Hacker Summercamp Fallout

Here’s some of the interesting things from Hacker Summercamp.

Lot’s of news articles on hacking AI because 2023 is the year of AI and it’s overshadowed every other topic (No, I’m not bitter my API talk has since been overshadowed by the dawn of the AI era).

NPR - What happens when thousands of hackers try to break AI chatbots - by Shannon Bond

TL;DR:

• 2000 people over three days participated

• Google, Meta, and ChatGPT provided their AI

• The outcomes from the contest are to strengthen guardrails, help policy makers, researchers, and the public understand how AI can go wrong

If you want the presentation slides from Black Hat they have them on their website.

There was of course some junk hacking. While it’s impractical, it is interesting research. This particular one is on hacking card-shuffling machines at casinos. Which I’m pretty sure they did in Ocean’s 13.

TL;DR:

• Report came out about some controversy around a poker game. Report said machine couldn’t be hacked

• Challenge accepted

• USB + USB port = pwned

Check out the Red Signal list on Twitter created by Jason Lang to see more fallout.

Also signup for the Risky Biz Newsletters. There’s some good nuggets on Black Hat and DEFCON in the one from August 15, 2023.

This blog post first appear on Exploring Information Security

BSides Nashville video project

I will be traveling to Nashville, TN, to attend BSides this weekend. For the second year in a row I will be running around the conference taking pictures. I'll also be shooting video this year, as part of my final project for a cinematography course I'm doing.

The idea is that I want to show hackers in a more positive light via a documentary style. The project is only required to be a few minutes long, so I won't need a ton of footage. I would like to setup some interviews before hand with some people to ask them what the term, "hacker" means to them. I also want to setup some interactions to shoot highlight some of the words people use in their interview. For example, words like family or community, I can use shots of people hugging, high-fiving, etc. Curiosity and a desire to learn I can use lock picking and shots of people in talks.

This is going to be a very fluid thing so I'd love to get the interviews done, then move onto getting shots of the conference. If anyone would be willing to help me with either item, I would very much appreciate it. Email me at timothy.deblock[at]gmail[dot]com.

This post first appeared on Exploring Information Security.

InfoSec Links April 9, 2014

Microsoft: Let's be clear, WE won't read your email - but the cops will - Lain Thomson - The Register

Note to self: don't use Hotmail to distribute pirated copies of Windows 8.

The Heartbleed Bug, explained - Timothy B. Lee - Vox

I good explanation of the OpenSSL bug that has rocked the infosec world the past couple days. This is a pretty serious bug that puts millions of sites at risk and potentially your information such as passwords. Unfortunately, there's really nothing you can do about it except hope that the sites you have accounts on apply the patch that fixes the bug ASAP. Most big sites have probably already done it.

Xbox password flaw exposed by five-year-old boy - BBC

Five-year-old wants to get into his dads Xbox account. What does he do? Find a vulnerability in Microsoft's Xbox Live, thus starting his illustrious hacking career. It's not the least bit surprising that his dad works in security.

This post first appeared on Exploring Information Security.