Every year, the world’s best hackers, programmers, side-channel exploiters, and cyber practitioners gather in Las Vegas to put their skills to the test at DefCon, the community’s largest annual convention. 

The biggest challenge of the competition is Capture the Flag (CTF), often referred to as the “Olympics of hacking,” and once again, Georgia Tech was represented among the top teams.

Players spent three days searching for strings of text known as "flags" hidden in vulnerable programs or websites. They would also defend against attacks from other teams looking to gain additional flags.

Here are the top teams and their Georgia Tech affiliated members:

First place, Maple Mallard Magistrates (MMM)

• Yechan Bae, Ph.D. student
• Yonghwi Jin, Ph.D. student
• Jungwon Lim, Ph.D. student

Second place, Blue Water

• Luna Tong (CS 2021)
• Jalen Chuang, Ph.D. student
• Kevin Stevens, Ph.D. student 

Third place, SuperDiceCode

• Daniel Lu, (CS 2024)
• Darin Mao, 3rd year
• Josh Wang, 2nd year

“I participated in DEFCON CTF because it's one of the most well-known CTFs and all of the best teams fight every year to qualify and compete in it,” said Wang of SuperDiceCode. 

“For our team, it's special because many of us met and became friends while playing CTFs in high school and college years ago. The attack/defense format of the CTF brings many interesting aspects to the game not seen in the more common jeopardy format, such as rewarding good competitor infrastructure and tooling.”

The competitors spend most, if not all, of their time at DefCon outside the actual convention. It’s become a tradition, with many teams having played together for years. 

“I have participated in DEF CON CTF since 2012 and have advanced to the finals every year since 2014,” said MMM’s Lim. “I have always enjoyed solving challenging binary exploitation problems, and DEF CON CTF consistently provided them.

“Working on these challenges in such an intense, competitive environment can sometimes be stressful, but I see them as valuable opportunities to test and improve my skills.”

Second-place team Blue Water shook up the competition this year when one of the competitors brought an AI-powered tool that completed a challenge in record time.

“We were initially surprised the tool worked so well, and it's exciting what these tools could achieve in the future,” said team member Luna Tong. 

The act impressed DefCon organizers who recognized the team’s effort at the event’s closing ceremonies.

While it was in the news most recently as the host venue for the DARPA AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC), DefCon has drawn crowds of hackers of all skillsets to the Mojave Desert for over 30 years.