Attending a local Capture the flag event

Just as very quick update here. Myself and my colleague Julia recently attended a local event hosted by OWASP Newcastle to take part in a CTF. It was well-attended by security professionals and enthusiasts but we went for the fun, and I’d never attended an on or offline competitive CTF before; mostly just doing them at my own pace solo.

The CTF environment was organised by Secarma UK. I was very impressed by how it was very efficiently and considerately done; each team had 3 IPs for the target for themselves so that both in-team and inter-team there was no stepping on each other’s toes by slowing down the machine with scans or leaving your own files or exploits lying around giving spoilers etc.

I won’t go into specifics of the target itself since it’ll be used at other events, just that it was packed full of rabbit holes and good head-scratchers. I did genuinely cheer out loud a few times once I’d got moving again having been stuck on something!

In the end our two-person team edged it and we were the winners by a single flag, so it was a very nice ending to what was already a rewarding experience of doing this competitively against security professionals.