Chaos Computer Club - archive feed

Geostationäre Satelliten können ein spannendes Hobby sein, von Satellitenpiraterie über Amateurfunksatelliten bis hin zum digitalen Satellitenrundfunk finden sich viele Betätigungsfelder. Was sind geostationäre Satelliten, was macht man damit, und warum hört man auf US-Militärsatelliten auch mal Leute Portugisisch sprechen oder Songs von den Bangles? Das sind nur einige Fragen die ich in diesem kleinen Ritt durch die Nachrichtentechnik der Fernmeldesatelliten beantworten werde. Das ganze mit Illustrationen und realen Beispielen sichtbar gemacht, sowie Praxistipps wie man diese Satelliten auch selbst nutzen kann. Der Vortrag versucht für ein breites Publikum verständlich zu sein und dabei eine Balance zwischen didaktischer Vereinfachung und der korrekten Darstellung von Technologien und Verfahren. Es häufig gezeigt wohin man gehen kann, wenn man mehr wissen will. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/geostationre-satelliten-als-hobby/

Du bestellst im Internet? Natürlich bestellst Du im Internet. Aber dieses Mal wird Deine Ware nicht geliefert. Stattdessen sind Dein Geld und Deine Kreditkartendaten nun in China. Das ist BogusBazaar. Wir teilen unsere Einblicke in die Arbeitsweise dieser Bande. In den vergangenen drei Jahren hat allein diese eine kriminelle Organisation, die wir BogusBazaar nennen, auf mehr als 75.000 Domains gefälschte Markenshops aufgesetzt und damit eine Million Bestellungen mit einem Auftragsvolumen von mehr als 50 Millionen USD abgewickelt. Ein ausgeklügeltes und über die Jahre gewachsenes Setup ermöglicht einen reibungslosen Prozess vom Kopieren der originalen Markenläden, über das Aufsetzen gefälschter Webshops und dem Konfigurieren der Produkte, bis hin zum Orchestrieren der Zahlungsinfrastruktur. Wir hatten einen einmaligen Einblick in dieses Setup und in die Arbeitsweise dieser Bande. Neben Kundendaten und Quellcode konnten wir auch Verträge und Dokumentation studieren und mit den Opfern über ihre Erfahrungen sprechen. In diesem Talk berichten wir über die Hintergründe unserer Recherche. [Die Zeit](https://www.zeit.de/2024/21/gefaelschte-online-shops-fake-shops-betrug-china), [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/may/08/chinese-network-behind-one-of-worlds-largest-online-scams) und [Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2024/05/08/online-scams-behind-the-scenes-of-the-world-s-largest-network-of-fake-online-retailers_6670775_13.html) berichteten. Der Vortrag ist ein Spin-Off aus der Reihe „[Hirne Hacken](https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-11175-hirne_hacken)" (36C3), „[Hirne Hacken - Hackback Edition](https://media.ccc.de/v/37c3-12134-hirne_hacken_hackback_edition)“ (37C3) und „[Disclosure, Hack und Back](https://media.ccc.de/v/camp2023-57272-disclosure_hack_and_back)“ (Chaos Communication Camp '23) und will Einblicke in das Handeln von Kriminellen geben, die auch weiterhin aktiv sind. Damit Ihr nicht auf sie hereinfallt. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/fake-shops-von-der-stange-bogusbazaar/

A trip into party drug trends: Seeking insight among poorly formatted data, media misinformation, repressive laws and risky chemicals Berlin recently launched a public drug checking service — an admirable first for Germany. What can the data unveil? This talk aims to elevate your mental state towards clarity over party drug trends in 2024 by serving a mix of Berlin’s drug testing data – both public and unpublished – with a few potent adulterants: Snazzy info graphics, shoddy code and a bunch of original research. Observe badly copy-pasted tag soup transform into beautiful and impactful open-eye visuals. Watch sales terms purportedly specifying precise chemical formulas exposed as mere smoke and mirrors, and find even names derived from each other labeling vastly different things. See patterns revealed and dots connected, like how an international interplay of both draconian and liberal legal frameworks created a perfect storm of unintended, risky consequences – or on the other hand, how the absence of reliable data creates a breeding ground for the viral spread of irrational fears. See through falsehoods regularly published on these topics in the press. Before this risks turning into a bad trip, find zen with some practical risk management tips and pointers to helpful support services. In less poetic terms, I’ll be covering recent trends regarding these psychoactive substances: Ecstasy & “blue punishers”, cocaine, fentanyl, mephedrone, 3-MMC, 2C-B, “tusi”, “monkey dust” and more. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/binging-on-drug-checking-data/

