CTF (Capture The Flag) Study Resources

Learning

• http://ctfs.github.io/resources/  - Introduction to common CTF techniques such as cryptography, steganography, web exploits (Incomplete)
• https://trailofbits.github.io/ctf/forensics/  - Tips and tricks relating to typical CTF challenges/scenarios
• https://ctftime.org/writeups  - Explanations of solutions to past CTF challenges

Resources

• https://ctftime.org  - CTF event tracker
• https://github.com/apsdehal/awesome-ctf  - Comprehensive list of tools and further reading

Tools (That I use often)

• binwalk - Analyze and extract files
• burp suite - Feature packed web penetration testing framework
• stegsolve - Pass various filters over images to look for hidden text
• GDB - Binary debugger
• The command line 🙂

Practice

Many of the "official" CTFs hosted by universities and companies are time-limited competitions. There are many CTFs however that are online 24/7 that can be used as practice and learning tools. Here are some that I found to be friendly for beginners.

• https://ctflearn.com  - A collection of various user-submitted challenges aimed towards newcomers
• https://overthewire.org/wargames/  - A series of progressively more difficult pwn-style challenges. (Start with the bandit series)
• https://2018game.picoctf.com/  - Yearly time-limited CTF now available to use as practice