Rewriting someone else's code to eliminate the potential buffer overflows is a lot less glamorous and exciting than exploiting a buffer overflow to escalate use

Rewriting someone else's code to eliminate the potential buffer overflows is a lot less glamorous and exciting than exploiting a buffer overflow to escalate user privileges, in the same way that watching a mason re-mortar an entire brick wall is less exciting than watching a ninja scale that wall, eliminate the guards in complete silence, steal the MacGuffin, and escape without a trace. But it is steady, decently-paying work that will likely last until the singularity.