War Stories·49 min
Jeffrey Knockel · Mona Wang
Exposes flawed custom network encryption in popular Chinese IME keyboard apps that allow network eavesdroppers to intercept keystrokes from 800 million users.
cryptanalysisprivacyandroid+2
War Stories
DEF CON 32 War Stories features first-hand accounts from seasoned security researchers, investigators, and defenders detailing high-profile investigations and complex vulnerability discoveries. Presentations explore real-world digital forensics, reverse engineering operations, supply chain compromises, and federal law enforcement operations.
1–22 of 22 talks
War Stories·25 min
Sam Curry
Chronicles an investigation into a compromised home modem that led to discovering centralized ISP vulnerabilities exposing millions of broadband devices.
appsecroutersvulnerability-research+2
War Stories·39 min
Joseph Cox
Investigates the FBI's undercover operation running the encrypted phone app Anom, detailing the platform backdoor and law enforcement network compromise.
privacysurveillancenational-security+2
War Stories·43 min
Joe Grand · Bruno Krauss
Reverse engineers vintage RoboForm password generator routines to exploit weak PRNG randomness and recover millions in locked Bitcoin wallets.
cryptanalysisreverse-engineeringghidra+2
War Stories·47 min
Jayson E. Street
Demonstrates how generative AI tools enhance phishing and vishing operations and outlines strategies to build organizational situational awareness.
social-engineeringphishingai+2
War Stories·22 min
Anthony Kava
Goes behind the scenes of a high-profile homicide investigation to show how command-line utilities and digital evidence unmasked an online stalker.
forensicsinvestigationlinux+2
War Stories·29 min
Tony Sager
Reflects on a 35-year NSA career in defensive vulnerability analysis and the evolution of cybersecurity standards like the Critical Security Controls.
historypolicyblue-team+2
War Stories·39 min
Thomas Boejstrup Johansen
Details a year-long investigation running eight wpad.tld domains that received over one billion DNS requests and enabled unauthenticated traffic interception.
wpadreconproxies+2
War Stories·39 min
Ken Gannon · Ilyes Beghdadi
Recounts NCC Group's Pwn2Own Toronto exploit chain compromising the Xiaomi 13 Pro via malicious hyperlinks and app store vulnerabilities.
androidmobileexploitation+2
War Stories·49 min
Joe Sullivan
Former Uber CSO Joe Sullivan provides an inside retrospective on the 2016 Uber data breach, executive liability, and the criminalization of incident response.
cisoincident-responselegal+2
War Stories·34 min
Ben Sadeghipour · Corben Leo
Ben Sadeghipour (NahamSec) and Corben Leo share war stories from high-impact bug bounty engagements across prisons, major tech firms, and online casinos.
bug-bountyweb-securityrecon+2
War Stories·38 min
Paz Hameiri
Paz Hameiri develops a simulation framework to spoof and jam weather balloon radiosonde telemetry, threatening global climate models and rocket launches.
radiosondeweather-balloonssdr+2
War Stories·42 min
Taiiwo · Artorias · Puck · TheClockworkBird
Leaders of the CicadaSolvers community detail the 9-year collaborative effort to decrypt Cicada 3301's Liber Primus runic cryptogram.
cicada-3301cryptographypuzzle-solving+2
War Stories·45 min
Miana Ella Windall
Miana Ella Windall chronicles designing and implanting custom subdermal RFID credentials to interact seamlessly with proprietary workplace access control readers.
rfidhealthcareimplants+2
War Stories·21 min
Lorenzo Cococcia
Lorenzo Cococcia explores offensive physical geolocation, using network latency trilateration across distributed sensors to locate adversary C2 servers.
geolocationlatency-trilaterationthreat-intelligence+2
War Stories·47 min
Allan Cecil
Allan Cecil details how a Use-After-Free flaw in Ocarina of Time allowed TASBot to execute arbitrary code on an unmodified Nintendo 64 to raise $228K for charity.
nintendo-64use-after-freeexploit-development+2
War Stories·48 min
Mikko Hypponen
Mikko Hypponen reflects on living 100 miles from Russia, tracing the evolution of Russian state cyber programs, patriotic hacker collectives, and NATO integration.
threat-intelligencerussiageopolitics+2
War Stories·37 min
Horseman · Hanley
Security researchers demonstrate how simple grep heuristics uncovered a universal remote command injection vulnerability in Lexmark enterprise printers at Pwn2Own.
pwn2ownprinterscommand-injection+2
War Stories·43 min
Tracy Mosley
Tracy Mosley traces the generational evolution of cellular networks from 2G to 5G, breaking down core network topologies, attack surfaces, and protocol vulnerabilities.
cellular5glte+2
War Stories·46 min
Renderman · Tom Dang
Renderman and Tom Dang share first-hand accounts of facing legal retaliation when reporting government vulnerabilities, urging reform in public disclosure policies.
vulnerability-disclosuresafe-harborlegal+2
War Stories·21 min
Cooper Quintin
EFF researcher Cooper Quintin recounts tracking Dark Caracal, a Lebanese state-backed cyber-mercenary group whose comical operational security blunders exposed their operations.
dark-caracalthreat-intelligenceapt+2
War Stories·44 min
Andrew Brandt
Andrew Brandt investigates targeted intrusion campaigns where adversaries engage victims in live conversational social engineering to deliver malware.
social-engineeringtargeted-attacksmalware+2