Zardus
@zardus.bsky.social
Retired DEFCON CTF org.
Shellphish Captain Emeritus.
ASU Prof.
angr hacker.
pwn.college sensei.
Looking for students/interns!
https://yancomm.net
https://github.com/zardus
https://defcon.social/@Zardus
Shellphish Captain Emeritus.
ASU Prof.
angr hacker.
pwn.college sensei.
Looking for students/interns!
https://yancomm.net
https://github.com/zardus
https://defcon.social/@Zardus
@DEFCONAcademy is a big effort, brought to you by dozens of people. I'll call them out on this thread throughout the weekend, but why wait? Come meet them in person and pick up some skills!
August 8, 2025 at 1:33 AM
@DEFCONAcademy is a big effort, brought to you by dozens of people. I'll call them out on this thread throughout the weekend, but why wait? Come meet them in person and pick up some skills!
Best of all? You might get to meet @the_robwaz, to whose effort we owe this year's @DEFCONAcademy. Robert has spent months working tirelessly to make sure everything goes smoothly, and will be standing by to oversee and guide. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the best!
August 8, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Best of all? You might get to meet @the_robwaz, to whose effort we owe this year's @DEFCONAcademy. Robert has spent months working tirelessly to make sure everything goes smoothly, and will be standing by to oversee and guide. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the best!
Need more motivation? We have swag and awards! Come early, and we'll have stickers. Solve enough challenges, and we'll give you a limited-edition challenge coin, a pwn shirt, or, for the true high achievers, a belt to induct you into the martial art of hacking. All at Room 235!
August 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Need more motivation? We have swag and awards! Come early, and we'll have stickers. Solve enough challenges, and we'll give you a limited-edition challenge coin, a pwn shirt, or, for the true high achievers, a belt to induct you into the martial art of hacking. All at Room 235!
@DEFCONAcademy is approachable to all, regardless of skill level or equipment. We have laptops for you to use, our material ranges from "how to Linux" to "how to exploit microarchitectural vulnerabilities in CPUs" to much in between, all, again, with mentor support! COME LEARN!
August 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
@DEFCONAcademy is approachable to all, regardless of skill level or equipment. We have laptops for you to use, our material ranges from "how to Linux" to "how to exploit microarchitectural vulnerabilities in CPUs" to much in between, all, again, with mentor support! COME LEARN!
We've spent the intervening year preparing a whole weekend of talks, demos, fascinating material, and dozens of mentors standing by to help you learn through hundreds of hands-on challenges. Check out the schedule (defcon.pwn.college/) and come to Room 235 to learn!
August 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
We've spent the intervening year preparing a whole weekend of talks, demos, fascinating material, and dozens of mentors standing by to help you learn through hundreds of hands-on challenges. Check out the schedule (defcon.pwn.college/) and come to Room 235 to learn!
Learning impediments abound, from a lack of resources to a lack of mentorship. Last year, @thedarktangent, @perribus, @adamdoupe, @the_robwaz, @theconnornelson, and I announced @DEFCONAcademy, an effort to bridge these impediments for the community (defcon.social/deck/@...).
Zardus: "Hello hackers! In case you missed it at @defcon: …" - DEF CON Social
Hello hackers! In case you missed it at @defcon: @perribus, @adamdoupe, @the_robwaz, @TheConnorNelson, @thedarktangent and I announced @DEFCONAcademy! I kept meaning to spread the word, and now that there's hype (https://news.asu.edu/20241031-science-and-technology-def-con-academy-looks-serve-build-community), it's time for the thread!
Read on! 🧵
defcon.social
August 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Learning impediments abound, from a lack of resources to a lack of mentorship. Last year, @thedarktangent, @perribus, @adamdoupe, @the_robwaz, @theconnornelson, and I announced @DEFCONAcademy, an effort to bridge these impediments for the community (defcon.social/deck/@...).
This is my 25th year attending @DEFCON, in roles ranging from wandering the halls as a newbie to competing in village competitions to competing in and then running the DEF CON CTF itself. I've watched many people become a bit less noob alongside me, and... it's not easy!
August 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
This is my 25th year attending @DEFCON, in roles ranging from wandering the halls as a newbie to competing in village competitions to competing in and then running the DEF CON CTF itself. I've watched many people become a bit less noob alongside me, and... it's not easy!
