Announcing the Sixth Annual Flare-On Challenge

Written by: Nick Harbour

The FireEye Labs Advanced Reverse Engineering (FLARE) team is thrilled to announce that the popular Flare-On reverse engineering challenge will return for the sixth straight year. The contest will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET on Aug. 16, 2019. This is a CTF-style challenge for all active and aspiring reverse engineers, malware analysts, and security professionals. The contest runs for six full weeks and ends at 8:00 p.m. ET on Sept. 27, 2019.

This year’s contest will feature a total of 12 challenges covering a variety of architectures from x86 on Windows, .NET, Linux, and Android. Also, for the first time in Flare-On history, the contest will feature a NES ROM challenge. This is one of the only Windows-centric CTF contests out there and we have crafted it to represent the skills and challenges our FLARE team faces.

If you are skilled and dedicated enough to complete the Sixth Flare-On challenge, you will receive a prize and recognition on the Flare-On website for your accomplishment. Prize details will be revealed later, but as always, it will be worthwhile swag to earn the envy of your peers. Previous prizes included belt buckles, a replica police badge, a challenge coin, and a huge pin.

Check the Flare-On website for a live countdown timer, to view the previous year’s winners, and to download past challenges and solutions for practice. For official news and information, we will be using the Twitter hashtag: #flareon6