// Program
The path
No experience needed. The path takes you from your first terminal command to your first CTF. Topics change each semester; the order stays the same.
01, 9 stops
01
Launch
What cybersecurity is: offense, defense, purple team (both sides working together), and where each one leads. Ends with the joining CTF.
- Open session
- joining CTF
02
Linux
Get fast in the terminal: files, pipes, SSH keys, and the services behind a port.
- OverTheWire Bandit
- pwn.college
- picoCTF
03
Data & hashes
Encodings, compression, hashes, and how passwords are really stored.
- CyberChef
- John the Ripper
- CryptoHack
- Root-Me
04
Web
How a website really talks: requests, headers, cookies, hidden pages, and how to find them.
- browser DevTools
- curl
- OverTheWire Natas
- PortSwigger Academy
05
Wargame
A mini CTF we build ourselves to test everything so far. It closes trimester 1.
- Internal CTF
- live review
06
Networking
How machines expose services and how packets travel. Recon (mapping what a machine exposes) in labs only.
- Wireshark
- Nmap
- Netcat
07
Crypto
XOR, classical ciphers, then RSA and the mistakes that break it.
- CryptoHack
- Python
08
Binary
Read assembly, reverse an unknown program, and take your first steps in pwn (exploiting bugs in how a program uses memory).
- pwn.college
09
CTF
Put it all together in competition.
- The 1v1 Arena
- public CTFs
The platforms above are tools we use. They are not partners or sponsors.
02, Every week
Two sessions a week
Wednesday
Workshop, 90 min
30 minutes of theory, then an hour hands-on, guided step by step.
Friday
Open lab, after 6 PM
A short briefing on the week's reference sheet, then you work through the problems at your own pace. Mentors are there when you get stuck.
Each week the club leads pick and test the exercises before the session, so the pace follows the group.
03, Dec to Jan
Trimester 1: Linux and the web
December and January, eight weeks. The year runs from December to early June in three trimesters of two months.
Linux and dataweeks w01 to w04
Week 01
Linux navigation
SSH basics, the filesystem, reading man pages and --help, core commands like cat, cp, mv and find.
Practice on: Bandit 0-5 · pwn.college · picoCTF
Week 02
Streams, pipes and encoding
Redirection and pipes, grep, sort, uniq, strings and diff. Base64, hex and ROT13.
Practice on: Bandit 6-11 · pwn.college · picoCTF
Week 03
Compression, SSH keys and services
Scratch workspaces, archives inside archives, hex dumps, logging in with SSH keys, talking to ports with nc and openssl.
Practice on: Bandit 12-16 · pwn.college · picoCTF
Week 04
Hashing and cracking
One-way hashes and salting, decoding in several steps with CyberChef, testing password hashes with John the Ripper.
Practice on: club challenges · CryptoHack · Root-Me
The webweeks w05 to w08
Week 05
HTTP and DevTools
Client and server, requests and responses, methods and status codes, reading it all in the browser DevTools.
Practice on: Natas · picoCTF · Root-Me
Week 06
Raw HTTP and headers
Sending requests from the terminal with curl, headers like User-Agent, Referer and Host, and access controls.
Practice on: pwn.college Talking Web · Natas · picoCTF
Week 07
Sessions, cookies and access
How a stateless protocol remembers you, changing cookies and parameters, and IDOR: reading data that is not yours by changing an ID.
Practice on: PortSwigger Academy · Natas · picoCTF
Week 08
Recon and fuzzing
Finding hidden pages and parameters, choosing wordlists, fuzzing and filtering the responses.
Practice on: PortSwigger Academy · pwn.college · Root-Me
week 08, friday closing CTF
On the Friday of week 8 we host a mini CTF built for what we covered: a board of Linux, hashing, web and misc challenges, each worth points. It checks you are ready for trimester 2 in February and March.
04, Outcomes
By the end, you can
- work comfortably in a Linux terminal
- recognize common encodings and hashes
- inspect web traffic
- run basic recon in a lab
- solve beginner crypto challenges
- read simple assembly
- play a public CTF with a team
05, Ranks
You earn your rank with weekly challenges and CTF points. Our Discord bot keeps score.
user
In Linux: A normal account on the machine.
In the club: You're in. You found a flag in the joining CTF.
sudoer
In Linux: Allowed to run admin commands when needed.
In the club: You solve the beginner challenges on your own.
wheel
In Linux: The group trusted with admin rights.
In the club: You help newer members get unstuck.
root
In Linux: Full control of the machine.
In the club: You can solve most club challenges alone.
elite
In Linux: Not a Linux term. This one is ours.
In the club: You play public CTFs for the team and hold your own in the Arena.
Points needed for each rank: to be announced.
06, Compete
The 1v1 Arena
Two members, one challenge, one clock. First valid flag wins the round.
01
Duels all semester
Challenge any member, any time. Every win moves you up the ladder.
02
Same challenge, both players
Each duel puts both players on the same challenge, so the faster solve wins, not the easier draw.
03
Bracket finale
At the end of the semester, the top of the ladder plays a knockout bracket, with a live leaderboard any SASE student can watch.