iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I’m out here risking getting my toes chopped off just so you can have cheesy demo videos! It’s called commitment to a bit, look it up!

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

My talk “When life gives you Bluetooth bugs, make a murderbot! A deeply unserious meditation on stunt-hacking in the AI era...” has been accepted to AVTOKYO www.avtokyo.com in November! Xeno brings the 🧀!

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Nudge nudge, wink wink, knowhatamean, knowhatamean?

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

We've also updated the certificates to match the accomplishment coloring. We hope students will finish classes ASAP after they start them going forward!

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Another nudge which we've added to the site is the different tiers of course completion accomplishments. If you complete a class within 2 weeks of starting it you'll get Gold (12.5k points), 4 weeks Silver (6250), 12 weeks Bronze (3125), and > 12 weeks Plain (1250).

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Having listened to Freakonomics' podcast for a long time, I started to appreciate the effect of small nudges and incentives on user behavior. I'm looking forward to seeing how this and similar carrots & sticks in the new gamified world affect student course completion rates.

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

As part of the gamification we're rolling out a few "Ignominious" badges to nudge users' behavior in the right direction. 🧵

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

We scraped our git history to grant the Subtitle Superhero to all the awesome people who've submitted subtitle fixes over the years. If we missed you though, let us know!

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

As a thank you and more public recognition, we've granted this donor badge to the folks who donated in our recent campaign. But if you donated through work or YouTube we can't correlate to your account, so please let us know at donor at ost2.fyi and we'll get that added! p.ost2.fyi/gamma_dashbo...

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This is “Li’l Stranger”, the new mascot for @opensectraining.bsky.social - “I’m Xeno and I approve of this message!”

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Also now's the time to fill in your profile information so you can show up how you want on the leaderboards! (Putting in your country will then have you show up on the per-country leaderboard.)

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The first cut of the new gamified OST2 is available at p.ost2.fyi. Start poking around and let us know what's broken!

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I have coined a new derogatory term for people who act like they’re taking a big swing but lack the follow-through for it to actually be impactful: “bunters”

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We have posted the YouTube playlist for "Architecture 1901: From Zero to QEMU" by Antonio Nappa @jeppojeps.bsky.social of Fuzz Society. URLs for offline download can be found here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... But as always the best experience is at the full class at ost2.fyi/Arch1901.

youtube.com

Architecture 1901: From Zero To QEMU - YouTube

View the full free class with labs etc at https://ost2.fyi/Arch1901 ! This class by Antonio Nappa of Fuzz Society (https://fuzzsociety.org/) builds up your k...

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Immense thanks to everyone who stepped forward to support #OST2! ❤️ Your generous donations help show that you value providing free high-quality educational material to the world.

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

We have posted the YouTube playlist for Trusted Computing 1103: Advanced TPM Usage by Dimi Tomov in partnership with the TCG. Now anyone wishing to download the videos for offline viewing can find all their URLs here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... But for the full class see ost2.fyi/TC1103

youtube.com

Trusted Computing 1103: Advanced TPM Usage - YouTube

View the full free class at https://ost2.fyi/TC1103 ! This is the epic conclusion to the 3-class TPM series (begun in https://ost2.fyi/TC1101 (~8h) and conti...

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

🧵📈🆙 Low Level PC/Server Attack & Defense Timeline update! I updated it in July (1st edition using AI help ;)) and forgot to upload/mention it 👇

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

We got too busy to hold any public trainings in 2026, but we're locked in and looking forward to this coming March!

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

People of a certain age remember when people actually got arrested at DEF CON for distributing software. Specifically Dmitry Sklyarov, and specifically that software on the wall ;) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_....

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Arbitrary achievement unlocked! "Filling 2 pinboards with badges!"😄 Achieved after this year's @defcon.bsky.social, but I'm hoping that in the future I can also track this achievement via the accomplishments gamification mechanism at #OST2 with all these conferences sponsoring it!🤞🤝😊

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Also as a reminder, if you're in the US and your company supports donation matching to nonprofits, you can double your donation by using your corporate donation portal! 🤩 Just look for “OpenSecurityTraining Inc.” (our formal registered nonprofit name)

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Thanks to all the donors who put us over $1500 in donations so far for our first ever fundraiser! But we know there are thousands of other students & well-wishers waiting in the wings. If our true fans donated just $5 today we'd quickly double that total! www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-...

every.org

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Donations don't need to be large! Many hands make light work and we'd love to see how many people support what we do!🙏 And if you've got an idea for an OST2 class, reach out at teach🌀ost2.fyi! We've got many instructors who are working on classes, and we'd love to add your class to the queue too!

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

🎮Our gamification fundraiser ends next week but we need your support today!🕹️ www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-... In this penultimate video @xenokovah.bsky.social talks about how the gamification will allow us to recognize the ultimate volunteers, the instructors!

