Hackers from All Over the World Competed to Join PHDays IV CTF

PHDays CTF Quals, an information security competition, took place from 12 p.m. on January 25 to 12 p.m. on January 27, with teams competing for the entire 48 hours. Dragon Sector, a Polish team, won the contest, though quite unexpectedly, PPP, from the USA, took second place and More Smoked Leet Chicken, from Russia, came in third.

The main feature of this Quals (as compared to the previous years' competitions) was a special quest game. Teams solved it in order to earn points, which were used to open CTF challenges and then to earn final points. The plot of the quest was based on the legend, which was the part of PHDays III CTF. This year, teams needed to work shoulder to shoulder with the Golem Special Division and investigate an incident related to the spreading of the Detcelfer Worm.

This year the heat of the struggle exceed all expectations:

1. 627 teams registered to participate in the competition
2. 418 of them solved at least one challenge during the quest game
3. 276 teams solved at least one CTF challenge

Check out participants' write-ups for details (the list will be supplemented):

http://paul-axe.blogspot.ru/2014/01/phdays-2014-quals-dtvcs-writeup.html?spref=tw

http://www.nops.re/2014/01/28/writeup-standback/

http://blog.dragonsector.pl/

http://nightsite.info/blog/12936-phdays-2014-quals-all-reverse-writeup.html

https://www.navixia.com/company/navixia-news/410-phdays-navixia-1st-swiss-team.html

http://delimitry.blogspot.ru/2014/01/phdays-ctf-quals-2014-yet-another.html

http://akiym.hateblo.jp/entry/2014/01/27/195107

Results

Nine teams will take part in the final CTF contest. The winners of the CTF Power of Community, a female team from Soonchunhyang University, also reached the final. Here is the scoreboard:

Dynamics of solving quest tasks:

Dynamics of solving CTF tasks:

Those who have not reached the top ten, don't give up! Organizers of the event still have a stock of “wild cards.”, that may get you into the competition.

Thanks to everyone who took part in PHDays CTF Quals. See you in Moscow at Positive Hack Days IV!

P. S. Remember that registration for the event and Call for Papers are in progress.