November 16, 2024

Embark on an Exciting CTF Challenge Adventure Welcome to your go-to guide for mastering Capture The Flag (CTF) challenges with Selfmade Ninja Lab cloud lab training for aspiring IT students. This guide is your roadmap to honing new skills, broadening your knowledge, and conquering exciting CTF challenges. Whether you’re just starting or an experienced enthusiast, this guide will help you excel. Let’s dive into the thrilling world of CTF challenges! Prerequisites for Selfmade Ninja Labs CTF Challenges: A Laptop or a PC with a stable internet connection. 💻 Make sure your laptop or PC is connected with Essential labs. A cozy cup of coffee for a productive session. ☕ Getting Started with Selfmade Ninja Labs 🌐 Start your journey by visiting the official Selfmade Ninja Lab homepage: https://labs.selfmade.ninja. Logging In New to the platform? No problem! Log in using your GitLab credentials directly from the dashboard. This step gives you access to an array of CTF challenges meticulously crafted as part of the Selfmade Ninja Lab cloud lab training for aspiring IT students. Login Steps: Navigate to the login page. Select Login with GitLab. This feature unlocks all the incredible training modules and challenges. Accessing the Challenge Labs Page 🧭 Begin your CTF challenge journey by visiting the Selfmade Ninja Labs homepage: https://labs.selfmade.ninja For Newcomers New to SNA Labs? You’ll need to log in. Look for the Login with GitLab option on the dashboard. This is your gateway to all the incredible features and CTF challenges that await in SNA Labs. 🔑 Navigating to the Challenge Labs Page 🧭 Once logged in, simply click on Challenge Labs in the menu. This effortless step will lead you straight to a realm filled with diverse and exciting CTF challenges. [OR] Clicking on this link will directly take you to the Challenges page: https://labs.selfmade.ninja/labs?type=challenge. The page will appear as below: Here, all the CTF challenges are neatly lined up, with all the necessary controls at your fingertips. Note: Remember, some CTF challenges are reserved for VIP account holders. However, as a free user, there are some free challenges that you can play. 🎮 Choosing and Starting a CTF Challenge 🎲 Got into the Challenge line-up page? Great! Now it’s time to pick up a CTF challenge. For example, you might choose the Send the Alien Back Home challenge (you can find it by scrolling down the page), but feel free to select any CTF challenge that excites you. Each challenge is a unique adventure that tests different skills. Get ready to embark on an exhilarating CTF challenge journey and master the challenges in SNA Labs! Let the excitement unfold! 👾 Click on the Dashboard of the CTF challenge that you desire to play. It displays the details of your challenge like the Challenges involved in it, the time you took to crack it, Achievements, and Leaderboard of that particular challenge. Here is the breakdown of what is in the above-mentioned sections. 1. CHALLENGES: This section gives you the sub-challenges that you need to crack in order to complete the whole CTF challenge. You need to crack the present challenge in order to unlock the next challenge. The mentioned amount of Zeal points will be awarded to you after cracking that respective challenge. 2. ACHIEVEMENTS: This section will give you side quests and targets. On meeting the targets and finishing the side quests, you will be awarded the mentioned Jolts and Zeal points. 3. LEADERBOARD: This section will display the leaders of the CTF challenge based on the time they took to crack it, achievements completed, and the number of hints used. Now that you’ve got an overview of how the CTF challenge works, let’s move further. After selecting your challenge, here’s how to get started: 1. Deploy the Challenge: Click the ‘Deploy’ button to set up your chosen CTF challenge. Think of it as prepping your digital battleground. 2. Start Your Mission: Go to the Challenges and click the ‘Start Mission’ button in the 1st challenge. This action kick-starts your CTF challenge, taking you into the heart of the adventure. After clicking ‘Start Mission’, click on the Mission Brief button to see what the challenge is based on. 3. Access Connection Information: Post-launch, essential connection information will be displayed. This is the lifeline for your interaction with the CTF challenge. 4. Copy Local Forward Contents: Within the connection details, locate and copy the Local Forward contents. These specifics are crucial for connecting to and progressing within the CTF challenge environment. Connecting to Your CTF Challenge! You’re almost ready to dive into the heart of the CTF challenge. Follow these steps to connect everything up and get into the thick of the action. Connecting to your mission can be done in two ways: With WebIDE that comes with our machine labs With VSCode First, let’s see how to do it with the WebIDE. 🖥 Set Up Your Machine Lab Now, it’s time to bring your own digital toolkit into play. Head to Machine Labs: Navigate to the ‘Essentials Dashboard’ in the Machine Labs section. The Machine Labs section is in the My Labs drop-down on the left end of the page. This is like going to your personal command center. Open the Code Server: After deploying, click on the ‘Code’ button. This will open a new tab where the magic happens – the code server. Think of it as opening a door to your control room. Then launch the Web IDE. Final Steps to Launch Your Mission After setting up your Lab and entering the Local Forward contents, you’re just a few clicks away from starting your CTF challenge. 🛠 Activate the Port Forwarding Copy the socat command from the connection info, paste it in the WebIDE’s terminal, and then run it. What is Socat? The socat command is a versatile utility that allows for bidirectional data transfers between two locations, and it’s often used for port forwarding, among many other functionalities. To set up port forwarding using socat, you would use a …

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The Ultimate FREE Hosting Guide Hey there! Welcome to your step-by-step guide for launching a professional website without spending a single penny! Designed for aspiring IT students, this guide will teach you how to use Selfmade Ninja Lab cloud lab training for aspiring IT students to set up a free domain, hosting server, and much more. With this training, you’ll gain hands-on experience in website creation, hosting, and server configuration—all completely free of cost. Let’s get started! Why Choose Selfmade Ninja Lab for Free Hosting? Selfmade Ninja Lab offers aspiring IT students an exceptional opportunity to learn website hosting and cloud server configuration in a practical environment. With Selfmade Ninja Lab cloud lab training for aspiring IT students, you’ll gain real-world skills to boost your technical expertise. Here are the key benefits of choosing Selfmade Ninja Lab: Free Hosting and Domain: Set up your website without spending a dime. Hands-On Training: Practical experience in hosting and server management. Beginner-Friendly: Designed for both students and beginners eager to learn. Prerequisites To follow this guide, you’ll need: Selfmade Ninja Labs Account: If you don’t have one, create it by clicking here. Selfmade Ninja VPN Connection: Configure the VPN on your PC. For instructions tailored to your operating system, refer to these guides: Windows Users Linux Users Mac Users Awesome! Now that you’ve got your essentials ready, let’s dive into creating your website. We’ll make it easy, fun, and completely free. Your dream website is just a few steps away! 🌟🖥✨ Accessing Selfmade Ninja Lab Open Your Browser: Grab your laptop and open your favorite web browser. Visit Selfmade NinjaLabs: Type labs.selfmade.ninja into the address bar. You’ll see a login page. Login: Click the ‘Login with GitLab’ button. If you don’t have a GitLab account, you can log in using your Google account or create a new account by clicking ‘Register now’. The best part? This whole process is free. No credit card information required! Let’s set you up and dive into the exciting world of website hosting. Setting Up Your Free Domain Once you’ve logged in, you’ll see the dashboard, which looks like this: If you see a message saying, "You are on a Free plan. Your access is limited," don’t worry. Even with a free plan, you can still secure a domain and host your website at no cost. 🌐💻✨ Exploring Dashboard Options Before redeeming your free domain, let’s explore the three key options available on your dashboard: Machine Lab: Think of this as your personal cloud computer, available 24/7. It’s powerful enough for both development and hacking. Even if your laptop is low-end, we’ve got you covered. I’ll cover this in more detail in an upcoming blog post. Spot Quiz: This feature helps you test your aptitude with gamified quizzes. Correct answers earn you ‘Zolts,’ a platform currency that can unlock extra features, like additional domains. I’ll explain how to redeem these Zolts in a future blog post. Challenge Lab: This is where you can learn hacking in a fun, game-like environment. It’s an engaging way to improve your hacking skills. Note: Stay tuned for detailed explanations of these features in upcoming blog posts! 🌟💡👩‍💻👨‍💻 Adding Your Domain Let’s get started with building your website. Go to the ‘Connectivity’ navbar and find the ‘My Domain’ section. Click on ‘My Domain’ to be redirected to a new page: Here, you have two options: Add New Domain and How to Use Domain. Click ‘Add New Domain,’ and a dialog box will appear prompting you to enter your domain name. For example, I chose helloworld, resulting in helloworld.selfmade.fun. You can select from a list of subdomains or use your own. After entering your domain name, click ‘Verify and Add’ to check its availability. If the domain is free, you can use it immediately. Congratulations on adding your domain! 🎉💻🌐👍 Setting Up Your Hosting Server With your domain ready, let’s move on to setting up your hosting server. Navigate to the ‘My Labs’ section and select ‘Machine Labs’. You’ll be taken to a page similar to this: In the dashboard, the free version offers access to one lab, which is an Ubuntu machine. Premium versions include more options, like Docker, which I’ll cover in future blog posts. Deploying Your Server Access the Dashboard: Click the ‘Dashboard’ button, then press ‘Deploy’. A dialog box will appear. Select ‘Expose to Web to Public’ and set the exposure to ’80 over 443′. This step is crucial for making your server accessible online. Don’t forget to select your domain from the options. Click ‘Confirm Deploy’ when you’re ready. This process might take a minute. Use this time to relax and anticipate the launch of your website! 🌐🖥✨🥤 Dashboard Overview: Once deployment is complete, you’ll see a dashboard with various options: Code Button: Interact with your server directly through your browser. Redeploy Button: Restart your machine for a fresh start. Stop Button: Stop the machine as needed. Lab Information: Find your username, password, and links to your VS Code server. Configuring Your Server Open VS Code: Click on the ‘Code’ button. A dialog box will appear with a password. Copy this password and paste it into the new page that opens. Click ‘Submit’. You now have VS Code running in your browser. Click on the file icon, then ‘Open Folder’, and navigate to the folder shown below. Create Document Root: Inside your home folder on VS Code, open the htdocs folder. Create a new folder for your document root and an index.php file. Paste your HTML page into this file. Set Up Apache Configuration: In the home folder, there’s a folder named ‘htconfig’. Create a new config file inside this folder. Copy and modify the following configuration: ServerName ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot Options -Indexes -FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all granted ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined 4.Update init.sh: Add the following commands to the init.sh file in your home folder: sudo a2ensite <your_config_name> sudo service apache2 restart init.sh automates initialization and configuration during redeployment. It preserves the state and configurations …

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