Embedded Security CTF 2022 Hackathon hosted by the National Cyber CoE and IIT Madras

Data Security Council of India’s National Cyber CoE & Centre on Hardware-Security Entrepreneurship Research & Development (C-HERD) program in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras Campus (IIT Madras), organized the grand finale of Embedded Security CTF 2022 (Capture the Flag) dedicated to Hardware Security technology and skill development. The inauguration of the event was held this week at IIT Madras campus, receiving pan India participation from students, researchers and corporate teams from but not limited to Texas Instruments, Larsen and Toubro Infotech Limited, Deloitte India LLP, Sony India, Shell, Harman International India Pvt Ltd, Carrier Technologies and CDAC Hyderabad.

The launch was inaugurated by Dr.N Sarat Chandra Babu, Executive Director, SETS Chennai; Mr. Arpit Dubey, Director, National CoE – DSCI; Prof. Krishna Moorthy Sivalingam, Head of Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Madras; and Prof. Chester Rebeiro, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering.

This is a one-of-a-kind initiative in a key niche domain of Embedded security. The hackathon received immense response of 500 team registrations which included 1500+ participants across the nation. The problem statements of the CTF were based on Forensics, Crypto, Reversing, Nano Hardware, Networks, PWN, OSINT, and Web. The top 20 teams among the registrants, qualifying in two virtual rounds, designed, and evaluated by IIT madras, made it to the Grand Finale of Embedded Security CTF.

Over 48 hours of continuous hacking and brainstorming at the problem statements based on Chip Whisperer Nano hardware, the winners of the Embedded Security CTF 2022 were declared entitled for prize money of up to 5.75 Lac INR.

The key idea of this CTF was to identify the budding talent from the industry and academia in hardware security and engage with them for the upcoming initiatives and security operations of C-Herd, Centre for Hardware Security Entrepreneurship Research & Development, an initiative by IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras within National CoE.

Dr. N Sarat Chandra Babu, Executive Director, SETS Chennai, said, “This Embedded Security CTF 2022 is a great effort by the Data Security Council of India and IIT Madras to bring the young hardware security talented enthusiast from corporate and academia under one roof. He also mentioned that today the world is living in a smart environment working with sensors, accelerators, wireless networks and IoT embedded systems, However, due to advancements cybersecurity threats can be encountered at various levels i.e., individual, organizational and national levels taking advantage of modern solutions to pose the risk of active and passive attacks. To fight against these attacks, researchers, and innovative youth like the finalist of this CTF should work on the various state-of-the-art countermeasures that are secure and effective enough to prevent cyberattacks.”

Prof. Chester Rabeiro, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Madras, said, "IIT Madras is in the frontier of hardware security research in the country, focusing on the design of secure embedded devices that keeps security as the primary objective along with performance and size. We follow a bottom-up approach making fundamental changes in the way computer hardware and Operating Systems are designed to develop secure devices with minimal overheads.”