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╟┐ ┌╢▐
║ Every summer, 10s of thousands of hackers from around the ║▐
║ world converge on Las Vegas, NV to teach, learn, and show ║▐
║ off their skills at an information security conference ║▐
║ known as DEF CON. After years of attending, I got involved, ║▐
║ volunteering with the Hardware Hacking Village (HHV), a ║▐
║ section of the conference dedicated to hardware hacking. I ║▐
║ took over the Hardware Hacking Village (HHV) Capture the ║▐
║ Flag (CTF) event in 2018 at DEF CON 26. Before then, ║▐
║ another member of the HHV community would make a challenge ║▐
║ or two, focusing on hardware hacking topics, to challenge ║▐
║ DEF CON attendees that stopped by the HHV. ║▐
║ ║▐
║ I wanted the content to continue in the same vein as ║▐
║ before, so for DEF CON 26 I created a simple PCBA with an ║▐
║ ATTiny84 MCU, EEPROM, four buttons, and some passives ║▐
║ (LEDs, resistors, and capacitors). The PBCA functionality ║▐
║ was nothing fancy; there were two green LEDs, one that ║▐
║ would turn on if a correct passcode with the buttons, and ║▐
║ the other would turn on if a specific value was read from ║▐
║ the EEPROM. The participants' goal was to get both LEDs to ║▐
║ light up by passing the passcode and EEPROM checks. My ║▐
║ intention was to get DEF CON attendees more familiar and ║▐
║ comfortable with side-channel attacks and serial ║▐
║ interfaces. ║▐
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║ More details on the DEF CON HHV Challenge board and ║▐
║ solutions write-up can be found on the HHV github ║▐
║ ║▐
║ DEF CON 27 was a busy year for me, so there wasn't a HHV ║▐
║ CTF, but I picked up running the event at DEF CON 28. This ║▐
║ was an interesting year because it was the first year DEF ║▐
║ CON was fully remote, due to COVID. I needed to get ║▐
║ creative and find a way to make the content available ║▐
║ remotely. ║▐
║ ║▐
║ I created a series of logic analyzer captures for ║▐
║ participants to download and solve. All captures were taken ║▐
║ using Saleae's Logic software coupled with my Logic 8 and ║▐
║ Logic 16 analyzers. Some of the challenges also included ║▐
║ additional files, like Gerber files for the board the ║▐
║ capture was taken from. The challenges were designed to be ║▐
║ easier at first, to introduce participants to the software, ║▐
║ and then they slowly ramped up in difficulty. ║▐
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║ I was very pleased with the number of participants, and the ║▐
║ number of competitors that solved all the challenges! I ║▐
║ think the remote accessibility helped make the content more ║▐
║ approachable. I suspect the need of tools for many hardware ║▐
║ hacking challenges can be daunting for people. This is ║▐
║ something to keep in mind for future HHV CTF events. ║▐
║ ║▐
║ All the challenges from DEF CON 28 HHV CTF are hosted on ║▐
║ the HHV website here. There is a write up for how to solve ║▐
║ the challenges here. ║▐
║ ║▐
║ During DEF CON 29, the HHV CTF was fully remote due to the ║▐
║ conference being a hybrid of in-person and remote. This ║▐
║ year, I was fortunate to have support from a few other ║▐
║ members of the community who were interested in creating ║▐
║ CTF content. ║▐
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║ Learning from the previous year, I upgraded our platform to ║▐
║ utilize CTFd for challenge posting and flag submissions. ║▐
║ The previous year, I just had participants submit flags by ║▐
║ direct messaging me, and I verified if they were correct. ║▐
║ That wasn't a scalable model, so I took time this year to ║▐
║ set up an instance of CTFd for the HHV CTF. As a result, I ║▐
║ wasn't able to generate as much challenge content, but I ║▐
║ did create a few Logic captures to accompany the challenges ║▐
║ created by my teammates. ║▐
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║ All the challenges from the DEF CON 29 HHV CTF are hosted ║▐
║ on the HHV website here. There is also a great write up ║▐
║ from the CTF winner for how they solved the challenges here. ║▐
╟┐ ┌╢▐
╟┐ ┌╢▐
║ Part hardware hacker, part creative technologist, and part ║▐
║ human-centered designer thriving at the cross-section of ║▐
║ engineering and design. ║▐
║ ║▐
║ Led to engineering through my love for music, art, and ║▐
║ math, I hold degrees in electrical, computer, and music ║▐
║ engineering. Following a stint in academia, I joined IDEO ║▐
║ as a senior electrical engineer where I contributed ║▐
║ creative problem solving and prototyping fluency to a ║▐
║ breadth of projects ranging from vehicles of the future, to ║▐
║ life-changing medical equipment, to innovative children's ║▐
║ toys. Most recently, I was at Delve and now Sundberg-Ferar, ║▐
║ diving deeper into engineering for production, and working ║▐
║ on bringing ideas and prototypes to reality. ║▐
║ ║▐
║ Outside of work, I enjoy creating rotoscopes and ║▐
║ illustrations, reverse engineering electronic toys, and ║▐
║ taking a break from screens by running, biking, and camping ║▐
║ in the great outdoors. ║▐
╟┐ ┌╢▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ School .... University of Delaware, Newark, DE ║▐
║ Grad year . 2012 ║▐
║ ║▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ BEE in Electrical Engineering ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ School .... University of Delaware, Newark, DE ║▐
║ Grad year . 2011 ║▐
╟┐ ┌╢▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Senior II Electrical Engineer ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ Company ... Bresslergroup / Delve, Philadelphia, PA ║▐
║ Key roles . Developed embedded hardware for diagnostic devices ║▐
║ . Developed embedded firmware with precision-timing ║▐
║ . Designed for manufacturing ║▐
║ Years ..... Nov '20 - Apr '22 ║▐
║ ║▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Senior Electrical Engineer ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ Company ... IDEO, Chicago, IL ║▐
║ Key roles . Specialized in rapid hardware prototyping ║▐
║ . Developed embedded and front-end software ║▐
║ . Designed human-centered solutions for clients ║▐
║ Years ..... Sep '14 - Oct '20 ║▐
║ ║▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ User Experience Intern ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ Company ... Shure, Niles, IL ║▐
║ Years ..... Summer '13 & Summer '14 ║▐
║ ║▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Graduate Research Assistant ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ Company ... Univ. of Miami, Music Eng Dept, Miami, FL ║▐
║ Years ..... Aug '12 - May '14 ║▐
║ ║▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Co-Founder and Shop Manager ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ Company ... Newark Bike Project, Newark, DE ║▐
║ Years ..... Oct '11 - Aug '12 ║▐
║ ║▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Undergrad/Grad Research Assistant ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ Company ... Univ. of Delaware, Elec/Comp Eng Dept, Newark, DE ║▐
║ Years ..... Feb '09 & Aug '12 ║▐
╟┐ ┌╢▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Languages ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ C, C++, Obj-C HTML, CSS Spanish (int) ║▐
║ Basic Assembly Javascript Japanese (beg) ║▐
║ Matlab Python ║▐
║ ║▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Software ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ Adobe Creative Cloud Autodesk Fusion Microsoft 365 ║▐
║ ║▐
║ -=≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ Other ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡=- ║▐
║ Screen Printing Bike Mechanic Furby Technician ║▐
║ Sketching Illustrating ║▐
╟┐ ┌╢▐
╟┐ ┌╢▐
╟┐ ┌╢▐
