[Flounder] CTF

[Ian Brown]

Looks like there are a heap of events planned for this year.
https://ctftime.org/event/list/

I would be keen to join in as it is not something I am normally exposed to
in my line of work.

Cheers,
Ian

On Sat, Mar 12, 2022 at 6:01 PM Russell Coker via Flounder <
flounder at lists.linux.org.au> wrote:

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_the_flag_(cybersecurity)
>
> CTF contests are about completing challenges in computer security.  The
> questions start out easy and get progressively more difficult.  There are
> prizes available but that requires a huge amount of skill and effort.
>
> Some of the CTFs go for about 48 hours, that can be a couple of evenings
> of
> casually solving computer problems for someone who wants to avoid being at
> the
> bottom of the list but doesn't care about getting close to winning.  For
> someone who wants to win that's 2 days of non-stop work and little sleep.
>
> I don't have the skill or energy to be in a team that gets close to
> winning,
> but in previous contests I've ranked about 50th percentile without too
> much
> effort.
>
> I think it would be good to enter some Flounder teams in future CTF
> contests,
> not with the aim of winning (if you want to win then good luck but I'm not
> going to join your team) but to learn about software engineering and have
> fun.
>
> My idea is to have one person with reasonable skills and experience lead
> each
> team and help the others learn while having fun.  The way to do it would
> be
> for everyone to independently solve problems at the start (the easy ones),
> have the less experienced people solve the next set of problems with tips
> from
> the leader, then have the leader take over increasing amounts of the work
> as
> the problems get harder.
>
> For most people on this list I don't have a good knowledge of their
> relevant
> skills.  I believe that David is qualified to lead such a team because of
> his
> experience with Coreboot, different boot loaders, different versions of
> Unix,
> etc.
>
> The teams for CTFs are often limited to 4 people, so if David and I each
> led a
> team then we could have 6 people with less experience at low level
> computer
> stuff work with us for a couple of evenings of relaxing software
> engineering
> research.
>
> I've run a team like this for past CTFs which was a fun and educational
> experience for everyone without any stress.  My aim is to learn some
> things
> about software engineering, teach other people some interesting things,
> get a
> better score than half the teams that enter, and then get a good night's
> sleep.
>
> David could try and join with 3 other younger people who have the
> endurance
> for serious contests and a good knowledge of computer science and try to
> get
> in the high rankings.  I think he could do a reasonable share of the work
> in a
> high ranking team if that's what he wants to do.  But having a relaxing
> time
> getting half way up the scoreboard might be more fun.
>
> For anyone else who's interested in being a team leader for such things,
> you
> don't need a strong background in computer security.  But you do need to
> know
> how computers really work, the way files are stored, the way memory is
> managed, how C programs work, etc are all required knowledge.
>
>
> Does anyone know of any CTFs being run in the near future?
>
> --
> My Main Blog         http://etbe.coker.com.au/
> My Documents Blog    http://doc.coker.com.au/
>
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