[enthdegree]

How do you get the background to pursue this sort of thing?

I've programmed and used Linux for a little while and I've done some simple things in assembly language (although not in much depth), but all the technical things past the CVE-2013-2842 section are impenetrable to me.

[bdelay]

Started out cracking software on embedded systems a long time ago. That led to an understanding of ASM and reverse engineering. Going from there to exploitation isn't a giant leap.

There's quite a few books on the subject. Hacking: The Art of Exploitation is a decent hello world introduction to the subject. Reading CTF practice problem writeups and then trying easier ones yourself are also good experiences.

For REing, http://crackmes.de is a blast. The entry level challenges should be easy to grasp after reading a few tutorials. Would recommend running everything in a Windows VM. ;)

Good luck!