0x03 Villages

Walk up. Ask. Try it yourself.

On Sunday, the villages floor is a set of open, hands-on tables alongside the talks. Drop in, ask a question and try something with a volunteer. No booking or prior experience is needed; the six proposed topics are still provisional.

Explore planned villages Run a village

When: Sunday 4 April Day two, alongside the talks.
Entry: Drop in, no booking Come when you like and stay as long as you like.
Access: Included with a full ticket Any of the three full ticket types covers day two.
Lineup: Provisional Topics depend on volunteers, kit and floor space.

Sunday 4 April a Dehradun venue, to be announced Drop-in villages alongside talks

01 What a village is

A workbench, not a workshop.

Villages run throughout day two. There is no fixed start time or talk to sit through: a volunteer helps you try a subject at the table.

Try a practice lock, look inside a board or ask how a tool works. You can stay for a few minutes or spend much longer at a table that catches your interest.

No village sign-up is needed. Walk over when you are ready.

Nobody there is testing you

The people running a village volunteered to spend a whole day explaining the same thing to strangers. Asking the obvious question is the whole point of the format.
Try the kit with the volunteer

These are hands-on tables, not demo booths. Ask what you can handle or connect before you start.
Bring a question, not special equipment

You can explore with the kit on the table. If you bring a device of your own, make sure you are authorised to test it and ask before connecting it.
Nothing you do there is recorded

Villages are not filmed. Photography on the floor follows the code of conduct. Ask before you point a camera at anyone's screen.

Someone bent low over a workbench with a hot-air rework tool held at their eye and a fine probe in the other hand, working on a small green circuit board clamped in a jig. Flux bottles, a reel of solder, cutters and loose boards are spread along the bench, and other people lean in from the left. — A rework station, a board in a jig, and other people leaning in to watch.

02 Planned for 0x03

Villages we are planning for 0x03. Provisional

Six topics are on the working list, not the confirmed programme. Each needs a volunteer, equipment and enough space before we can announce it.

Hardware

Explore boards on a bench, probe debug interfaces and try soldering with a volunteer.
Car Hacking

Listen to CAN bus traffic on a bench rig and see how a car's modules talk to one another.
Lockpicking

Try picks and transparent practice locks with someone at the table to guide you.
OSINT

Follow public sources and research methods, including where responsible investigation stops.
AI/ML Security

Explore attacks and defences around model-backed systems, from prompt injection to data poisoning.
Radio

Use software-defined radio to listen to and decode signals. Bring headphones or an SDR if you own them.

Still provisional: the confirmed tables and floor plan will be published with the programme.

From earlier editions

Eight or nine people crowded round a white circular table in a glass-walled atrium, most of them standing and leaning in over small boards, tools and a water bottle spread across the middle, with blue and yellow tub chairs pulled up to it. — One table, everybody standing, kit in the middle.

Someone in a navy hoodie leaning right down to a blue-covered table, glasses on, working a hot-air tool over a small board held in a clamp, with a bench power supply, a coil of white cable and other people's hands and arms around the far side of the table. — Close work, with the tool held at the eye.

A dozen people standing in a ring round a plain white table in a bright glass-fronted hall while one of them, back to the camera, works through a spread of small devices, cables and a patterned pouch laid out on it. — A table of devices, and the ring it drew round it.

03 Capture the flag

Looking for the CTF?

The free online qualifier and Saturday's on-site final are a separate track. Registration and the full rules are on the CTF page.

The online qualifier

Free, open to anyone, on 17–18 February 2027. Entry-level challenges are in it on purpose, so a first-timer solves something on their first attempt.
The final, on day one

On site, for the players who come through the qualifier.

Everything about the CTF

Built by: The BSides Dehradun team Tuned here, on LevelUpCTF, for this edition.
Entry: Free online, ticketed on site The qualifier costs nothing. For the final, a conference ticket or a ₹799 competitor pass.
Teams: Register on the CTF page One submission per team, solo included. No ticket needed to enter the online round.
Format and prizes: TBA Published with the programme. The CTF page carries the detail.

