I had the chance to participate at the HackUS 2011. This was my first time at the HackUS and let me tell you it worth it a lot! There was a lot of challenges (too much for my level of experience). See here for detail of the event. One thing I learn is that preparation make all the difference. Before attending the competition I make sure that the following was in a working condition

• My MacBookPro
• Windows VM with ollyGDB and IDA Pro
• Backtrack VM
• Webscarab OS X Installation
• Spare laptop with VMware player
• Cisco 2950 Switch
• Alfa Network b/g USB Adapter
• (Power bar network cable etc..)

I take I bit of time to learn new tools before going to the competition.

• Start Reading Hacking : The Art of Exploitation 2^nd Edition 
• Webscarab youtube video
• Playing a bit with GDB
• Load a Small binary in IDA Pro to see what it look like

With those tools and that new knowledge, I drove my car for 2 hours in light snow to the HackUS event. My goal was to learn have fun and capture some flags ;-)

I had no team so I was match with other people. Our team was called « The Others ». I met nice and skilled people.  I was the only one with little experience in the team (2 other competition).

The challenge I enjoy the most was the forensics, Hack the Human and the BGP Network Challenge. I also like the Firewall challenge but it was release at the end of the competition so I did not had a lot of time to play with it.

What I learn:

• Invest time in protecting your environment.
• Make sure that all your team member know what they have to do went time is very short on a challenge
• Follow the IRC channel for hints and challenge update (Use SSL)
• Have a share for the team so all info can be centralized and shared quickly
• If you are sure you have the good answer for your challenge and the solution is not working, try with other tool. There was a bug in Webscarab. (Lost 30 minutes)
• Bring a manageable switch that can do « span port » ;-)
• Don’t be afraid to ask question to challenge designers.
• When doing social engineering don’t spend too much time looking at the same place. Look around as much as you can. Don’t take thing for granted ie: check if doors are locks, verify trash carefully; ask other if they got technology in their pockets etc…
• At least 4 hours of sleep per day. 
• Beer in reasonable quantities (A team of three take 21 in 30 minutes or so)

What I plan to do in preparation for the next competition (Hackfest 2011)

1. Read at least half of The Art of Exploitation 2^nd Edition (40 hours)
2. Spend at least 20 hour playing with scapy (Spoof source IP and more)
3. Learn enough snort-fu to be able to send rst packet when some signature are hit (Drop stuff that can hurt your environment) (5 hours)
4. Build a system that can crack password (laptop or desktop) 10 hours + $$$
5. Dedicate 2 hours a month for hacking (Work on Hackfest 2010 challenge/solution)
6. Learn as much as I can

Extra hardware to bring

• Third PC to capture network traffic and pasword cracking tools
• Big external drive for network capture and data sharing (500 gig+)
• Bring an external monitor for the IRC feed.
• Good Wireless antenna
• Good books that can help during the competition

The next planned competition is Hackfest 2011 in the beginning of November. I would like to take the opportunity to thanks my girlfriend and my kids to let me attend this competition.