Andrés Blanco, a leading figure in Argentine hacking and Wi-Fi network security specialist, died

Known as “6e726d” in the online world, he developed part of his career in Core Securityone of the companies that projected Argentine research in computer security abroad. That journey took him to DEF CON, the Las Vegas hacker conference that brings together select investigations from around the world, and to gatherings like Black Hat. He also participated in different editions of the Latin American conference Ekoparty, where, in addition to presenting his work, he prepared challenges (known as CTF) so that others could learn to find vulnerabilities and understand how the equipment we use every day works.

His research ranged from internal software of a chip to the messages that two devices exchange to connect, with the aim of identifying failures and developing tools that other specialists could use and expand, to better defend the systems.

When consulting colleagues, friends and co-workers, the answer is unanimous: they define it as “a generous mentor”as well as a member of the community with multiple interests and an enormous willingness to share knowledge.

Nights of work to remember, trips to conferences, Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes, and philosophy talks, among which different relatives reconstructed the memory of Blanco in dialogue with Clarion.

The desire to share knowledge also crossed his ties, according to Federico Kirschbaum, co-founder of Ekoparty and Faraday, who described him as someone who liked to go unnoticedalthough he believed he had never achieved it. “There are people for whom ‘big’ is too small, Andrés was one of those. He had an open heart, wanting to teach, accompany and above all help you be the best version of yourself,” he said.

For Ezequiel Gutesman, a researcher who also worked at CoreLabs, that closeness appeared in the ease with which a conversation could become profound, whatever the topic. “Underneath his tough and strong appearance there was a being who gave selflessly, believed in the power of each person to live life fully in the present moment,” he told this medium.

They had shared trips and nights dedicated to studying the operation of wireless networks, reading and learning, a way of working that Gutesman later saw multiply among those who approached Blanco. “Our community lost a hacker with all the letterswhose curiosity and ability make those around him grow and learn with him,” he said.

Andrés López Luksenberg, known as Polako, a security researcher and former Core colleague, found a way to explain this influence in an anecdote that began with an iron abandoned in an office closet. He had kept it because it seemed like an absurd and funny decoration, until a news story he read about supposed irons with devices to attack wireless networks gave him an idea that he shared with Blanco.

At that time they were preparing challenges for the Ekoparty CTF, a competition in which participants solve computer security problems, so Blanco opened the appliance and put a small router inside. With that setup, he put together a test that required capturing and analyzing packets, the small units in which data travels through a network.

To preserve the appearance of the iron, they hid the network cable inside the cover of the old cloth cable. López Luksenberg remembers the two pulling from both ends until they were sweaty, before taking the device to the stand, where it caught the attention of the attendees.

Among them was a group of young Uruguayans who visited Ekoparty for the first time and became so enthusiastic about the challenge that, as Polako remembers, he returned at night to try to capture the traffic, convinced that the iron was still connected. They finally managed to solve it and even created a Twitter account, @PlanchaChina, while the appliance remained as a souvenir of that experience.

“Every time I come across them they tell me that they consider it the greatest trophy they could have won,” said López Luksenberg. Recalling the enthusiasm of those participants, he highlighted “how a small act can introduce people to a totally new area and turn it into their passion.”

For Joel Noguera, security researcher, and Florencia Ortelli, Gaiki Laboratory researcher, the bond began in Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes and continued with work and friendship. “You taught us to defend ourselves. You taught us punctuality. You taught us to lose many fears. You trusted us and what we were capable of, both personally and professionally,” they wrote in a joint memory.

They also have a memory from their trips, from London, where Blanco had insisted on showing them that he could communicate with squirrels. Although they were there for work, they bought nuts and went to Hyde Park so that he could teach them how to feed them. “It was Snow White until one of them decided to bite him and cut off his finger. We still laugh every time we remember,” they said.

The anecdote, they say, paints him in full as someone who was “always doing some experiment” and that, in his own way, he cared that they were well and worked hard for what they wanted to do.