Millions of internet users around the world rely on Tor to protect themselves from surveillance and censorship. While Tor-powered applications and the Tor protocol are widely known, the community behind it much less so. This talk will highlight the efforts to maintain a healthy and resilient Tor network, emphasizing the crucial role of a diverse, engaged community of relay operators. We’ll discuss some recent news, the current state of the network, how we determine its health, and the strategies to strengthen its resilience, addressing challenges around sustainability and governance. If you're interested in understanding the inner workings of the Tor network, this talk is for you. This talk is designed to give an overview of Tor's 'new and not-so-new' network health initiatives in response to some of the pressing questions that emerged from the recent reporting about Tor in Germany. After a brief introduction to "Tor," we will primarily focus on issues relating to the Tor network and its community, underscoring the critical importance of distributed trust, transparency, and engagement in maintaining a robust and healthy ecosystem. We will provide a short overview of the fundamental components of the Tor network, detailing the different types of relays that constitute its infrastructure and the role these can have through their lifetime. We will emphasize that the network operates independently of the Tor Project, sustained by a decentralized, global community of contributors. By analyzing network metrics—such as relay distribution across countries and Autonomous Systems (AS)—we will highlight the current state of the network and identify opportunities for increasing geographic and technical diversity. This is followed by an introduction to the concept of network health. We will define the term, assess the current condition of the Tor network, and showcase the different modes of participation. We will primarily consider this through the lens of an 'alleged' over-reliance on relay concentration in specific regions, such as Europe and the United States. These insights will inform a discussion on how a more geographically distributed network could improve resilience, enhance security, and increase overall functionality. The talk will also address the primary challenges facing the Tor network: Sustainability remains a central concern, particularly with regard to maintaining a stable, secure, and decentralized network over time. Additionally, ensuring trust within the community is essential, especially in the face of potential misuse by malicious actors. We will explore the need for incentive structures that encourage the operation of relays while preserving the network’s independence and autonomy. We will review and debate initiatives the Tor Project has proposed to support a decentralized network without imposing centralized control. In response to these challenges, we will propose several potential solutions. Expanding outreach efforts to regions outside the Global North could promote greater diversity in the relay community, thereby strengthening the network’s ability to resist censorship and external threats. We will also examine existing incentive frameworks that support relay operators. Furthermore, we will discuss the success of Snowflake proxies—widely adopted in regions with restrictive internet environments—and how it demonstrates how lowering the barrier to entry for running nodes can encourage broader participation from the community. Finally, we will outline our strategy for ensuring the long-term health of the Tor network, focusing on governance, community engagement, and sustaining the network’s decentralized nature. We will conclude with a call to action, inviting participants to contribute to the continued sustainability and development of the Tor network. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/guardians-of-the-onion-ensuring-the-health-and-resilience-of-the-tor-network/

The talk introduces technology-driven urban art projects that emphasize public participation and creativity. Each project employs a DIY machine to transform public spaces and create art collaboratively. How were these machines built? How do ideas evolve, and how can creative machines foster community connections? Find the answers and get some inspirations in this entertaining and insightful talk by Niklas a.k.a. royrobotiks. In his talk, Niklas will highlight some of his latest projects that use DIY machines to involve communities in creating art together. From a graffiti robot to a giant mosaic that was designed by an entire neighborhood with the help of a mobile arcade machine, he’ll share the stories behind his inventions. He will discuss his sources of inspiration, the creative process and thoughts about inclusiveness guiding the development of the machines, and the joy of watching diverse people interact with and contribute to these unconventional art pieces. Join Niklas for an insightful journey into how inventiveness can transform urban environments, while also bringing people together through creativity and play. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/vectors-pixels-plotters-and-public-participation/

Erklärung von Amateurfunk und der neuen Prüfung für Neulinge Im Amateurfunk kann ich weltweit und über Satelliten kostenlos Gespräche führen. Dazu darf ich sogar selbstgebaute Empfänger und Sender benutzen. Oder auch einen Computer zur Kommunikation einsetzen. Damit das funktioniert, gibt es ein paar Regeln, die gelernt werden müssen und für die es eine Prüfung gibt. Seit diesem Sommer gibt es für den Amateurfunk in Deutschland eine Prüfung für eine Einstiegs-Klasse. Ich zeige dir, was du für die Prüfung lernen musst. Und was du nach bestandener Prüfung für Neulinge machen darfst, damit du am weltweiten Amateurfunk teilnehmen kannst. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/einstieg-in-den-amateurfunk/

Wir, Steffen & Olli, besprechen in unserem Podcast alles was die Große und Kleine Fliegerei angeht. Wir sind ein aktiver und ein Verkehrspilot im Ruhestand. Hauptthemen: update zu GPS-Spoofing, Flugstrecken in Zeiten von Krisen und Auswirkungen auf die Sicherheit. Ausserdem geht es um aktuelle Vorfälle in der großen und kleinen Luftfahrt. Trotz des vermeintlich ernsten Themas sind wir immer mit Humor dabei! Podcast Webseite: www.comeflywithus.de Wenn ihr Fragen zu dem Thema oder der Sendung habt, gerne platzieren, am besten schon vorab. Uns wird man kurz vorher antreffen können und wir werden nicht zu übersehen sein! Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/comeflywithus-podcast/

