Main Stage·47 min
1057
1057 unpacks the intricate multi-stage cryptographic puzzles and hidden Easter eggs integrated into the DEF CON 23 electronic badge challenge.
badge-challengecryptographydefcon-puzzle+2
DEF CON 23/Main Stage across years
Main Stage DC23
Paris and Bally's Hotels, Las Vegas · 6-9 August 2015 · 87 talks
Main Stage presentations at DEF CON 23 cover landmark cybersecurity research across binary analysis, Android internals, Active Directory exploitation, and physical data destruction. Sessions feature pioneering work on symbolic execution frameworks, telecommunications infrastructure attacks, satellite communications, and critical policy debates.
1–24 of 85 talks / 87
Main Stage·54 min
Bruce Potter
Bruce Potter provides a no-nonsense framework for security practitioners to communicate risk mathematically and align defensive engineering with business realities.
risk-managementthreat-modelingsecurity-metrics+2
Main Stage·48 min
Sean Pierce
Sean Pierce details weaponizing Windows Application Compatibility Shims for stealthy, reboot-persistent execution and user-mode API redirection.
application-shimmingwindows-persistencepost-exploitation+2
Main Stage·47 min
Ryan O'Neill
Ryan O'Neill introduces the Extended Core File Snapshot (ECFS) format, enabling granular dead-state forensic reconstruction of injected Linux processes.
linux-forensicsmemory-forensicscoredump+2
Main Stage·53 min
Zoz
Zoz presents an explosive, empirical study of physical data destruction, testing lasers, acids, and thermite to evaluate irreversible magnetic storage obliteration.
data-destructionphysical-securitythermite+2
Main Stage·46 min
Yan Shoshitaishvili · Fish Wang
Yan Shoshitaishvili and Fish Wang introduce angr, the open-source binary analysis platform combining symbolic execution and static analysis for automated vulnerability research.
angrsymbolic-executionbinary-analysis+2
Main Stage·46 min
Dennis Maldonado
Dennis Maldonado analyzes vulnerabilities in commercial electronic access control systems, demonstrating Wiegand sniffing, RFID badge cloning, and physical request-to-exit bypasses.
physical-securityaccess-controlrfid-cloning+2
Main Stage·44 min
Yuriy Bulygin
Intel Security researcher Yuriy Bulygin explores firmware and hardware emulation vulnerabilities in modern hypervisors, demonstrating SMM privilege escalation from guest VMs.
hypervisorhardwarehardware+3
Main Stage·40 min
John Menerick
John Menerick explores attack vectors against Git source control workflows, demonstrating malicious hook injection and commit metadata spoofing.
gitsupply-chainsource-control+2
Main Stage·46 min
Daniel Crowley · Damon Smith
Daniel Crowley and Damon Smith reveal techniques for embedding covert web bugs and beacons within common document formats to leak recipient IP and environment data.
document-trackingweb-bugsexfiltration+2
Main Stage·43 min
Yuwei Zheng · Haoqi Shan
Qihoo 360 researchers Yuwei Zheng and Haoqi Shan demonstrate hacking a VxWorks-based femtocell base station to construct a low-cost cellular traffic capture and monitoring appliance.
cellular-securityvxworksfemtocell+3
Main Stage·48 min
Rob Bathurst · Jeff Thomas
Rob Bathurst and Jeff Thomas explore deploying honeytokens and canary files to detect unauthorized lateral movement and insider threat access early.
honeypotcanary-tokensdeception-technology+2
Main Stage·34 min
Vivek Ramachandran
Vivek Ramachandran introduces Chellam, a driverless Wi-Fi intrusion detection system and host firewall designed to detect Evil Twins, honeypots, and hosted network backdoors on Windows.
wi-fiwireless-securityintrusion-detection+2
Main Stage·44 min
Vivek Ramachandran
Vivek Ramachandran presents Chigula, an extensible open-source Python framework for 802.11 wireless intrusion detection, packet forensics, and automated attack fingerprinting.
wi-fiwireless-securityintrusion-detection+2
Main Stage·1 hr 27 min
The Dark Tangent
Jeff Moss (The Dark Tangent) and the DEF CON organizers close out DEF CON 23, announcing contest winners, black badge awards, and event highlights.
defcon-historyclosing-ceremonyawards+2
Main Stage·27 min
The Dark Tangent
The DEF CON contest leads and organizers celebrate the winners across the capture the flag tournaments, badge challenges, and village competitions.
defcon-contestsctfawards+2
Main Stage·46 min
Alessandro Di Federico · Yan Shoshitaishvili
Alessandro Di Federico and Yan Shoshitaishvili demonstrate weaponizing the ELF dynamic linker to execute arbitrary code before main() without modifying executable sections.
elf-binarieslinker-exploitationbinary-rewriting+2
Main Stage·21 min
Mahdi Namazifar
Mahdi Namazifar details statistical and linguistic modeling techniques to detect Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA) domain queries in enterprise DNS telemetry.
dgadns-analysismachine-learning+2
Main Stage·45 min
Patrick Wardle
Patrick Wardle introduces dynamic library (dylib) hijacking on OS X, demonstrating stealthy local privilege escalation and persistence vectors in Apple applications.
dylib-hijackingmacos-securitypersistence+2
Main Stage·46 min
Katie Moussouris · David Anderson
Katie Moussouris and David Anderson debate the unintended consequences of proposed Wassenaar Arrangement export controls on vulnerability research tools.
wassenaar-arrangementexport-controlsvulnerability-research+2
Main Stage·43 min
David Mortman
David Mortman reviews Docker container security architecture, establishing baseline deployment hardening guidelines, seccomp filters, and kernel capability drops.
dockercontainer-securitydevops+2
Main Stage·43 min
Colin Flynn
Colin Flynn demonstrates hardware power analysis and voltage glitching using ChipWhisperer to extract AES keys and bypass firmware boot verification.
side-channelfault-injectionclock-glitching+2
Main Stage·43 min
Daniel Selifonov
Daniel Selifonov explores advanced memory corruption exploitation primitives, demonstrating deterministic heap layout manipulation and mitigation bypasses.
memory-corruptionheap-exploitationexploit-development+2
Main Stage·47 min
Ronny Bull · Jeanna Matthews
Ronny Bull and Jeanna Matthews audit layer-2 traffic isolation across virtual switches (Open vSwitch), discovering VLAN hopping and cross-tenant ARP spoofing flaws.
virtual-switchinglayer-2arp-spoofing+2