SSH Cryptonaut

With a small team, we created a modern SSH client for the Windows operating system (Windows 7 and above). We followed the Kanban development process. In this project, I was the supervisor for the project team, product owner and I also did some development. Not an optimal set of hats for sure, but we were a small team.

My biggest contribution in code for this was that I developed the automatic updates for SSH Cryptonaut, from continuous integration and integrity verification of the packages to Amazon Cloudfront distribution integration. The updater itself is a small C#/.NET 4.5 program with a WPF/XAML UI like rest of SSH Cryptonaut.

I also designed the error reporting facility in the product; if users encountered exceptions during use, they could use the error reporting facility to notify us about the problem. Technologies included AWS S3, AWS Lambda, C# and Python. Our cloud architect implemented the AWS API endpoint according to our specifications.

The project was unfortunately canceled as part of the restructuring of the company in December 2016.

CryptoAuditor

CryptoAuditor is a product for auditing access by trusted individuals to mission-critical systems in the environment. We built the product from the ground-up. The protocol stacks are mostly SSH proprietary libraries, with large parts contributed by me. In this project, I participated in the design of the overall system, contributed the initial UI in its entirety and also built the continuous integration system. The product upgrade and installation system of the appliance have major parts designed and implemented by me. During this project I spearheaded the transitioning from SVN to Git, and installed a review practice for all contributions to the product.

Sheet for Advanced Engine

Combat sheet for our role-playing game. It started out as a pure server-side generated HTML page. As the requirements for different skills and weapons grew, I added JavaScript as progressive enhancements to help in dynamic UI for, e.g., ammunition selection. After I got introduced to React, I started "Reactifying" the sheet layout, with the current version of the sheet being almost completely client-side generated. As a side-effect, the project is now tagged in GitHub as JavaScript due to the amount of JavaScript code. Server-side is built with Django, a Python-based web framework, with the REST API built with django-rest-framework.

I have written about the Reactification in my blog.

The role-playing system rules are house rules that have origins in the TSR Amazing Engine.

I plan on Dockerizing the sheet, so that it would be easier to try out without a full installation. Currently the sheet is running on my private server. The sheet is not really usable without some bootstrap data, which is currently not included in the package.

The Sheet for Advanced Engine has a project page in GitHub.

VR Nanodegree

I have completed the Udacity VR Nanodegree. I created several projects over the course of the degree.

Project Euler

As of this writing (Dec 2016), I've solved 43 out of 582 Euler problems, putting me in the top 7% of problem solvers. Most of my solutions have been written in Python.

SSH2

The original implementation of the IETF standard. I was part of the team designing the protocol.

When the protocol design was being done for SSH2, I was eventually principally responsible for the implementation of any new protocol features or changes to the current implementation. When I joined the project, there was already a working prototype; my colleagues and I built a working software suite. My title back in those days was Chief Engineer.

SSH Communications Security was investing heavily in the IPSec Express Toolkit at the time, and I was the only full-time employee working on SSH2. I implemented many parts of the products, such as scp2 and sftp2, basically from scratch. I was also responsible for external communications; I provided user support to people deploying the software package, I trained customers who were deploying the software, and as at the time this was kind of open source project (with a rather restrictive license), I was also the "community manager" (the concept was not in wide use at the time) for the product.

Later on, the product became closed-source and the team grew. I retained the technical leadership role in the project. With the team, we implemented PKI support and multiple authentication methods, among other features.

SSHG3

A completely new approach to the protocol to enhance performance on the Windows operating system, this was basically a rewrite of the SSH2. I worked mostly on the Server; for example, the rule engine, which enforces the various policies in the configuration, is originally written by me. In this project, I learned first hand the hard way what POSIX threads mean to software.

Programming languages

Over the years, I've used quite a few programming languages. I feel that a programmer needs first and foremost to know how to program, while the medium (the actual programming language) is less relevant. I try to learn a new programming language every year.

I have written non-trivial amounts of code with the following languages:

Python, JavaScript, C, C++, C#, Java, Perl, EmacsLisp, Scheme, Emil, Bourne-shell scripts.

I prefer functional and object-oriented languages; Python is my current favorite language.

I have dabbled with Standard ML and Scala. I'd like to learn Rust, Go, Elixir, Erlang, Ruby, and Scala.

Software engineering

I am a veteran in small startup software projects. I have much experience along with formal training in several software process methodologies, such as Scrum, extreme programming, and test-driven development (TDD). I have also been involved in software projects where the agile methodologies have not been used.

I have given presentations in TDD, also available in YouTube.

I am an experienced systems designer for small to large software systems. I have designed systems that have been maintained for more than a decade since they have been implemented. I have been involved with security software for most of my professional career, but I am no stranger to user interfaces or database applications.

I am passionate about organized configuration management. Automated tests should be run, preferably for all commits made for the project. The final deliverables should be built and tested daily. I have written, collaborated on and maintained several custom in-house tools for this purpose. I have also maintained a Buildbot buildfarm.

Protocol design

I've participated in designing a number of protocols. SSH2 is the most prominent one, although my contribution was relatively minor to the protocol itself, but I also have designed extensions and proprietary protocols, both in the network security field and more mundane uses. I was the RFC editor for the then-Internet Drafts for SSH2, now better known as RFCs 4250, 4251, 4252, 4253, and 4254. I'm the author for 4250 and a contributor for the rest.

From the network security point of view, I have implemented SSH almost from scratch, TLS from scratch (still in production use), and implemented various extensions for many other protocols, such as CMP.

Recruiting

I have recruited excellent people for technical positions at SSH. I recruit with coding samples first if possible; it saves time from the candidate and us. I've received good feedback for this approach, also from people who ultimately were not selected for the positions. I will not fill a position with the least bad candidate; I think that the new hires need to lift the team.

Web design

Django, React, HTML, XML, CSS.

Version control

All software projects require version control. I'm fluent in the following, in order of preference:

git, Mercurial (hg), Bazaar (bzr), Subversion (svn), CVS.

Typesetting

LaTeX, SGML, nroff.

Operating systems

Linux (many distributions), macOS (OSX), FreeBSD, NetBSD, AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Win32.

Databases

PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL.

Languages

Finnish

native

English

fluent

Swedish

moderate (official rating: good command in written, moderate in spoken)