04 Run a village

If you can teach one thing for one day, you can run a village.

The call is open, with no form or deadline. Tell us what people would try at your table and what you would need to make it work.

Write to us with a paragraph

Describe the subject, what visitors would do and what you could bring. That is enough to start the conversation.
Tell us what you need

List the table space, power, network or storage you need. We will confirm what the venue can support before promising it.
Tell us who is helping

A full day is easier with people rotating. If you are on your own, say so; the team can help find extra hands.
It does not have to be on the list

The six topics above are a working plan, not a menu. New ideas are welcome.

Open call

Villages, and the kit to run them

We are looking for people to run villages and, separately, for anyone willing to lend hardware for the day. A lockpick set, a bench rig, an SDR, a bag of dev boards: lending kit is as useful as standing behind the table.

Write to the team

Everyone running a village agrees to the code of conduct and is expected to help enforce it at their own table. A village is a position of trust: most of the people at it are new to the subject.

Not a village but still hands-on? A hands-on session with a fixed start time is a workshop, and those go through the call for papers instead.

05 What to bring

Bring curiosity. Kit is optional.

You can explore the villages without special equipment. A few things help if you want to work along at a particular table.

Laptop: Helpful for hands-on work Bring it charged, with a charger, if you plan to use it.
Headphones: Useful for Radio A wired pair, if you own one.
Water: A refillable bottle Early April in the valley is warm and dry.
Before testing: Ask the volunteer Check what you can handle or connect at the table.

What not to bring: anything you are not authorised to test, or would be unhappy to have someone else plug into. The villages are a lab, not a licence. The code of conduct covers the conference network and other people's devices, and is enforced.

Floor plan, opening hours and which villages ended up confirmed are published alongside the programme.

06 Questions

What people ask before they walk over.

Do I need to sign up for a village?

No. Nothing about a village is booked. There is no register, no arrival time and no minimum stay: turn up when you want and leave when you want. If a table looks busy, the queue is usually the best conversation at the conference.

Do the villages cost extra?

No. Villages are included with any full conference ticket; there is no add-on or second checkout. The competitor-only CTF pass is for day one and does not cover the villages floor on Sunday.

When is the villages floor open?

Day two, Sunday 4 April 2027, alongside the talks. Day one is the CTF final and the workshops. The floor plan and the opening hours are published alongside the programme.

Do I need any experience?

None at all. The people running a village volunteered to spend a whole day explaining the same thing to strangers, so asking the obvious question is the point of the format rather than an interruption to it. Nobody there is testing you, and a second-year student picking a lock for the first time is exactly who the floor is for.

Which villages are confirmed for 0x03?

None of them yet. Six are planned, Hardware, Car Hacking, Lockpicking, OSINT, AI/ML Security and Radio, and every one of them needs a volunteer to run it for a full day and, in most cases, hardware somebody owns personally.

The confirmed lineup goes up with the programme. We would rather show you the plan honestly than publish a confirmed one and quietly shorten it later.

Can I run a village that is not on the list?

Yes, and that is the most interesting email we can get. The six planned are a plan rather than a menu. Write a paragraph saying what the village is, what somebody does at the table, what you would bring and who is helping you. There is no form and no deadline.

Lending kit counts too. A lockpick set, a bench rig, an SDR or a bag of dev boards is as useful as standing behind the table.

What do I need to bring to a village?

No special kit is required to explore. A charged laptop and charger are useful if you want to work along; wired headphones can help at the Radio table. Bring a refillable water bottle if you like.

Only bring devices you are authorised to test, and ask the volunteer before you handle or connect anything at their table. The villages are a lab, not a licence to test other people's devices.

Is anything filmed on the villages floor?

Villages are not filmed. Photography on the floor follows the code of conduct, so ask before you point a camera at anyone's screen.

Take part

Bring an idea to the floor.

The village list is still taking shape. Tell us what visitors could try and what support you would need to make it happen.

Propose a village Or submit a talk