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A Beginner's Guide To Capture The Flag (CTF) Hacking PDF

This document provides an overview of capture the flag (CTF) competitions and how to prepare for them. It defines CTF as an information security contest where participants complete tasks to retrieve encoded strings called flags from hidden files on servers. There are different types of CTF events like jeopardy-style, attack-defense, and mixed style. Challenges involve skills like binary exploitation, cryptography, web exploitation, and forensics. Benefits of CTFs include practicing skills, developing problem-solving abilities, and preparing for job interviews. The document recommends gaining experience through online platforms and clubs, and taking an ethical hacking course.

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Akshay Sharma
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2K views7 pages

A Beginner's Guide To Capture The Flag (CTF) Hacking PDF

This document provides an overview of capture the flag (CTF) competitions and how to prepare for them. It defines CTF as an information security contest where participants complete tasks to retrieve encoded strings called flags from hidden files on servers. There are different types of CTF events like jeopardy-style, attack-defense, and mixed style. Challenges involve skills like binary exploitation, cryptography, web exploitation, and forensics. Benefits of CTFs include practicing skills, developing problem-solving abilities, and preparing for job interviews. The document recommends gaining experience through online platforms and clubs, and taking an ethical hacking course.

Uploaded by

Akshay Sharma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A Beginner’s Guide to

Capture the flag (CTF)


Hacking

About us

InfosecTrain is one of the finest Security and Technology Training and Consulting organization,

focusing on a range of IT Security Trainings and Information Security Services. InfosecTrain was

established in the year 2016 by a team of experienced and enthusiastic professionals, who

have more than 15 years of industry experience. We provide professional training, certification

& consulting services related to all areas of Information Technology and Cyber Security.
As cyber-attacks and data breach incidents have increased in recent years,

Cybersecurity is one of the organizations’ top priorities. This has resulted in high

demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals in the market. To stay ahead in the

continuously evolving information security domain, cybersecurity professionals

undergo rigorous training to master the information security skills. Capture the flag

(CTF) competitions serve as a great way for aspiring and professional ethical

hackers to improve and evaluate their skills in a more fun way.

This article will help beginners understand what the CTF is and how you can

prepare for the CTF competitions.

What is CTF?

CTF is an information security contest in which participants are assigned a certain


number of tasks to get into the servers and steal an encoded string from a hidden
file. This string resembles sensitive information and is known as a flag. Participants
capture these flags using their ethical hacking skills and put these flags into the
CTF server.

Points are allotted for each flag as per the difficulty level of the tasks—the higher
the difficulty level of the task, the more points you will score. The participant or the
team scoring the highest points will be the winner of the CTF event. Many
information security communities organize these CTF events.
Types of CTF events?

CTF events can be broadly categorized into the following three parts:
• Jeopardy-style CTF
• Attack-defense CTF
• Mixed-syle CTF

Jeopardy-style CTF: In Jeopardy-style, there is either a test or many tasks


you have to solve. You need to apply all the information security aptitudes
you own to get a bit of encoded string. The next challenges in the series will
get unlocked only after the completion of previous ones. Jeopardy-style
covers Web, Cryptography, Reverse designing, Pawning, Forensics,
Steganography related challenges.

Attack-Defense Style CTF: In Attack-Defense style CTF, two groups are


competing with each other. In this, you have to break into other group’s
security posture to get the flag while protecting your host machine from the
opponents. Before the contest starts, a definite time frame is given to both
the groups to identify the vulnerabilities in their systems and fix them. The
groups obtain points for infiltration as well as defending against the
opponent’s attacks. It requires coordination among team members to
score maximum points. This type of event is also known as the Red
Team/Blue Team CTF.

Mixed Style CTFs: The mixed style is a blend of both the Jeopardy-style and
the Attack-Defense style CTFs. The organizers can set up an attack-defense
competition having challenges of different kinds or a jeopardy competition
having the attack-defense challenges.
Types of challenges in CTF events?

The thought of mastering all the infosec skills for participating in a CTF
contest may look daunting. But you don’t have to master all the skills
because a CTF event mainly includes the following challenges:

• Binary exploitation: To solve these tasks, you need an in-depth


knowledge of programming. You have to identify a vulnerability in a
program and exploit it to take control of the shell or change the function
of the program.
• Cryptography: These challenges involve converting strings from one
format to another or encryption and decryption of ciphertexts to reach
out to the flag.
• Web Exploitation: In these types of challenges, you have to exploit the
target machine using exploitation methods such as SQL injection, buffer
overflow, and cross-site scripting.
• Reverse engineering: In these types of challenges, reverse engineering
knowledge is required to solve a particular problem. In reverse
engineering, you have to convert a compiled code into an easy to
comprehend format.
• Forensics: In these types of challenges, you will be asked to retrieve the
executable or flag hidden in different types of files. For example, a flag
may be hidden inside manipulated jpg images, registries, memory, and
logs.
Benefits of playing CTFs

Now you understand the type of CTF events and challenges to face during
a CTF competition, let’s take a peek at the benefits of taking part in these
contests:

• CTFs are the best way to practice and enhance your information
security skills, such as web exploitation, reverse engineering, binary
exploitation, forensics, and many more.
• When you take part in CTF events and compete in groups, it helps you
develop a team spirit. Coordination among team members is essential
to achieve the target. It also provides you an opportunity to meet like-
minded people.
• CTFs enable you to develop your problem solving and analytical skills to
use in real-work scenarios. CTF tasks are usually based on real-world
vulnerabilities and security incidents.
• Nowadays, CTF problems are asked in job interviews to test the skills of
professionals. So, taking participation in the CTF contest may help you
prepare for the cybersecurity job interviews as well.
• While playing CTF, you will learn how to handle pressure while honing
your ethical hacking skills. You learn new creative ways to solve the
problems.
• CTFs events serve as an opportunity for the white hat hackers to
evaluate their skills and get recognition.
• CTF organizers also provide financial incentives, lucrative prizes to the
winners.
Preparing for CTF contests

CTF events are practically based. It requires deep applied knowledge and
strong ethical hacking skills to solve CTF problems. You need to strengthen
your base in basic programming knowledge and hacking techniques.
Following are some tips to prepare for these contests:

• You can easily discover many online platforms where you can practice
jeopardy style CTFs to hone your skills. Make sure you read cybersecurity
news daily. This hobby will help you get familiar with the latest
vulnerabilities as CTF challenges are often based on them.
• If you are in school and colleges, the best way to learn new skills and
connect with like-minded people is to join cybersecurity clubs. Social
media is also a popular way to communicate with CTF players. You can
collaborate with them and build your CTF team.
• Be aware of the ongoing CTF competitions around and participate in the
events as much as possible.
• Get yourself enrolled in an online ethical hacking training course where
you can learn the fundamentals of network security and advanced
methodologies of penetration testing.

CTF with infosec train

Infosec Train is a leading IT security training provider offering training


programs for a range of highly reputed certifications of the information
security domain. Infosec Train’s Capture the Flag (CTF) Training is an
excellent opportunity to learn industry experts’ ethical hacking skills. CTF
training program comprises of various tasks and challenges to polish the
problem-solving abilities of candidates. The training emphasizes upskilling
their existing knowledge regarding Penetration testing and provides them
with hands-on practical experience to enhance their skillset.

Check the latest schedule for the CTF training program in the link provided
below:
https://www.infosectrain.com/courses/ctf-training/

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