Security & privacy

Links about security & privacy that Hacker News readers keep rediscovering.

Hall of Fame: 68
Candidates: 111
Types: 8
Median span: 6.1 yrs

Browse Security & privacy by type

Every link below is about security & privacy and belongs to the selected type.

8 types

Strongest Hall records

68 items

Pass: The standard Unix password manager

www.passwordstore.org Software & code 22 submissions · 21 people · 11.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-04 Resurfaced 2025-09-13

411max pts

Qubes OS: A reasonably secure operating system

www.qubes-os.org Software & code 15 submissions · 15 people · 11.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-03 Resurfaced 2025-01-12

441max pts

Myths about /dev/urandom

www.2uo.de Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 12.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-01 Resurfaced 2026-05-14

232max pts

Crypto 101 – Introductory course on cryptography

www.crypto101.io Books & learning 12 submissions · 12 people · 11.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2016-12 Resurfaced 2025-07-06

919max pts

Analysis of bank PIN numbers

www.datagenetics.com Essays & writing 21 submissions · 21 people · 13.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-08 Resurfaced 2024-05-14

255max pts

Why I Wrote PGP (1999)

www.philzimmermann.com Essays & writing 14 submissions · 13 people · 13.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-08 Resurfaced 2021-08-09

422max pts

SQRL – Secure Quick Reliable Login

www.grc.com Reference 20 submissions · 20 people · 12.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-06 Resurfaced 2017-06-01

213max pts

Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

bitwarden.com Sites & organizations 7 submissions · 7 people · 7.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-02 Resurfaced 2023-09-25

455max pts

Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day

www.righto.com Books & learning 12 submissions · 12 people · 10.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-12 Resurfaced 2021-02-15

653max pts

CyberChef – A Cyber Swiss Army Knife

gchq.github.io Tools, games & demos 10 submissions · 10 people · 7.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-04 Resurfaced 2024-02-01

785max pts

Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook

stallman.org Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 12.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-03 Resurfaced 2018-03-26

670max pts

Overthewire.org

overthewire.org Reference 13 submissions · 13 people · 11.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-08 Resurfaced 2023-08-27

326max pts

AdNauseam – clicking ads so you don't have to

adnauseam.io Software & code 10 submissions · 10 people · 8.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-02 Resurfaced 2025-04-05

276max pts

The cryptopals crypto challenges

cryptopals.com Books & learning 16 submissions · 14 people · 11.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-02 Resurfaced 2023-06-20

404max pts

Panopticlick

panopticlick.eff.org Tools, games & demos 19 submissions · 19 people · 9.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-10 Resurfaced 2019-10-25

248max pts

Don't Use VPN Services

gist.github.com Essays & writing 11 submissions · 11 people · 7.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-10 Resurfaced 2023-05-23

408max pts

OpenSnitch is a GNU/Linux port of the Little Snitch application firewall

github.com Software & code 8 submissions · 8 people · 7.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-06 Resurfaced 2024-08-10

589max pts

Delta Chat is a decentralized and secure messenger app

delta.chat Sites & organizations 15 submissions · 14 people · 8.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-06 Resurfaced 2025-06-21

309max pts

'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy

papers.ssrn.com Research & data 8 submissions · 8 people · 13.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-08 Resurfaced 2023-08-13

323max pts

Vendors that treat single sign-on as a luxury feature

sso.tax Reference 13 submissions · 13 people · 6.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-08 Resurfaced 2025-08-19

288max pts

Against DNSSEC (2015)

sockpuppet.org Essays & writing 9 submissions · 9 people · 11.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-10 Resurfaced 2022-10-21

186max pts

Room 641A

en.wikipedia.org Reference 8 submissions · 8 people · 15.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-05 Resurfaced 2024-09-11

333max pts

Stop using JWT for sessions (2016)

cryto.net Essays & writing 11 submissions · 11 people · 8.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-11 Resurfaced 2018-11-01

248max pts

Social Cooling (2017)

www.socialcooling.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 8.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-12 Resurfaced 2025-10-05

2692max pts

Adblock via /etc/hosts

github.com Software & code 13 submissions · 13 people · 9.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-06 Resurfaced 2023-06-12

273max pts

Fingerprints are Usernames, not Passwords

blog.dustinkirkland.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 4.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2016-04 Resurfaced 2017-09-15

587max pts

Detecting the use of "curl | bash" server-side

www.idontplaydarts.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 6.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-05 Resurfaced 2020-12-09

500max pts

Pulling JPEGs out of thin air

lcamtuf.blogspot.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 9.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-01 Resurfaced 2019-03-23

444max pts

GTFOBins

gtfobins.github.io Reference 10 submissions · 10 people · 7.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-10 Resurfaced 2023-07-07

324max pts

Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

mako.cc Essays & writing 7 submissions · 6 people · 9.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-10 Resurfaced 2025-05-06

453max pts

Bug 647959 – Add Honest Achmed's root certificate

bugzilla.mozilla.org Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 13.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-01 Resurfaced 2025-01-18

200max pts

Age: A simple, modern and secure file encryption tool

github.com Software & code 9 submissions · 9 people · 4.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-09 Resurfaced 2024-08-04

