Open source security projects to participate in?

[lorddicranius]

After years of trying, I've finally sat down and am learning to program (outside of HTML and a little bit of Javascript I've retained from high school).  Only this time I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere!  I feel like I'm actually starting to grasp it, which I'm really excited about.  I've taken up Python as I've seen it recommended most places as a great starting place.

I've wanted to help out a security project in some way, but lack of programming skills has kept me from doing much.  Now that I'm getting somewhere with my programming, I'm looking to help again.  I've read that most people start out helping with documentation and I'm totally cool with that.

If anybody has any open source security projects/tools that they know is looking for help (Python-based), please let me know

I read a blog post somewhere with a short list of projects that were looking for help, but I can't seem to remember where I read that and didn't bookmark it

[3xban]

I'd be interested as well.  I seem to be much better at learning the code when I have a useful goal to accomplish.  

For instance the MS Scripting Guy announced that the 2012 Scripting Games will be open for sign ups on Feb 5th April 2nd is the official start.  Not sure where I saw Feb 5th.  This is a fun free way to learn some code.  They typically have two levels, beginner and advanced.  I do not believe you are limited to just poweshell, I think some vb scripting was thrown in last year but frankly you should be able to accomplish most of the tasks with PS.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/01/30/scripting-guys-announce-the-2012-powershell-scripting-games.aspx

I tried it last year but didn't sign up, just tried to work through some of the problems.  The submissions begin in April but I believe the problems are released sooner and you can work on them beforehand.

Sometimes games make learning fun

[Eleven]

http://www.cuckoobox.org/
https://www.volatilesystems.com/default/volatility
http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/
http://sqlmap.sourceforge.net/

[ajohnson]

Yea, there are tons of projects to get involved with. It's Ruby instead of Python, but you can do things for Metasploit: http://www.metasploit.com/development/ (I know they were looking for non-dev assistance, such as with documentation, not too long ago).

You can go from a project that large to as something as simple as writing NSEs for Nmap. Contact a project you like and see if you can help with anything. Alternatively, just start your own. Start playing around with something, not even to create a new tool, but just to learn how to do something yourself, and see where it goes.

[Eleven]

I forgot to mention you can also get BackTrack and just search it for python programs.

[lorddicranius]

Sometimes games make learning fun

Totally agree!  Games help me a lot.  It gets out of the theoretical stuff or examples just for the sake of examples into showing application.  I learn the techniques/theories a lot easier when I can actually see practical application.  Show me theory, ehh I'll understand its application eventually.  Show me one application, my mind will run rampant with different ideas of how the technique can be applied elsewhere

I forgot to mention you can also get BackTrack and just search it for python programs.

Funny you mentioned that, I just thought of that this morning, but gotta wait til I get home tonight to see what I can find

And thanks for mentioning Scapy. I had taken a look at that before, but was a little discourage because I didn't understand Python at the time.  So I set it aside until I learned Python, but it slipped my mind!

I'm looking to learn some other languages in the future, so these other suggestions for Powershell, Ruby, etc will come in handy soon enough

[gromic]

You might also find w3af interesting:
http://w3af.sourceforge.net/

It is also coded in Python.

[3xban]

w3af is a neat app.  Can't wait to use it a bit more.