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CTFNote

CTFNote is a collaborative notepad that lets CTF teams share notes for CTF challenges. If you do not yet have an account ask for the registration password in the StudSec Discord (in the dedicated channel for the CTF you want to play). Once you have an account, and you've been added to the CTF, you should see the CTF listed in your dashboard. Clicking it should give you a view similar to this.

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If you click on "tasks" you will see a list of all (unsolved) challenges like this

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Opening the challenge notepad of one of these challenges will give you an editor with 3 modes (view, both, edit)

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The "both" and "edit" modes let you edit the page as normal text, this text will then be rendered as Markdown in the "view" mode.

Note structure

There is no 'correct' way of taking notes, but in general the notepad should answer the following questions

  • What systems/protocols are relevant for the challenge (is it a kernel exploitation challenge, does it involve RSA, etc)
  • What is the challenge primitive (we are given an application where we can make notes that are served to an admin)
  • What have you tried so far (and with what results)
  • What relevant/interesting information have you found

If you are stuck it can help to concretely summarize why you are stuck, that makes it easier for others to join in and provide advice.