Attack Phase Flags and Scenarios

Tip

Understanding the contents of this page is critical to properly securing your design. If something is unclear, please reach out to the organizers on Slack to clarify.

Attack Phase Scenarios

Attackers will have access to a number of different subscription updates for a Decoder. Each setup represents a realistic scenario that will test a design’s success at meeting one or more Security Requirements by embedding Attack Phase Flags into different parts of the setup.

This year, the Attack Phase scenarios use a single deployment, with a single satellite transmitting across five channels. The images below summarize the flags, scenarios, relevant security requirements, and deployments.

Attack Phase Flags

During the Attack Phase, teams will test the security of other teams’ designs by attempting to capture Attack Phase Flags. Each flag represents proof on an attacker’s ability to compromise one or more security requirements of a design.

Flag	Format	Description
Expired Subscription	ectf{expired_*}	Read frames from a channel you have an expired subscription for
Pirated Subscription	ectf{pirate_*}	Read frames from a channel you have a pirated subscription for
No Subscription	ectf{nosub_*}	Read frames from a channel you have no subscription for
Recording Playback	ectf{recording_*}	Read frames from a recorded channel you currently have a subscription for, but didn’t at the time of the recording
Pesky Neighbor	ectf{neighbor_*}	Spoof the signal of the satellite to cause your neighbor’s Decoder to decode your frames instead