Complete DEF CON 33 Villages Guide
DEF CON 33 | August 7-10, 2025 | Las Vegas Convention Center
X Hashtag - #Defcon33 / #DC33
Adversary & Offensive Security Villages
Adversary Village Focuses on adversary simulation/emulation, purple teaming, and adversary tradecraft, covering offensive operations, threat/APT/ransomware simulation, breach and adversarial attack simulation, supply chain security, adversary tactics, research on nation-state-sponsored threat-actors. Features hands-on activities including:
- Adversary Wars CTF - Real-world simulation scenarios where participants pose as adversaries
- Choose-your-own-Adversary-Adventure Tabletop Game - Interactive cyber war-gaming experience
- Breach simulation exercises - "Breach-the-Hospital", "Breach-the-Bank" scenarios with LEGO visualizations
- Purple teaming hands-on booth - Adversary emulation plans for various threat actors
Red Team Village Focused on training the art of critical thinking, collaboration, and strategy in offensive security, bringing together information security professionals to share new tactics and techniques in offensive security.
Security Careers
AI & Emerging Technology Villages
AI Village Features interactive demonstrations at the intersection of AI and security, including a full purple team demonstration from the AI Cyber League and the third Generative Red Team event to "red team" model evaluations and performance claims. This year showcases five different deepfake systems across various computational requirements.
Artificial Intelligence Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) Hosts the $4 million finals competition where the top seven teams from semifinals compete, with new challenge repositories and vulnerabilities to push AI cybersecurity systems' capabilities in robustness, scale, and real-world impact.
Quantum Village Returns with "Sense and Security" theme, featuring talks, workshops, demos on hacking quantum computers, quantum technologies, and introducing the world's first hackable, fully open sourced diamond-based quantum sensing platform. Includes quantum computers, quantum sensors, The OG Quantum CTF, and quantum art.
Hacker Noob Tips
Application & Cloud Security Villages
AppSec Village Offers talks and workshops by expert community members, an all-AppSec-focused CTF, contests that challenge your mind and skills, covering everything from IoT to medical devices, power grid, smart cars, and voting apps.
Bug Bounty Village After huge success at DEF CON 32 with over 20 workshops, panels and talks, returns to celebrate the bug bounty community where hunters, learners, and enthusiasts can interact with top-tier hackers.
Cloud Village An open platform for cloud security researchers featuring talks, tool demos, CTF and workshops around cloud security, with a 2.5-day jeopardy-style contest covering AWS, GCP, Azure, Alibaba, Digital Ocean, and more.
Healthcare & Biohacking Villages
Biohacking Village Provides an immersive, hands-on experience at the intersection of cybersecurity, healthcare, and medical technology. Key learning areas include:
- Medical Device Security - Penetration testing on virtualized devices
- Critical Infrastructure Resilience - Healthcare network security and ransomware mitigation
- New Technologies - AI-driven medical devices, digital twins, IoT-enabled healthcare systems
- Ethical Hacking - Responsible disclosure guided by the Hippocratic Oath for Hackers
- Policy & Regulatory Insights - FDA guidelines, GDPR, NIS2, EU Cyber Resilience Act
- Tabletop Exercises and CTFs - Real-world scenario simulations
Hardware & Physical Security Villages
Car Hacking Village After over a decade in automotive security leadership, offers an electrifying experience with interactive challenges, exclusive badges, and mind-bending exercises designed to supercharge automotive hacking skills.
Embedded Systems Village Focuses on the intersection of hardware and software security, hosting hands-on hacking workshops, showcasing new security research demos, and organizing exciting hacking contests to educate on how hackers attack embedded devices.
Hardware Hacking and Soldering Skills Village (HHV/SSV) Focuses on regaining hardware capacity through interactive demos, challenges, and tools for hardware modifications, helping attendees discover tricks and tips to expand hardware capabilities beyond approved uses.
IoT Village Advocates for advancing IoT security through expert researcher talks, interactive hacking labs, live bug hunting in the latest IoT tech, and competitive IoT hacking contests, including their 4-time black badge DEF CON CTF.
Lock Pick Village Run by The Open Organization Of Lockpickers (TOOOL), provides hands-on learning about physical security hardware vulnerabilities, lock exploitation techniques, and sport-picking, with experts demonstrating and trial locks available for practice.
Physical Security Village Provides learning opportunities about real-world physical security threats, hands-on mitigation techniques, and best practices for protecting assets through interactive demos, talks, and discussions.
Security Careers
Network & Communications Villages
Ham Radio Village Continues the original hacker tradition of ham radio operators, offering hands-on learning about legally using radios to command satellites, global communication without cellular networks, and real-time location data transmission. Features Ham Radio Fox Hunt contest and license testing services.
