The Challenge

The 2012 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge is based on individual scenario-based, progressive level challenges as a call to the digital forensics community to pioneer new investigative tools, techniques and methodologies.

Objectives

The Objectives of the Annual Digital Forensics Challenge are to:

• Establish relationships within the Digital Forensics Community
• Resolve issues facing the Digital Forensics Community
• Develop new tools, techniques, and methodologies for the Digital Forensic Community

Challenge Levels

Each challenge level establishes the total number of points available per challenge assigned based on its difficulty toward a solution (known to unknown). This is based on the complexity of what a digital forensics examiner normally runs into and has to adjust for/extract/scrutinize in an analysis of those file types for examination problems.

Level 100: Novice: Groundwork- these challenges have a solution that are well known to experienced examiners. Each subcategory is worth 100 points (e.g. File Signatures, Suspicious Software, Hashing Metadata, etc.).

Level 200: Advanced: Uncertainty- at 200 points per subcategory, these solvable challenges have a varying degree of difficulty (e.g. Data Hiding, File Headers, Passwords, Registry, etc.).

Level 300: Expert: Investigate- there is no guarantee that these challenges have a solution. Additionally, each 300 point challenge requires a solution that is not very well known (e.g. Encryption, Parsing, etc.).

Level 400: Master: Reveal- these 400 point challenges have no known solution (e.g. Communication Recovery/Parsing, Information Concealment in files, etc.).

Level 500: Developer: Originate- 500 point challenges required development of digital forensic tools based on the defined requirements (e.g. tools, methodologies, etc. for known Digital Forensic investigation issues).
Hint: These tools can be used to solve other challenges

About

The Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center’s (DC3) CSI Cyber Self-Assessment encourages students, teachers, law enforcement, business professionals, and digital forensics enthusiasts to extend their knowledge in cyber investigations.

Objectives

The Objectives of the CSI Cyber Self-Assessment are to:

• Increase interest in the field of digital forensics among a wide variety of sources
• Accurately reflect participants’ current level of knowledge on a given subject
• Increase the level of knowledge in digital forensics investigations of those who participate

If you have any feedback on the assessment or suggestions for new questions for our higher difficulty levels, please send them to csicyber@dc3.mil.

The Challenge

The 2010 DC3 Challenge encourages innovation from a broad range of individuals, teams, and institutions to povide technical solutions for computer forensic examiners in the lab as well as in the field. Approximately 20 different unique, single based challenges ranging from basic forensics to advanced tool development are being provided to all participants for the challenge.

Objectives

The Objectives of the Annual Digital Forensics Challenge are to:

• Establish relationships within the Digital Forensics Community
• Resolve issues facing the Digital Forensics Community
• Develop new tools, techniques, and methodologies for the Digital Forensic Community

Challenge Levels

Each challenge level establishes the total number of points available per challenge assigned based on its difficulty toward a solution (known to unknown). This is based on the complexity of what a digital forensics examiner normally runs into and has to adjust for/extract/scrutinize in an analysis of those file types for examination problems.

Level 100: Challenges with a solution well known to experienced examiners (e.g. File Signatures, Suspicious Software, Hashing Metadata, etc.)

Level 200: Challenges with a solution, but having a degree of difficulty (e.g. Data Hiding, File Headers, Passwords, Registry, etc.)

Level 300: Difficult challenges that may have a solution, but it is not well known (e.g. Encryption, Parsing, etc.)

Level 400: Challenges with no known solution (e.g. Communication Recovery/Parsing, Concealment of information within computer files, etc.)

Level 500: Challenges that involve Digital Forensic tool development based on defined requirements (e.g. tools, methodologies, etc. for known Digital Forensic investigation issues)

The Winners

DC3 Prize:
     Little Bobby Tables – Air Force Institute of Technology
SANS Prizes:
     High School: Pwnage – Idaho Falls High School
     Undergrad: WilmU01 – Wilmington University
IMPACT Prize:
     DFRC – CIST, Korea University (Seoul, South Korea)

Participation

Total Participants: 1153
Total submissions: 44

The Challenge

DC3 Challenge is a call to the digital forensics community to pioneer new investigative tools, techniques and methodologies.

Challenge Levels

Level 100: Challenges with a solution well known to experienced examiners (e.g. File Signatures, Suspicious Software, Hashing Metadata, etc.)
Level 200: Challenges with a solution, but having a degree of difficulty (e.g. Data Hiding, File Headers, Passwords, Registry, etc.)
Level 300: Difficult challenges that may have a solution, but it is not well known (e.g. Encryption, Parsing, etc.)
Level 400: Challenges with no known solution (e.g. Communication Recovery/Parsing, Concealment of information within computer files, etc.)

We evaluated the points for each challenge based on the complexity of what an examiner normally runs into and has to adjust for/extract/scrutinize in an analysis of those file types for examination problems.

The Winner

Fog Dogs – Naval Postgraduate School

Participation

Total Participants: 199
Total Submissions: 20

The Challenge

DC3 Challenge is a call to the digital forensics community to pioneer new investigative tools, techniques and methodologies.

Challenge Levels

The Winner

Cyber Warriors – Air Force Institute of Technology

Participation

Total Participants: 126
Total Submissions: 11

The Challenge

DC3 Challenge is a call to the digital forensics community to pioneer new investigative tools, techniques and methodologies.

A few of the challenges you may face include:

The Winner

AccessData

Participation

Total Participants: 140
Total submissions: 21

The Challenge

DC3 Challenge is a call to the digital forensics community to pioneer new investigative tools, techniques and methodologies.

Challenges

• Audio Steganography
• Steganography using S-Tools
• Password Cracking
• Steganography using S-Tools
• Password Cracking
• Image Analysis: Real vs. CG
• Data Carving: Linux LVM Interpretation
• Data Acquisition: Boot a dd Image
• Data Acquisition: Boot a Split dd Image
• Media Recovery: Compact-disc
• Media Recovery: Floppy Diskette
• Keylog Cracking
• Metadata Extraction