SEEN: Cyber Rumble
An attack–defend CTF for GDG PUP
- Role
- Solo Developer
- Team
- Solo
- Year
- 2026
- Status
- Shipped
01 Problem
Jeopardy CTFs teach you to break things. They never make you defend anything, so blue-team skills don’t get practised at student events.
02 What I built
The whole platform: participant and admin apps, flag validation and the flag registry, the grader, the JUDGING phase, staff auth and the role guides. I also built Acme Shop, the target app each team defends. It has six planted vulnerabilities and runs in Codespaces.
03 Security notes
SSRF hardening on every outbound grader request, server-side flag validation and staff-only routes. Property-based tests with fast-check cover the scoring logic.
04 Impact
Gave GDG PUP its first attack–defend format. Students who had only ever solved jeopardy puzzles had to keep a live service up while it was under attack, which is closer to the actual job.
05 What I took from it
Load testing before event day is not optional. A platform that works for one tester can still fold when a whole room logs in at once.