/PRZWT/Beijing, February 18, 2024 - From January 26 to 28, 2024, the 6th Real World CTF international cyber security competition ("RWCTF") hosted by Changting Technology ended successfully.
Real World CTF is an international CTF competition hosted by Changting Technology since 2018. The competition adopts a new competition system combining CTF Capture The Flag and Pwn competitions, and the competition questions are all based on the modification or secondary development of real-world software. This year, thousands of cyber security professionals from around the world gathered again at Real World CTF to compete on the same stage, recreating a cyber security technology exchange event in the context of the real world.
48 hours of global "technology carnival", witness a peak of cyber security showdown
This year's Real World CTF once again attracted more than 2,000 CTF professional teams from around the world to compete for registration. Not only well-known strong teams at home and abroad, such as Kalmarunionen, Sauercloud, Nu1L, Balsn, etc., entered the competition; PPP, The Duck, and Maple Bacon three well-known teams participated in the MMM (Wing) for the first time; there were also rising stars such as Tianshu Dubhe and X1cT34m competing to join the battle, and the overall battle situation was particularly intense.
After 48 hours of peak competition in the international competition, the top winner of the international competition has reversed several times, and the score of the top 10 teams is very close. The point gap of one topic may cause a big reversal of the war situation. It was not until the last moment that the top three teams won the dust. Finally, the three teams broke through the siege in the international competition, and the Kalmarunionen team won the championship, the MMM team won the runner-up, and the Friendly Maltese Citizens team won the third place.
This year, in the "difficulty downgrade, experience does not downgrade" Real World CTF experience competition, a thrilling 24-hour technical confrontation was also staged. 328 teams from enterprises, universities and Changting partners competed and showed their supernatural powers, breaking all 15 questions. In the end, the U8f2_team team, the Tianshu Dubhe team and the loquat 135 yuan a box team won the first place in the enterprise track, the university track and the partner track respectively. What is even more surprising is that the Tianshu Dubhe team from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and the X1cT34m team from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications completed the AK (solving all questions) with only one question, showing the strength of the back wave.
The high-quality competition topic has attracted heated discussions, and the 6th RWCTF has received rave reviews
Embracing the "real world" hardcore competition questions has always made Real World CTF attract much attention in the circle. Based on real-world cyber security attacks, Changting Technology has integrated the offensive and defensive research and practical experience thinking in recent years into the Real World CTF competition test center, closely following the real-world hot technologies such as AI, browser, and Internet of Things to lay out this competition questions, and use the competition questions as the medium to practice technical exchanges. Its high-level and high-quality competition questions and competition system have caused heated discussions in the circle, prompting this year's Real World CTF to receive full score feedback from the scoring list.
The collision of thinking between CTF experts is a process of mutual achievement. Since its establishment six years ago, Real World CTF has not only witnessed the growth of many cyber security cutting-edge technical strength, witnessed their identity change from a CTF player to a cyber security practitioner, but also made the question person gain a lot in the process of technical communication with the players.
Take this year's hotly debated ChatterBox problem as an example. After the contestants' attempts to be full of whimsy, the problem further broadened the way of solving the problem, and even the questioner couldn't help but sigh: "There are indeed many solutions to the ChatterBox problem that are different from the expected solutions, and there are even some methods that I didn't think of, but I think it's pretty good! I'm glad to see that the contestants can get some gains in the problem, even if it's a small one. Maybe we can use it in our future work!"
Build a technical exchange bridge, five big coffee in the circle, airborne Real World CTF fireplace night talk
This year, in addition to the exciting Real World CTF competition, Changting Technology also specially planned two live broadcasts of "Opening Night" and "Glory Night". The live broadcast is based on CTF technical exchange, industry views and anecdotes sharing, and brings CTF senior question makers to decode CTF trivia, review RWCTF past anecdotes, and launch cyber security circles. At the same time, the organizers also specially invited the founder of Real World CTF, Yang Kun, the strongest brain "Brain King" Zheng Linkai, the founder of Nu1L team Fu Hao, Redbud team Eki, and RWCTF team fire team team Explorer. Five big names in the circle gathered together to discuss hot topics such as CTF, AI, the strongest brain, and geek spirit, attracting many netizens to watch and interact.
In the night conversation around the furnace, the love and persistence of CTF were the topics that the guests talked about throughout. For Zheng Linkai, the strongest brain "Brain King", the thrill of breaking through the challenge of playing CTF is really addictive. In fact, playing CTF will be more difficult for him than the challenge of the strongest brain, because playing CTF requires the mobilization of a large amount of knowledge reserves accumulated over a long period of time, and it depends on talent. There are also many tests on the level of thinking. For example, the misc question that caused the fire captain Explorer of the RWCTF question team to feel a headache is a type of question that tests the brain hole.
For the experience of playing CTF, Fu Hao, the founder of Nu1L team, said bluntly, which brought inspiration to his current team management work. Redbud team Eki read the spiritual connotation that deeply infected him from CTF, that is, Duan Haixin teacher once said, "By discovering the unpleasantness of this world, make the world a better place".
Dr. Yang Kun, founder of Real World CTF, deeply agrees with the multiple growth that CTF has given to the contestants. He said that what Real World CTF is doing is to let CTF enthusiasts around the world have an international annual technical party that transmits technical love and shares technical experience. At the same time, it also allows itself and the contestants to return to a technical innocence exclusive to CTF enthusiasts.
"Cultivate practical combat ability and make person-job fit'seamless'" is one of the five suggestions put forward by the "2023 cyber security industry talent development report" for the development of cyber security talents. Taking the international Real World CTF cyber security competition as a medium, Changting Technology follows the policy orientation and the development of the times, and has always been committed to promoting the exchange of cyber security professional technology and transferring offensive and defensive experience through a practical competitive platform.
As the organizer of the event, Changting Technology will continue to be committed to building Real World CTF into an international and cutting-edge technology party in the future. In the name of geeks and in the name of love, it will provide a professional competitive stage and technical exchange platform for more cyber security newcomers and practitioners, so as to promote the growth of cyber security talents' actual combat ability.
