SpookyCTF 2023

SpookyCTF was the second annual fall CTF competition hosted by NICC. As the president and lead developer, I helped create a majority of the challenges that competitors faced. The site was hosted through CTFd.io - a CTF platform that helps teams create and host challenges for other competitors. Though the competition ended, it will be available online to examine at spooky.ctfd.io throughout November and early December.

An alien wearing a hoodie.

Stats

SpookyCTF 2023 was a huge success! We had over 1,100 members register to participate from all around the world.

The competition ran 25 1/2 hours - the average Zorglaxian day. Zorglax, of course, being a fiction race of Aliens I invented for the sole purpose of the CTF.

The SpookyCTF landing page. It features a dark background with a pumpkin and a ghost.

Challenges

SpookyCTF featured 20 challenges in total, with 5 challenges in each of the following categories: Cryptography, Forensics, Web Exploitation, and Miscellaneous. The challenges were created by the NICC Cybersecurity Club, and were designed to be beginner-friendly.

Each challenge was solved at least once - but some were only solved once or twice in total. This is important as competitions with many unsolved or oversolved challenges defeat the purpose of the event - learning.