In the tech press, you have probably seen a story or two showcasing some kind of ridiculous hacking or technical feat. Maybe it's modifying a video game to have new features or characters, maybe it's rigging an ATM to play a jingle and spit out money like a jackpotting slot machine, maybe it's revealing every workstation/server CPU on Earth as hopelessly insecure in the space of an afternoon. For many, the reaction these stories evoke is roughly "geez that's pretty rad, I'd love to try something like that but unfortunately I don't have the skill to pull it off". So how IS it possible? Did these people spend half their lives memorising an entire architecture before starting? Do you need some sort of gift to magically understand assembly language? Are modern chips so different and complex that there's no such thing anymore as a one-size-fits-most understanding? Is there no entry level approach to this at all? Spoiler: the answer to all of these questions is HECK NO. In this talk, we will cover basic reverse engineering applications and techniques, and how they can scale up to match almost any technical challenge you can name. Even when starting from scratch. These skills can prove useful for original research, fun personal projects, and even plain ordinary development! How sick is that?