07 - CTF References & Resources 📚

To continue your journey in offensive security and CTFs, bookmark these essential platforms, documentation sites, and practice arenas.

🏆 CTF Platforms & Tracking

CTFtime: The central hub for all competitive CTFs. Tracks team rankings, upcoming event schedules, and hosts community write-ups for past challenges.
PicoCTF: Maintained by Carnegie Mellon University. The absolute best starting point for beginners. Accessible year-round.
HackTheBox (HTB): Industry-standard platform for practicing penetration testing and boot-to-root style challenges. Contains dedicated "Challenges" sections covering Rev, Pwn, Crypto, and Web.
TryHackMe (THM): Highly guided, educational platform. Excellent for learning the theory before jumping into raw CTF challenges.

PayloadsAllTheThings: A massive repository of payloads and bypasses for Web Exploitation (SQLi, XSS, SSTI, LFI, etc.).
GTFOBins: A curated list of Unix binaries that can be exploited by an attacker to bypass local security restrictions (SUID/Sudo privilege escalation).
CyberChef Documentation: Official wiki for GCHQ's CyberChef tool, detailing how to chain complex recipes for decoding data.
Pwntools Docs: Official documentation for the pwntools Python library. Essential for writing stable binary exploits.

LiveOverflow (YouTube): An incredible video series dissecting binary exploitation, reverse engineering, and CTF thought processes.
IppSec (YouTube): Detailed walkthroughs of HackTheBox machines, demonstrating professional workflow and methodology.
"The Web Application Hacker's Handbook" (WAHH): The definitive guide to web security, foundational for Web CTF challenges.
"Hacking: The Art of Exploitation": A classic book that deeply explains C programming, memory architecture, and low-level exploitation.