CyberThreat 2024 · United Kingdom · 2024

CyberThreat 2024 Hackable Badge

Secure Impact nine-challenge AVR badge

CyberThreat 2024 featured brand-new hackable badges from Secure Impact with nine challenges, documented by the official CyberThreat site and final-challenge walkthrough PDFs by badge challenge author Nathan Taylor.

CyberThreat United Kingdom London Secure Impact ATmega1284P FTDI Optiboot AVR avrdude Firmware Challenge Ghidra Europe

EventCyberThreat 2024

SeriesCyberThreat

LocationLondon

CountryUnited Kingdom

People

Authors & Credits

CyberThreat host

SANS Institute

CyberThreat describes the event as hosted by SANS with NCSC support.

Source

badge challenge author and walkthrough author

Nathan Taylor

The official walkthrough PDFs identify Secure Impact security engineer Nathan Taylor as the badge challenge author.

Source

hackable badge and challenge creator

Secure Impact

The official CyberThreat 2024 recap says the brand-new hackable badges came from Secure Impact.

Source

Why It Mattered

It adds another UK source-backed electronic conference badge beyond the older 44CON HIDIOT line. The public sources expose real embedded badge behavior, serial interaction, firmware dumping, firmware patching, and checksum repair without requiring unsupported claims about schematics or production files.

Hardware

The official A Nice Edit walkthrough identifies the CyberThreat 2024 hackable badge processor as an ATmega1284P and says the badge uses an FTDI serial converter over USB because the microcontroller lacks native USB. The source trail does not publish a schematic, BOM, PCB files, enclosure details, exact FTDI part, or production quantity.

Software & Apps

The official Echo Service and A Nice Edit walkthroughs document USB serial interaction, Optiboot at 115200 baud, `avrdude` firmware dumping with `-pm1284p -carduino`, Ghidra-assisted AVR firmware analysis, a buffer-overflow challenge, flash rewriting with `-D`, firmware integrity validation, and CRC16/XMODEM checksum repair.

Lore

CyberThreat is hosted by SANS with support from the UK's NCSC and frames itself as a technical cyber security conference for offensive and defensive practitioners. Its 2024 badge content was intentionally challenging: the official site calls the badge challenge even more challenging than DEF CON's badges, while the final walkthrough warns about soft-bricking if flash is erased incorrectly.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

badge challenge set source-backed

Secure Impact nine-challenge badge

The official CyberThreat page says CyberThreat 2024 used brand-new hackable badges from Secure Impact with nine challenges.

Compatibility: CyberThreat 2024 Hackable Badge

Source

firmware challenge source-backed

CRC16/XMODEM firmware integrity repair

The A Nice Edit walkthrough describes firmware validation, red-screen failure after an edited flash, CRC16/XMODEM analysis, corrective bytes, and restoring a valid challenge-completion firmware image.

Compatibility: CyberThreat 2024 Hackable Badge

Source

firmware workflow source-backed

Optiboot and avrdude firmware workflow

The final-challenge walkthroughs document Optiboot at 115200 baud and avrdude commands for dumping and writing flash through an Arduino-compatible bootloader.

Compatibility: CyberThreat 2024 Hackable Badge

Source

hardware architecture source-backed

ATmega1284P and FTDI serial path

The A Nice Edit walkthrough identifies ATmega1284P processors and an FTDI serial converter chip used to provide USB serial access to the badge.

Compatibility: CyberThreat 2024 Hackable Badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

distribution scope caveat note

The official page proves hackable badges at CyberThreat 2024 and describes in-person delegate hands-on opportunities, but does not publish exact badge quantity, ticket-tier eligibility, or whether every on-site attendee received one.

The catalogue records the badge as a CyberThreat 2024 challenge artifact without inventing a universal distribution count.

Confidence: official event page
Status: documented source limitation
Timeframe: CyberThreat 2024
Source note: CyberThreat official event page.

hardware archive gap note

The walkthroughs document ATmega1284P, FTDI serial, Optiboot, flash dumping and flashing, but do not publish schematic, PCB files, BOM, component placement, enclosure files, source firmware, or manufacturing records.

Hardware and software fields stay limited to the official challenge walkthrough evidence.

Confidence: official walkthroughs
Status: needs deeper archive recovery
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: CyberThreat Echo Service and A Nice Edit walkthrough PDFs.

missing rights-cleared image note

No CyberThreat 2024 Hackable Badge image is published because the current public source trail has not been paired with a reusable original badge or artifact photo or official upstream raster render with source URL, license or permission basis, attribution, and processing notes.

The United Kingdom record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying source-page media, documentation screenshots, event photos, social media, placeholders, or generated approximations.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy and CyberThreat 2024 official page and walkthrough source trail.

soft-brick safety caveat warning

The A Nice Edit walkthrough warns that the challenge carries a high risk of soft-bricking the badge and explains that erasing flash without preserving the bootloader can make USB programming unrecoverable without ISP.

The badge page preserves the original risk context for firmware modification instead of presenting the challenge as routine or risk-free.

Confidence: official walkthrough
Status: documented
Timeframe: A Nice Edit challenge
Source note: CyberThreat A Nice Edit walkthrough PDF.

Resources

CyberThreat 2024 hackable badges official event page · Official CyberThreat page for the London 2024 event, 450+ in-person attendees, thousands online, brand-new Secure Impact hackable badges, nine challenges, and links to final-challenge walkthroughs. CyberThreat 24 A Nice Edit walkthrough official challenge PDF · Official PDF by Nathan Taylor covering ATmega1284P, FTDI serial-over-USB, bootloader-preserving flash writes, soft-brick risk, firmware integrity checks, CRC16/XMODEM, and all-nine-challenges completion. CyberThreat 24 Echo Service walkthrough official challenge PDF · Official PDF by badge challenge author Nathan Taylor covering USB serial, Optiboot, avrdude firmware dumping, Ghidra AVR analysis, stack overwrite, and the Echo Service challenge solve. CyberThreat 24 badge video walkthrough official walkthrough video · Officially linked video walkthrough for CyberThreat 2024 badge challenges one through seven.

Sources

CyberThreat / SANS Institute: CyberThreat Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary source for CyberThreat's SANS/NCSC context, London 2024 event recap, in-person and online attendance, Secure Impact hackable badges, nine challenge count, and walkthrough links. CyberThreat / Secure Impact: Hackable Badge Challenge Walkthrough: Echo Service Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary technical source for USB serial behavior, Optiboot at 115200 baud, avrdude flash dump command, Ghidra firmware analysis, and buffer-overflow challenge behavior. CyberThreat / Secure Impact: Hackable Badge Challenge Walkthrough: A Nice Edit Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary technical source for ATmega1284P processor, FTDI serial converter, ISP versus bootloader programming context, avrdude `-D` write guidance, firmware checksum validation, CRC16/XMODEM repair, and all-nine-challenges completion.