TURTL: VirTUal NetwoRk SecuriTy Lab

An innovative, virtual and expandable learning environment for IT security in computer networks. Built with a Vue.js frontend in TypeScript and a Django REST backend in Python.

TURTL started as a “Fellowship für Innovationen in der digitalen Hochschullehre” (Digi-Fellow) project funded by the “Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft NRW”. It was initiated by Prof. Dr. Gundula Dörries (deceased) and Prof. Dr. Holger Schmidt, for whom I worked as a student assistant for almost two years.
TURTL enables instructors to create cybersecurity-related tasks, such as a capture-the-flag challenge, and students to solve these tasks directly in their browser using an online terminal environment. The online shell visible to students connects to a virtualization running on the TURTL server. Additionally, instructors can use single or multiple choice questions and other means to assess the student's understanding of a task. They can also send email invitations directly from the app which contain a registration link.
Our team consisted of five developers. I built the Django REST backend together with two colleagues and implemented or refactored many parts of the Vue.js / TypeScript frontend as well. Furthermore, I coordinated our team's development work towards the end of the project, wrote the majority of the technical project documentation and provided loads of conceptual ideas and suggestions.
This screencast shows the state of development of our prototype as of 31-12-2023, when I left the project.

You can find the source code on GitHub.

Category: Work project