Education DCL: EAGER: Building a Capture-The-Flag Platform for 5G Network Security

Capture The Flag （CTF）活动是培训下一代网络安全人员最受欢迎的场所之一。通过参加CTF比赛，参与者可以获得宝贵的动手网络攻击和/或防御经验，这是很难从课堂课程中获得的。以往的CTF活动涵盖了许多主题，如汽车和投票机，并非常成功地吸引了参与者，并激励他们从事网络安全事业。随着5G网络在全球范围内逐步推广，其安全性已成为人们非常关注的问题，这也使其成为新CTF竞赛的绝佳主题。该项目的创新之处在于将5G网络整合到CTF竞赛中，目的是加强和改造现有的网络安全教育和劳动力发展活动。该项目更广泛的意义和重要性在于，它将提供一个新的场所，培训未来具有网络攻击和/或防御实践技能的网络安全工作人员，并帮助他们获得5G网络的首次体验。该项目旨在开发一个名为CTF5G的开放式云平台，该平台可以自动创建专注于5G网络安全的CTF游戏实例。它解决了构建CTF5G所涉及的技术挑战，包括如何实现CTF竞赛的快速设置（敏捷性），如何控制不同类型CTF竞赛在5G网络中植入的漏洞（可控性），如何使CTF竞赛对所有参与者公平（问责性），以及如何扩大公共云上的用户数量（可扩展性）。该项目包括四个阶段。第一阶段利用集装箱化的5G网络模块来自动化CTF比赛的工作流程。第二阶段将不同类型的漏洞植入普通5G网络模块，以组成可利用的5G网络。第三阶段探索追踪玩家在平台内活动的技术，并在CTF比赛中及早发现犯规行为。在最后阶段，CTF5G部署在公共云上时，应用系统膨胀和模块共享等技术来扩大服务的用户数量。作为一个基于开放云的CTF平台，CTF5G将增强个人在网络安全和5G技术方面获得教育机会的多样性，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的个人。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Capture The Flag (CTF) events are one of the most popular venues to train next-generation cybersecurity workforce. By participating in CTF competitions, participants can gain valuable hands-on cyber-attack and/or defense experiences, which are hard to obtain from in-class courses. Previous CTF events have covered many themes, such as automobiles and voting machines, and were quite successful in engaging participants and motivating them to pursue career in cyber security. While 5G networks are gradually rolled out globally, their security has become a great concern, making it also an excellent topic for new CTF contests. The project’s novelties are integration of 5G networks into CTF competitions with the goal to enhance and transform the existing cybersecurity education and workforce development activities. The project's broader significance and importance are that it will offer a new venue to train future cybersecurity workforce with cyber offense and/or defense hands-on skills and help them gain a first experience with 5G networks. The project aims to develop an open cloud-based platform called CTF5G, which can automatically create CTF game instances focusing on 5G network security. It tackles the technical challenges involved in building CTF5G, including how to enable a quick setup of CTF contests (agility), how to control the vulnerabilities implanted within 5G networks for different types of CTF contests (controllability), how to make CTF contests fair to all participants (accountability), and how to scale up the number of users on a public cloud (scalability). The project includes four stages. The first stage leverages containerized 5G network modules to automate workflow for CTF contests. The second stage implants different types of vulnerabilities into vanilla 5G network modules to compose exploitable 5G networks. The third stage explores techniques to track players' activities within the platform and catch foul plays early in CTF contests. The final stage applies techniques such as system debloating and module sharing to scale up the number of users served when CTF5G is deployed on a public cloud. As an open cloud based CTF platform, CTF5G will enhance the diversity of individuals who have access to educational opportunities in cybersecurity and 5G technologies, including those from underrepresented groups.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.