Capture the flag STS 2025
Another award to add to the list: STS CTF
Four members of UVT-CTF came in second place
On October 25, participants from UVT-CTF competed and were awarded second place in the Cyber Security Competition organized by the Special Telecommunications Service (STS), called CTF STS 2025.
Following the online qualifiers, 10 of the 60 teams registered from civilian universities and military academies across the country advanced to the finals, including the W3sT-CTF3rS-1337 team, consisting of Iulia-Maria Gheju, Tania Titirigă, Alexandru-Adrian Negru, and Raul-Mihai Rădulescu, members of the UVT-CTF university team.
About the competition
“CTF STS 2025” is an IT&C project by STS, held during #CyberMonth, with stages of registration, preliminary validation and on-sitefinal. The first edition of the CTF STS competition took place on Saturday, October 25, at the Sheraton Bucharest Hotel, with 10 teams of 2–4 students.
The competition consisted of problems in web security, cryptography, reverse engineering, digital forensics, steganography and miscellaneous, for a total of 32 problems of varying difficulty.
Our team came in second place after six hours of intense concentration and collaboration, proving once again that perseverance and involvement in extracurricular activities lead to success.
The competition for the podium was close throughout the contest, and we congratulate our colleagues from other universities and are proud to evolve together through competition.
What we think about the contest:
Raul:
The competition took place in a vibrant atmosphere with participants from all over the country, under the leadership of the Special Telecommunications Service team. The organizers from STS proved to be exceptional hosts. I really liked the six-hour format and was able to perform at my best, and the exercises were challenging and representative of cybersecurity. I look forward to the next challenges!
Iulia:
The competition organized by STS was very well organized, with organizers eager to help us at any time and interesting challenges that sparked my curiosity. I am glad we had the opportunity to participate in the competition and achieve an honorable result. I would definitely like to repeat this experience.
Tania:
It was a fantastic experience for me! The competition was very well organized, we had support whenever we needed it, and the facilities were perfect. The close competition motivated us to give it our all, but we also made friends. I would have liked to see some more technical cryptography problems. Otherwise, the challenges were really interesting and diverse.
Alex:
A very well-organized event with challenges closely aligned to real-world scenarios. The support team at STS was prompt and helpful and after the contest I had the chance to network with participants across the community. Walking away with great memories and the satisfaction of applying the knowledge I’ve gathered along the way.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Special Telecommunications Service for organizing the event and the jury for evaluating the teams, as well as our academic partners who supported the participation of the student teams.
Special thanks go to the West University of Timișoara and the Faculty of Computer Science for their institutional support, which makes such results possible, as well as to the mentors and the UVT-CTF community for the training sessions.
See you soon!
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