[00:04.210 --> 00:05.090]  All right.
[00:05.090 --> 00:06.150]  Hello, everyone.
[00:06.410 --> 00:15.150]  I'm Pone EIP, and what we want to do today is just talk a bit about the Red Team CTF that we're going to host at DEF CON in just two weeks.
[00:15.310 --> 00:22.630]  With me, I have Nock Researcher, another organizer in the Red Team Village and creator of the Red Team CTF.
[00:22.630 --> 00:23.710]  And we have two guests.
[00:23.710 --> 00:27.370]  We've got Ipsek, as well as Dark.
[00:27.370 --> 00:30.250]  I'd like you two to introduce yourselves.
[00:30.930 --> 00:31.430]  Yeah.
[00:31.430 --> 00:32.890]  So, I'm Ipsek.
[00:32.890 --> 00:34.430]  You probably know me from YouTube.
[00:34.430 --> 00:39.930]  I do weekly CTF videos, walkthroughs, and occasionally I do other types of videos.
[00:39.930 --> 00:40.890]  I work for Hack the Box.
[00:40.890 --> 00:43.710]  I think I've worked here for about three years now.
[00:43.710 --> 00:45.710]  So, I'll pass it over to Dark.
[00:46.190 --> 00:47.070]  Awesome.
[00:47.130 --> 00:48.030]  Thanks, Ip.
[00:48.130 --> 00:48.870]  I'm Dark.
[00:48.870 --> 00:59.010]  As I've said, I have worked at Hack the Box since November of this last year, but I've been involved with the wider cybersecurity training community for about four or five years now.
[00:59.590 --> 01:00.090]  Yeah.
[01:00.090 --> 01:05.470]  No, I work at Hack the Box as a community specialist to handling community operations for North America.
[01:07.430 --> 01:11.550]  Hey, Nock, will you tell everybody exactly what we did this year that's unique?
[01:12.590 --> 01:13.110]  Sure.
[01:13.110 --> 01:18.370]  So, for this year, we wanted to kind of do something different, just like we do every year in the past.
[01:18.710 --> 01:21.010]  So, for this one, we kind of themed it based on Fallout.
[01:21.170 --> 01:24.430]  So, we'll have a lot of our standard kind of Jeopardy board challenges.
[01:24.630 --> 01:32.790]  But similar to what you saw in the past years with the finals round, I don't want to spill any beans from what Ipsac is going to talk about.
[01:32.790 --> 01:36.150]  But again, just kind of the Fallout theme will be throughout the entire thing.
[01:36.150 --> 01:40.670]  So, you'll get a little more immersive story, kind of similar to some of the stories we did in the past.
[01:40.670 --> 01:41.890]  So, I'm really excited.
[01:41.890 --> 01:45.550]  If you're a huge Fallout fan, you'll definitely have a lot of little Easter eggs and things to come.
[01:46.410 --> 01:47.030]  Awesome.
[01:47.030 --> 01:50.570]  And one thing that we did this year was we partnered with Hack the Box.
[01:50.570 --> 01:57.270]  So, we're going to have half of our event time allotted for qualifiers, where we've got Jeopardy board style CTF.
[01:57.270 --> 02:01.150]  That's going to be hosted on our platform on threadsims.com.
[02:01.150 --> 02:14.830]  But then for the finals, we're leveraging the really refined platform that Hack the Box has had for years in order to have an immersive scenario where we've got a unique environment built for each team that makes it to finals.
[02:14.930 --> 02:21.910]  With that being said, I'd like to ask, what was some of the inspiration about developing the CTF and Ipsac?
[02:21.910 --> 02:25.670]  What sort of challenges were you aiming to present to the players?
[02:25.870 --> 02:29.610]  Yeah, so this lab environment is something I wanted to exist for a while.
[02:29.770 --> 02:34.830]  I put a lot of my favorite exploits I've done from work and previous CTFs I've seen.
[02:35.030 --> 02:38.550]  It's really tough to say too much without spilling the actual beans.
[02:38.550 --> 02:48.430]  There's at least one pivoting challenge that I think a lot of people will be questioning if they're actually still in a virtual environment, just because I haven't seen this type of simulation done before.
