Glossary

Note

If there are any terms that you had to learn in the eCTF that are missing from this list, please let the organizers know so we can add it

Attack Board

During the Attack Phase, teams will use a different type of board to load and run the designs of other teams. This uses a secure Bootloader to securely load encrypted binaries, preventing teams from capturing flags through reverse engineering the firmware. These boards will also disable debugging access and may implement additional restrictions. Teams will be mailed the attack boards when they near Handoff. For the boards used in the Design Phase, see Design Board.

Attack Phase

See Attack Phase

The second phase of the competition where teams attack the designs of other teams. Teams move into the Attack Phase as soon as they pass handoff, which means that each team will enter the Attack Phase at different times.

Authentication

The principle that trusted parties should be able to verify their own identity to other parties.

Bootloader

A piece of software that is called early in the boot process to load other software, also frequently allowing the user to update the software. In the eCTF, the organizers have provisioned custom bootloaders on the design and attack boards. The boards used during the Design Phase simply load the unencrypted binaries onto the board and hand off execution. The boards used during the Attack Phase have their own secure bootloader that loads encrypted binaries onto the board.

Bus

A bus is a connection on or between computers that allows data to be transferred between components.

Ciphertext

Data that has been encrypted, as opposed to Plaintext.

Compiler

A piece of software that takes written source code and turns it into a binary file that is readable by a computer.

Confidentiality

The principle that data should not be readable by unintended parties.

Cross-compiler

A compiler that compiles the program for an architecture different than the computer you are running it on. For example, the ARM Cortex-M4 architecture of the microcontroller used for this competition is likely different from that of the CPU running your laptop or desktop.

Crypto interface

See Simple Crypto Library

The Reference Design comes with a basic interface to a cryptographic library that provides encryption, decryption, and hashing. This has been provided to ease the burden of finding and compiling a cryptographic library. Teams new to the eCTF are strongly encouraged to use this interface for their designs. However, use with care as the eCTF organizers do not provide any guarantees on the security of the interface.

Defensive Points

See Scoring System

Points earned by a team for time spent in the Attack Phase for Flags that haven’t been captured by any other team.

Design Board

During the Design Phase, teams will use development boards to load and run their own designs while they develop. These boards will only load unencrypted designs and allow debugging access. Teams will be mailed design boards after they register. For the boards used in the Attack Phase, see Attack Board.

Design Phase

See Design Phase

The first phase of the competition where teams design and build their secure designs.

Flags

Flags are the basic unit of many capture the flag competitions, including the eCTF. Flags in the eCTF are strings of characters in the format of ectf{FlagName_16HexChars}. Some flags will be found in that format and can be submitted as is. Others may require formatting a solution into the flag. For example, if a challenge named PinExtract requires you to find the pin of 123456, the flag will be ectf{PinExtract_123456}. If the value of the solution is longer than 16 characters, typically the scoreboard will accept both the full value and the first 16 characters of solution.

Flash Memory

See Simple Flash Library

Flash memory is a common type of non-volatile memory that allows the microcontroller to store data that persists across power cycles. Flash memory works differently than most memory you may be used to as it has three operations: reads, writes, and erases. Reads work like other memory and can read back the requested address. Writes, however, may only turn bits that are currently 1 to 0s. To turn 0s into 1s, you must first issue an erase command to erase the entire page of flash memory - which turns the entire page to 1s - and then write the desired value.

The Reference Design has implemented a simple interface to flash memory that you may use to easily write to and erase flash.

Functional Requirements

See Functional Requirements

The specification of functionality your design must support. Designs will not pass handoff without meeting all Functional Requirements.

Git

Git is a version control system that tracks code as you develop it and allows the coordination of multiple developers making changes to the same source code. The Reference Design is distributed as a git repository and you are required to use git for your development so that the organizers can automate testing and design submission.

Handoff

See Handoff

The process of a team submitting their design to the eCTF organizers at the end of the Design Phase. Only designs that pass all functional testing and meet the rules of the competition will complete Handoff.

Handoff Package

Once a design passes handoff, the organizers will provide the full package of what will be given to attacking teams in the Attack Phase. Teams must approve this package to move to the Attack Phase or restart the Handoff process after making any changes.

Integrity

The assurance of the accuracy of data, particularly relating to detecting or preventing accidental or malicious data manipulation.

Memory

The hardware that stores data on a computer. Memory can be volatile (the data is lost when the chip shuts down or reboots) or non-volatile (the data persists across reboots). Examples of memory include flash, NVRAM, DRAM, and SRAM. Memory may be on the same chip as the microcontroller (on-chip memory) or in its own chip on the pcb (off-chip memory). Memory is frequently structured so that each byte or each group of bytes is assigned a fixed address so the processor can easily read data from and write data to the memory (known as memory-mapped).

Microcontroller

A small computer on a single computer chip. In contrast to the CPUs on laptops, desktops, and servers, microcontrollers typically have far fewer resources and run at slower speeds.

Offensive Points

See Scoring System

Points earned by a team in the Attack Phase for capturing the Flags of other teams.

Processor

The hardware part of a computer that executes the operations instructed by software.

PCB

A Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is the flat component that connects the individual chips and peripherals mounted onto it.

Plaintext

Unencrypted data, as opposed to Ciphertext.

Peripheral

A peripheral is an additional device on a microcontroller CPU, or pcb that provides additional functionality to the device by allowing input into and/or output out of the device. Input devices include mouses and sensors, output devices include LEDs and speakers, and input/output devices including off-chip memory and USB devices.

Provisioned System

A provisioned system is a set of files and devices provided by the eCTF organizers for use during the Attack Phase. The provisioned system includes a set of binaries (protected by the organizers) that can be loaded with the secure bootloader onto the Attack Phase boards to run a team’s design. Unless explicitly stated, binaries distributed to teams in the Attack Phase will be encrypted to prevent attacking teams from trivially extracting flags without defeating the security requirements of the design.

Poster Session

See Poster Session

During the Poster Session near the end of the competition, teams will have the opportunity to submit and present posters to their fellow competitors, MITRE orgagnizers, and competition sponsors. Teams may earn points for high quality posters.

Reference Design

The Reference Design is an implementation of the eCTF design provided by the organizers that implements the Functional Requirements of the competition while making no attempt to implement any Security Requirements. Teams may choose to use the Reference Design as a starting point or to toss it out and start from scratch, however we highly recommend teams new to the eCTF to start with the Reference Design.

Security Requirements

See Security Requirements

The specification of security guarantees your design should support. Teams will earn points in the Attack Phase by compromising the Security Requirements of other teams’ designs and by your own design withstanding the attacks of other teams.

Testing Service

See Automated Testing Service

The eCTF organizers will provide a service that allows teams to submit their designs on Slack to be tested for meeting Functional Requirements.