This year I travelled to Las Vegas for DEF CON 34 with the Pentest Partners crew, where we helped run the Aviation and ICS Villages. This was our first year with the ICS Village and we were very impressed with both the quality of content and the vibes.

A big reason for my attending this year was to present some research into OPTO22 Programmable Automation Controllers on the ICS Village creator stage. These PAC boxes sit on the boundary between OT security zones in a lot of critical infrastructure.

Alongside Adam Bromiley I showed how firmware and user program implants could bridge the two security domains they separatean. I demonstrated my Nmap discovery script which I hope defenders can use to find the same weaknesses before anyone less friendly does.

Sam and Adam Bromiley on the DEF CON 34 ICS Village stage presenting their OPTO22 PAC research, with the 'Optopussy: For Your I/Os Only' title slide behind them.
Presenting our OPTO22 PAC research, ‘Optopussy: For Your I/Os Only’, with Adam Bromiley at DEF CON 34.

The rest of the week was a little less serious: the Industrial Cocktail Systems (ICS). Adam and I built these two devices for the village. They used real industrial controllers (One Siemens, one Kunbus), HMIs, remote access routers and switches to provide a CTF environment which also happens to make real drinks. It went about as well as you would expect at a hacker conference…

Add in the daily 6am runs, a flight simulator that mysteriously fixed itself the moment we took it apart, and a seven-person team wrangling nine cases of gear, and it was a ridiculous, brilliant week.

The team wrote up the full trip - planes, PLCs and all - over on the PTP blog: Planes, PLCs and 6am runs at DEF CON 34.