Recent News

DEF CON XXI HUMAN BADGE CHALLENGE

Posted 7.14.13

Contests? You like contests? Here's a contest. Find all the other contests in the puzzle below. Once you've done that, solve the rest of the puzzle for prizes galore!

Once you have solved the puzzle go to our contest entry page to enter. http://preview.tinyurl.com/DC21Puzzle

There's more than one way to win!

• If you enter the correct answer for the first stage you will be entered into the drawing for a free DEF CON 21 T-shirt, redeemable at DEF CON 21!

• If you enter the correct answer to the second stage you are entered in the drawing to win a DEF CON 21 T-shirt and a Human Badge! That means you can save your money for having fun in Las Vegas, AND you get to skip the badge line!

L B H U N I S R Q B A R I R C E L J R Y Y

F B S N E S C A V E N G E R H U N T A D B

J E X P L O I T H A C K A T H O N S I B E

G U L R C E S V C M R C U R E R V M F L H

B H E I P D N Y H E K R P U R V A F G Y A

U R A R P J E U B M J I F G B R S U R G C

N G P X W M R F E R M O E W Y R B O A C K

N E N Q A L O I E P K K R P K K T L H T E

K H I I L V F C M H V W T P X S F R A Z R

E O C Y L Y K Y D S T N O M T E T M C M J

G L B J O O R P F N E T M R H E P F K Z E

D O I U F A O X A C A S O T P E N P F X O

A N C H S P W C K A B H E P R G C K O H P

I A Z C H I T N E E S R S E S A B V R E A

N J A W E L E Z W G U C V A D B B T T A R

X L A X E T N Z O T A I M X R K B B R H D

B C I F P I Y X P Q D R G L B C M L E B Y

R N S C H E M A V E R S E C H A M P S G F

G S T R H B C C N Z F Z A V F L X M S A F

D X M G R J L T U F P R N G E B F J M K W

C T J Q W D E X E J H E D W M B K K K K K

Words to search for:

BEVERAGECOOLING

BLACKBAG

CAPTURETHEFLAG

CRACKMEIFYOUCAN

CRASHANDCOMPILE

DARKNETPROJECT

EXPLOITHACKATHON

HACKERJEOPARDY

HACKFORTRESS

NETWORKFORENSICS

PIMPMYRASCAL

SCAVENGERHUNT

SCHMAVERSECHAMP

SHORTSTORY

SPOTTHEFED

TAMPEREVIDENT

TENKCENTPYRAMID

WALLOFSHEEP

(download printable pdf here)

To submit your answers, go here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/DC21Puzzle

We'd like to thank @DarthNull, for his help in coming up with this Challenge. We can't wait to see you guys in Vegas! Good luck, and thanks for playing!

The Summit EFF Fundraiser

Posted 7.14.13

We heart the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Chances are, you heart them too. You know, because they exist to defend our rights in the digital world and whatnot.

If you're looking for a fun way to heart the EFF in a way that helps them keep existing, we have an event just for you.

The Summit EFF Fundraiser is in its ninth year of handing out prizes, blasting out DJ sets and assisting in the congenial drunkification of EFF supporters. It's held Thursday night, making it a fun way to ease into DEF CON. You can hobnob with similarly freedom-inclined cyberfolk, win a raffle or some door prizes, shake your pants to DJ Jackalope and others and rest easy in the knowledge that every penny generated goes straight to the EFF.

It's $40 at the door, and your entry fee comes with a raffle ticked and a one year membership to the EFF. The question really shouldn't be "are we doing this?" so much as "how HARD are we doing this?"

*Bonus info: according the forum thread for the Summit, Ali Spagnola will be bringing her Power Hour show to put the evening over the top.

Clarification

Posted 7.13.13

Apparently many in the press can't parse the English language very well. Nowhere in DT's statement did he ban anyone from attending.

There is a lot of tension in the community right now and he was asking politely for feds to consider not attending this year.

If you are on your own dime pursuing your own personal interests in hacking and not assigned to be there working your federal Intel job, then don't consider yourself a Fed! We want motivated people to attend!

DEF CON The Documentary: The Preordering

Posted 7.12.13

In a world.....

If you were at DEF CON 20, you might have noticed a crew with blaze orange vests, cameras and a Segway or two roaming the grounds and asking a lot of questions. It appears their study of us has been concluded, and they are ready to share their findings.

A couple of special editions of the highly anticipated DEF CON documentary by Jason Scott and his team are available for pre-order. Sure, it's going to be released free online, but these are SPECIAL editions that look cool on your coffee table and support your beloved DEF CON. (No need to be shy. We be-love you, too.)

There's a standard edition with the movie in 720p on a USB key with a special lanyard. There's also a Deluxe package with a 1080p video & complete 400 Gb Archive from media.defcon.org on a hard drive, a DEF CON lunchbox and an art book full of pictures from the first 20 years of DEF CON. And a special lanyard.

Furthermore, you can choose to either have it shipped to you after the CON (subject to availability) or, if you're in the know, you can have it waiting for you in Las Vegas. That's right - you can pick up your copy at DC21.

For further details and purchasing options, you can head over to HackerStickers.com.

