Sydney Johns RE for the Rest of Us An Introduction to Reverse Engineering
Blacks in Cyber Village @ DEF CON 33 · Day 1 · Blacks in Cyber Village
Sydney Jones’s talk, "RE for the Rest of Us: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering," delivered at the Blacks in Cyber Village, provides a comprehensive and accessible entry point into the often-intimidating world of reverse engineering. Aimed at beginners, the session expertly navigates both **hardware reverse engineering** (RE) and **software reverse engineering**, leveraging practical examples with an Arduino Uno board and the powerful **Ghidra** software reverse engineering suite. Jones, a cybersecurity researcher and PhD student at Virginia Tech, emphasizes a hands-on approach, guiding the audience through fundamental concepts from identifying physical components to inspecting binary behavior.
AI review
A competent, well-structured intro talk for its intended audience — beginners at a community-focused village. Jones clearly knows her material and teaches it honestly, but the content is foundational by design: Arduino + Ghidra + hardcoded secrets is the canonical 101 curriculum. Nothing here will surprise anyone who's opened a binary before.