THE CHALLENGE ?

Based on the principles of a Capture The Flag (CTF), this computer security competition is a challenge-based game played by teams of maximum 4 students. Over a limited timeframe, the teams must solve challenges covering a wide range of security issues, e.g. cryptography, reverse engineering, network security, web or mobile application security, wireless and forensics analysis. Complexity of challenges range from trivial up to very difficult.

Anyone is allowed to participate in this CTF event. But only participants who are students in a recognized Greek academic institution are allowed to compete for prizes. Participants must either be 18 years old or turn 18 in 2025; if you or a member of your team has not reached that age, then do contact us before registering. Note that PhD students or post-doc students are not eligible to participate. In case of doubt, please contact us.

Consult the rules of engagement for more information.

Much like Cybersecurity Challenge Belgium, this challenge steers its attention towards motivating young talented students to pursue cybersecurity as a career. The challenge and its difficulty are primarily focused on students that are just starting to explore the cybersecurity landscape and at the same time, to challenge those that already feel like they are mastering the field. With that in mind, it's a student competition, and not a professional competition.

Anyone can participate remotely to the event. Remote participants are however not allowed to compete for prizes. You can just opt in for the experience :)

Only students are allowed to participate on-site. Students who participate on-site can compete for prizes.

Yes, you will have to bring your own equipment (Laptop) for the event with your tools installed. It's suggested to have a Kali Linux VM but any distro would suffice. Anything you feel comfortable with :)

Of course! Challenges have been designed for students, not for security specialists, so you don’t need to be a security expert to join. A good general IT knowledge and a good level of motivation is what matters most. The Cyber Security Challenge is composed of challenges designed with all levels of complexity.

Yes you can! But working in a team is always more fun, and you'll probably be able to solve more challenges when being part of a team. If you have some trouble finding teammates, register solo, and join our Discord to find other people looking for a team.
In any case, if you're joining solo and planning on participating on-site, make sure to select the "I need help finding a team" checkbox during your registration process and do not register a team. We will find a team for you and assign you in that team :)

For those that are planning on joining the CTF remotely the registration process is straight forward. Create an account on our platform, register your team and you're set.

For those that are planning on joining us on-site, the registration process consists of a few more steps.

1. Create an account on our platform and register your team. If you are not yet part of a team, and would like to join one, then just mention this during the registration process. We will then assist you in finding a team for you.
2. Since only students are allowed to join on-site, we request you to send us a picture of your academic ID, front and back, to ctfteam@cybersecuritychallenge.gr.You will receive an email from us, confirming your registration as a team, once we have received the academic IDs of all team members.

If you don't receive an email, feel free to reach out to us on Discord. We will also contact you in case a member of your team has not completed the registration process.

Do note that our locations have a limited capacity of seats. This means that we will be accepting completely registered teams first. So make sure, you and your teammates complete the registration process as soon as possible if you're planning on joining us on-site!

Make sure your team has received a formal invite to our location. Students that have not received an email will not be able to join us on-site. Do note that teams can join from multiple locations (e.g. 1 team member joining from Thessaloniki and the rest from Athens)

We understand that in some unforeseen circumstances not all members of the same team can be present in a physical location. For those cases, reach out to an admin in the discord channel (Before the event starts) to remove the missing member from your team, so your team can still be eligible to compete for prizes.

Important

Additionally, all participants will have to create an account (If they don't have one already) on "ctf.hackthebox.com" in order to access some challenges. Make sure to complete this process in advance so you don't lose time during the event!

In case you lost your academic ID or you haven't been issued one yet, you can email us a Proof of Enrollement Document instead. You can refer to the secretary office of your Institution for that document. Make sure it's issued as a "General Request".

A good way to get started with the Cyber Security Challenge is to take a look at write-ups from some of the past Cyber Security Challenge editions:

• CSCGR Write-ups

Once you feel you’re ready to try and solve some challenges on your own, you could take a look at the "awesome-ctf repository": it contains a list of useful tools sorted per category (reversing, cryptography, web, …). It also contains a list of "wargames" available 24/7 for practicing.

• Awesome CTF

For example, the "overthewire wargames" feature a series of challenges, and suggests an order in which to play them based on their difficulty. You can also ask questions on our Discord channel.

• Overthewire wargames

The main location of the event is the University of West Attica in Athens Campus of Ancient Olive Grove (ANCIENT OLIVE GROVE, 250 Thivon & P. Ralli str, Egaleo Postal code 12241, Athens). We will also have three hubs to facilitate people from other cities. One in Thessaloniki hosted by the University of Macedonia, one in Patras hosted by the University of Peloponnese and one in Samos hosted by the Aegean University by the Information and Communication Systems Engineering department.

The challenge is energized by NVISO, supported by large private corporations and banks (our sponsors), as well as public agencies and organizations that are committed to raising our country’s awareness on cyber-security threats and help train a generation of security-aware professionals and security experts. All sponsors are regularly recruiting talented graduates to re-inforce their security teams, so you may also be meeting your future employer at our event!

We have a wide range of challenges ranging from general security knowledge over mobile security to reverse engineering and cryptography. Some of them will be easy and others will be a challenge even for the more skilled participants. To get a feel for what you can expect you can always head over to the write-ups of the previous editions on GitHub (see "How can I prepare for the Cyber Security Challenge?")