Capture the Flag (CTF) Challenges – Practical Cybersecurity Training

Info:

This course offers students the opportunity to enhance their cybersecurity skills by participating in Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions. CTFs are cybersecurity challenges designed to test and develop practical skills in areas such as cryptography, reverse engineering, web security, forensics, and binary exploitation.

CTFs come in different formats, such as Jeopardy-style, where participants solve individual challenges of varying difficulty, and Attack-Defense, where teams secure their own systems while attempting to exploit those of their opponents. These competitions provide hands-on experience in identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities in a controlled, gamified environment.

Learning Outcomes:

By completing this course, students will:

• Develop hands-on expertise in cybersecurity techniques.
• Gain experience in ethical hacking, vulnerability exploitation, and digital forensics.
• Improve their problem-solving and teamwork skills in real-world cybersecurity scenarios.
• Enhance their ability to analyse and secure software, hardware, networks, and web applications.

Participation for CTF course:

Write an email to Thomas Sutter (suth@zhaw.ch) stating that you would like to join the CTF course to be officially registered for the course. Please note: the registration is ongoing and independent from the official semesters.

After your registration, you can start to participate in CTFs as solo player or more preferable with a team. For each of the CTFs you join, you will need to hand-in a write-up (via Moodle) of how you solved or attempted to solve a challenge. Please note: We accept only write-ups for challenges of medium level or higher. We don't accept "Easy" level challenges because they are mostly trivial to solve.

ECTS: 

Students can earn between 2 and 4 ECTS depending on the number of CTF events they attend and their level of engagement. To receive credit, students must document their participation, describe their problem-solving approaches, and reflect on the lessons learned. This course is offered via the "Interdisciplinary competitions and hackathons" and officially listed on the list of hackathons for computer science students. Please read the prerequisite for participation carefully as not all studies grant credit for this course.

To gain ECTS a student must participate in several on-line CTF and at least one on-sight CTF. For all participations the student is required to hand-in a write-up of at least one solved challenge with a difficulty higher or equal to/than "medium".

Fulfilment to earn credits 2 ECTS:

• Participate in at least six online CTFs during during the year.
• Participate in one on-sight CTF.
• Submission of write-ups detailing the challenges solved and methodologies used.
• Active participation in write-up discussion and presentations.

Fulfilment to earn credits 4 ECTS:

• Participate in at least 12 online CTFs during the year.
• Participate in two on-sight CTFs.
• Submission of write-ups detailing the challenges solved and methodologies used.
• Active participation in write-up discussion and presentations.

CTF-Team on Discord:

Bachelor, Master and PhD students have the opportunity to join our Capture the Flag team. CTF events are played in teams, so experienced players can pass on their knowledge to less experienced players and strengths in different areas can be combined in a team. We use Discord as communication channel for the CTF-Team