3rd Place Finish at UniVsThreats26 Finals

Dacia Team finished in 3rd place in the High School category at UniVsThreats26 Finals, an exciting weekend CTF competition that brought together top high school cybersecurity teams!

The Event

UniVsThreats26 Finals is one of the premier high school-level CTF competitions, organized to foster cybersecurity skills among young students. The competition brought together talented teams from across the region for a weekend of intense challenges and learning.

The competition featured challenges in:

• Web Exploitation
• Cryptography
• Reverse Engineering
• Binary Exploitation
• Forensics
• Networking
• OSINT

Competition Experience

Day 1: Strong Opening

We started strong on Saturday, quickly accumulating points across multiple categories. The web exploitation challenges were particularly engaging, requiring creative thinking and thorough analysis.

One highlight was solving a complex SQL injection challenge that many teams struggled with. Our preparation in web security really paid off here.

Day 2: The Final Push

Sunday brought more difficult challenges and fiercer competition. The leaderboard was constantly shifting as teams made breakthroughs on high-point problems.

We focused our efforts strategically, targeting challenges where we had the most expertise while also attempting to push into new territory. The networking challenges proved more difficult than expected, but we learned a lot in the process.

The Competition

The high school category at UniVsThreats26 was extremely competitive. Teams demonstrated impressive technical skills and problem-solving abilities. Special congratulations to WiWiWi x 🍁 who took 1st place with an exceptional performance!

Finishing 3rd in such a strong field is something we’re genuinely proud of. It shows that our training approach is working and that we can compete with the best high school teams.

What We Learned

UniVsThreats26 reinforced several important lessons:

• Diverse Knowledge Base: Success requires proficiency across all CTF categories, not just our strongest areas
• Time Management: Weekend-format competitions require different pacing than 24-hour marathons
• Community: Meeting other competitors and sharing knowledge is as valuable as the competition itself
• Continuous Improvement: There’s always more to learn, and every competition is an opportunity to grow

The Atmosphere

Beyond the competition itself, UniVsThreats26 was a great opportunity to:

• Connect with other high school CTF teams
• Share techniques and learning approaches
• Experience a well-organized, professional competition environment
• Build friendships within the cybersecurity community

Looking Ahead

This 3rd place finish motivates us to keep improving. We identified areas where we need to deepen our knowledge, particularly in networking and some of the more advanced cryptography challenges.

We’re grateful for the opportunity to compete at UniVsThreats26 and look forward to participating in future editions of the competition!

Congratulations to all the teams that participated, especially the winners WiWiWi x 🍁, and thank you to the UniVsThreats organizers for creating such an excellent competition!

— Dacia Team