Video summary
The FreakMe booth at DEF CON 34 is dedicated to preserving and reviving the historical roots of hacking culture that many feel are fading in modern cybersecurity events. Organizers describe their contest as a journey back to the origins of the scene, moving away from simply reading about history to actively experiencing it through hands-on challenges. The core concept involves recreating the environment of the 1980s and early 1990s by running vulnerable Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) that mimic real attacks documented in vintage articles. Participants are invited into a narrative where they must hack systems owned by fictional characters like Eric Bloodaxe, allowing them to engage with the specific techniques used during that era rather than just exploiting modern Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures for bug bounties.
A significant portion of this experience focuses on analog technologies and physical interactions that have largely disappeared from daily life, such as payphones and early telephone networks. The team has curated a collection of vintage payphones where visitors can insert quarters to initiate calls into custom CTF challenges hosted in the cloud or directly through these devices. This setup allows attendees who were not alive during the golden age of hacking to touch history literally by holding old hardware, while also providing current participants with a unique opportunity to explore legacy systems like AT&T's 9X phone network out of pure curiosity rather than malice. The event emphasizes that this form of exploration was about understanding how corporate systems worked and finding hidden gems through manual brute-forcing and scanning, skills that were foundational before automated tools became ubiquitous.
Beyond the technical challenges, FreakMe is deeply invested in maintaining the community spirit and lore associated with these early days. This includes designing custom hardware badges inspired by iconic items like the Captain Crunch whistle but engineered to produce authentic 2600 Hz tones using simple timers and resistors without microprocessors. The team spent over a year refining their designs and supply chain logistics to ensure that merchandise remains affordable for everyone, avoiding price gouging while celebrating the culture of sharing knowledge. They also maintain extensive archives of original BBS messages from that time period, which are accessible when users connect to their systems, effectively turning the booth into an interactive museum where attendees can read through actual logs and communications from pioneers who built this industry.
Ultimately, FreakMe serves as a reminder for both veterans and newcomers to know their roots and appreciate the foundational concepts of hacking before they were commercialized or automated by modern tools. The organizers argue that learning data structures, logic flows, and system exploration starts with understanding these basic principles through direct interaction rather than just memorizing syntax across many languages. By bringing together people who spent decades exploring payphones on city buses to teach children how to use them today, the event bridges a generational gap in technology history. It stands as a testament that hacking was once driven by joy and exploration of accessible systems, offering a chance for everyone at DEF CON to relive those formative days before they are lost forever.
Read the full video transcript
Defcon, what's up? We are here at
FreakMe. So, um, we're learning about
actually like where a lot of this began.
I'm here with Soldier of Forran and a
couple other guys are going to be
stepping in here. Um, tell us a little
bit about the situation we have going on
here, what y'all are sharing with DevCon
this year.
>> Yeah, so this contest is like a
historical hacking contest. Um, we
really felt like Defcon was starting to
lose its roots a little and so we felt
we really wanted to bring it back. We
really want to bring it back to like,
hey, this is how it all started. In
fact, in our BBS that we run for the
contest, we have the original notice for
the first Defcon in there so that people
can read it and see like when it all
started. And so like it it really
started as that, but then it grew and
like teaching people how to do the old
techniques and like instead of having to
read about the history, experiencing the
history, like doing the stuff that
actual hackers did back then to get the
flags in the contest.
>> So you're it sounds like you're like
duplicating or replicating at least
somewhat of an experience too for people
who weren't around in that era even and
weren't able to participate or go and
freak on payoneses, you know, in the mid
'90s or whatever, right? I heard you
have a BBS going
>> running WWE IV or WWE 4 which is
vulnerable to attacks and there's a
whole frack article detailing all the
attacks and we've recreated those and we
make people hack that BBS but to make it
in story. We we couch it as it's a BBS
being run by Eric Bloodax and there's a
BDS called Plovenet that was era of from
the time of Big Deal. And so the story
is like, "Hey, Eric Blood Axe is talking
about our BBS. Go hack their BBS."
Which is what happened back then. That's
the kind of stuff that was happening
back then.
>> This is like going into like heavy lore
situations, too. We're talking like
stories probably a lot of stuff was
being talked about in
>> circles.
You had to know to know, right? You had
to know to be you had to be there. So,
we're talking also like probably some
connections to um what are there any
other types of uh I don't want to give
away too much either. I'm trying not to
give away too much. I'm just trying not
to give away right. Um we're not giving
away lines away. Don't worry. Um
>> but it's relying on people's curiosity,
right? Today.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Like like um you know who
can mess with phones these days? Like oh
you can call like a voice assistant
maybe. This allows you to mess with era
appropriate phone networks that existed
at the time. And so they get to
experience what that joy of exploration
in that time period was like. Right? It
wasn't just about finding CVE. It wasn't
about trying to get bug bounties. It was
and it was just about the joy of
exploration, finding these cool
corporate systems that companies have
made and what they're like. And it was
not malicious. It was just out of
interest, right? Like uh fiber optic was
really interested in the AT&T and the 9X
phone system. And he knew a lot about it
cuz he was interested in it, right? He
wasn't doing it so that he could get
free longdistance calls for his like his
whole neighborhood, right? Or to scam
people, right? which is nowadays what a
lot of hacking ends up being, right? We
actually have archives of all their
messages from BBS's. So when you connect
our BBS, you can read messages
>> from those people that they wrote at the
time.
