11
votes
Asking for help with a security challenge
Hacking challenges, just like homework, are there for people to learn. And just like homework, we should help them with their thought-processes and not do it for them. The standard, "tell us what you ...
schroederMod
- 132k
9
votes
Accepted
Would this question be accepted here?
Unfortunately, questions asking for resources, links, sources, etc. are off-topic because the answers would just keep growing without end. They are "open-ended" by default.
schroederMod
- 132k
7
votes
Would the IS site be an appropriate place to ask for help in deciding between a Masters in Cyber Security vs a CISSP certification?
This is the type of question that we get a lot of, and they tend to get closed as opinion-based. Unless there is a very specific, factual question you want to ask.
Without knowing what your question ...
schroederMod
- 132k
6
votes
Where do we want to stand on GDPR questions?
I'm in two minds on this. From my own perspective, working in a heavily regulated industry, I know it doesn't materially change any of our privacy related work - it just increases the level of ...
Rory AlsopMod
- 61.7k
6
votes
Accepted
Can I ask for help with identifying malware?
This type of question could be on-topic, but I have yet to see one that actually is. The problem is that without the binaries, we would never have enough data to say much. With the binaries, you can ...
schroederMod
- 132k
6
votes
Moderator believes hardening Chrome ciphers is not about "security", not relevant here [post on hold]
We can help you answer which ciphers you should enable or disable based on your stated threat model, but we cannot help you answer the question of how to select them. This would apply regardless of ...
- 67.3k
6
votes
Accepted
Are questions about lock security on-topic?
We simply do not get many physical security type questions here at all. But we do not want to ban them as a rule (there is useful overlap).
I think that questions that could help people make ...
schroederMod
- 132k
5
votes
Can anyone look into wireshark logs and say if anything suspicious?
We are not a code/site/log/packet dump analysis site. As you can imagine, we'd be flooded with random stuff to wade through.
schroederMod
- 132k
5
votes
Can anyone look into wireshark logs and say if anything suspicious?
Depends on the question. In general, I would say:
"Here's a traffic dump. Notice anything strange?" Will be closed as "needs focus".
"Here's some relevant subset of trafic. I ...
- 65.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Are opinion-based questions allowed on meta?
Meta is about asking about questions, it's not for asking off-topic questions.
Questions need to be able to have a chance at a single acceptable answer that is also going to be useful to others. ...
schroederMod
- 132k
5
votes
Why is this question a bad one?
The "difficulty" is entirely up to how the application was designed and what resources they have to analyse player behavior. That makes the question too broad and up to interpretation. One game will ...
schroederMod
- 132k
4
votes
Which question guidelines exist on security stackexchange?
You only got one down vote on your sqlmap question, and two upvotes, so I would not use that as an example of "downvotes"
There is a lot of guidance written - it's actually pretty extensive. We haven'...
Rory AlsopMod
- 61.7k
4
votes
Can I ask for a Solution Manual of an Information Security Textbook?
Asking for books/resources is off-topic. Asking for recommendations for products/services is also off-topic.
It's not about the subject matter, but it's a quirk of us being a Q&A site.
schroederMod
- 132k
4
votes
Accepted
Is "Which tool can do X?" off-topic?
"What product/service can do X?" is off-topic for being both recommendation and a call for lists. The potential answers can be endless and it can be difficult to have a single acceptable answer.
...
schroederMod
- 132k
4
votes
Accepted
Is a question asking if old answers to same/similar question are still valid acceptable?
No. The whole point of the site is to provide authoritative answers. If the answers need to change, then new answers need to be added, not new questions added.
That way, even the historically-correct-...
schroederMod
- 132k
3
votes
Accepted
Are news article identification questions on-topic?
This would not be on topic, correct.
Rory AlsopMod
- 61.7k
3
votes
Closure of "How to “unprotect” malicious workbook without knowing password"
The canned close reason is to prevent people from asking plain hacking questions. Things like:
I want to hack a site, can someone show me how?
I want to break into a Facebook account, how do I do ...
schroederMod
- 132k
3
votes
What makes a good [career] question?
Many of these questions are of the form:
What should I study to get into security?
How can I get into security?
What is the ideal path to security?
What are the job prospects?
And these are just ...
Rory AlsopMod
- 61.7k
3
votes
Accepted
How should questions be handled that are part on-topic and part off-topic?
Setting aside the current example, here is my general approach:
If the on topic parts it the major thing, and the off topic part is more of a side issue, I would comment and ask the OP to remove the ...
- 65.8k
3
votes
Asking for help with a security challenge
I think it is a little more gray. There are some questions I've seen in the past that are straight from the OSCP. Cheating on the OSCP (or SANS, or ...) has major consequences. I avoid those questions ...
- 3,066
3
votes
Are AI security-related questions on-topic here?
AI security questions are certainly on-topic, however some of your examples are not security questions or a good fit for our site.
copyright infringement is not a security concern
recommendations for ...
schroederMod
- 132k
2
votes
Asking for help with a security challenge
I would suggest to put such a question On Hold, until the competition is over, if you can prove it's for an ongoing competitive challenge.
Even though those competitions is for learning-getting the ...
- 54
2
votes
Can I ask a high-level / overview question?
It does look sensible as a question, until the question itself. You did some research and you summarized it, that's very good.
But then you start asking things that are completely subjective. No ...
- 5,897
2
votes
Can I create a new question about recommended password length?
I'm a bit surprised that the huge number of posts we have on this don't cover it off sufficiently for you. They cover why longer is better than short, the pros and cons of complexity, and the need for ...
Rory AlsopMod
- 61.7k
2
votes
Moderator believes hardening Chrome ciphers is not about "security", not relevant here [post on hold]
Meta is the mechanism for oversight and disputes on questions. This is the appropriate action that the site owners have provided.
schroederMod
- 132k
2
votes
How can I salvage my question after it got "lost in migration confusion"?
The question falls within our off topic reasons - there is no answer we can give here that would be different to the ones we give for any "This looks like I have been hacked" post:
If you ...
Rory AlsopMod
- 61.7k
2
votes
Should we be more strict about analysis of reports from vulnerability scanners?
I think it needs to lean more towards the "homework" model than a canonical question since we can help and sometimes the resolution is not clear-cut or Google-able.
And I would expand this ...
schroederMod
- 132k
2
votes
Accepted
OK to ask if a particuar app store's vetting is sufficient for a high risk app under non-targeted conditions?
Any type of question that asks "is it safe if..." is not answerable in any meaningful way on Stack Exchange, as there is no single answer that is correct. Every visitor could have a ...
Rory AlsopMod
- 61.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible