How it works

This page will describe exactly what challenges are, what a flag is, and how to score points. Read this carefully if you are a first-timer.

You start by creating an account on the platform. Be sure to use your academic email address (only students are allowed to participate). If your academic email is not authorized, send us a mail at ctf@infogroep.be. During the registration, it will ask to either create or join a team. Choose whichever option suits you. If you participate alone, then create a new group.

Challenges

When the event starts, the challenges will appear online in the "challenges" tab. A challenge looks as follows:

As you can see, a challenge has a title, a description, a flag format, perhaps a URL/command, and a field to input a flag.

Description

The description describes the context of the challenge. This can be a little story, but sometimes it may contain clues to solving the challenge. Be sure to always read the description carefully. If you spot any strange words or something, look them up online, it may help you

Flag format

The flag that you will be looking for is a piece of text. This text will sometimes follow a certain format.In the example screenshot, the format of the flag is IGCTF{...}. An example of a flag following this format could be IGCTF{ThisIsAFlag}. The format helps you understand where you should look for the flag.

URL / Link

Some challenges will be hosted on some platform. More often than not, it is either a website or a netcat connection. Websites can be visited via the browser, but make sure to be connected to the CTF network during the event!

Netcat is a way to connect to the command line interface (CLI) of a program remotely. Install netcat on your machine, and use the command nc in the terminal, followed by the IP address, followed by the specified port.

Input field

If you (think you) found the flag, then make sure to fill it in the field! If the flag is correct, the system will grant your team points. Note that if the flag is incorrect, you will not be penalised, so you can try as many times as you please.