Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
What I've Learned Writing CTF Challenges
Search
vito
February 11, 2017
Programming
0
150
What I've Learned Writing CTF Challenges
BSides Tampa, 2/11/2017
vito
February 11, 2017
Tweet
Share
More Decks by vito
See All by vito
Modernizing SQL Injection CTF Challenges
vito
0
130
Raw Water: Quenching Your Thirst for SQL Injection
vito
0
71
Lessons Learned from Five Years of Building Capture the Flag
vito
0
490
Capture the Flag: An Owner's Manual
vito
0
90
Building DEF CON CTF with Ruby
vito
0
600
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
Claude Code + Container Use と Cursor で作る ローカル並列開発環境のススメ / ccc local dev
kaelaela
12
7.4k
なぜあなたのオブザーバビリティ導入は頓挫するのか
ryota_hnk
0
350
抽象化という思考のツール - 理解と活用 - / Abstraction-as-a-Tool-for-Thinking
shin1x1
1
230
チームのテスト力を総合的に鍛えて品質、スピード、レジリエンスを共立させる/Testing approach that improves quality, speed, and resilience
goyoki
5
1.2k
ご注文の差分はこちらですか? 〜 AWS CDK のいろいろな差分検出と安全なデプロイ
konokenj
4
660
Git Sync を超える!OSS で実現する CDK Pull 型デプロイ / Deploying CDK with PipeCD in Pull-style
tkikuc
4
450
リバースエンジニアリング新時代へ! GhidraとClaude DesktopをMCPで繋ぐ/findy202507
tkmru
4
1.2k
リッチエディターを安全に開発・運用するために
unachang113
1
230
型で語るカタ
irof
0
800
Streamlitで実現できるようになったこと、実現してくれたこと
ayumu_yamaguchi
2
210
Yes, You Can Work on Rails & any other Gem
kaspth
0
110
AI コーディングエージェントの時代へ:JetBrains が描く開発の未来
masaruhr
1
210
Featured
See All Featured
Refactoring Trust on Your Teams (GOTO; Chicago 2020)
rmw
34
3.1k
[RailsConf 2023] Rails as a piece of cake
palkan
55
5.7k
Designing for Performance
lara
610
69k
Designing Experiences People Love
moore
142
24k
Gamification - CAS2011
davidbonilla
81
5.4k
Automating Front-end Workflow
addyosmani
1370
200k
Keith and Marios Guide to Fast Websites
keithpitt
411
22k
Embracing the Ebb and Flow
colly
86
4.8k
Helping Users Find Their Own Way: Creating Modern Search Experiences
danielanewman
29
2.8k
Large-scale JavaScript Application Architecture
addyosmani
512
110k
Navigating Team Friction
lara
187
15k
Practical Orchestrator
shlominoach
189
11k
Transcript
What I’ve Learned Writing CTF Challenges Vito Genovese BSides Tampa
February 11, 2017
What is CTF?
What is CTF?
Jeopardy Style
Attack-Defense
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
CGC Jargon • Cyber Reasoning System • Proof of Vulnerability
• Replacement Binary • Challenge Binary
BSTies http://bsties.notmalware.ru
CTF Challenges Teams attack it
CTF Challenges Protects something of in-game value
CTF Challenges Ideally: known solvable
CTF Challenges Also ideally: appropriately tricky
None
None
Solving 'em • Correct side of an if statement •
Cracking a code • Using SQL injection to trick a database • Stealing the garbage file from the Gibson
Actually Building One
None
Original Goal
Original Goal
• Given same STDIN • Same STDOUT • Same clock
cycles • Same syscalls
https://xkcd.com/1319/
Why Automate?
None
Thousand Cuts
Thousand Cuts
Thousand Cuts
Actually Building It
Start the First One 1. Set up CGC service-template 2.
Test not-crashing 3. Make binary that doesn’t crash 4. Test crashing 5. Make binary that crashes
First One's Done • Ruby script to spit out 334
binaries • Vary buffer sizes • Vary stack cookie • Python script running game flow
First Set's Done Figure out how to make second and
third sets
Second Set Python script to add stuff to source code
Third Set Python script to rearrange source code
All Sets Done Test the difficulty
Integration Testing With Gyno • Finds a bug in like
30s • Fixing the bug took 30m • (fixing the bug a week prior would've taken 5m)
More Integration Testing kind of weird
easy-prasky • single binary • Baby’s First category • Separate
CRS work from first stab at CGCEF • Hacked to be first in 334 cuts
Deployment • Determine ops requirements • CGC kernel • Python
installed • Open port
Deployment Puppetize it!
Deployment
Running it just kinda worked (once teams Got It)
CTF Challenge Process 1.Idea 2.Build 3.Test
CTF Challenge Framework • Configuration • Build • Testing •
Deployment
CTF Challenge Framework CGC service-template
CTF Challenge Deployment put it on a server lol
It's Just Software
Software Goals Useful Usable Reliable
Useful for Competition Separate teams that solve it from teams
that don't Prefer strong correlation with finals ranking
Useful for Education Teach new players something Get players over
a hang-up
Usable Intended difficulty only Minimize corner cases Unintended vulnerabilities?
Reliable Remain vulnerable
Reliability is Hard Players like to attack Players like to
brute Players like to complain
Reliability is Hard
Reliability is Demanding
Reliability is Expensive If you want it to be
Reliability is Cheap Build software that can be run reliably
Twelve Factor App • VIII. Concurrency • Scale out via
the process model • IX. Disposability • Maximize robustness with fast startup and graceful shutdown
Twelve Factor Challenges • Limit global state • Process per
connection • xinetd ftw • Make adding resources cheap
Adding Resources Automate!
Operations Automation Puppet or Chef for server provisioning
Operations Automation Docker is slow to spin up RunC is
fast
Shared State • Process per connection not always feasible •
Sandwich challenges in 2014 • JRuby & Celluloid slow to start • State still per connection
Shared State • Global state and web challenges • Persisted
XSS • Tricking a global database
Waiting For Your Touch • 2015 web challenge • /r/thebutton
knockoff • JRuby, Rails, websockets, postgres
Waiting For Your Touch
Waiting For The Challenge Slow when not slow 500s Thankfully
during the day
Waiting For Your Touch 1. Took it down 2. Opened
replacement challenge 3. Debugged for an hour
Debugging For Your Touch 4. Leaked and exhausted postgres connections
5. Fixed leak 6. Allocated more connections
Waiting For My Fix 7. Took an hour 8. Gyno
forced a fifteen minute cool-down between "is it fixed" and "it is fixed" 9. Reopened
Most Important Part People are the most important
Respect People • Respect for yourself • Respect for your
team • Respect for players
Respect for Yourself
Respect for Your Team
Respect for Your Team
Respect for Your team Make services easy to keep running
Document!
Respect for Your Team Provide easy to run smoke tests
"Is this exploitable?" should be a one-liner that spits out the flag
Respect for Players
Respect for Players
Respect for Players
Respect for Players
Building Challenges is Software Development Useful Usable Reliable
Reliability Imposes Constraints Limit state Limit dependencies Automate
Respect Is Fundamental Self Team Players
Thanks! Vito Genovese vito@legitbs.net @vito_lbs GPG B07D616143CAA77B https://legitbs.net @legitbs_ctf