DEF CON Compilation is Back!

Posted 7.11.13

Music to hack to is back at it again. Keep your ears out for the second installment of the official free/pay-what-you-want DEF CON music compilation purveyed by Gravitas Recordings (http://gravitasrecordings.com), where 100% of the revenue generated will go straight to the EFF's pockets. We'll have some AWESOME big-names **cough** BT and others , some talented regulars, and totally far out stuff.

Here's a sneak peak off of what's coming up! A tune from a project with whom attendee artist/dj Mitch Mitchem is involved:

MDMM - Octopus (Redux)

https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-21/MDMM_-_Octopus_-_Redux_-_DEF_CON_XXI_Comp_Preview.mp3

MDMM on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MDMMofficial

In case you missed last year's, get it here!

http://music.gravitasrecordings.com/album/def-con-xx-compilation

Feds, we need some time apart.

Posted 7.10.13

For over two decades DEF CON has been an open nexus of hacker culture, a place where seasoned pros, hackers, academics, and feds can meet, share ideas and party on neutral territory. Our community operates in the spirit of openness, verified trust, and mutual respect.

When it comes to sharing and socializing with feds, recent revelations have made many in the community uncomfortable about this relationship. Therefore, I think it would be best for everyone involved if the feds call a "time-out" and not attend DEF CON this year.

This will give everybody time to think about how we got here, and what comes next.

The Dark Tangent

UPDATE: More from DT in this article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/11/us-hackers-feds-idUSBRE96A08120130711

DEF CON Tamper Evident Contest!

Posted 7.7.13

"When you can walk the rice paper without tearing it, then your steps will not be heard"

-Master Kan,"Kung Fu"

"The contest will test your ability to perform "defeats" against a range of inexpensive commercial low to medium security products in an eight hour window ... with judging occurring at noon Saturday by three judges for a combined score. You will see a list of the exact products in the contest so you can practice in advance."

-The Dark Tangent, "Con Fu"

The Tamper Evident Contest is back, with more seals for you to stealthily compromise. This year it's teams only (2-6 players) and we've added volunteers to streamline the documentation phase. There is room for only nine teams, so if you are interested it's best not to wait to sign up. You can get a ton of information about the rules, the products to be assaulted and the steps to sign up by stopping by the Tamper Evident Contest Forum Thread. We hope we will see you there, yet be utterly unable to detect your participation.

DEF CON Featured Headliner: BT

Posted 7.6.13

If you thought DEF CON peaked last year for it's 20th, THINK AGAIN. DEF CON is exceedingly (and smugly) pleased to announce our main Friday night headliner, BT: one the most prolific and pioneering musicians out there. Fancy promotional-speak doesn't do him justice. We're just going to list off factoids from his resume and call it a day:

- He's Grammy nominated.

- He holds the Guiness world record for the largest number of edits in a song (6178, to be exact).

- He's composed music for Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, Tori Amos, Sting, and many others.

- He's scored for films like The Fast and The Furious, Monster, Go, and many others.

- His music has appeared on movie soundtracks including Hackers, Mortal Kombat: Annhilation, Tomb Raider, Zoolander, and many others.

- Video games too: Gran Turismo 3, SSX Tricky, DDR Extreme, and many others.

We think you will enjoy this.

== Recent Work ==

BT - Skylarking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCK_yrvKaz4

BT - 13 Angles on My Broken WindowSill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrj74AZ0l5Q

Arty, Nadia Ali & BT - Must Be The Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHu8948sDJA

BT feat Kirsty Hawkshaw - A Million Stars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHu8948sDJA

== Classics! ==

BT feat The Roots - Tao of the Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTNS9nj_Iow

BT - Smartbomb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcchxjsw29g

BT - Somnambulist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iFizEkfEAQ

BT feat Mark Doughty - Never Gonna Come Back Down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt52SoAeP48

BT - Flaming June

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfG-GSwUhSU

Libra presents Taylor - Anomaly (calling your name) - Original BT & Taylor Mix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yl_32l1atk

Discounted Rooms Available at Bally's

Posted 7.2.13

For attendees still looking for accomodations, there's a block of discounted rooms available at Bally's. There's also a convenient shuttle from Bally's to the Rio throughout each day.

Room rates are $59.00 for week nights and $120.00 for Friday & Saturday. Act now as this block will fill quickly! Use Group Code SBDEF3.

Bally's Las Vegas

DEF CON Featured Thursday Night Headliner: Faderhead

Posted 7.1.13

Video: Faderhead - Fistful of F*ck You (NSFW)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajlCLQqhiOg

Video: Faderhead - TZDV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLptcBLy6Qw

Video:Faderhead - Dancers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR6ansmAkVo

This is just the beginning of the awesomeness that is the music we'll be announcing for DEF CON this year. To kick things off on Thursday night, we've decided to dive right in with smashing your face full of hard electronicy goodness: We've got *Faderhead* making the trek out to the DEF CON all the way from Germany, determined to shred your ears off. This is going to be one special US appearance that you're not going to want to miss. Pain never sounded so good.

PS: Bringing earplugs may be a good call...

