What is sp00kyctf?

Sp00kyctf is A beginner-focused CTF hosted by Iowa State's Hacking and Cybersecurity Club.

What is a CTF?

A CTF is a kind of information security competition that challenges contestants to solve a variety of tasks ranging from a scavenger hunt on Wikipedia to basic programming exercises to hacking your way into a server to steal data. In these challenges, the contestant is usually asked to find a specific piece of text that may be hidden on the server or behind a webpage.

Below are some of the frequently asked questions. Please refer to these if you have any questions. If your question is not answered here, please contact the sp00ky CTF team.

1. When will you publish the problems?
On the Challenge day, at 10:00 CDT, we'll publish the first set of challenges. From there on the remaining challenges will be unlocked by the sp00ky CTF Team, as prescribed by competition completion.

2. What is a flag?
The flag is a token or a string that matches the following regular expression: sp00ky{flag here} where the content is any non-empty ASCII string (uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, or symbols).

3. How do we submit a solution?
A challenge is solved when the team finds the corresponding flag. To earn points, your team must insert the flag into the answer input box in the platform challenge (sp00ky tag and curly brackets included).

4. How do we calculate the score?
Each challenge is scored according to its level of difficulty. Submitting the correct flag to a challenge will award your team with the points associated with the challenge. Unlocking hints for a challenge will subtract points from your team's total score. The cost of unlocking hits will never outweigh the points rewarded for solving a challenge.

5. What are first-blood points?
First-blood points are available for certain challenges marked with the icon. We assign first-blood points to the first team to solve the challenge. The team will be awarded 25 extra points for a first blood completion.