Draft:Introduction (General)

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cypat.guide is a non-profit organisation to help develop blue-team skills through articles and practice images developed by the community. This website includes docs for Windows, Linux, and Cisco.

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Vulnerability Categories

Each virtual machine (VM) contains vulnerabilities grouped into categories. This guide focuses on these categories:

• Account Policies
  

Password and lockout policies.

• Application Security Settings
  

Critical services, required settings, and permissions.

• Application Updates
  

Update status and automatic update configurations.

• Defensive Countermeasures
  

Firewalls, antivirus software, encryption, etc.

• Forensic Questions
  

Scenario-based questions assessing investigative skills.

• Local Policies
  

Audit policies, user rights assignments, and security options (e.g., network security, privilege elevation).

• Operating System Updates
  

Windows updates, service packs, and automatic update settings.

• Policy Violation: Malware
  

Includes backdoors, remote admin tools, keyloggers, sniffers, etc.

• Policy Violation: Prohibited Files
  

Unauthorized software archives, confidential files, etc.

• Policy Violation: Unwanted Software
  

Games, scareware, adware, PUPs, hacking tools, etc.

• Service Auditing
  

Enable/disable services.

• Uncategorized OS Settings
  

Remote access, file sharing, screen locking, group policy settings, OS permissions, etc.

• User Auditing
  

Authorized users, groups, and user-specific settings.

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Practice images are available for preparation here.

References

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyberPatriot
• https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/Pages/Competition/FAQ.aspx