Installing Network Security CTF Manager and Problems

Installation Instructions are given for Ubuntu 12.04.02 64-bit servers.

NOTE: These instructions are for UTD students or faculty attempting to set up this application. Anyone else should use whatever deployment approach they prefer.

More detailed instructions for developers or CTF administrators can be found in the doc/ folder.

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Installing CTF Manager

Ensure that packages are current and install all the ones we'll need:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install nodejs git curl build-essential libcurl4-openssl-dev apache2 apache2-prefork-dev libapr1-dev libaprutil1-dev postgresql libpq-dev
sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends install build-essential openssl libreadline6 libreadline6-dev curl git-core zlib1g zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt-dev autoconf libc6-dev libgdbm-dev ncurses-dev automake libtool bison subversion pkg-config libffi-dev

Install RVM (Ruby Version Manager).

\curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby

Restart your SSH window when finished.

Install Ruby 1.9.3

rvm install 1.9.3
rvm use 1.9.3 --default

Install Ruby on Rails along with Phusion Passenger

gem install rdoc rails passenger

Run "passenger-config --root" and chmod o+x every directory along that path, starting at home. For example:

passenger-config --root
chmod o+x /home/ctf
chmod o+x /home/ctf/.rvm/
chmod o+x /home/ctf/.rvm/gems
chmod o+x /home/ctf/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p392
chmod o+x /home/ctf/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p392/gems/
chmod o+x /home/ctf/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p392/gems/passenger-3.0.19

Install the Passenger Apache2 module. Important: Follow the instructions given to you by the module installer about editing Apache configs.

passenger-install-apache2-module

Configure database by entering PostgreSQL command line with "sudo -u postgres psql template1" and entering:

create user utdctf with password 'YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE';
create database ctf_prod owner utdctf;
create database ctf_dev owner utdctf;

Configure the application's database information (config/database.yml) to contain:

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  host: localhost
  encoding: unicode
  database: ctf_prod
  pool: 5
  username: utdctf
  password: YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE

Navigate to the project's root directory and install dependencies.

bundle install

Prepare the database

export RAILS_ENV=production
rake db:setup
rake db:schema:load
rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

Add admin user

export RAILS_ENV=production
rails c
admin = User.new
admin.name = "ctfadmin"
admin.password = "YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE"
admin.description = "CTF Administrator"
admin.role = :admin
admin.save

Precompile assets and clear logs

rake assets:precompile
rake log:clear

Restart Apache2

sudo service apache2 restart

Load CTF data

rake db:data:load

Installing CTF Problems

Ensure that packages are current and install all the ones we'll need:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo tasksel install lamp-server
sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite sqlite3

Sometimes a reboot is needed before the SQLite module takes effect.

Make a symlink to the problems folder:

sudo ln -s ~ctf/problems /var/www/problems

Edit "/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default" to point to extracting problems folder:

Before: DocumentRoot /var/www
After: DocumentRoot /var/www/problems

Fix permissions on the "social" problem folder and contents. From problems folder assuming username is "ctf":

sudo chown ctf:www-data social/data
sudo chown ctf:www-data social/data/users.db