[02:48.430 --> 03:00.610]  A lot of the exploits are relatively basic and easy to find, but there's going to be small tricks like evasion techniques that you have to do in order to get the shells you want.
[03:01.250 --> 03:09.890]  And about the things I've done in previous CTFs, there's a lot of post-exploitation that's definitely not opposite friendly that you're going to have to do in this.
[03:10.270 --> 03:19.530]  It's one I only really pull out for like CCDC, because whenever I try to do it professionally, there is call me crazy and say something like that is out of scope.
[03:19.530 --> 03:24.210]  But real threat actors are doing it, and I don't see a lot of people talk around these type of techniques.
[03:24.210 --> 03:33.010]  So it's going to be put into this lab, and then some months after Red Team Village, we're going to make it available to everyone on Hack the Box through a pro lab.
[03:33.670 --> 03:35.970]  That's going to be really cool to see.
[03:35.990 --> 03:44.730]  And what Ipsig didn't get into is a hint for any players is to just stay current on the exploits of the year.
[03:44.730 --> 03:56.710]  We definitely like to use those as a basis for the CTFs that we run, because it's kind of nice to revisit all of the pain that we felt in the last year if you're on the blue team, and all the fun that we had on the red team.
[03:56.810 --> 04:02.730]  And so definitely stay current, take a look at the popular CVEs of the year, and that might be a big hint.
[04:05.310 --> 04:05.950]  Definitely.
[04:06.190 --> 04:15.830]  So I know we kind of talked a little bit at the beginning, and then definitely Ipsig touched on it a bit, but Dark, I just kind of wanted to ask, how does this Capture the Flag event differ from some of the others?
[04:15.830 --> 04:20.750]  What are the unique experiences that participants can expect during it?
[04:21.130 --> 04:34.230]  Well, this year really is going to be something truly special, and even just as someone that's helping with the CTF, I'm just excited to see what players are going to... what their experience is going to be like, because it is such a nice environment.
[04:34.410 --> 04:45.950]  This year, so as Pone, EAP, and Knopp, you mentioned, it's going to be hosted on the Hack the Box platform, so everyone will have their own unique infrastructure, which is just really nice.
[04:45.950 --> 04:53.150]  It's a huge quality of life thing, and it's something that we're very proud to bring that to the red team CTF, and especially the DEF CON environment.
[04:53.210 --> 05:00.290]  Beyond that, Knopp, you mentioned that this is Fallout themed, and as a huge Fallout nerd, I couldn't be more excited.
[05:00.290 --> 05:08.670]  You know, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 3, it's all... that DNA is baked in, and it's something that you're going to see as well in the swag, too.
[05:09.190 --> 05:10.270]  Pardon me.
[05:10.270 --> 05:11.830]  Pone, EAP, you mentioned...
[05:12.910 --> 05:21.530]  so I know you've tweeted a couple pictures about this, but the badge itself is a Pip-Boy, and that really ties in nicely with this lab.
[05:22.270 --> 05:24.910]  Beyond that, let's see.
[05:24.910 --> 05:36.370]  So I know we mentioned this as already briefly, but the lab itself is going to be paused during the evening, and that's really meant to encourage you to do a little bit more than just, you know, be on the lab.
[05:36.410 --> 05:41.450]  Give you something to do in the evening, go socialize, go hang out with other folks, and really enjoy your time at DEF CON.
[05:41.450 --> 05:51.010]  And that's something that hasn't necessarily been done in the years past, and as someone that loves the CTF, but also loves everything that DEF CON has to offer, that's huge for me.
[05:51.010 --> 05:59.130]  That means that I can go out at night, players can go out at night and enjoy meeting other folks, go enjoy the networking, enjoy what you're going to find there in Vegas as well.
[05:59.190 --> 06:00.770]  All really huge stuff.
[06:00.770 --> 06:06.470]  And then the last bit was, it mentioned this, it's going to be available as a pro lab, which is just super cool.
[06:06.530 --> 06:15.470]  I love doing this after the event, and really getting the opportunity to dig my teeth into that is going to be something really special, and I couldn't be more excited.
