2022 NSA Codebreaker Challenge

by TecoAndJix • 4 years ago

75 63 4 years ago

arjvik• 4 years ago

How have previous challenges worked?

Are they like puzzle hunts where you don't know what you're looking for? Or are you only responsible for breaking cryptographic codes?

NickRandom• 4 years ago

I think https://nsa-codebreaker.org/resources (about half-way down, in the "Technical Resources" section) might answer that?

72736379• 4 years ago

Take a look at the tasks from last year: https://github.com/luker983/nsa-codebreaker-2021

hatware• 4 years ago

I glanced at last year's, it looks like a pretty practical scavenger hunt with multiple steps and increasing difficulty. Pretty cool reading what goes into an exploit that would give someone a shell.

gpcr1949• 4 years ago

Sorry, that email domain is not recognized. -- An email address from a recognized U.S. school or university is required. If your school's domain is not recognized, please request it to be allowed by clicking HERE

edit: to add some comment: Too bad only this group can participate. Just wanted to have look what type of puzzles they are and recreationally have a stab at them.

nonrandomstring• 4 years ago

That's the first part of the test.

If you can't easily break into a university IT system what sort of hacker are you? :)

zen_1• 4 years ago

Apparently you used to be able to buy .edu emails quite cheaply on ebay and friends, I'm not sure if this is still the case though.

execveat2• 4 years ago

It's just a CTF focusing on forensics and reverse engineering. Here are the writeups from the 2021 challenge: https://github.com/luker983/nsa-codebreaker-2021

c7DJTLrn2• 4 years ago

You're not who they're looking for. They want young (and therefore cheap to employ), bright eyed kids who haven't yet developed a sense of ethics or learned of the atrocious things the NSA gets up to.

halJordan• 4 years ago

Gen Nakasone: "Cybersecurity is a critical priority for the nation."

You: You're disgusting and atrocious!

Seems like you're the one who has a problem.

adamsmith143• 4 years ago

Lol because working at Google or Facebook is so much better ethically? Give me a break.

cgb223• 4 years ago

I wish they would expand the participation to anyone who’s interested in code breaking or working at the NSA. I’d love to take a crack at it myself.

Also, some of the best security researchers I know never went to college. So people with non-traditional academic backgrounds are excluded from this which is a bummer

timmattison2• 4 years ago

The registration page just asks for an email address and a password. How are these people blocked from participating?

timmattison2• 4 years ago

Ah, other comments say that domain names are restricted. Missed that!

xedrac• 4 years ago

Apparently, that's the first challenge you must overcome to cracking the code...

can16358p• 4 years ago

403 Forbidden?

Is this the challenge or am I missing something?

wasyl• 4 years ago

I believe the site is not accessible from outside of the US — I also see 403 Forbidden, but when connecting with US VPN I see no error

edf13• 4 years ago

I can view from here in the UK… perhaps specific IP geo ranges blocked?

BrandoElFollito• 4 years ago

Works fine from France

pid_0• 4 years ago

No one should help the nsa or participate in anything they do.

no_time• 4 years ago

Winner's prize is a lifetime place on the federal cybersecurity watchlist I assume.

Test0129• 4 years ago

Typically the result is a job at the NSA. Though federal positions are criminally underpaid relative to their private counterparts so you have to really have a passion for the mission. Unsurprisingly the government is highly interested in finding talent cheaply. The winners will be responsible for taking a drug test and a polygraph though - which most people coming out of a CS program won't be able to pass ;D.

sneak• 4 years ago

If you win a job at the NSA then it's almost certain you will be added to a bunch of federal watchlists - just maybe not the USA's.

natas• 4 years ago

motohagiography• 4 years ago

If you are looking for more open challenges, both the 11b-x-1371 series and Cicada 3301 have unsolved stages. I have a copy of the last Cicada code book in a box somewhere, as it looked like a forked fake path, but it's a kitschy bit of internet apocrypha. Also, just do cryptopals (which I haven't actually done and still really should at some point). The John McAfee deadman switch puzzle looked like a hoax, but judging by the number of transactions on the $whackd blockchain and the stakes involved if even a fraction of what he was on about were true, it's plausible NSA or GCHQ got to it first. Those are just ones I can think of off the top of my head.

If nothing else has come out of the stream of scandals afflicting that agency, it's that they need better people. If you are eligible, do it, as you could be the change, and it appears the opportunity for improvement there is truly unlimited.

qsort• 4 years ago

just do cryptopals

Soul read.

I did the first two "chapters", then I had to stop for personal reasons and never picked it up again. Perhaps I should put it on my github as a mark of dishonor.

butler14• 4 years ago

imagine something being such a national priority you limit your pool of possible candidates to people with email addresses from specific universities

2022 NSA Codebreaker Challenge

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