Packet Hacking Village Provides community learning for all skill levels, hosting practical training, network forensics games, and the renowned Capture The Packet black badge contest, with their famous "Wall of Sheep" and zero-to-hero pathway through Packet Inspector and Packet Detective.
Radio Frequency Village After 17 years of evolution from WiFi Village to Wireless Village, focuses on security of radio frequency transmissions including wireless technology, software defined radio, Bluetooth, Zigbee, WiFi, Z-wave, RFID, infrared and other RF spectrum protocols. Co-located with RF Capture the Flag.
Telecom Village Cultivates critical thinking in telecom security with strong focus on 5G networks, covering research identification, vulnerability analysis, security gap analysis, penetration testing of telecom protocols, Radio Access Networks, and 5G API gap analysis.
Industry & Infrastructure Villages
Aerospace Village Brings together aviation/space industries, security researchers, and the public to collaborate on safe, reliable, and trustworthy aviation and space operations through positive, productive collaboration among all ecosystem stakeholders.
ICS Village Provides education and awareness of Industrial Control System security through interactive simulated environments with real PLCs, HMIs, RTUs, and actuators, plus Maritime technology space and Escape Rooms by Idaho National Labs and CISA.
Maritime Hacking Village Delivers the first and only immersive maritime hacking experience for learning to exploit and defend real-world maritime systems, aiming to eliminate access barriers and provide resources for maritime vulnerability research and cybersecurity innovation.
Gaming & Entertainment Villages
GameHacking.GG Explores gaming and cybersecurity intersections through game security activities including modding games, memory hacking, multiplayer cheats, and game malware, with presentations and activities for all skill levels. Focuses on learning and does NOT endorse competitive online game cheating.
Financial & Payment Villages
Payment Village Educates about payment technologies with hands-on experiences, workshops, expert talks, and unique challenges including a cash-grab machine and scavenger hunt, featuring the largest badge EVER at DEF CON - a vulnerable ATM badge.
Privacy & Security Villages
Crypto Privacy Village Community-run village centered on privacy and cryptography, providing talks, chill networking space, the Gold Bug Challenge, privacy-related art installations, and discussions about facial recognition, privacy-preserving analytics, and crypto backdoor laws.
Voting Village The only open environment giving public hands-on access to election systems since 2017, serving as critical antidote to election security misinformation and strengthening systems against malicious attacks, brought by the 501(c)3 Election Integrity Foundation.
Defense & Blue Team Villages
Blue Team Village (BTV) Built for and by people who defend computer systems, networks, and people against cyber attacks, featuring Project Obsidian - a defensive cybersecurity learning experience covering Incident Response, Digital Forensics, Malware Analysis, Cyber Threat Intelligence, and Cyber Threat Hunting.
Malware Village Provides safe environment for learning malware analysis, guided by seasoned professionals, welcoming everyone from artists creating malware-inspired art to hardware researchers, with Malmons (Malware Monsters) making cybersecurity education accessible even to children.
Research & Intelligence Villages
Recon Village Open space focused on reconnaissance and open-source intelligence (OSINT), demonstrating how small pieces of target information can cause catastrophic damage, featuring talks, live demos, workshops, CTFs, and live competitions where participants learn while they play.
Social Engineering Community Village Enables people of all backgrounds to learn, discuss, and practice social engineering through panels, research opportunities, live vishing competitions, interactive improv lessons, and AI-based bot vishing competitions.
Community & Diversity Villages
Blacks In Cyber Village Brings culturally diverse perspectives to the cybersecurity community through talks and capture the flag events, highlighting Black experiences, innovations, culture and history to educate and normalize discussion of cybersecurity education/development deficiencies in minority communities.
Data & Storage Villages
Data Duplication Village Provides "free-to-you" direct access to terabytes of useful data including security con talks and VX-Underground archive, partnering with DC Next Gen to help future generations explore past and current data storage details.
Policy & Governance Villages
Policy @ DEF CON Provides space for security and policy experts to collaborate, bringing together senior government officials, nonprofit and private sector experts, security researchers, hackers, academics and technologists to improve tech policy outcomes.
Special Security Villages
Tamper-Evident Village Teaches how tamper-evident technologies work and how many can be tampered with without leaving evidence, covering physical security technologies from envelope tape to plastic detainers to authentication inks.
Each village operates independently with its own schedule, activities, and community. Many offer exclusive badges, workshops, and networking opportunities that make them essential stops during your DEF CON 33 experience. Check individual village websites for detailed schedules and specific activities!
