Hack for Ticket or How to Get at PHDays

As we reported, registration for the information security forum Positive Hack Days 2012 starts at noon on May 14th. It’s a good piece of news for those who are willing to visit the event, but there is a question: how long will the registration last? We suppose it will be closed in a few minutes after the start when the maximum number of participants is gathered. If you’re sure you’ll be among those lucky persons, then you are welcome. And for those who want to secure themselves, there are two methods to ensure an invitation under the cut.

Method #1

10 tickets to Positive Hack Days 2012 will be raffled off during the Blow Up the Town competition taking place from the 7th to 25th of May. This competition will both help the participants warm up their brains before PHDays 2012 and provide them with an opportunity to see some most attractive places of Moscow by means of an interactive map.

Rules

The participants are offered to accomplish various tasks and gain special keys (flags) in return; these keys are to be submitted to the jury via a form on the participants’ personal pages. If the flag is valid, the participant gains the corresponding number of points. The tasks are divided into several categories: Web (detecting and exploiting web applications vulnerabilities), Crypto (decrypting a text or hacking hash functions), Reverse (using application reverse engineering), and Social Engineering (demonstrating manipulative skills). New tasks will be given every day.

Participation Terms

Any Internet user is welcome to participate. The registration will be open on the website of the event once the competition starts. The competition will last from May 7 to May 25, 2012 inclusive. The participants should bring their own software and hardware required for the competition. Internet connection is also necessary.

Prizes

The winners will be awarded invitations to Positive Hack Days 2012:

1st prize — 5 invitations
2nd prize — 3 invitations
3rd prize — 2 invitations

Also, there will be special prizes and gifts from Positive Technologies (the PHDays organizers) and from the forum sponsors.

Method #2

At the same time 10 more tickets to Positive Hack Days 2012 will be raffled off during the Hackers vs. Forensics competition.

The participants will have a chance to try their hands either at investigating incidents and detecting malware (as ‘forensic experts’) or at conducting sophisticated attacks (as ‘hackers’). The competition will reveal the strongest.

Rules

‘Hackers’ implant a Trojan into the image of an operating system. The task of the Trojan is to hide, defend itself, and by all means provide the ‘hackers’ with Internet access to the virtual machine. The images will be located on the resources of the organizers.

‘Forensic experts’ will have to examine the system for backdoors implanted by ‘hackers’ and fix the flaws.
The rules for ‘Forensic experts’ are the following:

• detect and specify the key vitality mechanisms of the Trojan (auto run, self-defense, hiding);
• examine and provide any data related to the Trojan’s primary functionality (i. e. how it interacts with its master, what data can be transferred, etc.).

To win, a ‘forensic expert’ should provide:

• a correct fixing solution for the Trojan;
• the most detailed description of the primary functionality of the Trojan;
• with all other conditions equal, completeness of the provided solution and freshness of the proposed approach.

As for ‘hackers’, a participant will win if:

• there is no adequate fixing solution from ‘forensic experts’;
• with all other conditions equal, innovative technologies are used.

Participation Terms and Technical Details

Those willing to participate as ‘hackers’ must from May 7 to May 15, 2012 provide the organizers with an image of a virtual machine under any operating system compatible with the x86 architecture with an implanted Trojan.

Any Internet user can participate as a ‘forensic expert’. The registration will be open on the PHDays 2012 website once the competition starts. The competition will last from May 7 to May 25, 2012 inclusive.

The participants should bring their own software and hardware required for the competition. Internet connection is needed for participation.

Prizes

The winners will be awarded invitations to Positive Hack Days 2012:

1st prize — 5 invitations
2nd prize — 3 invitations
3rd prize — 2 invitations

Also, there will be special prizes and gifts from Positive Technologies (the PHDays organizers) and from the forum sponsors.

See you at Positive Hack Days 2012!
Good luck!