In the last post, we discussed that each request that Cloud IAP passes to a backend appliation contains a X-Goog-Iap-Jwt-Assertion header. This header contains an IAP JWT assertion that looks a bit like an IdToken, but is not an IdToken.…
Conceptually, you can think of Cloud IAP as a reverse proxy that is deployed in front of your corporate application that intercepts all requests to perform authentication and authorization.…
At Google Cloud, we run a series of Cloud Summits each year. A Cloud Summit is essentially a mini-version of Cloud NEXT – it lasts one day, features multiple tracks of technical sessions, and is usually held in a location where there is plenty of space for booths where customers can ask questions.
One question that we frequently get at the Ask an Architect or Ask the Expert booth is about Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy - what is it for, how does it work, and how to use it?
In this series of blog posts, I am going to address these questions, one at a time:
A bit over 12 years ago I started this blog to write about Windows development. Back then, I spent the majority of both my free time and time at work developing Win32 and COM-based software and I was just starting to tip my toes into Kernel-mode development.
One year later, in 2008, I begun working on my master’s thesis on function boundary tracing in the Windows kernel, which led to posts about runtime code modification on IA-32, Hotpatching, Detours, NTrace, and other fun stuff.
Things got quiet after 2010 when I changed careers and begun working as a consultant. My focus shifted from Windows development to architecting scalable systems and later led me to entirely different topics such as leading development teams and optimizing the software development lifecycle.
Although I never stopped doing Windows development, it got less over time – and I had less to write about on this blog.
Now it is about time to get more active again on this blog. And as a first step, I moved this blog to a new home.
…A key part of my job as Solutions Architect at Google Cloud is to work with customers to identify and capture best practices and to turn these into public documentation.
Over the past six months, I have published the following guides.
…Powershell advanced functions are a lightweight, yet pretty powerful way to extend the set of commands available in a Powershell sessions. Advanced functions look and feel almost exactly like proper cmdlets, but they are written in Powershell and therefore quick to develop.
By default, advanced functions are ephemeral though: If you run a script containing an advanced function, that function is going to be available for the rest of the Powershell session – after that, it is gone. To make an advanced function available permanently – like a cmdlet – you have to wrap it in a Powershell module, and install that module.
…A key part of my job as Solutions Architect at Google Cloud is to work with customers to identify and capture best practices and to turn these into public documentation.
Over the past six months, I have published the following guides
…Concurrent Execution A typical user mode process on a Windows system can be expected to have more than one thread. In addition to user threads, the Windows kernel employs a number of system threads. Given the presence of multiple threads, it is likely that whenever a code modification is performed, more than one thread is affected, i.e. more than one thread is sooner or later going to execute the modified code sequence.…
Performing modifications on existing code is a technique commonly encountered among instrumentation solutions such as DTrace. Assuming a multiprocessor machine, altering code brings up the challenge of properly synchronizing such activity among processors. As stated before, IA-32/Intel64 allows code to be modified in the same manner as data. Whether modifying data is an atomic operation or not, depends on the size of the operand. If the total number of bytes to be modified is less than 8 and the target address adheres to certain alignment requirements, current IA-32 processors guarantee atomicity of the write operation.…
Instrumentation of a routine may comprise multiple steps. As an example, a trampoline may need to be generated or updated, followed by a modification on the original routine, which may include updatating or replacing a branch instruction to point to the trampoline. In such cases, it is essential for maintaining consistency that the code changes take effect in a specific order. Otherwise, if the branch was written before the trampoline code has been stored, the branch would temporarily point to uninitialized memory.…