MITRE’s eCTF Competition Shapes Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Defenders in 10th Year

Summary

• MITRE’s Embedded Capture the Flag (eCTF) competition reached its 10th year in 2025.
• Student teams design a secure embedded system, then try to break other teams’ designs.
• Universities take part, which gives students hands-on hardware security practice.
• Some former competitors now work in embedded security.

Ten Years of eCTF

MITRE’s Embedded Capture the Flag competition, known as eCTF, marked its 10th year in 2025. It started as a way to give students practical embedded security experience that classes rarely offer. It has since become a well-known training ground for hardware and firmware security.

Embedded devices are everywhere, from cars to medical gear. Securing them takes skills that are hard to learn from a textbook. eCTF gives students a semester of real practice.

How the Competition Works

eCTF runs in two phases. First, teams build a secure system on a microcontroller board to meet a set of security requirements. Then they attack the designs submitted by other teams and earn points by capturing flags. Students learn to defend and attack the same kind of system, which is close to how real product security teams work.

The format rewards careful engineering. A clever design with one sloppy bug can still get broken.

Working With Universities

MITRE runs eCTF with participating universities, and many schools build it into a course. That connects students with an engineering organization that works on national security problems. It also gives employers a pool of graduates who have already shipped and attacked secure firmware.

Some past competitors return as mentors or hire eCTF graduates. That keeps experience flowing back into the competition.

What Comes Next

The challenges change each year to reflect new threats to embedded systems. That keeps the competition relevant.

A tenth year is a good moment to take stock. Embedded security talent is scarce. Programs like eCTF are one of the few places students can practice it at scale before their first job.

A Decade In

eCTF won’t fix the embedded security skills gap by itself. It does give hundreds of students a real taste of secure design every year. That is a solid record for a competition now ten years old.

John King, CISSP, PMP, CISM

John King currently works in the greater Los Angeles area as a ISSO (Information Systems Security Officer). John has a passion for learning and developing his cyber security skills through education, hands on work, and studying for IT certifications.