Capture the Flag competitions

Have any of you done any CTF competitions at a security conference? This year I want to go to Derbycon and like most cons I think they are going to do a CTF competition. I would like to participate but I have never been involved with anything like that. If any of you have, how did you prepare for it? Did you have a team or did you go by yourself? Any tips or tricks?

This is a pretty good write up of last years CTF at Derbycon
http://volatile-minds.blogspot.com/2011/10/derbycon-ctf-results-and-notes.html

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Comments

Bl8ckr0uter

Wow no one?

demonfurbie

first rule of CTF club is dont talk about CTF club

Timber Wolf

Second rule of CTF club is dont talk about CTF club.

ipchain

I'm seriously considering taking my wife and daughter to DerbyCon this year, but we shall see what happens. CTF events at some of these conferences are played in 'teams', so even if you are not familiar with certain tools / scenarios chances are someone in your team is. Don't sweat it and have fun!

demonfurbie

remember its not always about winning but annoying the other team as well

Bl8ckr0uter

ipchain wrote: »

I'm seriously considering taking my wife and daughter to DerbyCon this year, but we shall see what happens. CTF events at some of these conferences are played in 'teams', so even if you are not familiar with certain tools / scenarios chances are someone in your team is. Don't sweat it and have fun!

I am such a noob. I wouldn't want to hold a team back

Have you done a CTF before Ipchain?

If you do go we should have a TE meetup. That would be really cool. I am trying to find prices for Derbycon but from what I remember it doesn't cost too much.

ipchain

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

I am such a noob. I wouldn't want to hold a team back

Have you done a CTF before Ipchain?

If you do go we should have a TE meetup. That would be really cool. I am trying to find prices for Derbycon but from what I remember it doesn't cost too much.

Don't worry about holding anyone back - you can only contribute to the team. My experience has only been with the CFTs that come with the purchase of a SANS course, so I may not have much experience in this area. A friend of mine has participated in a few CFT events and he has loved every single one of them. He mentioned participating in one event where he was teamed up with a guy from one of the "red" teams in the U.S army, so he learned a ton of forensics stuff that day.

The registration price is not that bad, I believe it's only $125 + whatever training you'd like to take, if any. I like the idea of a TE meet-up, so I will keep you posted as we get closer to the event. This should be a lot of fun...I have heard nothing but great things about DerbyCon and its user-friendliness.