HSL Event: Noob CTF

[Cel]

Hi Guys!

I wanted to bring infosec more into the lab. This is for 2 reasons: 1. I'm compiling my CTF team for next year at Defcon and 2. It would significantly expand the community base (from what I hear, most people there just do fab work?)

CTF is an event that is essentially a cyber wargames scenario. This will not be a wargame. This will be more like jeopardy. Because I am unfamiliar with the experience level of those who would like to participate, and I'd like a TON of people to do it, it will be just as described, a noob CTF. The challenges will be designed for an experienced CTF or infosec person to solve all of them in roughly 2 hours, but I'd like to make this an all day event at HSL.

Again, I'd like to gauge the interest in this type of event. Thoughts?

[Cel]

Just so theres no confusion with Computer Jeopardy, this will be more hands on, instead of based on the knowledge you have in your head. Something like "Heres a file. Get the key." then you have to reverse engineer it to discover the key to complete the challenge.

[Nate Plamondon]

I'm in.

--
Nate Plamondon
Sent from a tiny on-screen keyboard

[Will Bradley]

Hell yeah, name a date and time, it'll happen :)

[Samantha Christoff]

wherever my name needs to be, I want it to be there. 

Count me in!

[Ben Humpherys]

Totally interested, though I probably have a fair bit to learn before being even remotely good at it lol

[Cel]

I'm glad there is so much interest.

Acme Pharm are great guys. I had a chance to meet them and drink with them. And infact, if they do not qualify for CTF next year, I'm going to get them to join my CTF team :)

I think the Defcon CTF is pretty advanced for this event. I mean, I do not know the skill level of those involved firstly, and secondly, this event will likely be an 8 hour event, as opposed to a 3 day event. I'll consider putting on a longer, more defcon-esque CTF in the future, but this is a noob CTF.

I'm going to start putting this together, creating VM's and challenges. I'll try to nail down a date shortly. For those of you new to CTF, here are some suggestions:

Learn how to use IDA Pro: CTF's are pretty much 90% reverse engineering these days.

Learn FreeBSD and Linux: There are some differences, and it would behoove you to understand them.

Think outside the box: Almost every challenge you get will be very mystic and require looking at subtle hints.

Everything is fair game: Everything. The servers, the network, the people, everything. Social Engineering is underutilized and overpowered. Bribe the staff running the CTF for hints too (beer, food, random tasks, etc).

These hints are not just for this CTF, they are for all CTF's.

I'm going to work on the challenges over the next few weeks and I'll put together a registration page. Its likely I'll have some small registration fee ($40 per team [teams are 8 people, so $5 each]). If I do this, it will be to cover any prizes and the rest will be donated to HSL for having an awesome community and the use of their facilities. I do not intend on making any money off this, just sparking interest in Infosec.

Expect the registration page to be up in the next week, and expect the CTF itself to happen sometime in late September/early October. They are alot of prep, but they are a blast.

[Will Bradley]

Sweet! If you'd like help creating challenges or other prep I'd be happy to help.

[AltF4]

I'll play. This sounds awesome. I can almost guarantee that a whole bunch of people from the Phx2600 and/or PSSH will play, too.

[Cel]

We'd gladly welcome anyone, but just understand that if you've done a CTF before, like Defcon or something similar, this will be extremely easy. It also wont have the attack/defend aspect. I plan to run a real CTF later, but I need to buy a bunch of equipment, like servers and smart routers to setup vlans, etc.

Will and I will be meeting shortly to start creating everything. I'm aiming for this event to launch sometime in September. Crash and Compile will be later this month, and Computer Jeopardy will happen sometime soon as well.

I'm creating a site to handle registration and event news. I should have that done shortly. Once I do, I'll let everyone know.

[ubersc...@gmail.com]

This sounds awesome. Count me in as well. Let us know what you need help with. Will and I have been meeting on Tuesdays on and off to do Security stuff. Want to meet this Tuesday night?

[Jerry Davis]

yeah. i would like to attend as well, I can bring in some old-time
perspective to the panel.

jerry

On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 10:01 AM, Brian R <brian....@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to participate as well, I'll look for the event info :)
>
> Also, I may be able to assist with the server hardware for the real CTF. I
> may be able to convince my employer to donate some EOL servers to this cause
> since it would be a charitable contribution and thus a tax write-off for
> them. I know they typically do not because of other reasons, but we may get
> lucky, and in most cases it's all about who you know. The servers I have in
> mind are poweredge 1950's, so I unless you need something more powerful, I
> will see what I can do on my end.

>
> On Thursday, August 2, 2012 7:51:48 PM UTC-7, Cel wrote:
>>

> On Thursday, August 2, 2012 7:51:48 PM UTC-7, Cel wrote:
>>

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[Brian R]

hey I asked around @ work and donations of some EOL servers may be possible, they are going to let me know in a few days if anything is required.  I suppose before I get in too deep I should check with the group first.  

Would this group be interested in some free servers?  If so, is there someone I should speak with for such donations? 

[Will Bradley]

Absolutely; you can email will at heatsynclabs dot org and I can get you a 501c3 receipt.

[Cel]

I would love it if that were possible. Will is on the board for HSL, so he can help you with the 501c3 stuff. If this does pan out, shoot me an e-mail (and CC will) and we can talk more about it. My e-mail is kevin at infamousdevel dot com.

[Brian R]

has anyone heard of any updates to the proposed noob CTF event?

On Thursday, August 2, 2012 7:51:48 PM UTC-7, Cel wrote:

[Will Bradley]

Btw, Brian hooked us up with a nice server and router donation from  Honeywell. Thanks!!

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[Will Bradley]

Brian, Kevin says he's been swamped but is working on it.

Is anyone interested in helping plan, schedule, or prepare challenges for a CTF? Or interested in starting any other infosec-related stuff? We have a virtual-capable server now, so we can easily host fun hacker stuff :)