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The best defense is understanding the offense. Learn to spot and prevent the C/C++ implementation bugs that attackers love to exploit. Secure Development 1001 by @xenokovah.bsky.social at ost2.fyi/SecDev1001

ost2.fyi

Secure Development 1001: C-Family Implementation Vulnerabilities 1

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I’ve been looking for a way to recognize #OST2 volunteers more publicly, and this will allow them to stand head and shoulders above other OST2 students and claim their rightful place of honor! Only the instructors and potentially hardcore class-completionists will shine brighter!

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

🎮Our gamification fundraiser ends soon and we need your support!🕹️ www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-... Here @xenokovah.bsky.social talks about how the gamification will allow us to recognize the volunteers who make classes better through beta testing, subtitle correction, graphics contributions, etc!

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Traditionally Open edX didn't do much with student profiles, but now we can make them a useful hub to show off your accomplishments on and off the site.  But to make this happen we need everyone who likes OST2 to show their support at www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-... 🙏

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

🎮In the 6th video in our fundraiser, @XenoKovah talks about how student profiles would become much more useful with gamification!🕹️  🧵

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Build the ultimate Windows kernel debugging setup! Automated VMs, ret-sync with IDA/Ghidra, and source-level kernel debugging. Your exploit lab for Cedric Halbronn's classes awaits! Debuggers 3011: Advanced WinDbg ost2.fyi/Dbg3011

ost2.fyi

Debuggers 3011: Advanced WinDbg

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Want to write kernel exploits or analyze malware? You need to understand Windows internals first. Syscalls, IRQL, pools, mitigations & more. Architecture 2821: Windows Kernel Internals 2 by Cedric Halbronn ost2.fyi/Arch2821

ost2.fyi

Architecture 2821: Windows Kernel Internals 2

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I think inter/intra-country leaderboards will drive some fun inter/intra-country competition. E.g. here’s who’s been active on OST2 in the last 30 minutes (it’s currently too-early-to-be-up-o’clock on a holiday in the US ;)). But which country has the TOP students?!

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

If you'd like to see this happen (or if you just think OST2 is awesome!), please support us at www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-... 🙏 (And if you have already finished lots of classes on OST2 you might see yourself on the leaderboards in the video ;))

every.org

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

🎮In the 5th video in our gamification fundraiser, @xenokovah.bsky.social talks about how leaderboards will work!🕹️  We will have a bunch of different leaderboards: global for the entire site, per-country, per-class, per-accomplishment, and possibly more!  youtu.be/sJEFw-e1iao

youtu.be

OST2 Gamification Fundraiser: Video 5: Leaderboards

YouTube video by OpenSecurityTraining2

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

An example of medium-grain accomplishments are things typically captured by section headers such as "How a function is called" or "Control flow" in an assembly language. And then the fine-grain accomplishments are learning the individual assembly instructions which combine to know those things.

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The idea with intra-class accomplishments is to surface the useful units of knowledge students are acquiring as they go through a class, not just say "you learned a bunch of stuff!" at the very end with the per-class accomplishment.

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

🎮In the 4th video in our gamification fundraiser, @xenokovah.bsky.social talks about how we can track intra-class accomplishments!🕹️   Remember, OST2 isn't a mega-nonprofit, we really do need *your* support to keep the ball rolling! www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-... 🙏

every.org

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Confirmed Fable 5.1 can’t run the skill still (whereas Opus 5.0 can). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Do you think everyone should have access to free professional-grade educational material regardless of race, gender, or geographic location? And that the material should be both open access and open source? That's what #OST2 is making happen!

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

🎮For the next video in our gamification fundraiser let's talk about how per-class completion accomplishments will work!🕹️ youtu.be/DnffPQQo2QQ Please support OST2 if you can! 🙏 www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-...

youtu.be

OST2 Gamification Fundraiser: Video 2: Class-Completion Accomplishments

YouTube video by OpenSecurityTraining2

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Note that www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-... supports crypto donations in case you've got some crypto burning a hole in your wallet ;)

every.org

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I'd love to see our 38k students show everyone how much they appreciate what OST2 does. I'd especially love to see you taking advantage of corporate nonprofit donation matching where available. You should be able to find it as EIN 86-1180701 or "OpenSecurityTraining Inc."

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OpenSecurityTraining2 @opensectraining.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

🎮We're running a 1-month fundraiser and need your support to gamify OST2!🕹️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu46... Check out the above video for our plans, and then please donate here to support this effort: www.every.org/ost2/f/lets-...   More videos with more details coming all this month!

youtube.com

OST2 Gamification Fundraiser: Video 1: Gamification Overview

YouTube video by OpenSecurityTraining2

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Xeno Kovah @xenokovah.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I forgot to mention it during my talk, but I’ve got a few limited first edition #OST2 stickers with me at #DEFCON, so if you want to show your support for OST2 just shout “Hey Xeno!” If you see me in the hallways and I’ll hook you up!

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