Past competitions
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
- First Place Overall: Plaid Parliament of Pwning – Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Maverick Woo
- Second Place Overall: scriptohio – The Ohio State University, advised by Rajiv Ramnath
- Third Place Overall: ret2rev – Texas A&M University, advised by Martin Carlisle
- Additional Awards:
- Fortress Award: ret2rev – Texas A&M University, advised by Martin Carlisle
- Dedication and Preserverence Award: 0xDACC – Delaware Area Career Center, advised by Eli Cochran
- SCA Master Award: Plaid Parliament of Pwning – Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Maverick Woo
- SCA Master Award: TechSec – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, advised by Mengjia Yan
- Posters:
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
- First Place Overall: NUAV@NUsec – Northeastern University, advised by Guevara Noubir
- Second Place Overall: TAMU – Texas A&M University, advised by Martin Carlisle
- Third Place Overall: 0xDACC – Delaware Area Career Center, advised by Eli Cochran
- Additional Awards:
- First Try’s The Charm: TAMU – Texas A&M University, advised by Martin Carlisle
- Tech Support Hero: Adrian Self – Delaware Area Career Center
- Best Write-Up: GOATS – Worcester Polytechnic Institute, advised by Robert Walls
- Above and Beyond in Testing: Cacti – University at Buffalo, advised by Ziming Zhao
- Write-ups:
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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