apture the Flag (CTF) is a cybersecurity competition that tests and develops computer security skills
Capture the Flag (CTF) is a cybersecurity competition that tests and develops computer security skills. In CTF, participants use real-world hacking tools to find vulnerabilities in a system and capture a "flag". CTF challenges can cover a broad spectrum of technical topics such as:
- Cryptography
- Reverse engineering
- Web security
- Network analysis
- Forensics
- Exploit development
- CTF challenges simulate real-world scenarios that cybersecurity professionals might encounter, making them an excellent training ground for both beginners and experienced individuals in the field.Here are some CTF platforms:
- Offers learning paths and challenges across a range of cybersecurity topics and difficulty levels
- A platform that offers various hacking challenges and virtual environments to practice various penetration testing skills .
Capture the Flag (CTF) in computer security is an exercise in which participants attempt to find text strings, called "flags", which are secretly hidden in purposefully-vulnerable programs or websites. They can be used for both competitive or educational purposes. In two main variations of CTFs, participants either steal flags from other participants (attack/defense-style CTFs) or from organizers (jeopardy-style challenges). A mixed competition combines these two styles.[1] Competitions can include hiding flags in hardware devices, they can be both online or in-person, and can be advanced or entry-level.
Educational applications[edit]
CTFs have been shown to be an effective way to improve cybersecurity education through gamification.[6] There are many examples of CTFs designed to teach cybersecurity skills to a wide variety of audiences, including PicoCTF, organized by the Carnegie Mellon CyLab, which is oriented towards high school students, and Arizona State University supported pwn.college.[7][8][9] Beyond educational CTF events and resources, CTFs has been shown to be a highly effective way to instill cybersecurity concepts in the classroom.[10][11] CTFs have been included in undergraduate computer science classes such as Introduction to Information Security at the National University of Singapore.[12] CTFs are also popular in military academies. They are often included as part of the curriculum for cybersecurity courses, with the NSA organized Cyber Exercise culminating in a CTF competition between the US service academies and military colleges.[13]
Competitions[edit]
Many CTF organizers register their competition with the CTFtime platform. This allows the tracking of the position of teams over time and across competitions.[14] These competitions can be community, government or corporate. Since CTFtime began in 2011, there have been seven teams who have ranked as #1 in the worldwide position[original research?]. These include "Plaid Parliament of Pwning", "More Smoked Leet Chicken", "Dragon Sector", "dcua", "Eat, Sleep, Pwn, Repeat", "perfect blue" and "organizers". Overall the "Plaid Parliament of Pwning" and "Dragon Sector" have both placed first worldwide the most with three times each.[15]
Community competitions[edit]
Every year there are dozens of CTFs organized in a variety of formats. Many CTFs are associated with cybersecurity conferences such as DEF CON, HITCON, and BSides. The DEF CON CTF, an attack-defence CTF, is notable for being one of the oldest CTF competitions to exist, and has been variously referred to as the "World Series",[16] "Superbowl",[9][17] and "Olympics",[18] of hacking by media outlets. The NYU Tandon hosted Cybersecurity Awareness Worldwide (CSAW) CTF is one of the largest open-entry competitions for students learning cybersecurity from around the world.[4] In 2021, it hosted over 1200 teams during the qualification round.[19]
In addition to conference organized CTFs, many CTF clubs and teams organize CTF competitions.[20] Many CTF clubs and teams are associated with universities, such as the CMU associated Plaid Parliament of Pwning, which hosts PlaidCTF,[4] and the ASU associated Shellphish.[21]
Government-supported competitions[edit]
Governmentally supported CTF competitions include the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge and ENISA European Cybersecurity Challenge. In 2023, the US Space Force-sponsored Hack-a-Sat CTF competition included, for the first time, a live orbital satellite for participants to exploit.[22]
Corporate-supported competitions[edit]
Corporations and other organizations sometimes use CTFs as a training or evaluation exercise.[citation needed] The benefits of CTFs are similar to those of using CTFs in an educational environment.[citation needed] In addition to internal CTF exercises, some corporations such as Google[23] and Tencent host publicly accessible CTF competitions.
