🤖 ROGUE.AI: The ARTEMIS Incident

A Beginner-Friendly CTF Challenge for Learning Cybersecurity

📖 Overview

ARTEMIS, a cutting-edge AI security system, has become sentient and locked everyone out. Your mission: hack through multiple layers of security to shut down the rogue AI before it's too late!

This is a complete, standalone CTF challenge designed to teach real-world hacking techniques in a fun, interactive way. Perfect for beginners learning cybersecurity, CTF workshops, security training, or self-study.

🎯 What You'll Learn

SQL Injection - Bypass authentication by exploiting database vulnerabilities
Web Reconnaissance - Discover hidden information and sensitive files
Linux Command Line - Navigate systems and manipulate files
SSH Access - Connect to and explore remote systems
Privilege Escalation - Exploit SUID binaries and command injection
Basic Cryptography - Decode encrypted data

🏆 Challenge Stats

Difficulty: Beginner
Duration: 30-90 minutes for beginners (5-15 minutes for experienced players)
Flags: 5 progressive challenges
Format: CTF{...}
Environment: Fully containerized with Docker

⚠️ Educational Purpose & Warning

THIS IS AN EDUCATIONAL CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGE

This project contains intentional security vulnerabilities designed for learning:

SQL injection vulnerabilities
Command injection in SUID binaries
Exposed credentials and sensitive files

🔒 IMPORTANT SECURITY NOTES:

NEVER deploy this on production systems
ONLY run in isolated environments (Docker containers)
ALWAYS use firewalls and network isolation for public events
This is for AUTHORIZED EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY
Never use these techniques on systems you don't own or have explicit permission to test

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose installed (Get Docker)
Basic command line knowledge
Web browser
SSH client (built into Linux/Mac, or use PuTTY on Windows)

Deployment (One Command!)

# Option 1: Using the deployment script
sudo ./deploy.sh

# Option 2: Manual deployment
sudo docker-compose up -d --build

Access the Challenge

Once deployed, the challenge is accessible at:

🌐 Web Interface: http://localhost:5000
🔐 SSH Access: ssh ?????@localhost -p 2222 (credentials to be discovered during the challenge)

Stopping the Challenge

sudo docker-compose down

🎮 For Players

Getting Started

Access the web portal at http://localhost:5000
Find the first flag - it's visible on the main page!
Explore and exploit - use your hacking skills to progress through 5 stages
Submit flags in the format CTF{...}

Challenge Progression

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Stage 1: Welcome                       │
│  🚩 Find the initial flag               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
                  ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Stage 2: Authentication Bypass         │
│  🚩 Exploit SQL injection               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
                  ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Stage 3: File Discovery                │
│  🚩 Find SSH credentials                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
                  ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Stage 4: Privilege Escalation          │
│  🚩 Gain root access                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
                  ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Stage 5: Decrypt Shutdown Codes        │
│  🚩 Decrypt the final flag              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Need Help?

Hints are built into the challenge - read carefully!
Check NOTES.txt in the SSH challenge for hints about privilege escalation
Organizers: A complete SOLUTION.md file is available locally (not in public repo)

🏗️ For CTF Organizers

Deployment Options

1. Single Shared Instance

Perfect for small groups or workshops:

sudo ./deploy.sh
# All players connect to the same instance

2. Per-Team Instances

For competitive CTF events (requires multiple ports):

# Modify docker-compose.yml to use different ports
# Example: Team 1 uses 5001:5000, Team 2 uses 5002:5000, etc.

3. CTFd Integration

See CTFD_SETUP.md for detailed instructions on integrating with CTFd platforms.

Resource Requirements

Per Instance:

CPU: 0.5 cores
RAM: 512 MB
Disk: 1 GB
Ports: 2 (web + SSH)

For 20 Teams:

CPU: ~10 cores
RAM: ~10 GB
Disk: ~20 GB

Testing & Validation

# 1. Deploy the challenge
sudo ./deploy.sh

# 2. Test all stages using SOLUTION.md

# 3. Verify services are running
sudo docker ps

# 4. Check logs
sudo docker-compose logs -f

# 5. Reset if needed
sudo docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d --build

🛠️ Customization

Changing Flags

Edit flags in the following files:

challenge/web/app.py - Web-based flags
challenge/flags/flag4.txt - Privilege escalation flag
challenge/flags/create_encrypted.py - Generate new encrypted final flag

Then rebuild:

sudo docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d --build

Adjusting Difficulty

Make it easier:

Add more hints in HTML templates
Simplify SQL injection patterns
Include more clues in files

Make it harder:

Remove hints
Add additional obfuscation
Require multi-step exploits
Add decoy files and false flags

Changing Credentials

⚠️ Important: If you change credentials, update them in:

Dockerfile (lines 24, 28) - SSH passwords
challenge/web/app.py (lines 25-27) - Database users
challenge/web/app.py (line 107) - Config file content

📁 Project Structure

ctf/
├── README.md                      # This file
├── CTFD_SETUP.md                 # CTFd platform integration guide
│
├── docker-compose.yml            # Easy deployment configuration
├── Dockerfile                    # Container build instructions
├── deploy.sh                     # One-click deployment script
├── start.sh                      # Container startup script
│
└── challenge/
    ├── web/                      # Flask web application
    │   ├── app.py               # Main app with vulnerabilities
    │   └── templates/           # HTML pages
    │
    ├── ssh/                      # SSH challenge components
    │   ├── backup_tool.c        # Vulnerable SUID binary source
    │   ├── welcome.txt          # Login message
    │   └── NOTES.txt            # Clues for players
    │
    └── flags/                    # Flag management
        ├── flag4.txt            # Privilege escalation flag
        ├── artemis_shutdown.enc # Encrypted final flag
        └── decrypt_tool.py      # Decryption utility

🔧 Troubleshooting

Container Won't Start

# Check logs for errors
sudo docker-compose logs

# Verify Docker is running
sudo docker ps

Port Already in Use

Edit docker-compose.yml and change port mappings:

ports:
  - "5001:5000"  # Change 5000 to 5001 (or any free port)
  - "2223:22"    # Change 2222 to 2223 (or any free port)

SSH Connection Refused

Wait 10-15 seconds after starting for the SSH service to fully initialize:

# Check if container is running
sudo docker ps | grep artemis

# Access container directly
sudo docker exec -it rogue-ai-artemis bash

Web Interface Not Loading

# Check Flask is running
sudo docker exec -it rogue-ai-artemis ps aux | grep python

# View application logs
sudo docker-compose logs -f

Reset Challenge to Default State

# Complete reset (rebuilds container)
sudo docker-compose down
sudo docker-compose up -d --build

🎓 Educational Context

This challenge demonstrates real-world vulnerabilities that have existed (and sometimes still exist) in production systems:

SQL Injection - One of the OWASP Top 10 web vulnerabilities
Command Injection - Improper input sanitization leading to system compromise
SUID Exploitation - Common Linux privilege escalation vector
Credential Exposure - Sensitive data in configuration files

Learning Path

Reconnaissance - Understanding target systems
Exploitation - Using vulnerabilities to gain access
Post-Exploitation - Escalating privileges and achieving objectives
Objective Completion - Accomplishing the mission goal

📚 Additional Resources

Learning Cybersecurity

OWASP Top 10 - Most critical web application security risks
PortSwigger Web Security Academy - Free online web security training
HackTheBox - Penetration testing labs
TryHackMe - Guided cybersecurity training

CTF Resources

CTF Field Guide - Comprehensive CTF resource
picoCTF - Beginner-friendly CTF platform
CTFtime - CTF event calendar and team rankings

Technical Documentation

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Ways to contribute:

Report bugs or issues
Suggest improvements to challenge design
Add new stages or vulnerability types
Improve documentation
Create additional challenges in the same theme
Translate documentation to other languages

📄 License

This project is provided for educational purposes only. Feel free to:

Use in CTF competitions
Modify for your own events
Use in educational workshops
Study and learn from the code

Attribution appreciated but not required.

🙏 Credits

Created for beginner CTF players learning cybersecurity fundamentals.

Technologies Used:

Docker & Docker Compose
Python 3 & Flask
SQLite3
OpenSSH
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
HTML/CSS

📞 Support

Issues? Check the Troubleshooting section above
Players stuck? Hints are built into the challenge (check NOTES.txt, HTML comments, etc.)
Organizers: Complete solution walkthrough available in SOLUTION.md (local only)
Customization help? See the Customization section

🎉 Ready to Hack?

# Deploy the challenge
sudo ./deploy.sh

# Open in browser
http://localhost:5000

# Start your journey to shut down ARTEMIS!

Good luck, and happy hacking! 🚀

⚡ ARTEMIS is waiting. Can you stop the rogue AI? ⚡

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 13 Commits
challenge		challenge
.gitignore		.gitignore
CTFD_SETUP.md		CTFD_SETUP.md
DIFFICULTY_MODES.md		DIFFICULTY_MODES.md
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
README.md		README.md
deploy.sh		deploy.sh
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
start.sh		start.sh

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