2021-04-27
Played in the HackTheBox & CryptoHack Cyber Apocalypse 2021
A CTF or Capture the flag is an information security competition where puzzles are offered that have to be solved with techniques from information security. This can range from a simple knowing where to look for clues in data to having to use the latest exploit techniques against systems to get access. The solution is usually a digital 'flag' that proves you solved the puzzle. A co-worker who has been at the 'receiving end' a few times of the CTF challenges the SURFcert team creates with some help of me invited a number of people at work to the HackTheBox & CryptoHack Cyber Apocalypse 2021. And I decided to join! We dove into the challenges a number of evenings. I solved a few hardware challenges on my own, and I did parts in solving other challenges. I learned about .sal files and logic analyzers. And I learned cracking a (not too big) public RSA key is doable these days. Where others wrote bits of python to solve things I used grep and awk. But in the end we got there. Our team ended in the top 6% which is not bad for doing this on weekday evenings besides our jobs and other bits of life. I posted about this on linkedin in Dutch: Collega Simon Kort BICT nodigde mij uit voor het meedoen in deze CTF.