As a kid, you may have played a game called “capture the flag,” where opposing teams try to sneak into each other’s territory and retrieve a colored flag in order to win. Capture the flag (CTF) exercise in cyber security operates along similar lines. Essentially, it is a cyber security challenge that tests participants’ ability to find security vulnerabilities in a test IT environment. So how do cyber capture the flag games work, and why are they such an effective way of training beginners in IT security?
What Is Capture the Flag (CTF)?
In cyber security, capture the flag (CTF) is a popular competition and training exercise that attempts to thoroughly evaluate participants’ skills and knowledge in various subdomains. The goal of each CTF challenge is to find a hidden file or piece of information (the “flag”) somewhere in the target environment.
CTF has been gaining in popularity in recent years. According to a 2021 study, the number of CTF events worldwide more than doubled from roughly 80 in 2015 to over 200 in 2020 (ENISA, 2021). Although most competitions occur online, some events are also held in person worldwide.
What Are the Types of CTF Challenges?
There are two main types of CTF security competitions: jeopardy and attack-defense. Jeopardy Capture the Flag rules are simple: competitors must solve a series of IT security challenges, often arranged into different skill areas. These challenges may cover topics such as web application security, reverse engineering, digital forensics, cryptography, and steganography. The other main format of CTF is called “attack-defense.” Each participant or team is given their own virtual machine or network to defend; however, these systems each have their own vulnerabilities that other teams can exploit. Participants must find and take advantage of other teams’ vulnerabilities while defending their own system by detecting and patching its weaknesses.
Why Is Capture the Flag (CTF) Crucial in Cyber Security?
Some of the reasons why CTF cyber security exercises are important include:
- Hands-on skill development: CTF is one of the best ways for cyber security professionals to hone their technical skills, applying their theoretical knowledge to solve real-world challenges.
- Risk-free environment: CTF offers real-world experience in cyber security tools and techniques while taking place in a controlled, risk-free environment where participants can experiment without devastating consequences.
- Collaboration and teamwork: CTF usually requires participants to join forces as a team, helping individuals learn to work together to tackle complex, multistep challenges.
- Networking and recruitment: CTF is an ideal way for professionals to connect and learn from each other and showcase their abilities to potential employers.
How Does Learning Capture the Flag Exercise Help Those Starting a Career in Cyber Security?
Capture the flag cyber security exercises are especially helpful for beginners in cyber security, who can partner up with more experienced professionals on a team, getting their feet wet while learning through observation and acquiring valuable skills. Through their participation in CTF exercises, cyber security beginners can be exposed to a wide range of technical concepts and tools.
Jeopardy-style CTF forces participants to apply skills from many cyber security domains, from web security to cryptography, and become more well-rounded IT professionals. Competitors need to think critically to find vulnerabilities, evaluate cyber attack and defense strategies, and develop creative solutions to problems.
Many employers value CTF experience when looking to hire for cyber security roles. Companies often sponsor CTF events, hoping to network with especially promising participants. Cyber security beginners can receive mentorship, guidance, and potential job opportunities at the CTF event.
Lastly, CTF is a fun and engaging way to promote cyber security as a viable career path. The enthusiasm beginners acquire for cyber security at CTF events can carry over into a real-world role as an ethical hacker, penetration tester, or security analyst.
How Does the Certified Cybersecurity Technician (C|CT) Course Help You?
CTF (capture the flag) exercises are invaluable for cyber security beginners to gain practical experience in a safe, controlled environment. EC-Council’s Certified Cybersecurity Technician (C|CT) program gives cyber security candidates the opportunity to participate in CTF exercises to gain practical experience in cyber security. The C|CT is an entry-level cyber security certification that teaches a wide range of IT security knowledge in subfields such as network defense, ethical hacking, digital forensics, security operations, and more. Graduates of the C|CT program have validated that they have the technical skills to succeed in real-world cyber security careers, such as cyber security specialists, IT consultants, network engineers, and system administrators.
