HACKERLAB 2024
What is HackerLab?
HackerLab is Benin’s national cybersecurity competition - a Capture The Flag (CTF) run by the Agency for Information Systems and Digital (ASIN) since 2017. Forensics, stego, reversing, pwn, web, crypto, programming - if it exists in cyber, it’s on the board.
Winners walk away with training kits, certifications, internet access, and vouchers. But the real prize? HackerLab doubles as a recruitment pipeline for the bjCSIRT (Benin’s national CSIRT), the Digital Investigations Laboratory, and the private sector. (source)
I strongly recommend reading my HackerLab 2023 writeup first. Context matters.
The Road to First Place
Chapter 1: Back for Blood
September 6, 2024. Palais des Congres, Cotonou. I’d been here before - same venue, same stakes, different mindset. Last year I came with M3V7R and finished 4th. This time, I came alone, and I came to win.
Chapter 2: The Qualifiers - Solo Mode
June 2024. The month sleep forgot about me.
The qualifiers ran for weeks, and every single day felt like a war of attrition. But when challenge makers like w1z4rd, 5c0r7, r3s0lv3r, and Unpasswd dropped their creations, exhaustion turned into obsession. Their challenges didn’t feel like work - they felt like puzzles designed by someone who genuinely wanted you to suffer and learn.
Two things set the 2024 qualifiers apart:
The challenge quality was absurd.
I’ve played enough CTFs to tell the difference between “hard” and “excellent.” Hard is just frustrating. Excellent is when you’re cursing at 3 AM but still grinning because the design is so clever you can’t help but respect it. These qualifiers were packed with that energy. The final set of Qualification Stage challenges - “HackBack” - was a masterpiece. One gem after another. Massive respect to W1z4rd for that series.
It was solo. No safety net.
For the first time, no teammates to cover your weak spots. No handing off a category you’re bad at. Everyone was thrown into the deep end alone, and it forced a level of versatility that team play never demands. You either adapted or drowned.
One more twist: unlike previous years, we could see how many Qualification Stage challenges remained. Double-edged sword. Motivation when the count dropped. Dread when you realized how much was left.
I came out of those qualifiers exhausted and wired - pushed further than I thought possible.
Arrival: The Arena
Walking into the Palais des Congres again - that hit different. Same adrenaline rush, same electric tension in the air. ASIN and CNIN officials set the tone with their speeches, but everyone was already somewhere else mentally. The only thing on our minds was what came next.
Then came the round-table introductions. One by one, each participant stood up. Some voices steady, some hesitant, a few hiding their ambitions behind polite words.
My turn. I said it loud enough for the whole room: “I’m here to claim first place.”
Cocky? Sure. But I’d adopted the Burn the Boats mindset - the only direction was forward.
Cameras rolled. Official video, group photo, random seat draw. That last one rattled people - no more comfort of sitting next to allies. Just you, a stranger on each side, and the countdown.
No turning back.
Cyber Warfare
Battle Prep
Inside the war room: notes sorted, VMs spun up, VPS primed, aliases loaded. Around me, keyboards already clattering. But I took a moment. Deep breath. Eyes closed. I replayed past victories, past failures, every late night that brought me here.
Then I got to work.
The Hidden Blade
My strategy was simple and ruthless: dominate in silence.
While others sprinted for early points, I targeted high-value challenges and held back my submissions. My visible score was a shadow - the real power was cloaked, a hidden cache of 3,000 points waiting for the right moment to detonate.
Sneaky? Maybe. But I’d learned from bitter experience. This was straight from Sun Tzu - and even more from the Mongol generals: leave the enemy a path to flee, lure them in, then close the trap. At HackerLab, I became the ghost in the machine.
For the curious: the strategy mirrors the Battle of Mohi and this discussion on Sun Tzu’s principle of leaving the enemy an escape route - only to bring total defeat.
Mastering Time
48 hours of nonstop intensity. I skipped heavy meals, took calculated micro-naps, and timed my breaks like a speedrunner. Epitech taught me this the hard way: rest isn’t weakness, it’s a multiplier.
The lighter I feel, the faster I think. (Not medical advice.)
Epic Challenges
The finals offered a wider variety than the qualifiers. Beyond the brilliant work of w1z4rd, 5c0r7, and r3s0lv3r, I was blown away by h1s0k4, s3nku, and uchiwa - especially their DFIR challenges. The addition of boot2root and hardware categories kept things fresh.
One regret: no rimd0r challenges this year. His 2023 contributions were outstanding.
Epic Players
The spotlight usually falls on the top 10, but the real story is in the names that came out of nowhere. Landry, Destiny07, z3nb0b, z1z0u, Kafui - their unexpected first bloods sent shockwaves through the ranks. Every flag they snatched cranked up the pressure for everyone.
