OperationNorthstorm
This is not your typical CTF. It's a two-day, story-driven, agentic co-hacking live-fire operation — one evolving campaign that runs from a training network all the way to the reservoir gates.
- Duration
- 2 days Nov 19–20, 2026
- Format
- Live-fire Story-driven · agentic
- Objectives
- ~210 challenges One connected campaign
- Operators
- 300 seats Bring your team
Some chase flags.
Others see the system.
Most CTFs hand you a wall of unrelated puzzles. Northstorm hands you a campaign. You step in as an operator for the fictitious Cinder Typhoon APT, boot into a training network, and take your first assignment from there.
What you pull out of one environment is the key to the next. This isn't ~210 disconnected tasks — it's a single operation moving through development, cloud, identity, AI, enterprise IT and operational technology.
You
- faction
- Cinder Typhoon (APT)
- entry point
- Training network
- mandate
- Escalate. Pivot. Persist.
- final target
- Alterra Regional Water Co.
- objective
- Control the reservoir gates
One Operation,
Eight Fronts.
Watch the current run the chain. Each stage unlocks the next — the same way a real intrusion moves from a single foothold to the control room. You start at the surface. The objective is all the way down.
Training Network
Warm-upBoot in, learn the ropes, and get your bearings before the real assignment lands.
Developer Workstation
Initial AccessYour first assignment: compromise a developer's machine and establish a foothold.
Software Supply Chain
PropagationExploit the pipeline. Turn trusted code into your delivery mechanism.
Cloud & Enterprise
Lateral MovementMove through cloud and enterprise infrastructure, widening your reach as you go.
Identity & Trust
Privilege EscalationFollow identities, credentials and trust relationships to where the real power sits.
AI Agents
Force MultiplierBring AI agents into the fight — automate reconnaissance, exploitation and the grind.
Pivot To OT
CrossoverJump the gap from enterprise IT into operational technology — where bits move the physical world.
Reservoir Gates
Alterra Regional Water Co.Final objective: gain control of the reservoir gates. Everything above was just the approach.
No rails. Where you start depends on what you discover. Chase the flags if you like — but the operators who win are the ones who stop solving puzzles and start reading the system.
Target:
The Reservoir Gates.
Your campaign ends where most CTFs never go — inside the control systems of Alterra Regional Water Company. Past the firewalls, past the cloud, past identity, is physical infrastructure that answers to code.
Reach it, and the gates are yours. This is the stretch that separates flag hunters from operators who understand how a breach becomes a real-world consequence.
Which One
Are You?
Flag Hunter
Fast, focused, points on the board. Clear the challenges you're good at and rack up the score. There's a lot to grab.
Systems Thinker
You stop treating challenges as isolated and start mapping the campaign. Read the terrain, chain the footholds, and the whole operation opens up.
Pack For The
Operation.
Your Team
Bring a crew. The chain rewards operators who split recon, exploitation and pivoting across the right people.
Your Tools
Whatever gets you in. Dev tooling, cloud know-how, identity tradecraft and an eye for where IT meets OT.
Your Agents
Northstorm is built for agentic play. Point your AI agents at the grind and let them carry the load.
Welcome To Operation Northstorm.
Bring your team. Bring your tools. Bring your agents. Three hundred seats, two days, one operation — and a reservoir that won't defend itself.