Malaysia Cybersecurity Camp (MCC) 2025 - My Journey

Hello everyone!

On the 28th of November 2025, I was given a chance to enter one of what I would say, the most anticipated events for students – the MCC 2025 or Malaysia Cybersecurity Camp 2025 hosted by one and only RE:HACK. This event has been one of those events that actually had a profound impact on myself.

The Application Journey

During the application for the event, I was so scared to apply as I didn’t have any notable achievements just yet, neither any role in my uni’s cybersecurity club. I had only just started to get active in joining CTFs at the time. I was applying with my friends, hoping that they would at least get the opportunity and share their experience when back in college.

Then came the interview where I didn’t really prepare, and my inner introvert was screaming. Somehow, I passed, I guess. At the time, I was already shifting my mind to focus on other things.

Till that day, Agent Syamil decided to mention in the big group about the results of MCC. I was kinda speechless at the time, wondering how on earth did I pass that. Later, sometime after the event, I learned that my friend flopped the interview 😅. They were asked even more challenging questions than mine, and I really don’t know how to respond to that. Again, my inner introvert was about to lose its life already.

Day 0 - Meeting Everyone

After a bit of preparation with my social energy, the day has come when meeting with everyone at the agreed meeting location before moving to the resort. My introvert self really took over as I couldn’t talk to anyone. Everyone was coming to the camp with at least one or a few of them having met each other before. Me as usual, in my bus with my headphones, talking to nobody.

After arriving, then I used my master card to talk with anyone (really, I mean it). Then, I realized someone actually knew me from CTFs. He was the first one I was able to actually strike an actual conversation with. Then, as time goes on and on, we were split into groups and were assigned challenges to solve during the 3-day event.

I accidentally obtained the first flag during 30 minutes after the challenge was online (oops, too fast maybe). But, I didn’t continue solving it and wanted to solve it with my group later.

Day 1 - Bug Bounty & Boot2Root

Then, the night came, and our first session was about bug bounty in web and web3. It was an interesting session as I’ve only heard about bug bounty in YouTube videos, mostly about jailbreaking iPhones where they actually share the POC about the vulnerability. Things that I gained during this session was that now I know that I should set a persona of myself when working in cybersecurity as it helped a lot for them.

After the session, I’ve decided to gather the group and try to solve the challenges together. It was mesmerizing because I had to explain to them how actually on earth I got the first flag so fast (even my agent, Foxy, was mad at me for getting the flag so fast but didn’t set the group name just yet).

The first flag was about web exploitation and the rest was boot2root challenge. As this was my first time encountering boot2root, I spent some time reading writeups before attempting anything. Then, again another unintended solution passed by and got the third flag (my agent was so mad about this unintended solution huhu) which was the last flag – that also means the end of the challenge (it was supposed to be solved in these 3 days 😂).

But, Sifu Djumanto taught us the correct solution was to get the root shell instead of using the misset privilege to access the root flag. Then the day ended.

Day 2 - Malware in Rust, iBOH CTF & Mobile Hacking

The next day, I chose to join the making malware in Rust session as I was intrigued with Rust due to the fact I wasn’t able to solve a challenge that was programmed using Rust. But, also at the same time, my CTF team was busy joining the iBOH Stage 2 CTF.

During the session, I managed to sneak time to actually help them with the challenges. Everyone was actually keeping an eye on me as I was so busy joining the CTF instead of actually focusing on the session. Still, my team got number 8, and it was actually our first time joining attack and defense style CTF. So, yeah sorry bro Fattah 😅.

This day still marks no improvement towards my inner introvert and I was struggling to keep up with the social energy (I think every time I went back to my room, I just slept and didn’t think about anything else).

That evening, we had a session with bro KS and bro Kelvin for their mobile application hacking session. I was so mad because I didn’t get to run the application, and it turns out all my steps were correct but I don’t know why it didn’t work. But later at midnight, I managed to get the flags inside the application though.

Then, we had a session with someone from the industry holding a position called CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) in which was the highest position in cybersecurity in Malaysia. He shared some tips when going up the ladder in the cybersecurity sector. It was an interesting session, and I hope to be able to apply that as well.

Hardware Village Night

Then later that night was the Hardware Village Night. It was an interesting one because the only game I played was the cards where you learned how to react to a cyber attack in certain situations. I was actually waiting to join the mini CTF but got interested in the games. Thus, I played that the whole night.

It was interesting as I was able to actually practice what I’ve learned in network security class and able to see it in action. Then, I stopped to actually do the soldering of my badge (it was bad though – my badge needs to get replaced and I didn’t get to finish). Then, I slept for the day after retrying the mobile application challenge.

Day 3 - Active Directory & Closing Ceremony

The last day, I chose to join the Active Directory session. It was really interesting because I saw people playing these AD challenges and also able to learn how people actually gain access to your account using phishing (literally after the event, someone sent a phishing email uni-wide 😅).

And I learned that registering your device with Microsoft Intune gives the admin full access to the account (remember when you login to Microsoft account and it asks us to actually register our device with them? lol). Then, again I showed off my Arch Linux to everyone (lol – proud to say I’m an Arch user), but again I was having issues getting the reverse shell working though.

The Closing Ceremony

Then, the closing ceremony came. I remember that moment because it was so tiring to keep up my social energy really due to being not used to talking to someone new, having issues remembering names (I’m good with faces but not with names), and also my habit of actually not being able to stop talking (yapper real).

Reaching the closing ceremony was already pleasing for me tbh. Then, as we went through the closing ceremony, every team got their awards (mine got kinda random – I really thought I’d get the fast challenge solver, then I realized that we were late by about 5 secs though).

Then, suddenly my name reached the MVP of the camp. I was so surprised by the calling because I really didn’t expect to get the award (as you know, I really didn’t focus on the camp tbh). Then suddenly getting the award was really shocking. Managed to get another tablet device although I already have an iPad (literally just bought). But yeah, managed to get it for something I guess.

Then, the pictures were taken and I met one of the alumni MCC from my uni, asking how work life is so far (busybody kinda).

BBQ & Beach Night

Then, the night came for the BBQ session (I thought we got to cook but all was already prepared). Then, I rushed to my room finishing the assignments and all.

Then, people started to walk along the beach (a lot of weird things happened but okay). Then closing with a sharing session from each one of us till late night.

Day 4 - Going Back

Then, the day of going back has come. It was surreal that I was able to go through the event with my soul intact (almost died of social energy). Then having a bit of breakfast and lunch, and then more photos, and then being interviewed for the award was a bit random yeah (not good in on-camera talk).

Then, we went back. I was asleep during the whole trip. And then waiting for my sister to go back from work and then the end.

Reflections

It was a mesmerizing and unforgettable event. I will not forget every single detail – whether the knowledge, the friends we met along the way, and the experience so far has been a really inspiring event. Started as an unmotivated person and then becoming someone who actually maybe could contribute back to the event.

I would like to thank everyone, including friends, the agents/committee, the sponsors – that without them this wouldn’t happen, and my greatest appreciation to Abang Yap for hosting the event. At first, I was scared of him because I thought he had two personalities (YTJT). But yeah, Abang Yap is someone I’m inspired to be due to being able to contribute back to the community in so many ways possible and also a really kind person when you meet him in person. Without him, I don’t think I would have been able to join this event.

Final Words

Again, thank you, thank you, and thank you to everyone! Hope to meet you guys again soon or at later events. Be sure to invite me to your events (if reachable la).

Again, Alhamdulillah I was able to be a part of the MCC and hope also to be able to contribute back to the community.

I guess that’s all for now, thanks for reading this and see you guys in the next one! Ciao! 👋