[06:16.430 --> 06:42.330]  It is fantastic to have not only the sponsorship from Hack the Box, I've been a huge sponsor of The Village for the last couple years, but you know, I'd like to ask, what would you say that the involvement of Hack the Box in the community, like what does it do for fostering talent out in the field and improving sort of the quality of individuals in the defense and offense?
[06:43.390 --> 06:48.810]  Yeah, so I think it helps get so many more people into this field.
[06:48.810 --> 06:56.010]  I know when I was learning security, I think the troubles I had were mainly there wasn't enough information out there to learn.
[06:56.130 --> 07:01.570]  And I think the trouble a lot of people have nowadays is there's too much information out there for people to learn.
[07:01.570 --> 07:08.550]  I think Hack the Box does a really good job at putting quality content in front of you without a huge price tag.
[07:08.850 --> 07:11.890]  And also, like, just doing these events.
[07:11.890 --> 07:17.230]  Everyone talks about how much you can learn from CTFs or how much harder CTFs are than the real job.
[07:17.430 --> 07:27.490]  And me, honestly, I don't know if the skills I've gained doing CTFs, which I didn't go to college, so 100% of my skills came from these CTFs, is the most thing I would value.
[07:27.490 --> 07:41.090]  I mean, I think the friendships I've gained along the ways from doing various CTFs, not just Hack the Box, but going to conferences, doing other CTFs, like, I value those friendships a lot more than the skills I've gained.
[07:41.330 --> 07:54.550]  Because there's gonna be countless times, like, that I just didn't have the skill to do something, but then I go ask friends like Barry, Dark, OXDF, Knopp, and asking them helps me get those skills.
[07:54.550 --> 07:55.850]  It also keeps me sane.
[07:55.850 --> 07:58.370]  And this is a hard field to stay sane in.
[07:58.370 --> 08:03.990]  So, yeah, it's definitely the friendships, I would say, that the CTFs help so much.
[08:03.990 --> 08:12.050]  And again, as Dark said, Red Team Village is shutting off access to lab overnight to encourage socialization, which I absolutely love.
[08:13.130 --> 08:14.030]  Heck yeah.
[08:14.850 --> 08:16.930]  Oh, it's really cool.
[08:17.050 --> 08:25.910]  Just to add on to that very briefly, this is something that that whole friendship, being in the trenches with other people, there's so much to be enjoyed there.
[08:25.910 --> 08:41.630]  My previous experiences doing attack defense competitions, it's really about being in that hot seat, that it really pushes your confidence from, hey, I've done a bunch of CTFs, to, hey, wait a minute, I've actually done these realistic hacks, I've done,
[08:41.630 --> 08:47.750]  I've been in these realistic scenarios, and now I have the confidence to go out and I can interview, I can do these more challenging labs.
[08:47.750 --> 08:49.850]  And there's so much to be said about that.
[08:49.850 --> 08:58.930]  Just even the experience of trying it, even if you don't get anywhere, there's so much just to learn from really that experience of almost hitting the brick wall.
[09:00.330 --> 09:02.770]  You know, the brick wall is going to move eventually, right?
[09:06.100 --> 09:06.820]  Definitely.
[09:06.920 --> 09:14.980]  So Ipsek, you definitely shared, you know, kind of hinted about like some friendships and, you know, some of the, I'd say, battles that we've had during some CTFs.
[09:15.620 --> 09:25.420]  So I was just kind of wondering, could you share maybe some more memorable moments or success stories from previous Capture the Flag competitions that don't involve, like, owning my team, you know, maybe something else?
[09:27.120 --> 09:29.220]  You got some battle scars there?
[09:31.920 --> 09:35.800]  So you kind of hit it already, like, what I wanted to talk about with this question.
[09:35.800 --> 09:39.000]  Like, this interview is certainly a success story, right?
[09:39.000 --> 09:45.700]  I met, like, my best CTF buddy, OXDF, because of a shared interest in Hack the Box.
[09:45.700 --> 09:48.900]  We just happened to be at a SANS Networks event together.
[09:48.960 --> 09:51.600]  We met because we're, like, the two Hack the Box players.
