Hacker Con Badges

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Hidden serial-console secret-code challenge

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GrrCON 2026 15th Anniversary Badge attendee-documented

badge challenge

With a 3.3 V USB-serial adapter at 9600 baud, grounding pin 12 starts a probe, contact, handshake accepted sequence and an ASCII-art prompt asking for the full name of the person you see; rick astley returns ACCESS GRANTED and a bit.ly GrrCON15b link to a short video.

Badge
GrrCON 2026 15th Anniversary Badge
Type
badge challenge
Status
attendee-documented
Compatibility
GrrCON 2026 15th Anniversary Badge with an FTDI-style adapter and jumper wires
Source
https://www.redlinecybersecurity.com/blog/hacking-the-grrcon-2026-badge

Badge context

Related Resources

attendee firmware dump

securekomodo/grrcon-2026-badge-firmware

Repository created September 26, 2026 with the unmodified 16 KB flash and 256 B EEPROM read from the badge, SHA-256 checksums, a pinout, console and UPDI wiring, and restore instructions. Organizer-authored firmware, not a source release; no licence is declared.

Badge: GrrCON 2026 15th Anniversary Badge

Source trail

Evidence Sources

Bryan Smith / Redline Cyber Security · retrieved 2026-10-01

Hacking the GrrCON 2026 (15th) Anniversary Badge

Secondary first-hand attendee source for the badge's existence at the 15th-anniversary event, the artwork, LED colours, button, coin-cell power, RECHARGE port, the challenge flow and answer, the designer's FTDI warning a week before the con, and the designer credit to Dave Schwartzberg of Hak4Kidz. It does not describe how many badges were made or how they were handed out.

Badge: GrrCON 2026 15th Anniversary Badge