z0d1ak CTF Writeups

This repository contains CTF event setup material and challenge writeups created by Team z0d1ak.

Initial Setup

After cloning the repository, make init.sh executable and run it:

chmod +x init.sh
./init.sh

Purpose

The repo is organized to help you:

• create a folder for each CTF event
• track event metadata in an event-level README.md
• create category folders for manual writeups
• optionally pull solved challenges from CTFd events
• keep challenge writeups separate and easy to review in git history

Repository Structure

A typical event layout looks like this:

Event Name/
├── README.md
├── web/
│   └── Challenge Name/
│       └── README.md
├── pwn/
└── crypto/

• The event-level README.md stores event information such as links, timing, format, and description.
• Challenge writeups live deeper in the tree, typically at:

<Event>/<Category>/<Challenge>/README.md

Git LFS

Challenge asset files are stored through Git LFS, while writeups and source-style files stay in normal Git.

• event directories are tracked through .gitattributes
• README.md and common source files remain regular Git blobs
• .lfsconfig excludes LFS payload downloads by default so fresh clones and pulls stay lightweight

To fetch assets only for one area you need, run:

git lfs pull -I "HACKZERO '26 CTF/**"

To fetch every LFS-backed asset in the repo, run:

git lfs pull

add_comp.sh

Use add_comp.sh to bootstrap a new competition from either a CTFtime event URL or manually entered event metadata. The flow is interactive and uses a bundled prompt-driven CLI UI for event review, category selection, setup summary, and confirmation.

Basic usage

./add_comp.sh
./add_comp.sh <ctftime_event_url>
./add_comp.sh --manual

Example:

./add_comp.sh https://ctftime.org/event/3171/

add_comp.sh now runs the bundled CLI entrypoint, so contributors only need node 18+ available. A local pnpm install is only needed if you want to modify or rebuild the CLI itself.

What it does

add_comp.sh will:

1. either fetch event metadata from the CTFtime API or prompt you to enter it manually
2. show an event summary before continuing
3. ask whether the event uses CTFd
4. do one of the following:
   • non-CTFd flow: let you select default categories from categories.txt and optionally add extra categories
   • CTFd flow: optionally use a player token to fetch solved challenges, create challenge folders, generate challenge README.md files, and download challenge files; if CTFd leaves category blank, the script falls back to challenge tags
5. show a setup summary before writing anything to disk
6. create an event directory named after the event title
7. generate an event-level README.md, plus either manual category folders or solved CTFd challenge folders

Summary of options

When you run the script, you will be prompted for:

• Event source
  If you start with no arguments, choose whether to fetch from CTFtime or enter the event manually. You can also skip the selector entirely with ./add_comp.sh --manual.

• CTFtime event URL
  Required only for the CTFtime flow. You can either pass it on the command line or enter it interactively.

• Manual event metadata
  For non-CTFtime events, the script will ask for the event title plus optional metadata such as website, format, restrictions, onsite status, timing, participant count, description, Discord link, and live feed URL.

• Uses CTFd?
  Choose whether the event runs on CTFd. This works for both CTFtime and manually entered events.

• CTFd base URL
  If the event uses CTFd, you can confirm or override the detected site URL.

• Player API token
  Optional. If provided, the script can fetch solved challenges from the CTFd API.

• Default categories selection
  For non-CTFd events, you can interactively choose categories from categories.txt. All defaults are preselected.

• Extra categories
  For non-CTFd events, you can add additional comma-separated category names.

Commit Workflow

This repository is intended to keep event setup and writeup content in separate commits.

Required workflow for authors

1. Initialize the CTF first
   • create the event scaffold
   • make the initial commit for that CTF using:

chore: init {CTF_name}

2. Create your working branch
   • after the init commit, create a new branch using:

{CTF_name}/{author_name}

3. Add writeups one question at a time
   • make a single commit per question
   • use the following commit message format:

feat: added writeup for "{CTF_name}/{category}/{question name}"

Recommended workflow

1. Create the event scaffold first

   • run add_comp.sh
   • review the generated event directory and event-level README.md
   • commit that event setup as its own commit using chore: init {CTF_name}

2. Create your author branch

   • create a branch named {CTF_name}/{author_name}

3. Add challenge writeups later

   • update challenge folders and challenge README.md files
   • commit each writeup separately from the initial event scaffold
   • use one commit per question with the format feat: added writeup for "{CTF_name}/{category}/{question name}"

Why separate commits?

Keeping event creation and writeups in different commits makes it easier to:

• review repository history
• see when an event was added
• track writeup progress over time
• avoid mixing setup changes with solution content

Author Injection Hook

This repo includes a pre-commit hook that can inject an ## Author section into newly added challenge writeups.

The intended behavior is:

• event-level README.md changes should be committed first
• challenge writeups should be committed afterward
• if the event-level README.md is not part of the commit, writeup author injection may be skipped depending on the hook logic

This supports the workflow of making one commit for the event, then separate commits for individual writeups.

Team

Writeups in this repository are maintained by Team z0d1ak.