CTF as a Service
summary
Claim: running CTFs on Kubernetes fixes scale and stability issues the usual platforms hit. Built a ctfd operator that deploys isolated ctfd instances per league, auto-deploys task services from Git/S3 via Helm/Terraform, and uses Yandex cloud primitives; discovered vanilla ctfd suffers collisions and effectively fails above ~400 concurrent players and beyond three replicas. Added a Go monitor, optional gVisor isolation for escape-prone tasks, and a flag farm that buffers and deduplicates submissions — all productionized with docs and working deployments.
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chapters (7)
- 0:00Introduction
- 7:11What is CTF
- 10:25Competition formats
- 16:25CTF platform problems
- 24:57CTF as a service
- 31:02Why Kubernetes
- 34:12CTF in companies
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21mHow to CTF Infra - Beyond the challenges and flags
30mHow We Used Kubernetes to Host a Capture the Flag (CTF)
39mHow to CTF Infra - Beyond the Challenges and Flags
23mCTF Overview and Experience
29m"Oh my Pod: Lessons from building one of Australia's biggest CTFs"
13mKeynote: Learn by Hacking: How to Run a 2,500 Node Kubernetes CTF
44mCapture the Flag Wrap Up & Summary
14mClosing + CTF Wrap Up