Blacksun is not an exploit novice's game / toolset, as it assumes a bunch of previous knowledge, such as programming, format string exploitation, heap exploitation, shellcoding, and out of the box thinking, amongst other things. However, PullThePlug / OverTheWire does have another wargame that's a lot easier, but still quite challenging available here.

Also, it is not meant to discredit any of the work that has been done towards PaX (hi pipacs!), as it is quite awesome. Perhaps even it will lead to better defensive, and maybe better offensive techniques. And most likely greater understanding with the issues involved.

• Address space randomisation
• Non executable memory and things that affect it
• Stack smashing prevention
• Information leaks
• Code auditing and identifying code paths and vulnerable constructs
• Being able to construct the exploitation environment
• Binary auditing, and differencing
• Access control list systems