DEFCON Academy

DEFCON Academy

Welcome to Defcon Academy

A place for hackers to level up.
Throughout the conference, Defcon Academy is your hands-on playground for mastering the art of hacking.

Come learn from the community’s best through live technical talks, real-time demos, and practical challenges. Whether you’re cracking your first binary or refining your hacker workflow, this is your space to explore, break things, and build skills. It’s like a continuous chaotic workshop, where everyone can learn.

Speaker Schedule

Date Time Title Speaker
08/08 10:00 Terminal Tactics for Beginners: A Hacker’s Guide to Command Line Mastery alchemy1729
08/08 13:00 Byte-Sized Basics: A Beginner’s Guide to x86 Assembly rh4hunnid
08/08 15:00 Exploiting Expectations: A Beginner’s Guide to Buffer Overflows sjzhu
08/08 17:00 Getting into CTF x3ero0
08/09 10:00 Assembly Alchemy: From Opcodes to Exploits f4_u57
08/09 13:00 Race Against the Machine robwaz
08/09 16:00 Professionally Dangerous: Ask the Experts in Vulnerability Research zardus + panel
08/10 10:00 Format Fu: The Way of the Percent Sign tedan_vosin
08/10 13:00 Deceit by Design: Exploiting the Lies CPUs Tell During Execution robwaz

All talks are beginner-friendly and followed by guided challenges.


Meet the Mentors

We’re not just running talks. The Defcon Academy space is staffed with experienced hackers who will work with you one-on-one or in small groups to tackle our challenges, answer questions, and unlock new skills.

Come with curiosity. Leave with superpowers.


Hands-On Labs

In addition to each talk, hang around for guided challenges tailored to the topic. Try your hand at binary exploitation, reverse engineering, shellcoding, and more with live support from our mentors and fellow hackers.

No laptop? No problem. We have pre-configured machines on-site.


Community

Defcon Academy is a community-driven initiative committed to free and open-source cybersecurity education. We are always looking for passionate contributors, speakers, challenge developers, and educators.

If you are excited about leveling up the hacker community, get in touch!

Founding Members


Location and Hours

Find us in the Defcon Academy community space (Room 235) at DEF CON 33. Open daily, August 8 to August 10.

Come hack, learn, and hang out.