Preface
With the development of big data and artificial intelligence, people have entered a new era and gradually reached the pinnacle of technology.
\
⚔Technology is a double-edged sword, and network security cannot be ignored. People’s privacy is exposed in the face of big data. Account theft, fund loss, online fraud, and privacy leaks are all signs that with the development of the Internet, network security needs attract people's attention.
\
Internet security is essentially the security of information on the Internet. Broadly speaking, all related technologies and theories involving the confidentiality, integrity, availability, authenticity and controllability of information on the Internet are the research fields of network security.
\
Network security requires the maintenance of a group of network security technicians. The CTF is a technical competition for these people. A cybersecurity competition may sound familiar, but what exactly is it?
\
CTF overview
Introduction to CTF
CTF (Capture The Flag), Chinese name capture the flag competition.
\
A competition between cybersecurity professionals.
\
What does CTF mean?
The English name of CTF can be directly translated as Winning Flag.
\
The participating teams take the lead in obtaining a string or other content in a certain format from the competition environment given by the organizer through offensive and defensive confrontations, and submit it to the organizer to win points.
\
For convenience of naming, the content that needs to be captured is called Flag.
\
The development history of CTF
The origin of CTF
CTF originated from the 1996 DEFCON global hacker conference to replace the previous method of hackers launching real attacks against each other for technical competition. Development to date
\
In 1996, the fourth DEF CON officially held a network technology competition.
\
Early CTF
Early CTF:
\
no clear competition rules
There is no professionally built competition platform and environment
Instead:
\
Participating teams prepare their own competition goals
Organizers are non-professional volunteers
Participants need to accept the rules of manual scoring by participating teams
Modern CTF competition
Today's CTF competitions generally have professional teams responsible for the competition platform, propositions, event organization, and automated points systems.
\
Participating teams need to submit an application and will be selected by DEF CON conference organizers.
\
The competition focuses on the core capabilities of computer underlying and system security.
\
CTF competition format
Jeopardy
In the CTF competition system of problem-solving mode, participating teams can participate through the Internet or on-site network. This mode of CTF competition is similar to the ACM Programming Competition and the Informatics Olympiad. Rankings are based on the score and time to solve network security technical challenge problems. , usually used for online tryouts.
\
Attack-Defense mode
In the attack and defense mode CTF format, participating teams attack and defend each other in cyberspace, explore network service vulnerabilities and attack opponent services to score points, and repair their own service vulnerabilities to defend to avoid losing points. This CTF competition system is a highly competitive, highly entertaining and highly transparent network security competition system.
\
Mix mode (Mix)
The CTF competition system combines the problem-solving mode and the offensive and defensive mode. For example, the participating teams can obtain some initial scores by solving problems, and then engage in a zero-sum game of increasing and decreasing scores through offensive and defensive confrontations. The winner is ultimately determined by the score. A typical representative of the mixed-mode CTF competition system is the iCTF International CTF Competition.
\
CTF famous events
Due to the rise of the Internet, network security is becoming more and more important, and network security talents are receiving more and more attention. In order to select talents, competitions are held internationally to select talents.
\
Famous events:
\
DEF CON CTF: As the birthplace of the CTF competition system, DEF CON CTF has become the CTF competition with the highest technical level and influence in the world, equivalent to the "World Cup" among CTF events. Test the participating teams’ comprehensive capabilities in reverse analysis, vulnerability mining, vulnerability exploitation, vulnerability patching and reinforcement, etc.
Baidu Cup CTF Capture the Flag Battle: A CTF competition jointly organized by Baidu Security Emergency Response Center and i Chunqiu. It is the first CTF competition in China that lasts the longest (half a year) and has the highest frequency. The competition questions are rich and break through the limitations of technology and network.
RuCTF: RuCTF is an annual national-level competition organized by Russian Hackerdom. The qualifications for the problem-solving mode are for global competitions, and the finals of the mixed attack-and-defense mode for problem-solving are national-level competitions for Russian teams. The game is played according to the classic attack/defense CTF rules.
The meaning of CTF
The competition format and content have a strong black guest spirit and black guest culture.
\
In recent years, CTF has become an excellent platform for learning and practicing information security technology and demonstrating security capabilities and levels.
\
Summarize
"Technology itself is neither good nor evil. Problems arise because people misuse technology."
\
We learn hacker attack and defense, reverse cracking and other technologies in order to better understand the underlying knowledge of computers and better apply them to aspects that are beneficial to mankind.
\
In any case, technology must not be abused and violate the bottom line of ethics and law.
\
If you are interested in CTF, want to explore the mysteries of computers, understand the essential principles, and participate in network security construction, welcome to join the CTF family.
How to Get Started with Cyber Security
suggestion
Read more books
Reading is always the most effective method. Although books are not necessarily the best way to get started, the understanding of books requires a certain foundation; but for now, books are a more reliable introductory material.
There are many Web security books now, so everyone can avoid a lot of detours in the learning process. If you have difficulty reading the above recommended books, then find a book on Web security that you can read.
Of course, talking on paper is ultimately ineffective, so it’s best to put it into practice.
For those students who have no learning direction and information, you can take a look at the resources I have compiled. This information ( click here to get it ) has experienced social practice and can be said to be the most comprehensive network security knowledge system in the entire network today:
Due to space reasons, only part of the seed materials are shown. If you need it, you can click here to get it or scan the QR code to get it (please note your purpose~)