466max pts

Don't Copy-Paste from Website to Terminal

thejh.net Essays & writing 8 submissions · 7 people · 8.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-10 Resurfaced 2015-11-12

689max pts

The Line of Death

textslashplain.com Essays & writing 11 submissions · 11 people · 9.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-03 Resurfaced 2022-03-18

566max pts

Click

clickclickclick.click Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 8.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-05 Resurfaced 2026-05-18

1100max pts

Osquery: An sqlite3 virtual table exposing operating system data to SQL

osquery.io Software & code 11 submissions · 11 people · 8.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-02 Resurfaced 2024-02-25

300max pts

Bad SSL

badssl.com Tools, games & demos 11 submissions · 11 people · 8.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-09 Resurfaced 2024-03-02

404max pts

Standard Notes – A notes app with a focus on longevity, portability, and privacy

standardnotes.org Software & code 10 submissions · 10 people · 4.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-04 Resurfaced 2021-04-16

673max pts

RSA is a fragile cryptosystem

blog.trailofbits.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 5.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-09 Resurfaced 2022-04-01

708max pts

AdNauseam: Fight Back Against Advertising Networks and Privacy Abuse

github.com Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 8.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-12 Resurfaced 2023-08-23

281max pts

Dumb Ideas in Computer Security (2005)

www.ranum.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 13.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-01 Resurfaced 2023-01-25

265max pts

TOX – A New Kind of Instant Messaging

tox.chat Software & code 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-10 Resurfaced 2021-10-05

138max pts

Headscale: Open-source implementation of the Tailscale control server

github.com Software & code 8 submissions · 7 people · 3.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-04 Resurfaced 2025-04-03

363max pts

GrapheneOS – A privacy and security-focused mobile OS with Android compatibility

grapheneos.org Software & code 10 submissions · 9 people · 5.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-07 Resurfaced 2025-01-17

366max pts

Ghidra by NSA

github.com Software & code 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-02 Resurfaced 2026-02-14

433max pts

Valetudo – Cloud replacement for vacuum robots enabling local-only operation

valetudo.cloud Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-10 Resurfaced 2025-10-20

470max pts

Masscan: TCP port scanner, scanning entire Internet in under 5 minutes

github.com Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 8.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-09 Resurfaced 2021-09-28

468max pts

Security.txt

securitytxt.org Reference 5 submissions · 5 people · 6.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-06 Resurfaced 2021-03-14

746max pts

Forget privacy: you're terrible at targeting anyway

apenwarr.ca Essays & writing 5 submissions · 4 people · 4.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-10 Resurfaced 2023-10-16

312max pts

The Linux Backdoor Attempt of 2003 (2013)

freedom-to-tinker.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 5.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-12 Resurfaced 2023-12-29

298max pts

The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies (2012)

cryptome.org Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 10.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-10 Resurfaced 2022-10-21

225max pts

JSON Web Tokens

jwt.io Tools, games & demos 7 submissions · 7 people · 6.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-05 Resurfaced 2020-05-26

467max pts

Bitwarden compatible server written in Rust

github.com Software & code 6 submissions · 6 people · 4.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-08 Resurfaced 2024-08-14

193max pts

Secretive – macOS native app to store SSH keys in the Secure Enclave

github.com Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-05 Resurfaced 2023-03-10

417max pts

Iknowwhatyoudownload.com – Torrent Activity Checker

iknowwhatyoudownload.com Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-11 Resurfaced 2023-11-07

148max pts

BearSSL – Smaller SSL/TLS

bearssl.org Software & code 6 submissions · 6 people · 8.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-10 Resurfaced 2022-10-29

338max pts

How HTTPS Works

howhttps.works Audio, video & images 6 submissions · 6 people · 8.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-12 Resurfaced 2020-09-14

466max pts

A practical guide to securing macOS

github.com Books & learning 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-08 Resurfaced 2020-08-22

633max pts

LuLu: An open-source macOS firewall that blocks unknown outgoing connections

objective-see.com Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-01 Resurfaced 2021-01-12

804max pts

This page is anonymous

voidnull.sdf.org Books & learning 5 submissions · 4 people · 9.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-07 Resurfaced 2019-06-19

450max pts

Recently resurfaced in security & privacy

latest 20+ point return

Click

clickclickclick.click Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 8.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-05 Resurfaced 2026-05-18

1100max pts

Myths about /dev/urandom

www.2uo.de Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 12.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-01 Resurfaced 2026-05-14

232max pts

Ghidra by NSA

github.com Software & code 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-02 Resurfaced 2026-02-14

433max pts

Valetudo – Cloud replacement for vacuum robots enabling local-only operation

valetudo.cloud Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-10 Resurfaced 2025-10-20

470max pts

Social Cooling (2017)

www.socialcooling.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 8.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-12 Resurfaced 2025-10-05

2692max pts

Candidates

Browse 111 candidates

A Stick Figure Guide to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

www.moserware.com Books & learning 24 submissions · 16 people · 14.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-02-03

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

267max pts

NSA's Backdoor Key from Lotus Notes (2002)

www.cypherspace.org Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 10.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-09-18

