In my last post on Digikrieg we discussed how easy it is to join a competition using the platform. But did you know that with Digikrieg you can also host your own capture the flag style competition for free? It’s easy.

Getting Started

The first thing you’re going to need is an account. Don’t worry, signing up is free and easy. To start, head over to https://digikrieg.com.

You can register for an account by selecting the “Register” button.

Then fill in your information.

That’s it.

Now go back and login as your new user.

Once you login, you’ll be greeted with a message informing you that your account does not have any competitions it is registered for. If you want to register for a competition go to my previous blog post “An Introduction to Digikrieg” to learn how.

For now we’re going to work on creating our own competition. On the navbar at the top, click “Create.”

Creating a Competition

Now we’re in creator mode. You’ll first be greeted with this lovely prompt informing you that you do not have a competition you currently run. That’s good. Let’s click “yes” to create one now. This will open the creation wizard.

The first thing we will be asked to do is to enter the basics. The title and Description of the competition.

Next we will select a hosting size for our comp. As of my writing this there are only two options, you can choose small or large. Large however is a restricted feature. So you’ll need to choose small. This should be sufficient for most competitions.

Now we will be put into the competition control panel on the level editor tab. The tabs are located below the competition title (in this case right below the “My Competition.”) and are “Levels”, “Users”, “Scoreboard”, and “Meta-Settings.” We will start with the level editor since that’s where we are.

You can fill out the Level Briefing to include any information that your competitors might need to know in order to complete the level. When you’re ready to start adding questions simple click the big green “Add Question.”

This will create a blank question. Fill in the values for the three fields. The “Question” field will be the prompt presented to the competitors. The Value field is the amount of points awarded for successfully answering the question (must be an integer). And the Answer is the case sensitive answer for the question. At this time only one answer is supported. Keep in mind that the competitors will have to enter the answer exactly in order to be scored as correct.

Don’t forget to save the question before moving on to another. You can only edit one question at a time so if you keep adding questions without saving one, when you go to save one it will delete all your other work. SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!

Next we will check out the Users tab.

The Users tab lets you manage the competitors’ registrations. As covered in my previous blog post in order for a user to register, they will need a registration code. This is where you’ll create those codes. Tap the green “Generate” button.

You’ll be prompted as to how many uses you would like the code to have. No code may have unlimited uses. It can however has as few or as many as you’d like.

There’s your new Registration Code. Give this code (exactly as it is, including dashes) to users who want to register.

The final page we’ll check out is the “Meta-Settings” tab. This tab allows you to delete the competition (if you so choose). It also gives you the power to open/close the competition. The competition is closed by default. This means that users can register, but nobody can see or answer any of the questions until you open it. This enables you to have a fair competition in which everyone gets registered ahead of time, then all start at once. It also allows you to stop the competition at a set time and see the results without having to deal with people in the background trying to sneak in overtime answers.

The color of the button indicates what action will be taken when you press it. If the button is green the competition is currently closed, but will be opened when you click “Switch Status.” And if the button is red the competition is currently open, but will be closed if you press the button.

A landing page will confirm which action was taken.

In Closing

Digikrieg is a free to use platform for hosting your own infosec style CTFs. Build, compete, and score all for free. Hopefully you’ll find it as useful as I do.

As always, any questions, comments, or concerns can be directed to @Zaeyx on Twitter.