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0 pointscperciva3y ago0 comments

Probably bsdiff; a few hundred lines of code hacked together over a weekend has saved people over a hundred thousand years of waiting for software updates to download.

Next up is probably scrypt; it would rank higher if cryptocurrencies used it, but instead they use nerfedscrypt which defeats the entire point of scrypt.

Third is probably FreeBSD/EC2. Of course I didn't do all the work for that, but I can certainly claim the status of technical project manager.

My day job, Tarsnap, comes in fourth.

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dwrodri3y ago

I'd also like to add that your "Cache Missing for Fun and Profit"[1] paper is an excellent read for people who are just getting into Timing Side channels. It's both so crazy (yet so believable) to me that it wasn't taken more seriously by academics when it was published. Quite frankly, the endless commentary from reviewers critizing work for being "incremental" is a big part of why I'm walking away from academia.

I'm currently procrastinating my master's thesis on transient execution attacks, and just re-read it a few weeks ago while drafting my background section. So, thanks a ton for writing one of the most helpful introductory texts on timing side channels!

1: http://css.csail.mit.edu/6.858/2014/readings/ht-cache.pdf

koolba3y ago

You forgot my favorite cperciva project: spipe

cpercivaOP3y ago

I didn't forget it, and it's one of my favorites too -- but I don't know if it qualifies as the most impactful. People who use it love it, but it's not very widely used compared to, say, bsdiff.

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