Capture the Flag Competition
Capture the Flag competition is a type of competition typically held in the field of cybersecurity and is designed to test participants' skills and knowledge in various aspects of cybersecurity, such as cryptography, web exploitation, reverse engineering, digital investigation, etc.
In the competition, participants form teams, and they will be presented with a series of challenges that they must solve to obtain “flags.” These flags are usually short text strings or unique symbols that serve as proof that the challenge has been solved. The flags are often hidden within systems, applications, or files, and participants must use their technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and creativity to discover and exploit vulnerabilities, analyze code, decrypt messages, or perform other tasks to retrieve them. When solving each challenge, the team receives certain points based on the difficulty of the challenge, and the team that obtains the highest number of points will be the winner of the competition. Overall, the competition serves as an educational platform for individuals to test their cybersecurity knowledge and enhance their problem-solving abilities in a competitive and collaborative environment.
Therefore, the College of Computer Science and Information Technology at Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal University, in cooperation with the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity، Programming, and Drones, intends to organize the competition in person. This competition is a side event organized by the college on the first day of the conference, on Wednesday May 8, 2024 from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
The competition will be Jeopardy Style where each team will have a list of challenges in different categories such as reverse engineering, web security, digital forensics, network security and others. For each challenge solved, the team will receive a certain number of points depending on the difficulty of the challenge. The team with the highest points at the end of the day will be the winning team.
Expand Knowledge: Contest challenges cover a wide range of cybersecurity topics, encouraging participants to learn new technologies, tools and methodologies. Participants learn about the latest technologies, vulnerabilities and attack vectors, which helps them stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in the field.
Collaboration and Communication: The competition often involves group participation, promoting cooperation and teamwork among participants. This encourages knowledge sharing, brainstorming, and developing effective strategies.
Awareness and Education: The competition helps raise awareness about cybersecurity and the importance of protecting digital systems and data. By participating in it, individuals gain a better understanding of potential security threats, vulnerabilities and countermeasures, promoting a culture of cybersecurity awareness and education.
In the competition, participants form teams, and they will be presented with a series of challenges that they must solve to obtain “flags.” These flags are usually short text strings or unique symbols that serve as proof that the challenge has been solved. The flags are often hidden within systems, applications, or files, and participants must use their technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and creativity to discover and exploit vulnerabilities, analyze code, decrypt messages, or perform other tasks to retrieve them. When solving each challenge, the team receives certain points based on the difficulty of the challenge, and the team that obtains the highest number of points will be the winner of the competition. Overall, the competition serves as an educational platform for individuals to test their cybersecurity knowledge and enhance their problem-solving abilities in a competitive and collaborative environment.
Therefore, the College of Computer Science and Information Technology at Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal University, in cooperation with the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity، Programming, and Drones, intends to organize the competition in person. This competition is a side event organized by the college on the first day of the conference, on Wednesday May 8, 2024 from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
The competition will be Jeopardy Style where each team will have a list of challenges in different categories such as reverse engineering, web security, digital forensics, network security and others. For each challenge solved, the team will receive a certain number of points depending on the difficulty of the challenge. The team with the highest points at the end of the day will be the winning team.
Competition Main Objectives:
Skills development: The competition aims to enhance participants’ knowledge and skills in various fields of cybersecurity. By solving challenges in cryptography, web exploitation, reverse engineering, forensics, and other fields, participants improve their technical capabilities and gain hands-on experience in real-world scenarios. It often requires creative thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and the ability to work under pressure.Expand Knowledge: Contest challenges cover a wide range of cybersecurity topics, encouraging participants to learn new technologies, tools and methodologies. Participants learn about the latest technologies, vulnerabilities and attack vectors, which helps them stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in the field.
Collaboration and Communication: The competition often involves group participation, promoting cooperation and teamwork among participants. This encourages knowledge sharing, brainstorming, and developing effective strategies.
Awareness and Education: The competition helps raise awareness about cybersecurity and the importance of protecting digital systems and data. By participating in it, individuals gain a better understanding of potential security threats, vulnerabilities and countermeasures, promoting a culture of cybersecurity awareness and education.
Competition Conditions:
The conditions related to team members are as follows:- Each university is represented by two teams, with three to four members for each team.
- Registration is only for participants nominated by the participating university in the competition.
- All participants must be undergraduate students only.
- All participants are required to bring their own laptops.
- Sharing flags between different teams is prohibited.li>
- Brute force attacks are not permitted on the challenge platform or challenge links.
- Any attack against the site or hosted servers will be noticed and the player will be banned from participating in the competition immediately.
Competition Timeline:
- 1. Nomination and Registration:
- o The competition is open for students interested in participating by nomination from their universities.
- o A final deadline will be set for receiving nominations, not exceeding two weeks before the competition date.
- o The platform registration link will be sent to the approved participants.
- o Team names must be in the following format: University Name + Team Number, for example: IAU_Team1.
- 2. Orientation Workshop:
- o An Orientation workshop will be organized a week before the competition to guide students about the rules and objectives of the competition, the platform's operation, and explaining the regulations and possible challenges.
- 3. Attendance Registration:
- o Attendance registration is open in the Support Deans Building (D3) before 12 p.m. on the day of the competition, and each team is assigned a location and a computer.
- 4. Competition Start:
- o The competition begins at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, and takes place via the flagyard platform of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity and Drones.
- o The competition will be conducted in person and it will take place in one period from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
- 5. Challenges:
- o Challenges are published on the platform, which include challenges in various fields.
- o Teams must solve challenges collectively according to set rules.
- 6. Solution Submission:
- o The “challenge answer” flag is presented if it is found on the platform.
- 7. Evaluation:
- o Each team's points are calculated automatically from the platform when they provide a correct answer.
- 8. Points and ranking:
- o Points are awarded for each solved challenge based on difficulty and quality.
- o Team rankings are determined based on the number of points they have earned.
- 9. Prizes:
- o Winning teams are announced and prizes are distributed to the first, second, and third-place teams.
- o Prizes include participation certificates and cash rewards.
Competition Challenges Level:
The competition contains challenges of different levels and is proportional, for example: 2 easy challenges, 3 moderately difficult challenges, and a difficult challenge. These challenges are on several topics in the field of cybersecurity as follows:- Cryptography
- Digital Forensics
- Web
- Networks
- Reverse engineering