[Defcon 17] It's on like Donkey Kong.

[Kingpin]

I've always wanted to post a message with that subject. Get your soldering irons ready and your coding skills primed. The DC17 Badge Hacking contest, now officially a Black Badge contest, will be happening.

Yes, the badge design is already underway. Hardware is done and I've officially turned into a code monkey until everything works as designed.

More details will come later. :)

Joe

[LosT]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

It's on like donkey kong...

[cfinger]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

Any chance we'll get schematics + code before the conference? That would rock.

[kallahar]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

One of the biggest problems I had last year was trying to download the 600 meg SDK over the defcon network. It never worked, eventually we had to go off-site to get it.

So, simply letting us know, say, NOW what hardware/sdk we need to have ready and to practice on would go a LONG way to getting more participants.

Kallahar

[YenTheFirst]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

and slobber pads. :)

[Amen]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

I'm not with obtaining the schematics and/or code before hand, it would ruin the surprise for one, and ruin the reversing fun.
However, give us an idea of what will it be made of (key components) so we can come prepared.

[afterburn188]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

According to a post Lost made over on a HHV thread, there will be no information on the badges before con.

https://forum.defcon.org/showpost.ph...1&postcount=16

[Kingpin]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

It's completely up to The Dark Tangent on what information about the badge gets released before the conference. I like the element of surprise, but also understand that it takes time for people to wrap their head around the design before they can start hacking it. WIth that said, this contest is supposed to be a challenge. People have had to deal with very little or no information in previous years and the contest entries have been stellar. I think that says a lot.

As for last year, the development environment was supposed to be on the DEFCON CD, but someone moved it to the network at the last minute (without letting me know) and that caused a lot of trouble. FWIW, the environment install this year is ~280MB. If it doesn't make it onto the DEFCON CD, I'll burn a few myself and stick it up on my own site, as well. I think it would be worthwhile to announce the development environment in advance, so people can at least get their warez set up before the weekend.

More later :)

Joe

[sintax_error]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

(snip snip)...If it doesn't make it onto the DEFCON CD, I'll burn a few myself and stick it up on my own site, as well...(snip snip)

much appreciated, good sir!

[phaktor]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

Hopefully this year there will be extra pads to solder on components and all of the pins of the chip will be accessible without trying to lift them.

P.S. 5 year old boys don't realise that the battery is in backwards (hint diode :-) )

[Kingpin]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

Hopefully this year there will be extra pads to solder on components and all of the pins of the chip will be accessible without trying to lift them.

Maybe, maybe not. Remember, I have a challenge of aesthetics versus hackability and I don't want this contest to become some dumbed down, easy, intro to electronics contest by providing everything for you. Having the right skills is part of having a winning badge entry. There will be things people like this year and there will be things people don't. But, I think it's cool.

P.S. 5 year old boys don't realise that the battery is in backwards (hint diode :-) )

A few people have said "Just put in a diode" for reverse polarity protection not realizing that it's not such a simple solution. Last year's badge had a 3V operating voltage (it could run down to 2.8V or so) using the CR123A. The CR123A has a fairly large current capacity and stays at 3V until it's about to breathe its last breath. Then it drops. Simply throwing a diode in series will drop the system voltage *way* below what is useful (even with a 0.4V diode drop, VCC would be at 2.6V).

Plus, like I told the few people that came up to me with burned fingers - it's a hacker conference. If people can't figure out how to put in the battery properly (even with the markings on the battery holder), that's their problem! No matter what you do, someone will always find a way to do it wrong. This year will be no different. And, the 5 year old should have been supervised! :P

Joe

[TheCotMan]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

No matter what you do, someone will always find a way to do it wrong. This year will be no different. And, the 5 year old should have been supervised! :P

You should make a new class of badge called, "infant-Human," sans electronics and make it out of NERF foam. Even as a joke. Heck, it could be an award for the person that needed the most protection from themselves while playing with the badge.
You could even include text on the badge, "I can has badge borked by me! : Winner!"
Of course, you would need disclaimers on it to make it even better:
"Do no eat."
"Do not insert into Penis"
"This is not a step."
"Objects in mirror are larger than they appear."
...

[GeoCoder]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

I've always wanted to post a message with that subject. Get your soldering irons ready and your coding skills primed. The DC17 Badge Hacking contest, now officially a Black Badge contest, will be happening.

Yes, the badge design is already underway. Hardware is done and I've officially turned into a code monkey until everything works as designed.

More details will come later. :)

Joe

Awesome KingPin !
I'm ready for the specs. Missed out on this last year because it was my first DEFCON and I wasn't familliar with the conference and what to do. I will definately be engaging wtih this activity. Let me know if you need help with anything (before/during DEFCON).
Thanks for spear-heading this !
GC

[SimonTek]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

Well if you need it, look me up, I have bandwidth to spare, on a 100+ meg pipe.

[martinbogo]

Re: It's on like Donkey Kong.

Oh yeah, I'm up for badge hacking. I'm even making badge-hacking-badges ( 5 day turnaround from e-teknet, then assembly. Woo-pah.)

Even if we aren't getting a preview of the specs/schematics of the badges before getting one at registration, an early opportunity to download and install the SDK prior to arrival would be appreciated. All it will give away is the architecture, but with last year's SDK topping out at half a gig, it would help in the fight against Murphy.

-Dr Volts