Wondering If We Have More Speakers to Share With You? Wonder No More.

Posted 6.30.13

The short answer is 'Yes'. The long answer is the rest of this post. So. Many. Presentations.

You probably want to go get your reading glasses. Or black-market cyber eyes. Eye strain is a real possibility, and we care about your optic health.

Remember – take care of your eyes and they'll take care of you.

DragonLady: An Investigation of SMS Fraud Operations in Russia

Ryan W. Smith

The Government and UFOs: A Historical Analysis

Richard Thieme

Analyzing and Counter-Attacking Attacker Implanted Devices Case Study:

Pwn Plug

Wesley McGrew

Business logic flaws in mobile operators services

Bogdan Alecu

A Password is Not Enough: Why Disk Encryption Is Broken

And How We Might Fix It

Daniel Selifonov

PowerPwning: Post-Exploiting By Overpowering PowerShell

Joe Bialek

Doing Bad Things to 'Good' Security Appliances

Phorkus and Evilrob

Collaborative Penetration Testing with Lair

Tom Steele and Dan Kottman

Android WebLogin: Google's Skeleton Key

Craig Young

BoutiqueKit: Playing WarGames with Expensive Rootkits and Malware

Josh "m0nk" Thomas

Hardware Hacking with Microcontrollers: A Panel Discussion

Joe Grand, RenderMan, FirmWarez, LosT and Mark 'Smitty' Smith

This Presentation Will Self-destruct in 45 Minutes:

A Forensic Deep Dive into Self-destructing Message Apps

Drea London and Kyle O'Meara

10000 Yen into the Sea

Flipper

Fear the Evil FOCA: IPv6 Attacks in Internet Connections

Chema Alonso

Let's Screw with nmap

Gregory Pickett

Revealing Embedded Fingerprints: Deriving Intelligence from USB Stack Interactions

Andy Davis

The Bluetooth Device Database

Ryan Holeman

C.R.E.A.M. Cache Rules Evidently Ambiguous, Misunderstood

Jacob Thompson

Suicide Risk Assessment and Intervention Tactics

Amber Baldet

Conducting Massive Attacks with Open Source Distributed Computing

Alejandro Caceres

Resting on Your Laurels Will Get You Pwned: Effectively Code Reviewing REST Applications to Avoid Getting Powned

Abraham Kang and Dinis Cruz

Fast Forensics Using Simple Statistics and Cool Tools

John Ortiz

Forensic Fails - Shift + Delete Won't Help You Here

Eric Robi and Michael Perklin

EDS: Exploitation Detection System

Amr Thabet

HiveMind: Distributed File Storage Using JavaScript Botnets

Sean Malone

OTP, It won't save you from free rides!

bughardy and Eagle1753

Utilizing Popular Websites for Malicious Purposes Using RDI

Daniel Chechik and Anat (Fox) Davidi

gitDigger: Creating Useful Wordlists From Public GitHub Repositories

Jaime Filson (WiK) and Rob Fuller (Mubix)

Evolving Exploits Through Genetic Algorithms

soen

Proliferation

Ambassador Joseph DeTrani

The Growing Irrelevance of US Government Cybersecurity Intelligence Information

Mark Weatherford

Meet the VCs

Ping Li, Matt Ocko, Phil Paul, Eileen Burbridge

From Nukes to Cyber - Alternative Approaches for Proactive Defense and Mission Assurance

Lt Gen Robert Elder, USAF (Retired

An Open Letter - The White Hat's Dilemma: Professional Ethics

Alex Stamos

The Policy Wonk Lounge

Sameer Bhalotra, Robert Brese, Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, Bruce McConnell, Mark Weatherford

DEF CON 21 Entertainment Featured Artist Posting: Round 1

Posted 6.28.13

There's more to be announced very shortly, but we thought we'd kick things off with a taster on some extraordinarily talented acts we've managed to get a hold of. These are in no particular order. There should be something for eeeeveryone here.

****************************************************************

First up: Left/Right

Video: Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes (Left/Right Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j-evh5FiKM

Chris Lund aka Left/Right has spent over 12 years working from Dallas as a dj, producer, and teacher... and even longer as a musician. His music has garnered support from Rolling Stone, DJ Mag, BT, The Crystal Method, Excision, and DJ Icey, charted in the top 10 at Beatport, Juno, TrackItDown, Hype Machine, and received airplay in scores of countries around the world.

With degrees in both music composition and audio engineering, Chris loves to create music. His exciting singles, remixes, and dj mixes feature his signature broken beat, future garage, and unique bass sound and drive his energetic performances. L/R is regularly booked coast to coast and internationally to move dancefloors- including sets at Fabric (London), Burning Man, SXSW, Meltdown festivals, and his resident FUTURE events.

