Al Snow
Security Adversary Data Scientist
Gainesville, Georgia, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolAl Snow is a seasoned Ruby-on-Rails maintainer and security-focused data scientist with 17 years of hands-on experience modernizing and hardening upstream Rails projects. He maintains dozens of open-source Rails repos across versions from Rails 2.3 to 7.1, routinely upgrading gems, fixing CVEs and static-analysis issues, and adding outside-in test coverage. A practical toolsmith and Unix/Linux veteran, he bridges system-level scripting and application security, contributing to notable projects like OWASP/railsgoat and 24pullrequests. He also volunteers as a Security Adversary Data Scientist and OSINT searcher, bringing real-world threat awareness to his maintenance work. Unusually, his career spans decades from AT&T Bell Labs tooling to contemporary Rails security, combining deep legacy knowledge with modern DevSecOps practices.
17 years of coding experience
6 years of employment as a software developer
BS, Computer Science (plus Coop Student), BS, Computer Science (plus Coop Student) at Georgia Institute of TechnologyHigh School, High School, High School, High School at Gainesville High School
Github Skills (13)
security10
testing10
ruby-rails10
pullrequest10
rails10
command-injection10
ruby-on-rails10
vulnerability10
ruby10
open-source9
vulnerabilities8
javascript6
sql5
Programming languages (12)
Github contributions (5)
OWASP/railsgoat
Oct 2013 - Nov 2019
A vulnerable version of Rails that follows the OWASP Top 10
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & Security Engineer
Back-end Developer & Security EngineerContributions:1000 commits, 77 PRs, 1 push in 6 years 1 month
Contributions summary:Al contributed to the `owasp/railsgoat` repository, a vulnerable version of Rails, by integrating the SimpleCov gem for code coverage. They also made changes related to command injection vulnerabilities, modifying code in `app/models/benefits.rb` and `spec/vulnerabilities/command_injection_spec.rb` to address and mitigate potential exploits. Further contributions include modifications to `app/controllers/users_controller.rb`, `app/views/layouts/shared/_sidebar.html.erb`, and several other files.
ruby-on-railsvulnerablerailssecurityvulnerabilities
24pullrequests/24pullrequests
May 2013 - Jan 2016
:christmas_tree: Giving back to open source for the holidays
Role in this project:Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:233 commits, 55 PRs, 111 comments in 2 years 9 months
Contributions summary:Al primarily contributed to fixing bugs and improving the existing codebase. Their work included resolving issues related to WebKit on Ubuntu, updating database configurations, and removing warnings in various spec files. They also upgraded jQuery-rails and made adjustments to project models. Furthermore, they addressed issues within controller and pull request specifications, demonstrating a focus on maintaining the application's functionality and code quality.
christmas-treerailsjavascriptrubychristmas
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