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I notice they're continuing the proud silicon valley start-up tradition of building a website that doesn't actually tell you what Google CTF is :P Even when I

I notice they're continuing the proud silicon valley start-up tradition of building a website that doesn't actually tell you what Google CTF is :P Even when I click on the beginner's quest, I've got paths, flags, endings, challenges... ...but nothing to tell me what the hell the thing actually IS!

saagarjha 7y ago
It’s in the link at the bottom of the “What is the Google CTF?” section.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  You'd think that the "What is the Google CTF?" section would answer the question "What is the Google CFT?" rather than sending someone to another page. All Google would have to do is move the sentence "they consist of a set of computer security puzzles (or challenges) involving reverse-engineering, memory corruption, cryptography, web technologies, and more" from the secondary page into the paragraph that's supposed to answer the question. It would actually be shorter.
- ACow_Adonis 7y ago
  Ah, I actually followed that link trying to find out. All i see on my browser is a bit of text with a big blue button that says "will you capture the flag?", which isn't really helpful, which takes me back to...the original website. Now on the one hand I'd say, ok, its not google's responsibility to try to have websites/non-standard browser configs set ups actually work with their web pages... On the other hand, I'm sure the kind of security people google is looking for all surf the web with standard browser configs and permissions enabled... And as the other commenter has pointed out, I know its radical of me, but I would have thought the "What is the google CTF" section should contain text which answers "What is the google CTF".
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Scroll down
    - ACow_Adonis 7y ago
      I did. Its not a big page. There's nothing there. Now I'm not a (total) idiot, obviously I can debug it if i have to (and if other people are telling me "there's stuff there, you just can't see it"). If i open it in chrome with extensions turned off or a default mobile browser, stuff now appears, so yeah, its got to do with script permissions and the like. But again, why not just include actual text in the "what is google ctf" section that answers "what is google ctf?", and/or in the beginner's section that explains what's going on, and of all the groups of people you'd build your webpage for, are security people the ones that you want a website that breaks if they block your default scripts/permissions?
      - ackbar03 7y ago
        If your having this much issue with figuring out what a ctf is its probably not for you. Googles ctf is pretty damn hard
        r-w 7y ago
        If their goal was to minimize participation and competition, then they certainly succeeded. I don’t think being unfamiliar with something should ever be outright disqualifying.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        ackbar03 7y ago
        If you put it that way, it wouldn't be wrong to think of it as a disqualifying round
        fyrabanks 7y ago
        If I were holding a competition for bakers, I wouldn't feel obligated to include a paragraph explaining what a "bake-off" is. I knew what a CTF was years before I knew enough to compete in one; it's a central part of hacker culture going back to the mid-90s. Every puzzle here places you in a different unfamiliar situation. The only "outright disqualifying" thing is whether you can figure out something on your own. You essentially failed the first test.

saagarjha 7y ago

It’s in the link at the bottom of the “What is the Google CTF?” section.

reaperducer 7y ago
You'd think that the "What is the Google CTF?" section would answer the question "What is the Google CFT?" rather than sending someone to another page. All Google would have to do is move the sentence "they consist of a set of computer security puzzles (or challenges) involving reverse-engineering, memory corruption, cryptography, web technologies, and more" from the secondary page into the paragraph that's supposed to answer the question. It would actually be shorter.
ACow_Adonis 7y ago
Ah, I actually followed that link trying to find out. All i see on my browser is a bit of text with a big blue button that says "will you capture the flag?", which isn't really helpful, which takes me back to...the original website. Now on the one hand I'd say, ok, its not google's responsibility to try to have websites/non-standard browser configs set ups actually work with their web pages... On the other hand, I'm sure the kind of security people google is looking for all surf the web with standard browser configs and permissions enabled... And as the other commenter has pointed out, I know its radical of me, but I would have thought the "What is the google CTF" section should contain text which answers "What is the google CTF".
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Scroll down
  - ACow_Adonis 7y ago
    I did. Its not a big page. There's nothing there. Now I'm not a (total) idiot, obviously I can debug it if i have to (and if other people are telling me "there's stuff there, you just can't see it"). If i open it in chrome with extensions turned off or a default mobile browser, stuff now appears, so yeah, its got to do with script permissions and the like. But again, why not just include actual text in the "what is google ctf" section that answers "what is google ctf?", and/or in the beginner's section that explains what's going on, and of all the groups of people you'd build your webpage for, are security people the ones that you want a website that breaks if they block your default scripts/permissions?
    - ackbar03 7y ago
      If your having this much issue with figuring out what a ctf is its probably not for you. Googles ctf is pretty damn hard
      - r-w 7y ago
        If their goal was to minimize participation and competition, then they certainly succeeded. I don’t think being unfamiliar with something should ever be outright disqualifying.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        ackbar03 7y ago
        If you put it that way, it wouldn't be wrong to think of it as a disqualifying round
        fyrabanks 7y ago
        If I were holding a competition for bakers, I wouldn't feel obligated to include a paragraph explaining what a "bake-off" is. I knew what a CTF was years before I knew enough to compete in one; it's a central part of hacker culture going back to the mid-90s. Every puzzle here places you in a different unfamiliar situation. The only "outright disqualifying" thing is whether you can figure out something on your own. You essentially failed the first test.