BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
A BSides Cape Town 2017 badge system documented as two separate physical badges: a black flux-capacitor badge with an ESP chip and a red RF badge with a CC1111 RFCat-compatible radio, USB port, and button.
BSides Cape Town
BSides Cape Town 2017
A South African BSides edition whose RFCat challenge writeup documents a two-part badge made from a black ESP-based flux-capacitor badge and a red CC1111 RF badge.
Central Park Building, Black River Park, Cape Town · South Africa · 2017
Lifecycle
Add-ons & Upgrades
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
source-backed
RFCat broadcast chat client
Released client code implemented a half-duplex RF broadcast chat system for badges using RFCat, 868 MHz operation, sync words, modulation settings, queues, and retransmission.
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
source-backed
Black flux-capacitor ESP badge
The 2017 badge system included a black flux-capacitor badge with a 2AL3B ESP chip, WiFi capability, power-bank wiring, USB charging path, and rear buttons.
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
source-backed
Red CC1111 RFCat RF badge
The red RF badge carried a CC1111 RFCat-compatible chip, USB port, button, and exposed rear contacts, becoming the radio surface for the 2017 challenge.
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
source-backed
Challenge server and unlock flow
The challenge server used distinct RF settings, periodic hints, player-state persistence, 88-miles-an-hour and 1.21-gigawatts stages, and an XOR/base64 unlock payload for the final box.
Operational history
Issues & Camp Impact
The challenge author states that he did not have a badge before the conference and used Yardstick One hardware to mimic the badge RF environment during development.
The dossier distinguishes the badge hardware from the off-badge development and challenge-server test setup.
The current public source describes visible badge components and challenge behavior, but does not recover schematics, board files, bill of materials, firmware for the ESP badge, or a full original badge-team build writeup.
The record preserves the source-backed two-part badge without inventing component-level details that are not public in the recovered sources.
No local BSides Cape Town 2017 badge image has been added because the public writeup photos have not been paired with an explicit reuse license, attribution, and processing notes for catalogue publication.
The record stays image-free rather than copying SensePost or blog imagery without complete provenance.
Resources
BSides Cape Town 2017 event listing
event listing · Secondary event-context listing for the December 2, 2017 Cape Town date, venue, and BSides Cape Town website pointer.
BSidesCPT17 RFCat challenge writeup
project page · First-hand SensePost writeup documenting the two-part 2017 badge hardware, CC1111/RFCat RF badge, ESP flux-capacitor badge, RF chat idea, and challenge flow.
BSides CPT 2017 RFCat challenge sources
source · Public gist containing the RF chat client, challenge server, XOR helper, RF parameters, hint flow, and expected solve path for the badge challenge.
Sources
GitHub Gist: BSides CPT 2017 - RFCat Challenge Server and Client Sources
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary released challenge-code source for RF settings, challenge-server behavior, player-state persistence, periodic hints, XOR helper, and intended badge solve path.
Security.World: BSides Cape Town
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary event-context source for date, Cape Town venue, and the public 2017 event listing.
SensePost: building the bsidescpt17 rfchallenge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · First-hand source for the 2017 two-part badge hardware, flux-capacitor ESP badge, red CC1111 RF badge, RFCat challenge, RF chat behavior, challenge box, and solve flow.