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Challenge tab

The Challenge tab in the Topo workspace is used when both Gameboard and TopoMojo are integrated to execute a cyber competition. More information on linking those two applications together can be found elsewhere in the Foundry documentation. The Challenge tab is where you create random key/values, embed them in a gamespace at deploy time, and ask questions and answers of competitors (players).

Transforms

Transforms allow you to define dynamic variables that are generated based on certain criteria or types. Transforms are also a key/value pair definition – the key is the name of your transform and the value is the type of the transform. The screen print below shows a transform named “token1” that will have a value of 8 random hexadecimal characters.

Screen print 1:

transforms

To access transforms, use the referenced "double-pounder-key (##key##)" notation. When TopoMojo deploys a gamespace, the engine generates the random values for all transforms, looks for double-pounder-keys, then replaces them with the randomly generated values for that deployment.

Any of the sections on the Challenge tab (e.g., Transforms, Markdown, Questions, Answers) can contain double-pounder-keys that will be replaced with transform values at deploy time. You can also use transform double-pounder-keys in the Guest Settings field of a template to inject random variables into VM guest info variables when deploying a gamespace (transforms aren’t generated when deploying workspace VMs, so the value of the variable will be the double-pounder-key).

The screen print below shows the Guest Settings of a VM template configured to use two guest info variables: var1 and token1. Var1 has a value of “test” and token1 will have a random 8-character hexadecimal string assigned when a gamespace is deployed.

Screen print 2:

guest-settings

Click here to learn more about Guest Settings.

Markdown

The markdown you enter here gets appended to the gamespace document.

Variants

A variant describes a different version of a challenge. Variants can contain different ISO attachments, different virtual machines, and different questions and answers. Each time a challenge is deployed, a variant is randomly selected for the deployment. For example, two competitors can attempt the same challenge, but one competitor may receive variant #1 and the other competitor may receive variant #2. When creating a challenge using variants, make sure all variants test the same competitor skills at the same difficulty level. That is, variant #1 should test the same skills as variant #2 and one variant shouldn't be harder to solve than another variant.

Question Set

Move Up, Move Down, Remove: These functions are self-explanatory. Use them to position the question in the sequence of questions for that set or remove it.

Question: Enter the question you expect the participant to answer here. Your question should be specific, so that there is only one correct answer.

Answer: Enter the correct answer that the competitor must submit to earn a score.

These options are revealed when Detail is selected.

Hidden: Select Hidden to prevent the question from appearing when playing the challenge. Hidden questions do not appear when playing in TopoMojo or via Gameboard.

Grader: Select the grading type here. The Grader determines if players submitted the correct answer to a question. Select one of four types:

  • Match: The submission must exactly match what is in the Answer field. Use this when there is exactly one possible answer to a question.
  • MatchAny: The submission must match one of the pipe-delimited answers in the Answer field. Use this when there is more than one possible answer to a question.
  • MatchAll: The submission must match all of the pipe-delimited answers in the Answer field. Use this when a list of answers to a question is expected.
  • MatchAlpha: The submission must exactly match what is in the Answer field after all non-alphanumeric characters are removed. This is useful if the user might submit symbols that don't affect the validity of an answer. For example, C:/Users and C:\Users are both valid answers and the symbols (/ vs \) don't matter.

All four graders are case-insensitive, meaning that all answers and submissions are converted to lower-case by the grader before the submission is compared to the expected answer in all grader types.

Weight

Weight is the percentage of total for this question. The value should be between 0 and 1 or 0 and 100. The weights of all questions within the set must add up to 100% or one (1). Zero (0) values are calculated evenly.

Example

Providing an example answer helps players understand the required answer format. For instance, sometimes a file needs both the name and the extension, while other times only the name is necessary.