How can we spark children's interest in coding and tinkering. In this talk we will present the ongoing activities of the Free Software Foundation Europe to get the next generation of Haecksen and Hackers interested in tech, with a focus on diversity. Today it is impossible to imagine daily life without software. The majority of us can’t spend a single day without using it. People use software in the workplace, on laptops, and on mobile phones. Software is also found in less obvious places however: in trains, cars, televisions, washing-machines, fridges, and many other devices. None of these devices could function without software. Without software we couldn’t write e-mails, make phone calls, go shopping, or travel as we are accustomed to. Software is our society’s central tool. How do we ensure that the next generation is motivated and capable of shaping technology for society’s benefits? The Free Software Foundation Europe’s volunteers and staff have interacted with over 1700 children between 6 to 10 years in the past months. Children, especially girls, afterwards were motivated to start experimenting with hardware and software. In the discussions we saw that they realise how crucial technology will be for them. The story of Ada made it into a war hospital with children with disability that felt identified with it as one of the book characters has a 3D printed leg. Furthermore with the FSFE’s coding competition “Youth Hacking 4 Freedom” we gathered experiences working with teenagers who program, tinker, and have fun with software. YH4F has also been a place for diversity during its first three editions. Learn more about the experiences how the FSFE sparks children’s and teenagers interest to tinker, experiment and program. Furthermore you will see how fulfilling those activities can be for yourself. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/let-s-spark-children-s-interest-in-coding/

In 2013, the satellite BEESAT-1 started returning invalid telemetry, rendering it effectively unusable. Because it is projected to remain in orbit for at least another 20 years, recovering the satellite and updating the flight software would enable new experiments on the existing hardware. However, in addition to no access to telemetry, the satellite also has no functional software update feature. This talk will tell the story of how by combining space and computer security mindsets, the fault was correctly diagnosed without telemetry, software update features were implemented without having them to begin with, and the satellite was recovered in September of 2024. In 2009, BEESAT-1 was launched into low earth orbit as the first 1U CubeSat of Technische Universität Berlin. In 2011, the satellite started returning invalid telemetry data. After a short amount of time spent diagnosing the issue, operators switched to the redundant on-board computer, which initially resolved the issue. However in 2013 the issue reoccurred on the second computer. With no other on-board computer available to switch to, operations largely ceased besides occasional checks every few years to see whether the satellite was still responding to commands at all. A recovery of BEESAT-1 back into an operational state was made particularly attractive considering that due to its higher orbit, it is currently estimated to remain in space for another 20 years or more, while many of the other spacecraft of the BEESAT series have since burned up in the atmosphere. Additionally, the spacecraft is equipped with a number of sensors and actuators which were not fully utilized during the primary mission and could be used in an extended mission. However, to fully utilize all the available hardware on the spacecraft, a software update is required. Unfortunately, the software update functionality was not completed at the time of launch and as a consequence is in a nonfunctional state. An alternate solution must be devised. Following an extensive effort that diagnosed the telemetry problem, developed a solution that would remedy both the telemetry problem and allow the upload of new flight software, and implemented this solution on the actual spacecraft in orbit, the satellite was finally recovered into an operational state with the ability to perform a software update in September 2024. This talk will cover the recovery process from beginning to end, including: - A brief overview of how BEESAT-1 works and is operated - Diagnosing the loss of telemetry without access to said telemetry - Engineering a solution to the diagnosed issue, including: - figuring out how to upload new software without a feature intended for that task - establishing a development and testing setup for flight software development years after the original setup was dismantled - developing a patch to enable returning the satellite to an operational state and establish the ability to upload new flight software, while under the constraints posed by the lack of a proper upload method and without compromising the safety of the spacecraft - Implementing this solution on the actual spacecraft in space - A brief look at the current state of the spacecraft and remaining future tasks Along the way, some of the fun and unexpected moments experienced while working with the 15 year old software and hardware will be shared. The talk is likely to be a mix of technical and non-technical. I hope to provide enough context so that you can follow without a background in space systems or computer security. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/hacking-yourself-a-satellite-recovering-beesat-1/

This is the story of the HDCP master key that we derived back in 2010. This is the story of the HDCP master key. How in 2010 we derived it from various public sources and from a bunch of cheapish hardware (and how we made money in the process!), and then published it on pastebin. After that it was just wait-and-see what Intel and the rest of the world would do. With the master key anyone can make source and sink keys that interoperate with any HDCP device. Oh, and how I learnt how to spell "forty". HDCP MASTER KEY (MIRROR THIS TEXT!) This is a forty times forty element matrix of fifty-six bit hexadecimal numbers. To generate a source key, take a forty-bit number that (in binary) consists of twenty ones and twenty zeroes; this is the source KSV. Add together those twenty rows of the matrix that correspond to the ones in the KSV (with the lowest bit in the KSV corresponding to the first row), taking all elements modulo two to the power of fifty-six; this is the source private key. To generate a sink key, do the same, but with the transposed matrix. 6692d179032205 b4116a96425a7f ecc2ef51af1740 959d3b6d07bce4 fa9f2af29814d9 82592e77a204a8 146a6970e3c4a1 f43a81dc36eff7 568b44f60c79f5 bb606d7fe87dd6 1b91b9b73c68f9 f31c6aeef81de6 9a9cc14469a037 a480bc978970a6 997f729d0a1a39 b3b9accda43860 f9d45a5bf64a1d 180a1013ba5023 42b73df2d33112 851f2c4d21b05e 2901308bbd685c 9fde452d3328f5 4cc518f97414a8 8fca1f7e2a0a14 dc8bdbb12e2378 672f11cedf36c5 f45a2a00da1c1d 5a3e82c124129a 084a707eadd972 cb45c81b64808d 07ebd2779e3e71 9663e2beeee6e5 25078568d83de8 28027d5c0c4e65 ec3f0fc32c7e63 1d6b501ae0f003 f5a8fcecb28092 854349337aa99e 9c669367e08bf1 d9c23474e09f70 Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/the-master-key/

