Re:Infosec's Jerk Problem (2013)
by logfromblammo on Friday April 29, 2016 @11:34AM
(#11596369)
Rewriting someone else's code to eliminate the potential buffer overflows is a lot less glamorous and exciting than exploiting a buffer overflow to escalate user privileges, in the same way that watching a mason re-mortar an entire brick wall is less exciting than watching a ninja scale that wall, eliminate the guards in complete silence, steal the MacGuffin, and escape without a trace.
But it is steady, decently-paying work that will likely last until the singularity.
But penetration testing is a job that exists. People are hired to do exactly that under contractual terms with the target. (And I don't mean to imply that's the only security job in the more-rewarding/fun category.)