Writer's Guidelines

Our target audience is everyone with an interest in IT security, whether they have advanced technical knowledge or not. We suggest to use as much non-technical English as possible. It is always best to be clear, concise, and to-the-point.

Topics

Check our list of topics.

Acceptance Criteria

1. Title

The title of the article must grab the reader’s attention. It must not exceed 35 characters

  1. Make the topic something fun or interesting. It can be in the form of a question.

    Examples:

    • Wanting the Cookie.

    • Information Security, an expense or an investment?

  2. Absolutely no generic titles.

    Examples:

    • SQL Injection.

    • XSS Vulnerability.

2. Structure

The document must have a LIX complexity below 50. This guarantees that the document is easy to read. All documents must have:

  1. An introduction that tells the reader what your article is about and what they can expect.

  2. A body containing specific information (details) that supports or elaborates on your introduction.

  3. A short conclusion that wraps up or restates the important points from the introduction.

3. Format

Documents will only be accepted in an AsciiDoc format. For more information check out our format page, the AsciiDoc guide, or a quick reference.

4. Word limit

Documents have strict length limits:

  1. For Posts: between 800 and 1200 words.

  2. For pages (sites): Between 400 and 1200 words.

5. Semantic Line Breaks

Documents must have Semantic Line Breaks (SLB), in order to facilitate editing and keep an organized record of modifications in our version control system (Gitlab). To do this, we define the following rules:

  1. Minimum words before a SLB: 4.

  2. Maximum number of characters before a SLB: 80.

  3. A SLB must be added after a period (.).

  4. A SLB can be added after linking words and connectors, depending on the context and respecting the previous rules.

Exceptions to the rule are:

  1. Links.

  2. Source Code.

Example:

slb
Figure 1. SLB Example.

For more information regarding SLB and their use, you can check out the semantic linefeeds guide, semantic line wrapping guide, or the AsciiDoc documentation

6. Images

  1. All documents must include at least one image related to the topic being presented.

  2. All documents covers must be from unsplash.

  3. All documents must include at least one image from unsplash and ideally another graphic reference (it can be from unsplash or any other webpage).

  4. Use free professional images from unsplash.

  5. Images that are not yours must include a reference.

  6. Include a description of the image.

7. Source

Unless the language forces you to do otherwise, the source code must comply with the following:

  1. Be in English (even the comments).

  2. Indent using 2 spaces instead of tabs, unless the language requires otherwise.

  3. Use the brace style seen in stroustrup (no one liners). Example.

  4. Lines must not exceed 80 characters in length.

  5. Lines must not contain debug comments left behind.

  6. Function definition must be separated by 1 empty line, unless the linter or the language requires otherwise.

Embedded code snippets must comply with the following:

  1. Be enumerated. To do so add the parameter linenums to the source block.

  2. Not have more than 8 lines.

  3. No repeating a snippet that has already been used in the guide.

  4. Add the lines of code to the post using a code block, don’t use images.

Example:

example.c
function cool(x) {
  /*Please use SHORT comments in english when necessary.
  You must explain your code in the document*/
  int y;
  y = x + 1;
  return y;
  //And remember, do NOT exceed 8 lines ;)
}

8. Exploit Explanations

In the case of documents focused on exploitation, once the procedure is explained, we recommend including a short gif showing the result of what was explained. Add a description for the gif.

gif
Figure 2. Exploit description example.

9. Not permitted

  1. Code snippets that are not your own.

  2. Technical explanations not relevant to security:

    Example: Introduction to a programming language without mentioning how to securely program in said language.

10. Metadata

Metadata are variables which influence the final rendering of the pages and how the search engine indexes them. Below is a table with the mandatory metadata for a document:

Table 1. List of metadata present in a document.
Metadata Page Post Description

:slug:

Yes

Yes

Link where the document can be found once it has been accepted. The slug must be the name of the article in lowercase, with no spaces, prepositions, conjunctions or connectors and separated by a dash "-".

:description:

Yes

Yes

Brief summary of the main idea of the document (250 to 300 characters long). This description will appear in the search engine search results.

:keywords:

Yes

Yes

Keywords through which a search engine can find the document. The document must include 6 keywords.

:subtitle:

Yes

Yes

Short subtitle that specifically indicates the purpose of the document. It must not exceed 55 characters.

:date:

No

Yes

Date the document was created.

:category:

No

Yes

Category to which the document falls under. Example: Security opinions, Best practices, etc.

:tags:

No

Yes

Similar to the metadata :keywords: Noteworthy words that index the document internally.

:image:

No

Yes

Image that will appear in the article preview. This image must have certain dimensions, 900 x 600 px and must not exceed 800 Kb in size.

:alt:

No

Yes

Description of the image in the article preview.

:author:

No

Yes

Name of the author that will appear at the top of the document. Name and last name only.

:writer:

No

Yes

Name and extension of the image that represents you as the author. The only extension permitted is PNG.

:name:

No

Yes

Name that will appear under the author’s image/picture. It can be your full name or nickname.

:about1:

No

Yes

Main information about the author: scholarship, experience, role (if it applies).

:about2:

No

Yes

Additional information about the author: likes, interests, links to personal blogs or profiles.

:source:

No

Yes

Link to the cover image from unsplash.

11. Additional Information

  1. If acronyms are used, their meaning should be included in parentheses.

  2. Include references when using fragments from external sources.

  3. Paragraphs must be original; don’t use text from other sites unless they are specific phrases.

  4. Foreign and reserved words used outside of blocks of code must use monospace.

  5. Make sure to include the link: before adding a link.

  6. When writing the company name (Fluid Attacks), consider the following cases:

    • Case 1: If the name is placed next to the company logo, it must be written as follows:

       ___
| >>|> fluid
|___|  attacks

    • Case 2: If the name is used as part of a domain, URL or file path, it must be written in lowercase without spaces:

      path/fluidattacks/file

www.fluidattacks.com

    • Case 3: In any other case, it must be written in Title Case and separated:

      Fluid Attacks: We hack your software, zero false positives

  7. When including a reference, use the letter "r" as an anchor_ID followed by the reference number. Use superscript to quote it.

Example:

I'm talking about some topic
and now I need to cite a reference <<r# ,^[#]^>>

== References

. [[r#]] link:https://my-url[Fancy name for url].

Authors

Do not forget to send with it a paragraph telling us a little bit about yourself and an image that represents you because at the end of the post the authors’s profile will be included.

guest

  1. Author’s first and last name.

  2. Short description, minimum 15 words – maximum 30. You may include: What you do for a living, years of experience, certifications, likes and interests.

  3. Optional: Link to personal blog – github – linkedin

Requests

If you are not part of the Fluid Attacks team, you just have to send your document to communications@fluidattacks.com attaching all the required files in order to create the post. Once the document is sent, it is evaluated to determine if it will be published.

Terms and Conditions

  1. Fluid Attacks reserves the right to accept or reject any document sent in. Fluid Attacks does not pay for articles accepted for publication on the blog.

  2. We perform a non-substantive review of the document. Fluid Attacks doesn’t evaluate if we agree or not with the author’s opinion as expressed in the document, but only that the document meets the required criteria described above.

  3. Once a draft is completed you must request the revision of the document through a Merge Request so that we can evaluate the content.

If the document is accepted and published, the author retains the copyright to the draft submitted to Fluid Attacks. However, Fluid Attacks retains the right to make changes to the draft, if necessary, and these may be made without the author’s consent or notification.

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