stigward talks us through how he got started in his career and how he made the shift to hacking professionally. He also gives advice on becoming a vulnerability researcher. He discusses interesting research and projects he works on, his favorite vulnerability research setup & more. The episode is full of tips and tricks that you can directly apply and learn from. This will be a gold mine for anyone experienced or just getting started in their security or game hacking career.

Who is Stigward

Stigward, aka Jack Maginnes, is the owner of the infamous exploits.club, an exclusive newsletter for exploit developers, vulnerability researchers, and hackers. He is also a long-time content creator on GuidedHacking, famously known for his "Writing Exploits for IoT N-Days," "Bug Hunting in Video Games," and other game hacking tutorials. Jack has earned a degree in Computer Science and has extensive experience in vulnerability research; he is currently working as a senior vulnerability researcher at Interrupt Labs. During this episode of the GuidedHacking Show, we will learn about Stigward's life, how to become a vulnerability researcher, what the future holds, and everything in between.

What is the Guided Hacking Show

The Guided Hacking Show is a podcast focused on game hacking and reverse engineering, we will primarily be interviewing prominent members of the game hacking and reverse engineering community, getting to know them and finding out what makes them tick.

Early Tech Influences and Technical Background​⁠

Stigward ⁠found interest in the computer world during middle and high school. He enjoyed programming and creating small video games. Jack studied computer science and got his first professional job as a backend developer. Around his sophomore and junior years, Jack's interest shifted towards security, especially since he always had a love for it. After graduation, Jack took roles in the IoT security world, working with hardware, bare-metal firmware, and embedded Linux systems. The experience gained allowed for a smooth transition into the world of vulnerability research.
The creation of exploits.club and bugs.directory​
Jack's notable project is exploits.club which is an exclusive newsletter for exploit developers, vuln researchers, and hackers, every week a newsletter is sent out, that contains the latest resources, articles, blogposts, job postings, and anything in between. Following exploits.club, Jack launched bugs.directory, which is a searchable Obsidian vault. Its main function is to serve as a collection of vulnerability research, exploit development, and reverse engineering resources to help you get spun up on new projects quickly. Initially, the database contains resources from the exploits.club newsletter; that being said, the vault is ⁠open-source⁠ so feel free to contribute.

Educational Content Creation​

Jack created multiple educational pieces for GuidedHacking, which we discussed in the podcast. From hacking Android games with Frida, bug hunting in video games, writing exploits for IoT N-days, to macOS game hacking in Rust, Jack has made significant contributions that can be found on ⁠GuidedHacking's⁠ YouTube channel and ⁠forum⁠.

The Future of Game Hacking​

Jack believes that game hacking is very suitable for someone looking to pursue vulnerability research professionally. He also mentions that the game hacking industry is becoming more complex. Jack highlights and discusses the infamous "⁠Bytecode Breakdown: Unraveling Factorio's Lua Security Flaws⁠" write-up, which is full of sophisticated content that reflects the level of sophistication the game hacking world can get.

What Nobody Tells You About Becoming a Vulnerability Researcher

GuidedHacking is the best resource to learn reverse engineering, game hacking, malware analysis, exploit development and ethical hacking. We sell 11 courses, we have 440+ video tutorials, thousands of text tutorials, thousands of source codes & more.

We provide tutorials in text and video format teaching all forms of game modding including the basic programming in C++, Usage of applications such as Cheat Engine, IDA Pro, x64dbg etc..., Basic disassembly of portable executable files, General reverse engineering practices, Graphic APIs such as OpenGL and Direct3D and anything else you might need to learn.

Guided Hacking has been the #1 Source for Learning Game Hacking Since 2011, but we have recently moved into the information security space, adding malware analysis, ethical hacking, exploit development and much more to our catalog of content.

New tracks tagged #guided hacking