📅 Date: 14–15 March 2025
đź“Ť Format: Online (32-hour CTF)
🧠Type: Active Event
This March, I took part in the Cyber Security Challenge Belgium (CSCBE) — one of the country’s biggest student Capture The Flag competitions. The event ran for 32 intense hours and featured over 1,000 participants in more than 350 teams.
đź‘Ą Team xX5up3rH4ck3rsXx
I teamed up with fellow students:
- Gintare Matukaityte (Forensics)
- Vincent Van Zele (Reverse Engineering)
- Gavin Latchoomun (Networks)
- Myself – Selim Celebi (Reverse Engineering & Web Exploitation)
We took a divided approach, assigning challenges by domain and constantly reassessing based on the dynamic scoring system. We focused on:
- Quick wins for fast points
- Deeper reverse engineering & crypto puzzles
- Monitoring Discord for updates & hints
🧩 Challenge Highlights
The CTF covered:
- Web vulnerabilities
- Mobile security
- Cryptography
- DNS misconfigs
- Forensics & pwn
Some challenges were straightforward; others stumped the entire field. We finished 149th, which didn’t qualify us for the finals — but gave us a ton of experience.
đź’ Reflections & Takeaways
- Tooling matters: We relied too much on manual work instead of automation
- CTF ≠Real World: The challenges are puzzle-like, not always aligned with industry tools
- Stress-tested: Staying sharp across 32 hours taught us a lot about mental endurance
🧠Looking Ahead
CSCBE showed me the value of team strategy and real-time decision-making under pressure. While we didn’t qualify this year, I plan to return better prepared — with a stronger mindset and better tools in hand.
