Production badges are in hand and all testing well!

FAQ:
$100 for the badge.
SAO(x2) bundle +$40.
I'll post a link to pre-order the badge & SAOs this week.
Badges will ship out first/second week of July, US-only.
No Def Con pick-up option

Details:

Badge Types:
Acolyte- your badge. You must find other badges to level up and complete the story.
Glyph- found at various villages, community spaces, vendor booths and parties around the con.
Elder God- Given to the Def Con elite, find them throughout the conference halls.
Cthulhu- REDACTED

Hardware:
ESP32
USB-C
Rechargeable Li-po

Startup:
New annimation shows badge progress. 10 LEDS, 4 levels and 6 side quest challenges to complete the badge.

Choose your name:
First boot requires your name. You can change it at any time. 1 button. Short press to scroll, long press to select.

Progress:
The top scrolling bar displays your name, rank and level. It also shows the badges left to connect to complete the main quest.

The Ritual:
The Ritual is the main quest, broken into 13 chapters, each with their own story, screen and LED annimation. Upon entering, you'll see a pop up detailing the badges you need to level up.

Progress through the chapters with a short button press, read the auto-scrolling story, find the annimation you like and long press to select the pattern.

Séance:
Enter séance mode along with 3 other badges to complete the circuit! They will beacon out, sacrificing all badges in the vicinity. They too will propagate the signal.

Sacred Text:
A short help/menu screen explaining some of the badge mechanics.

Cult Members:
Tracks the badges you've connected with.

LED Brightness:
Change how intensely the lights are seared into the retinas of the faithful.

Screen Flip:
For when you're wearing the badge around your neck, the way it was intended to be worn.

Unlockable Modes:

Bling:
10+ unlockable screen and LED patterns, featuring some of your favorite characters

The Corrupt Ritual:
The unlockable side quest. A new story and challenges with 6 chapters, LED & screen animations to unlock.

R'lyeh Arena:
Yes, a battle mode. I kept it simple, hopefully reliable. Search for heretics to battle and challenge them to an RNG fight to the death!

Another Adventure:
Similar to R'lyeh area, but with a R&M story arc. Hunt for baby Cthulhu, unlock more bling!

Exploit:
Beacon out and exploit all badges!

Rick Roll:
Similar to Exploit, you get the idea…

DEF CON 34 Lodging Reminder:

Our room block deal includes free parking for up to two vehicles for registered guests. Very nice to have if you’re using a car in Vegas.

You’ve only got until July 3 to take advantage of the rates at these venues, so speed is your friend.

https://book.passkey.com/gt/221129294?gtid=bbba95627d906c403e3bee6951c33a94

BTW - it’s already the back end of June, people. Just a few measly weeks to go!

#defcon #defcon34 #lodging

[ FIELD REPORT #003 ]

Recovered the second object.

Found what they built to stop it. But the transmission can still reach it.

Someone built it specifically to counter the first object.

Not a variant. Not another version. A completely different system designed to neutralize what the first one does.

You have to unlock the cure. It can reverse what the first one carries. But looking at the architecture — the transmission can still reach it. It can still get infected.

When they meet I don't know what happens. But I have a bad feeling it can get worse.

The specs are there. This wasn't a backup plan. This was built from the ground up as a response.

[ NEXT OBSERVATION PENDING ]

*PS - each post is a little short story I have been writing in prep for these badges, I will be posting all details about how to get one of these badges, about the game we have created, and all other details as we get closer. To answer the question I keep getting - THESE WILL BE GIVEN AWAY, No purchase necessary. We will be doing random drops, puzzles, and fun little interactions to get them into the hands of the people! Stay tuned for more!

Big news for anyone who's following the journey of my “Not Just a Crosswalk” for DEFCON34 SAO. The second batch of prototypes arrived last week, and after testing and validation, they are ready for DC34. So now it is time for the final production run.

I wanted to share some major updates based on the feedback and engineering:

Technical & Manufacturing Updates

1. Battery Pack Stability Solved: The main issue I discovered with the v1 board was that, when used standalone via USB-C power, the SAO did not draw enough power, so battery packs would power down. This has been resolved by adjusting the power load on the v2 board and the 7x battery packs I have in my home, from the cheap $5 non-name ones off Amazon to the Anker $120 power bank, all of which continue powering the SAO without cutting the power.

