🚩 CTF Backend

A Capture The Flag (CTF) competition backend built with Express.js and Node.js. This application provides a comprehensive platform for hosting cybersecurity challenges, managing user authentication, tracking scores, and real-time updates through WebSocket connections.

📋 Project Overview

This CTF backend serves as the foundation for cybersecurity competitions, providing:

• User Management: Registration, authentication, and profile management
• Challenge System: Multi-category cybersecurity challenges with dynamic scoring
• Admin Dashboard: Administrative controls for managing competitions, users, and challenges
• Real-time Features: Live scoreboards and notifications via WebSockets
• Secure Architecture: JWT-based authentication with role-based access control

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• npm or yarn
• MongoDB (for database)
• Git

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/Pravith1/ctf_backend.git
   cd ctf_backend

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Environment Setup Create a .env file in the root directory:

   PORT=3000
   MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/ctf_db
   JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_key
   JWT_EXPIRE=24h
   NODE_ENV=development

4. Database Setup Ensure MongoDB is running on your system or provide a connection string to your MongoDB instance.

Running the Application

Development Mode

npm run dev

Production Mode

npm start

The server will start on http://localhost:3000 (or the port specified in your environment variables).

📚 API Documentation

Swagger UI is available at: http://localhost:5000/api-docs

The CTF Backend includes comprehensive API documentation using Swagger/OpenAPI 3.0. You can:

• View all available endpoints
• Test API calls directly from the browser
• See request/response schemas
• Understand authentication requirements

Quick Access

• Interactive Docs: http://localhost:5000/api-docs
• JSON Spec: http://localhost:5000/api-docs.json

For detailed setup instructions, see SWAGGER_SETUP.md

�🛠️ Development Tasks & Ownership

This table outlines the current sprint's major development components and their responsible owners. Please check off your tasks as you complete them.

Task Component	Owner	Status
Authentication, Middleware	Saran,Mugilan	$\square$
Admin Controller	Srimathi	$\checkmark$
Dummy asyncHandler, ApiResponse utilities and middleware have been added temporarily for testing the admin controller. These can be replaced with the official team versions later.

| User Controller: Category Fetch,Question Fetch | Mugilan | $\square$ | | User Controller: Question Submision and point update | Revanth | $\square$ | | User Controller: Question Submission | User Controller | $\square$ | | Web Sockets | Athilakshmi | $\square$|

Note: To mark a task as complete, replace $\square$ with $\checkmark$ or $\otimes$ in the raw markdown file.