“He had a heart wider than his chest.”they wrote.

Sebastián Muñiz, a security researcher known as Topo, shared with him an interest in electronics and hardware hacking, the study and modification of the physical components of equipment. They had planned an investigation together, a project that Muñiz recalled when remembering his willingness to help. “He put friendship before everything. He gave selflessly”he recalled.

“He had a difficult life in many aspects but he never allowed that to stop him, quite the opposite,” Muñiz said. “I lived with full awareness that little or almost nothing is under our control, so all we have to do is live fully but always trying to be better.”

Lautaro “LeFF” Fain remembered him as a generous mentorboth professionally and personally. He also highlighted his passion for the Brazilian version of the Japanese martial art, which he understood as a tool for growth, and his place within the hacker community, where he accompanied other researchers and encouraged them. to be encouraged to give your first talks.

“He was a great mentor professionally, a pure and simple hacker, made by slaps, who knew how to give extremely technical talks in the best settings in the world,” he said.

“With him I learned to love a sport, to give technical talks on a stage in front of hundreds of people in the most professional way possible, to hack how hacking was done in the golden age, to understand what being a good friend means. and to value life far beyond the past or the futurethat is, enjoying the present,” he said. And he closed: “I would never have been even a minimal version of the person I am today if I had not had the privilege of our paths crossing.”

Ariel Coronel, his colleague, friend and student, said: “It was a pleasure to work with you, and see your crazy things. It was an honor to be your student and see what you generated.”

“There are no words to explain how much I am going to miss him,” said Andrés López Luksenberg.

One of the best-known developments of the Argentine company Core Security was Core Impact, a tool for carrying out authorized attacks that allow us to see how an intruder could enter an organization. In this environment, Blanco discovered a vulnerability in two chip models in 2012. Broadcom used by Apple, Samsung and Motorolaamong other manufacturers, present in equipment such as the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and different iPad and Galaxy models.

That same year, both presented at Ekoparty and Hack.lu One Firmware to Monitor ’em All, a work in which they analyzed the firmwarethe internal program that controls a component, and showed how to modify it to activate monitor mode on cellular Wi-Fi chips. This function allows you to observe wireless traffic to study its security, as documented in a CoreLabs publication.

That interest also took him, along with Andrés Gazzoli, to DEF CON 23, in 2015, where they presented 802.11 Massive Monitoringa system that used routers with open software to analyze multiple Wi-Fi channels and overcome the limitations of tools that listen one at a time.

Two years later, at Black Hat Europe, he presented Wi-Fi Direct to Hellabout the technology that allows two devices to be connected without going through a router, for example to send content or communicate with a printer. When analyzing vulnerable implementations in Android, HP printers and Samsung televisionsshowed how those functions could offer an avenue of attack.

White used to repeat memento morithe Latin expression that means “remember that you are going to die,” an idea that even Depeche Mode He chose to title his 2023 studio album. Several people around him remembered that it was his favorite phrase, which was inscribed in the at sign of his Instagram account. “He was a true stoic in modern times,” Muñiz maintained.

In that conversation, that memento mori He seemed very tied to his desire to see other places and take advantage of the present. “I don’t want to be one of those who wait until they retire to travel. That’s why I’m doing everything I can,” he had told her.

“The words in the dictionary are not enough to describe Andrés. He knew how to be the man of a thousand disguises in his life and, within each disguise, He behaved as only someone who gives without expecting anything in return can do.”, complements Fain.

That generosity also appears in the memory of Ezequiel “ExE” Ferreyra, a security researcher, who found a friend and a mentor in Blanco. “During these years I have felt accompanied and guided. He taught me so many things, professionally and personally,” he said.

They had recently shared a trip to the Grand Canyon, after DEF CON in Las Vegas. “On that trip we talked, among many things, about a phrase that he repeated a lot and that represented him deeply: memento mori,” Ferreyra recalled.

“Their friendship and their way of seeing the world exceeded any limit.”