Die mittlerweile zerbrochene „Fortschrittskoalition“ hat zuletzt mit dem Bohrhammer Grundrechte abgetragen, als gäbe es einen Preis zu gewinnen. Wer als nächstes das Land regiert, ist offen. Aber progressiver wird es wohl kaum. Warum das keine plötzliche Entwicklung ist und was wir jetzt dagegen tun müssen. Was die Ampel-Koalition kurz vor ihrem Ende noch mit dem sogenannten „Sicherheitspaket“ einführte, davon hätte ein CSU-Hardliner wie Horst Seehofer vor einigen Jahren nur träumen können: Geflüchteten die Sozialleistungen streichen, biometrische Datenbanken anlegen, alle möglichen Datentöpfe zusammenrühren und analysieren. Ein Teil des Pakets scheiterte am Bundesrat - aber nur, weil es den meisten Ländern nicht weit genug ging. So etwas galt noch vor wenigen Monaten als tabu. In einer offenen Demokratie, dachte man, wird so etwas nicht kommen. Doch der autoritäre Überbietungswettbewerb im Namen der Sicherheit ist spätestens seit dem Anschlag von Solingen in vollem Gang. Politiker:innen konnten ein mutmaßlich islamistisches Attentat und Migration miteinander verrühren, als gäbe es da einen logischen Zusammenhang. Im Sturm der rassistischen Hetze und Kontroll-Fantasien waren Stimmen für Freiheits- und Menschenrechte kaum mehr zu hören. Jetzt, wo die Bundestagswahl früher kommt als geplant, ist das besonders fatal. Wir zeigen in unserem Vortrag, dass diese autoritäre Wende nicht plötzlich gekommen ist. Die jüngst geplanten Maßnahmen sind der Tiefpunkt einer Entwicklung, die schon seit Jahren von der Ampel vorangetrieben wurde. Und sie sind der Höhepunkt der Desillusionierung mit einer Regierung, die einst als „Fortschrittskoalition“ angetreten ist. Wir zeigen auch, dass es Zeit ist für radikalere Widerworte. Denn wir müssen unsere Freiheit heute dafür nutzen, dass auch morgen noch etwas davon bleibt. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/autoritre-zeitenwende-im-zeitraffer/

Ever wondered how Cellebrite and law enforcement gain access to encrypted devices without knowing the password? In this talk, we’ll demonstrate how to bypass BitLocker encryption on a fully up-to-date Windows 11 system using Secure Boot. We’ll leverage a little-known software vulnerability that Microsoft has been unable to patch since 2022: bitpixie (CVE-2023-21563). We'll live-demo the exploit, and will walk through the entire process—from the prerequisites and inner workings of the exploit to why Microsoft has struggled to address this flaw. We'll also discuss how to protect yourself from this and similar vulnerabilities. BitLocker is Microsoft’s implementation of full-volume encryption. It offers several modes of operation, but the most widely used is Secure Boot-based encryption. Many consumer and corporate clients use it, and it’s starting to be enabled by default under "Device Encryption" on newer Windows 11 installations. In this mode, the harddrive is encrypted at rest but is automatically unsealed when a legit windows boots, meaning users don't need a separate decryption password. They just have to sign in with their usual user account. Unfortunately, this configuration has been broken for quite a while. Hardware attacks against a dTPM are widely known, but software attacks are possible as well, at least since 2022, when Rairii discovered the bitpixie bug (CVE-2023-21563). While this bug is 'fixed' since Nov. 2022 and publically known since 2023, we can still use it today with a downgrade attack to decrypt BitLocker. In this talk, we'll dive into: - How does Secure Boot work, and what role does the TPM play? - How can Bitlocker leverage the TPM? - How does the bitpixie exploit work? What are PXE boot and BCD? - What are the prerequisites for running this exploit? - How can you protect yourself against it? - Why is it so challenging for Microsoft to fully fix this? - How does this affect Linux secure boot? Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/windows-bitlocker-screwed-without-a-screwdriver/

Der heise security Podcast traut sich raus aus dem gemütlichen Redaktionsstudio und sendet vom 38C3. Zur diesjährigen Congress-Ausgabe hat sich Host Christopher ein paar spannende Themen herausgesucht. Seinen ersten C3 seit zweiundzwanzig Jahren wird er sicher auch mit seinen verklärtern Erinnerungen vergleichen: Wo sind die Wäscheklammern? Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/passwort-der-heise-security-podcast-auf-dem-38c3/

