Transmission incoming · UVCC Spaceport · Deck 3
HACKERS CHALLENGE
The board goes live soon.
Qualifier opens Oct 27, 2026 · 12:00 MDT · Provo, UT
The premiere challenge of SAINTCON. A multi-day, Jeopardy-style game that crowns the conference champion — web, forensics, reverse engineering, crypto, hardware, and OSINT. Brought to you by rigel and friends.
STATUS: challenges under construction · scoreboard cold · crew standing by
Mission briefing
What you're signing up for
Players are presented with challenges that require security and technical skills to solve. Solve a challenge, submit its flag, earn points. Dynamic scoring means challenges start at 1000 points and lose value as more players land them.
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Web
Broken auth, injection, and the request nobody thought you'd send. Bring Burp.
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Forensics
Packet captures, disk images, and artifacts that remember more than the operator wanted.
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Reverse Engineering
Binaries that don't want to explain themselves. Disassemble, debug, and ask better questions.
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Cryptography
Bad nonces, homegrown ciphers, and keys hiding in plain sight.
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Hardware
Pins, protocols, and solder. Some of it you'll touch in person on the third floor.
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OSINT
The frontier is public, indexed, and far more revealing than anyone expects.
Flight plan
Two stages. One Black Badge.
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Stage 1
Online qualifier
Tuesday 12:00 → Friday 06:00
A Jeopardy board of challenges with dynamic scoring, open to the whole field. The top 4 on the combined board take merit seats; a 5th seat is reserved for the minimal-AI track, awarded by writeup.
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Stage 2
In-person final
Friday 08:30 – 10:30
Proctored, up to 5 contestants, brand-new puzzles, every challenge worth the same. No AI tools allowed. The winner takes the Black Badge.
The prize
The overall winner receives a Black Badge — free entry to next year's conference, and a name that sticks around a lot longer than that.
Play your way
Just say so
AI can one-shot a lot of CTF challenges these days, and we can't police that across an online field. So instead of banning it, we ask you to self-identify at registration. Three scoreboards track this live — combined, minimal-AI, and maxi-AI. Nothing is hidden.
You solved it yourself. Search engines, docs, and old writeups are fair game; AI didn't touch the analysis or the exploit.
One final seat is reserved for the minimal-AI track, awarded by verified writeup. Declaring minimal-AI is a claim you may need to back up.
AI helped — in any way, at any point. No penalty, no side-eye, your own board.
When in doubt, declare maxi. The final is AI-free for everyone regardless.
Crew conduct
Rules
The short version lives here. Seat allocation, the overlap rule, the writeup process, and the Friday timeline are all in the full 2026 rules.
- Don't brute-force the scoring servers.
- Don't steal flags — sharing hints is fine, sharing flags isn't.
- Don't sabotage challenges for other players.
- Social-engineering other players is fair game.
- Register with your SAINTCON email and bring a laptop.
- HC staff can disqualify players or adjust scores for violations.
What to bring
Your laptop, your tools, and some energy — a few of these are hard. Find us on the third floor of the conference center.
Who should play
Everyone. Newcomers, seasoned CTF veterans, and groups working together are all welcome. The board has something for every skill level.
Pre-flight
Registration opens soon
The crew manifest isn't open yet. When it is, it opens right here — this page becomes the sign-up. Until then: sharpen your tooling, and watch the SAINTCON channels for the call.