If you have been invited to a Versus tournament in the OffSec Learning Library, take a few minutes to go through the following frequently asked questions and familiarize yourself with the tournament interface and rules.
- What is a tournament and how does it work?
- I am invited to a tournament, how can I join?
- How do I know when the tournament is starting?
- Where can I find the machines?
- Do I need to connect to the VPN?
- Where and How to download the VPN?
- How to submit a flag?
- Extra features
What is a tournament and how does it work?
Versus tournaments are time-boxed challenges that simulate realistic security incidents.
They allow multiple users to concurrently access the same environment for team exercises either collaboratively or competitively.
As a learner, if you have an active Learn Enterprise subscription, regardless if invited to the tournament or not, you will see “Tournaments tab" under the “Explore” menu.
To access the tournament, you may click on the “Tournaments” tab, and if it’s your first time visiting, you will be greeted with the introduction. Please click “Continue”
Afterward, you will see the “How do they work” page. You may click continue and then on the last page, please click on the “Yes! Let’s get started!” button to proceed.
If you have yet to be invited to a tournament, this is what you will see.
If you have been invited to the tournament, you will see the lists of tournaments you’re participating.
I am invited to a tournament, how can I join?
There are 3 ways to view the tournament. Either you will go the “Tournaments” tab, the Admin of the tournament can send an invite to your email address or the Admin will send out the Tournament Link to you personally.
Receiving an invitation from Admin
Once you have been invited to the tournament, the Admin can choose to send the invitation email. The example screenshot below is the invitation email a participant received.
You can see that there's a “Go to team challenge” button. Additionally, it shows the information if you are the “Attacker” or the “Defender”.
How do I know when the tournament is starting?
To learn the date and time a tournament is scheduled to begin, we recommend checking with the Admin of the tournament, as they have full control over the launching of a tournament.
How can I find more information on the tournament?
Once you are logged in to your account and clicked the “Go to team challenge” from the invitation email you received, you will be redirected to the “Tournament Overview”
In the example above, the tournament is in status “Ready to Launch” which means it has not started yet.
- Team Details - Displays a list of the other participants of the tournament that are part of your team.
- Instructions - Displays the steps you need to complete the tournament successfully.
- Network - Displays the tournament’s machines. You can also view the “General Mission Objectives or MOs) which contain the scope and objectives of the tournament.
For leaderboard, as a participant, this is what you will see:
As you can see, the BLUE TEAM or DEFENDER team already has points and 750 is the total points for all the machines. Once the tournament starts, the leaderboard will show the total points for the blue team and will decrease once the RED TEAM or ATTACKER submits the correct flag.
For more information on the leaderboard, please see Versus Tournaments Leaderboard & Scoring.
Where can I find the machines?
To look for the machines, in the “Tournament Overview”, click on the “Network” tab. Regardless of the status, you will be able to view the machines.
Do I need to connect to the VPN?
Versus tournaments have a different VPN which you will need to be connected to access the machines.
Note: You should only connect to the VPN once the tournament has started. For a player to SUCCESSFULLY connect to the assigned VPN for a tournament, that event needs to be status “IN PROGRESS”
Where and How to download the VPN?
Step 1: Go to the Tournaments Page and click on the VPN button at the left menu and it will automatically download. The VPN file name will show as versus.ovpn.
Step 2: After downloading, you will now be able to connect to the VPN. If the VPN has successfully connected, you will be seeing a green dot next to it.
How to submit a flag?
In the “Networks” tab under the “Action” section, you will find the “Submit Flag” section. Please note that only the “Attackers” can submit a flag.
If the flag you submitted is incorrect:
If the flag you submitted is correct:
Extra features:
In the Network tab, click on the menu next to the “Submit Flag” button to find the following features:
Feedback
You can use this feature to submit feedback to OffSec. When you click the “Leave Feedback” button this is what you will see:
Notes
As for “Take Notes”, you have the option to choose or delete a Parameter, input Value, and Notes.
