Jai Minton

Jai Minton

Information and Cyber Security Professional. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own, and may not be representative of my employer, or any other entity unless I am specifically quoting someone. Content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

🎅🎄 SANS 2018 Holiday Hack Challenge (HHC) - KringleCon

2 minute read

HHC2018

Introduction

Every year the SANS Institute and the Counter Hack Team hosts a ‘Holiday Hack Challenge’ also commonly referred to as HHC.

The SANS HHC contains a number of unique infosec related challenges designed to test and improve the technical skills of those interested or working within Information/Cyber Security.

The 2018 Holiday Hack Challenge can be found below:

SANS 2018 HHC - Kringlecon

Some statistics on the SANS 2018 HHC were presented at the closing webcast which can be found below:

SANS HHC Webcast

Quick Statistics for HHC 2018

  • 17,460 Players
  • 3.73% Completed the final challenge
  • 337 Reports Submitted
  • 1.93% Submitted a report
  • 73 Reports with everything answered correctly

SANS keeps a number of past challenges (including HHC 2018) available all year long for those who still want to take part after the challenge has concluded which can be found below:

SANS Past HHC Challenges

Write-up

For those looking to learn or expand on their technical abilities these types of challenges can often be a good starting point with many participants choosing to document and publish their write-ups for every challenge completed.

Included as part of the SANS HHC is the option to submit your write-up for each challenge (prior to the deadline) to enter into the SANS Contest.

In January 2019, I successfully completed all of the challenges and submitted my write-up to the Counter Hack Team, this entry was one of 42 entries to earn a Super Honorable Mention, which is defined as:

SUPER HONORABLE MENTIONS
A group of people who really went above and beyond with their entries. Their write-ups were SUPERB, demonstrating excellent technical skills along with impressive communication skills.

SANS HHC 2018 - Winners and Answers

I have chosen to publish my HHC submission to show my thought process behind various challenges and to help others learn (PDF Download Below):

SANS HHC 2018 Write-up JPMinty

I’d also thoroughly suggest anyone interested take a look at the below winning, astounding entries which took out the grand prizes.

Creative, illustrated entry - Congratulations Steve Sampana.

Video Walkthrough of SANS HHC 2018 Challenges - Congratulations Andy Smith.

Official SANS 2018 HHC write-up - Congratulations Dom, Sam and Vlad

Final Notes

In addition to my closing remarks in the HHC write-up, I’d like to give my congratulations to the rest of the Honorable and Super Honorable Entries, Honorable being:

HONORABLE MENTIONS
These folks did a wonderful job with their answers, and we heartily congratulate them

Send my congratulations to all 337 people/teams who took the time to document and submit their reports, and also to the 17,460 players who participated in the SANS 2018 HHC.

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