Capture the flag challenge design and implementation

Abstract

Academic institutions worldwide have harnessed Capture the Flag (CTF) cybersecurity challenges as effective educational tools to improve students’ cybersecurity skills, knowledge, and experience. To further supplement NTU’s CZ4067 Software Security course curriculum and provide a more enriching learning experience for students, this project focuses on the creation and development of relevant and interesting CTF challenges, which will serve as educational tutorial exercises. These CTF challenges aim to effectively teach and reinforce the skills, lessons, and concepts learnt from the module. The developed challenges were distributed to CZ4067 course students as tutorial exercises in AY 21/22 Semester 2, and results indicated that the challenges, especially those of lower difficulty, were effective in enhancing the course’s learning value for students through practical application and hands-on practice.