DEV Community: Hashir Ali

I got a new tryhackme certificate

Hashir Ali — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:31:56 +0000

I finally decided to pick up TryHackMe Premium and committed to running through all of their learning paths from the absolute beginning. To kick things off, I just wrapped up the Pre-Security track and got the certificate.

Even though it covers the fundamentals, it was a solid refresher on infrastructure, TCP/IP handshakes, the OSI model, and navigating Windows and Linux via the command line. It’s good to get these foundational modules checked off so I know exactly what's happening under the hood when analyzing network traffic or testing apps.

Now that this first path is out of the way, I am moving straight into the next track on the list and working my way up to the advanced offensive security and architecture labs.

HIPAA for Developers: Small Coding Choices, Big Privacy Impact

Hashir Ali — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 05:06:50 +0000

HIPAA for Developers: The Small Details Matter

A patient’s name in a log file can turn an ordinary debugging session into a privacy problem.

If your app handles protected health information (PHI), HIPAA affects how you build, test, and run it. The rules can sound like paperwork, but they show up in familiar places: who can open a record, what ends up in a log, and which services your app sends data to.

A few habits that make a real difference

Collect and expose less. Give each person and service access only to the information they need. Keep permissions specific, and review them as your app changes.
Treat logs like production data. Avoid putting PHI in error messages, analytics events, screenshots, or test fixtures. Debugging data can spread farther than expected.
Protect data in transit and at rest. Use appropriate safeguards, and make sure secrets and credentials aren’t sitting in source control or shared configs.
Know your vendors. If a vendor handles PHI on behalf of a covered organization, a business associate agreement may be required. Check before sending real data to a new service.
Plan for mistakes. Access controls, audit trails, backups, and a clear incident-reporting process help teams respond when something goes wrong.

A useful question during code review: “Would this feature still work if it had access to less patient data?” If the answer is yes, that’s a good place to start.

Privacy is easier to build in from the start than to bolt on after launch. The best time to think about it is before the first patient record reaches your database.. :)

TryHackMe 50 labs compromised

Hashir Ali — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 05:51:57 +0000

Milestone Reached: Just wrapped up my 50th machine on TryHackMe!

It took a lot of hours, a ton of broken reverse shells, and endless enumeration to get here, but hitting this milestone feels great.

Key Takeaways From the Grind

Don't rush the scan
Spending extra time analyzing nmap banners and directory brute-forcing saves hours of guessing later.

Note-taking is mandatory
Documenting commands and paths saves your sanity when a box resets or a session drops.

Embrace the rabbit holes
The boxes where I got completely stuck for hours taught me way more than the ones I cleared in twenty minutes.

Moving Beyond Basic Scripts

Lately, the biggest shift has been moving away from just running blind nmap scans and actually digging into network architecture. Getting into Active Directory rooms and mapping out domain escalation paths with BloodHound has completely changed how I think about a target network. Seeing the logical relationships visually makes you realize that hacking is way more about understanding configuration flaws than just throwing exploits at a port...

Thanks to everyone who builds these rooms and writes the write ups that helped me unstick myself along the way.

I’m 19, a former game dev, and now working in pentesting.

Hashir Ali — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 04:41:08 +0000

Hey DEV! I’m 19, a former game dev, and now working in pentesting.

Hey everyone,

I'm 19 years old and currently working full-time as a penetration tester. I've been lurking around the DEV community for a while now, and I figured it's finally time to break the ice and make my first post.

TBH Honestly, if you told me a few years ago that this is what I’d be doing for a living today, I wouldn't have believed you.

🕹️ From Building to Breaking
My tech journey actually started out in game development. I loved building things from scratch, but eventually, I got super curious about how the web and data infrastructure actually worked under the hood.

That curiosity pulled me down a massive rabbit hole of web dev and networking, which quickly collided head-on with cybersecurity. I realized I liked networks and web apps a lot, but I fell completely in love with the security side of things:

Finding vulnerabilities

Understanding how systems break
Learning how to properly patch and fix them

I spent a ton of my time self-studying, grinding through labs, and building personal projects until I managed to land my current role.

🚀 Why I'm Joining DEV
I’m here because I want to start documenting my journey, sharing some of my findings (the non-confidential ones, of course!), and learning from the rest of you.

If you’re into cybersec, networking, web dev, or just tech in general, drop a comment and say hi! I'd love to connect and hear what projects everyone else is working on right now.

Cheers! 🍻