How Hackers Won the Zombie Apocalypse

Architecture and Background

Dennis Brown - How Hackers Won the Zombie Apocalypse In April, 2010, a zombie outbreak occurred in Providence, Rhode Island. These were not traditional zombies however; They were controlled by an electronic device that allowed for wireless attacks against the living around them. Fortunately, the living had their own devices, and were able to fight off the zombies...

Vulnerability Analysis

but more threatening enemies entered the fray. This is the story about the QuahogCon 2010 badge and the embedded Zombie Invasion game. For about 48 hours, hackers attacked not only other players, but the badges themselves, trying to unlock the secrets within.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

This presentation will explore the various hacks, both hardware and software, that people tried against a system they had little-to-no prior knowledge about, and both the failures and successes that resulted. It will also discuss the decisions made to make the firmware hackable in a way that was accessible to as many people as possible, but not entirely trivial. Further discussion points will cover the hardware used in the badge, some of the more hilarious issues that came up, and will discuss plans for future designs.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

Dennis Brown is an organizer for QuahogCon, a regional hacker conference in Rhode Island run by DC401. He was one of two people who developed the Zombie Invasion firmware for the conference badges. Dennis has presented previously about topics related to his day job, such as botnets, underground economies, and social media trending. He has presented at Toorcon 10 and 11, and is a frequent presenter at DC401 meetings. For copies of the slides and additional materials please see the DEF CON 18 Archive here: