Capture the Flag (CTF) competition is currently held in many countries by different organizations
or even individuals to evaluate participants’ skills in dealing with cybersecurity
problems. It is also a good event for users to apply theories to the real work and get
hand on exercises about cybersecurity.
Aimed at training students in this field, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) established
the cybersecurity lab to provide training platform for simulating the CTF competition.
Thus, a newly featured CTF platform is needed, which includes not only mixed style
competition mode but also training mode with a large number of well selected training
materials.
This CTF platform will employ the database containing questions and tasks of jeopardy
style. And it will also manage multiple virtual machines to simulate real-life scenarios
for students to try to hack the remote machines. Furthermore, for short term training workshop,
the platform will provide available training materials and keep track of the learning
process for the students.
Last year, HKU established a cybersecurity laboratory to provide resources for students
to learn and practice security skills. However, there is still a lack of software resources
for training. Therefore, a software platform is needed to be installed in the computers
in the laboratory and allow the students to learn by themselves or with suitable tutor.
One main goal of this platform is to provide cybersecurity training for students.
Students are expected to be familiar with real life security scenarios after using this
platform. A wide range of tasks and problems will be provided for students to solve.
They will be categorized by topics and difficulty levels, and some of the tasks are
provided with self-learning materials. Students can access the platform any time and
try the tasks with the aid of the materials in the platform.
The platform is now deployed using Google Cloud at http://35.201.171.162/ (Last updated:2018-05-11)
The platform is still being developed and improved. The platform is now like a demo on how a CTF platform could possible be run and provide different types of challenges.
Final Year Project Plan
Email:chyau@cs.hku.hk
Email:smyiu@cs.hku.hk