Das Lavender-KI-Zielsystem zeigt gut, wie Kriegsautomatisierung aktuell aussieht und was daran falsch läuft. Das Thema „KI in der Militärtechnik“ und die Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Maschine ist seit Jahrzehnten ein theoretisches Thema in der Philosophie, den Sozialwissenschaften und den kritischen Algorithmus-Studien. Doch in den letzten Jahren wurden Waffensysteme mit KI-Komponenten entwickelt und jüngst in bewaffneten Konflikten praktisch eingesetzt. Am Beispiel des KI-gestützten Zielwahlsystem Lavender, das vom israelischen Militär IDF im derzeit laufenden Gaza-Krieg eingesetzt wird, werden die aktuellen Entwicklungen aufgezeigt und in den historisch-technischen Kontext der „Signature Strikes“ der USA in Waziristan (Pakistan) oder Afghanistan gesetzt, sowie konkrete technische Designentscheidungen vorgestellt und kritisch diskutiert. Dabei entstehen auch Fragen von Verantwortungsverlagerung und Rechtsumgehung. Die hier vorgestellten Erkenntnisse beruhen auf einer gemeinsamen Analyse von Expert:innen des Forums InformatikerInnen für Frieden und Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (FIfF e.V.) zusammen mit der Informationsstelle Militarisierung (IMI e.V.) und der Arbeitskreis gegen bewaffnete Drohnen e.V., die die Praxis der KI-basierten „gezielten Tötung“ wie etwa durch Lavender als Kriegsverbrechen zu ächten sucht. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/der-mythos-der-gezielten-ttung-zur-verantwortung-von-ki-gesttzten-zielsystemen-am-beispiel-lavender/

Modern high-performance networking APIs on Linux - beyond the classic BSD sockets API. For many decades, application software programmers have been using the venerable BSD sockets API to make their applications communicate over (at least IP based) networks. Linux has supported TCP/UDP sockets ever since it had a network stack back in the 1990s. While those socket system call APIs are simple and straight-forward, they were designed at a time when internet access happened over dial-up modems and LANs had no more than 10 MBit/s, if at all. With today's Multi-Gigabit speeds even in consumer equipment and 40GE/100GE network interface cards for servers being a reality, using those 1980s BSD/POSIX socket interfaces comes with a huge performance penalty. Some specific use cases like single-flow high-throughput TCP on an end-node have seen optimizations that are transparent to the user (TCP segmentation offloading). But there's only so far you can go with that. Parts of the industry have proposed user-space network stacks built on DPDK - but then basically you do no longer use the Linux kernel network stack at all, and subsequently have none of its features. Yes, that can be fast, but Linux becomes nothing but a bootloader, and you have to implement everything from Ethernet to ARP and IP+TCP in your application. The answer of the Linux kernel community over the last 5+ years has been various new mechanisms and interfaces in the Linux kernel that revolutionize the way how applications can achieve higher network I/O throughput - whether an end host (server/client) or a packet-forwarding router/bridge/firewall. This talk provides a brief but deeply technical introduction into the problem space, the new mechanisms and their use cases. While the talk discusses features of the Linux kernel, we do not discuss their internals; the focus is on how those mechanisms can be used by applications. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/iouring-ebpf-xdp-and-afxdp/

The global chip shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic brought semiconductor production into focus, sparking accelerated efforts to meet the surging demand for digital infrastructure. This phenomenon not only expanded AI capabilities but also introduced unexpected computational artifacts. One such artifact is the word “arafed”, a term absent from any dictionary yet mysteriously appears across contexts from image prompts to Amazon product descriptions. Such unintended linguistic artifacts, born from transformer-based AI models, exemplify how digital artifacts emerge into realities with which we cohabitate. The talk investigates how supply-chains break and AI-words spread from an artistic research perspective. Mapping both the abstract landscapes of embedding spaces, that are filled with emergent words and images, and the tangible, geopolitical realities of global semiconductor supply chains. The accelerating pace of generative AI has put a strain on the interconnected software and hardware systems necessary for generative AI. The artist duo explores the media specificity of generative artificial intelligence. The talk consists of two parts: The material aspects of AI, specifically the story of semiconductor and chip shortage. And the spread of hallucinations like terms that escaped their embedding space into language. The working of LLMs is often limited by computational power. These obstacles tethered abstract computation to the physical world, exposing how materiality plays a critical role in the implementation of AI. The investigation begins by examining the causes of the chip shortage — a disruption that brought the semiconductor industry and its surrounding geopolitical tensions into discourse. On the hardware level, NVIDIA’s A100 chips, produced using Taiwan’s TSMC 7nm process, exemplify this intersection, providing the power to expand large language models (LLMs) and image generators. On the software level, the increasing demand for ai-as-service accelerates the use of models with complex pipelines. This interconnected use of models, in turn, leads to the emergence of unexpected artifacts that are morphing back into everyday reality. While browsing AI-generated images on social media, one might come across the word "arafed" in image descriptions, such as, "an arafed man in a white robe riding on top of a blue car.". Yet, a dictionary definition is nowhere to be found. An image search for "arafed" reveals something striking: all resulting images appear AI-generated, spread across various image-sharing and stock photography platforms. The term "arafed" seems to lack a clear origin, but a few posts attribute it to the BLIP-2 model, an image-captioning system that generates descriptive text from image inputs. However, the BLIP-2 paper doesn't mention "arafed" but running BLIP-2 clearly produces descriptions containing this artifact-like word, as if "arafed" has embedded itself in the model's vocabulary. Through the widespread and often unintentional use of BLIP-2 in libraries, extensions, and services, the interconnected nature of software has spread the word into research papers, Amazon descriptions, and even other datasets, further revealing the brittle infrastructure generative-ai systems are built upon. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/arafed-futures-an-artist-dialogue-on-chip-storage-and-ai-accelerationism/