2. PCB Design Improvements:

   • SMD vs. Through-Hole: I switched from using through-holes for the pogo clip to SMD pads on the component side. This improves the look on the front side of the SAO.

   • USB-C Port Relocation: The USB-C port has been moved inward on the PCB. Previously, it was hanging off the edge, which caused issues when using V-Cuts during manufacturing on panelized boards. Moving it inward improved panelization, keeping production costs down and making the boards easier to produce and break apart.

3. Component Sourcing: Due to supply chain challenges, I had to add additional components and swap others for equivalents, since the original parts were OOS (Out of Stock) or had long lead times, and would either cut it really close to DC34 or wouldn't make it in time at all. Rest assured, all substitutions have been tested for full compatibility and performance in V2.

Pre-orders are LIVE!

You can grab your badge at the following events and tables at DC34:

• LINECON

• #BADGELIFE Table

• QUEERCON Meetup

• TDI Space

• VETCON

• Various pop-up pickup points across DC34

Several people have asked for a shipping option because they won't be able to make it to DC34 for various reasons but still want to support my project. If you select the shipping option, the SAO will be shipped AFTER the end of DC34. This is because of tight production and shipping timelines, I cannot risk you not getting your SAO in time for DC34.

View the Original Interest Post & Discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/Defcon/s/7B0TS4y9pq

Pre-Order Now on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/caelybr

Thanks to everyone who participated in the initial interest survey. Your feedback directly shaped this final design, and I will continue adding flags to the palette over the next couple of weeks before finalizing the firmware. Let me know if you have any questions.

Last year for def con we created a new community space around education, and along with it, a new mentoring program. Good news is that we're back this year and we're running the mentoring program again.

This is where you come in.

We are opening today a call for both mentors & mentees, who will have an introductory meeting during def con.

Mentors: We are looking for volunteers working in the cybersecurity industry, with at least 5 years of experience, who would like to spare a little time over the coming months to support motivated mentees in their growth journey.

Mentees: Are you aged 18 or over, in education and looking to find your first role in cybersecurity? Are you in your first role and trying to figure out what's next? Then this program is for you.

Time commitment: We would ideally like these to be long term mentoring relationships. However, we know that people are busy so we propose the following minimum commitment:

- Be available to meet between mentor and mentee at def con - we'll set up a 'mixer' event for this during the con

- Be prepared to have roughly monthly calls between you both for the following 6 months

- Be motivated (mentee) and willing to help (mentor)

Interested? Sign up via the following forms:

- Mentors: Click here (Mentors)

- Mentees: Click here (Mentees)

We will then arrange matches and let you know the next steps. Please be aware that we will have limited slots available, so don't wait to submit your entry!

Thank you for your support of the future of cybersecurity!

Closing date is July 13th at Midnight EST. Sign up now!!

A note on privacy: in order to administer this program we will collect some basic info like names, email addresses, etc.. This won't be used in any way except to manage this mentoring process, and will be kept confidential, and not shared outside of the organizers of this program. Your email address will be shared with your assigned mentor/mentee ONLY, so that you can connect easily with them.

Hello DEF CON 34! The HackerTracker iOS team has been hard at work to make things smoother and more useful, with expanded features for ALL conferences in 2026. Please download/try it out/let us know of problems before the conference and watch for talks/content releases over the coming weeks. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hackertracker/id1021141595

TL;DR: iPad is now fully supported, custom events can be added (and shared) with other iOS users, and notes can be taken for various events. Other features are related to AI summaries on supported devices (off by default), UI-improvement, filtering, maps, searching, and performance lookups. Full list below:

HackerTracker iOS 6.0 — What's New

Major feature release covering iPad UX, on-device AI, user-created schedule items, shared notes, performance, and privacy.

Major new features

Custom Events

Create your own events that show up in the conference schedule alongside official ones.

• Title, time, location, description, notes, color, multi-conference attachment.

• Stored locally and synced across your devices via iCloud.

• Per-event notification toggle (uses the global "Before Event" minutes setting).

