{"id":9019,"date":"2020-02-24T05:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/origin-www.parsons.com\/?p=9019"},"modified":"2023-07-25T16:54:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T20:54:46","slug":"leveling-up-your-cyber-skills-a-guide-to-capture-the-flag-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.parsons.com\/2020\/02\/leveling-up-your-cyber-skills-a-guide-to-capture-the-flag-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Leveling Up Your Cyber Skills \u2013 A Guide To Capture The Flag (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"484\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/about_banner_press_release-1.jpg\" alt=\"Cyber City\" class=\"wp-image-9020\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"h-hosting-a-ctf-part-2-how-to-create-fun-categories-for-a-jeopardy-style-event\"><strong>Hosting a CTF, Part 2: How To Create Fun Categories For A Jeopardy-Style <\/strong>Event<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that we have considered all the factors that go into CTF let&#8217;s group your questions into categories (which I highly recommend). You can do one of two things: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(1) Pick the categories first and come up with challenges<br><br>(2) Come up with challenges and then group them into categories. I\u2019ve done it both ways before, and it really comes down to your preference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s assume you want to come up with categories first. Our previous post (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.parsons.com\/2020\/01\/leveling-up-your-cyber-skills-a-guide-to-capture-the-flag-part-1\/ \">What Type of CTF Do You Want to Run?<\/a>) listed the common topics (categories) we use, grouped by technology area\/skill set. You can also group challenges into categories less related to the skill sets required and instead use some creativity to tie the challenges together. The following are a few examples of categories we\u2019ve done (and the type of challenges contained within): <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Images (which had a mix of steganography,\nprogramming, and binary analysis challenges)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hidden differences (which had a mix of reverse\nengineering, programming, network analysis, file analysis, host forensics, and\nsteganography)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bank hacking (which had a bank-hacking scenario and\nrequired network scanning, hacking\/penetration testing, programming, and\npassword cracking) <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also create an elaborate scenario for a challenge\n(or even an entire CTF). For example, we once based an entire CTF off the story\nof a group of hackers trying to take down the evil \u201cAngel Corporation,\u201d and\nevery challenge was related to that (yes, it was inspired a little bit by <em>Mr.\nRobot<\/em>). We also did a Pok\u00e9mon-themed CTF to celebrate the release of\nDetective Pok\u00e9mon. A couple of us dressed up in full-body Pok\u00e9mon costumes to\nhost the CTF in-person, and every question was tied into Pok\u00e9mon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You could also go with the tried-and-true, simple \u201cfind the\nflag in this file.\u201d However, I think scenarios greatly enhance the experience\nand are more fun; they often require a lot more work to pull off, but they\u2019re\nusually worth the additional work. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"554\" height=\"435\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/ctf-1.png\" alt=\"Contestants in Costumes\" class=\"wp-image-9025\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Humor is also something you can inject into your categories<\/strong> (and challenges\/flags). We had a category called \u201cMostly Donkey Images,\u201d which consisted of a lot of challenges around funny images of donkeys. After that CTF, we promised that the next CTF would have no donkeys in it (although the next CTF had an entire category based on funny pictures of camels). Probably my favorite category of all time of the ones we created was called \u201cxinuL.\u201d All questions were based off a Linux virtual machine we provided \u2026 and you had to submit every single answer in reverse. Most participants found it funny, though a few found it less than amusing (I did finally strongly hint about the need to submit the answers in reverse order).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t have to come up with content based on any of the categories we listed or on any categories that you\u2019ve seen in other CTFs. Instead, <strong>let your creativity fly!<\/strong> We\u2019ve had some fun questions not even cyber-related, like counting the ceiling tiles in the room (it was a square, so hopefully most people realized you could count the number of tiles long and wide and multiply to get the answer) or trying to find the real first name of the Brett Hite who works for Parsons and lives in Maryland (which was particularly amusing to me \u2026 because his real first name is \u201cBrett\u201d!). We once created a category called \u201cSocial Hacking,\u201d where the ultimate goal was to break into a fictional user\u2019s iCloud account, which required participants to run through questions involving getting into the fictional user\u2019s email account and read the user\u2019s social media profiles to determine the answers to the user\u2019s security questions to reset the user\u2019s Apple ID Password and obtain the final file stored in the user\u2019s iCloud account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your brain is failing you, you can always go with the ever-descriptive \u201cMiscellaneous\u201d category and just throw anything in there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-parsons-blocks-icon-plus-text\"><span style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/parsonsecmpublic.s3.amazonaws.com\/images\/default-icon.png)\" class=\"block-icon\" title=\"Important\"><\/span><div class=\"block-desc\"><strong>Check Out The Next Blog In Our Series<\/strong><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.parsons.com\/2020\/03\/leveling-up-your-cyber-skills-a-guide-to-capture-the-flag-part-3\/\">A Guide To Capture The Flag (Part 3)<\/a><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-parsons-blocks-author\"><span style=\"background-image:url(\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nicholas-jackson.png)\" class=\"author-avatar\" title=\"N Jackson\"><\/span><h5>About The Author<\/h5><div class=\"author-desc\"><p>Nicholas J. has more than 15 years of experience supporting cybersecurity operations, engineering, development, and all sorts of crazy fun things for the U.S. Department of Defense &#8211; 12 of those with Parsons!&nbsp; Nicholas currently serves as Cyber Thaumaturgy Director of the Collection &amp; Analytics Portfolio, working hard to bring more fun and technical awesomeness to both our amazing Parsons team and the community at large via tech talks, large-scale interactive training sessions, Capture the Flag events, and other mentorship opportunities.&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hosting a CTF, Part 2: How To Create Fun Categories For A Jeopardy-Style Event Now that we have considered all the factors that go into CTF let&#8217;s group your questions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"9336,9029,9071,9078,9095,20435","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7663],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cyber"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Leveling Up Your Cyber Skills \u2013 A Guide To Capture The Flag (Part 2)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hosting a Capture The Flag, Part 2: How To Create Fun Categories For A Jeopardy-Style Event. 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