[Defcon 16] Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

[LosT]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

Why don't you just bring a few, and/or appropriate Vregs? I mean there can't be *that* many options, right?

Bring a 7805, 7803, etc... and hack your own (true hacker spirit!)

LosT

Assuming these things are battery powered (as opposed to some manner of nuclear reactor), could we possibly learn the battery type and count, or overall supply voltage ahead of time so we can bring appropriate wall warts?

[Wing]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

Assuming these things are battery powered (as opposed to some manner of nuclear reactor), could we possibly learn the battery type and count, or overall supply voltage ahead of time so we can bring appropriate wall warts?

[LosT]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

I will have scopes in the village.

LosT

[Kingpin]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

Some questions from w1nt3rmut3:

1) Will some kind of reflashing of the bootloader be readily available if we really trash the uC?

2) If my hack works out (I am prototyping now), it would be useful to have a decent oscilloscope around, > 20Mhz sampling. Will something be available?

thanks,
-mut3


#1: Yes. If you accidentally kill the bootloader, I'll have my P&E Multilink BDM with me and we can reload the entire badge firmware.

#2: I'm not planning to personally provide any oscilloscope, but there might be one in the Hardware Hacking Village. A good portable, personal scope would be the USBee (http://www.usbee.com/) or Parallax Oscilloscope (http://www.parallax.com/Store/Microc...%2cProductName)

-kp

[Voltage Spike]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

So, I think there needs to be a basic user guide. Otherwise, many of the features I spent dozens of hours designing in will never be taken advantage of other than the mighty few who feel like poking and prodding at the badge.

That could be the case, and if it were my baby, I might feel the same way. All that work and nobody doing anything with it?

On the other hand, Defcon attendees should be more curious about the electronics they are forced to carry with them. I wonder how many other people deciphered that damn binary stream that ran across every page of the program last year.

So, if the "user manual" ends up in the program, just pretend it's not there...

My will is weak. If I know the instructions are at hand, I'll use them. I'll save my time for reverse engineering information that isn't readily available.

Thanks, Joe.

[Kingpin]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

You can propose that to DT, but in reality, only a small percentage of the thousands of DEFCON attendees will ever really get "emotionally invested" in the badge and most have other things at the con that they're interested in (and just want a quick peek into how the badge functions). So, I think there needs to be a basic user guide. Otherwise, many of the features I spent dozens of hours designing in will never be taken advantage of other than the mighty few who feel like poking and prodding at the badge.

So, if the "user manual" ends up in the program, just pretend it's not there...

Joe

Another suggestion: could we leave the instructions for the badge out of the program this year? I was really excited when I got my badge, played with it, figured out the behavior, and then started sharing with others what I had found out. It was a fun puzzle, and it encouraged communication with new people.

When I found out a few hours later that the instructions were in the program I was disappointed. The badge wasn't a fun Defcon-themed puzzle; it was a toy.

Perhaps if people were encouraged to "feel out" the badge a bit more they might become emotionally invested. The process of figuring out the badge may lead them to paths of what they imagine the badge could do. Knowing that help and the tools are available (courtesy the HHV), they could then implement that potential.

Just a thought.

[Voltage Spike]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

Another suggestion: could we leave the instructions for the badge out of the program this year? I was really excited when I got my badge, played with it, figured out the behavior, and then started sharing with others what I had found out. It was a fun puzzle, and it encouraged communication with new people.

When I found out a few hours later that the instructions were in the program I was disappointed. The badge wasn't a fun Defcon-themed puzzle; it was a toy.

Perhaps if people were encouraged to "feel out" the badge a bit more they might become emotionally invested. The process of figuring out the badge may lead them to paths of what they imagine the badge could do. Knowing that help and the tools are available (courtesy the HHV), they could then implement that potential.

Just a thought.

[Kingpin]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

noob question: Does one receive the DEFCON CD with the badge at registration?

Yup. All of the info will also be on my website here on the first day of the con:

http://www.grandideastudio.com/portf...fcon-16-badge/

Joe

[Demo]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

noob question: Does one receive the DEFCON CD with the badge at registration?