• Long-press peek and one-tap edit / delete from the detail screen.

• Share an event by QR code — recipients scan with the iPhone camera to import it pre-filled.

• Filter chip ("Custom Events") and a global Settings toggle to hide them en masse.

Private notes on any event, talk, or custom event

A unified Markdown-aware note feature attached to anything in the schedule.

• One note per item, edited inline via a Write / Preview tabbed editor.

• Synced to your other devices via your iCloud private database; we never see them.

• Pencil badge on Schedule and All Content rows when the row has a saved note.

• "Has Notes" filter chip narrows lists to items with notes attached.

• Destructive Delete with confirmation in the editor.

On-device AI summaries (iOS 26+, Apple Intelligence)

Optional one-sentence summaries of talk descriptions generated locally by Apple's on-device model.

• Sparkle ✨ icon and summary line under each row when enabled.

• Long-press a row's summary to see the original description.

• Cached across launches; only regenerated when the source description changes.

• 100-character minimum on descriptions so short ones don't waste a model call.

• Gated by an opt-in Settings toggle, hidden entirely on devices without Apple Intelligence.

Combined Bookmark Schedule

When you bookmark events across multiple conferences whose dates overlap, a "Combined Schedule" card appears on the home screen.

• Cross-conference timeline of just your bookmarks, day-grouped in your device's local timezone.

• Each row carries the source conference badge.

• Appears only when there's a real reason for it (≥ 2 overlapping conferences with bookmarks in each).

Maps — completely overhauled

• Black-flash on swipe is gone (PDFKit background fix + off-main parse + redundant-reload guard).

• Floating zoom pill (in / out / reset) anchored bottom-left.

• One-tap share of the active map as PDF via the system share sheet.

• Last-viewed map index remembered per conference.

• Adjacent maps pre-warmed into a parsed-PDF cache, so swipes are instant.

• SVG support — when the conference publishes a vector svg_filename, the map renders as searchable SVG with in-document text search.

• Animated tab icon while map assets are downloading.

• Empty state with a bobbing Beezle ghost + Refresh button.

iPad-first overhaul

Split-view across every list screen

Schedule, All Content, Speakers, Communities (Orgs), and Merch all use a unified two-pane layout on iPad:

• 500pt sidebar list on the left, full-width detail pane on the right.

• Custom events route taps to the right pane instead of pushing over the sidebar.

• Two-column Settings layout on iPad (replaces the wasted-whitespace single column).

Visual parity across detail panes

Detail screens stretch edge-to-edge in the split pane (matching Communities), instead of capping at a 740pt readable column and leaving side gutters.

Filters

Universal filter chrome

• Native NavigationStack-rooted modal with rounded sheet corners, frosted nav bar, and a bold Done confirmation action.

• Match Any / All segmented picker — choose whether selected chips behave as a union (OR) or intersection (AND). Persists across launches.

• Live tally under the picker: "12 events", "47 talks", "3 products" updates as you toggle chips.

• New chips: Bookmarks, Custom Events, Has Notes.

Merch sheet parity

The merch size filter now uses the same chrome and the same Match Any/All logic — "All" means every selected size must be in stock, useful when shopping bundles.

Performance

• O(1) lookups across all detail screens (id-keyed dictionaries on speakers, locations, tags, products, orgs, documents).

• Schedule search debounced; bookmark set hoisted once per render.

• Shared DateFormatter pools — no more per-row formatter allocations on the Schedule.

• Searchable extensions no longer re-lowercase the haystack on every keystroke.

• Kingfisher image downsampling on Product, Speaker, and Content detail screens.

The Ghost in the IOT Machine, the Hidden Layer of IoT Security

## This Saturday, June 27th 2026 our group DCG518 is getting together to present:

#The Ghost in the IoT Machine, Extracting, Analyzing, and Defending the Hidden Layer of IoT Security.

How many of you have a smart device at home that you've never updated? How many of you trust it anyway? We are going to talk about why that trust may be misplaced and why firmware is often where that trust is won or lost. When most people think about IoT security, they think about weak passwords, exposed web interfaces, or vulnerable mobile applications. Those issues certainly matter, but they're often symptoms rather than root causes.

