All posts by mistermarmolejo

Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League Final Week: Finishing Strong

Objective: 

Students will complete their training in the NCL Gym to enhance their understanding of Cybersecurity principles and to assist in preparing for next year’s competition.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Cyber Security
  • National Cyber League
  • NCL Spring Season
  • Regular Season
  • NCL Gym Training
  • Final Exam
Assignment:
  1. This week, we will complete our training in the Gym to enhance our understanding of Cybersecurity principles, and to prepare returning NetOp students for competition in the NCL 2018 Fall Season. It is expected that everyone will complete all the Gym exercises by May 11th.
  2. At this time you will receive final credit for the sum of the Gym exercises that you have completed, so continue working in the Gym throughout the duration of this week.
  3. Review for the end-of-course final exam will begin on May 14th. Review materials will be provided on Monday.
  4. The final exam will be held for all NetOp students on Friday, May 18th. It is a 100 question multiple choice quiz covering all of the chapters studied during the first half of the course. We will review this material throughout the week of the 14th.
  5. Please remember that the Final Exam is weighted with the other assessments to represent 20% of your overall grade. Please prepare accordingly.

 

Assigned: May 7th, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: May 11th, 2018
Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League Week 3: Back to the Gym

Objective: 

Students will continue to train in the NCL Gym to enhance their understanding of Cybersecurity principles and to assist in preparing for next year’s competition.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Cyber Security
  • National Cyber League
  • NCL Spring Season
  • Regular Season
  • NCL Gym Training
Assignment:
  1. The Regular Season Game is complete, and while not everyone put as much effort into the game as I hoped, we do have some solid performances to celebrate. As expected, this was a learning experience for everyone, especially myself. This week we’ll discuss the competition, how each player performed, and what lessons we can take from our experience in the NCL competition.
  2. This week, we will continue our training in the Gym to learn more about Cybersecurity principles, and to prepare returning Net/Op students for competition in the NCL 2018 Fall Season.
  3. Many of the exercises required tools that we did not have immediate access to. We will use the continued Gym training to determine what tools we need access to, acquire, install and implement them for use in future NCL competitions.
  4. It is expected that everyone will complete all the Gym exercises by May 11th. This will allow for us to prepare for the end-of-course final exam over the week of May 14th. You will receive credit for completion of the exercises, as well as points earned, so continue working in the Gym, regardless of how much (or how little) you have already completed.
  5. The final exam will be held on May 18th. It is a 100 question multiple choice quiz covering all of the chapters studied during the first half of the course. We will review this material the week of the 14th.

 

Assigned: April 17th, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: April 20th, 2018
Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League Resources: Cryptography Links

Links:

Decode Ingress – A list of tools that can help you with decoding  passcodes, originally provided for use with the AR game Ingress. Tools for text manipulating, basic conversions like text to ASCII, HEX to Base64. Tools to decipher Morse code.  Good Image exif info grabbers, and image editing tools for Steganography puzzles (messages hidden in digital images). A range of great info and tools about various ciphers, and their implementations.

Tools for Noobs: Online Decryption Tool – Decrypts a string using various algorithms (e.g. Blowfish, DES, TripleDES, Enigma).

Rumkin Deciphering Tools – This is a page dedicated to simple text manipulation tools, which all can be replicated with just paper and pencil. An amazing resource for deciphering methods, including many that we will definitely encounter in NCL puzzles (Atbash, Railfence and Vigenere).

MD5hashing.net Encryption and Decryption – At md5hashing.net you can hash (encrypt) any string into 66 different hash types. As you probably know – decryption of any hash is impossible, but they offer reverse decryption via our database (~1000M records, and counting).

Splitbrain.org Encoding/Decoding Tools – This tool helps you to quickly run some text through various different encoding/decoding functions available in PHP. Great for a lot of different decoding possibilities rapidly

CodeBeautify.org Encryption/Decryption Tool – A nice, clean tool for decrypting codes that you know the key for, or encrypting codes with your own original key.

SQLite Viewer for Chrome – Chrome plugin for viewing SQLite databases in your browser. Allows opening and editing of SQLite databases without requiring admin access to install.

Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League Week 2: The Regular Season Game

Objective: 

Students will use their accumulated knowledge and training to compete in the NCL Regular Season Game.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Cyber Security
  • National Cyber League
  • NCL Spring Season
  • Regular Season
Assignment:
  1. The Regular Season Game will open at 11am MST on Friday, April 13th, and remain open until 7pm MST on Sunday, April 15th.
  2. Continue your training in the Gym to prepare for the Regular Season competition on Friday.
  3. Remember that Friday is a short day, due to the Spring Sports Assembly schedule. We will begin the Regular Season Game as soon as class begins, and get as far as we can. You are more than welcome to stay for lunch to continue the competition, if you choose to do so. My room will also be open during 8th hour, if you wish to come back to continue the competition.
  4. If you do not finish the competition during class time (and it is highly likely that you will not), please continue to advance through the challenges over the weekend. Do not forget that you can log into the NCL Stadium from any device with an Internet connection, but you may need tools available on a Windows or Linux workstation to solve some of the challenges. It is recommended that you continue with the competition over the weekend and get as far as you can to achieve the best result in your final Scouting Report.

The Big Game: Regular Season Play
The Regular Season Game is a three-day mandatory game. You must participate in the Regular Season in order to receive an NCL Scouting Report. The Regular Season Game starts at 11:00 am MST on Friday, April 13th and ends at 7:00 p.m. MST on Sunday, April 15th.