[Kingpin]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

Windows-only, huh? At least PCs are now fast enough to run VirtualBox (which allows USB pass-through). (Just a heads-up in case someone reading the forums is waiting for the Defcon CD to start work.)

Yeah, the development tools are PC only. I'm not sure if they're planning on porting to any other platforms. All of my firmware development was done on a MacBook Pro running VMWare Fusion with a Windows XP SP2 install, which worked great, even with the USB-based P&E Multilink BDM.

Joe

[Voltage Spike]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

* The design this year is based around a Freescale Flexis MC9S08JM60 processor. Other notable features include a SecureDigital socket and infrared transmitter and receiver.

Thank you for the heads up. Skimming the datasheet, there are at least two particular features of that processor that could be a lot of fun... (This is so much easier than the PIC. *shudder*)

As for the infrared, I'm curious. I know an obvious thing to do (beside the assumed functionality), but I'll have to think about the non-obvious applications. I'm all a-tingle at the prospect of an intentional buffer overflow.

* If you want to set up the IDE in advance to save time, you can get the public, freely available version of Freescale CodeWarrior 6.1 Special Edition, which is limited to 32KB of code space and can be downloaded from:

Windows-only, huh? At least PCs are now fast enough to run VirtualBox (which allows USB pass-through). (Just a heads-up in case someone reading the forums is waiting for the Defcon CD to start work.)

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm working furiously on a 65C02 project at the moment, but I hope to have enough prep work in place that I don't spend all my time at Defcon playing with the blinking lights. And, yes, I know it doesn't have to be technical, but why aim low?

[LosT]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

The Hardware Hacking Village will also have some supporting materials available....

LosT

[Kingpin]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

* The most important thing to take from this post is that this isn't a hardware hacking contest, it's a badge hacking contest. Modifications can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. If you look at the previous year's entries and winners, you'll see that the more varied your hacks, the better. The further away from the obvious and the more people say "Damn, that's cool," the more likely you are to win.

* The design this year is based around a Freescale Flexis MC9S08JM60 processor. Other notable features include a SecureDigital socket and infrared transmitter and receiver.

* The DEFCON CD will contain all of the development tools, a licensed version (valid through August 20, 2008) of Freescale Codewarrior 6.1 for MCUs Professional Edition with unlimited code size (which normally costs $1995, but the folks at Freescale were kind enough to give DEFCON attendees a free license in order to promote badge hacking and microprocessor experimentation), and source code, schematics, etc.

* If you want to set up the IDE in advance to save time, you can get the public, freely available version of Freescale CodeWarrior 6.1 Special Edition, which is limited to 32KB of code space and can be downloaded from:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/...?nodeId=012726

* Bring an SD card for maximum enjoyment and benefit (minimum 64MB, *must* be FAT16 formatted)

* There will a USB bootloader available on the badge, so all you need is a PC and the Freescale bootloader software/GUI (available on the DEFCON CD, I can't seem to find it online anywhere) No special debugging or programming hardware is required as was in previous years. A Freescale BDM port is still provided if you do have such tools, which will give you the benefit of single stepping and debugging. I use a P&E Microsystems HCS08 Multilink, but the SPYDER08 modules we gave out last year for the Freescale MC9S08QG8 *might* work with a little finesse and hacking around.

* The only "expansion hardware" we will be giving away this year are USB connectors and some 2x3 headers for the BDM port.

* If you have hacked the DC14 or DC15 badges over the past year and want to submit those to the contest, I'll award one as an Honorable Mention.

* Other than what I am posting publicly to this forum and what might be leaked via the media a few days before the con, no details of the badge will be released until my talk at the opening of DEFCON.

[Kingpin]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of soldermask colors on the PCB.

Yes, there are a few 0603 LEDs on board. I had a bunch leftover from last year so I designed them in :)

Joe

What color is the PCB solder mask for the various type of badges this year?

Also are you sticking with 0603 LEDs?

[DCFluX]

Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest

What color is the PCB solder mask for the various type of badges this year?

Also are you sticking with 0603 LEDs?