Past competitions

2023 eCTF

Teams designed and implemented a key fob system for a car door lock. The system had to protect the car from unauthorized entry and prevent attacks like replays and key fob cloning.

View Rules – View Technical Specs – View Award Ceremony Slides

Full List of 2023 eCTF Scores
Rank School Final Score
1 Carnegie Mellon University 28158
2 University of California Santa Cruz 17167
3 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 12586
4 University at Buffalo 11885
5 Indian Institute of Technology Madras 11346
6 Purdue University 10419
7 Michigan State University 8680
8 Worcester Polytechnic Institute 8576
9 University of Massachusetts Amherst 5899
10 Singapore Management University 5210
11 Tufts University 4676
12 Virginia Tech 4052
13 University of New Haven 4044
14 Texas A&M University 3985
15 Florida Atlantic University 3969
16 University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 1 3816
17 University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 2 3743
18 University of Washington 3334
19 Morgan State University 2620
20 University of California Irvine 1897
21 Delaware Area Career Center 1562
22 University of North Dakota 1375
23 US Air Force Academy 1328
24 ISD 196 525
25 Georgia Institute of Technology 491
26 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 436
26 River Hill High School 436
28 University of Connecticut 431
29 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology 425
30 Clemson University 400
31 Florida International University 391
32 Marriotts Ridge High School 389
33 Symbiosis Institute of Technology 336
34 University of Dayton 325
35 Air Force Institute of Technology 300
35 Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University 300
37 University of Alabama in Huntsville 250
38 United States Military Academy 231
39 Indiana Institute of Technology 228
39 The Harker School 228
41 Thadomal Shahani Engineering College 225
41 Lakota East High School 225
41 Louisiana State University 225
41 University of Maryland College Park 225
45 Norfolk State University 213
46 BASIS Chandler 200
46 Baldwin Wallace University 200
48 Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School 191
48 University of Edinburgh 191
50 Mount Saint Dominic Academy 189
51 New York University 183
51 Penn State Abington 183
51 West Virginia University 183
55 University of New Hampshire 150
56 Springfield-Clark County CTC 136
57 University of Arizona 131
57 University of Texas at Arlington 131
59 Harmony Science Academy 128
60 North Carolina State University 113
View the 2023 eCTF Competition Page

2022 eCTF

Teams secured an avionic device by designing a secure firmware update system and bootloader. The system must protect intellectual property and aircraft mission secrets in an untrusted environment, and ensure firmware protection and integrity in the face of supply-chain threats such as hardware trojans.

View Rules – View Technical Specs

Full List of 2022 eCTF Scores
Rank School Final Score
1 Carnegie Mellon University 23541
2 The Ohio State University 18960
3 Texas A&M University 6011
4 University of California Irvine 4514
5 University at Buffalo 3293
6 Singapore Management University 3131
7 University of Massachusetts Amherst 3121
8 Delaware Area Career Center 2288
9 University of Connecticut 2102
10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 700
11 Michigan State University 700
12 University of Wyoming 600
13 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 500
14 University of New Hampshire 400
15 Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University 400
16 Florida International University 400
17 Nova Southeastern University 400
18 University of Colorado Boulder 400
19 Worcester Polytechnic Institute 400
20 Morgan State University 400
21 University of Texas at Dallas 400
22 Norfolk State University 300
23 University of Dayton 300
24 Baldwin Wallace University 300
25 Northeastern University 200
26 Virginia Tech University 200
27 Indiana Institute of Technology 200
28 Dakota State University 100

2021 ECTF

Teams designed a secure communications system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) package delivery system. The system had to be secure to prevent attackers from gaining access to the network to spy on and disrupt the UAV system. View Rules

2020 eCTF

Teams designed a secure audio digital rights management (DRM) module for a next-generation multimedia player on the Digilent Cora Z7. The system had to be secure to prevent users from playing pirated music, support region locking, and prevent the creation of cloned bootleg players.

View Rules – View Reference Design

  • First Place Overall: Husky Records – Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
  • Second Place Overall: Insecure Example – University of Cincinnati, advised by Carla Purdy
  • Third Place Overall: Cornell – Cornell University, advised by Daniel Weber
  • Fourth Place Overall: CyberGatorz – University of Florida, advised by Mark Tehranipoor
  • Additional Awards:
    • Best Documentation: Husky Records – Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
    • Best Write-Up: Husky Records – Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
    • Tech Support Hero: Husky Records – Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
    • First High School Submission: 0xDACC – Delaware Area Career Center, advised by Eli Cochran

2019 eCTF

Teams designed a secure video game console on the Digilent Arty Z7. The system had to attempt to protect the intellectual property of game designers, prevent users from loading their own software, and allow verified users to install and play games that they have purchased.

View Rules – View Reference Design

  • First Place Overall: DeNUvo — Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
  • Second Place Overall: ROP it like its hot — Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Martin Carlisle
  • Two-way tie for Third Place Overall:
    • ZOO_MES — University of Massachusetts, advised by Wayne Burleson
    • TigerBytes — Rochester Institute of Technology, advised by Ziming Zhao and Marcin Łukowiak
  • Additional Awards:
    • 0Day Award: ROP it like its hot — Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Martin Carlisle
    • Iron Flag: DeNUvo — Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
    • Best Writeup: ROP it like its hot — Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Martin Carlisle
    • Best Documentation: DeNUvo — Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
    • Tech Support Hero: ZOO_MES — University of Massachusetts, advised by Wayne Burleson

2018 eCTF

Teams designed a secure ATM-bank system.

View Rules – View Reference Design

  • First Place Overall: Hokie Hackers – Virginia Tech, advised by Matthew Hicks and Patrick Schaumont
  • Second Place Overall: Anonymous Elephants – Tufts University, advised by Ming Chow
  • Third Place Overall: VuPenn – University of Pennsylvania, advised by James Weimer
  • Additional Awards:
    • First To Market: TechSec – MIT
    • Iron Flag 1: HokieHackers – Virginia Tech, advised by Matthew Hicks and Patrick Schaumont
    • Iron Flag 2: 0xbu – Boston University, advised by Renato Mancuso
    • Golden Flag: VuPenn – University of Pennsylvania, advised by James Weimer
    • Flag Factory: HokieHackers – Virginia Tech, advised by Matthew Hicks and Patrick Schaumont
    • Best Documentation: Nullify – University of Nebraska, Omaha, advised by Bill Mahoney
    • Best Writeup: Anonymous Elephants – Tufts University, advised by Ming Chow

2017 eCTF

Teams designed a secure bootloader for a self-driving car.

View Rules – View Reference Design

  • First Place Overall: Firmware Dogs – University of Connecticut, advised by John Chandy
  • Mass Attack Winner: Team Sprite – Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
  • Iron Flag Winners:
    • Firmware Dogs – University of Connecticut, advised by John Chandy
    • pgm_read_flag() – Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Martin Carlisle
    • Snorlax – University of Massachusetts-Amherst, advised by Dan Holcomb

2016 eCTF

In the inaugural eCTF, teams designed a secure pin door lock system.

View Rules – View Reference Design

  • First Place Overall: We’re Probably Insecure – Worcester Polytechnic Institute, advised by Thomas Eisenbarth
  • Most Flag Points: WillHax4Snacks – Northeastern University, advised by Yunsi Fei
  • Iron Flag: Tufts eCTF – Tufts University, advised by Ming Chow

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