Peiter Zatko

Not to be confused with Peter Zaťko (disambiguation).
Peiter "Mudge" Zatko
Mudge during his tenure at DARPA
Born (1970-12-01) December 1, 1970 (age 53)
Alabama, U.S.[1]
Alma materBerklee College of Music
Known forL0pht, L0phtcrack, DARPA Cyber Fast Track, testimony to the Senate, Cult of the Dead Cow
AwardsSecretary of Defense Exceptional Civilian Service Award, Order of Thor
Scientific career
FieldsComputer Science
Public administration
Hacker
InstitutionsGoogle, Motorola, DARPA, L0pht, Twitter

Peiter C. Zatko, better known as Mudge, is an American network security expert, open source programmer, writer, and hacker. He is currently the chief information officer of DARPA.[2] He was the most prominent member of the high-profile hacker think tank the L0pht[3] as well as the computer and culture hacking cooperative the Cult of the Dead Cow.

While involved with the L0pht, Mudge contributed to disclosure and education on information and security vulnerabilities. In addition to pioneering buffer overflow work, the security advisories he released contained early examples of flaws in the following areas: code injection, race condition, side-channel attack, exploitation of embedded systems, and cryptanalysis of commercial systems. He was the original author of the password cracking software L0phtCrack.[4]

In 2010, Mudge accepted a position as a program manager at DARPA where he oversaw cyber security research.[5] In 2013, Mudge went to work for Google in their Advanced Technology & Projects division.[6][7] In 2020, he was hired as head of security at Twitter.[8] In 2023 he started working at the security consulting firm Rapid7 that develops Metasploit.[9]

  1. ^ Lyngaas, Sean (24 August 2022). "Meet the former Twitter exec blowing the whistle on the company". CNN Business. Archived from the original on 31 August 2022. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
  2. ^ Dille, Grace (7 August 2024). "DARPA Names Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko CIO". MeriTalk.
  3. ^ Security Scene Errata Archived 2 May 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "LOPH-TCRACK". 2009. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012.
  5. ^ "Hacker 'Mudge' gets DARPA job". 10 February 2010. Archived from the original on 9 January 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  6. ^ "Peiter "Mudge" Zatko To Join Motorola Mobility's Advanced Technology & Projects (ATAP)". Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference startgoogle was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Menn, Joseph (16 November 2020). "Twitter names famed hacker 'Mudge' as head of security". Reuters. Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  9. ^ Menn, Joseph (4 January 2023). "Twitter whistleblower Zatko lands new job at a security consulting firm". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 5 January 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2023.