About Event

Capture The Flag (CTF) is a cybersecurity competition that is all about finding weaknesses and exploiting loopholes in various computer programs. CTF aims to engage participants in the creative exploration of real-world computer security by distilling the major disciplines of professional cybersecurity into short, objectively measurable exercises. The Pragyan version is an ethical hacking contest in which contestants will have to find pieces of information, called ‘flags’, hidden in each of the challenges. So, assemble your team, prepare to decrypt hidden messages, exploit vulnerabilities, and do whatever it takes to Capture the Flag!

Format:

- It will be a ‘Jeopardy!’ style, 36-hour online contest that happens during Pragyan 2022.
- There will be a set of challenges from a range of categories like Cryptography, Web Security, Forensics, Steganography, Reverse Engineering, Binary Exploits, etc.
- The challenges can either be a collection of files that they can download and find the “Flag” or can be running as web services to which the participants connect and exploit to retrieve the Flag.
- Each category contains a variety of questions with different point values and levels of difficulty.
- The participants will be ranked based on their scores, and the time taken will be used as a tiebreaker.

Rules:

- Players can compete individually or in teams of up to 4 members.
- Any attempt to attack the host system in ways unintended by the challenge will lead to disqualification.
- Any kind of Denial-of-Service Attack (DoS/DDoS) against the servers or the competition’s infrastructure is strictly forbidden.
- Teams should work independently; sharing answers or collaborating with another team constitutes cheating.
- Brute-forcing the flags is not allowed.
- The source codes or the solutions should not be made public/open-sourced during the contest.
- Doubts/ queries regarding the questions (if any) should be asked to us directly.
- Posting such queries in IRC or channels/ public forums will not be entertained.
- Any kind of violation of these rules will mean immediate disqualification of the team.
- The decision of the event managers will be deemed final and binding.

Judging Criteria:

- Each category contains a variety of questions of different point values and difficulties.
- The participants will be ranked based on their scores, and the time taken to solve the challenge will be considered in case of a tie.
- The decision of the organizers will be final.
- Prize Money: INR 40,000