Hacker Blogs
Work in progress: 82,651 of 181,233 sites checked so far, more every week · updated 2 Nov 2026Missing a blog? Tell us

Top all-time · #944

F

Feross Aboukhadijeh

Personal blog · feross.org · on HN as ferosssecurityprogramming

Feross Aboukhadijeh writes Feross.org, a personal blog at feross.org about security and programming. Since 2010, 69 different Hacker News readers have linked it 109 times, most often “Recap of the `funding` experiment”. The last post was in 2020, but the archive is still widely read.

Visit the blog
109mentions?
7recommend?
69HN people?
2010–2026first – last linked?
Links on Hacker News per year · peak 14 in 2013

Sometimes recommended · 7 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?

Why HN links it

HN readers link Feross Aboukhadijeh's posts on web security demos, such as the fullscreen API phishing attack and the localStorage fill-disk exploit, plus open-source funding write-ups and gcc undefined-behaviour anecdotes.

Recommended for · 7 comments
Called a "favorite" blog; "thoughtful posts"; "worth reading" on funding recap; "check this"; fill-disk "retroactive prize"

Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.

Feross Aboukhadijeh is a computer security researcher, teacher, web developer, designer, long distance runner, gamer, music lover, and builder of websites that (sometimes) go viral.

The author on HN?

feross · 48,016 karma · member since 2009

Founder & CEO, Socket <https://socket.dev> – Socket makes a developer-first security platform that prevents vulnerable and malicious open source dependencies from infiltrating your software supply chain. Stanford visiting lecturer, CS 253 Web Security <https://cs253.stanford.edu> – Principles of web security, attacks and countermeasures, and more... Open source maintainer – 100+ open source packages on npm, including WebTorrent <https://webtorrent.io>, StandardJS <https://standardjs.com>, BitMi…

From their public HN profile, which links to this site.

Most-linked posts?

  1. Recap of the `funding` experiment
    7 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2019-08-29
  2. Using the HTML5 Fullscreen API for Phishing Attacks
    7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2012-10-09
  3. HTML5 localStorage allows sites to fill up users' hard disks
    5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2013-02-28
  4. GCC ownage
    5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2012-09-07
  5. GCC Easter Egg Game: C++ Undefined Defined Behavior
    5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-10-02
  6. How To Set Up Your Linode For Maximum Awesomeness
    4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2012-10-05
  7. Never Use Semicolons (JS)
    3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-04-06
  8. Libtorrent adds support for the WebTorrent protocol
    3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-07-08
  9. How to form a California LLC without a lawyer
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-09-15
  10. None of Us Knows What We're Doing
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-05-22

What Hacker News says?

  1. This is very similar to my "How To Set Up Your Linode For Maximum Awesomeness" guide: http://feross.org/how-to-setup-your-linode/

    Comment linking /how-to-setup-your-linode/

    on “My First 10 Minutes on a Server”
  2. Submitted HTML5 localStorage allows sites to fill up users' hard disks as a story · 440 points

    HN discussion
  3. Related: https://feross.org/html5-fullscreen-api-attack/

    Comment linking /html5-fullscreen-api-attack/

    on “The inception bar: a new phishing method”
  4. Submitted Libtorrent adds support for the WebTorrent protocol as a story · 270 points

    HN discussion
  5. vishnu_ks · 2021-05-27Recommends
    A couple of my favorite blogs - http://antirez.com/ - https://martin.kleppmann.com/archive.html - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing - https://ma.tt/ - https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/ - https://jvns.ca/ - https://www.johndcook.com/blog - http://feross.org/ - https://ridiculousfish.com/blog/ - https://blog.andrewcantino.com/ - https://nickcraver.com/blog/ - https://blog.acolyer.org - https://blog.coding…

    Comment linking /

    on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”
  6. Submitted Using the HTML5 Fullscreen API for Phishing Attacks as a story · 211 points

    HN discussion
  7. https://feross.org/npm-install-funding/

    Comment linking /npm-install-funding/

    on “The Nintendo Switch uses my open source code”
  8. Submitted How To Set Up Your Linode For Maximum Awesomeness as a story · 208 points

    HN discussion
  9. And Feross himself is a perfect example of one who is trying out different ways to be a full-time open source developer: https://feross.org/funding-experiment-recap/ Having companies and individuals supporting him: https://feross.org/thanks/ As well as offering actual support contracts: https://feross.org/support/

    Comment linking /support/

    on “The Nintendo Switch uses my open source code”
  10. Submitted None of Us Knows What We're Doing as a story · 164 points

    HN discussion
  11. The C standard is accomodating as always: https://feross.org/gcc-ownage/

    Comment linking /gcc-ownage/

    on “Crabtime: Zig’s Comptime in Rust”
  12. Submitted How to form a California LLC without a lawyer as a story · 156 points

    HN discussion
  13. You can do it with spoofmac - http://feross.org/spoofmac/ It should be easy to wrap some Applescript around it to make it automatic.