Site link: https://www.facebook.com/LeftRightMusicOfficial

****************************************************************

Next: Bil Bless (a.k.a. Son of the Electric Ghost a.k.a. SOTEG)

Video: Bil Bless - Nas Says

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThnDMl2oP5w

I'm going to make up a bio for him. If you took Richard D. James/Aphex Twin, gave him an American accent, demanded he use more dance-floor-oriented beats, had him master for a number of well-known stateside heavies, and shoved him into some dark dank underground lair where no one could possibly ever find him or hear of him except the most dedicated of cool-hunters, you'd get out the ever so enigmatic Bil Bless a.k.a. Son of the Electric Ghost a.k.a. SOTEG. We don't know how we pulled it off, but we got him to agree to come thread some of the most technical and yet beautiful bassy glitchy music through your head. I'm going to insert a personal bias here, and say that he put on the best live show I've ever seen or heard. Ever. (Sorry everyone else).

PS: No one has apparently yet found his real tune from our DCXX compilation last year (it's supposed to be a scavenger hunt...).

Site link: http://bilbless.bandcamp.com/

****************************************************************

Next: BlakOpz

Video: BlakOPz - Hunted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9_ndeqcnug

BlakOPz.....

Clandestine.

Covert.

Their shadowy presence on our roster has been confirmed only to a select few up to now – but with their first major mission alongside AESTHETIC PERFECTION and X-RX about to take place across America, the time has come for us to publicly identify BLAKOPZ as the new tactical unit in DWA's ever-more-powerful army of artists.

With collective field experience of over 20 years in the rave, industrial and related music scenes, veteran DJ/producer Mike Weir (codename "Mindbender") and producer Alex King (codename "Kill The Alex") joined forces in just 2010 to form the BLAKOPZ unit – yet have already been deployed in surgical strikes throughout America opening for the likes of FGFC820, GOD MODULE, HANZEL UND GRETYL, IMPERATIVE REACTION and AYRIA.

Site link: https://www.facebook.com/BlakOPzBAND

****************************************************************

Next: Psymbionic

Video: Beastie Boys - Intergalactic (Psymbionic Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vks7Yfq3cT0

As a part of the upcoming generation of electronic music producers, Psymbionic creates aural experiences that demonstrate the possibility for multi-tempo Bass Music and culture to exist within a range of more divergent influences. Passion and innovation drives this young producer, facilitating his forthcoming and past releases on labels such as Muti Music, MalLabel, and Gravitas Recordings, just to name a few.

With this latest project, John Burcham has been moving bodies and turning heads for several years, playing with acts such as Bassnectar, STS9, Beats Antique, ill.Gates, Excision, EOTO, and Tipper. In addition to festival appearances that include Nocturnal, Wakarusa, and Sonic Bloom, Psymbionic demonstrates heavy involvement both on the stage and behind the scenes at electronic showcases such as his local SXSW in Austin, TX. Burcham's work informs his repertoire with roots in the furthest reaches of the electronic music scene, and grants him a unique perspective on each crowd through the latest developments of the industry.

In a live show context, Psymbionic confronts mixes that are limited to the scope of the build and release, avoiding an industry epidemic of drop-monotony that overpowers the flow of music. Burcham seeks to prove that there are more powerful influences in moving a crowd than simple anticipation, providing an interwoven dynamic that relies on the strength of his blend, rather than the sole force or familiarity of the apex.

Psymbionic's theory of music is a journey that doesn't visit the same place twice, building excitement for what's next not because you can anticipate it, but because you've never been there before.

Site link: http://psymbionicmusic.com/

****************************************************************

Next: Au5 & Fractal

Video: Au5 & Fractal - Halcyon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXhTKddTt0o

What happens when you take trance music and merge it with glitch-hop? With a proper execution, you get the upstarts Au5 + Fractal, an east-coast duo from New Jersey + Maryland. You know how everyone has that older relative who talks about having seen The Stones, or The Beatles, etc before they got massively huge? If you see them at DEF CON, you'll be the one telling your future kids/grand-kids that same old story about these guys. Site links: https://soundcloud.com/au5 and https://soundcloud.com/officialfractal

DEF CON Review Board Revealed!

Posted 6.26.13

It's my pleasure to announce to you the DEF CON 21 Review board. There were some not listed whom wished to remain super sekret, but I would like to take the moment to thank them for their work in reviewing the five hundred plus submissions. ( It goes without saying, but I will anyway) The men and women on our review board are all highly qualified, respected members of the hacker community, and I can't thank them enough. They worked really hard to help cook up a fresh batch of awesome-sauce for you to enjoy, I hope you like our selections. We spent a lot of time debating amongst ourselves, insulting each other with image macros, and scheming to fit as many of the A++FTW CFP's into the schedule that we could. Now, the moment you've been waiting for since the first sentence...THE DEF CON 21 Review Board.

By now everyone should have gotten word on their CFP submission, if for some unknown reason you haven't heard back from us, drop us a line and we will provide you with feedback on your submission. At last, the final round of speakers have officially been accepted and here is another speakers page update for you. Set your eyeballs to gaze, it's a good long read, plenty of cool talks for DC21. Thank you all again for submitting, the review board for every minute spent reviewing, and the NSA for backing it up to hard drive for us. - Nikita

Another Round of Speaker Announcements!

Posted 6.26.13

That's right. More speaker announcements. We know it's a lot to take in. You don't have to read them all at once. Meditate. Contemplate. Marinate.

