CTF Challenge Testing

This skill helps deploy CTF infrastructure to cloud providers and validate all 18 challenges work correctly.

When to Use

• Testing changes to ctf_setup.sh
• Validating challenge setup across AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Running the full test suite before releases
• Verifying services survive VM reboots

Prerequisites

1. terraform (>= 1.0)
2. sshpass - Install on macOS: brew install hudochenkov/sshpass/sshpass
3. Cloud CLI authenticated for target provider:
   • AWS: aws sts get-caller-identity
   • Azure: az account show
   • GCP: gcloud auth list --filter=status:ACTIVE

Running Tests

Run from repository root:

./.github/skills/ctf-testing/deploy_and_test.sh <provider> [--with-reboot]

What Gets Tested

1. Verify command subcommands - progress, list, hint, time, export
2. Challenge setup - Files exist, services running, permissions correct
3. Solution commands - Each challenge returns valid flag
4. Flag submission - All 18 flags accepted by verify
5. Reboot resilience (with --with-reboot) - Services restart, progress persists

Expected Results

A successful run shows 69 tests passing:

• 7 verify subcommand tests
• 24 challenge setup verifications
• 18 solution command tests
• 20 flag verification tests

Troubleshooting

Setup not completing

• Check /var/log/setup_complete exists on VM
• Review cloud-init logs: /var/log/cloud-init-output.log

Service not running

• Check status: systemctl status <service-name>
• Check logs: journalctl -u <service-name>

Port not accessible externally

• Verify firewall rules in Terraform allow the port
• Check security group/NSG in cloud console

SSH connection fails

• Wait longer for VM setup (~3-5 minutes after IP available)
• Verify security group allows port 22

Post-Test Cleanup

Always verify resources were destroyed to avoid unexpected charges:

AWS:

aws ec2 describe-instances --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=CTF*" "Name=instance-state-name,Values=running,pending,stopping,stopped" --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,State.Name]' --output table
aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=CTF*" --query 'Vpcs[*].VpcId' --output table

Azure:

az group list --query "[?starts_with(name, 'ctf')].name" --output table

GCP:

gcloud compute instances list --filter="name~'ctf'" --format="table(name,zone,status)"

If resources remain, manually destroy:

cd <provider> && terraform destroy -auto-approve

Scripts

• deploy_and_test.sh - Orchestration script (runs locally)
• test_ctf_challenges.sh - VM test script (runs on deployed VM)