Badge 2021

NorthSec 2021 Electronic Badge

You have probably visited this page because you own a new, shiny NorthSec 2021 electronic badge. Welcome to the #badgelife club! Don't forget to show the world what you've got on social media using #badgelife and #nsec2021 tags.

First things first, this year the badge is separate from NorthSec CTF competition. This means three things:

  • You do not get any CTF points for solving badge challenges.
  • Owning a badge does not give you any advantage in the CTF competition.
  • You can start looking for flags as soon as you plug in the power.

The badge has a total of 10 flags in different categories, like trivia or reverse engineering. The icons in the status bar will help you to keep track of how many flags have been discovered. All challenges are independent from each other, and you can look for flags in any order.

How to submit flags?

Submit the flags through FLAGBOT on the official NorthSec Discord server. To learn about Discord, click here.

Please do not share any flag on public channels not to spoil the fun for other participants. To let everyone know that you have solved a challenge, submit the flag to the FLAGBOT, and in return you will receive a vanity role!

What should I do with the badge after NorthSec 2021?

It is yours to keep and use for all your cool hardware projects!

The badge is a full-fledged development board, equipped with a powerful ESP32 microprocessor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (BLE and classic), UART serial port, colour display, 15 Neopixel LEDs and a buzzer (and it has a cool shape!). The flash chip is not locked, which means that you can directly install any alternative firmware compatible with ESP32 architecture.

We suggest that you do not try to flash your badge until we publish the original firmware. The full source code of the firmware, including all schematics, will be released shortly after the event on NorthSec Github.