r2con2017 - Barcelona, Catalunya
Having arrived in Catalunya 3 weeks prior, I didn’t plan to stay that long. But once I heard about r2con from a local Catalan hacker, I had to stay. (See my adventures through España). 2016 was the 10th anniversary of radare2 so the lead developer, pancake, decided to create a conference. With the success of the first conference, he decided to continue the journey, which leads us to r2con2017. This event contained 2 days of training, 2 days of talks, an on-going CTF, free breakfast and drinks each day, and 50% a fine, full course dinner all for only €80.00! Pancake's philosophy was that he doesn't want to have any sponsors or commercial sales for this conference, which is why he made it affordable for anyone and everyone to attend. Oh, there was also free coffee!!
The trainings were as followed:
Morning Tiny uControllers firmware RE and exploiting (dark_k3y)
Talks
Friday (Day 1)
10:00 10:30 - Welcome to r2con 2017 + competitions
10:30 11:30 - r2frida (@mrmacete)
11:30 12:00 - Hidden gems in r2land (@trufae)
12:00 13:00 - SIOL - condret
15:00 16:00 - CFG-based fussy hash for malware classification using r2 (robin marsollier)
16:00 17:00 - zdbg (@zutle)
17:00 19:00 - GSoC talks (gdbserver, windows support and backstepping) @xvilka
19:00 20:00 - r2con badge (@nighterman)
Saturday (Day 2)
10:00 10:25 - RAIR (@oddcoder)
10:25 11:00 - r2 module for Yara (@plutec_net + @mmorenog)
11:00 11:20 - Anal clemency (@raysong)
11:30 12:00 - Limits of ESIL (@killabytenow)
12:00 12:30 - MIPS tricks (Travis Goodspeed)
12:30 13:30 - r2wars competition + prizes + Closing (@skuater + pancake)
15:00 16:00 - Diaphora and r2 (@pancake, @matalaz)
16:00 17:00 - Road to the kernel (@nighterman)
17:00 18:00 - Pimp my Triton (ak42)
18:00 19:00 - Surprise talk by @oleavr
The training took place at Universitat de Barcelona (BU, pronounced ‘bee-oo’ porque espanol), which was built in November 3, 1450, which is older than my country. The middle of the university has a breath-taking patio and 3 floors of classrooms. Tuition estimate is about 2,900 EUR/year, way less than the majority of the Universities in the US.
Each day after playing with r2 for about 4-6hrs, we would go to lunch and get to explore delicious Catalan food, tapas, vino, y cervezas! Our group was lucky to have @rubikk show us around and show us where to go. The first night out, we went to Nevermind, which is a alternative scene bar with a skatepark inside. Though it’s set up so people can skate, no one was skating and we were all drinking around the bowl. The next night we went out dancing at a different location and got to hear Despacito for the billionth time. I still danced my heart out.
The talks were held at Tallers Area, which was a conference auditorium. Each speaker received a local beer of their choice and there was a mighty large selection. This talks were great because I had little to no knowledge about what the topic was about. Speakers would dive into very low level details about different tools they have developed in their spare time, or neat tips and tricks they found or have implemented in r2. After the first day of talks, we all gathered for a large dinner at Mussol. I’m proud to say our table drank the most wine.
All in all, the training was definitely the best part of the experience. Learning to use r2 efficiently and effectively saves times in analyzing binaries. I’ll upload my notes, though they might be a bit difficult to decipher. I can’t wait till the next r2con! I made a lot of great friends, and unforgettable memories. =]
More details about the conference can be found here - http://radare.org/con/2017/