CTFd Helm chart

This Helm charts provides a straightforward way to deploy a CTFd instance on Kubernetes. CTFd is a capture the flag framework with theming and plugin support. CTFd is developed on GitHub under the Apache2 license.

This Helm chart was originally developed by HackademINT for internal use and was first used in production for the 2023 edition of the 404 CTF.

This chart is inspired by Bitnami's high quality charts, and uses Bitnami packages for its dependencies.

By default, the chart will deploy everything needed to operate CTFd in a high availability deployment, including Redis, MariaDB and MinIO. However, you might want to use external services instead when running in production.

State of this project

While this chart can, and has been used in production successfully, it is still an ongoing project and all configuration haven't been thoroughly tested.

TL;DR

helm install my-release oci://registry-1.docker.io/hackademint/ctfd

Parameters

CTFd configuration parameters

Name	Description	Value
security.sessionCookie.httpOnly	Value of the HttpOnly flag for session cookies	true
security.sessionCookie.sameSite	Value of the SameSite parameter of session cookies	Lax
security.permanentSessionLifetime	The Flask session lifetime, in seconds	604800
mail.addressFrom	A source address for sent emails	[email protected]
mail.smtp.enabled	Enable to send emails through an SMTP server	false
mail.smtp.server	Address of the SMTP server	""
mail.smtp.port	Port of the SMTP	465
mail.smtp.useAuth	Whether CTFd should authenticate to the SMTP server	false
mail.smtp.username	SMTP username for authentication	""
mail.smtp.password	SMTP password for authentication	""
mail.smtp.tls	Use TLS to communicate with the SMTP server	true
mail.smtp.ssl	Use SSL to communicate with the SMTP server	false
mail.smtp.addressSender	SMTP SENDER field value	""
mail.smtp.existingSecret	Name of an existing secret with smtpUsername and smtpPassword keys	""
mail.mailgun.enabled	Enable to send emails through a mailgun API	false
mail.mailgun.apiKey	A mailgun API key	""
mail.mailgun.baseUrl	Base url for the mailgun API	""
mail.mailgun.existingSecret	Name of an existing secret with a mailgunApiKey key	""
logFolder	A folder where CTFd should store logs for submissions, registrations and logins	""
optional.reverseProxy	Whether CTFd should trust X-Forwarded headers. Checkout the CTFd documentation for more details on the possible values.	true
optional.themeFallback	Whether CTFd should fallback to the core theme for missing resources	true
optional.swaggerUi	Whether to enable the swagger endpoint at /api/v1	false
optional.updateCheck	Whether to check for updates	true
optional.serverSentEvents	Whether to use server sent event notifications	true
optional.htmlSanitization	Whether CTFd should sanitize html content	false
optional.sqlAlchemy.trackModifications	Leave disabled to save memory	false
optional.sqlAlchemy.maxOverflow	SqlAlchemy max overflow engine setting	""
optional.sqlAlchemy.poolPrePing	SqlAlchemy pool pre ping engine setting	""
optional.safeMode	If enabled, CTFd will not load any plugins	false
oauth.enabled	Whether to enable MajorLeagueCyber integration	false
oauth.clientId	MajorLeagueCyber oauth client ID	""
oauth.clientSecret	MajorLeagueCyber oauth client secret	""

CTFd deployment basic parameters

Name	Description	Value
image.image	Full container image path for the CTFd deployment	ghcr.io/ctfd/ctfd:3.5.3
image.pullSecret	A pull secret name for the CTFd image	""
image.pullPolicy	CTFd image pull policy	IfNotPresent
httpPort	The http port the CTFd container listens on	8000
replicaCount	Number of replicas for the CTFd deployment	1
command	Override default container command (useful when using custom images)	[]
args	Override default container args (useful when using custom images)	[]
extraEnvVars	Array with extra environment variables to add to the CTFd container	[]
extraEnvVarsCM	Name of existing ConfigMap containing extra env vars	""
extraEnvVarsSecret	Name of existing Secret containing extra env vars	""

CTFd deployment security contexts

Name	Description	Value
podSecurityContext.enabled	Enabled CTFd pods' Security Context	true
podSecurityContext.fsGroup	Set CTFd pod's Security Context fsGroup	1001
podSecurityContext.seccompProfile.type	Set CTFd container's Security Context seccomp profile	RuntimeDefault
containerSecurityContext.enabled	Enabled CTFd containers' Security Context	true
containerSecurityContext.runAsUser	Set CTFd container's Security Context runAsUser	1001
containerSecurityContext.runAsNonRoot	Set CTFd container's Security Context runAsNonRoot	true
containerSecurityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation	Set CTFd container's privilege escalation	false
containerSecurityContext.capabilities.drop	Set CTFd container's Security Context runAsNonRoot	["ALL"]

CTFd deployment probes parameters

Name	Description	Value
startupProbe	a template for the startup probe
startupProbe.enabled	Whether to enable the probe	false
startupProbe	a template for the startup probe
readinessProbe.enabled	Whether to enable the probe	true
livenessProbe	a template for the startup probe
livenessProbe.enabled	Whether to enable the probe	true