This is the big game – the one we’ve been preparing for. Get a good night’s rest, eat your Wheaties (or Lucky Charms, if that’s how you roll), and be here at 10:15am on Friday to get logged in to the NCL Stadium, and be ready to compete. Use all your knowledge, training and skills to do your very best, and we’ll discuss the results after this weekend. Good luck, and may the Force be with you! Always.

Assigned: April 9th, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: April 15th, 2018
Uncategorized

National Cyber League Week 1: Gym Training

Objective: 

Students will begin preparing for competition in the National Cyber League by familiarizing themselves with the competition rules and procedures through training in the NCL Gym.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Cyber Security
  • National Cyber League
  • NCL Spring Season
  • Preseason
  • Regular Season
  • Postseason
Assignment:
  1. The NCL Gym is open now. The NCL Gym provides practice challenges to help prepare players for Preseason, Regular Season and Postseason. While practicing in the NCL Gym, access the solutions guide to receive step-by-step instructions to help you understand the more difficult challenges.
  2. Log into the Gym
  3. Read the FAQ – you need to know the NCL lingo
  4. Mark your calendars with the following important NCL Preseason and Regular season dates:
    1. 3/30 – 5/25: Gym Training
    2. 4/4 – 4/10: Preseason Game
    3. 4/13 – 4/15: Regular season Game
    4. 4/27 – 4/29: Postseason Game

The First Game: Preseason Play
The Preseason is a week-long mandatory game. You must participate in the Preseason in order to receive an NCL Scouting Report. The Preseason gameplay starts at 1:00 p.m. ET on April 4th and ends at 9:00 p.m. ET on April 10th.

There are lots of preparatory materials available. Also, be sure to read about the Bracketing system, which the Preseason game determines, as well as the Ethical Behavior/Rules of Conduct.

Assigned: April 2nd, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: April 4th, 2018
Networking and Operating Systems

Cyber Warfare Boot Camp – Week 7: Wireshark Packet Analysis

Objective: 

Students will continue preparing for proficiency in cyber security with an introduction to the basics of packet analysis in the Wireshark application.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Kali Linux
  • Wireshark
  • Packet Analysis
  • Wireshark Configuration
Assignment:
  1. Today we are going to start working with Wireshark – a powerful packet collection and analysis tool that is free to download and pre-installed in the Kali Linux distribution.
  2. Watch Hansang Bee’s Intro and About the Wireshark Environment video to get a basic idea of how the Wireshark interface works, and a few tips on how you can configure the Wireshark GUI to meet your specific needs and preferences.
  3. We will be using this and other videos to gain a familiarity with the Wireshark environment, and look at the methods and construction of network packets, so we can begin to develop “the eye” for packet formation and transmission anomalies.
Assigned: February 28th, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: March 2nd, 2018
Networking and Operating Systems

Cyber Warfare Boot Camp – Week 7: Network Troubleshooting in Linux

Objective: 

Students will continue preparing for proficiency in cyber security by reviewing networking fundamentals.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Network Basics
  • OSI Model
  • TCP/IP Model
  • Network Addressing
  • Network Configuration
  • Network Interfaces
  • Network Manager
  • route Command
  • dhclient Command
  • ARP
Assignment:
  1. Visit the Linux Journey website and scroll down to the “Networking Nomad” section. Click on the “Troubleshooting” item.
  2. Today we will look at common networking tools that will not only help you diagnose and troubleshoot network issues in Linux, but will also help you identify potential attack vectors and points of ingress on your own (and others’) networks!
  3. We will get into the lab later this week, as many of these commands will not work in Webminal. (With good reason!)
Assigned: February 20th, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: February 23rd, 2018
Networking and Operating Systems

Cyber Warfare Boot Camp – Week 5: Network Config in the Linux CLI

Objective: 

Students will continue preparing for proficiency in cyber security by reviewing networking fundamentals.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Network Basics
  • OSI Model
  • TCP/IP Model
  • Network Addressing
  • Network Configuration
  • Network Interfaces
  • Network Manager
  • route Command
  • dhclient Command
  • ARP
Assignment:
  1. Visit the Linux Journey website and scroll down to the “Networking Nomad” section. Click on the “Network Config” item.
  2. Network Configuration is how you set up your network. In Windows, much of this is done for you by the OS. Linux will do this for you if you want it to, but if you want to get hands-on with the interfaces and routing options, then there are many tools within the CLI that will let you do so.
  3. Read through the module to discover how to view and manipulate network interfaces, routing tables, DHCP leases, ARP caches and view network settings using the Network Manager tool.
  4. Don’t forget to get signed out for Advisory tomorrow to participate in the AZ Cyber Warfare Range hacking activity with David Hernandez! It’s going to be a 90 minute activity, so you’ll want to get started during Advisory to participate in the whole thing!
Assigned: February 14th, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: February 15th, 2018
Networking and Operating Systems

Cyber Warfare Boot Camp – Week 5: Routing

Objective: 

Students will continue preparing for proficiency in cyber security by reviewing networking fundamentals.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Network Basics
  • OSI Model
  • TCP/IP Model
  • Network Addressing
  • Routing
  • Switching
  • Flooding
  • Routing Table
  • Routing Protocols
Assignment:
  1. Visit the Linux Journey website and scroll down to the “Networking Nomad” section. Click on the “Routing” item.
  2. Routers are the “traffic cops” or “post office” of networks, depending on what metaphor you choose to follow.
  3. Read the information provided on the Linux Journey website to discover how routers work, learn the difference between routers, switches and hubs, and learn about the routing protocols that determine how a packet gets from one host to another in the shortest amount of time.
Assigned: February 12th, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: February 13th, 2018