About

Manifesto

Hacking has evolved far past its intended end date. The ASU Hacking Club has, in response, decided to go back. Back to a time when hacking was simpler. We now dedicate our time to teaching other hackers about how to hack like it was the 90’s and slowly progress towards the present.

We believe that a good hacker comes through practice, dedication, and above all else, curiosity. Through our efforts we hope to make those who seek to be L33T the best they can possibly be. The content in this club is in no way easy, but we hope to make it easier with our guidance.

Lastly, the goal of this club is to turn white belt hackers into black belts, with the help of leet members of Shellphish and through pwn.college.

Meetings

Beginner Meetings

For 2022 Fall Semester, we have a meeting every Friday at 3pm-5pm AZ Time, online through our Discord.

Pro Meetings (still in the works)

Pro meetings are run by Shellphish members, which means they are closed to the general public. To attend the meeting, you need two things:

  1. Complete the Shellphish Qualifier challenge
  2. Be recommended by a Shellphish member who is also in ASU HC

Leadership

Faculty Advisors

The faculty leaders of the ASU Hacking Team are highly intertwined with the Shellphish CTFing team. Those individuals are:

  • Adam Doupe, Associate Professor (@adamd)
  • Yan Shoshitaishvili, Assistant Professor (@zardus)
  • Fish Wang, Assistant Professor (@fish)

Two of the three were previous OOO organizers who ran what is known as the Hacker Olympics (DEF CON CTF Finals). One of the three is known as the best reverse engineer in Shellphish. Indeed, we could not have a more leet set of advisors.

Student Officers

The leadership is also filled with some leet undergraduate students:

  • President: Jude O’Kain, Sophomore UG (@F4_U57)
  • Vice-President: Justin Kereszturi, Junior UG (@overwatch)
  • Treasurer: Mitchell Zakocs, Sophomore UG (@mzakocs)
  • Secretary: Thomas Spencer, Senior UG (@SirSquibbins)

Shellphish Ambassadors

Addionally, we also have two leet Shellphish ambassadors:

Contacting

Should you be unable to get on our Discord (it may be non-trivial), you can email us at: hackingclub@asu.edu.

History

Originally, this club went by the name of pwndevils, which was started in 2009 to play CTFs. The pwndevils competed in CTFs very actively between 2015 and 2020, culminating in its brief time as the 10th ranked hacking team in the world by CTFTime. After ranking top 10, the pwndevils merged with an already present Shellphish, the oldest hacking team in the United States. Since its advisors were also from Shellphish, this was the great continuation of the Shellphish legacy.

The pwndevils club continued to exist internally at ASU until its name/brand change in 2021, resulting in the now known ASU Hacking Club. The ASU Hacking Club was formed to fill the gap between playing CTFs competitively and recruiting Undergraduate students, which often look for a more beginner and social experience. For more info on the pwndevils history, see the pwndevils history page.

Currently, the club strives towards getting competitive hackers that will join the Shellphish CTF team on its international conquest to be the best hacking team.