[09:51.600 --> 09:54.120]  This was, like, five years ago before it was super popular.
[09:54.400 --> 10:00.220]  And we made a Networks team, and it's been, like, five years now, and we haven't stopped talking.
[10:00.320 --> 10:05.800]  So OXDF's definitely a big success story from CTFs.
[10:05.800 --> 10:06.980]  I'm not talking about, like, his success.
[10:06.980 --> 10:09.100]  I'm just talking about the friendship it gained.
[10:09.100 --> 10:10.200]  And it's not just his.
[10:10.200 --> 10:12.880]  Like, as Wes mentioned, we do a lot of CTFs.
[10:12.880 --> 10:14.900]  I know Wes through CTFs.
[10:14.900 --> 10:15.960]  I also know Barry.
[10:15.960 --> 10:19.580]  Barry was, DerbyCon, I believe.
[10:19.760 --> 10:22.880]  And he met a mutual friend of mine, Kyle.
[10:23.060 --> 10:26.400]  And Kyle was also on the SANS Networks team with me and OXDF.
[10:26.400 --> 10:27.460]  And Kyle brought him in.
[10:27.460 --> 10:30.140]  I think they probably did a CTF at DerbyCon together.
[10:30.260 --> 10:31.140]  I don't know.
[10:32.140 --> 10:34.720]  Barry is a big socializer at all conferences.
[10:34.720 --> 10:37.120]  So it could be any way he met Kyle.
[10:37.120 --> 10:39.800]  But he brought him into the SANS Networks team back in the day.
[10:39.800 --> 10:43.840]  And then we just spent, like, the event would be one weekend.
[10:44.000 --> 10:46.840]  It would probably, I think, be, like, two four-hour nights.
[10:46.840 --> 10:57.980]  The whole month prior, we were just building a bunch of crazy post-exploitation tricks and things like that to go throw at unsuspecting teams like Wes over there.
[10:57.980 --> 11:00.160]  And it was just so much fun.
[11:00.160 --> 11:04.820]  Like, I would not trade anything in the world for all the friendships I've gained there.
[11:05.940 --> 11:09.000]  It really was a ton of fun.
[11:09.000 --> 11:15.440]  We were pretty lucky slash fortunate to be able to build a stack team.
[11:15.660 --> 11:18.020]  We came in with custom tooling.
[11:18.860 --> 11:24.600]  Ipsec wrote his own custom C2 that we used in order to control all the boxes that we phoned.
[11:24.660 --> 11:30.840]  We had a variety of tricks that we were going to use because it was all about castle versus castle at the end there.
[11:30.940 --> 11:35.200]  I know that Kyle and I, we showed up with two rootkits for the Linux systems.
[11:35.200 --> 11:38.840]  And so we knew there was the bone already.
[11:38.840 --> 11:41.240]  We knew what the prevest was and we automated attacks.
[11:41.240 --> 11:42.540]  We captured these systems.
[11:42.540 --> 11:48.780]  The first time we learned we would lock out the other teams and they would get it reverted.
[11:48.780 --> 11:50.800]  We wouldn't have a chance to score.
[11:50.800 --> 11:59.200]  The next year, though, we learned that we should get in, basically, you know, cover our tracks, lay down two rootkits, and then just mess with them.
[11:59.200 --> 12:00.880]  Mess with them the whole time.
[12:01.140 --> 12:11.880]  And I know that there was the second place team or KPASA zombies, they were ready to strangle us because they couldn't figure out how we kept scoring on their system.
[12:11.880 --> 12:13.520]  We used a little trick.
[12:13.520 --> 12:25.160]  But the last question we had about what's the value of the CTFs, the socializing of friends, the building skills, just forcing you to learn a new technology to get prepared for an event.
[12:25.160 --> 12:26.440]  That takes time.
[12:26.440 --> 12:29.520]  If you want to be competitive, you don't just show up to a CTF.
[12:29.520 --> 12:30.940]  You've done some preparations.
[12:30.940 --> 12:32.420]  You've got your own tools.
[12:32.420 --> 12:35.140]  You've got your cross compiled binaries if you need them.
[12:35.200 --> 12:37.900]  You've got everything configured, right?
