What you will learn
- Parse and transform evidence
- Break investigations into testable steps
- Automate repetitive security analysis
Programming Challenges for CTF and Security
Write small programs to transform data, automate investigation, and solve security tasks that do not scale by hand.
Programming challenges
47 challenges available.
Programming Level 1 09. Python Automation - File Reading
In security work, programming is essential for processing large amounts of data. In this challenge, you'll use Python…
Programming Level 2 API Requests - Find the Highest-Profit Trade
Start the stock API on localhost:9102, find the transaction with the largest sell_price - buy_price across all…
Programming Level 2 Python Practice - Bulk Base64 Stream Decoding
data.txt contains 100+ Base64 strings. Exactly one decodes to the FLAG injected at startup; decode every line to find…
Programming Level 2 Python Practice - Conditional CSV Sales Filtering
Runtime-generated data.txt is a sales CSV. The notes of the one row with amount >= 10000, status completed, and a SEC-…
Programming Level 2 Python Practice - Compound JSON User Query
In runtime-generated JSON data.txt, find the only user whose role is admin, active is true, and email contains…
Programming Level 2 Python Practice - Target-IP Access Log Tracing
Runtime-generated data.txt is a 1200-line access log. Filter for 192.168.1.100 and find the FLAG among those lines.
Programming Level 2 Python Automation - Bulk Base64 Decoding
data.txt holds 100+ base64-encoded strings, one per line. Decode them all and find the flag (the line starting with…
Programming Level 2 Python Automation - CSV Sales Filtering
data.txt is a sales CSV (transaction_id,date,product_id,amount,status,notes). Find the single transaction with amount…
Programming Level 2 Python Automation - JSON User Query
data.txt is JSON containing many users. Find the single user whose role is admin, active is true, and email contains…
Programming Level 2 Python Automation - Access Log Parsing
data.txt is an access log of 1000+ lines. Extract the lines from IP 192.168.1.100 and find the flag (FLAG{...}) among…
Programming Level 2 Python Automation - Password Hash Cracking
data.txt holds many sha256 hashes. The flag was split into ordered chunks; each chunk is hashed as…
Programming Level 2 Programming - Bash Job Log Analysis
jobs.log is generated from the FLAG injected at startup. Filter successful archive jobs, order parts, reverse values,…
Programming Level 2 Programming - PIN Brute Force
vault.json is generated from the FLAG injected at startup. Brute-force the 0000–9999 PIN SHA-256 and XOR-decrypt with…
Programming Level 2 Programming - Hash Verification and Decryption
artifact-manifest.json is generated from the FLAG injected at startup. Verify each data SHA-256, XOR-decrypt with…
Programming Level 2 Programming - Binary TLV Parsing
capture.bin is generated from the FLAG injected at startup. Parse KBIN TLV records and XOR-decode type 0x42 with 0x5A…
Programming Level 2 Regular Expressions - The One-Time Golden Glyph
Extract every KINO-four-digits-four-uppercase glyph from data.txt, identify the one occurring once, and submit it to…
Programming Level 3 Python Automation - SQLite Database Analysis
data.db is a business SQLite database (users / orders / audit_log). The flag hides in the security_note of the single…
Programming Level 3 Python Automation - Custom Cipher Decryption
cipher.txt holds the flag encrypted with a custom cipher (hex). Encryption applies per byte: add (key), xor…
Programming Level 3 Python Automation - Encrypted ZIP Password Cracking
secret.zip is a ZIP encrypted with a weak password and contains flag.txt. Use the shipped wordlist.txt and Python's…
Programming Level 3 Algorithms - BFS Shortest Path Through a Maze
Use BFS to find the shortest path from S to E in data.txt, then submit the UDLR move sequence to challenge.py. A…
Programming Level 3 Programming - SQLite Evidence Database
evidence.db is generated from the FLAG injected at startup. JOIN users/access_log and Base64-decode the top…
Programming Level 3 Programming - Web Scraping Graph Traversal
site.json is generated from the FLAG injected at startup. Follow ordered link-graph comments and join Base64 fragments…
Programming Level 3 Programming - ZIP Password Recovery
archive.json is generated from the FLAG injected at startup. Find the wordlist password matching password_sha256 and…
Programming Level 3 Programming - Packet Log Analysis
capture.txt is generated from the FLAG injected at startup. Select flow=exfil payload_hex and XOR-decrypt with 0x5A to…