Registration for NeoQUEST-2018 is open: steampunk expedition to Atlantis

Registration for the NeoQUEST-2018 annual cybersecurity competition is open !

Individual CTF will last from March 5 to March 16 , and this year the NeoQUEST team will send you on an expedition for the treasures of Atlantis! Welcome under the cut: there we will open the secret about the subject of tasks and tell you what's new will be at the "face-to-face"!

Who else does not know what NeoQUEST is?

NeoQUEST - an annual cybersecurity event hailing from the banks of the Neva! At one time, NeoQUEST was only a competition for information security specialists, but for the past few years, competition (hackquest) has been only part of an exciting program.

NeoQUEST includes 2 stages:
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1. The online stage is a competition for all comers, during which participants registered on the site for several days remotely complete tasks from various areas of cybersecurity;
2. "Face to face" - an event of the conference format, which includes:

• interesting reports from information security practices;
• simulation of the most significant and sensational cyber attacks;
• demonstration of ways to protect against cyber attacks;
• workshops and workshops that teach working with modern security mechanisms;
• Twitter- quiz "Exam on IB";
• hackquest - the final of the competition for the best participants of the online stage: 8 hours of real-time task completion, and at the end of the day the winner is announced who won the main prize - a trip to one of the international conferences on cybersecurity!

Online stage NeoQUEST-2018

This year, the online stage will be held from March 5 to 16 , and anyone can take part! Some tasks are even possible for beginners, and some are submitted only to experienced specialists. The only condition is individual , not team passing of tasks!

Points for tasks are awarded in accordance with the dynamic scale: the “cost” of the task is determined by the number of participants who passed it and the time of passing. The participant who completes the task first gets 10 additional points, the second 9 points, and so on. In one task there can be several keys, for each key points are awarded separately.

The top three winners are awarded with cool prizes and together with several other best participants of the online stage they are invited to the "Face-to-face" in St. Petersburg!

In addition to the prizes, the best participants of NeoQUEST rely on the “educational” bonus: their success in the competition is taken into account when they enroll in the magistracy and graduate school at the Cyber ​​Security Division of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University!

Legend of NeoQUEST-2018

We are adults, accomplished people, and we need this radio-controlled helicopter of a sunken island city! The NeoQUEST team discussed the legend for a long time, and as a result, the stars converged on Atlantis.



According to legend, you have to go on an expedition for the treasures of a mysterious island. The team is almost recruited, but there is a shortage of an information security specialist capable of breaking into a steam computer, taking control of a submarine, and deciphering the riddles of the ancients. And yes, it is YOU !

Tasks NeoQUEST-2018

In 11 days of competition, you will be confronted with tasks from a wide range of cybersecurity areas. The journey will be long and tense, so we will prepare you a little for what to expect from a lost civilization and underwater wanderings!

1. In one of the tasks you will appear on a distributed website. You have to show off the knowledge of web technologies and cryptography in order to get two keys.

2. Atlantis is an ancient civilization, so do not be surprised to meet with the administrator of support services using only Internet Explorer!

3. Practice circumventing such advanced protection technologies as DEP , ASLR, and CFG . We highly recommend to remember the various tricks used to operate JavaScript engines! And we advise you to read the analysis of tasks of past NeoQUEST ( here - about the attack on the CSRF, here - about the search and exploitation of vulnerabilities)!

4. And what do you know about such a device as an accelerometer ? On a long journey, you will have to tinker with it, and knowledge of the fundamentals of physics and mathematics will help you with this!

5. Android / Linux? - Did not guess! iOS? - Not! Windows Embbedded? - No no and one more time no! Hmmm ... eCos ? - YES! Break an unusual OS, you programmer!

6. Look what a cool Android game with 3D graphics and cool textures! Here are just a bunch of strange pictures. Perhaps you should study them in detail ...

7. Free and enjoy! What are we talking about? Of course, about the use-after-free vulnerability . Exploit it and get the key!

8. How good are your search abilities? Can you find a needle in a haystack of a grain of information on the World Wide Web? The task for OSINT is waiting for you! Improve your spy skills by rereading the write-up of one of the NeoQUEST participants last year.

There is something to break your head! However, who said that these are all the tasks that await you? Some secrets will be revealed only during the journey. But you should not worry: throughout the entire competition the NeoQUEST team will be in touch at support@neoquest.ru!

And then what?

And then we will reward the top three winners, choose the best participants of the online stage and invite them to the "Faceplate" in St. Petersburg! This is where the most interesting begins - for everyone, not only for the participants of the competition ...

Everyone is accustomed to the fact that "confrontation" is held in the summer. This year it will be held in the golden autumn and will be held for the first time in a new format! The final hackquest will remain, practical reports - too. What's new here?

The new thing is that in parallel with NeoQUEST the scientific and technical conference “Methods and technical means of ensuring information security” will be held ! In addition to the reports and workshops of the “Headquarters” NeoQUEST, our guests will be able to visit the scientific section, where they will learn how science helps in the development of modern security mechanisms, and why scientific research is important and interesting!

More information about upcoming events - on the joint website of the event and in the VKontakte group . And now - it's time to start actively replenishing the stock of cyber knowledge, because before the start of the online stage NeoQUEST-2018 there is not much time left!