External Publications
Alongside the research and technical articles published here on The Hacking Blog, I’ve contributed articles to other cybersecurity publications, including Bugcrowd and Pen Test Partners.
My work covers a range of topics across offensive security, including red teaming, penetration testing, Microsoft security, malware development techniques and technical investigations.
Below is a collection of my externally published articles, with a brief overview of each and links to the original publications.
Weird ways to hide shellcode
Bugcrowd | 14 October 2026
Modern endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions present significant challenges for red team operations, particularly when attempting to deploy custom tooling.
In this article, I explore an unconventional approach to concealing shellcode using maze generation and pathfinding algorithms. Rather than storing a payload directly, the technique encodes its bytes along a maze’s shortest path, allowing the original data to be reconstructed by solving the maze.
The research demonstrates how algorithms normally associated with pathfinding can be repurposed for payload obfuscation.
Read the original article on Bugcrowd →
Bypass SharePoint Restricted View to exfiltrate data using Copilot AI and more…
Pen Test Partners | 20 May 2025
SharePoint’s Restricted View permission allows users to read documents while attempting to prevent copying, downloading and printing their contents.
In this research, I investigate several techniques for circumventing those restrictions, including interactions with Microsoft Copilot, browser functionality and document handling behaviours.
The findings demonstrate why Restricted View should not be relied upon as a security boundary against a determined attacker with access to sensitive information.
Read the original article on Pen Test Partners →
Exploiting Copilot AI for SharePoint
Pen Test Partners | 7 May 2025
As organisations adopt AI-powered assistants, new opportunities arise for attackers to discover and interact with sensitive corporate information.
This article explores how Microsoft Copilot for SharePoint can be used during red team engagements to identify sensitive documents, discover useful infrastructure information and retrieve data in ways that may bypass traditional monitoring expectations.
I also examine the security implications of custom Copilot agents and the challenges they introduce for defenders.
Read the original article on Pen Test Partners →
Dodgy disks. My 32TB SSD Adventure
Pen Test Partners | 21 June 2024
After discovering an unusually cheap 32TB portable SSD advertised online, I decided to investigate what was actually being sold.
This article documents my examination of the device, including capacity testing, disassembly and analysis of its internal components.
The investigation revealed a much smaller storage device masquerading as a high-capacity SSD, highlighting the risks associated with counterfeit and misrepresented storage hardware.
Read the original article on Pen Test Partners →
Bypassing MFA on Microsoft Azure Entra ID
Pen Test Partners | 1 May 2024
Multi-factor authentication is an important security control, but its effectiveness depends on correct implementation and configuration.
In this article, I explore how misconfigured Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access policies can be exploited during a red team engagement.
The research demonstrates how seemingly minor configuration weaknesses can be combined with other techniques to bypass intended authentication restrictions and gain access to cloud resources.
It also discusses preventative controls and monitoring opportunities that can help organisations identify and address similar weaknesses.