4 ms·

Is people trying to hack the attendees a common occurrence at Defcon?

by tuvan 7y ago

zaeirrka 7y ago
No its more of an urban legend. I'm sure there's some hijinks going on but I doubt the hotels would tolerate any kind of large scale malicious activity especially with all the unrelated people staying at the hotel
- ckwalsh 7y ago
  DefCon sets up its own wifi networks, it doesn't use the hotel's wifi
- acdha 7y ago
  Do you have sources for that? It’s unlike what many people who attend claim so I’d like to know what it’s based on.
- fortran77 7y ago
  I concur. While I bring a "burner" phone and laptop, it's more so I have a scratch system I can play / experiement on than any real fear that a sensibly configured device is going to get pwned. I used my real phone and laptop during Defcon 27 last week, too. I do have bluetooth off, and I made sure I had no filesharing enabled, and the latest patches, etc.) I've been to about 10 defcons, and I've never had a device pwned that wasn't a spare device I was playing with.
snarfy 7y ago
So much so there is a 'wall of shame' projector posting attendees credentials for all to see.
- robocat 7y ago
  I think that should be "wall of sheep".
- throwamay1241 7y ago
  That's for unencrypted credentials captured going across the wire by the ops team. That's to highlight insecure comms not hack people. There was an instance where someone used a wifi pineapple 0day to brick pineapples, which are considered script kiddie tools in many circles. Generally nobody will waste a valuable 0day at defcon to attack a personal device. If you get popped it's probably because you're running known vulnerable software.
NikolaeVarius 7y ago
It's Defcon, so yes.
om42 7y ago
Can be, the Wall of Sheep mentioned here is from the traffic on the DefCon network. General practice is to make sure at least your bluetooth and wifi are turned off. Realistically, no one is going to use a 0-day to hack into your personal phone.
jason0597 7y ago
Always treat Defcon as a dangerous place

Is people trying to hack the attendees a common occurrence at Defcon?

by tuvan 7y ago

Is people trying to hack the attendees a common occurrence at Defcon?

No its more of an urban legend. I'm sure there's some hijinks going on but I doubt the hotels would tolerate any kind of large scale malicious activity especially with all the unrelated people staying at the hotel

ckwalsh 7y ago
DefCon sets up its own wifi networks, it doesn't use the hotel's wifi
acdha 7y ago
Do you have sources for that? It’s unlike what many people who attend claim so I’d like to know what it’s based on.
fortran77 7y ago
I concur. While I bring a "burner" phone and laptop, it's more so I have a scratch system I can play / experiement on than any real fear that a sensibly configured device is going to get pwned. I used my real phone and laptop during Defcon 27 last week, too. I do have bluetooth off, and I made sure I had no filesharing enabled, and the latest patches, etc.) I've been to about 10 defcons, and I've never had a device pwned that wasn't a spare device I was playing with.

snarfy 7y ago

So much so there is a 'wall of shame' projector posting attendees credentials for all to see.

robocat 7y ago
I think that should be "wall of sheep".
throwamay1241 7y ago
That's for unencrypted credentials captured going across the wire by the ops team. That's to highlight insecure comms not hack people. There was an instance where someone used a wifi pineapple 0day to brick pineapples, which are considered script kiddie tools in many circles. Generally nobody will waste a valuable 0day at defcon to attack a personal device. If you get popped it's probably because you're running known vulnerable software.

NikolaeVarius 7y ago

It's Defcon, so yes.

om42 7y ago

Can be, the Wall of Sheep mentioned here is from the traffic on the DefCon network. General practice is to make sure at least your bluetooth and wifi are turned off. Realistically, no one is going to use a 0-day to hack into your personal phone.

jason0597 7y ago

Always treat Defcon as a dangerous place