Huntress CTF 2024 - Overview

Huntress CTF 2024 was an exhilarating experience, held throughout October in celebration of Cybersecurity Awareness Month. With fresh challenges released daily, it offered a dynamic and engaging way to explore the field of cybersecurity. As my first-ever CTF, it was a manageable yet rewarding dive into topics like reverse engineering and problem-solving. Although designed as a team challenge, I tackled it solo, which made the learning experience even more personal and gratifying.

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One standout for me was the OSINT challenge, which cleverly incorporated real-world elements into the puzzle. It was a refreshing change of pace and a reminder of the practical applications of cybersecurity skills beyond the digital realm. The challenge pushed me to think creatively and connect seemingly unrelated pieces of information—skills vital in cybersecurity investigations.

Unfortunately, I fell ill during the final week, leaving some challenges unfinished, but the journey up until then was nothing short of transformative. The camaraderie with fellow contestants and Huntress staff added a vibrant social element to the event. That said, I quickly understood why many participants chose to disable direct messages; it was a bit disheartening to see people skip ahead and seek answers without attempting to progress naturally.

Despite these setbacks, Huntress CTF 2024 was a fantastic introduction to the world of CTFs and an inspiring reminder of the creativity and collaboration at the heart of cybersecurity. Special thanks to ChatGPT for brainstorming and importantly for generating scripts quickly when given the appropriate goals, which helped reduce time wasted trying to debug scripts. Definitely a help especially since I also had school work to complete.

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Below is a checklist of the challenges I tackled during the event. Striked-out entries are challenges I could not complete due to illness. Checked entries indicate completed write-ups, while the rest are pending write-ups, which I plan to finish soon:

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

• read the rules
• technical support
• more challenges tomorrow
• matryoshkaQR
• base64by32
• too many bits
• strange calc

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

• No Need For Brutus
• Red Phish Blue Phish

Thursday, October 3, 2024

• cattle
• Nightmare on Hunt Street (Bundle)
• russian roulette

Friday, October 4, 2024

• whamazon
• malibu

Saturday, October 5, 2024

• unbelievable
• ocean locust

Sunday, October 6, 2024

• txt message
• discount programming devices

Monday, October 7, 2024

• mimi
• system code

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

• zimmer down
• ran somewhere
• base -p-
• mystery

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

• GoCrackMe1
• i cant ssh

Thursday, October 10, 2024

• GoCrackMe2
• finders fee

Friday, October 11, 2024

• GoCrackMe3
• typo

Saturday, October 12, 2024

• x-ray
• zulu

Sunday, October 13, 2024

• ObfuscationStation
• Little Shop Of Hashes (Bundle)

Monday, October 14, 2024

• keyboard junkie
• HiddenStreams

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

• sekiro
• transmissions

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

• echo chamber

Thursday, October 17, 2024

• linux basics
• the void
• moveable
• baby buffer overflow

Friday, October 18, 2024

• eepy
• permission to proxy

Saturday, October 19, 2024

• stack it
• eco_friendly

Sunday, October 20, 2024

• y2j
• splunk_ii

Monday, October 21, 2024

• rsa_decrypt
• helpfuldesk

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

• rustline
• plantopia

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

• ping me
• time_will_tell

Thursday, October 24, 2024

• knights_quest
• ancient_fossil

Friday, October 25, 2024

• pillow_fight
• feedback

Saturday, October 26, 2024

• thats_life

Sunday, October 27, 2024

• revenge of dpd

Monday, October 28, 2024

• rusty_bin

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

• in_plain_sight

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

• zippy

Thursday, October 31, 2024

• Palimpsest