Hacker News·4 min read·medium
I got into YC by hacking it
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speckx
✦AI Summary
A developer describes how they discovered a security vulnerability in a Y Combinator-affiliated tool called Paxel. By exploiting an unvalidated HMAC, they were able to manipulate ranking scores, eventually leading to an invitation to YC's Startup School.
tldr: I uncovered Y Combinator was scoring 100k+ founders around the world through Paxel, I broke it (possible easter egg) + found a vulnerability that let anyone forge and push any score to their ranking database, courtesy of an unvalidated hmac
technologystartups
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