Chris J. Mitchell
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View article: PenTest2.0: Towards Autonomous Privilege Escalation Using GenAI
PenTest2.0: Towards Autonomous Privilege Escalation Using GenAI Open
Ethical hacking today relies on highly skilled practitioners executing complex sequences of commands, which is inherently time-consuming, difficult to scale, and prone to human error. To help mitigate these limitations, we previously intro…
View article: PenTest++: Elevating Ethical Hacking with AI and Automation
PenTest++: Elevating Ethical Hacking with AI and Automation Open
Traditional ethical hacking relies on skilled professionals and time-intensive command management, which limits its scalability and efficiency. To address these challenges, we introduce PenTest++, an AI-augmented system that integrates aut…
View article: AI-Augmented Ethical Hacking: A Practical Examination of Manual Exploitation and Privilege Escalation in Linux Environments
AI-Augmented Ethical Hacking: A Practical Examination of Manual Exploitation and Privilege Escalation in Linux Environments Open
This study explores the application of generative AI (GenAI) within manual exploitation and privilege escalation tasks in Linux-based penetration testing environments, two areas critical to comprehensive cybersecurity assessments. Building…
View article: AI-Enhanced Ethical Hacking: A Linux-Focused Experiment
AI-Enhanced Ethical Hacking: A Linux-Focused Experiment Open
This technical report investigates the integration of generative AI (GenAI), specifically ChatGPT, into the practice of ethical hacking through a comprehensive experimental study and conceptual analysis. Conducted in a controlled virtual e…
View article: Orientable sequences over non-binary alphabets
Orientable sequences over non-binary alphabets Open
We describe new, simple, recursive methods of construction for orientable sequences over an arbitrary finite alphabet, i.e. periodic sequences in which any sub-sequence of n consecutive elements occurs at most once in a period in either di…
View article: Orientable sequences over non-binary alphabets
Orientable sequences over non-binary alphabets Open
We describe new, simple, recursive methods of construction for orientable sequences over an arbitrary finite alphabet, i.e. periodic sequences in which any sub-sequence of n consecutive elements occurs at most once in a period in either di…
View article: Integrity-protecting block cipher modes -- Untangling a tangled web
Integrity-protecting block cipher modes -- Untangling a tangled web Open
This paper re-examines the security of three related block cipher modes of operation designed to provide authenticated encryption. These modes, known as PES-PCBC, IOBC and EPBC, were all proposed in the mid-1990s. However, analyses of secu…
View article: Approaching the exa-scale: a real-world evaluation of rendering extremely large data sets
Approaching the exa-scale: a real-world evaluation of rendering extremely large data sets Open
Extremely large scale analysis is becoming increasingly important as supercomputers and their simulations move from petascale to exascale. The lack of dedicated hardware acceleration for rendering on today's supercomputing platforms motiva…
View article: Pre-testing effects are target-specific and are not driven by a generalised state of curiosity
Pre-testing effects are target-specific and are not driven by a generalised state of curiosity Open
Guessing an answer to an unfamiliar question prior to seeing the answer leads to better memory than studying alone (the pre-testing effect), which some theories attribute to increased curiosity. A similar effect occurs in general knowledge…
View article: Mechanistic Insight Into the Application of Alumina-Supported Pd Catalysts for the Hydrogenation of Nitrobenzene to Aniline
Mechanistic Insight Into the Application of Alumina-Supported Pd Catalysts for the Hydrogenation of Nitrobenzene to Aniline Open
Two Pd/γ-Al2O3 catalysts are examined for the vapor phase hydrogenation of nitrobenzene over the temperature range of 60-200 °C. A 1 wt % catalyst is selected as a reference material that is diluted with γ-alumina to produce a 0.3 wt % sam…
View article: Extracting particle size distribution from laser speckle with a physics-enhanced autocorrelation-based estimator (PEACE)
Extracting particle size distribution from laser speckle with a physics-enhanced autocorrelation-based estimator (PEACE) Open
Extracting quantitative information about highly scattering surfaces from an imaging system is challenging because the phase of the scattered light undergoes multiple folds upon propagation, resulting in complex speckle patterns. One speci…
View article: Toward High Selectivity Aniline Synthesis Catalysis at Elevated Temperatures
Toward High Selectivity Aniline Synthesis Catalysis at Elevated Temperatures Open
In connection with an initiative to enhance heat recovery from the large-scale operation of a heterogeneously catalyzed nitrobenzene hydrogenation process to produce aniline, it is necessary to operate the process at elevated temperatures …
View article: Privacy-Preserving Biometric Matching Using Homomorphic Encryption
Privacy-Preserving Biometric Matching Using Homomorphic Encryption Open
Biometric matching involves storing and processing sensitive user information. Maintaining the privacy of this data is thus a major challenge, and homomorphic encryption offers a possible solution. We propose a privacy-preserving biometric…
View article: Pretesting boosts item but not source memory
