Join us for another DEF CON adventure and enjoy some hardware hacking shenanigans!
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Get Ready for the DEF CON 32 Hardware Hacking Village CTF!
With DEF CON 32 quickly approaching, we’ve locked in to place our official Kali HHV live images and have begun distribution via bittorrent. If you are unfamilar or unaware of this, we’ve forked Offensive Security’s Kali Linux image builder. We used this opportunity to cram as much hardware hacking goodness that we could in to bootable live image. And, since it’s based on the existing Kali Linux framework, it has all of the features one would expect from a security focused live CD.
The DEF CON Hardware Hacking Village CTF is back again and slated to begin in just over a week! In preparation for the event, we’ve assembled a list of supplies that could be helpful in solving the various challenges.
Thank you all for another great event! It was good to be back in person for DC30, and we’re extremely pleased with the turnout for this year’s CTF. Congratulations to elklepo for winning this year’s HHV CTF. Challenge descriptions, write ups, and stats are now all posted on the DC30 HHV Challenge Page.
DEF CON 30 is fast approaching! We are busy working on details! This year’s theme of Homecoming has cast our minds back to the start of the HHV, where everything that happened was because attendees (read: members of our community) brought cool things to share. We always have enjoyed and encouraged the awesome items that result from the tools and skills that the HHV provides and helps develop.
DEF CON 29 is in the books, but if you missed the HHV CTF, the challenges are now available to download from our site. Check out the DC29 HHV Challenge Page for challenges, writeups, and details from the weekends hardware hacking focused CTF.
Ever wondered how multi-layer PCBs fit together? Ever been curious about how PCBs are reverse engineered? In this project, we’ve torn down two different PCB designs to demonstrate a destructive method for de-layering multi-layer PCBs for further analysis, as well as encapsulating them for display.
The Zebra 2844 is your bog standard no frills thermal label printer that was produced for more than 8 years. I cannot be sure of exactly how it went down, but I do believe that UPS would subsidize these printers re-branded as “UPS 2844.” Using their custom firmware would limit use to their tools and drivers (sort of, it’s complicated). It was in their interest to not let the Average Joe put the stock firmware on the device if they were giving them away or selling at a reduced price. This is how to restore a UPS 2844 to the stock firmware followed by a breakdown of the full thought process.
Thank you to everyone who participated, or is still participating, in this year’s challenge. This was my first year creating and running the HHV challenge, and as a result, I’ve learned a lot and I hope to bring it even better next year! Huge shout out to Chris Dubsky for being the first (and only) person to solve the challenge at DEF CON. If you weren’t able to participate, but still want to, the files are available on our Github. SPOILER ALERT Below is a write-up of the challenges and solutions. Don’t read past this point if you are still attempting (or want to attempt) the challenges without help/solutions.
With DEF CON 26 at an end, we want to know what you thought. What did you like about it, what didn’t work for you, and any suggestions you might have for the future.
Many a trinkets have been popping up at DEF CON. However over the last few years a constant figure has been the DEF CON Jack kit. This neat little kit is available directly from the DEF CON Swag booth. It is in the shape of the iconic smiley face and crossbones, with RGB LED eyes that change color based on ambient temperature.
We are proud to be hosting another round of Robo Sumo this year. We have posted the rules for this year.
The culture of hacking is always changing; the people, the mindset, even the clothes. The DEF CON Hardware Hacking Village was established for DC16 and celebrated its 10th anniversary at DC25. While we have strived to provide the best resource for everyone, we feel that we have fallen behind in the last few years. This is mostly due to the strained resource of the HHV, the majestic soldering iron. Even though we maintain a large amount of irons, it has not been enough to keep up with demand. While soldering is an important skill, the hardware hacker’s tool belt contains more than the soldering iron and the HHV’s goal is to teach and provide this broad spectrum of tools. To accommodate this, the HHV is branching in to two independent groups.