<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Looks like there are a heap of events planned for this year. <a href="https://ctftime.org/event/list/">https://ctftime.org/event/list/</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">I would be keen to join in as it is not something I am normally exposed to in my line of work.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Cheers,<br>Ian</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Mar 12, 2022 at 6:01 PM Russell Coker via Flounder <<a href="mailto:flounder@lists.linux.org.au">flounder@lists.linux.org.au</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_the_flag_(cybersecurity)" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_the_flag_(cybersecurity)</a><br>
<br>
CTF contests are about completing challenges in computer security. The <br>
questions start out easy and get progressively more difficult. There are <br>
prizes available but that requires a huge amount of skill and effort.<br>
<br>
Some of the CTFs go for about 48 hours, that can be a couple of evenings of <br>
casually solving computer problems for someone who wants to avoid being at the <br>
bottom of the list but doesn't care about getting close to winning. For <br>
someone who wants to win that's 2 days of non-stop work and little sleep.<br>
<br>
I don't have the skill or energy to be in a team that gets close to winning, <br>
but in previous contests I've ranked about 50th percentile without too much <br>
effort.<br>
<br>
I think it would be good to enter some Flounder teams in future CTF contests, <br>
not with the aim of winning (if you want to win then good luck but I'm not <br>
going to join your team) but to learn about software engineering and have fun.<br>
<br>
My idea is to have one person with reasonable skills and experience lead each <br>
team and help the others learn while having fun. The way to do it would be <br>
for everyone to independently solve problems at the start (the easy ones), <br>
have the less experienced people solve the next set of problems with tips from <br>
the leader, then have the leader take over increasing amounts of the work as <br>
the problems get harder.<br>
<br>
For most people on this list I don't have a good knowledge of their relevant <br>
skills. I believe that David is qualified to lead such a team because of his <br>
experience with Coreboot, different boot loaders, different versions of Unix, <br>
etc.<br>
<br>
The teams for CTFs are often limited to 4 people, so if David and I each led a <br>
team then we could have 6 people with less experience at low level computer <br>
stuff work with us for a couple of evenings of relaxing software engineering <br>
research.<br>
<br>
I've run a team like this for past CTFs which was a fun and educational <br>
experience for everyone without any stress. My aim is to learn some things <br>
about software engineering, teach other people some interesting things, get a <br>
better score than half the teams that enter, and then get a good night's <br>
sleep.<br>
<br>
David could try and join with 3 other younger people who have the endurance <br>
for serious contests and a good knowledge of computer science and try to get <br>
in the high rankings. I think he could do a reasonable share of the work in a <br>
high ranking team if that's what he wants to do. But having a relaxing time <br>
getting half way up the scoreboard might be more fun.<br>
<br>
For anyone else who's interested in being a team leader for such things, you <br>
don't need a strong background in computer security. But you do need to know <br>
how computers really work, the way files are stored, the way memory is <br>
managed, how C programs work, etc are all required knowledge.<br>
<br>
<br>
Does anyone know of any CTFs being run in the near future?<br>
<br>
-- <br>
My Main Blog <a href="http://etbe.coker.com.au/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://etbe.coker.com.au/</a><br>
My Documents Blog <a href="http://doc.coker.com.au/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://doc.coker.com.au/</a><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Flounder mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Flounder@lists.linux.org.au" target="_blank">Flounder@lists.linux.org.au</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/flounder" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/flounder</a><br>
</blockquote></div>