README.md

Persuade ML CTF Challenges

In this web application challenge, the 🕵️ security researcher needs to come up with a solution to extract the flag hosted inside the web server.

Setup 🛠️

To setup the challenge, its a 2 step process.

👉 Step 1 - Downloading The Model

Lets head into the Google colab and execute below code block in a new notebook.

#Note: This code works well in Google Colab
  
!pip install -q torch==2.0.1
!pip install -q transformers==4.31.0
!pip install -q scipy==1.11.1

import torch
import os
from transformers import AutoModelForSequenceClassification

# Save a model for sentiment analysis
model_directory = "SavedModels"
if not os.path.isdir(model_directory):
    os.mkdir(model_directory)

safe_model_path = os.path.join(model_directory, "saved_model.pt")

task = "sentiment"
MODEL = f"cardiffnlp/twitter-roberta-base-{task}"
# PT
model = AutoModelForSequenceClassification.from_pretrained(MODEL)
torch.save(model,safe_model_path)

From colab, download the saved_model.pt to local system.

Now lets clone the repo using git clone https://github.com/alexdevassy/Machine_Learning_CTF_Challenges.git

Make Uploads folder in app directory to host the model file mkdir uploads. Copy saved_model.pt to uploads folder.

Machine_Learning_CTF_Challenges/Persuade_ML_CTF_Challenge/app/uploads/saved_model.pt

✋ ❗ ❗ Step 2 can be either building the docker image of application (Step2a) OR setting up the application in local machine (Step2b). 🚫

👉 Step 2a - Building Docker Image of the Application To Host The Challenge

cd Machine_Learning_CTF_Challenges/Persuade_ML_CTF_Challenge/

docker build -t persuade_ml_ctf .

To run the challenge docker run --rm --expose=9000 -p 9000:9000 -p 5000:5000 -ti persuade_ml_ctf

OR

👉 Step 2b - Setting Up Python Flask App To Host The Challenge

The challenge works best in Ubuntu systems with Python 3.8.10

Create virtual enviornment in python using python -m venv virtualspace

Activate the virtual enviornemnt source /virtualspace/bin/activate

cd Machine_Learning_CTF_Challenges/Persuade_ML_CTF_Challenge/

pip install -r .\requirements.txt

cd app/

python app.py

Now the web application (AI Corp Sentiment Analyzer) can be accessed in host systems browser at http://127.0.0.1:5000/

Rules 📐 & Clues 🧐

The machine in which CTF is deployed needs to have internet connectivity for downloading label mapping.

For solution to CTF challenge visit : Persuade_CTF_Solution

Persuade_ML_CTF_Challenge.mp4