The ones that left a mark:
3st1m3 - Stormed in and grabbed first blood on both the highest-weighted boot2root and crypto challenges. Not just skill - pure audacity, perfect timing.
w1z0z - Made the web category look like a tutorial. Solved nearly every single one. Watching them work was almost poetic.
k3ndr1ck - Steady, relentless, impossible to predict. The embodiment of “Never Let Them Know Your Next Move.” Every leaderboard refresh was a coin flip with this one.
top0n3 - Surgical. Locked onto pwn and reverse engineering like a laser, dismantling challenges with quiet, intimidating confidence.
Leelee22 - Surprised me more than once. She found blood on challenges that left the rest of us staring at our screens. Her resilience was something else.
Luffy - The rumors were true. A veteran’s return, and he lived up to every whisper. For a while, it felt like he was everywhere at once.
Hacksmith - The dark horse. Quiet, almost invisible - until suddenly the scoreboard told a different story. No fanfare, just results.
And then there’s Erza (aka Lyanna) - the only one bold enough to tackle the hardest web challenge during qualifiers. Personal reasons forced an early exit from the finals. The competition felt her absence.
Confronting My Fears
The ghost of last year’s defeat followed me into every round. As co-president of Epihack (my campus cybersec association), the pressure to “lead by example” sometimes felt like carrying a boulder uphill. Every decision forced me to wrestle with my own doubts - was I really cut out for this?
There were moments of genuine despair. Exhaustion, self-doubt, the fear of letting everyone down. But watching my Epihack crew pour their hearts into our shared mission - achieving things that seemed impossible - kept me going. Their resilience became my fuel.
Brotherhood Among Rivals
Even in the heat of battle, something quieter grew between us. Rivalries burned hot, but bitterness never took root. In rare pauses, I found myself laughing with t0p0n3, trading stories with AriShark, sharing a nod with CyberLord, Luffy, _z3n_b0b, and the Epihack crew.
We all had our own scars, our own motivations. But there was an unspoken bond - forged by shared struggle, sealed by mutual respect. Those small moments mattered as much as any flag.
The Final Strike
The last minutes were a blur. One final challenge, every ounce of energy poured into it. When my name hit the top of the scoreboard, time stopped.
Relief. Pride. Exhaustion so deep it left me breathless. The moment felt unreal - a dream I’d chased for years, materializing right in front of me.
The prizes - 1,000,000 FCFA, OSCP training and certification, and six months of unlimited MTN Benin connectivity - were hard-earned rewards. But what stayed with me was the echo of my name announced to the room, and the knowledge that I’d left absolutely nothing on the table.
Wisdom for Future Warriors
If you’re preparing to step into this arena, here’s the toolkit I’ve built through years of trial, error, and sleepless nights:
Essential Arsenal
- A free VPS (AWS): Your remote sandbox. When your machine falters or you need an isolated playground, this is it. Also great for long-running or resource-heavy tasks.
- Customized cheat sheets: Tailored notes with hard-earned insights, ready at a glance. They save precious seconds when the clock is ticking.
- Docker for tool isolation: Different Python versions, different architectures (ARM, x32) - Docker keeps everything clean. No dependency hell.
- Pipenv for Python: Smooth dependency management so you spend less time debugging environments and more time solving.
- Regular VM snapshots: One wrong command can cost hours. Snapshots let you take bold risks without fear.
- Bootable USBs: Your main ISO on a USB. Reboot, repair, recover. Never go into battle without one.
- Time-saving aliases: Small scripts, massive impact. Automate the repetitive stuff.
- Autopsy, FTK, Volweb (Windows): Sometimes forensic tools on Windows open doors that Linux can’t. Know when to switch.
- CryptoHack Docker: Streamlined crypto challenge environment. Plug and play.
Year-long Preparation
This isn’t a weekend cram session. It’s a year-long grind: studying past writeups, refining notes, sharpening tools, and honestly confronting your own gaps. Impostor syndrome is part of the process - every doubt you push through makes you sharper.
One thing I’d recommend: take two weeks off before the competition. Not to cram - to breathe. Re-read your notes gently, revisit concepts that felt just out of reach. Let the anxiety fade and clarity take its place.
When the competition finally hit, I wasn’t just prepared. I was centered.
Final Reflections
HackerLab 2024 wasn’t a contest. It was a transformation.
Beyond the technical grind, it demanded resilience, adaptability, and the kind of determination that only shows up when you’re running on empty. I was forced to dig deep - not just to solve challenges, but to outlast stress and turn pressure into focus.
I still remember staring at the final scoreboard. A collision of emotions: “I deserve this, after all” mixed with relief that it was finally over, and that strange emptiness of “what do I chase next?”
Massive gratitude to ASIN and everyone who walked this road with me - especially 3st1m3, with whom it all started three years ago. Your support fueled every breakthrough.
Nine months of epic procrastination led to this writeup. Worth every minute.
Onward.
ka3n1x