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DEFCON CTF from atlas' perspective

Monday, 03 September 2007

I got this great email from my friend atlas, el capitain of the two-time DEFCON Capture the Flag champion team, 1@stplace. Not only are these guys amazing technically, they have a great team, and a great attitude. This is rare from arguably some of the best hackers on the planet, but not nearly as uncommon as you would think... I'd like to take a moment to share this email from atlas, with his permission. Read on. --- Hey j0hnny! It was great to catch up with you at defcon, man! Tell you what, there was some freakin' awesome stuff going on in ctf (you said there was a conference going on that weekend?) Of course, kenshoto did a bang up job putting this year's playground together. They returned to BSD which we all know and love (better than solaris, anyway), and mostly stuff just worked... They had some network issues which caused us some headaches... like, the key submission UI as well as all instructions for overwriting and otherwise monitoring the game were basically offline for several of us for the first few hours. Thankfully this didn't get us off to too bad a start but it sure burned a lot of my cycles early on. Due to the way they were attempting to mask the scorebot's traffic, their network magic was causing ICMP Host Unreachables to be sent For *AND* From our default gateway.... Nothing like having a router lie to you so blatantly as to say that it's own self doesn't exist! There was one service that kept falling down, but it was so bad across the board that they simply removed the service poll so it didn't hurt anyone. We knew going into the fray that there would be some heavy competition this year. Not only were some of the best from that past years returning, but we saw some significant newcomers (certainly not to be called n00bs though) kickin butt and not stopping for names. The way that many of these teams were tearing up the prequals actually had me concerned. Not that I'm not confident in my teammates and our collective abilities to rock -- anything but. However, the game is a game is a game is a question. You get enough brainpower in one room, and it's really anybody's game. I lead what I think is the best team to enter CTF since Kenshoto took over the helm. But there are certainly teams in there that have huge advantages in certain areas, but I think we've got several key balances in order. However, Sk3wlmast3r continues to head up an amazing team of reverser/exploiters. Lead by the Bossman, they have a lot going in the right direction. Sk3wlmast3r himself is one of the very best reversers I know, and certainly the best non-spook I know (I'm not slamming my 1@stplace reversers, but I think they'd agree with me). Beyond that, he's a really cool guy, who gets to teach this stuff to students each year! What a job! Sk3wlmast3r and Bossman are both very approachable and I consider them friends (even if they don't like me very much directly following ctf). The team that they lead is always one of the biggest competitors in the gamez. We have a great deal of respect for them and expect them to be stiff competition again next year. Last year ctf broke the US-only barrier, including among the ranks "The East Sea", from Korea. This year the game was more than multinational, indeed half the teams were from another country than the US. The rest of the world came on in force! These guys not only have to deal with forked-up binaries, but they have to overcome the language barrier as well! You and I both know that just to *get* to compete at defcon is to win. Prequals, regardless of how much fun they can be, are no picnic, especially when up against 160 other teams competing for seven spots. The team from Korea this year was named "Song of Freedom" which stuck a certain chord with some of us. They are a great bunch of guys who are as respectful as they are brilliant. I always enjoy hanging out with them. This year Vangelis, their captain, invited me out to speak at their con in Seoul! While their CTF scores didn't get them much recognition, they placed third in quals, right after sk3wl 0f r00t and the loller skaterz (who subsequently dropped out). That's very impressive! I didn't get a chance to really get to know the French or German teams, but they were all very cool. I like to walk around each day and say hey to each of the teams. Just to let them know that whatever happens, we're all friends. (yeah, keep your wussy comments to yourself ;) Folks seem to freak out a bit at first, but by Sunday it's almost expected (those who actually have dragged themselves out of bed in time to start the game at 10). The star of the show, however, had to be the Sexy Pandas from Spain. Their full name "Osu, Tatakae, Sexy Pandas!" makes absolutely no sense to me, but that doesn't matter. Sexy Pandas did not seem to do so well during quals, placing eighth (which is darn good!), they were kickin' some royal behind during the game! They drew first blood -- out of all of us, they nailed the first exploit. They also went on to lead the game a little while later! My hats off to them. Most importantly, each of the guys on their team was very cool to talk with and we shared mutual appreciation throughout the game. Unfortunately for them they kind of dwindled off mid-way through Saturday. I'd be very interested in knowing why. Anyway, that's what ctf was like for me. My team did a fantastic job, again, and the coolest part was the way they care about other teams doing well. Whenever another team got a major breakthrough, we all cheered them on. Even when Sk3wl 0f r00t, the biggest threat on the scoreboard, nailed menagetrois the most difficult (and point-bearing) binary in the game, we cheered. They did amazing work for that breakthrough! And that's just how we are. We think that growing and learning, having fun and working well together is what CTF is all about, and that's something that every team can strive for *and achieve*. Let kenshoto figure out who the black badges go to, it's really out of our direct control... Take care j0hnny. I'll talk to you soon, @

 

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