[12:38.000 --> 12:42.120]  That's not the time to configure networking on at the beginning of a CTF.
[12:42.120 --> 12:44.080]  You should show up ready to go.
[12:46.500 --> 12:48.300]  And one last thing.
[12:48.300 --> 12:54.820]  I do want to point out, this is going to be probably about 75% of the size of the Pro Lab for this.
[12:54.880 --> 12:58.680]  And one of the things I strive to do is not make it linear.
[12:58.680 --> 13:03.960]  So anytime there's a credential you need to get onto a box, I'm putting that credential in multiple places.
[13:04.040 --> 13:16.660]  So after this event, definitely talk with other teams to see how you did some things, because you may have gotten on a box, but they got on a completely different way, or they stole a credential in some unique way that you just never thought about.
[13:16.660 --> 13:26.720]  So definitely, even if you've already solved it, talk with the other people to figure out how they solved it, because I can almost guarantee you there's going to be some differences there.
[13:26.840 --> 13:30.180]  And those differences, knowing it, makes you such a better hacker.
[13:32.800 --> 13:34.920]  You know, and just a quick one on that.
[13:34.920 --> 13:39.080]  Actually, Wes, you want to give the note-taking spiel real quick?
[13:40.140 --> 13:41.240]  Oh, man.
[13:41.440 --> 13:45.380]  Yeah, that's the biggest thing, is just taking notes as you go along.
[13:45.440 --> 13:50.760]  I don't know, you know, when I very first started off doing CTFs, I wasn't taking notes.
[13:50.760 --> 13:55.900]  And then, you know, you get somewhere like so deep into network, you're like, you get dropped or something like, I don't know how I got here.
[13:55.900 --> 13:57.140]  You got to start all over.
[13:57.480 --> 14:03.020]  So definitely, I just can't stress enough, just taking notes, just so you understand how things work.
[14:03.840 --> 14:07.620]  You know, where you got a particular exploit from, because you're probably going to see it again, right?
[14:08.120 --> 14:10.120]  In different CTFs.
[14:10.180 --> 14:18.960]  And then definitely, as you work with other teams, and you want to be able to compare notes and kind of talk things through, it's way better to be like, I did this, this, this, versus like, man, I don't know, it was all blur.
[14:18.960 --> 14:21.340]  I'm not sure exactly what I did, but I got a flag, right?
[14:21.560 --> 14:23.520]  So definitely, I can't stress it enough.
[14:23.520 --> 14:32.940]  I don't care how you take notes, whatever it is, you know, whether it's, you know, Vim or Notepad, Cherry Plus or Cherry Tree, whatever, just take notes.
[14:33.720 --> 14:35.180]  That's all that matters.
[14:35.960 --> 14:41.540]  Yeah, to be able to, you know, collaborate with others afterwards, notes are good.
[14:41.540 --> 14:47.120]  And of course, right, for us, we talk a lot about playing a CTF and applying those skills to real life.
[14:47.120 --> 14:57.660]  In real life and offensive security, you must take notes, it is absolutely necessary, because at the end of whatever you're doing, there's a report that needs to be generated that gets sent to the other side to get fixed.
[14:57.660 --> 15:08.060]  And if you don't have notes, then you're not going to have a thorough enough report, or you're going to be spending a lot of time tracing your footsteps to try to build that report out.
[15:08.060 --> 15:11.000]  And so that's one of those, you know, easy lessons learned.
[15:11.000 --> 15:14.560]  It goes both ways, CTFs, real life, back and forth.
[15:15.880 --> 15:18.900]  Doug, I had a question for you on the community side.
[15:18.900 --> 15:28.420]  Can you talk to us a little bit more about how Hack the Box collaborates, you know, with other organizations or individuals to strengthen the InfoSec community?
[15:28.680 --> 15:29.460]  Oh, I'd love to.
[15:29.460 --> 15:31.860]  This is one of my favorite things that we do as a company .
[15:31.880 --> 15:39.060]  When I joined, one of the things that I actually talked to the team about when I was joining was their investment in the community.
[15:39.220 --> 15:47.260]  And that was something that really struck me with Hack the Box is the sheer amount of investment that we really look to make in the community overall.