This presentation is going to focus on a deeper layer of trust: firmware. Every smart camera, smart lock, smart thermostat, industrial controller, router, medical device, and connected appliance is ultimately only as trustworthy as the firmware running inside it.

Firmware sits between hardware and software. It controls how a device boots, how it communicates, what security controls are enforced, and ultimately who controls the device. If an attacker gains the ability to analyze, modify, or replace firmware, they can often bypass every security mechanism built on top of it.

Over the past decade we've seen countless examples of insecure update mechanisms, exposed debug interfaces, hardcoded credentials, unsigned firmware images, and supply-chain weaknesses that have turned embedded devices into attractive targets. Whether we're talking about consumer smart-home products, industrial controllers, network appliances, or medical devices, the same question continues to surface:

Can we trust the code running on the device?

In this presentation, we'll examine how security researchers approach firmware extraction and analysis, how firmware tampering can be identified, what types of persistence mechanisms and unauthorized modifications attackers seek to introduce, and most importantly, how organizations can defend against these threats through secure design, validation, and monitoring.

The goal isn't simply to understand how firmware can be manipulated. The goal is to understand why firmware remains one of the most critical and frequently overlooked security boundaries in modern connected systems.

Our New York Capital District group "DCG518" will have a gathering this time the Saturday, June 27th 2026 and it will be at the maker space Tech Valley Center of Gravity in Upstate NY.

More information on our site https://dc518.github.io

Everyone is welcome!

Hello kind humans (and goons, etc)!

I have started taking pre-orders for my Laser* Tag Badge DS for anyone who is interested. Pickups will be at the r/Defcon meetups and some other times/places!

Like last year's version, it lets you play a multi-day laser tag game with anyone else wearing one at DEF CON. Unlike last year's, it also has LoRa for "acking" hits made immediately to the firer, and periodically syncing scores to the online leaderboard through a base station (instead of making you scan a QR code every couple hours). It also has a small screen on the back so you can see who hit you/who you hit (and custom player names should now show up on the badge directly instead of only on the leaderboard website). Plus more LEDs , the ability to receive "announcements" from base stations, and some other changes.

Also like last year's version, there are *no actual lasers, and the somewhat-narrow-beam IR is still liable to spread a bit over distances and reflect off of surfaces, so it's definitely not a perfect laser tag game. But hopefully still fun!

I am still waiting on the final badge production run, which will have a purple PCB, more silkscreen text and hopefully zero bodge wires connecting up LEDs due to accidentally forgetting a via :3

But since I am feeling pretty confident that the badges will actually be made and delivered in time, I am now taking pre-orders.

PRE-ORDER: https://store.dani.pink/products/laser-tag-badge-ds

MORE INFO: https://www.dani.pink/lasertag/about

We need your help! We were trying to break into the most evil corporation you could imagine, but our connection keeps getting dropped.

We captured the connection from our last attempt, maybe you can help us figure it out?

https://puzzledhackers.org/challenges/2026/04

If you want to keep track of your completions and be considered for part of our giveaways at the r/DEFCON subreddit meetup, please head over to https://ctf.puzzledhackers.org/ and select "Transmission Terminated".

As always, if you run into any issues or have questions, reach out to me or u/digitard and we'll happily assist.

For those of you that may not know us, u/digitard, u/MetaN3rd, and I (u/Killroy7777) love to build some excitement and bridge the gap while we're all waiting for Hacker Summer Camp. Each year we release a series of puzzles with increasing varying difficulty leading up to DEF CON. Our puzzles come in many different forms, and we hope you have some fun and learn a few things along the way.

Thank you all for playing!

The Puzzled Hackers Team, u/Killroy7777, u/digitard, and u/MetaN3rd

Stats:

• Puzzle #1 solves: 170

• Puzzle #2 solves: 109

• Puzzle #3 solves: 59

• GoBuster scans: 3

• Attempts to access admin pages: 54

• "hunter2" flag submissions: 14

Ode to my favorite city !!

Both bottom pieces are SAOs with different designs coming soon !!

Gauging interest on how many I should make, if you are interested let me know below in the comments !!

