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJwOI2PliUTranscript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/10/31/apple-mieLinks:- https://security.apple.com/blog/memory-integrity-enforcement/- Secure Page Table Monitor and Trusted Execution Monitor: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/operating-system-integrity-sec8b776536b/1/web/1#secd022396fb- https://security.apple.com/blog/towards-the-next-generation-of-xnu-memory-safety/- https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/adopting-type-aware-memory-allocation- https://security.apple.com/blog/what-if-we-had-sockpuppet-in-ios16/- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.09272- https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2023/11/first-handset-with-mte-on-market.html- https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/adopting-type-aware-memory-allocation- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.09272- https://spectreattack.com/spectre.pdf"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →Stop Using Encrypted Email with William Woodruff
Aug 2301:11:07Tap to summarizeThere was a bug in an OpenPGP library which finally gave us an excuse to tear encrypted email via PGP to shreds. Our special guest William Woodruff joined us to help explain the vuln and indulge our gnashing of teeth on why email was never meant to be encrypted and how other modern tools do the job much, much better.Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL3LfIozJoTranscript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/08/22/stop-using-encrypted-email-with-william-woodruffLinks:- William Woodruff: https://yossarian.net/- https://www.latacora.com/blog/2020/02/19/stop-using-encrypted/- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4880- https://codeanlabs.com/blog/research/cve-2025-47934-spoofing-openpgp-js-signatures/- https://www.mailpile.is/blog/2014-10-07_Some_Thoughts_on_GnuPG.html- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9580.html- https://www.tumblr.com/accidentallyquadratic- https://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/- https://support.yubico.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013790259-Using-Your-YubiKey-with-OpenPGP- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9580.html#name-signature-packet-type-id-2- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9580.html#name-key-derivation-function- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/MIME- https://delta.chat- https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/- https://phakeobj.netlify.app/posts/gigacage/- https://x.com/dakami-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----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-----END PGP MESSAGE-----"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →Alex Gaynor
Aug 1601:25:21Tap to summarizeWe chat with friend of the pod and special guest Alex Gaynor, former deputy chief technologist at the FTC and all around good Security Person™. Join for nerdery about WebAuthn, stay for accidentally melting down GitHub APIs around November 2020! Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBoGvyvsSi4Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/08/16/alex-gaynorLinks:- https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/no-take-only-throw- https://alexgaynor.net/2025/jan/13/challenges-funding-open-source/- https://alexgaynor.net/2025/apr/08/putting-a-price-tag-on-open-source/- https://dadrian.io/blog/posts/corporate-support-xz/- https://alex.github.io/nyt-2020-election-scraper/battleground-state-changes.html- https://github.com/alex/nyt-2020-election-scraper"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →Vegas, Baby!
Jul 2901:00:56Tap to summarizeWe’re throwing a party in Vegas! Someone called it SCWPodCon last year, and the name stuck. It’s sponsored by Teleport, the infrastructure identity company. Get SSO for SSH! If Thomas was here, I’m sure he’d tell you that Fly.io uses Teleport internally. Oh also there's some thing called Black..pill? Black Pool? Something like that happening in Vegas, with crypto talks, so we chatted about them a bit, plus some other stuffSCWPodCon 2025: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/events/blackhatTranscript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/07/29/vegas-baby/Links:- Fault Injection attacks on PQCS signatures: https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#bypassing-pqc-signature-verification-with-fault-injection-dilithium-xmss-sphincs-46362- Another attack on TETRA: https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#2-cops-2-broadcasting-tetra-end-to-end-under-scrutiny-46143- Attacks on SCADA / ICS protocols (OPC UA): https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#no-vpn-needed-cryptographic-attacks-against-the-opc-ua-protocol-44760- Attacks on Nostr: https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#not-sealed-practical-attacks-on-nostr-a-decentralized-censorship-resistant-protocol-45726- https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostr- https://eurosp2025.ieee-security.org/program.html- https://cispa.de/en/research/publications/84648-attacking-and-fixing-the-android-protected-confirmation-protocol- https://hal.science/hal-05038009v2/file/main.pdf- 8-bit, abacus, and a dog: https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1237.pdf- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlsa9EBKDGI- https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-figure-out-how-to-prove-lies-20250709/- https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/118"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →E2EE Storage Done Right with Matilda Backendal Jonas Hofmann and Kien Tuong Truong
May 19, 202501:02:25Tap to summarizeIt seems like everyone that tries to deploy end-to-end encrypted cloudstorage seems to mess it up, often in new and creative ways. Our specialguests Matilda Backendal, Jonas Hofmann, and Kien Tuong Truong give us a tour through the breakage and discuss a new formal model of how to actually build a secure E2EE storage system.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sizLiK_byCwTranscript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/05/19/e2ee-storage/Links:- https://brokencloudstorage.info- https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/1616.pdf- https://www.sync.com- https://www.pcloud.com- https://icedrive.net- https://seafile.com- https://tresorit.com- https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/989.pdf"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
Transcribe →Picking Quantum Resistant Algorithms
Mar 24, 202500:14:56Tap to summarizeMigrating the US government to quantum-resistant cryptography is hard, luckily the gamer presidents are on it. This episode is extremely not safe for work, nor does it reflect the political opinions of, well, anybody."Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)
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