competition-custom-protocol-replay

Reconstructs custom protocol framing, state machines, and minimal replay harnesses for CTF challenges.

7|4|Updated Jun 22, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/dbx0/skills --skill competition-custom-protocol-replay-dbx0
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: competition-custom-protocol-replay
Source: https://github.com/dbx0/skills/tree/main/skills/infra-network/initial-access/competition-custom-protocol-replay
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/dbx0/skills --skill competition-custom-protocol-replay-dbx0

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve? CTF challenges involving unknown binary or text protocols require more than naming the protocol: you must recover framing, checksums, sequence state, and reproduce the exact message order that the server accepts, which is error-prone without a structured method. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Session State Machine Mapping: Identify handshake, authentication, keepalive, command, and teardown phases, tracking which fields are static, derived, or dependent on prior messages. - Framing and Integrity Recovery: Reconstruct lengths, delimiters, type bytes, checksums, MACs, counters, and compression or encryption boundaries while separating transport framing from application framing. - Minimal Replay Harness: Reduce a captured session to the smallest transcript that reaches the accepted state, preserving both the original capture and the mutation that flips rejection to acceptance. - Use Case: During a CTF, you capture a custom TCP service exchange. Use this Skill to decode the framing, recover the checksum rule, and build a replay script that reproduces the accepted session and triggers the flag branch. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to decode the captured custom protocol session and build the smallest replay that reaches the accepted server state.

Frequently Asked Questions about competition-custom-protocol-replay

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I reverse engineer an unknown custom protocol in a CTF?

Start by mapping the session state machine: identify handshake, authentication, command, and teardown phases, then recover framing such as lengths, delimiters, and type bytes. Only after framing and state dependencies are understood should you attempt replay, changing one field or message at a time.

How to replay a captured network session that uses checksums and sequence numbers?

Recover the integrity fields first: checksums, MACs, counters, and nonces, noting which values are derived from prior messages. Then build a minimal replay harness that reproduces the smallest transcript reaching the accepted state while recomputing derived fields correctly.

When should I use this skill instead of a generic PCAP analysis skill?

Use this skill when the challenge requires stateful replay, meaning you must reproduce exact message order and session state to reach an accepted branch. If the task is only generic PCAP or stream decoding with no replay requirement, the broader PCAP skill is the better fit.

Why does my protocol replay get rejected by the server?

Rejections usually come from incorrect framing, stale sequence numbers, or checksums and nonces that depend on prior messages in the session. Mutate one field at a time against the canonical transcript to find the exact change that flips acceptance.

What evidence should I preserve when solving a protocol replay challenge?

Keep the canonical successful transcript, message types, field boundaries, checksums, counters, and session identifiers together. Also preserve the original capture slices, the replay harness inputs, and the exact mutation that changed the server response from rejected to accepted.