HTB University CTF 2024

Hack The Box University CTF

What to expect

At HTB University CTF 2024 you can expect a mix of technical challenges, collaboration, and socializing with well put together challanges. During the CTF, we will solve challenges across categories like reverse engineering, binary and web exploitation, cryptography, forensics, and more. A beginner-friendly introduction to what these categories mean and what kind of challenges are usually put there can be found in StudSec's Getting Started with CTF guide. In past editions of the HTB University CTF there has been a wide range in difficulty, so the CTF will be accessible for newcomers but will also definitely provide a challenge for more advanced participants.

The CTF itself is online but we will also be meeting up at the VU New Building (exact location be coordinated in Discord), where we gather to tackle challenges in person. To make solving the CTF challenges more accessible and beginner-friendly, experienced StudSec members will also be present during the meetup and able to help  those who are attempting a CTF for first time. Drinks & snacks will be provided to keep the energy up during the day.

Agenda

When	What	Notes
Friday 13th      | 14:00	Start of CTF	feel free to start and join on Discord
Friday 13th      | 19:00 - 22:00	Meetup @ VU	@andreatta00 will be there at least
Saturday 14th | 10:00 - 21:00	Meetup @ VU	@delta will be there at least
Sunday 15th     | 10:00 - 22:00	Meetup @ VU	@rombertus will be there at least
Sunday 15th     | 22:00	CTF end
Sunday 15th     | 22:00 - 23:59	Borrel (drinks, snacks, socials activity)	At Bar Boele or Loetje, TBD

How to join

There are three things you will need to join to participate, firstly the CTF platform itself (Hack The Box), this will give you access to the challenges and let you submit flags. Secondly there is Discord, this is our primary method of communication within the team. And finally there is CTFNote, which is a collaborative platform we use to keep notes on all challenges we are doing.

Hack The Box

The event is organized by and hosted on Hack The Box, to get access first create an account on https://ctf.hackthebox.com/, then follow the steps outlined here: https://help.hackthebox.com/en/articles/6666329-how-to-join-university-ctf-2024.

Note that you will need to use your `@student.vu.nl` email when joining the CTF. You do not need to use this email when creating an account on the platform.

Discord

Discord is our main channel of communication, you can join it here. Once in the Discord server you can get access to the channel for this by joining the "HTB University CTF" event. To do this first go to "Events" (1), then scroll down to find the "HTB University CTF" event (you can also find it here) and finally click 'interested' (2). This should give you access to the "htb-university-ctf" channel under "CTFs - 2024" (3).

If this is not the case please reach out to any user with the "board" role. (Their names will be red).

CTFNote

Once you have access to the Discord, you can find the CTFNote authentication password in the "General" post of the "htb-university-ctf" (so not the #general channel under "TEXT-CHANNELS"). With this you can register a user on CTFNote here https://pad.studsec.nl/#/auth/register , once you've done this send a message in the channel letting us know so we can give your new account access.

For more details on using CTFNote see here.