Another Hacker Summer Camp is officially in the books! The runZero Yetis have safely returned from Las Vegas, and after catching up on some much-needed sleep, we are still buzzing from the incredible energy of the community, the people we met, and the fantastic research presented.
From August 3–9, we took on BSides Las Vegas, Black Hat USA, and DEF CON 34. With all the recent big news from runZero, including three product launches and an intent to join forces with Dragos and NetRise (backed by a $4B Accenture investment), the excitement at our booths was off the charts, not to mention roaming Yetis and flying dragons. From rolling the dice in epic interactive quests to dropping new research and open-source tools, this year’s Summer Camp was truly one for the history books.
Here is a quick look back at our week in the desert.
BSides Las Vegas: Caesar Ciphers, segmentation challenges, and CVE program insights #
We kicked off the week at BSides Las Vegas, where our Caesar Cipher challenge put attendees' cryptography puzzle skills to the test in exchange for some fantastic swag. Of course, Zeti the Yeti was there to spread some cheer and help attendees capture some of the coolest selfies during the conference.
Our founder and CEO, HD Moore, took the stage to present Mind the Gap: Bridges, Backplanes, and BloodHound. He provided a deep dive into some of the most dangerous network segmentation failures and showed defenders how to analyze them at scale.
The next day, Tod Beardsley joined a powerhouse group of experts from across industry and the government for the panel, I am CVE, AMA! They navigated tough questions and explored what the future of the CVE program looks like in the age of AI. And wow, this panel did not disappoint!
Black Hat USA: Epic quests and broken BMCs #
By Tuesday afternoon, the Yetis had taken over the Bayside Foyer at Mandalay Bay for Black Hat USA. We gave out tons of swag, and as usual, attendees were lined up to see demos, to solve our Caesar Cipher challenges, and to snap countless pics with Zeti the Yeti.
Our interactive game, Prism of Truth: Zeti's Odyssey — The Quest to Restore the Shattered Network, was a huge hit. It was amazing to see so many of you channel your inner fantasy tabletop RPG skills to solve high-stakes cybersecurity challenges and claim some legendary swag, along with bragging rights on the leaderboard for the fastest play times!
The coveted grand prize, “One Hacker Bundle to Rule Them All”, found its new home with CAPTAIN_ORCHESTRATOR. Packed inside a ultra-sleek SLNT Faraday Dry Bag, our winner walked away with an incredible cyber hardware haul featuring a Wi-Fi Pineapple, Key Croc, Hacker Pager, and a TBeam.
Our second and third place prize bundles went to SAGENECROMANCER and 9889_ORCHESTRATOR_OPAL, each winning a set of SLNT Phone and Laptop Sleeves to keep their gear shielded in style.
But the defining moment of Black Hat was HD Moore’s highly anticipated briefing: Lights Out: BMCs Are Still Broken and Now We Have the Receipts. Featured in the official Black Hat press release, HD detailed his latest research on Baseboard Management Controllers (BMCs) and released OOBscan—a brand-new open-source tool designed to help you audit IPMI-exposed devices. (If you missed it, you can grab OOBscan from our open-source repository today!)
DEF CON 34: Out-of-band and out of control #
We closed out the week at the Las Vegas Convention Center for DEF CON 34. The energy on the floor was exactly what we’ve come to love about this community. We handed out tons of gear, and had great conversations about securing the total attack surface across IT, OT, IoT, cloud, and mobile. And yes, we may have done a bit of soldering while we were exploring the villages.
HD Moore wrapped up our 2026 Hacker Summer Camp speaking sessions with his final talk, Lights Out: Out-of-Band, Out of Mind, Out of Control, where he expanded upon his BMC research, providing a deep, technical dive into everything he discovered.
Until next time! #
To everyone who stopped by the booths, attended our sessions, and played our games, thank you! Hacker Summer Camp is all about the community, and you made this year unforgettable.
If you didn’t get a chance to meet with us 1:1, or if you're ready to see how runZero can help your security team win by default, even against AI:
- Book a Demo: See our Exposure Management platform in action.
- Try runZero today: Sign up for a free trial now.
- runZero Hour: Catch next week’s runZero Hour where HD, Tod, and the rest of the research team will provide their hot takes on Hacker Summer Camp, and HD will also provide followups on all the BMC research he presented last week in Vegas.
See you all next year!
