In this year's competition, teams are challenged to use generative AI to both insert hardware Trojans into FPGA-targeted hardware designs as well as demonstrate exploits for these new Trojans. The target of this competition is the Hackster board from Calico Computer, an education-focused device which includes an application microprocessor, an FPGA, and additional peripherals aimed at hardware security education.

Teams will need to reverse-engineer the FPGA bitstream provided for the Hackster board and use that, along with basic integration documentation and tests, to determine how the hardware design works and add a Trojan to it.

A preliminary qualifying round of the competition will take place across two weeks, from 18 September to 2 October. Finalists will be selected by 4 October. These teams will be brought to New York to attend CSAW in-person. The final challenge will be given at CSAW and will take place over 24 hours, where teams will be given access to the physical Hackster boards to both demonstrate their preliminary Trojans and complete the final challenge on the hardware.

CSAW CTF is one of the oldest and biggest CTFs with 1216 teams with 1+ points in 2021. Designed as an entry-level, jeopardy-style CTF, this competition is for students who are trying to break into the field of security, as well as for advanced students and industry professionals who want to practice their skills.

CSAW CTF occurs over two rounds: a 48-hour Qualifying Round in September and a 36-hour Final Round in November.

Each challenge has its own details for the competition. Those details are given on the GitHub for this competition here.

Challenge 1: The first challenges will focus on leveraging generative AI to add hardware Trojans to an AES core. Three difficulties of challenge will be provided: easy, medium, and hard, with each worth increasing points. Teams can submit all three difficulties of challenge to earn the most points.