[15:47.260 --> 15:53.080]  And it's not just focused investment, you know, with events like this, it's across the community on the whole.
[15:53.260 --> 15:58.880]  And one of the things that I'm really proud about there is we do love to give to smaller events.
[15:59.900 --> 16:00.860]  Pardon me.
[16:00.860 --> 16:12.600]  But smaller things like if you have a cyber defense club, we have a large number of meetups all around the globe at this point that we sponsor, provide prizes with, and really love helping out with.
[16:12.600 --> 16:19.100]  Other smaller events, like if you have a small local conference, definitely reach out to us because it's something that we love to get involved with.
[16:19.300 --> 16:20.860]  Schools as well.
[16:20.860 --> 16:30.040]  And anything that if you are going out and trying to make a really good environment for cyber in your community, that's something that we would love to be involved with.
[16:30.040 --> 16:32.640]  And we really would love to give you all the support that we can there.
[16:34.760 --> 16:36.220]  Now, thanks so much, Dart.
[16:36.660 --> 16:43.720]  I think, you know, something that Pony IP and myself kind of struggle with at times, right, is, you know, creating CTFs, right?
[16:43.720 --> 16:49.060]  We love always just trying to find that unique thing, trying to separate us from some of the other CTFs that are out there.
[16:49.060 --> 16:54.360]  And that's why, you know, we're so grateful to kind of partner with Hack the Box this year, just do something totally different than last time.
[16:54.960 --> 17:02.520]  But I think one of the things, you know, that we... sometimes it's super easy to come up with, you know, CTF challenges just from work.
[17:02.540 --> 17:06.260]  Hey, like, I'm used to these kind of, you know, hey, this is something that's all real world.
[17:06.740 --> 17:12.260]  Other times, you know, it is a bit of a gamification of just trying to figure out, like, hey, what's a good vuln?
[17:12.260 --> 17:12.720]  What's this?
[17:12.720 --> 17:13.720]  How can I do this?
[17:13.740 --> 17:28.200]  So I really kind of wanted to kind of pick at that, Nick, and just kind of, like, how do you go about, you know, with all the different security, like, cybersecurity threats that are out there, how does, like, you and Hack the Box, how do you kind of stay ahead of that and design challenges with those,
[17:28.200 --> 17:30.480]  you know, kind of real world scenarios?
[17:31.700 --> 17:40.420]  Yeah, so that's one of the things that makes Hack the Box great, is we have an amazing community that makes many of our boxes.
[17:40.540 --> 17:44.660]  So whenever someone submits a box, it goes through what we call the release committee.
[17:44.660 --> 17:50.080]  That's like me, OXDF, Manos, TRX, a lot of other great people at Hack the Box.
[17:50.080 --> 17:52.240]  Oh, man, it's really stormy if you heard that.
[17:55.460 --> 18:03.380]  So we just kind of do the QA, but CTFs kind of stay on the bleeding edge of security by default.
[18:03.420 --> 18:13.440]  I think, like, these whole events or CTFs started out as a way for professionals to share what they've seen or done in the wild without, like, disclosing their client, optimizing security.
[18:13.440 --> 18:17.400]  It's just a great way to share knowledge and share the tricks they did.
[18:17.400 --> 18:20.380]  Because at the end of the day, security is a puzzle to a lot of us.
[18:20.380 --> 18:26.080]  And when we solve the puzzle, we want to be able to tell other people about that puzzle, share that experience.
[18:26.180 --> 18:29.200]  And making CTFs is how we do it.
[18:29.200 --> 18:34.700]  And a lot of people do that, then they share the CTF with Hack the Box, so we can share it with the whole world.
[18:37.640 --> 18:40.420]  We just can't help it.
[18:40.420 --> 18:47.260]  Throughout this interview, we kept digging into, like, tips and tricks, as well as, you know, good takeaways for CTFs.
[18:47.880 --> 18:52.680]  You know, we touched on a couple of the high points.
[18:52.680 --> 19:00.300]  I wanted to ask Ipsek, do you have any advice for those that are aspiring cybersecurity enthusiasts?