Defense by Numbers: Making Problems for Script Kiddies and Scanner Monkeys

Chris John Riley

Backdoors, Government Hacking and The Next Crypto Wars

Christopher Soghoian

All Your RFz Are Belong to Me - Hacking the Wireless World with Software Defined Radio

Balint Seeber

How my Botnet Purchased Millions of Dollars in Cars and Defeated the Russian Hackers

Michael Schrenk

We are Legion: Pentesting with an Army of Low-power, Low-cost Devices

Philip Polstra

VoIP Wars: Return of the SIP

Fatih Ozavci

Dude, WTF is my car?

Alberto Garcia Illera and Javier Vazquez Vidal

Hacking Driverless Vehicles

Zoz

Phantom Network Surveillance UAV / Drone

Ricky Hill

T1 - Offensive Forensics: CSI for the Bad Guy

Benjamin Caudill

A Thorny Piece Of Malware (And Me)

Marion Marschalek

How to Hack Your Mini Cooper: Reverse Engineering Controller Area Network (CAN) Messages on Passenger Automobiles

Jason Staggs

Building an Android IDS on Network Level

Jaime Sanchez

Insecurity - A Failure of Imagination

Marc Weber Tobias and Tobias Bluzmanis

Abusing NoSQL Databases

Ming Chow

Safety of the Tor Network: a Look at Network Diversity, Relay Operators, and Malicious Relays

Runa A. Sandvik

Noise Floor: Exploring the World of Unintentional Radio Emissions

Melissa Elliott

Data Evaporation from SSDs

Sam Bowne

DefCon Comedy Jam Part VI, Return of the Fail

Panel

Defending Networks with Incomplete Information: A Machine Learning Approach

Alexandre Pinto

Stepping P3wns: Adventures in Full Spectrum Embedded Exploitation (and Defense!)

Ang Cui and Michael Costello

BYOD PEAP Show

Josh Yavor

Blucat: Netcat For Bluetooth

Joseph Paul Cohen

The ACLU Presents: NSA Surveillance and More

Panel

The Dark Arts of OSINT

Noah Schiffman

Exploiting Music Streaming with JavaScript

Franz Payer

Java Every-Days: Exploiting Software Running on 3 Billion Devices

Brian Gorenc and Jasiel Spelman

AMASs, MASter, MASsacre: Pwning MAS Radio in Three Easy Steps

Scott Turner

Key Decoding and Duplication Attacks for the Schlage Primus High-Security Lock

David Lawrence, Gabriel Karpman and Robert Johnson

Transcending Cloud Limitations by Obtaining Inner Piece

Zak Blacher

How to Disclose or Sell an Exploit Without Getting in Trouble

James Denaro

Are You Really Liking It When You Use the Facebook Likes?

Xinye Lin

The Dawn of Web 3.0: Website Mapping and Vulnerability Scanning in 3D, Just Like You Saw in the Movies

Teal Rogers and Alejandro Caceres

Mach-O Malware Analysis: Combatting Mac OSX/iOS Malware with Data Visualization

Remy Baumgarten

GoPro or GTFO: A Tale of Reversing an Embedded System

Todd Manning and Zach Lanier

Open Public Sensors, Trend Monitoring and Data Fusion

Daniel Burroughs

Congrats to the Qualified DEF CON CTF Teams!

Posted 6.25.13

With the DEF CON CTF Qualifications now complete, we'd like to give a hearty congratulations to the qualifying CTF Teams:

more smoked leet chicken

blue lotus

routards

shell corp

shellphish

WOWHacker-BI0S

9447

men in black hats

clgt

sutegoma2

pwningyeti

apt8

Alternatives

Robot Mafia

And congrats to the following teams pre-qualified from other CTF competitions:

PPP - Ghost in the Shellcode

Technopandas - Hack in the Box

whois - Codegate

pwnies - PlaidCTF

Samurai - Defcon CTF

Euronop - 29C3

If you'd like to re-live some of the excitement from the quals, you can check out a few of these write-ups from around the internetosphere:

Team Alternatives: http://team-alternatives.blogspot.com/2013/06/defcon-21-ctf-quals-policebox-writeup.html

X-N2O's Blog: http://x-n2o.net/linked-dc21

Stalkr's Blog: http://blog.stalkr.net/2013/06/defcon-21-quals-blackbox-write-up.html

Blue Lotus: http://www.blue-lotus.net/defcon-21-quals-annyong-writeup/

Raz0r.name: http://raz0r.name/other/defcon-ctf-2013-quals-grandprix-writeup/

Leet More CTF Team Blog: http://leetmore.ctf.su/wp/defcon-ctf-quals-2013-all-web-challenges-3dub/

Pwnies.dk: http://pwnies.dk/post/grandprix-defcon-ctf-quals-2013/

Here's a great collection of write-ups: http://apollo89.com/wordpress/?p=3195

More Talks For You!

Posted 6.23.13

We have broken off a new hunk of talks for you to chew on, check them out!

