Lessons Learned from Building Custom Hacker Hardware
c4m0ufl4g3
BSidesSF 2026 · Day 1 · AMC Theatre 04
In this insightful talk, Jonathan Fischer, known as c4m0ufl4g3, delves not into the capabilities of a specific piece of offensive hardware, but rather into the arduous and often unpredictable journey of bringing such a device from a mere concept to a deployable product. Co-created with his colleague Jeremy Miller, their project, dubbed "Injectal and Hide," was released at Defcon 30 and BSides Las Vegas. However, the focus here is on the invaluable lessons learned throughout the development process, offering a rare glimpse into the practical realities, setbacks, and triumphs of custom hardware engineering within the cybersecurity domain.
AI review
Honest, practitioner-level retrospective on building a custom HID implant from scratch. Fischer clearly did the work and isn't bullshitting anyone — the SparkFun UART hack, the chip-shortage eBay sourcing, the accidental modularity are all the kind of details you only get from someone who actually bled on the bench. But this is BSides-tier content: valuable for the maker/early-hardware-hacker crowd, not for experienced red teamers who've already been down this road.