So this is Heisenberg, DEF CON 30's demo labs. You have to show off this thing.
Demo labs. The demo labs lab coat.
Right, the demo labs lab coat.
So what is DEF CON demo labs?
So demo labs is an opportunity for researchers to present their tools, to present their projects,
in a way, in a forum, that allows interaction between the community and the presenter, the person that's doing the project.
Is it community driven?
I mean, the person speaking is like a corporate person selling their tool?
Nope, this is all open source. We're focusing on the open source stuff.
And the idea is, it is very community driven because it is designed to be able to allow the community to interact with the presenter.
That's one reason why these are small forums.
Is that the audience or the participants can sit there and listen, interact, questions.
And what we find, oftentimes, is the projects continue to evolve year after year based on community input.
So individuals will come, they'll listen, they'll say, hey, this works great, but I need something else.
Or can it do this? And can it do that?
And then a couple of years later, they come back with a new evolution of the tool.
And it's directly from interaction right here at the con.
That is really cool. Because I know that's one of the problems with open source, oftentimes, is you make this really cool.
Like, GitHub and other ones have just become so big, it's really hard to find what projects are still active.
And then it's sometimes really difficult to communicate with the creator.
Here, the creator can come, show off the product, say, here's what I'm trying to build.
Or here's the project I'm trying to build. I need help with it.
Can I get some feedback? Can I get some insight?
And unlike the big tracks, which are kind of like, here's a presentation for you.
This is more of a, I need help.
Exactly, exactly. And so it's that interactivity that we really strive for in demo labs.
And the other thing that's really cool is it's a lot of networking and community building.
Because oftentimes, somebody will say, yeah, I did this project and this sort of thing.
And they say, wait a minute, that guy? Oh, yeah, I know him. And he does this.
And so then you see this synergy of things coming together.
And you're thinking, man, it can only happen here and can only happen in a forum like this.
So that's what demo labs is. And that's why I'm psyched to do it.
What's been one of the coolest, or I'll say not even one of the coolest,
what has been one of your favorite projects that you've seen get shown off?
You know, and that's the thing that every single project is uniquely different.
We have hardware hacking. We have RF hacking. We have code analysis.
We have cool exploitation tools like Empire and things like that.
Darkmatter comes and gives all of his Wi-Fi. So it's really just the entire wide gamut of everything.
And that's the part that's so cool is it's not just narrowly focused.
It's wide on all of the tool sets. So everybody has an opportunity.
Whatever your niche interest is, there's more than likely going to be a demo labs this year for it.
That is so cool. And this is part of the conference. This isn't like you have to pay for this ahead of time?
Nope, nope. This is part of the conference and it has been going on for many years.
It was going on before I inherited. I've been doing it about five years now.
And it is just absolutely a fantastic opportunity. We put out a call for demos, just like a call for papers.
And we get the contributions in and then we get those contributions.
We go through and we pick out the ones that think are going to be the best work, the best fit for the conference.
That's awesome. Thank you so much. I've heard of demo labs.
I've never got to experience them. This is so cool.
Because I think what's at the core of it is the community.
Well, the tools are great and whatnot. When you create a tool, it's so often in hacking.
You create something cool and you're in your basement or you're in your office.
And then you stand up and you're like, woo, and that's it.
Yeah, yeah.
We're here. It's an opportunity to come and share.
And I think in the big stages, you don't get that excitement.
You can hear the excitement in the people you're developing for and it gives you some energy to continue doing it.
It absolutely does. It's just as good for the presenters as it is for the individuals that are listening.
Because they get that energy and they get to feed and get that information and get that interaction.
So if I want to get involved in demo labs, where do I go?
The best thing to do is to look for the call for demos.
And when there's a call for demos comes out about the same time as call for papers, wrap up your cool tool and send it in.
And we will take a look at it.
And if you're picked, you'll be sitting in there next year or wherever we are and you'll be given your demo lab.
This is great. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you for watching.
And as always, hack on!