Hurdles to competing in CTFs

How do you make the time to compete in CTFs?

Back in 2022, I competed online in JerseyCTF III as a solo first time participant. I had some major hurdles holding me back from fully participating to the degree I wanted:

• Coursework
• Unprepared/Novice
• Family
• Work

The event being hybrid allowed me to compete and I was able to complete a handful of challenges and placed somewhere in the middle of the pack. This was done by stealing 30 minutes here and there to try to speedrace solve challenges in between completing my assignments and playing with my kids. The more complex challenges I was unable to even make an attempt.

The biggest takeaway I had from the event was the importance of preparation. Have any notes and bookmarks prepared in advance. From the little I’ve seen, a lot of the easier challenges will recycle past techniques. Setting up your environment with software and tools beforehand is a must. I wasted a lot of time downloading, installing, and configuring them. Find a good way to take and keep notes. Getting pulled away mid-challenge by my kids was a constant challenge and better notes would have allowed me to pick back up easier.

I have to give a shoutout to the SANS Holiday Hack Challenge 2024 and their format change to gradually release challenges. Sadly, I didn’t have much time to devote to compete live due to reasons we’ll talk about in a later post; but I was able to complete Act 2.

Future

For the near future, I intend on attempting some challenges/CTFs that are not live. I’ll be able to figure out what software and tools are useful and setup my environment. Additionally, researching the problems without a deadline will give me less time stress and allow me to take notes for the future.

A challenge posted by 13Cubed on memory forensics recently struck my interest. Challenge

I would love to hear any of your tips/tricks for participating in CTFs. Feel free to leave a comment below!