After more than 7 years, a small team of hackers and designers in Berlin are about to release the third generation of their Open Hardware laptop family: MNT Reform Next. Here, Lukas "minute" Hartmann will discuss why we need Open Hardware computers, what we learned through trial, error and hardship of designing and hand-assembling over 1000 of them by hand, and how you can claw back some autonomy over your hardware from Big Computer. The talk will illustrate, with many pictures and without holding back, interesting problems and solutions we encountered while creating 3 laptops on shoestring budgets. Aiming to inspire more people to take custom hardware into their own hands, I will quickly walk through the essential tools and methods that you can use to create your own Open Source Hardware computing devices or modifying existing ones, like: - How and why I choose chips and components - How to get them into KiCAD for electronics, and get boards made - Use FreeCAD and OpenSCAD for 3D modeling, and get enclosures made, also from unorthodox materials - Cables, connectors and screws considerations - Firmware and Kernel troubles (designing Hardware for Linux) - Our basics of community participation (GitLab, IRC, Discourse) Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/7-years-later-why-and-how-to-make-portable-open-hardware-computers/

Artificial Intelligence is not just an engineering discipline, but also the most fascinating and important philosophical project ever attempted: the explanation of the mind, by recreating it. This part of the series "From Computation to Consciousness" focuses on the nature of the self, agency and identity. When we recognize the paradigm of Artificial Intelligence as a philosophical and scientific framework for understanding the nature of minds like ours, we may begin with an essential question: What does it mean for a machine to feel? How do emotions arise at the intersection between a self and its world—or more precisely, within an a reflexive self model, in response to being dynamically reconfigured by a motivational system, in response to shifts in its alignment to a model of its environment, all within the same mind? This inquiry takes us to the core of our own psychological architecture. Who are we when our self-perception alters? What does it mean to depersonalize, to dissolve the boundaries of the self? Can we reverse engineer, debug and reconstruct our identities to become who we want to be? Is there free will? Is it possible to recreate self and sentience in nonbiological substrates? Can AI be conscious? Could we perhaps even extend our own self to non biological substrates? This presentation is part of the philosophical series “From Computation to Consciousness,” which draws on insights from AI and cognitive science to explore the nature of intelligence, consciousness, and their realization in the physical universe. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/self-models-of-loving-grace/

Wir geben einen Überblick über die Themen, die den Chaos Computer Club 2024 beschäftigt haben. Neben der Zusammenfassung und der Rückschau auf das vergangene Jahr wollen wir aber auch über zukünftige Projekte und anstehende Diskussionen reden. Von der Ampel über den epa bis zur Chatkontrolle, welche Themen haben den CCC in 2024 auf Trab gehalten? Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/der-ccc-jahresrckblick/

Im vergangenen Jahr wurden von uns in fünf kritische Schwachstellen in Endpoint Protection Software entdeckt, die es uns ermöglichen, auf Basis von COM-Hijacking unsere Privilegien auf Windows-Endpunkten zu erweitern. In diesem Vortrag demonstrieren wir, wie COM-Hijacking genutzt werden kann, um Code im Kontext geschützter Frontend-Prozesse auszuführen. Zudem zeigen wir auf, wie COM Hijacking das Vertrauensverhältnis zwischen geschützten Frontend-Prozessen und Backend-Diensten aushebelt um höhere Privilegien (Local Privilege Escalation) auf Systemen zu erhalten. Des Weiteren erklären wir unsere Methodik und Vorgehensweise um solche Schwachstellen zu finden und auszunutzen. Abschließend enthüllen wir Details zu den von uns gefundenen Schwachstellen und diskutieren mögliche Gegenmaßnahmen. COM-Hijacking ist vor allem als Technik bekannt, um auf Windows-Endpunkten Persistenz zu erreichen. In diesem Vortrag stellen wir jedoch eine weniger bekannte, aber äußerst wirkungsvolle Anwendung vor: Wir haben COM-Hijacking eingesetzt, um Code in die geschützten Frontend-Prozesse von Sicherheitsprodukten einzuschleusen. Dadurch konnten wir die Vertrauensbeziehung zwischen diesen Prozessen und den privilegierten Backends ausnutzen und hohe Privilegien auf dem Endpunkt erlangen. In unserem Vortrag erläutern wir detailliert unsere Vorgehensweise zur Identifikation dieser Schwachstellen und stellen die technischen Aspekte der von uns entdeckten Lücken im Detail vor. Im ersten Teil des Vortrags zeigen wir, wie wir mittels COM-Hijacking in der Lage waren, Code im Kontext der geschützten Frontend-Prozesse auszuführen. Im zweiten Teil analysieren wir die Kommunikationsmechanismen zwischen Frontend und Backend und legen offen, wie wir diese Vertrauensverbindung kompromittieren konnten. Abschließend erklären wir verschiedene Techniken, die es uns ermöglichte, unsere Privilegien auf Systemebene erfolgreich zu erweitern und diskutieren Gegenmaßnahmen die ähnliche Schwachstellen verhindern könnten. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/der-schlssel-zur-compromittierung-local-privilege-escalation-schwachstellen-in-av-edrs/

