Hector Martin Cantero (born September 9, 1990), also known as marcan, is a
security hacker
A security hacker is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, information gathering, challeng ...
known for hacking multiple
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...
generations, the
Wii and other devices. Martin is lead developer on the
Asahi Linux project.
Biography
Education
Martin went to the American School of Bilbao (Spain), where he received his primary and secondary education.
Career
Since 2011, he has been an official staff volunteer at Euskal Encounter, Gipuzkoa Encounter and Araba Encounter
LAN parties. He is the coordinator of the
Free Software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, ...
area, where he organizes the "Hack It / Solve It" competition (a cybersecurity challenge known as
capture the flag
Capture the flag (CTF) is a traditional outdoor sport where two or more teams each have a flag (or other markers) and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base", and bring it safely back to their own base. ...
) and the "AI Contest" competition.
He has been part of Team Twiizers, where he was responsible for
reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
and hacking the
Wii. He was the first to write an open source driver for the
Microsoft Kinect by reverse engineering for which he was widely credited. Sony
sued him and others for hacking the PlayStation 3; the case was eventually settled out of court. In 2016, he ported
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
to the
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
and demonstrated that at the 33rd
Chaos Communication Congress by running
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...
inside Linux. He wrote the usbmuxd tool for synchronizing data from
iPhones to Linux computers.
In 2021, Martin founded the
Asahi Linux project, an effort to
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...
Linux to the new
Apple silicon
Apple silicon is a series of system on a chip (SoC) and system in a package (SiP) processors designed by Apple Inc., mainly using the ARM architecture. It is the basis of most new Mac computers as well as iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple ...
-powered
Macs. He currently remains the lead developer on the project. While reverse engineering Apple's hardware, Martin discovered the "
M1racles" security vulnerability on the
Apple M1 processor.
See also
*
References
External links
*
Hector Martin's YouTube― Asahi Linux coding streams
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Hector
1990 births
Living people
Hackers
Computer security specialists