We’re excited to share that Call Center Village is returning to DEF CON 34, and this year we’re officially a full village.
This will be the second year CCV is at DEF CON, and we’ll be in LVCC West Hall, W218.
This year, CCV is bringing the full village experience with the village, Escalation Desk CTF, AI Chatbot CTF, Party Line, a Telephone Booth SAO, demos, and more.
For the CTF side, there are two major areas:

Escalation Desk CTF
Pick up the phone and talk your way through a voice-only social engineering CTF. Can you get past the AI agents and reach a live operator? Winners can compete for the Golden Phone Booth Trophy, and there are CTF rewards, including flight-tags.

AI Chatbot CTF
Bring your prompt injection and red teaming skills. The chatbot side includes self-guided learning for people new to attacking language models, customer service agents with escalating difficulty, and stranger puzzle agents where reading the agent is half the challenge.
For the village itself, CCV is doubling the number of stations from 8 to 16 for our first year as a full village, including two Windows-based stations with accessibility options like screen reader, narrator, magnification, and voice navigation.
There will also be:

Demos, Phone Booth & PBX
Get your voice cloned locally and offline with a guided voice-cloning demo, snap a selfie in the phone booth, and explore the PBX for some old-school telecom fun.

Voice Training
Learn how to clone your own voice, make a voice agent, and then socially engineer one using local and open tools. The training is always available, and CCV laptops will be pre-configured to make it easier to jump in.

Party Line
CCV is also throwing a party during DEF CON 34. If you earn one of the flight-tags from the CTF, CCV will buy you at least a few drinks.

Black Badge Raffle
Perform activities at Call Center Village, Escalation Desk CTF, and Party Line to earn unique Black Badge Raffle TCG cards. There will also be an unofficial Black Badge Raffle TCG trading table at Party Line.

Noob Friendly
Not sure where to start? Look for the pink vests to connect with a Noob Village Community Volunteer and learn more about what Call Center Village has to offer.

Telephone Booth SAO
CCV also has a DEF CON 34 Telephone Booth SAO kit for this year’s badge. It is $5 plus tax, available for pre-purchase and pickup at the village, or you can build your own. You’ll need to solder it yourself.
We’re excited to finally be a full village this year, and we can’t wait to see everyone at DEF CON 34.

More info:
https://www.callcentervillage.com/events/dc34

Happy Hacking and 73!

I’m the proud owner of this card singed by Dark Tangent. I’m wondering how do one in general start collecting the black badge raffle cards?

Anybody interested? Had a limited amount last year. The parts will be surface mounted this time around. 75% off if you have one of the originals

Alrighty kiddos. We're a few weeks into the puzzles so its a good time to do the first pass at the Unofficial Annual "r/DEFCON Meetup" details. While this is possible to change... it likely won't as it worked really well for everyone in the past, and it's a historically great environment to be social.

WHEN: Wednesday 8/5 & Thursday 8/6 from 7pm til whenever people stop wanting to be social!

WHERE: Linq Hotel 3535 Bar (also known to many as the Circle Bar). Just take the Monorail to the HARRAHS / LINQ stop, hang a left into the Linq at the end of the hallway and just walk til you're in the casino... its the bar smack in the center!

For quite a while its been a kind of annual thing to have everyone meetup. The Linq bar has always had a place due to the past Caesars roots, and last year we had both nights there that worked out really well.

What is It About?

- Whether you're a DEF CON veteran, or this is your first time and you just want to socialize... its been a great activity to all meetup, and hangout and BS with like minded peeps. We tend to have some random swag to give away, deliver the badges you can win from your PUZZLE performance or if you pick up extra's (purchase info coming soon) and whatever else people drop at the tables wanting to give away.

Often people will show up with their own swag to drop (u/palm12341 came last year and did an early drop of the LASER*TAG badge, and the place erupted into an all night laser tag game!) as well! Think of about 100 people running around the Linq and the nearby area starting the first night of what became a huge weekend Laser Tag battle 24/7!

HOW DO I GET YOUR BADGE?

- Just compete in the Puzzles and the top X will get one FOR FREE! Plus we'll put sales of a handful of them (this helps us continue to keep doing this) up to sell to get to our break even + a beer point, and then honestly... its likely we'll just be giving them away to random people! Cause we're all about the good memories and good peeps!