Made Open: Hacking Capitalism

Todd Bonnewell

Panel Ask the EFF: The Year in Digital Civil Liberties

Kurt Opsahl, Marcia Hofmann, Dan Auerbach, Eva Galperin,and EFF Staffer(s) to be named later

Electromechanical PIN Cracking with Robotic Reconfigurable Button Basher (and C3BO)

Justin Engler

Adventures in Automotive Networks and Control Units

Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek

A Password is Not Enough: Why Disk Encryption Is Broken And How We Might Fix It

Daniel Selifonov

Do-It-Yourself Cellular IDS

Sherri Davidoff, Scott Fretheim, David Harrison, and Tom Connell

Prowling Peer-to-Peer Botnets After Dark

Tillmann Werner

HTTP Time Bandit

Vaagn Toukharian and Tigran Gevorgyan

Torturing Open Government Systems for Fun, Profit and Time Travel

Tom Keenan

Examining the Bitsquatting Attack Surface

Jaeson Schultz

Please Insert Inject More Coins

Nicolas Oberli

Legal Aspects of Full Spectrum Computer Network (Active) Defense

Robert Clark

Decapping Chips The Easy Hard Way

Adam "Major Malfunction" Laurie and Zac Franken

Protecting Data with Short-Lived Encryption Keys and Hardware Root of Trust

Dan Griffin

So You Think Your Domain Controller is Secure?

Justin Hendricks

Things are Heating Up!

Posted 6.20.13

Tomorrow is the first official day of summer and, if you really think about it, DEF CON is the main reason summer exists. There are probably some other things going on, like shark attacks and whatnot. There are probably people who prioritize car trips and county fairs over hacker conventions. But you're HERE, so you are probably not one of those people. You are one of US, and you want to know what kind of action we have bubbling for you this year.

Well, the short answer is 'plenty'. Here are some of the current highlights:

The Most Significant Bit

Do you wish there was a contest that would develop your cyber-macho the way TV contests develop back-stabbing and bug-eating? We got you, OK? We got you.

The Most Significant Bit is a new contest that aims to take 16 noobs with a compubox and a dream from "zero to hero" by filling their spare cycles at DEF CON with various challenges to their hacking and making skills. They will fight to avoid elimination! They will fight to avoid humiliation! They will fight because apparently the winner gets a REAL CROWN*!

To enter, just submit a short (1-2 minute) video to YouTube explaining why this contest needs you. Include the search term dc8bits. (Test number one - following instructions.) 16 players will be chosen to compete, and in the end one contestant's victorious buttocks will feel the incomparable comfort of the 'Throne of Leetness'. If this sounds like something you need in your life, you can find out more at dc8bits.org.

*Street value of the 'Crown of Shiny Bits' is unknown at this time.

Hacker Jeopardy Sign-up

Do you and your pals know everything? Can you remember all the everything you know even under extreme alcohol conditions? Do you yearn to be immortalized in DEF CON lore?

Quite possibly the fastest route to glory for people like you is Hacker Jeopardy, the mighty and eternal drunken orgy of geek knowledge. To enter, it is advisable to check out the forum thread and get the lowdown. Host G. Mark Hardy has posted the steps you must take to begin your journey, and they are fairly specific. The first line is in ALL CAPS, PEOPLE. That's how you know it's business time. If you have a team with the goods, it's time to get enterin'.

Recruiting agents for the DEF CON DarkNet

Another new game in town this year is the DEF CON DarkNet Project, an Alternate Reality Game set in the world of Daemon and Freedom by Daniel Suarez. If the idea of a real-life, real-time MMO appeals to you, you should really check out the forum thread about the game. It looks very cool.

The team behind the game is also looking for some help if you've got some skills and some time. They need some web design, some design of the hammer and nails variety and people to design additional quests. Check out the forum thread and lend a hand if you can.

Now that the summer is upon us, you'll want to keep an eye on this space. There will be much, much more to come.

New DEF CON 21 Speakers Posted!

Posted 6.12.13

Check out this new batch of speakers for your perusal! You can see them all on the Speaker page!

Hacker Law School

Jim Rennie and Marcia Hofmann

ACL Steganography - Permissions to Hide Your Porn

Michael Perklin

Privacy In DSRC Connected Vehicles

Christie Dudley

Kill 'em All — DDoS Protection Total Annihilation!

Tony Miu and Wai-leng Lee

TMI: How To Attack Sharepoint Servers And Tools To Make It Easier

Kevin Johnson and James Jardine

Reality Hackers

Rebecca Wexler and Paul Sanderson

Google TV or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Exploit Secure Boot

Amir Etemadieh, CJ Heres, Mike Baker, and Hans Nielsen

How to use CSP to stop XSS

Kenneth Lee

RFID Hacking: Live Free or RFID Hard

Francis Brown

DNS May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Robert Stucke

EMET 4.0 Exploit Mitigations

Neil Sikka

Getting The Goods With smbexec

Eric Milam

Pwn'ing you(r) cyber offenders

Piotr Duszynski

Defeating SEAndroid

Pau Oliva Fora

The Politics of Privacy and Technology: Fighting an Uphill Battle

Eric Fulton and Daniel Zolnikov

Defeating Internet Censorship with Dust, the Polymorphic Protocol Engine

Brandon Wiley

Making Of The DEF CON Documentary

Jason Scott and Rachel Lovinger

Inside The Strange World Of Java Cards, SIM Card Apps, And Over-The-Air Updates

Karl Koscher

Live Transcription at DEF CON 21!

