Why CTF?

It is simply the best way to learn.

Here at Roppers we believe the best way to learn a topic is to dive into it, spend hours learning, and then get addicted to the feeling of knowing more than you did before. As a result, nothing gets the blood flowing and the brain juices buzzing like a competition. For security, that manifests itself as Capture the Flag events.

We believe competition is the best way to build motivation and skills in our students, so we built a course to teach CTF basics, how to use essential tools, and common problem types to prepare our students to compete by themselves. Our goal is to teach the fundamentals so that when faced with challenges, in competition or the real world, our students understand the problem, know the resources they have available, and are able to solve it themselves.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Welcome

    • Course Introduction

    • The Site

    • What You Will Learn

    • What is a CTF?

    • Why CTFs?

    • Prior Experience Survey
  • 2

    CTF Meta

    • Better with a Team!

    • Challenge Categories

    • Basic Principles

    • Required Knowledge

    • Writeups and Walkthroughs

    • Chapter Survey 1
  • 3

    Encoding and Classic Encryption

    • Encoding Meta

    • Bits and Binary

    • Historical Encoding

    • Other Classic Encodings

    • Join Our CTF Team!

    • Index of Coincidence

    • Encryption Meta

    • Classic Ciphers

    • Frequency Analysis

    • Other Classic Ciphers

    • Vigenere Ciphers

    • Your First XOR

    • Chapter Survey 2
  • 4

    File Forensics

    • CTF Meta

    • Hex and More

    • Polyglot Files

    • Your first jpg Adventure

    • File Carving 1

    • Steganography 1

    • File Carving 2

    • File Carving 3

    • Steganography 2

    • File Metadata 1

    • File Metadata 2

    • File Carving 4

    • Chapter Survey 3
  • 5

    Modern Crypto

    • Modern Crypto Meta

    • Advanced XOR

    • RSA

    • Things You Shouldn't Try to Do

    • Hacker Math

    • Chapter Survey 4
  • 6

    Miscellaneous

    • Network Scripting with Pwntools

    • Language Problems

    • Gitsanity

    • Crypto(currency)

    • Restricted Shells

    • Everything Else

    • Chapter Survey 5
  • 7

    Forensics

    • How to Learn Network Forensics for CTF

    • Forensics Theory

    • Host Forensics Meta

    • Host Forensics Walkthroughs

    • Memory Forensics Walkthroughs

    • Chapter Survey 6
  • 8

    Web Exploitation

    • Web Meta

    • Basic Methodology

    • Portswigger Academy

    • Beating Up Admin

    • Command Injection Basics

    • SQL Injection Basics

    • Directory Traversal

    • Javascript for Hackers (aka XSS)

    • Web Crypto

    • Chapter Survey 7
  • 9

    RevEng and Binex

    • You Won't Learn That Here
  • 10

    Where to Go Next

    • PicoCTF

How to Get Started

Everything is Free, So Just Sign up!

Instructor(s)

Lead Instructor

Dennis Devey

I am an independent security researcher who is into education, malware command and control, and endpoint hardening. Back in school I was on our competitive Cyber Security Team and focused on building training for new members. I made this website to continue the work I had done and to share it with the widest audience possible.

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