    Comment linking /spoofmac/

    on “iOS 8 randomises the MAC address while scanning for WiFi networks”
  14. Submitted 1% of CMS-Powered Sites Expose Their Database Passwords (2011) as a story · 134 points

    HN discussion
  15. http://feross.org/fill-disk/ He explains here that most browsers (except Firefox) don't follow the standard close enough, and ignore the exception for subdomains, i.e. 1.filldisk.com, 2.filldisk.com, etc.

    Comment linking /fill-disk/

    on “HTML5 localStorage allows sites to fill up users' hard disks”
  16. Submitted SpoofMAC - Spoof your MAC address in Mac OS X as a story · 126 points

    HN discussion
  17. The most I know about securing a Linux vps I picked up from this: http://feross.org/how-to-setup-your-linode/ . If there is an ultimate resource on how to start securing a *nix vps then please do let me know. If I knew what to search for I could but a lot of this is unknown unknowns to me.

    Comment linking /how-to-setup-your-linode/

    on “DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS”
  18. Submitted Recap of the `funding` experiment as a story · 108 points

    HN discussion
  19. This is highly unrelated, sorry, but does anyone know the zsh theme used in that post ( https://feross.org/images/funding-screenshot.png )? I didn't see anything like it in the list of zsh themes ( https://zshthem.es/all/ ). The colored arrows look very appealing if they're contextual, like if they denote the status of git files (deleted/edited/added).

    Comment linking /images/funding-screenshot.png

    on “NPM Bans Terminal Ads”
  20. Submitted How I Learned to Program Computers as a story · 27 points

    HN discussion
  21. ramzyo · 2019-08-30Recommends
    For more context, in case anyone is wondering what I was trying to communicate amidst the torrent of downvotes. Feross is a meaningful voice in open source. I've admired him for a long time, and still do. He's written some thoughtful posts in the past about FOSS specifically, hence the specificity of my comment (see his post from 2010 here: https://feross.org/stallman-stanford/ ). Reading his justification for the "…

    Comment linking /funding-experiment-recap/

    on “NPM Bans Terminal Ads”
  22. Submitted GCC Undefined Behavior as a story · 19 points

    HN discussion
  23. huntaub · 2019-08-30Recommends
    The rationale from the author of the package who adding advertising is enlightening and definitely worth reading. https://feross.org/funding-experiment-recap/

    Comment linking /funding-experiment-recap/

    on “NPM Bans Terminal Ads”
  24. Submitted Spy on the Webcams of Your Website Visitors as a story · 18 points

    HN discussion
  25. Sustainability is another way to say subsistence. The dirty secret of open source is that much of it is powered by maintainer guilt. If you’re looking to make money, I don’t recommend you get into open source. I wish this weren’t the case, but this is the current situation. Unfortunately, it seems the best path if you want to do open source as a career is to do enough open source to get your name out there and then…

    Comment linking /funding-experiment-recap/

    on “Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself”
  26. Submitted 1% of CMS Websites Have Exposed Database Passwords as a story · 15 points

    HN discussion
  27. This is one of the reasons why I always join a Zoom call from my phone, by calling their international numbers [1]. Recruiters sometimes ask me to turn my video on during interviews… I politely decline and move on to other opportunities. Their app is so privacy invasive, I cannot understand why people keep using it, specially considering 2018 vulnerability [2]. Feross Aboukhadijeh talks about Zoom security problems…

    Comment linking /

    on “Zoom monitors activity on your computer”
  28. Submitted Linode VPS Review as a story · 13 points

    HN discussion
  29. Found it: >When GCC identified “bad” C++ code, it tried to start NetHack, Rogue, or Towers of Hanoi. Failing all three, it would just print out a nice, cryptic error message. https://feross.org/gcc-ownage/

    Comment linking /gcc-ownage/

    on “Should you learn C to “learn how the computer works”?”
  30. Submitted Old GCC easter egg (aka implementation-defined behavior) as a story · 11 points

    HN discussion

Search all of HN for feross.org

Linked by the same people?