DEFCON 31 Workshop

The Petting Zoo is back for DEF CON 31! 

This workshop will start with an overview of the CTF landscape, why we do them, and what value they have in the scope of the hacking community. This presentation will include various resources and simple demos to show how to approach a CTF and how it may differ from the "real world" hacking challenges many of us face in our professions. Next, a short CTF will be hosted to give attendees hands-on experience solving challenges with the ability to ask for help and will be guided through the approach to successfully navigating these challenges. 

What to Bring

Our challenges were made with Linux in mind (specifically Kali Linux). With that said, each challenge will be solvable from other operating systems such as other Linux distributions, Windows, and macOS.

The recommendation:

• Laptop capable of running virtual machines

• Debian-based Virtual machine (e.g., Kali Linux) is recommended.

• Power Adapter

We typically recommend solving our challenges within the safety of a virtual machine so you can leverage snapshots and a fresh install of your favorite Linux distribution. Kali Linux comes default with most of the tools you will need for our challenges, but you are welcome to use whatever you are comfortable with. If you decide to use a different OS than recommended, you may be on your own when things go wrong or are working in unexpected ways (we will do our best to help!). 

Some tools we will review and recommend during the challenges include, but are not limited to, Python3, a basic IDE such as VSCode, CyberChef, Chrome/Firefox, BurpSuite Community Edition, Ghidra (or a similar tool), and basic Linux command line tools like grep, awk, cut, vim, etc. We will review other tools and potentially recommend installing or using specific ones during the workshop, but these will not be required.

Chromebooks

A limited number of Kali-Chromebooks will be available for those experiencing issues or unable to use a personal system. To ensure we have a system available for you, please contact us at info[at]the-petting-zoo[.]com and request a Chromebook for the workshop. These systems will be first-come-first-serve. We recommend you bring a personal device, but we want to accommodate everyone as best as possible. 

Contact Us 

If you have any questions, please contact us at info[at]the-petting-zoo[.]com.