Category: Other nerd pursuits

Future meetings are at Stone Ridge at the Gum Spring Library, hopefully you caught that from the Meetup site.

Future meetings will include an exploitable network — an ESXi server with multiple exploitable VMs and enough basic info to get you started. Bring your own laptop/ethernet (MAY have wifi available by next meeting), boot up Kali or your favorite toolset, and pound away at it.

This was slapped together with equipment that was sitting around at my house. An i7 desktop with 16GB of RAM, specifically. I would love to move this to a USFF unit or maybe a Gen8 NUC (Hades Canyon Performance, loaded) to make it portable enough to bring to Defcon. Actively looking for a corporate sponsor to buy us one.

If you have a favorite exploitable VM you’d like to recommend to others, let me know.

At the moment, there are no specific meeting plans for Defcon. I will be working SecOps at BSidesLV pretty much all day Wednesday.

I am your plumber, no I never went away
I still bug your bedrooms and pick up everything you say
It can be a boring job
To monitor all day your excess talkI hear when you’re drinking and cheating on your lonely wife
I play tape recordings of you to my friends at night 
We’ve got our girl in bed with you
You’re on candid camera, we just un-elected you, haI am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe ’em away, keep America free
For clean-livin’ folks like me, hey, heyIf you demonstrate against somebody we like
I’ll slip on my wig and see if I can start a riot
Transform you to an angry mob
And all your leaders go to jail for my jobBut we ain’t the Russians
Political trials are taboo
We’ve got our secret ways of getting rid of you
Fill you full of LSD
And turn you loose on a freeway, whee!I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe ’em away, keep America free
For clean-livin’ folks like meI send you spinning
I send you spinning
I send you spinning all over the freeway
Spinning on the crowded freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
(Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway) spin, spin, spin, look out!The press, they never even cared
Why a youth leader walked into a speeding car
In ten years or so we’ll leak the truth
But by then it’s only so much paperYou know, Watergate hurt
But nothing really ever changed
A teeny bit quiter but we still play our little gamesBut we still play our little games
But we still play our little games
We still play our little, we still play our little, we still play our little
We still play a lot of games!I am the owl
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe ’em away, keep America free
Wipe ’em away, keep America free
Wipe ’em away, keep America free
For me!

1. Monday’s meeting is NOT in Fredericksburg. It is in Stone Ridge (close to the Dulles Airport). If you plan to attend you must RSVP for the address.
2. This group embraces diversity. If you don’t, don’t come.
3. Watch your six, keep your rage in check, and don’t shit where you eat.

For the April meeting, we still want to do a group build, but choose between either #0037 WaveRunner, the latest #0041, or ANY Hackerbox of your choosing. Or don’t bring a hackerbox at all. Just show up for the fun. Just show up. 🙂

We had a fun March meeting in the Burg. Pre-game at Red Dragon again, it was open mic night, had to get out of the way of the drunk dart players, and the UFO food truck was in attendance. Then we headed over the library where we had another new member attend. We did the usual spiel, break out the locksets, let him play and learn a bit, talk about Defcon, show off all the badges, blah blah blah, and soon enough it was over.

For the April meeting, we’re going to do something different. We’re going to hold the meeting up in Stone Ridge, VA (near the Dulles Airport, off of Rt 50 between South Riding and Aldie). RSVPd members on the Meetup page will get the specific location.

We’re going to have a group workshop on Hackerboxes. Specifically, a couple of us are going to work on Hackerbox #0037 WaveRunner. If you don’t have it, you can order it now to be sure to have it in time for the meeting. Also a good time to check your soldering kit and supplies for completeness. Alternatively, you can bring another hackerbox. Even more alternatively, you can just play pool or Galaga and drink beer with us. Just show up and be part of this thing.

Last night, Meeting #2 of DC540 was held at the downtown library meeting room.  Four attendees (plus the host) had an interesting time talking about lots of hacker culture topics.

Emery handed out decks of cards and encouraged people to learn and apply the Solitaire cipher (Pontiflex) described in Neal Stephenson’s novel “Cryptonomicon.”  

Here’s a link that describes the usage of the cipher: https://www.schneier.com/academic/solitaire/

Sounds like there’s a consensus for pregaming at a local drinking establishment prior to next month’s meeting.  That will be announced prior to the meeting.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253926650152

Can I assume you’ve all seen this already and bought in?  The Make: Electronics Humble Bundle?  For $20 you get over 20 ebooks on a wide range of topics for makers and electronics tinkerers.  

Also, anyone up for a happy hour Tues or Wed?  Hit me up on Twitter @dc540baab or email [email protected]

First meeting, I’d call it a success despite my arriving a few minutes late. I want to thank everyone who showed up, both those I have met before and those I haven’t.  Hopefully next time will be in a drinking establishment. Stay tuned!