UACTF is a Jeopardy-style Capture the Flag competiton
for high school students!
Do you have students that are ready to take on a challenge and test their cyber security skills? Then you should enter them in the University of Alabama Capture the Flag Competition 2025 sponsored by the University of Alabama Computer Science Department, Crimson Defense, and the Digital Forensics and Control Systems Security Lab. UACTF is for high school students in the 9th - 12th grade.
UACTF 2025 will once again have two competition divisions!!! Division 1 is for our more advanced teams, including teams that have participated in UACTF and other CTF competitions. In this division, teams will be required to have Kali Linux (or their favorite Linux flavor) to complete the challenges. Challenges in this division will span the entire gamut of challenging areas with an emphasis on more advanced topics. This division will be similar to UACTF competitions in the past. Division 2 is geared toward our teams that do not have as much experience with cyber security and/or CTF competitions. The challenges in this division will still push the competitors, but will have fewer advanced challenges and teams will not be require to have a Linux instance.
UACTF 2025 will be a Jeopardy-style Capture the Flag Competition. Each category on the board will include easy, medium, and difficult challenges worth a varying amount of points. The objective is to solve the challenges to score as many points as possible. Categories will be selected from areas such as:
- binary exploitation
- code-breaking and decoding
- cryptography
- database security & SQL injection attacks
- digital forensics
- email analysis
- file analysis
- network traffic analysis
- reverse engineering
- social engineering
- website security
What you need, how to compete...
How to Participate
Team
Team size is limited to a maximum size of 4
9th - 12th grade students.
No limit to the number of teams per school.
Must have a school representative.
Computer
Your own computer/laptop.
All associative power cords/adaptors.
You may want to have a power strip.
Software
Your favorite software (disassemblers, development tools, hexadecimal viewers, virtual machines, kali etc).
Network
Challenges will be accessible via the Internet.
Make sure you can access the Internet on your laptop.
Restrictions
Subject to Disqualification
Attack any machine other than the designated ones.
DoS UACTF infrastructure or University.
Modify the scoreboard.
Provide or receive assistance from any team other than your own.
Intentionally prevent other teams from flagging.
Event Details
Competition: UACTF 2025 will be held in a hybrid format. Teams will have the option to compete in-person on The University of Alabama campus or as part of a virtual competition. The virtual option will allow teams that cannot afford the travel costs an avenue to still participate in the competition. Team school representatives will be provided details after registration.
Divisions: Division 1 is for more advanced teams and will require access to a Linux environment. Division 2 is for teams that do not have as much experience with Cyber Security and/or CTF competitions.
When: February 22, 2025, 9:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. (Central)
Who Can Compete: 9th - 12th grade students. Maximum team size is 4 students. Each team must have a school representative; however, one person can represent multiple teams. Separate school representatives will only be required if a school has a team(s) competing in-person and a team(s) competing virtually. Teachers will receive a study guide to prepare students for competition after their team is registered.
Cost: There is no registration fee.
Prizes: There will be team awards for first, second, and third place in each division. Teams competing in person will be eligible for additional awards and prizes.
Registration Deadline: 1 February 2025.
Questions: If you have any additional questions about the competition, please contact Dr. Travis Atkison.
