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You're registered for a Capture the Flag (CTF) event in WWT's Cyber Range and need to know about what happens next. Great! Your answers await on this page!
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What is Capture the Flag?
Capture the Flag (or CTF) is a cybersecurity competition where participants compete individually or in teams using different security tactics in a gameplay environment.
There are three major types of CTF events in the market today:
Jeopardy CTFs
Questions or tasks are arranged by category and participants get points for solving those questions or tasks correctly. Formats can be Red Teaming, Blue Teaming or a mixture of both.
Attack/Defend CTFs
Work in teams to patch vulnerable hosts, ready tools to defend your environment or prepare to attack other teams. Gain points for successfully defending or attacking various environments.
Mixed CTFs
Combine the best of both formats with an integrated game format that will test your knowledge and practical application of said knowledge.
What is a CTF team?
Capture the Flag participants compete in teams to solve challenges and navigate the environment from Kali Linux Machines.
Teams include one team leader and up to four players. Each team is assigned four virtual machines (VMs) to play. Captains decide VM and IP address assignments. Note: if there are more than four team members, players will have to share a VM and associated IP address.
The IP addresses are listed below:
- Player 1: 192.168.1.11
- Player 2: 192.168.1.12
- Player 3: 192.168.1.13
- Player 4: 192.168.1.14
Code of conduct
By logging in to the WWT Cyber Range, participants affirm their agreement with the WWT Capture the Flag Competition Official Rules.
No cooperation
No cooperation between teams. Sharing of keys or providing revealing hints to other teams is cheating. Don't do it.
Don't attack the scoreboard
Don't attack the scoreboard infrastructure. If vulnerabilities are found, please alert the range admins immediately.
No brute forcing
No brute forcing of challenge flag/keys against the scoreboard infrastructure. Choose another way to flex your skills.
Denial of Service
DoSing the underlying platform is forbidden. Stay within the game space of 192.168.0.0/16 and 172.16.0.0/16.
Pre-game resources that can help
Success in the WWT's Cyber Range is dependent on usage of hacking techniques and tools.
A basic understanding of some or all of the tools (and their commands) listed below is recommended. All of these tools are installed on the Cyber Range attack platform -- Kali Linux.
Discovery reading
Gameplay
1. Click View Event Details from the event calendar invitation or the event registration notification that was sent.
2. Click Log In on the event page.
3. Enter Email. Click Next.
4. An authentication code is sent to the email entered in step 3.
5. Enter the authentication code. Click Login.
6. Click Launch Gamespace to begin the game and open the ATC Lab Gateway. The Launch Gamespace button is not available until the start time of the event. For additional details around the event page, please see the section titled Navigating the event page.
1. Details Tab: Specifies the details of the event
2. Resources Tab: Provides resources to be utilized prior and during the event. If applicable, mini-game labs will be available.
3. Team Tab: Displays CTFd, Rocket Chat, and Kali Linux credentials as well as team members. Only the team/teammates have access to this tab.
4. Event Overview: Provides specific details of the Cyber Range event
5. Agenda: Provides an outline Cyber Range event
6. Launch Event: Clicking this button launches the game space. This button is not clickable until the start of the event.
7. Date/Time: Day and start time of the Cyber Range event
8. Host: Host of the Cyber Range event
Clicking Launch Event opens users Into the ATC Lab Gateway in a new tab. Users are automatically logged into the Kali Linux machines, and will need to login into RocketChat. Game play videos, messages, and hints are deployed through RocketChat.
Please see below for additional details.
1. Player Desktops: There are four desktops available for each team. Team members can view each desktop. Click the arrow within the tab of each player desktop to open the desktop in a new tab.
2. Firefox Shortcut: Click to access the Kali website and the CTFd tool. Within the CTFd tool, users can view challenges, view the scoreboard, and submit flags. Team credentials to access CTFd are provided on the event page team tab (see above). For additional CTFd details, please see the section titled Submitting Flags and Viewing Scoreboard - CTFd.
3. RocketChat Popout: Click to open RocketChat in a new browser tab.
4. Resize: Hover over this line to expand or minimize the chat window.
5. RocketChat: Enter the RocketChat credentials provided on the event page team tab (see above). All game play videos, messages, and hints are deployed through RocketChat.
6. Team Specific Player Chat Channel: Each player has access to a team specific chat. Only team members and the Cyber Range Admin can see this chat.
7. Announcements Player Chat Channel: Each player has access to view this channel. Game play videos, messages, and hints are deployed within this channel.
8. General Player Chat Channel: Each player has access to a general chat for all players. This channel is utilized to interact with proctors and other teams within the game. The name of the general chat channel is the event title.
Copy/Paste from your host system to a system in the ATC through the ATC Lab Gateway is possible with several restrictions.
Supported Systems
- Target systems can support copy/paste when accessed through rdp, ssh, or telnet.
- Proxied web pages support copy/paste natively because the page is being loaded directly in the browser.
Unsupported Systems
- VNC and BaaS
Browser Setup
- The ATC lab Gateway supports copy/paste in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
- When users first access the ATC Lab Gateway, a prompt will display. To enable copy/paste select Allow. Please note the below snapshots are for Chrome.
To update the settings, click the pad-loc icon next to the site URL. Click Reset Permissions. Toggle the Clipboard to on/off.
A flag in a Capture the Flag event is essentially an answer to a question or a challenge. A flag can take on many forms. These are the answers that you submit into a platform like CTFd.io which contains the scoreboard for the individuals and teams. It is where the grading occurs for the CTF competition.
- It might be a full qualified domain name or FQDN like this:
webmail.acmecorp.info - It could be a string of text from an html script:
WWT{18090f4-0e24-6651-v65f-22sp3267aa} - It could be a user password combination that is found:
admin:acme123! - It could be clear text within a flag file that was found:
in the fileflag.txt, clear text inside is:
DrinkYourOvaltine
Flags can also be in the form of answers to Multiple Choice, True/False, and Word Bank answers as well. These are just a few examples of flags that can be expected in Capture the Flag events.
The CTFd tool is accessed via the Firefox browser on the player desktops in the ATC Lab Gateway/Kali Linux machine (please see above snapshot). The CTFd tool is used for submitting flags and accessing the scoreboard.
Challenge flags are submitted to CTFd under the Challenges tab, and the Scoreboard is accessed via the Scoreboard tab once logged into the CTFd tool. Please note the below:
- The Cyber Range Admin team is monitoring flag submissions.
- There is only one account per team for scoring.
- This platform is not a target of an attack.
- Challenges do not necessarily have to be completed in sequential order, through it is recommended.
- Some of the later challenges may not be possible until certain in-game events occur.
In addition to traditional gameplay, there are other alternatives to earning points. The main alternative is the WWT CTF Mini Games. Think of these Mini Games as challenges outside of the main challenge, and ways to differentiate and gain points against other teams.
Several WWT CTF Mini Games will be released during gameplay. Refer to the announcements RocketChat channel for exact timing! Once released, GO BACK TO THE EVENT PAGE (where you launched the game) and check out the "resources" tab. This is where you will access your Mini Game, aka on-demand lab. Please see below for some additional information.
- Each team has one lab deployment for each mini game lab.
- This lab deployment can be accessed by anyone on the team.
- Only one user can have 'control' of the deployment at a time, but other team members can view the desktop of the team member that is navigating within the lab.
- Users can click 'TAKE CONTROL' within the lab to takeover and work on the lab.
Get all that? Prove it!
Good luck! Still have questions?
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