Attention all DEF CON 33 attendees! We are extending our CFP to July 31. As a reminder, the Sessionize link is over here...

In the meantime, here are some sessions to look forward to in advance of the full conference schedule...

Rebuild The World: Access to secure software dependency management everywhere with Nix

Tom Berek, Farid Zakaria, Daniel Baker, moderated by Morgan Jones

Hacker Tracker link

In a world full of unwanted app updates and SaaS providers who want your personal information, being able to self host the 120,000 Linux packages in Nixpkgs has the potential to change the game for anyone who's tired of the slow decline of cloud services. If you're curious about what NixOS can do for your homelab, or even if you're just worried about SBOMs or traceability of exactly where your software and all its dependencies came from, join us for an hour-long panel on the DEF CON Community Stage about how we can reclaim our services and software from vendor lockin and Docker image bitrot using Nix and NixOS. We'll be doing a deep dive into why Nix changes software deployment, and how you can get started and get involved in the quiet revolution that has been reshaping how we use software.

Getting to Top 250 on HtB with Nix and LLMs

Rambo Anderson-You, Red Team

In this talk, I'll walk through using Nix to declare several AI models full access to my computer to climb the Hack The Box (HtB) leaderboard where I was previously hardstuck on "Hacker" rank as a busy dad.

I'll go though my semiautonomous workflow where I am (not yet) automating myself out of a job. I go through the problems of having to solve many CTF challenges with limited time, and how combining Nix and AI can be an amazing workflow solution for solving multiple CTF problems that can need multiple testing environments.

Finally, I'll compare this custom Nix configuration to simply distros like Kali and AthenaOS. I'll talk about how this transfers to more real world use. How much of this can be used in things like pen tests, red teaming, or bug bounty hunting?

Learn Nix the Fun Way

Farid Zakaria, Software Engineer, PhD Student and Nix enthusiast

Learning Nix can be off-putting, as many introductions dive into complex terminology and academic concepts, missing the chance to simplify Nix's advantages. Having given talks both internally and externally, I've shifted to showcasing fun, practical examples first, leaving the nuances for later. Join me to see some straightforward examples of what Nix can offer and why it might be worth adopting.

Mesh Network Sidecars for NixOS services

Wes Payne, Co-host of LINUX Unplugged

Inspired by the popular container sidecar pattern, this talk demonstrates a generic, open source NixOS module that brings the same security and isolation to bare metal services. We’ll explore how to declaratively wrap any systemd service, placing it in an isolated network namespace with its own mesh network client (e.g., Tailscale or Netbird). This approach makes services securely accessible on your mesh, fully firewalled from the host—no application changes required. Good fit for folks exploring declarative infrastructure and looking for practical ways to apply modern security patterns to their own servers.

0 to Infra in 100 Days: A Nix Speedrun

Alex Decious, Software Engineer at Actionable Outcomes

What if learning Nix was like a speed-run?

A few months ago, I'd never touched Nix. Then my friend's brother told me about PlanetNix at Scale22x. I flew from Florida to California with Nix on an old laptop and only four days of flailing experience. I felt grossly under prepared, but after the talks and meeting brilliant people, I was hooked.

Today, I'm building Nix infrastructure full-time and manage every device I own declaratively with tools like Clan.

This talk maps my route from 'what the hell is a derivation?' to contributing to Nix projects in 100 days. I'll share the exact learning path, struggles, and wins. As someone close enough to remember the pain but far enough to have some solutions, I'll crash-course some tough Nix concepts with live demos showing my real usage.

For beginners and the Nix-curious, this can be a great launch point for YOUR speed-run. Nix's learning curve is infamous, but with the right fundamentals and some problem framing, it doesn't have to be.