How is 3DS preservation faring 10 years after the release of the first emulator? What technical obstacles have we overcome, which ones remain? What hidden gems have we discovered beyond games? Join us on a journey through the struggles, the successes, and the future of 3DS emulation! The 3DS marks a key point in the evolution of handheld consoles from embedded systems to more powerful PC-like architectures, which makes it particularly interesting as a target for emulation: We'll look at the technical challenges presented by its unique hardware components and the custom microkernel-based software stack built on top of it, the various approaches taken to emulate them (low-level vs. high-level), and the trends we're seeing for the future. These technical challenges are put into historical context by looking at the emulator Citra, its initial way to success, the interplay between emulator developers and console hackers, and the impact of a prominent lawsuit that ultimately led to Citra's shutdown. Additionally we'll highlight broader community efforts like Pretendo that help preserve the platform beyond emulation. Finally we'll provide a status update for our ongoing emulation project Mikage and discuss the future outlook of 3DS preservation. This talk will be accessible to a technical audience and gaming enthusiasts alike. We particularly hope to spark new interest in preserving the 3DS legacy and foster new ideas for pushing the boundaries of emulation technology. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/10-years-of-emulating-the-nintendo-3ds-a-tale-of-ninjas-lemons-and-pandas/

Schon die neue Bahncard in der App integriert und dabei erfolglos versucht, dem Tracking auszuweichen? Digitalzwang kostet: Und zwar uns, den Nutzer:innen von Diensten von Unternehmen, Behörden, oder anderen Anbietern (auch du, Deutsche Bahn!). Dabei ist es weniger ein Problem, ob digitalisiert wird, sondern wie. Ich argumentiere, dass mit der fortschreitenden Digitalisierung eine Bringschuld von Anbietern auf die einzelnen Verbraucher:innen übertragen wird. Betroffene von Digitalzwang erfahren dabei höhere Kosten in ihrem Alltag: Sie müssen mehr Geld ausgeben, um einer Datenabgabe zu entkommen, oder brauchen mehr Zeit für Dienstleistungen, weil diese sie ausschließen. Dabei reicht der Rahmen über die vermeintlich Technik-feindlichen Senioren weit hinaus, und betrifft arme, körperlich behinderte, oder Datenschutz-affine Menschen genau so. Digitalcourage hat bereits beim Fireshonks 2022 ein Best-Off ihres Digitalzwangmelders vorgestellt. Ich habe jetzt eine Übersicht aufgebaut, um das Problem zu visualisieren. Durch die Analyse von Forschungsinterviews mit Betroffenen zeige ich, wer von Digitalzwang betroffen ist, in welchen Formen Digitalzwang auftritt, und welche Auswirkungen er auf ihr Leben hat. Dabei zeige ich, dass der Digitalzwang in seinen verschiedenen Facetten mehr ist als nur „unangenehm“: Er wirkt als Brennglas für bestehende Probleme und führt zu Ausgrenzungen und Einschränkungen. Computer können das Leben verbessern. Digitalisierung macht viele Prozesse schneller und leichter umsetzbar, zumindest in der Theorie. Was aber, wenn man gar keinen Zugang zu digitalen Angeboten hat, oder ihn aus Sorge von Datenmissbrauch ausschließen muss? Armut, Behinderung, fehlende Umgangserfahrung oder eine hohe Datenhygiene führen dazu, dass Menschen sich im Alltag einschränken müssen, weil ihnen der Zugang zu einem Gut nicht offen steht. Das geht los bei Rabattaktionen im Supermarkt und geht bis zu Einschränkungen in der Mobilität – die Deutsch Bahn lässt grüßen. Ich zeige, in welchen Bereichen des Lebens Digitalzwang auftritt und wie vielseitig er sich gestaltet. Hierfür habe ich Forschungsinterviews mit Menschen geführt, die sich von Digitalzwang betroffen sehen. Im Gespräch habe ich erfahren, mit welchen Formen des Zwangs sie konfrontiert waren und wie schwer diese Eingriffe waren. Dabei zeigt sich, dass Digitalzwang zwar ein Problem für sich ist, jedoch oft intersektionell wirkt: Armut, Behinderung oder fehlende Bildung werden durch eine exklusive Digitalisierung noch verstärkt. Digitalzwang ist damit nicht nur unangenehm, sondern wird in vielen Fällen zu einem Human Security-Problem. Dieses Konzept geht davon aus, dass Sicherheit nicht nur die Abwesenheit von Gewalt ist, sondern ein Zustand, indem sich Menschen frei entwickeln können. Ein Ausschluss aus einer Gesellschaft oder eine Beschränkung im eigenen Leben wirken diesem Zustand entgegen. Anhand der Beispiele, die ich durch die Interviews gesammelt habe, zeige ich, wie die Auswirkungen von Digitalzwang diese Probleme erzeugen können. Dabei müssen wir uns die Frage stellen, wie wir mit der Digitalisierung umgehen wollen. Um dabei nicht ganz im Pessimismus zu versinken, gehe ich auch auf positive Beispiele ein: Wo wird gut und nutzerfreundlich digitalisiert? Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/fehlercode-406-request-not-acceptable-digitalzwang-als-human-security-problem/