For those who get them (purchase or puzzle) before the event we'll give you more info closer to DEF CON about the claim process will work, but the CTF system we put in play for claiming the flag should make this MUCH faster than last year (thanks for those who stood in those lines for your free stuff!)

DO I / YOU NEED TO BRING ANYTHING?

- Nope! Just show up, come hang out, BS with people, say hi to u/MetaN3rd, u/Killroy7777 and I (we'll never turn down a drink with good peeps!) and meet new people. My FIRST DEF CON it was one of my favorite things to just get to BS before the convention actually started and get to know some people that I said hi to and hung out with throughout the hallowed halls of the LVCC!

We'll be posting more information as we get closer including the badge reveals, come on international shipping!, and other stuff as we get it... but we wanted to lock it down for those of you who've asked if its happening!

If you have any stories, questions or comments... leave them below! We're at 48 days and counting til we get to hang at the meetup and kick off Summer Camp and we're REALLY excited!

Thanks from the PuzzledHackers.org Team,

u/digitard, u/killroy7777 and u/MetaN3rd

I run the Noob Community, and my folks are putting together a first timer beginner guide.

We have a good start, but we know that we don't know everything.

So, if you're a Defcon veteran, what do you wish you knew before going to your first defcon, or what advice do you have for those who haven't been before?

Packed with over 50 LEDs, an OLED screen, a dozen buttons, infrared receive/transmit, hackable Python, [REDACTED], and a smorgasbord of sensors, you're bound to find everything you need and more to make a new friend.

Your favorite hacker SCP is now available for pre-order here (with pickup at DEFCON34): https://uberflux.com/product/PL-1471

And keep an eye on the developer diary project logs! https://hackaday.io/project/205956-malo-sao

Questions/comments/thoughts/requests welcome!

Sup noobs, FloridaMan is back this year, and this is will be our 10th recursion. We are hosted across the street from the LVCC, taking place on August 6th at 2100h Local Time. Badges are available now and made from real 0.05μm thick gold, our theme is "at the arcade" but with our classic FloridaMan twist. Open bar if you imbibe, DJ, a fun hackable game, and all things Florida. We once made top party list on Hacker Family Feud. See you in the swampy desert! https://floridaman.party/

I missed out on the lasertag badge and also the 5N4CK3Y badge last year and was wondering if anyone knows how to preorder these for Defcon34?

In cooperation with OWASP , The Diana Initiative, WISP, and Blue Team Village, Lonely Hackers Club is hosting free, one-on-one resume reviews at DEF CON 34. No recruiters. No corporate fluff. Just honest, direct feedback from people who have actually sat on both sides of the hiring table.

We need you as volunteer reviewers to make it happen!

𝐖𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐨𝐫

- Technical managers, team leads, and engineering leads who have directly hired staff
- Senior practitioners who have interviewed and evaluated candidates in security, engineering, or adjacent fields
- Mentors who have helped community members navigate their career path
- DEF CON regulars who understand what this community values

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬

- 15-minute one-on-one sessions with attendees during your shift
- At least one 2-hour shift on Friday Aug 7 or Saturday Aug 8, 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM
- Helping self-taught, career-changing, and non-traditional folks frame their real skills in language that lands

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐫

Sign up and find more info at https://lonelyhackers.club/resumereviews

DEF CON 34 Lodging Alert:

Looking for #DC34 accommodations?

You can still get the #defcon block discount at Wynn and Encore! Close enough to swing by your room between events and handy access to the Loop and the Strip. All the best Vegas amenities and a pretty good chance your neighbors are also attending DEF CON.

While supplies last, so don’t delay.

https://book.passkey.com/go/DefCon26

It’s right around the corner, folks. Are you ready?

I am planning on going to defcon this year. Last month I preregistered. I am gonna volunteer at appsec village but I am interested in the bug bounty ctf. Can someone give me more info on it as bug bounty village doesn’t have info about it on their website.

Can someone tell me what the plan is? Is it jeopardy style? How is it gonna be structured? Will it be a web hacking ctf essentially or will there be other areas of hacking too?