You seem smart and like someone who enjoys this stuff, so if you want a much more fun lesson (or, uh, 40+ of them), drop a line to sean AT matasano DOT com and he'll send you a bunch of exercises that'll teach you how to exploit this stuff.
Are any of those lessons public, or semi-public? I am very interested in stuff like that as I am working on crypto systems for a gov't project.
Open invite! Send mail to sean, he'll get you started. We're not publishing them and we'll ask you not to circulate them, but instead to let anyone you know who wants to see them to just mail sean.
Alright, email sent. Would love to work through them with the rest of the team at work though, think it would be good for all of us to have a good understanding of how to break crypto systems.
Another email sent. Wonderful offer. Thanks a lot!