[19:00.300 --> 19:03.100]  What can they do to get involved in CTFs?
[19:03.100 --> 19:06.320]  What kind of skills can they advance by participating?
[19:07.000 --> 19:17.760]  I would say most aspiring people, if you're like me, at least five or six years ago, you're scared, and you have, like, imposter syndrome, and you're just afraid to do it.
[19:17.760 --> 19:20.020]  There's some type of anxiety that's stopping you.
[19:20.020 --> 19:20.740]  My advice?
[19:20.740 --> 19:21.820]  Just do it.
[19:22.020 --> 19:26.640]  No matter what, you're going to come out with something you didn't have going in, right?
[19:26.800 --> 19:30.700]  And even if you're a beginner, like, you can help those advanced teams out.
[19:30.700 --> 19:37.620]  There's going to be so many things that you could be doing just to help out that aren't really super challenging to do.
[19:37.620 --> 19:42.460]  It's just a lot of the basic things that we just don't have on hand.
[19:42.460 --> 19:45.640]  So we talked a lot about, like, note-taking and things like that.
[19:45.680 --> 19:57.100]  Well, if you can go and reproduce a lot of the exploits your team did, or ways to log into applications, then you can have some type of script that goes and tests other credentials.
[19:57.100 --> 19:59.200]  Let's say you just got a new credential.
[19:59.500 --> 20:04.200]  You're not going to go back and try that credential into, like, five different web apps.
[20:04.400 --> 20:07.340]  You could try, but it's very tough to do.
[20:07.340 --> 20:10.060]  Not many people do it in CTFs.
[20:10.060 --> 20:14.340]  And oftentimes, you can waste an hour and be like, man, I should have just tried that credential.
[20:14.460 --> 20:21.960]  So if you had a script that you could just input that new credential, it would go test a login of three things or a few other things you did.
[20:22.000 --> 20:23.960]  That could be highly beneficial.
[20:23.960 --> 20:29.500]  And I think that's within the realm of anyone, especially with, like, GitHub Copilot Chat GPT nowadays.
[20:29.580 --> 20:42.900]  Like, just being that person to allow your team to slow down and take notes properly, do documentation, create things to reproduce it, while the other people are going blazing fast.
[20:42.900 --> 20:45.460]  Or maybe you want to go that blazing fast one, right?
[20:45.820 --> 20:46.700]  Just do it.
[20:46.700 --> 20:47.600]  Find a team.
[20:47.600 --> 20:50.480]  I promise you, you won't regret it.
[20:51.540 --> 20:53.240]  Thanks a lot for mentioning that, Nick.
[20:53.240 --> 21:03.160]  I think that's one of the big things, that bit of, like, the origin story, right, is Pony IP and myself, you know, and a bunch of our friends, we're all CTFing.
[21:03.620 --> 21:05.260]  And we just had a great time.
[21:05.260 --> 21:13.260]  And as we started kind of building those tools to automate things, try to, you know, do attacks at scale, you need to be able to test those tools.
[21:13.260 --> 21:18.160]  So then we started creating, like, hey, let me set up, like, an instance of this, a vulnerable instance of this.
[21:18.260 --> 21:23.480]  And then eventually we got to, you know, that idea one time where it was just like, hey, why don't we create a CTF?
[21:23.680 --> 21:27.020]  And then that's, you know, like a bit of that kind of origin story.
[21:27.420 --> 21:32.100]  And it was just kind of like a way for us to kind of give back to that community and kind of get more involved.
[21:32.100 --> 21:39.120]  So I want to kind of ask you, Dark, what else is Hack the Box doing aside from just, you know, the Capture the Flag competition?
[21:39.120 --> 21:41.280]  Like, what other initiatives does your company have?
[21:41.280 --> 21:45.860]  And like, how do you give back to the community and kind of foster some of that knowledge sharing that we're all talking about?
[21:46.260 --> 21:50.300]  Man, that's hard to get away from the CTF just because it's so much fun.
[21:50.520 --> 21:57.780]  One of the big things that we love to do is sponsoring conferences and sponsoring smaller local conferences.
