Welcome to the Catalyst Data Collection Engine!

About Catalyst Data Collection

In computer science, and particularly in computer security, humans often play a huge role in achieving various goals. For instance, a human might classify data manually to train machine learning or use various types of security tools in order to compromise a server. Understanding this symbiosis of human and machine allows researchers to determine the limits of what the combination might accomplish. This, in the examples above, has the potential to quantify the resources needed to train machine learning models or how potent a given attack might be.

Capture the flag (CTF) style events have become increasingly popular events for recruitment, training, evaluation, and recreation in the field of computer security. Although it may be used in a variety of research areas, the Catalyst Data Collection Extreme Endpoint Monitoring System (CDC) is designed to aid in conducting research to understand and evaluate efficacy of methods, tools, and strategies in computer security, as well as evaluate training efforts and individuals' and teams' ability within the area of computer security. It does this by monitoring what individuals do within CTF style events. In order to analyze the combination of human and computer action, CDC records local system resources on a participant's device while the participant completes tasks. While CDC is built into several engines, such as RevEngE, the version hosted here works alongside external event completion engines—software which hosts and monitors users completing tasks. As an example of such an engine, a computer security capture-the-flag competition monitors users as they complete computer security tasks, such as decrypting encrypted communications. CDC's role in this is to collect data which shows what participants do while completing the tasks in the engine.

CDC collects human input to devices and data showing the state of the device. In particular, CDC collects:

1. Mouse Input
2. Keyboard Input
3. Device Processes
4. Device Displays
5. Task Data

The terms of use, including compliance with applicable laws, are issued on a per-event basis. To continue using CDC as a participant, select your event below. For those interested in using CDC for their own event, please sign up or login here. If you are already signed in, you can navigate directly to your home page. As a final note, never install CDC software on any device you will use outside of your event. Always install the software on virtualized devices, such as virtual machines. If this software is used on a device, it will record sensitive data, including passwords, the user enters on that device. The software does include a pause feature to stop collection while entering sensitive data, but enter that data at your own risk.

For more information about the inspiration for Catalyst, see Getting RevEngE: A System for Analyzing Reverse Engineering Behavior.