The 2022 Codebreaker Challenge consists of a series of tasks that are worth a varying amount of points based upon their difficulty. Schools will be ranked according to the total number of points accumulated by their students. Solutions may be submitted at any time for the duration of the Challenge.
The initial tasks are divided into two sequences, A and B, which can be solved independently. Later tasks may rely on the results of earlier tasks. While not required, we recommend that you solve tasks in order, since they flow with the storyline, and may in fact be unsolvable without the information recovered from previous tasks.
Each task in this year's challenge will require a range of skills. We need you to call upon all of your technical expertise, your intuition, and your common sense.
Good luck. We hope you enjoy the challenge!
DISCLAIMER - The following is a FICTITIOUS story meant for providing realistic context for the Codebreaker Challenge and is not tied in any way to actual events.
NSA has two main jobs: collecting foreign signals intelligence, and providing cybersecurity for the US government. As part of the latter mission, NSA works with partner agencies to provide technical assistance where our skills can be useful. In this scenario, you play the role of an NSA employee providing technical assistance to the FBI in order to investigate a ransomware incident.
Note: All IP addresses and identifiers have been anonymized. Any resemblance to any real person is purely coincidental.
| Task | Category | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Task A1 - Initial access | Log analysis | 10 |
| Task A2 - Identifying the attacker | Computer Forensics, Packet Analysis | 40 |
| Task B1 - Information Gathering | Reverse Engineering, Web Analysis | 10 |
| Task B2 - Getting Deeper | Web Hacking, [redacted] | 100 |
| Task 5 - Core Dumped | Reverse Engineering, Cryptography | 500 |
| Task 6 - Gaining Access | Web Hacking, [redacted] | 150 |
| Task 7 - Privilege Escalation | Web Hacking, [redacted] | 300 |
| Task 8 - Raiding the Vault | Reverse Engineering, [redacted] | 2000 |
| Task 9 - The End of the Road | Cryptanalysis, Software Development | 5000 |