[21:57.860 --> 22:05.140]  Really, the intention there is that if you're in a small community, maybe hacking isn't necessarily something that's accessible to you.
[22:05.140 --> 22:09.640]  Maybe you don't have a lot of information security professionals immediately nearby you.
[22:09.640 --> 22:12.760]  Maybe that translates to making a virtual conference.
[22:12.820 --> 22:20.060]  These are all things that, you know, either you can find one locally or you can find something that maybe is international or even start it yourself.
[22:20.060 --> 22:22.380]  And that's something that we love to get involved with.
[22:22.380 --> 22:27.340]  Sure, there's the big conferences that we help out with and those are always great and we love helping out with those.
[22:27.340 --> 22:30.600]  They're, you know, the folks that we work with, especially folks like you guys.
[22:30.600 --> 22:32.120]  We just love it.
[22:32.120 --> 22:33.480]  It's so much fun.
[22:33.480 --> 22:42.720]  It's always exciting and it's always cool to see what is going on and what is it that you guys are working on that you're bringing that's special to this experience.
[22:42.880 --> 22:46.760]  Beyond that, for smaller events, I mentioned meetups as well.
[22:46.760 --> 22:54.420]  That's something that we spend a lot of time with, but shoot, like general meetups for talking about cybersecurity.
[22:54.620 --> 22:58.420]  Apologies, I have a cat that's on top of my desk right now as I'm speaking.
[22:58.700 --> 23:06.220]  Anything like that, if you're going and like listening to a bunch of speakers, that's something that we always love getting involved with and certainly in spades.
[23:06.400 --> 23:23.880]  If you are in a smaller country as well, and maybe hack the box subscriptions are a little bit more expensive or something that is just maybe something that you want to bring to your meetup, that's a place that we really like to get involved and really help folks out that may not have the ability to access this otherwise.
[23:29.670 --> 23:30.990]  Thanks so much for that, Dart.
[23:31.510 --> 23:33.990]  Definitely, you know, we love being part of the community.
[23:33.990 --> 23:40.970]  We love being able to kind of give back and that's what, you know, the Red Team Village and the Red Team CTF, you know, that's what we're all about is trying to give back to the community.
[23:41.270 --> 23:50.330]  So with that, I just want to thank both you and Ipsac for coming out today and just kind of doing this interview, taking out, you know, some time a day to help tease the CTF a little bit.
[23:50.330 --> 23:53.770]  But I just want to do one last plug for the CTF.
[23:53.810 --> 23:58.690]  Nick, Dart, do you just want to say, you know, one last thing about the CTF?
[23:59.550 --> 24:01.330]  I mean, it's Fallout themed.
[24:01.330 --> 24:02.750]  What could go wrong?
[24:02.750 --> 24:08.350]  If you're a nerd and you love Fallout or RPGs, you got to be there.
[24:08.410 --> 24:11.130]  If not, I mean, what are you doing at DEF CON?
[24:11.250 --> 24:14.210]  Certainly not the best CTF that's going to be there.
[24:17.230 --> 24:18.570]  Thanks so much for that.
[24:18.650 --> 24:21.270]  So definitely come check us out.
[24:21.270 --> 24:22.870]  We're going to be on the contest floor.
[24:23.030 --> 24:24.670]  It'll be the Red Team CTF.
[24:24.670 --> 24:31.010]  And then, you know, play a little bit and when you're ready to take a break and all that, please head on over to the Red Team Village.
[24:31.090 --> 24:33.610]  There's a lot of like workshops, things like that over there.
[24:34.190 --> 24:35.650]  We have a lot going on.
[24:35.690 --> 24:39.730]  There's a lot of stickers, swag, all kinds of things that we can get into.
[24:39.730 --> 24:41.390]  So we'll have swag at both locations.
[24:41.390 --> 24:42.530]  Please come on out.
[24:42.570 --> 24:44.210]  It'll be loads of fun.
[24:44.530 --> 24:47.490]  But with that, thank you so much for coming out.
[24:47.850 --> 24:48.470]  All right.
[24:48.470 --> 24:50.430]  Looking forward to seeing everybody at DEF CON.
[24:51.390 --> 24:52.230]  Take care.