Your current projects....

Since programming is probably my favorite computer topic, and the fact this section really lacks (judging on what i have seen so forgive me if i have missed a lot since not joined that long) is any really conversational topics. So my question is what are you currently writing? Why? And what language.

I personally first opened an IDE up in 97 (vb6) and started messing around with connecting to MSN chat rooms. Such a shame closed now Had such fond memories so decided to take GUI parts from my favorite MSN chat client, and mix them with the MSN theme to start creating an IRC client. In the few months i have been working on my client i have learned a great deal. Firstly learning the IRC protocol is a 100% must. Connecting via a TCP client takes minutes of learning. Then what? if you do not know IRC then how do you expect to send commands? Get information? Authenticate? It is these little things new programmers forget that make writing a client so hard.

After studying the protocol(as much as one needs at a time) It has been nothing but easy programming. The best thing i have learn't when writing my client that it's 80% string building. Once you have the outputted response it's a simple case of splitting and rebuilding the string. The rest of an IRC clients features are nothing but face value and can only be limited to the programmers imagination and knowledge of said language. Nothing to do with IRC.

Any way enough rambling. here are a few screen pic's (the client is likely around 3% finished since the possibilities are limitless.)

Application: IRC Client VS Msn Chat
Why: Fond memories
Language: VB.NET




Spectate (IRC Mode +m) is on and -v users cannot speak

I'm currently working on a new version of my security tool ARIAD: http://blog.didierstevens.com/programs/ariad/

Now that I've obtained an SPC (code signing certificate) from a CA for which Microsoft issues a cross-certificate, I can sign kernel drivers.
Previously, my tool only worked on Windows XP 32-bit, but now I can get it to work on Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit).

The fun thing for me is that I learn to develop kernel software.
The documentation and tutorials you'll find online are often confusing, because Microsoft has changed its driver model several times, and most examples don't explicitly state which driver model they use. That's why I started to read a book describing the latest drive model: Developing Drivers with the Windows Driver Foundation.

Although it's a very good book, it's also not exactly what I need, because it assumes you are developing a driver for a device. I develop drivers without device.

Hello

I got several projects in the same time.

- First, my tool RogueKiller
Written in C++ for the .exe part, and C for the embedded driver.
Unfortunately for me, my driver won't work on x64 due to the signing restricition and patchguard (my driver is able to read and restore the SSDT and Shadow SSDT).
This will not evoluate cause in theory, SSDT patch is not possible in x64

- Next, I got LogAnalyZer , which is a tool to scan HJT / OTL / ZHPDiag logs and help a helper to quickly find out the problems. Written in C# .NET

- Then, PiczDown, which is a tool able to copy / move pictures from an external device to a backup folder and automaticaly rotate the pictures in the good view (with compatible camera). Written with C# .NET

- Then, ProtectMyToolZ, written in C, contains an embedded driver. Tool making hooks in SSDT, and disallowing the termination on process you decided.
Indeed, some malwares have pooling thread checking / terminating process not allowed for them. With this tool, you can protect them and analyse the malware with your favorite tools
In "feature tab", you can use a shortcut A+Z to engage / disengage the ability to move any window. Useful for screenlockers study.

Demo:
Youtube1
Youtube2

- TaskSTRun (written in C# .NET) is a task manager showing the registry entries associated with processes, allowing to delete them

- ForceHide (written in C# .NET) , simple tool to change file attributes by drag N drop

Some really impressive stuff. The net has not been very helpful when coming to learning about kernal software. As stated it's very confusing due to a lot of changes. Where would you guys suggest starting?

I have grown fond of this scripting/windows automation package, AutoIt. A couple of my interesting/useful (to me, which is all that really matters, to me) and ongoing projects are:
X-LoremIpsum, which is basically just an alarm clock used with Winamp. Some of the features include a snooze timer, and a wakeup volume fade in (time and max volume).
B2FSLC, which takes info from my browser, and puts it into this program, Forum Spam List Checker.

Some really impressive stuff. The net has not been very helpful when coming to learning about kernal software. As stated it's very confusing due to a lot of changes. Where would you guys suggest starting?

I suggest to begin on kernelmode.info, there are lot of very impressive people doing it everyday.
They provide good advices, and there are lots of useful threads for every level of programming

This makes me want to get back to programming.
I've got a few things I've been trying to make for a while, but all of them are stuck at some stage or the other. I'm working on in turn a canned speech database, a LAN instant messenger, and a monoalphabetic decryption program. None of which is proving terribly successful.

I've been working on an IRC bot. The IRC client part, as you said, is pretty straightforward once you grasp the IRC protocol itself. The hard part is making the bot client extensible through a scripting language. A prototype is already up and running in my IRC channel. It entertains us by telling jokes, looking things up on Wikipedia, and insulting users on command

The hard part is making the bot client extensible through a scripting language.

Are ypu doing this with LUA, Andrew?

No, with a dialect of BASIC.

I've been working on an IRC bot. The IRC client part, as you said, is pretty straightforward once you grasp the IRC protocol itself. The hard part is making the bot client extensible through a scripting language. A prototype is already up and running in my IRC channel. It entertains us by telling jokes, looking things up on Wikipedia, and insulting users on command

I've done something near. Didn't spoke about it cause it remains private.
This is a Jabber bot (server side), connected to a jabber server and waiting for instructions.

I connect myself on the same jabber server (with another account) with a regular client (Pidgin, ...) , and begin to speak with my jabber bot.
With specific instructions, I can send some command and grab informations / files through the jabber protocol
Interesting when not at home, and need to keep access on my computer without using one of those full-of-holes heavy remote programs (teamviewer, windows RDC, ...)
This is my protocol, unfindable with bruteforce.

Tigzy thanks for that link. Looks very informative.

Andrew are you working on your own language for it? Or using similarity from other scripting languages. Would love to see some pictures.

The scripting language is a subset of the language I'm writing the bot in, extended with my own library of IRC bot-related functions. There are no pictures to be had since it's a command-line only application.Here's a pic of it's startup output:

If you like, you can interact with the latest version of the bot in my IRC channel. Type !about for a list of available scripts.

Here's one of the scripts that currently exist:

#Plugin=Insulter
#Trigger=!insult
#Author=Andrew
#Version=0.1
Dim rand As Integer
Dim output, insults(), theinput(), tmp As String
theInput = InputData
tmp = FileRead("insults.conf")
If tmp = "" Then
IRCSay("Insults file missing!")
Else
insults = Split(tmp, EOL)
If Ubound(insults) < 0 Then Return
theinput.Remove(0)
Print("DEBUG: " + theinput(0))
If Ubound(TheInput) > -1 Then
rand = RandNumber(0, Ubound(insults))
If TheInput(0) <> "" Then
output = Join(TheInput, " ") + " " + insults(rand)
Else
output = Nick + " " + insults(rand)
End If
Else
output = Nick + " " + insults(rand)
End If
IRCSay(output)
End If

good bot :D

My bot, BSBot, has been released. You can get it here: http://www.boredomsoft.org/bsbot.bs

Feedback is welcome.