Refactoring the Windows Kernel with Joe Bialek

In this episode of The BlueHat Podcast, hosts Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone are joined by BlueHat 2024 presenter Joe Bialek, a security engineer at Microsoft with over 13 years of experience. Joe shares his fascinating journey from intern to red team pioneer, recounting how he helped establish the Office 365 Red Team and pushed the boundaries of ethical hacking within Microsoft. He discusses his formative years building sneaky hacking tools, navigating the controversial beginnings of red teaming, and transitioning to the Windows Security Team to focus on low-level security and mitigations. Joe reflects on the challenges of internal hacking, the human reactions to being "hacked," and the value of strengthening defenses before external threats arise. 

In This Episode You Will Learn:  

• How Microsoft is developing tooling to identify and address bad programming patterns 
• Why kernel-related discussions are primarily focused on Windows and driver developers 
• The challenges developers face when reading and writing through pointers in C or C++ 

Some Questions We Ask: 

• How does working with the Windows kernel impact system security and performance? 
• What sets Windows kernel and driver development apart from other types of development? 
• Why should internal teams test systems for vulnerabilities before external hackers? 

Resources:      

View Joe Bialek on LinkedIn  

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn   

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn  

BlueHat 2024 Session: Pointer Problems – Why We’re Refactoring the Windows Kernel 

Related Microsoft Podcasts:    

• Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast   
• Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson   
• Uncovering Hidden Risks   



Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts   

The BlueHat Podcast is produced by Microsoft and distributed as part of N2K media network.