Introducing the MCP Server for CTF competitions at Hack The Box

At Hack The Box (HTB), we’re constantly pushing the boundaries of cybersecurity education. Our mission has always been to empower our global community to sharpen their skills through real-world experiences, and now that mission is leveling up. We’re taking an innovative step to provide accessible security training and upskilling using AI.

Today, we’re excited to announce support for a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server in our CTF platform.

This upgrade marks a new frontier in hands-on security learning: cybersecurity professionals (and aspiring ones) are augmented by AI tools and automation, and human expertise is amplified by intelligent systems.

In simpler terms, we’re bringing the latest AI capabilities directly into your playground, making advanced skills development more accessible and powerful than ever.

Why MCP?

Today’s cybersecurity practitioners operate in complex environments filled with automation, intelligent tooling, and AI agents. Traditional CTF competitions haven’t fully reflected this reality. 

MCP can do to security operations what APIs did to software development and turn a fragmented landscape of isolated capabilities into memory-aware “tools” that an LLM can invoke, chain, and reuse – promoting each call to a composable block of higher-level logic.

With MCP support, we are transforming CTF events into a space where real-world security workflows can be deployed seamlessly: from custom enumeration scripts, SIEM integrations, AI-powered assistants, or autonomous red team frameworks. MCP provides a standardized way to plug these modern capabilities into the competitive environment.

It’s rapidly emerging as the go-to protocol for interfacing automated systems with human workflows and enabling the seamless integration of Hack The Box into any of your existing AI-native workflows.

This evolution empowers players to move beyond purely manual tactics and experiment with the same automation and augmentation strategies they use on the job or the ones they’re building for tomorrow. To support this shift, we’ve built an MCP Server that:

• Enhances tool integration: Allows cybersecurity professionals to effortlessly integrate their favorite tools directly into CTF challenges, boosting productivity and realism.

• Streamlines AI agent participation: Enables AI-driven agents and automated systems to interact smoothly with challenges, fostering an innovative and dynamic competitive environment.

• Elevates human–AI collaboration: Facilitates teamwork between humans and AI agents, amplifying creativity and analytical prowess during competitions.

SEE IT IN ACTION

Key capabilities of the MCP Server

Our MCP Server introduces a suite of features that extend how both professionals and AI systems interact with the HTB platform. These key capabilities lay the groundwork for accelerating hands-on learning through AI-guided labs and making CTFs more flexible and engaging:

1. Seamless Event Management: Access and explore all available CTF events via the MCP interface, and view detailed event information (participants, active challenges, etc.) in real time.

2. Performance Insights & Tracking: Monitor team scores and performance live, retrieve challenge solve data across entire events or per team, and analyze success rates at the challenge level to guide strategy and gap analysis.

3. Team Collaboration: Look into your team’s participants and related data, enabling strategic planning through improved visibility and accountability for each member.

4. Challenge Lifecycle Automation: Start, stop, and monitor challenge environments easily. This reduces manual operations during high-stakes play, letting you automate the deployment of challenges or cleanup.

5. Flag Submission: Submit flags through a validated, automated process and receive immediate feedback with scoring confirmation. No more context-switching – flags can be turned in straight from your tools or AI agents.

Together, these capabilities allow teams and individuals to create integrated workflows, build AI-driven agents, and even benchmark custom toolkits – opening up new forms of cybersecurity experimentation and augmentation on our platform.

Paving the future of CTF competitions

In the past, CTF players had to rely solely on technical skill, limited online resources, and tight-knit teamwork to solve tough problems. Today, however, teams can have a wealth of resources at their fingertips – including AI assistance.

Many players already consult chatbots for quick tips or even feed challenge details to AI models in hopes of uncovering solutions. A recent research within our community revealed that nearly two-thirds of participants (63%) are already using AI tools like ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot during events.

CTFs have always been races of speed and precision. Newcomers can now jump-start their journey and even crack challenges that were once the domain of veteran players. AI assistance is lowering the entry barriers and empowering less-experienced participants to compete in otherwise intimidating assessments.

The player of tomorrow will expect seamless access to challenges and platform functionality through chatbots and agents:

“Imagine interacting with Hack The Box entirely via a conversational AI, or integrating your own scripts to handle recon and exploitation with lightning speed. Removing UI friction and enabling native-language interactions could well become the norm, as competitors integrate their own tooling for faster, more efficient play.”

– Pavlos Kolios, CTF Product Manager @ Hack The Box

As AI models become capable of solving the simpler challenges, CTF content will naturally evolve to be more complex and creative.

This shift reminds us that CTFs aren’t just about reaching the flag at the end – they’re about the rich development journey that strengthens skills and sharpens minds along the way. AI can accelerate that journey, but it doesn’t replace the need for teamwork and insight.

That’s exactly what the MCP Server enables.

We’re laying the foundation for a new mode of competition where speed, automation, and machine intelligence become part of the game. At Hack The Box we always champion “learning by doing,” and now “doing” includes leveraging advanced tools and AI to enhance your capabilities, automate tedious processes, and reinvent how challenges are approached.

Stay tuned - the next evolution of CTFs is already underway, and we’re excited to see how you’ll be a part of it.