Posted 5.23.13

Dark Tangent has signed a contract with a company to transcribe all the speaking tracks as well as the closing ceremony in english.

What does this mean? It means for the third time in DEF CON history we will officially be supporting the hearing impaired. This time around it will be with real time transcription appearing on screen, much like what you would see if you had captioning turned on your TV.

We will get cleaned up files after the con for each speech, allowing us to post the presentation text, as well as caption the video files. See DT's original post to see how you may be able to help with this!

So with that said, we would hate to go through all the work and expense and only have two security ninjas who are hearing impaired attend. Let's promote this far and wide, and over the next couple years try and include as many as possible. The last time we did translation two years in a row we had two or three people the first, and none the second. Let's see if we can do better this time!

DEF CON 21 CFP Has Closed! CTF Quals Around the Corner!

Posted 5.21.13

Well, the DEF CON 21 Call for Papers has come to a close. As always, we got quite a deluge of new submissions right up to the bell. The review board is hard at work, selecting the finest content for your enjoyment. Submitters should know either way if they have been accepted to speak by June 17th!

Let us look forward now, to the Capture the Flag Qualification round, which is just over three weeks away. If you and your friends think you have what it takes to compete at DEF CON, it's time to sign up at 2013.legitbs.net, and good luck!

DEF CON Forums For Contest & Event News.

Posted 5.15.13

Wondering what's to do at DEF CON 21? Check out the DEF CON Forums [Official / Unofficial] [Parties / Social Gatherings / Events / Contests] Forum, where there is quite a lot going on of late!

For example, You may learn that the DEF CON Short Story contest has just under two weeks left to submit. Project 2 has posted some things you need to know about the contest. Details on the DEF CON Cycle_OverRide have recently been posted. You could browse the latest news on the Unofficial DEF CON Shoot.

And hey, if you have something in mind that might be cool at DEF CON 21, discuss them with your peers in the New Ideas section to see if they might get traction!

It's all happening now, so give it a look!

DEF CON 21 Speaker Page Live!

Posted 5.10.13

Rejoice! The DEF CON 21 Speaker Page is now live, and you can peruse the first round of poppin fresh talks, listed below! Keep an eye on our Twitter, Facebook, and RSS Feed for all the latest updates!

MITM All The IPv6 Things

Scott Behrens & Brent Bandelgar

Evil DoS Attacks and Strong Defenses

Sam Bowne & Matthew Prince

Home Invasion 2.0 - Attacking Network-Controlled Consumer Devices

Daniel "unicornFurnace" Crowley & Jennifer "savagejen" Savage

I Can Hear You Now: Traffic Interception and Remote Mobile Phone Cloning with a Compromised CDMA Femtocell

Doug DePerry & Tom Ritter

JTAGulator: Assisted Discovery Of On-Chip Debug Interfaces

Joe Grand aka Kingpin

The Dirty South – Getting Justified with Technology

David Kennedy & Nick Hitchcock (nick8ch)

PowerPreter: Post Exploitation Like a Boss

Nikhil Mittal

The Road Less Surreptitiously Traveled

pukingmonkey

Stalking a City for Fun and Frivolity

Brendan O'Connor

De-Anonymizing Alt.Anonymous.Messages

Tom Ritter

Bruce Schneier Answers Your Questions

Bruce Schneier

Hacking Wireless Networks of the Future: Security in Cognitive Radio Networks

Hunter Scott

Predicting Susceptibility to Socialbots on Twitter

Chris Sumner & Randall Wald

DEF CON 21 Call for Parties Updated with FAQ!

Posted 5.8.13

If you're thinking about throwing a DEF CON 21 party in our pub crawl, we've put together a list of frequently asked questions to clarify what's what in running one! You can also find the submission form if your ready to take the plunge! There's plenty of room left for your group to make their mark on DEF CON 21, so get those submissions in and make our party row a reality!

DC21 CTF Quals Registration is Now Open!

Posted 5.6.13

In case you haven't heard, as of May 1 you can now register for the DEF CON 21 Capture the Flag qualification round! Get that team together and pop on over to https://legitbs.net/ for all the details and to sign up! The Quals will happen June 15, 2013!

The DEF CON 21 Short Story Contest is Underway!

Posted 5.3.13

The DEF CON 21 Short Story Contest has officially opened! Excercise your wordsmithing talents for the chance to win free admission to DEF CON 21! All of the pertinent details can be found at https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13334! Good Luck!

Welcome to the DEF CON 21 Website!

Posted 4.27.13

Welcome to the DEF CON 21 site! Check it out for all the latest info on this year's con. Keep checking back for news and developments for DEF CON 21 as they occur! You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or subscribe to our RSS feed!

DEF CON 21 Call for DJs/Performers is about to close!

Posted 4.25.13

If you have long dreamed of the glory of performing live at DEF CON, there's only a few days left in the DEF CON 21 Call for Music/Performers! Check out https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13225 if you are interested, and get your self applied by April 30!

DEF CON 21 Awards nominations!

