Thomas Pornin, one of the most distinguished members of our community has reached 100k rep, a terrific milestone!
A complete list of his contributions to the site is probably way too long to fit into a single post, so here are some of the more notable ones.
An incredible answer speculating about what the CRIME attack against SSL is about as well as methods to go about fixing it before details of the attack officially released. An amazing answer that got him 344 upvotes (so far).
He wrote not one, but two answers to the canonical question on SSL. I know that instead of Wikipedia, I now refer to that answer if I want to refresh my memory of SSL. An incredible feat indeed.
He also wrote the canonical answer about password hashing, going into great details about the theory behind a good password hashing algorithm as well as comparisons between the commonly recommended password hashing algorithms.
He wrote a complementary answer for what I would consider to be our canonical question on DEP and ASLR. An excellent answer going into plenty of details about the two techniques.
His 100k accomplishment is made even more remarkable when you take into account his alter ego, Small Bear. As the #3 ranked user in reputation, the combined reputation of Big Bear and Small Bear surpasses the combined reputation next three highest ranked users, D.W., Polynomial and Rory Alsop.
A quote from one of my favorite answers by Small Bear.
Take five chimpanzees. Put them in a big cage. Suspend some bananas from the roof of the cage. Provide the chimpanzees with a stepladder. BUT also add a proximity detector to the bananas, so that when a chimp goes near the banana, water hoses are triggered and the whole cage is thoroughly soaked.
Soon, the chimps learn that the bananas and the stepladder are best ignored.
Now, remove one chimp, and replace it with a fresh one. That chimp knows nothing of the hoses. He sees the banana, notices the stepladder, and because he is a smart primate, he envisions himself stepping on the stepladder to reach the bananas. He then deftly grabs the stepladder... and the four other chimps spring on him and beat him squarely. He soon learns to ignore the stepladder.
Then, remove another chimp and replace it with a fresh one. The scenario occurs again; when he grabs the stepladder, he gets mauled by the four other chimps -- yes, including the previous "fresh" chimp. He has integrated the notion of "thou shallt not touch the stepladder".
Iterate. After some operations, you have five chimps who are ready to punch any chimp who would dare touch the stepladder -- and none of them knows why.
Thank you Thomas Pornin for answering many of our questions in great detail, usually accompanied by an appropriate amount of snark!