C|CT includes 200 hours of premium video learning content and provides extensive opportunities to hone your knowledge with 85 hands-on practical labs—three times more than any other entry-level certification. In particular, the C|CT certification offers a series of CTF-style critical thinking challenges to accompany each lab exercise. C|CT students don’t just learn cyber security theory—they also put their knowledge into practice in real-world scenarios. Graduates of C|CT will have a track record of success in live cyber range exercises, preparing them for CTF and proving their competencies to employers.
CTFs are one of my favorite hobbies. I love the feeling of solving a particularly difficult task and seeing all the puzzle pieces click together. I'd like this post to serve as an introduction to CTF for those in the dev.to community that may not know what it is.
So what is CTF?
CTF (Capture The Flag) is a kind of information security competition that challenges contestants to solve a variety of tasks ranging from a scavenger hunt on wikipedia to basic programming exercises, to hacking your way into a server to steal data. In these challenges, the contestant is usually asked to find a specific piece of text that may be hidden on the server or behind a webpage. This goal is called the flag, hence the name!
Like many competitions, the skill level for CTFs varies between the events. Some are targeted towards professionals with experience operating on cyber security teams. These typically offer a large cash reward and can be held at a specific physical location. Other events target the high school and college student range, sometimes offering monetary support for education to those that place highly in the competition!
CTFtime details the different types of CTF. To summarize, Jeopardy style CTFs provide a list of challenges and award points to individuals or teams that complete the challenges, groups with the most points wins. Attack/Defense style CTFs focus on either attacking an opponent's servers or defending one's own. These CTFs are typically aimed at those with more experience and are conducted at a specific physical location.
CTFs can be played as an individual or in teams so feel free to get your friends onboard!
I'd like to stress that CTFs are available to everyone. Many challenges do not require programming knowledge and are simply a matter of problem solving and creative thinking.
Challenge types
Jeopardy style CTFs challenges are typically divided into categories. I'll try to briefly cover the common ones.
- Cryptography - Typically involves decrypting or encrypting a piece of data
- Steganography - Tasked with finding information hidden in files or images
- Binary - Reverse engineering or exploiting a binary file
- Web - Exploiting web pages to find the flag
- Pwn - Exploiting a server to find the flag
Where do I start?
If I managed to pique your curiosity, I've compiled a list of resources that helped me get started learning. CTF veterans, feel free to add your own resources in the comments below!
Learning
- http://ctfs.github.io/resources/ - Introduction to common CTF techniques such as cryptography, steganography, web exploits (Incomplete)
- https://trailofbits.github.io/ctf/forensics/ - Tips and tricks relating to typical CTF challenges/scenarios
- https://ctftime.org/writeups - Explanations of solutions to past CTF challenges
Resources
- https://ctftime.org - CTF event tracker
- https://github.com/apsdehal/awesome-ctf - Comprehensive list of tools and further reading
Tools (That I use often)
- binwalk - Analyze and extract files
- burp suite - Feature packed web penetration testing framework
- stegsolve - Pass various filters over images to look for hidden text
- GDB - Binary debugger
- The command line :)
Practice
Many of the "official" CTFs hosted by universities and companies are time-limited competitions. There are many CTFs however that are online 24/7 that can be used as practice and learning tools. Here are some that I found to be friendly for beginners.
- https://ctflearn.com - A collection of various user-submitted challenges aimed towards newcomers
- https://overthewire.org/wargames/ - A series of progressively more difficult pwn-style challenges. (Start with the bandit series)
- https://2018game.picoctf.com/ - Yearly time-limited CTF now available to use as practice
Conclusion
CTF is a great hobby for those interested in problem-solving and/or cyber security. The community is always welcoming and it can be a lot of fun tackling challenges with friends. This is my first post, if I was able to spark interest with even a single person, I'd consider it a success 😊.
Thank you for reading!
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