Who is successful at “Capture the flag”?
How can security measuresbe circumvented? And how can you protect yourself from online attacks? For one week in the winter semester 2023, several teams set out to slip into the roles of attackers, look for security vulnerabilities directly and then successfully exploit them.
When a team has found security vulnerabilities, it scores points.
“The fact that we were able to divide up the specialist areas within the team made it easy to do.”
Paul Schaller and Julian Köglmeier from the Cringe Studios team
Students can try out the hacking game “Capture The Flag” in the elective module “Applied IT Security” with Prof. Florian Adamsky. The format took place for the second time at Hof University of Applied Sciences.
“Only if you understand the attacker’s perspective can you secure information systems accordingly.”
Prof. Dr. Florian Adamsky, Professor of IT Security and Information Security Officer at Hof University of Applied Sciences
What happens to those who manage to circumvent the security gaps?
By entering a sequence of numbers and letters, known as a flag, points are credited to their account. In the end, the team that has managed to collect the most points within a week wins.
Capture the Flag is a popular game in the field of IT security. It is even played internationally and there are regular competitions where you can put your skills to the test. As I enjoyed taking part in such competitions myself, I found it a perfect opportunity to train the security mindset with the students, which is all about thinking like an attacker. In the exercises for the IT security lecture, the students are usually already aware of the security gaps and there is no particular incentive to find them out.
Prof. Dr. Florian Adamsky
in 2023 the teams placed as follows
1. 1st place: Cringe Studios
Paul Schaller
Julian Köglmeier
2. 1st place: Anti-Hacking Hacking Club
Andreas Schmidt (most points achieved as an individual)
Hannes Zeitler
3. Place: DROP TABLE
Niklas Demel
Sebastian Peschke
