Sp4rkCon CTF 2025

Are you ready to unravel challenges that will puzzle your mind? Are you ready to solve challenges that will teach you practical skills you can take back to your daily job? Are you ready to compete for the top spots and take home the glory and perhaps a prize?

Walmart and ArkanSec are pleased to present Sp4rkCon CTF. Sp4rkCon CTF is designed to provide fun and captivating challenges. We strive to provide challenges that cover the spread of experience that players may have -- from beginner challenges to more advanced challenges. Here’s everything you need to know about the event. Please read carefully to avoid any issues on game day. This is a BYOCTF which means you can prepare ahead of time and bring a challenge to share and provide yourself with a competitive edge during the game.

When: April 12, 2025 during Sp4rkCon. Sp4rkCon opens their doors at 0800 CT. Opening remarks at 0900 CT. CTF kicks off at 0930 CT. Game will stop at approximately 1500 CT or at the discretion of the game admins. Prizes will be announced in the CTF support room following the closing remarks. Prizes are for in-person players only.

Where: On-site and virtual. Note: some challenges may only be possible to complete in-person but we should have plenty of challenges that can be completed virtually. We will have a support room at Sp4rkCon. We will be in the 1st floor west lunch/break room - don't worry you won't be able to miss us - after entering Sp4rkCon we are just down the hallway on the right and will have a sign outside our door.

What do I need to do TODAY?:

Register for the CTF to receive your digital access to the game. We will email your access token and additional details a few days prior to the event. If you are playing in-person be sure to register for the Sp4rkCon conference.

CTF registration: If you plan to participate on-site YOU MUST ALSO register for Spr4kCon. Registering for the CTF is important, but it won’t get you in the door! Sign up at BOTH of the links if you plan to be on-site. Virtual participants only need to do the CTF registration. We are supporting both team play and individual play. Each will compete in their own bracket.

• Sp4rkCon conference registration: https://one.walmart.com/content/sp4rkcon/wmeo/sp4rkcon-home/sp4rkcon-2025.html
• CTF registration: Use this Eventbrite page to register!

Additional information: The style of this CTF may be new to you even if you have competed in CTFs before. This will be a BYOCTF – “Bring Your Own [Challenge|Capture] The Flag”. This means that there will be core challenges provided by the organizers, but players can also submit their own challenges for others to solve. It will cost you game points to post your challenge but if people solve your challenge YOU earn points! Usually after 4-5 people solve your challenge you have hit the breakeven point and every additional solve for you is "profit." As the challenges you encounter will not just be from the core organizers, you will have the opportunity to be exposed to a wide variety of challenges. If you are interested in creating your own challenge you can find more details about it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SWaBEHy3e4cmjFcR52mXFtRM_lQu_detR1o-JVZalKk/edit?usp=sharing If you just want to play that’s perfectly fine. You are under no obligation and should feel no pressure to bring a challenge to this BYOCTF event. If you have concerns about players bringing their own challenges - read up on the BYOCTF concept to see how some of those concerns may be addressed by the details of game logic and rules. Have questions? E-mail us information [@] arkansec.com.

Host or Publisher ArkanSec