CTFd deployment resource requests and limits

Name	Description	Value
resources	A container resource template
resources.requests.memory	Requested amount of RAM for CTFd containers	200Mi
resources.requests.cpu	Requested amount of CPU for CTFd containers	400m
resources.limits	Maximum resources for CTFd containers before they get restarted or killed	{}

CTFd service parameters

Name	Description	Value
service.type	Kubernetes service type	ClusterIP
service.port	Service port	80

CTFd ingress parameters

Name	Description	Value
ingress.enabled	Whether to enable the CTFd ingress	true
ingress.hostname	Ingress hostname	example.com
ingress.annotations	annotation to add to the ingress resource	{}

CTFd deployment autoscaling parameters

Name	Description	Value
autoscaling.enabled	Set this to true to deploy a horizontal pod autoscaler for CTFd	false
autoscaling.minReplicas	Minimum number of CTFd pods	1
autoscaling.maxReplicas	Maximum number of CTFd pods	25
autoscaling.targetCPU	Target CPU usage for CTFd pods (in % of requested). Set to 0 to disable.	65
autoscaling.targetMemory	Target RAM usage for CTFd pods (in % of requested). Set to 0 to disable.	0
autoscaling.scaleDown.stabilizationWindowSeconds	Scale down stabilization window	300
autoscaling.scaleDown.periodSeconds	Scale down period	15
autoscaling.scaleDown.percent	Maximum percent of pods to remove in the given period	100
autoscaling.scaleDown.pods	Maximum number of pods to remove in the given period	5
autoscaling.scaleUp.stabilizationWindowSeconds	Scale up stabilization window	0
autoscaling.scaleUp.periodSeconds	Scale up period	15
autoscaling.scaleUp.percent	Maximum percent of pods to add in the given period	100
autoscaling.scaleUp.pods	Maximum number of pods to add in the given period	10

Database Parameters

Name	Description	Value
mariadb.enabled	Deploy a MariaDB server to satisfy the applications database requirements	true
mariadb.architecture	MariaDB architecture. Allowed values: standalone or replication	standalone
mariadb.auth.database	MariaDB custom database	ctfd
mariadb.auth.username	MariaDB custom username	ctfd
mariadb.primary.persistence.enabled	Enable persistence on MariaDB using PVC(s)	true
mariadb.primary.persistence.storageClass	Persistent Volume storage class	""
mariadb.primary.persistence.accessModes	Persistent Volume access modes	[]
mariadb.primary.persistence.size	Persistent Volume size	8Gi
externalDatabase.enabled	Whether to use an external database	false
externalDatabase.protocol	Protocol schema to use when connecting to the external database	mysql+pymysql
externalDatabase.host	External Database server host	localhost
externalDatabase.port	External Database server port	3306
externalDatabase.user	External Database username	ctfd
externalDatabase.password	External Database user password	""
externalDatabase.database	External Database database name	ctfd
externalDatabase.existingSecret	The name of an existing secret with database credentials. Evaluated as a template	""

Redis cache parameters

Name	Description	Value
redis.enabled	Deploy a Redis server to satisfy the applications caching requirements	true
redis.architecture	Redis chart architecture option	standalone
externalRedis.enabled	Whether to use an external redis instance	false
externalRedis.protocol	Redis protocol scheme to use	redis
externalRedis.host	External Redis server host	localhost
externalRedis.port	External Redis server port	6379
externalRedis.user	External Redis user	""
externalRedis.index	External Redis index (database)	""
externalRedis.password	External Redis password	""
externalRedis.existingSecret	Name of an existing secret containing a redis-password key	""

MinIO S3 parameters

Name	Description	Value
minio.enabled	Deploy a MinIO server to provide an upload provider	true
minio.mode	MinIO® server mode (standalone or distributed)	standalone
minio.defaultBuckets	Bucket name to use for CTFd	ctfd
minio.auth.rootUser	MinIO® root username	admin
minio.auth.rootPassword	Password for MinIO® root user	""
minio.auth.existingSecret	Use existing secret for credentials details (minio.auth.rootUser and minio.auth.rootPassword will be ignored and picked up from this secret). The secret has to contain the keys root-user and root-password)	""
minio.externalEndpoint	the external HTTP(S) S3 API endpoint MinIO will be accessible from (e.g. https://s3.my-ctf.com). This endpoint needs to be reachable by users. If this value is not set, MinIO's API ingress configuration will be used. If this is not set either, CTFd will use the API service name.	""

S3 parameters

Name	Description	Value
externalS3.enabled	Whether to use an external S3 endpoint to store uploads	false
externalS3.endpoint	External S3 API endpoint URL	https://s3.amazonaws.com
externalS3.region	External S3 API region	us-east-1
externalS3.bucket	External S3 bucket name	ctfd
externalS3.accessKey	External S3 API access key	""
externalS3.secretKey	External S3 API secret key	""
externalS3.existingSecret	Name of an existing secret containing a accessKey and secretKey keys	""