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> CTF (Capture the Flag) was originally created by hackers to
> challenge each other, requiring participants to master various
> hacking techniques to capture the so-called *flag*.
Ever since DEFCON officially introduced it as part of its event in 1996,
CTF has gradually evolved into a highly competitive *esport*, where
participants typically have 48 to 56 hours, to grind through challenges
set by organizers. Over the years, CTF has also steadily grown into
numerous event series across conferences, universities, and even
nationwide tournaments - ranging from competitions like SECCON in Japan
and XCTF in China, to international competitions like ICC. DEFCON CTF is
especially regarded as the "holy grail" among enthusiasts - something many
hackers dream of experiencing at least once in their lifetime.
I'm fortunate to have experienced the golden age of CTF. Looking back at
my "esports career," I've participated in hundreds of competitions,
especially during those four to five years when I was deeply into CTF. I'd
fly out to different countries almost every two months to attend those
finals, all while grinding through those tough online qualifiers. Though
I've gradually stepped away over the past few years, I still miss those
days - whether it was hacking all night with my teammates in classrooms,
or talking shit and just wandering around new cities between competitions
- these moments remain some of my most precious memories!
Another thing I really love about CTF is its unique community culture. In
fact, a CTF's reputation usually depends directly on the quality of its
challenges. To keep their events awesome year after year, organizers
typically spend months gathering ideas, stuffing their most interesting
techniques, wildest creativity, and proudest exploits into their
challenges. Whether it's reconstructing a half-eaten QRCode pancake [3],
physically hacking a slot machine [4], or giving each team an Xbox and
asking them to battle it out in Doom [5] - these wild ideas fully showcase
the organizers' creativity. Among them, I'd say the most legendary example
has to be "cLEMENCy," introduced by LegitBS during their last year hosting
DEFCON CTF [6]. They created an entirely new, middle-endian CPU
instruction set and even *redefined a byte* as having 9 bits!
=> 9 bits per byte, stored in the middle-endian format!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-----Register (bit0 = MSB)-----+
bit index ---> | b0..b8 | b9..b17 | b18..b26 |
+---------+----------+-----------+
| XX | YY | ZZ |
+---------+----------+-----------+
|
| (middle-endian store)
v
+---------+----------+-----------+ Memory (addr grows +1)
| YY | XX | ZZ | <- addr+0, +1, +2
+---------+----------+-----------+
b9..b17 b0..b8 b18..b26
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LegitBS released the emulator, debugging tools (and even a hardcover
manual!) just one day before the competition. You can't imagine how
shocked we were at the time! They spent two whole years designing a
brand-new architecture but gave teams just three days to master and craft
shellcode on it. But even now, I still see it as a remarkable feat,
because they successfully shifted the competition's focus back to teams'
genuine skills, rather than those pre-made tools. Of course, this also
turned the finals into a four-day hackathon. (shrug)
Aside from the culture, many brilliant ideas have also come from CTF teams
while solving tough challenges. Techniques like One-Gadget RCE [7] are
classic tricks full of CTF spirit. Others, such as Return-to-CSU [8] and
House of Orange [9], are also fan favorites. Even the "Metagame" outside
the competitions is part of what makes CTF more fun. I've heard of teams
plugging network cables into other teams' routers through social
engineering, exploiting Wireshark bugs to mess with other teams' packet
analysis, using FreeBSD 0days to enable "God Mode" [10], or even
exploiting ELF parser bugs [11] to fool all reversing tools - just like my
teammates did [12]. These are exactly the kinds of creative tricks and
techniques competitions inspire!
I really love this vibe - a group of people, without worrying about
anything, just hacking for fun. So even though CTF is essentially a
competition, it's still somehow a reflection of the internet. I think
these creative sparks between organizers and participants deserve to be
remembered, instead of being lost in time. That's exactly why I want to
take this opportunity - to make sure these incredible stories live on!
----[ > How About PHP Security?
I really love PHP! Especially back in those days, just knowing a little
bit about it was enough to roam freely on the internet - somehow, its
flaws made it feel flawless. Of course I know, doing this so-called
*website hacking* usually got you labeled as a noob - or worse, a script
kiddie. But no matter what, I still really want to write something about
PHP - especially from the perspective of its internals and language
design.
I started getting into PHP around 2010. Back then, Stefan Esser's "The
Month of PHP Security" [13] felt like the only bible to me! Another