Corrupting data for fun and profit

published May 14, 2007, last modified Dec 08, 2021

I just stumbled across zzuf's Web page. Odd name, isn't it? zzuf is a program that corrupts data on purpose. But why?

Turns out, zzuf is a fuzzer (okay, okay, I can hear you laughing at the anagram/pun in the name) -- a tool that corrupts and feeds corrupt data into programs.

It "fuzzes" the input data -- then you run your application and feed the corrupted data into it; if it hangs, you've found a robustness bug -- in all likelihood a security issue -- that you need to fix in the application.

I love the humor on zuff's Web page!

Zuff makes me laugh

Lulz potential -- I'm starting to think I have spent too much time on the Internet!

The other 'thing' you can quickly spot is how much of a piece of shit is MPlayer in the stability department. To the MPlayer devs: guys, I'm infinitely thankful for what could be the greatest media player Linux as seen. It's very fast. It plays nearly all types of media that exist. But it's the flimsiest piece of crap ever built. I drag and drop a file onto MPlayer, it SEGVs. I sneeze, it SEGVs. Fix it, damnit!