Welcome To BOOTSTRAP25

Thompson Conference Center, Austin TX // March 18-22

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Keep Austin reverse-engineering and learn with Ringzer0! Ringzer0 returns to the Thompson Conference Center, Austin, TX in March 2025 with BOOTSTRAP25, a celebration of South-West Cyber. Our one-day event follows a week of intense reverse engineering. Come for the courses, stay for the Saturday workshops! BOOTSTRAP25 has speakers from North America, Europe, Africa, and Austin! All courses booked come with complimentary access to BOOTSTRAP25 of March 22, and the BOOTLOADER mixer the night before.

BOOTSTRAP25 Agenda // Saturday, March 22

BOOTSTRAP25's structure is simple. Two talks in the morning, and six workshops for the rest of the day. Be inspired by Haroon Meer, learn about tackling Linux Kernel Security with Joshua Drake, before heading into some amazing workshops on everything from Car Hacking to fuzzing optimization techniques. Need a break? Visit our hallway track and have great conversations with friends new and old!

KEYNOTE: Security products don’t have to suck // Haroon Meer

It has been 15 years since FX famously quipped that by quality level, we are better off defending our networks with Microsoft Word than a Checkpoint firewall. Security products are still pretty terrible - but why? This keynote examines why this keeps happening and plots a path to a different world.

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TALK: Musing from Decades of Linux Kernel Security Research // Joshua J. Drake

The Linux Kernel powers billions of devices across industries, making it critical infrastructure. But is it secure? Josh explores this by comparing its security investments to a typical SDLC, sharing a case study of an unresolved security issue, and offering recommendations to reduce risk.

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Workshop: Introduction to Automotive Firmware Reverse Engineering // Willem Melching

In this workshop we will cover the basics of reverse engineering automotive firmware. An ECU firmware can consist of millions of lines of code which would take a long time to fully reverse engineer. Tips and tricks will be taught to quickly identify parts of the firmware that are of interest.

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Workshop: Compiler Internals for Security Engineers // Marion Marschalek

This workshop covers security aspects of compiler internals, enabling students via guided examples to modify code through a compiler. Students will analyze code through compilation stages and perform early code injection. We will conclude by demonstrating the security relevance of a build chain.

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Workshop: Blue2thprinting: identifying the form and function of the Bluetooth devices // Xeno Kovah

Right now you are enveloped in the warming glow of dozens to hundreds of Bluetooth devices. Aren’t you curious what all those little critters are?! In this workshop we’ll use the Blue2thprinting tools to poke at these apparitions and get a sense of what they are and what they want from us!

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Workshop: Fuzz Testing Bare Metal and RTOS Firmware // Tobias Scharnowski, Marius Muench

Fuzz testing is great for finding vulnerabilities, but embedded, bare-metal, and RTOS firmware pose unique challenges. This hands-on workshop explores firmware rehosting, a modern technique for analyzing and fuzz testing deeply embedded firmware.

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Workshop: Offensive Security Tool Development with Ghidra // John McIntosh

Automate reverse engineering with Ghidra’s CLI tools in this hands-on workshop. Set up a productive environment using the Ghidra Python VSCode Devcontainer Skeleton, automate tasks, script analyses, and integrate Ghidra’s powerful decompilation and disassembly features into your CLI workflow

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Workshop: Hands-on binary (de)obfuscation // Arnau Gàmez i Montolio

This workshop introduces modern binary (de)obfuscation. After a brief lecture on key concepts, we’ll walk through practical examples, using symbolic execution to extract and simplify obfuscated expressions. Finally, we’ll apply program synthesis to recover the semantics of obfuscated code.

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Blackhoodie @ Ringzer0 // Friday, March 21

Ringzer0 continues to champion Blackhoodie's mission by hosting a free 1 day technical training delivered by the Blackhoodie crew.

FREE Blackhoodie 1 Day Training // Compiler Internals for Security Engineers

Blackhoodie is a free, women only reverse engineering workshop and community. This FREE 1 day class introduces students to security relevant aspects of compiler internals, and with guided examples enables students to perform their own code modifications through a compiler.

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Bootloader Mixer Evening // Friday, March 21

A pre-conference evening of education, engagement and entertainment, hosted at the legendary San Jac Saloon in the heart of Austin's 6th Street! Catch a couple of technical and entertaining talks and mingle with the who's who in cybersecurity.

TALK: From 0 to millions: Protecting against AitM phishing at scale // Jacob Torrey

Phishing has evolved to bypass MFA using reverse proxies, while traditional defenses like blocklists are aging and evaded. This talk introduces Cloned Site Canarytoken, which alerts you to phishing attempts before credentials are entered, with real-world attack insights and response strategies.

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TALK: Design To Exploit: A Dive Into EV Charger Security // Jonathan Andersson, Connor Ford

This talk examines EVSE security through an analysis of 8 EV chargers and findings from Pwn2Own Automotive 2024 and 2025. It covers typical charger design, common attack surfaces, and the process of researching an EV charger from scratch, including a successfully exploited vulnerability.

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Learn With Ringzer0 At BOOTSTRAP25

Our instructors offer technical deep dives into areas including vulnerability research, exploitation, malware analysis, red teaming and practical attacks. With a full week of in-person training you'll find courses offering premium education at reasonable prices. Best of all, BOOTSTRAP25 access is complimentary with any of our training courses, virtual and in-person.

Each class is laser-focused on a specific topic, to pack in as much learning, hands-on experience and instructor face time as possible. The Thompson Conference Center is a great venue with comfortable, air-conditioned classrooms with decent screens and lighting. Ringzer0 gets students past the learning curve!

What To Expect At BOOTSTRAP25

BOOTSTRAP25 features talks and workshops across a variety of technical reverse engineering and cybersecurity subjects. We normally hold talks in the morning, and workshops through the rest of the day. Dip in and out or get comfy and crack on. We offer a chilled, low-stress learning environment that's great for you, your colleagues and friends. And the food is great too!

BOOTLOADER Mixer

Our Bootloader mixer returns on the evening of March 21st with great talks, great people and great food. Expect a mix of technical and lighter talks, with no punches pulled. It's a great low-stress opportunity to meet trainers and speakers ahead of the main event.

Getting BOOTSTRAPPED In 2025

BOOTSTRAP25 And BOOTLOADER25 access is complimentary with all training courses. If you just want to come along, tickets are available both or just BOOTLOADER25.