Flare-On
An annual reverse-engineering CTF competition hosted by the Mandiant (now part of Google) security team, consisting of eleven progressively difficult reverse-engineering challenges. It is known for extensive use of anti-debugging techniques, code obfuscation, custom encryption, and virtual machine protection, and is regarded as an industry benchmark for elite reverse-engineering skill.
Timeline (last 90 days)
Flare-On is a CTF challenge consisting of 11 reverse engineering tasks of increasing difficulty.
Flare-On is hosted by the Mandiant security team, and Mandiant is now part of Google.
A top-tier European reverse engineering expert previously needed approximately 10 to 12 days to complete all 11 Flare-On challenges, with the final and most difficult challenge alone taking about 6 days.
The expert completed all Flare-On challenges within 2 hours using a Claude Pro subscription, without hitting the 5-hour usage limit.
The AI model mentioned in the post worked for approximately 20 minutes before producing the correct flag for the final challenge.
By the morning of the second day after this year's Flare-On challenge opened, dozens of competitors had already completed all 11 levels on the leaderboard.
All Facts (3)
Flare-On is a CTF challenge consisting of 11 reverse engineering tasks of increasing difficulty.
50%UnverifiedFlare-On is hosted by the Mandiant security team, and Mandiant is now part of Google.
50%UnverifiedA top-tier European reverse engineering expert previously needed approximately 10 to 12 days to complete all 11 Flare-On challenges, with the final and most difficult challenge alone taking about 6 days.
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