str0ke, one of the leaders of the ex-hacking group milw0rm, that split up in 2001, started a public exploit archive in early 2009. He chose to do so when ‘FrSIRT’ (another exploit source) changed into a private, paid source (which in 2008 became VUPEN). Over the years, milw0rm became a trusted source of the knowledge as all the exploits were being verified before they were added. As the site grew in popularity, so did the number of submissions and along with them, the work created for str0ke.