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Tell HN: Gemini 3 found a stack smash in a hex dump that I missed

1•leo_e•27m ago
I spent the morning chasing a crash in our distributed engine. The stack trace pointed to a segfault deep inside folly::FiberManager.

gdb showed that a critical pointer was garbage: 0x676974736e6f5373.

Usually, I’d suspect a race condition or a use-after-free. I stared at the hex for a while, checking for alignment issues or bit-flips, but it just looked like random entropy.

Out of frustration, I pasted the info locals dump into Gemini 3. I didn't ask it to fix the code, I just asked: "What do you see?"

It didn't try to analyze the C++ logic. Instead, it treated the address as data. It pointed out that on an x86-64 (Little Endian) system, 0x676974736e6f5373 decodes perfectly to the ASCII string: "sSonstig".

It clicked immediately. "Sonstig" is German for "Miscellaneous".

It turns out a legacy localization function was writing the category name "Sonstiges" into a stack buffer that was too small. It overflowed and perfectly overwrote the FiberManager pointer with the bytes of the word.

I think we often focus too much on LLMs for "Code Generation" (writing boilerplate). For me, the real killer feature is Pattern Recognition in raw data. I would have stared at that hex for hours seeing only noise; the model recognized the semantic meaning in milliseconds.

Has anyone else found LLMs useful specifically for decoding raw dumps or logs like this?

OpenAI discloses API customer data breach via Mixpanel vendor hack

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/openai-discloses-api-customer-data-breach-via-mixp...
1•DANmode•2m ago•0 comments

Shor's algorithm: the one quantum algo that ends RSA/ECC tomorrow

https://blog.ellipticc.com/posts/what-is-shors-algorithm-and-why-its-the-single-biggest-threat-to...
2•iliasabs•12m ago•0 comments

After such knowledge, what forgiveness?

https://www.stevesailer.net/p/after-such-knowledge-what-forgiveness
1•tartoran•17m ago•0 comments

PpenPanzer: JavaScript/HTML5 rewrite of Panzer General 2 game

https://github.com/nicupavel/openpanzer
1•ibobev•18m ago•0 comments

CiaoTool – No-Code Multi-Chain Token Creation and Management Platform

https://ciaotool.io/en-US
1•CiaoTool•20m ago•1 comments

OpenAI Codex Plan / Spec Mode – We'd Love Your Input

https://github.com/openai/codex/discussions/7355
1•wahnfrieden•22m ago•0 comments

The VPN panic is only getting started

https://www.theverge.com/tech/827435/uk-vpn-restrictions-ban-online-safety-act
4•cebert•24m ago•1 comments

Local LLM based code reviews at Scripbox

https://medium.com/@jpranav97/zero-cost-code-reviews-self-hosted-qwen2-5-coder-on-gitlab-ci-80104...
1•vasuadari•24m ago•1 comments

Tell HN: Gemini 3 found a stack smash in a hex dump that I missed

1•leo_e•27m ago•0 comments

Quantica: A Python-like language with native quantum computing built in

https://github.com/Quantica-Foundation/quantica-lang
1•gurukasi2006•33m ago•0 comments

My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INZybkX8tLI
1•zdw•34m ago•0 comments

What's in a Button?

https://belkadan.com/blog/2025/11/Whats-in-a-Button/
2•todsacerdoti•39m ago•0 comments

Nvidia reportedly no longer supplying VRAM to GPU partners due to memory crunch

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-reportedly-no-longer-supplying-vram-to-its...
1•lysp•40m ago•0 comments

Jeffrey Epstein Was the Unofficial Advice Columnist for the Elites

https://defector.com/jeffrey-epstein-was-the-unofficial-advice-columnist-for-the-elites
6•tartoran•43m ago•0 comments

Former MIT scientist Joscha Bach funded by Epstein made racist claims in private

http://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/21/metro/epstein-emails-mit-joscha-bach/
2•tartoran•44m ago•0 comments

Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism's AI Era

https://thelocal.to/investigating-scam-journalism-ai/
2•pseudolus•51m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What's the point of starting a startup if the failure rate is so high?

3•anon115•51m ago•5 comments

Can RGB light strips produce 16M colors?

2•emmasuntech•59m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a website for games that catch my eye

https://alistof.games
2•RaycatRakittra•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: RcloneView – a GUI for rclone with 50% Black Friday deal

https://rcloneview.com/
1•newclone•1h ago•0 comments

Software Freedom Conservancy 2025 Fundraiser launched with largest match yet

https://sfconservancy.org/news/2025/nov/26/2025-fundraiser-launched-with-largest-match-yet/
2•pabs3•1h ago•0 comments

Calcium Deposits in the Arteries Not Always a Worry (2023)

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical/calcium-deposits-arteries-not-always-worry
1•stacktrust•1h ago•0 comments

Former Google chief accused of spying on employees through account 'backdoor'

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-11-20/former-google-chief-accused-of-spying-on-employ...
4•perihelions•1h ago•1 comments

Clog and Clog Builder 2.4

https://github.com/rabbibotton/clog/releases/tag/v2.4
5•mike_ivanov•1h ago•1 comments

A Boy They Called a Horse

https://biblicalman.substack.com/p/the-boy-they-called-a-horse
2•koolhead17•1h ago•0 comments

Secure Programming with Static Analysis [pdf]

https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780321424778/samplepages/9780321424778.pdf
1•ibobev•1h ago•0 comments

Eric Schmidt's ex-mistress sues former Google CEO over alleged stalking, abuse

https://nypost.com/2025/10/20/business/eric-schmidts-ex-mistress-31-sues-former-google-ceo-70-ove...
2•perihelions•1h ago•0 comments

Baikonur launch pad damaged after Russian Soyuz launch to ISS

https://www.aol.com/articles/baikonur-launch-pad-damaged-russian-210512525.html
3•thunderbong•1h ago•1 comments

HunyuanVideo 1.5: High-Quality AI Video Generation with Stable Motion

https://www.hunyuanvideox.com
1•Viaya•1h ago•1 comments

How a bunch of Starbucks baristas built a labor movement (2022)

https://www.vox.com/recode/22993509/starbucks-successful-union-drive
1•thunderbong•1h ago•0 comments