Needs:5 submissions

564max pts

How do I give our security auditor the information he wants? (2011)

serverfault.com Essays & writing 13 submissions · 13 people · 14.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-06-18

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

204max pts

A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography

toc.cryptobook.us Books & learning 10 submissions · 8 people · 7.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-10-19

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

340max pts

Security Engineering – The Book

www.cl.cam.ac.uk Books & learning 13 submissions · 13 people · 12.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-04-05

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

205max pts

Optimizing HTTPS performance

istlsfastyet.com Books & learning 9 submissions · 9 people · 8.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2016-01-31

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

150max pts

Snowflake

snowflake.torproject.org Software & code 9 submissions · 9 people · 6.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-07-30

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

308max pts

Lifetimes of cryptographic hash functions

valerieaurora.org Research & data 10 submissions · 10 people · 14.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2017-02-25

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

153max pts

tosdr.org Reference 13 submissions · 13 people · 8.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-06-16

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

219max pts

Startpage.com: Privacy-oriented search engine

www.startpage.com Sites & organizations 11 submissions · 11 people · 10.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-01-10

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

134max pts

Write your passwords down (2010)

blog.jgc.org Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 14.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-08-07

Needs:5 submissions

116max pts

Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening (2010)

shadyurl.com Tools, games & demos 8 submissions · 7 people · 12.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-05-15

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

232max pts

NewPipe – The lightweight YouTube experience for Android

newpipe.net Software & code 4 submissions · 3 people · 4.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2026-02-15

Needs:5 submissions

782max pts

Parsing JSON is a Minefield

seriot.ch Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 2.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-08-17

Needs:5 submissions

559max pts

Whonix – A desktop operating system designed for advanced security and privacy

www.whonix.org Software & code 9 submissions · 9 people · 9.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-09-14

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

226max pts

Handbook of Applied Cryptography (2001)

cacr.uwaterloo.ca Books & learning 8 submissions · 7 people · 12.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-12-18

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

193max pts

Remove my password from lists so hackers won't be able to hack me

github.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-12-28

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

504max pts

Why Static Websites Need HTTPS

www.troyhunt.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 3.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-01-25

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

328max pts

Inside a low-budget consumer hardware espionage implant

ha.cking.ch Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 6.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-05-15

Needs:5 submissions

591max pts

How I attacked myself using Google and I ramped up a $1000 bandwidth bill

www.behind-the-enemy-lines.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 13.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2015-09-23

Needs:5 submissions

775max pts

SeaGlass: City-Wide IMSI-Catcher Detection (2017)

seaglass.cs.washington.edu Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 6.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-08-23

Needs:5 submissions

365max pts

Reasons Not to Use Google

stallman.org Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 6.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-03-21

Needs:5 submissions

182max pts

Keycloak: Open-source identity and access management

www.keycloak.org Software & code 4 submissions · 4 people · 5.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-05-04

Needs:5 submissions

455max pts

Guide to Using YubiKey for GPG and SSH

github.com Books & learning 7 submissions · 7 people · 10.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-01-26

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

274max pts

Wacom tablets track every app you open

robertheaton.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 5.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-05-17

Needs:5 submissions

1594max pts

Simple and flexible tool for managing secrets

github.com Software & code 9 submissions · 8 people · 7.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-03-11

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

139max pts

Sandsifter: find undocumented instructions and bugs on x86 CPU

github.com Software & code 5 submissions · 4 people · 7.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2018-10-09

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

447max pts

The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

blog.haschek.at Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 4.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-01-08

Needs:5 submissions

799max pts

Privacy not included: Holiday gift list for privacy and security

foundation.mozilla.org Reference 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-08-06

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

153max pts

Consent-O-Matic – automatically fills ubiquitous pop-ups with your preferences

consentomatic.au.dk Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 2.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-09-08

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

319max pts

E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

e.foundation Sites & organizations 4 submissions · 4 people · 7.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-11-30

Needs:5 submissions

320max pts

I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

iknowwhatyoudownload.com Tools, games & demos 4 submissions · 4 people · 8.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-07-13

Needs:5 submissions

880max pts

Flatpak – a security nightmare

flatkill.org Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 2.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-06-23

Needs:5 submissions

377max pts

Stop Using Encrypted Email

latacora.micro.blog Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 3.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-09-11

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

475max pts

1.1.1.1 for Families

blog.cloudflare.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 3.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-10-28

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

414max pts

Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

krypt.co Sites & organizations 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2018-08-30

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

338max pts

I don't trust Signal

drewdevault.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 6.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-08-11

Needs:5 submissions

523max pts

Mkcert: Simple zero-config tool to make locally trusted development certificates

github.com Software & code 9 submissions · 8 people · 5.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-10-29

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

267max pts

Frigate: Open-source network video recorder with real-time AI object detection

frigate.video Software & code 4 submissions · 4 people · 2.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-08-05

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

625max pts

The Document Which Used to Be Called the MIT Lockpicking Guide (1992)

www.blurofinsanity.com Books & learning 7 submissions · 2 people · 8.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2017-03-20

Needs:3 submitters

355max pts