>> It is like a museum
>> almost. I mean, it's not there's nothing
negative about that, but it's like being
able to read through actual like
archives, actual logs. Like
>> we're basically forcing people to get a
degree in hacker history
>> pretty much. I mean, if you if you're
not interested in that, then why are you
at Defcon is my
>> Exactly. Exactly.
>> It's like the roots right here. Know
your roots. Definitely, man.
>> 100%.
>> Should we get someone else here? You
want You want to keep talking or you
>> No, no. Let me get my buddy little fell.
Yeah.
>> Uh,
>> who wants to come over here?
>> Who's next?
>> All right. Camouflage. Come on in, man.
>> This camouflage right here.
>> So, I designed hardware and the badges.
>> Oh, okay.
>> So, yeah. So, this year I designed
>> here. Show it right here on the camera.
>> So, as you're familiar with the original
Captain Crunch whistle, that's what we
used to initiate the trunk line, right?
>> Yep.
>> So, here's the original Captain Crunch
whistle. And what we did is we didn't OD
Captain Crunch whistle and we made our
SAOs to be uh the 2600 tone. So,
actually without any microprocessors or
anything, we're just doing straight up
timers and resistors. We built out an
SAO that you can tune with the trim pot
all the way down to the 2600 tone there
and you push a button. So you don't have
to blow it anymore and try and cover a
hole. You can just flip the switch.
>> Pitch perfect every time.
>> Yep. And we also made the uh display
badge behind it because we knew it was a
good year for SAOs. So uh we made a SEO
badge where you can do six badges with
the orientation upright and you can
display all of your SAOs for fun and
toggle it on and off. And
>> hooking up the community right here with
this one, especially with how many
badges you can add on here. I like that.
I like seeing it where you can just
plaster it.
>> Yeah. And so, you know, complete the
collection, right?
>> How long were you working on these
before the con? I'm just curious cuz
like, uh, people put so much work.
>> About a year. So, um, this is probably
my fourth iteration through the badges
as prices increase and everything.
>> Yep.
>> We don't want to sell a badge and price
gouge everybody. So, we want to make
sure we're in a nice affordable spot for
the badges for everybody. So,
>> balance with the good old supply chain
that we have going on right now.
>> Yep. Exactly. Yeah. Either we couldn't
get the parts or they're too expensive.
So, uh, we really started refining it
down to a price to where we could get it
in people's hands. So,
>> thanks. Thanks for showing me, man.
Thanks for showing me the badge, dude.
Yo, Repish, come on over here, man.
>> Talk to me, man. What What What were you
doing uh back in the 90s that got you
from there to here today?
>> Yeah, playing with the payoneses. This
is where it all started, you know,
coming up. I spent a lot of hours just
uh pushing those buttons and seeing
where it took me and exploring the
depths of the phone systems and uh now
I've got a big collection of payones so
I can bring them here every year to let
everybody else come and touch them.
>> Yeah. I'm I'm uh I'm a little envious of
this collection you've got going on,
man, cuz it's hard to even find or even
see a pay phone out in the wild these
days.
>> Sure.
>> Um but your collection's pretty uh
pretty amazing, man. And it looks like
you've done a lot of customizations to
them as well.
>> We got a whole dial plan on there with a
whole CTF that we host and so you can
call in and navigate all the different
challenges. And then we host it in the
cloud as well. Uh the same clone of it.
Um so that you can call it from your
cell phone. You don't have to come and
use our pay phone. You can go back to
your room when the call shuts down and
keep hammering away at the CTF all
night.
>> So this is uh this is the this is the
CTF that just keeps on giving. So you
don't even have to be here. Although I
highly recommend being here because like
holding the physical phone and like
working on it that way. That's like
something you don't really ever ever get
to do, you know? Right. I mean that's
that's like a that's a once in
a-lifetime situation or at least a once
in a year if you're here at Defcon,
right?
>> Yeah. We see uh a lot of people who
catch the fields, you know, not having
touched one of these for two decades and
coming over and dropping quarters in
that slot for the first time in years.
Um it's real exciting. What about the
kids who like have never even seen a pay
phone?
>> The kids are fun. You know, you get a
lot of parents who bring their their
children up and uh don't know what to do
with it. Um don't know what numbers to
call, don't understand how to put a
quarter in it, you know, all that fun
stuff. So,
>> um so a lot of people think it's a dead
art. Um but to me, it's the foundation.
You know, it's you you want to learn how
to program, you got to start with data
structures and logic flows and all the
basic foundational things, not learn as
many languages as you can. You know, th
those concepts are universal and
freaking is one of those things that got
a lot of uh a lot of us into the
industry where we just had a lot of time
and phones were what were accessible and
that was where we started to learn how
to explore things and hammer away and
find interesting hidden gems in the
systems. As a kid, I was taking the city
bus and uh when you take multiple buses,
you have a lot of time with nothing
better to do. And uh luckily, they put
payoneses next to the bus stops, so
there was always something to do. Spend
a lot of time uh hand scanning, just
brute forcing, and you know, doing it
manually. Now uh now there's tools to do
all that stuff, but when you're coming
up, you uh learn how to do it by hand.
And it was a lot of fun. It was
something to do.
>> If you haven't been able to dig in and
and freak, then I think this is the time
right here. You get to like relive some
days that are never coming back.
>> For sure.
>> Right.
>> It's a lot of fun,
>> dude. Thank you, Red Fish, man. Yo,
thanks for showing us around, dude.
Appreciate
>> it. Definitely.