DEF CON 34 · United States · 2026
Public player-guide electronic challenge badge; allocation unverified
BigDawgDave's public GitHub repository describes itself as the public repository for a DEF CON 34 RM-Cyber challenge badge called The Shattered Shard. Its Player Guide tells participants to use an assigned badge with a charged battery, a local Wi-Fi/browser interaction, a data-capable USB cable, a serial terminal, and one labelled-jumper task. It is enough evidence to preserve a separately named, independently documented pre-event electronic challenge badge, but it does not prove the RM-Cyber relationship, organizer authorization, hardware provenance, sale or giveaway, run size, allocation, physical handoff, completed on-site use, admission function, or a rights-cleared image.
People
The project is published from the BigDawgDave GitHub account. This records a repository-publisher role only; it does not identify a real-world person or assign badge design, hardware/firmware/art authorship, manufacture, RM-Cyber or DEF CON affiliation, distribution, event role, or image-reuse authority.
SourceThe record captures a current, self-contained player-guide trail for a separately named DEF CON 34 challenge badge without mistaking a public CTF guide for an organizer-issued Human badge, a full hardware release, or an invitation to reproduce credentials, endpoints, flags, exploit steps, or serial commands outside the documented assigned-badge context.
The public Player Guide names a charged battery, a CP2102 programming connector, an ESP32 pin in a safety warning, an LED panel, and labelled SAO GPIO1/GPIO2 contacts for one physical challenge. It does not identify a specific ESP32 model, board revision, schematic, BOM, display/controller, battery chemistry/capacity/charging path, CP2102 wiring, SAO version/pinout/power budget, other connectors, components, enclosure, production configuration, electrical protection, test results, safety validation, regulatory status, or final physical-unit parity.
The guide documents a badge-local Wi-Fi and browser quest, sequential chapter progression, a local serial-terminal chapter, a physical-jumper chapter, and progress that survives normal power cycles. It explicitly limits participation to the player's assigned badge and the services it advertises. This catalogue records only that high-level interaction surface; it does not reproduce network names, access credentials, local addresses, hidden resources, flags, challenge hints, exploit payloads, serial commands, or recovery/reset procedures from the player guide.
The Player Guide frames the game as restoring ten runes of an Aegis Sigil before a Lich reaches an archive. That source-backed fiction establishes a ten-chapter quest theme, but it does not identify the badge creator, art author, organizer relationship, any winner or prize, full story outcome, distribution path, or a public post-event archive.
Source-backed hardware metadata
Structured technical signals seeded from public badge documentation, repositories, schematics, firmware notes, or event evidence. These fields are designed for filtering, API use, repair planning, preservation, and future Companion Gear matching.
The public Player Guide explicitly describes an assigned challenge badge with a charged battery, badge-local Wi-Fi/browser interaction, a CP2102 serial connection, an LED panel, and a labelled SAO task; allocation and final hardware remain unverified.
Signal sourceThe Player Guide's safety guidance specifically mentions an ESP32 pin, but does not identify an ESP32 variant, module, schematic, board revision, or final-unit population.
Signal sourceThe public Player Guide directs participants to join the badge's local Wi-Fi network and use a browser, without establishing radio configuration, security model, range, protocol details, or public-service authorization.
Signal sourceThe Player Guide identifies labelled SAO GPIO1/GPIO2 contacts for a controlled physical challenge, but does not establish an SAO version, pinout, voltage/current limits, connector specification, universal host compatibility, or safe use outside the assigned-badge context.
Signal sourceRepair, preservation, and legal lab context
Parts, tools, and supplies that match this badge's documented hardware, protocols, or preservation needs. These are category-level recommendations, not compatibility guarantees.
Headers and connector supplies for SAO repair, add-on testing, and preservation.
This badge has a documented SAO connector. Matched technical signals: SAO.
Vendor link · selected for technical relevance
I2C adapter supplies for badge add-ons, sensors, and lab documentation.
SAO workflows often use I2C-compatible add-on testing and bench documentation. Matched technical signals: SAO.
Vendor link · selected for technical relevance
Extension wiring and jumper supplies for testing or displaying SAO add-ons away from the main badge.
Extension wiring is useful for testing and displaying SAO add-ons. Matched technical signals: SAO.
Vendor link · selected for technical relevance
Debug probes for ARM/RISC-V badge development, recovery, and documentation.
Debug probes can support authorized recovery, firmware work, and documentation for microcontroller badges. Matched technical signals: ESP32.
Vendor link · selected for technical relevance
USB serial adapters for logs, recovery, and firmware documentation workflows.
This badge has a documented microcontroller platform where serial logs or flashing workflows may be relevant. Matched technical signals: ESP32.
Vendor link · selected for technical relevance
Lifecycle
The public guide frames The Shattered Shard as a ten-chapter rune-restoration quest with sequentially unlocked progress and per-badge state. It establishes a planned game surface, not a full challenge archive, final scoring system, prize, winner record, completion ledger, event deployment, or permission to reproduce solutions or probe anything beyond an assigned badge and its advertised services.
SourceThe guide says the badge exposes a local Wi-Fi/browser quest interface and includes an explicit assigned-badge-and-advertised-services boundary. The catalogue preserves that narrow interaction fact without publishing connection identifiers, credentials, local addresses, hidden resources, browser instructions, or exploitation details, and without treating a CTF surface as general conference infrastructure or a production security model.
SourceThe Player Guide names a CP2102 programming connector, a serial-terminal chapter, an LED-panel observation, and one physical task using only labelled SAO GPIO1/GPIO2 contacts. It does not establish connector wiring, pinout, voltage/current limits, toolchain, serial-command set, safe procedure, firmware image, general compatibility, or permission to attach hardware outside the assigned-badge context.
SourceOperational history
The catalogue intentionally does not reproduce connection credentials, network or local-service details, flags, hidden resources, challenge hints, serial commands, reset steps, or exploit material; it also does not imply a privacy/security review, safe operational configuration, reproducible build, legal reuse, or ongoing support.
The record describes its source-backed interaction surface without turning it into a hardware specification, a safe connection/modification guide, a wireless-security claim, a universal SAO-compatibility result, or a validated physical-unit record.
The catalogue preserves the source's current event association and distinct project name without presenting it as an official DEF CON badge, an RM-Cyber-issued artifact, a guaranteed attendee benefit, an access credential, a completed release, or proof that any participant received one.
The United States record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying source-page media, documentation screenshots, event photos, social media, placeholders, or generated approximations.