[svlug-announce] SVLUG August 3rd meeting: How TASBot Exploits Video Game Consoles (DEF CON talk preview)

WHEN:

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016
7pm-9pm


MAIN PRESENTATION

TOPIC: How TASBot Exploits Video Game Consoles (DEF CON talk preview) 


PRESENTED BY: Allan Cecil,
President, North Bay Linux User's Group

TOPIC SUMMARY:

This will be a preview presentation of an Aug. 5th DEF CON talk
(https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-24/dc-24-speakers.html#Cecil).  
TASBot (http://tasvideos.org/TASBot.html) is an augmented Nintendo
R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) robot that can play video games without
any of the button-mashing limitations we humans have. By pretending to
be a controller connected to a game console, TASBot triggers glitches
and exploits weaknesses to execute arbitrary opcodes and rewrite games.
This talk will cover how these exploits were found, and explore the idea
that breaking video games using Tool-Assisted emulators can be a fun way
to learn the basics of discovering security vulnerabilities. 

An overview of some of the details that will be described in the talk
can be found in an article Allan co-authored in PoC||GTFO journal issue
0x10 (https://www.alchemistowl.org/pocorgtfo/pocorgtfo10.pdf) (Pokemon
Plays Twitch, page 6).

ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER:  Allan Cecil
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-cecil-ab80309) (dwangoAC) is
President of North Bay Linux User's Group (http://nblug.org/), and acts
as ambassador for Tasvideos.org (http://tasvideos.org/), a Web site
devoted to using emulators to complete video games as quickly as the
hardware allows.  He participates in Games Done Quick
(http://gamesdonequick.com/) charity-speedrunning marathons using TASBot
to entertain viewers with never-before-seen glitches in games.  By day,
he is a senior engineer at Ciena Corporation (http://www.ciena.com/), 
working on OpenStack Network Functions Virtualization orchestration 
(http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/network-functions-virtualization-nfv/white-paper-c11-732123.html)
and Linux packet performance optimization testing.

LOCATION:

 Symantec
 VCAFE Facility
 350 Ellis Street (near E. Middlefield Road)
 Mountain View, CA 94043

 Directions on how to get there are listed at:
 http://www.svlug.org/directions/symantec.php

We've tried our very best for these directions to be accurate.
If you have any improvements to make, please let SVLUG's volunteers
know!  [email protected]

POST-MEETING GATHERING:

If you just can't get enough, a smaller group usually goes to a local
restaurant/diner after the meeting:  Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi, Too,
939 West El Camino Real between Shoreline and Castro, Mountain View.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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