This week, Zac sits down with Faisal Tameesh. Faisal is a senior red team operator at NVIDIA and a "hacker of all trades" with experience in software development, pentesting, red teaming, social engineering, exploit development, and reverse engineering. Zac and Faisal discuss the technical details of the CrowdStrike incident, take a deep dive on the art of human deception and how the cybersecurity landscape evolves over time. Finally, they share several stories involving social engineering and other common issues we encounter on penetration tests.
Faisal's Website: https://primalcerebral.com/
Duality Github: https://github.com/AonCyberLabs/DUALITY
Episode Summary
In Episode 20 of War Stories, host Zac Davis sits down with Faisal Tameesh, a senior red team operator at NVIDIA and a self-described hacker of all trades, with experience in software development, penetration testing, red teaming, social engineering, and exploit development. They talk about how he got into hacking, his favorite tools for Windows exploit development, and a physical test with a lesson every tester should remember.
Faisal grew up in the Middle East and started programming at 11 after his dad handed him a programming book, then went on to robotics and software development. Writing software did not feel like his calling, though, because his dream was to be a hacker. Today his focus includes Windows exploit development, and his favorite tool for that work is WinDbg.
His war story is an early physical penetration test in a multi-tenant office building with no signage to show which company was where. After tailgating in and wandering for 30 to 45 minutes, the team found a room full of computers with no badge readers on the doors and started connecting their own hardware. Then Faisal looked at a lock screen and realized it belonged to a different company. They backed out immediately, one teammate got stuck inside for another 20 minutes, and the lesson stuck: double, triple, and quadruple check your target before you go in.
In This Episode
- Faisal Tameesh's path from programming at 11 to senior red team operator
- Windows exploit development and why WinDbg is his go-to debugger
- Red teaming, social engineering, and the art of deception
- Physical penetration testing in multi-tenant office buildings
- Why verifying scope and the correct target is critical on physical engagements
Testing Done Carefully, and Done Right
Good offensive testing depends on careful scoping and clear rules of engagement. SEVN-X runs red team engagements, physical security assessments, and penetration tests with authorization and scope locked down before anyone goes on site. Talk with our team about scoping a test for your organization.