Look behind the scenes with filmmaker, inventor, and former Mythbuster Davis DeWitt and learn how Hollywood hackers combine prototyping and art to bring movie magic to life! Through real-world examples, this talk will explore the unique challenges of creating builds for the entertainment industry, from designing prototypes to filming the final sequence and everything in between. Have you ever been asked to build a smoke grenade or blow up a car? With over 8 years of experience in the film industry, Davis is one of the hackers with the skills to accommodate these unusual requests. In this talk, we'll explore several of his favorite builds to highlight how anyone can get started combining art and hardware hacking on their own. From CAD, to 3D printing, microcontroller programming, painting, weathering, cinematography, and more, discover how multiple disciplines blend together to create hacker movie magic! Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/prototypes-to-props-how-to-build-and-hack-in-the-film-tv-industry/

Navigating The Gray; Hacker's Compass. In an expanding digital world, the lines quickly blur between what's good and what is bad (ethical and not) Without using big complicated words, Ethics are a reference for our action to know good from bad. In this talk we go over a framework of ethics to help predetermine which direction our actions would lead us. This is not a code of ethics saying what is good and what is bad, after all life is somewhere in between, and you do you. This is a more of a measurement tool, like a compass. A hacker's compass, a pocket sized framework of three ethics to triangulate where we are on the gray, and where our actions would take us. Prepared time for Q&A and little discussion after the talk. I would be happy to learn more from other people's experiences and Ideas on this topic. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/navigating-the-grey/

The digital arms race between activists and government spies continues to shift and evolve. Through a series of cases studies, researchers from Amnesty International's Security Lab will share surveillance wins, the ongoing challenges, and the new threats on the digital horizon. Drawing on research by Amnesty International and partners over the past year, we will examine how the digital threats facing activists and journalists continue to evolve and adapt. Progress has been made in reigning in abuses from highly invasive spyware, with vendors going out of business and others being hit by lawsuits and sanctions. The technical arms race between defenders and the exploit industry also shows signs for cautious optimism. However notorious spyware companies, occasionally with active government protection, continue taking steps to block much needed accountability efforts. Amnesty International will also the findings of a brand new investigation into the misuse of surveillance technology. The work for civil society to defend against these threats remains challenging. Surveillance vendors continue to deploy increasing murky webs of brokers and complex corporate structures to hide their activities, although we will show tactics that can be used to map these. The emerging surveillance threats at the intersection of mass surveillance, ad tech, and artificial intelligence are becoming all too real, and surveillance tactics continues to unequally and dangerously impact already marginalized people including woman and LGBTQI activists. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/state-of-surveillance-a-year-of-digital-threats-to-civil-society/

Specifications are enough, they say… 10 years after 31c3's "Funky File Formats" … Have things improved? With so many open-source parsers being tested and fuzzed, and widely available specs, what could go wrong with file formats nowadays ? Nothing to fear, right? Let's explore even darker corners of their landscape! Even extreme simplicity can misleadingly lead to unexpected challenges. And at the other end of the spectrum, new complex constructs appeared over the years: near-polyglots, timecryption, hashquines … Even AI is an element of the game now. Let's play FileCraft, and enjoy the ride! Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/fearsome-file-formats/

User location information is inherently privacy sensitive as it reveals a lot about us: Where do we work and live? Which cities, organizations & institutions do we visit? How does our weekly routine look like? When are we on a vacation and not at home? MacOS has introduced multiple layers of security mitigations to protect sensitive user location information from attackers and malicious applications over the years — but are these enough? ­­­­­­In this talk, we dive into how attackers could have exploited multiple design flaws, information disclosures and logic vulnerabilities spread all across the macOS stack, leading to all kinds of ways to bypass the macOS TCC Location Services privacy protection and precisely localize the user without consent. We will show how attackers could have retrieved precise real time & historical geographic user locations hiding in various components of the persistence layer, within application state restoration files and error log messages that could be triggered via reliably exploitable HTTP response callback race conditions. Digging deeper, we find that the precise user location can be reconstructed with lossless precision by combining various sources of metadata, which were accessible through different pathways and quirks of the operating system, such as: Access point SSID’s + signal strength data, Apple Maps location query data caches, custom application binary plists and even Find My widget UI structure metadata enabling to precisely reconstruct the victims AirTag locations. These issues have been responsibly reported in the scope of the Apple Security Research program and resulted in 24 CVE entries in Apple’s security advisories for macOS. We will finish of by investigating how we can prevent such issues in the future: Extended automated privacy focused integration testing, shifting responsibility of privacy preservation from developers to the system framework level and a more privacy focused API architecture of localization relevant frameworks. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/macos-location-privacy-red-pill-a-rabbit-hole-resulting-in-24-cves/