Pretesting boosts item but not source memory Open
Two experiments examined the effect of pretesting on target recognition and source memory. In an initial encoding phase, participants attempted to learn the common English definitions of rare English words. For each rare word, the particip…
View article: Guest Editorial: Security and Privacy
Guest Editorial: Security and Privacy Open
Over the past two decades, a wide range of cyber security and privacy standards and regulations have been developed, covering a large number of application areas being both technical and business-oriented in nature. These standards and gui…
View article: Proximity-Dependent Biotinylation to Elucidate the Interactome of TNK2 Nonreceptor Tyrosine Kinase
Proximity-Dependent Biotinylation to Elucidate the Interactome of TNK2 Nonreceptor Tyrosine Kinase Open
Nonreceptor tyrosine kinases (NRTKs) represent an important class of signaling molecules driving diverse cellular pathways. Aberrant expression and hyperphosphorylation of TNK2, an NRTK, have been implicated in multiple cancers. However, t…
View article: Constructing orientable sequences
Constructing orientable sequences Open
This paper describes new, simple, recursive methods of construction for orientable sequences, i.e. periodic binary sequences in which any n-tuple occurs at most once in a period in either direction. As has been previously described, such s…
View article: The benefits of impossible tests: Assessing the role of error-correction in the pretesting effect
The benefits of impossible tests: Assessing the role of error-correction in the pretesting effect Open
Relative to studying alone, guessing the meanings of unknown words can improve later recognition of their meanings, even if those guesses were incorrect – the pretesting effect (PTE). The error-correction hypothesis suggests that incorrect…
View article: A Comparison of Experimental Procedures for the Application of Infrared Spectroscopy to Probe the Surface Morphology of an Alumina-Supported Palladium Catalyst
A Comparison of Experimental Procedures for the Application of Infrared Spectroscopy to Probe the Surface Morphology of an Alumina-Supported Palladium Catalyst Open
Structure/function relationships in heterogeneous catalysis play an important role in catalyst design strategies. The combination of chemisorption of suitable probe molecules alongside application of infrared spectroscopy is an established…
View article: How not to secure wireless sensor networks: a plethora of insecure polynomial‐based key pre‐distribution schemes
How not to secure wireless sensor networks: a plethora of insecure polynomial‐based key pre‐distribution schemes Open
Three closely related polynomial‐based group key pre‐distribution schemes have recently been proposed, aimed specifically at wireless sensor networks. The schemes enable any subset of a predefined set of sensor nodes to establish a shared …
View article: The (in)security of some recently proposed lightweight key distribution schemes
The (in)security of some recently proposed lightweight key distribution schemes Open
Two recently published papers propose some very simple key distribution schemes designed to enable two or more parties to establish a shared secret key with the aid of a third party. Unfortunately, as we show, most of the schemes are inher…
View article: Two closely related insecure noninteractive group key establishment schemes
Two closely related insecure noninteractive group key establishment schemes Open
Serious weaknesses in two very closely related group authentication and group key establishment schemes are described. Simple attacks against the group key establishment part of the schemes are described, which strongly suggest that the sc…
View article: Two closely related insecure noninteractive group key establishment\n schemes
Two closely related insecure noninteractive group key establishment\n schemes Open
Serious weaknesses in two very closely related group authentication and group\nkey establishment schemes are described. Simple attacks against the group key\nestablishment part of the schemes are described, which strongly suggest that\nthe…
View article: An insecure noninteractive group key establishment scheme.
An insecure noninteractive group key establishment scheme. Open
A serious weakness in the recently proposed Chen-Hsu-Harn group authentication and group key establishment scheme is described. A simple attack against the group key establishment part of the scheme is given, which casts doubt on the viabi…
View article: Phosgene formation via carbon monoxide and dichlorine reaction over an activated carbon catalyst: Reaction kinetics and mass balance relationships
Phosgene formation via carbon monoxide and dichlorine reaction over an activated carbon catalyst: Reaction kinetics and mass balance relationships Open
The reaction of carbon monoxide and dichlorine over an activated carbon catalyst to produce phosgene is examined using a previously described micro-reactor arrangement. An activation energy of 34.1 kJ mol−1 is determined. The reaction prof…
View article: Provably insecure group authentication: Not all security proofs are what they claim to be
Provably insecure group authentication: Not all security proofs are what they claim to be Open
A paper presented at the ICICS 2019 conference describes what is claimed to be a `provably secure group authentication [protocol] in the asynchronous communication model'. We show here that this is far from being the case, as the protocol …