Posted 4.22.13

Weigh in your picks for the 2013 DEF CON Awards! We are currently accepting nominations for the following categories:

1. Worst coverage of security/hacker related issues by a media person or media outlet (Any Media).

2. Best coverage of security/hacker related issues by a media person or media outlet (Any Media).

3. Best privacy enhancing technology for the last 12 months (Since DEF CON 20).

4. Worst privacy enhancing technology for the last 12 months (Since DEF CON 20).

5. Best security or hacker related Twitter feed.

6. The "Nit-Twit" award for the worst security or hacker related Twitter feed.

7. Best project by an approved DEF CON Group. Include a link to project information.

8. Worst / Most Meaningless security or hacker related buzzword for the last 12 months (Since DEF CON 20).

9. Biggest law enforcement of legal system blunder, related to computer security/hackers. (Since DEF CON 20).

10. The "Security Charlatan of the Year" award.

Nominations must be submitted no later than midnight, Las Vegas time, on June 31st, 2013, to be considered for inclusion. Thanks!

DEF CON 21 Contest & Event Sign-up is Live!

Posted 4.19.13

If you'd like to run a new or returning contest or event at DEF CON 21, you can now submit your info at http://defcne.net/ to be considered! Bring your innovative hacker spirit to the table and sign up today!

DEF CON 21 Vendor FAQ is Live!

Posted 4.17.13

Are you a past DEF CON vendor or interested in peddling your wares at DEF CON 21? The Vendor Area FAQ and Application are now live! Check it out at https://defcon.hackingyour.net/faq!

DEF CON 21 Pin Giveaway!

Posted 4.14.13

Kallahar, a long time DEF CON Goon, has started a project this year to manufacture and give away a free DEF CON 21 pin. Their goal is to raise enough donations to give everyone one for free. Read more about it and see how you can help here: https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13309

CODAME at DEF CON 21!

Posted 4.8.13

We're excited to have CODAME this year at DEF CON 21! If you're not familar, here's what they're all about (from codame.com):

Non-profit Festivals & Events covering tech challenges with emphasis on artistic expression and creativity.

Bringing together independent artists, coders, game developers, creators, performers and musicians celebrating Art and Technology.

CODAME exists to incubate and support artists, technologists and designers that push the boundaries of hardware, software, and physical/digital mediums. At the intersection of ART+TECH, CODAME is accelerating the way we interpret and express our rapidly changing world.

They are having a call for artists for this event! Check it out at: http://codame.com/post/46882234348/can-hackers-be-heroes-excited-to-be-bring-codame

No Foolin!

Posted 4.1.13

No April Fools here! Don't be a Fool and miss the Call for Papers! You only have until May 20th to submit! Check it out here: https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-21/dc-21-cfp.html

DEF CON 21 CTF Quals Announced!

Posted 4.1.13

The DEF CON 21 CTF Quals and schedule have been announced! Check out https://legitbs.net/ for all the details!

DEF CON 21 Call for Parties!

Posted 3.25.13

We're trying something new we think you'll like for DEF CON 21. Read all about how to throw your own DEF CON party at the

Call for CTF Organizers Now Complete!

Posted 3.22.13

On behalf of all the hundreds of staff, volunteers, and community that make DEF CON happen I would like to thank all of the teams, groups, and companies that submitted their vision of how they would run Capture the Flag at DEF CON 21 and beyond.

It was very hard to for us at DEF CON World Domination HQ to decide on which vision, and ultimately which team, would have the responsibility of seeing the great CTF tradition into the future. With a record number of five well thought out submissions there were many things that went into our final decision from size of team, resources needed, and the look and feel of the contest. Ultimately the following factors weighed heavily:

- Past experience running or participating in high pressure and large scale CTFs

- Past experience of organizers in being respected by the community and having skillz

- A clearly articulated vision for how CTF would evolve under their direction

- A focus on gameplay and describing the scoring system with an eye toward observer education

- Increased transparency

Thank you again to the five teams that did not get selected, we wish you the best of luck and success in your future contests.

And now without any further ado we would like to announce the new organizers!

Legitimate Business Syndicate http://legitbs.net/

Here's Your Big Shot!

Posted 3.15.13

Many often ask how they can be involved in DEF CON. After all, The thing that makes DEF CON great is the contribution of the community. If you're so inclined, here are a few ways you can get involved with DEF CON 21!

HHV Call for Volunteers https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13228

DEF CON Call for Music https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13225

DC101 wildcard speaking slot https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13230

A ton of opportunies just like these will be popping up over the next weeks and months, and a great place to keep watch for them is the DEF CON Forums. Keep your eyes peeled if you're looking for a way to help out!

The DEF CON 21 Call for Papers is Open!

Posted 3.7.13

The time has arrived, friends. The DEF CON 21 Call for Papers is officially open! Get yourselves over to https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-21/dc-21-cfp.html for the official announcement, and if you choose to submit, good luck!

Want to Help?

Posted 2.13.13

Do you want to help at DEF CON? Do you want to see other people have a good time and learn the ropes, willing to run around the convention like a gopher? You gotta start somewhere, consider applying with Highwiz for a position helping out with DC 101. https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13193

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