Ruby Nealon

Ruby Nealon
Born Manchester, United Kingdom
Alma mater University of Salford
Occupation Computer security researcher
Website ruby.sh

Ruby Nealon is an English computer security researcher, bug bounty hunter, and former child prodigy. At the age of 14, he left high school to pursue a full-time bachelor's degree at the University of Salford.[1][2] Nealon is best known for publishing a 45-second-long video game called "Watch Paint Dry" onto Steam's database without approval or verification, in March 2016.

Early life and education

Born in Manchester, United Kingdom, Nealon enrolled in modules at the Open University whilst studying at elementary school, enabling him to leave high school early and begin studying for his bachelor's degree in Computer Science at the University of Salford when he was 14.[1][2] He's stated having an interest in computer security from a very young age, with his first vulnerability acknowledgement dating back to when he was 11.[3] Nealon claims to be the youngest person to hold the Offensive Security Certified Professional penetration testing certification..

Watch Paint Dry

In March 2016, Nealon exploited a chain of technical and social engineering vulnerabilities in the Steam digital distribution platform, allowing him to release content to the service's store immediately and bypassing review procedures put in place by Valve, the developers of the service. Nealon released "Watch Paint Dry", a short RPG Maker game featuring a picture of his bedroom wall and requiring no skill or decisions from the player.[4][1][5] Nealon claimed to have attempted to communicate with Valve as early as January to disclose these issues, but never received a response.[3] The game was quickly removed from the storefront, with Nealon shortly after disclosing further now fixed vulnerabilities in the service he'd found and expressing discontent at how Valve had handled the issue.[6] Nealon was able to retain product keys for the game on Steam, which he publicly sold off the platform for as high as $40, despite typical gameplay lasting under a minute in length.[6][7] Nealon currently lists product keys for sale on his website for $1 billion.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Nichols, Shaun (2016-03-30). "Teen tricks leaky Valve into publishing hot new Steam game: Watching Paint Dry". The Register. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
  2. 1 2 McGoogan, Cara (8 April 2017). "Inside the murky world of hackers for hire". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  3. 1 2 Grayson, Nathan (2016-03-29). "16-Year-Old Hacker Sneaks Game Onto Steam Without Valve's Approval". Kotaku. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  4. ↑ Nealon, Ruby (2016-03-29). "Watch Paint Dry: How I got a game on the Steam Store without anyone from Valve ever looking at it.". The Startup. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
  5. ↑ http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2016/03/steam-hacker-publishes-fake-game-to-highlight-valves-security-holes/
  6. 1 2 Orland, Kyle (2016-04-01). "Steam hacker says more vulnerabilities will be found, but not by him". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
  7. ↑ "Watch paint dry Community Hub". Steam. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
  8. ↑ ""watch paint dry the game thing"". Retrieved 27 April 2017.
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