flagProxy

A tool to detect cheating in CTF competitions based on TCP proxy. (Just a proof of concept.)

concept

FlagProxy client works as a proxy server between users and the CTF challenge, inspecting responses from the challenge server. Users are recognized by the ports they are visiting. When the initial flag is found in a response, flagProxy client requests the flagProxy server for real flag of the participant. Then the client replaces the initial flag with real flag.

assumptions

All payloads and flags should be transmitted through TCP connections.
Flags should not be placed in more than TWO segments. (Test is needed if encoding is used in traffic. FlagProxy now supports lua scripts.)
Flags can be matched using regular expressions. (In other words, encrypted traffic is currently not supported by flagProxy.)

client config

An example of flagProxy client.

challenge:
  address: "192.168.0.108:8000"  # address of the challenge
  flag_regex: "flag{.+}"  #  the regular expression to detect initial flag
  threads: 10  # controls the throughput of the challenge
  decode_scripts: ["/etc/flagProxy/decode.lua"]  # lua files that decode the response before regular expression detection
  encode_scripts: ["/etc/flagProxy/encode.lua"]  # lua files that encode the response after detecting flag
server:
  url: "http://localhost:8080"  # server api address
  challenge_id : "testchallengeid"  # a random string for api server to recognize challenge
  key: "testkeyforchallenge0"  # a random key to access real flags
log:
  path: "/tmp/flagProxy.log"

server api

database

FlagProxy server maintains tables which saves the flag & other data of challenges.

Example:

challenge table:

challenge_id	challenge_key
testchallengeid0	testchallengekey0
testchallengeid1	testchallengekey1
testchallengeidx	testchallengekeyx

flag table:

challenge_id	user_id	port	flag
testchallengeid0	user0	10000	testflag0
testchallengeid0	user1	10001	testflag1

RESTful API

Here are the RESTful APIs the flagProxy server should implement.

1. connection test

Test the connection between client and server.

Request: GET /

Response: flagProxy

2. proxy ports

Get the ports to listen.

Request: GET /ports/{challengeId}/{key}

Response example:

{
    "msg": "success",
    "ports": [
        10001,
        10002,
        10003,
        10004
    ]
}

{
    "msg": "auth error",
    "ports": []
}

Note: Content-Type of the response should be "application/json".

3. real flag

Request: /flagByPort/{challengeId}/{key}/{port}

Response example:

{
    "msg": "success",
    "flag": "flag{test_flag_for_flag_proxy}"
}

{
    "msg": "auth error",
    "flag": ""
}

Note: Content-Type of the response should be "application/json".

usage

First, Implement the server APIs.
Second, compile the flagProxy client.
Third, configure the client by editing the config file.
Fourth, run the compiled client after flagProxy server is brought up by executing ./compiledClient /path/to/config/file

Use testing configuration files:

cd flagProxy/
cp config/config.yaml /etc/flagProxy/conig.yaml
cp config/decode.lua /etc/flagProxy/decode.lua
cp config/encode.lua /etc/flagProxy/encode.lua

warning

This tool is designed to be compatible with both web and binary challenges. But as a proof of concept, it has not been fully tested in security and functions, thus should not be used in production environment.

Houwenda / flagProxy