two hackers set out to infiltrate the
largest hacking conference in the world
armed with a urinal cake does anyone
know how hard it actually is to find a
urinal cake in las vegas
i'm alex let's explore the 24-hour
urinal cake forgery
we're going to talk about the plot the
plan the problem
the process and the ultimate payoff how
searching a few strip clubs in a whole
lot of
outside the box thinking in no tech
hacking
built a plan to infiltrate defcon
[Music]
defcon is the largest hacking conference
in the world
your ticket into the conference is a
sophisticated piece of tech
called a badge developed by some of the
best hardware hackers and puzzle makers
on the planet unless you work at the con
or have won
a lifetime entry black badge you're
paying full price
now badge fortune has a long history at
the conference
going back 29 years evolving from a
small activity
into full fabrication hackers ship
and purchase tens of thousands of
dollars worth of cnc machines
3d printers signal generators
oscilloscopes and more
to duplicate the badge in recent years
the forgeries have costed more than the
badge itself
and it's unknown if anyone's actually
been banned for a forgery
albeit a sense of pride the adrenaline
rush of walking past security
or the excitement to fool nearly 30 000
hackers groups spend 48 hours in a mad
rush to reverse engineer fabricate
in full defcon so how did these two do
it
with the urinal cake
[Music]
gauri and gulo landed in vegas and i
just collected my badge
and they were frantic to see it now i'm
not a hardware hacker
the gula is a seven foot tall hardware
hacking
guru and he frantically reviewed the
badge
he started looking up components on his
phone plotting out his fabrication
approach
in the hardware and the badge was beyond
sophisticated at dc27 joe graham the
designer
introduced a badge jam-packed with
technology
the badge could communicate with other
badges with near-field magnetic
induction transceivers
attendants could walk up to each other
and pair their badges to score points
and if you paired with every single type
of badge contest
speaker black badge new functionality
was unlocked badge pairing became a
hacker handshake
an introduction when meeting someone new
forging the components alone
would be difficult but not impossible
until gulo flipped
over the badge and saw the one element
they didn't plan
for the badge had a specially
handcrafted quartz backing
a fourth inch thick puck and it couldn't
be duplicated without expensive
stone carving or polishing tools
dejected gula went off to the restroom
and he found his answer a urinal cake
gulo and gauri set off on their own
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 9pm into
the vegas strip
to find a urinal cake but three hours
went by
and they were still empty-handed i
remember gowrie yelling
do you have any idea how hard it is to
find a urinal cake in
vegas they were met with failure at drug
stores
cleaning supply stores governor even
broadcasted out to the darknet community
which is like a rich
hacking community in the largest hacking
contest at defcon
and even they failed ghoul finally just
exploded
annoyed fine if we can't buy a new one
we'll settle for a less than new one
they put on their nitrile soldering
gloves and sent back
out into the night we were banned from
several strip clubs
bars dive bars casinos cvs's walgreens
and albertsons
because no one appeared to like nitrile
gloves and saran wrap
yeah this is completely normal and not
weird at all in vegas
at 2 47 exhaustion and desperation
started to set in as the night went on
and they started dredging the depths of
vegas urinals
looking for that precious jewel
restaurants strip clubs
we just need to use the bathroom we're
looking for a urinal cake
they said stone cold sober i can't even
imagine what was going through the
bouncer's mind
really pissing off a few strip club
bouncers at 3am
almost six hours later they found their
prize
where from though they refused to share
to this day
it was fished out of a strip club though
as they got it out of the blacklighted
vegas
strip and into the normal lighting joy
turned to ash
because when they saw the color it was
pink
bright pink the wrong color not even
close to the marbled quartz of the badge
and the shape was off it was lopsided it
was too thick
i mean used journal cakes aren't really
known to be exactly uniform
yet with the materials in hand they were
determined to solve the problem
[Music]
at def con 27 i was helping run darknet
in working with an
awesome group of hackers to help
distribute our dart net badges
it was the second day in we were
exhausted
and tired though something odd started
happening we're a tight-knit group
we started getting headaches and weirdly
pissed off
it was at that time samosa and i
connected eyes
and it started dawning on us what was
wrong
what is that smell and what the hell is
that smell
for the uninitiated who have never been
to a men's truck stop bathroom
these things have a very distinct and
pungent smell
now this is a bath bomb of my daughters
and this smells
pretty strong but urinal cakes are meant
to cover up some
pretty bad smells so they're
mind-numbing
worsened though gowri started shaving it
down
and shaping it with a dremel and he had
to fix the color
he combined white soap shavings in heat
created with friction by polishing the
top of the urinal cake
on the carpet behind the booth it
smelled like a hobo made out with mr
clean
in a desert vegas porta potty for like
24 hours
it was bad also fun story they're
poisonous
we found this out later in a gizmodo
story posted online
after the conference it would explain
why some of us started getting
nosebleeds but when the deed was done
those two geniuses had polished their
precious payload to a handcrafted court
shine
now they had their critical piece and
their payload creation
could begin but they were running out of
time it was at this point it was 4pm on
saturday
where the restrictions of stopping nod
badge wearers would be lifted in about
two hours
after the methodical polishing process
the cake looked remarkable
near perfection gary scavenged parts
from the darknet badge
though he was still missing critical
components like the distinct
microcontroller
the nfmi transmitters after a quick
visit to the hardware hacking village
and
favors exchange with leap bunny gowries
scored
genuine defcon badge replacement parts
back at the darknet table
gary glued them to the bottom of a
coffee cup to simulate the circuit board
of a real badge
the result was stunning so incredible
that i still remember him falling
over with uncontrollable laughter like a
mad genius
after his creation came to life the cost
of forge a 300
human badge was less than five dollars
and pissing off the people that love
them the smell really was mind numbing
to truly test the forgery they wanted to
go big
not just bypassing hundreds of security
staff but fooling
joe graham the designer himself and
the dark tangent the founder of defcon
the deed was done a simple walk through
the conference floor was like
parting the red sea there's something
they did not expect held them back
it wasn't a security staff goon but
instead
tens and then hundreds of defcon hackers
stopped to
pair with them it was the unique
coloring of the urinal cake badge
gave it a nuance and uniqueness which
attendees had assumed
was an elusive hidden badge they paired
with hundreds of badges in thousands of
noses
eventually though their first target
came into sight joe grant surprisingly
had already heard the rumors
though nothing had prepared him for the
overwhelming sensation
that he would feel being close to such
majesty with 10 minutes to spare they
found their target the dark tangent
you want to pair badges with us yeah
he held up his badge they held up theirs
nothing they moved a little closer
my badge must not be working and then
the smell hit him
and he knew as they were called up on
stage they walked past
both a group that had paid over twelve
hundred dollars in custom fabrication
in another that actually went to a stone
mason
in amongst laughter in cheering gulo
in gauri were announced the winners
so i'm here today to announce the
counterfeit badge contest
gory and gulo coming in in first place
you may have heard about this mythical
badge
it's pungent you smell it before you see
it
it was fished out of a strip club i'll
let them take it away but coming in
first place at 24 out of 30 points
with their counterfeit urinal cake badge
we can smell it from here two hackers
that put their heads together and built
a visually
near perfect duplicate using their minds
noses and techniques available to all of
us
assuming you're willing to plunder the
las vegas urinals
everyone should ask grifter how it
tastes later
it was delicious i'm not gonna lie i
knew what it was i still wanted to taste
it
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this story and want to hear more
check out the kingdom running video
thanks for watching and i will smell you
later