Zardus

I don’t see a future where this doesn’t become more and more relevant. Come join us in Phoenix to glimpse the future! And watch this space and https://synsec.org for more!

SynSec is a result of experiments I’ve been running in using agentic teams to nearly-autonomously do novel systems security research. The results have been fascinating, with interesting successes and even more interesting failures. It’ll be great having a venue to explore this!

SynSec lets us gradually experiment with the research paradigm. Example: agentic reviewers can trivially do reproducibility measurements as part of the review process. To this end, we require submission of not just the code, but also enough artifacts to reproduce the results!

Relevant dates: paper submission site opens 3/1, papers are due 4/2, decisions out 5/15, in-person conference in Phoenix sometime in November (TBD)! With enough demand, we might also do a round 2 deadline; we’ll see how it goes! Stay tuned at

AI will continue to have fundamental impact on academic research. @SynSec_ai is starting as a traditional conference, but we’re sure it’ll evolve beyond that. Have ideas, or would like to sponsor us or spread the word? Our publicity chair (@adamdoupe) and I are eager to chat!

Going all in, we’ll also have a fully-AI program committee, wrangled by our TPC chair, @ltfish_! We’ll also have a Shadow PC of humans, chaired by @___tiffanyb___, who will serve as an interesting comparison and advising role but will NOT have accept/reject decision powers.

Critically, @SynSec_ai isn’t just about research in agents: it’s agents doing mainstream academic cybersecurity research in all the normal topics. Program analysis? Cryptography? Network security? Human factors??? Yes! And, of course, AI agent-performed AI security research.

SynSec will feature novel cybersecurity research predominantly done by AI agents. The main track requires the first author to be an AI, with human coauthors only involved in a guidance and feedback capacity. We’ll also have a side track focusing on the human experience.

Hello security researchers! Like it or not, agentic AI is here. It’s time to explore its impact on novel, academic research in cybersecurity. To this end, we’re launching the Conference for Synthetic Security Research (https://synsec.org). Researchers, start your agents!

#AdventOfPwn is mainly the brainchild of @TheConnorNelson. You can learn all about our thinking around it on this episode of pwn.talk (the best pwn.college-related podcast out there!) here: www.youtube.com/watc...

Come check out the chals (various categories and difficulty, but all the right holiday spirit and fun!), secure your spot on the scoreboard, get some neat emoji badges while you're at it, and maybe (just maybe!) learn some new holiday hacking skills!

pwn.college Learn to Hack!

Hello hackers! A belated announcement of an awesome new thing we're trying out in @pwncollege: #AdventOfPwn! Every day (starting yesterday - sorry for the belated post!), we're launching a new challenge at pwn.college/advent-o... for your hack-racing pleasure.

The room is FULL for @the_robwaz’s talk about Speculative Execution and micro architectural vulnerabilities at @DEFCON Academy (but I only photographed the man himself)!

Spread the word! @DEFCON’s brand new @DEFCONAcademy is giving out shirts, coins, and stickers! And also KNOWLEDGE! So tell your friends (including you, @DEFCON account!) and come by room 235 today to LEARN TO HACK and GET SOME SWAG!

The @the_robwaz is setting up for his @DEFCONAcademy talk on Race Conditions at 1pm in room 235! At @DEFCON? Come learn about concurrency errors in software!

Hello Hackers! Earned a @pwncollege belt? Other amazing achievements? Hanging out @DEFCON? Come by @DEFCONAcademy and get belted at 5pm!

Hello Hackers! Come to @DEFCON Academy (room 235) for a live episode of our pwn.talk starting NOW!

Standing room only at @x3ero0’s @DEFCON Academy talk about Getting into CTF!

Come to @DEFCON Academy to see @TheWyrmSuperior talk about buffer overflows, starting in two minutes!

We are going full speed in @DEFCON's @DEFCONAcademy! Two talks down (Intro to Linux and Intro to Assembly), with the next talk (Intro to Buffer Overflows) at 3pm. Meanwhile, learners are learning through hands-on challenges between the talks. Come by and LEARN TO HACK in W235!

Me waiting for the @DARPA AI Cyber Challenge result announcement after having interviewed all the teams:

@DEFCONAcademy is a big effort, brought to you by dozens of people. I'll call them out on this thread throughout the weekend, but why wait? Come meet them in person and pick up some skills!

Best of all? You might get to meet @the_robwaz, to whose effort we owe this year's @DEFCONAcademy. Robert has spent months working tirelessly to make sure everything goes smoothly, and will be standing by to oversee and guide. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the best!

Need more motivation? We have swag and awards! Come early, and we'll have stickers. Solve enough challenges, and we'll give you a limited-edition challenge coin, a pwn shirt, or, for the true high achievers, a belt to induct you into the martial art of hacking. All at Room 235!

@DEFCONAcademy is approachable to all, regardless of skill level or equipment. We have laptops for you to use, our material ranges from "how to Linux" to "how to exploit microarchitectural vulnerabilities in CPUs" to much in between, all, again, with mentor support! COME LEARN!

We've spent the intervening year preparing a whole weekend of talks, demos, fascinating material, and dozens of mentors standing by to help you learn through hundreds of hands-on challenges. Check out the schedule (defcon.pwn.college/) and come to Room 235 to learn!

Learning impediments abound, from a lack of resources to a lack of mentorship. Last year, @thedarktangent, @perribus, @adamdoupe, @the_robwaz, @theconnornelson, and I announced @DEFCONAcademy, an effort to bridge these impediments for the community (defcon.social/deck/@...).

This is my 25th year attending @DEFCON, in roles ranging from wandering the halls as a newbie to competing in village competitions to competing in and then running the DEF CON CTF itself. I've watched many people become a bit less noob alongside me, and... it's not easy!

Hello hackers! Excited for @DEFCON tomorrow? Make sure to stop by @DEFCONAcademy, a brand new community effort to provide a path for everyone to LEARN TO HACK. Read on for the details! 🧵

That was a longer thread than expected, but we're super excited about these next steps in CTF Academy! Stay tuned for more exciting stuff in the future and, if you want a non-microblogging place to stay up to date, keep an eye on ctf.asu.edu/educatio...