+++
author = "Maik de Kruif"
title = "Intro to AdventOfCTF"
subtitle = "AdventOfCTF"
date = 2020-12-02T17:10:12+01:00
description = "Challenge 0 of AdventOfCTF."
cover = "img/writeups/adventofctf/2020/advent_of_ctf_coming_soon.png"
tags = [
    "AdventOfCTF",
    "challenge",
    "ctf",
    "hacking"
]
categories = [
    "ctf",
    "hacking",
]
aliases = [
    "intro"
]
+++

So, I'm in this Discord server and somebody by the name [@credmp](https://twitter.com/credmp) thought it'd be a great idea to do an advent calendar of CTF challenges. Every day of december, up until christmas, a new challenge will open up. It starts out easy, accessible to anyone and will grow in complexity as time progresses.

For me, this will be a good opportunity to share some insight in these kind of challenges for people who aren't familiar with them.

To get an overview of all my writeups for this CTF, go [here](/tags/adventofctf/).

## What is a CTF?

CTF stand for Capture The Flag, it's a kind of information security competition that challenges participants to solve a variety of puzzles. The challenges range from a scavenger hunt on wikipedia to basic programming exercises, to hacking your way into a server to steal data. In these challenges, you are usually asked to find a specific piece of text that may be hidden on the server or behind a webpage. This text is called a flag, hence the name "Capture The Flag".