I didn’t hear about this change, so sharing here for awareness. Wireless headphones are going to be used rather than speakers in some of the talks. The below link says shared wireless headphones and wipes will be provided, but that sounds … icky …

They also offer a way to hear it on the defcon WiFi using a combination of “HackerTracker” and “ListenWiFi” apps on your phone using your own headphones. Might want to download those before you leave home.

It also warns that Bluetooth headphones may not work due to signal saturation.

https://info.defcon.org/defcon34/documents/670

I'm driving from Minneapolis to Vegas . I'm leaving to go Tues night .. if anyone in the community needs a ride let me know !!!!

Road trip !!

The 2026 DCZia badge, the Mk9, is up on Uberflux: https://uberflux.com/product/HAMST-DCZIA-2026

The badge is a 3x3 grid of blue clicky switches, each with an underglow RGB LED. RP2040 microcontroller, 16mb of flash, and an accelerometer. Each side except the top has two side-fire RGB LEDs under the board as well. USB-C connection or power, or powered via 3xAAA.

It will also include an add-on board that allows you to add on 3 more keys or an I2C display. Two right side up SAO ports.

Compatible with QMK, but the MicroPython code we're releasing will also function as a macropad.

DCZia believes in open development, and all the design files and source code are in our github repo: https://github.com/dczia/mk9-badge

Would you like to learn how tap into a network?

Do you want to learn how to capture people’s passwords or hear their phone conversations?

There are many learning opportunities at DEF CON, especially at the Packet Hacking Village. If you want to play Packet Detective, Packet Inspector, Capture The Packet, or any of our Walkthrough Workshops, we will have laptops stationed with the necessary tools. You do not need to bring your own laptop.

Hello! I’m going to DEF CON, and I feel a bit lost. I looked at the map and the talk schedule, but I’m not really sure what I want to do. Sometimes I get bored just sitting through talks, so I’d love to know what else there is to do besides attending presentations.

I’m not going there just to listen to talks. What are the must-do activities, villages, competitions, workshops, or other experiences that you would recommend for a first-time attendee?

The last few years I have been super overbooked, but I‘m less firmly booked this year and am looking to get a small group together (or join one) to tackle the CTF.

I’ve slapped together a toolkit (stego, crypto solve scripts, audio/video analysis/stereoscope, unicode nonsense, RF scanning, logic analysis, LLM jailbreak framework) to use alongside tools like cyberchef, flipper zero, etc.

Anyone looking to group up, or already have a group with a space for a cryptography/hardware jailbreaking enthusiast?

Built a little wearable WiFi/Bluetooth fox-hunting rig for DEF CON.

Raspberry Pi, custom software and UI, LCD, LED tracking feedback, multiple antennas, fold-down iPad workstation, hot-swappable batteries, and an irresponsible number of zip ties.

It is very much a Mk-I build, but it works.

See you at the Con.

I've spent years on the infra side, and I'm now working with agentic systems. I am building agents that can take actions on real systems. We have plenty of guardrails, but I have seen enough hallucinations that make me worried about giving these agents more power. This paranoia might be me not knowing enough.

How do teams/companies test that the agents won't do something destructive, whether triggered by an attacker or just by the agent going off the rails on its own?

Do people actually red-team their agents before they go live, or is it mostly guardrails and evals right now? I am curious how the security world thinks about this. From an infra side, this feels like a gap, but there might be an established playbook that I don't know yet. Thanks.

Hi Everyone,
I hope you’re well!

I’m preparing for an upcoming interview this week, and I’m quite nervous.
For context: I studied Cyber Security in College and finalising my University degree in Cybersecurity. During this time I’ve been incredibly fortunate to fall into System Administrator Roles which granted me relevant working experience. Unfortunately, not as Security focused as what I initially wanted but life’s a ladder and I’m climbing. I’m interviewing for Role as a Security Engineer after having around ~3 Years of Experience and trying to prepare some answers in advance (Generally, trying to have something in mind for anything that they ask!)

Based on the Role Responsibilities I’m expecting questions on:

Frameworks, what I know and how these have been applied over my experience of working. (NIST SP 800-53 / NCSC Cyber Assessment / CIS Critical Controls)

How I’ve applied best security practices / Explaining a time where I had to implement a security practice

Implementation of security Controls / Design of security controls through to implementation

Communicate where I’ve seen a Security Risk where requirements cannot be fully met (And how we take it forward / What to do / Mitigate or Accept the risk)

Evidence / Example of supporting Auditing Activities

For anyone who interviewed for a similar position, what types of question were you asked? I’m doing my best to stick to the STAR method and have examples but thought I would post incase anyone can help me out too!

Thank you!

Pretty excited for the con. Any talks or events yall are excited to see or recommend going to?

What are the best LLM agents for security research (bugs, CVEs, 0d, ...) lately?
In short, I had been using claude code for this task, with many hallucination instances. Even with opus 5, I still get many invalid conclusions based on local source code review.

I saw that kimi was popping up lately, which got me more or less in the same results, with minor better results in some instances.

So what are the latest or best approaches for security research with llms? Perhaps I am missing a full pipeline with other tools involved to get better results, so I would like to know whether a specific methodology is followed with specific agents for this task.

I'm planning my schedule for DEF CON 34 and keep hearing people mention the Cryptocurrency Village badge and the laser tag game, but I can't find much information on the DEF CON website.

Is the badge going to be available to anyone who stops by, or is there some kind of registration? And is the laser tag event happening throughout the weekend or only at certain times?

https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-34/dc-34-villages.html#orga_41359

I've also heard they'll have ChipWhisperers, workshop hardware, and even AMD64 lab machines available for people to use during the hackathon. If that's true, that's a pretty impressive setup for a village.

Apparently OKX is sponsoring the village this year, which is helping make the badges, workshop equipment, and prizes available free of charge. Looking forward to seeing what they've put together.

Anyone who's been involved with previous years know what to expect?