That was a longer thread than expected, but we're super excited about these next steps in CTF Academy! Stay tuned for more exciting stuff in the future and, if you want a non-microblogging place to stay up to date, keep an eye on ctf.asu.edu/educatio...
May 13, 2025 at 11:38 PM
That was a longer thread than expected, but we're super excited about these next steps in CTF Academy! Stay tuned for more exciting stuff in the future and, if you want a non-microblogging place to stay up to date, keep an eye on ctf.asu.edu/educatio...
Want to see your education platform feeding into CTFs as well? If you run an educational platform that you think is a great bridge to CTF Academy, let us know!
May 13, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Want to see your education platform feeding into CTFs as well? If you run an educational platform that you think is a great bridge to CTF Academy, let us know!
An amazing cryptography education resource is cryptohack.org. These hackers, too, would be amazing to help ramp into CTF and the real world. Now, once you reach Level 15 there, you're welcome to join us at CTF Academy by filling out this form! docs.google.com/form...
May 13, 2025 at 11:38 PM
An amazing cryptography education resource is cryptohack.org. These hackers, too, would be amazing to help ramp into CTF and the real world. Now, once you reach Level 15 there, you're welcome to join us at CTF Academy by filling out this form! docs.google.com/form...
On to the Platforms! pwn.college has good (and growing!) content in various security concepts, but shines most in binary exploitation. Other sites (I maintain a list at https://wargame.nexus) have other specialties, so including their top hackers would be great!
pwn.college
Learn to Hack!
pwn.college
May 13, 2025 at 11:37 PM
On to the Platforms! pwn.college has good (and growing!) content in various security concepts, but shines most in binary exploitation. Other sites (I maintain a list at https://wargame.nexus) have other specialties, so including their top hackers would be great!
pwn.college Green Belts learn ROP, Heap, kernel security, and even microarch concepts, so we're inviting Green (and, pending capacity, earlier) Belts to CTF Academy! We expect this will help Green Belts solidify their skills without adding too much CTF mentor load.
pwn.college
Learn to Hack!
pwn.college
May 13, 2025 at 11:37 PM
pwn.college Green Belts learn ROP, Heap, kernel security, and even microarch concepts, so we're inviting Green (and, pending capacity, earlier) Belts to CTF Academy! We expect this will help Green Belts solidify their skills without adding too much CTF mentor load.
This has worked quite well! Rather than explaining Heap Exploitation, the mentors could focus on, e.g., tricky heap massaging in complex applications, or just how to approach a complex challenge in general. In fact, it's worked well enough that we're relaxing the requirements!
May 13, 2025 at 11:37 PM
This has worked quite well! Rather than explaining Heap Exploitation, the mentors could focus on, e.g., tricky heap massaging in complex applications, or just how to approach a complex challenge in general. In fact, it's worked well enough that we're relaxing the requirements!
Next, we're scaling hacker skill levels! So far, we limited CTF Academy to hackers who completed the Blue Belt (Advanced Exploitation) material on pwn.college, so that mentors would not be overloaded with introductory technical mentoring, saving mentoring capacity.
pwn.college
Learn to Hack!
pwn.college
May 13, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Next, we're scaling hacker skill levels! So far, we limited CTF Academy to hackers who completed the Blue Belt (Advanced Exploitation) material on pwn.college, so that mentors would not be overloaded with introductory technical mentoring, saving mentoring capacity.
On the mentor side, we're scaling this out to more teams! If you're an established CTF team that is interested in taking a turn in the mentor rotation, we'd love to have you on board! Check out more info and a sign up form here: docs.google.com/form...
CTF Academy - Call for Mentors
CTF Academy is an initiative to help pwn.college students transition from self-paced training to real-world CTF competitions. We invite experienced CTF teams to mentor students during live CTFs. Mentors guide students through challenges, answer technical questions, and help them experience the thrill of competing on the leaderboard.
By joining CTF Academy as a mentor, you get to shape the next generation of CTF players and potentially discover future teammates.
For more information visit CTF Academy
docs.google.com
May 13, 2025 at 11:37 PM
On the mentor side, we're scaling this out to more teams! If you're an established CTF team that is interested in taking a turn in the mentor rotation, we'd love to have you on board! Check out more info and a sign up form here: docs.google.com/form...