netsectool

Submit your solutions for the ETH Network Security course project.

npx netsectool@latest login
npx netsectool@latest submit tid01 project/main.go

No installation needed — npx fetches it each time. Node 20 or newer.

Logging in

Your instructor emails you an API token that starts with nst_. You need it once:

$ npx netsectool@latest login
API token: ****************************************
Verifying token against https://netsec-submit.inf.ethz.ch...

Login successful!
Authentication token stored at /home/you/.netsec-auth-token

  Course:  netsec-2026
  Student: Anna Meier (ameier)

The token is stored in ~/.netsec-auth-token with permissions 0600 — readable only by you. Treat it like a password: it is how the server knows a submission is yours. If you ever think someone else has seen it, ask your instructor to issue a new one.

If your course uses a different server:

npx netsectool@latest login --server https://your-server.example

It is remembered, so you only pass --server once.

Submitting

$ npx netsectool@latest submit tid01 project/main.go
Submitting main.go to tid01...
✓ Submitted  (id: sub_01HQ8ZK3, sha256: 3f9a1c…, 4.2 KB)
  Received at 2026-09-22 14:03:11 CEST

You can submit as often as you like. Every submission is kept, and the newest one is what counts. Resubmitting does not delete anything.

Before uploading, the tool checks locally — so you find out instantly, not after a round trip — that the file exists, is a regular .go file, is within the task's size limit, is valid UTF-8, and is not empty.

Two things produce a warning but do not block you:

• the filename is not what the task expects (you submitted solution.go when the task wants main.go)
• the deadline appears to have passed — the tool still sends it and lets the server decide, because your computer's clock is not the authority

The tool sends a SHA-256 of your file, and the server recomputes it and refuses the submission if the two disagree. A corrupted upload is rejected rather than stored.

Checking what you have submitted

$ npx netsectool@latest tasks
Tasks for netsec-2026

TASK   TITLE                                     SENT  DEADLINE
tid01  Basic Connectivity Test (1P)              2     2026-10-30 23:59:59 CET
tid02  Basic Multipath Test (1P)                 1     2026-10-30 23:59:59 CET
tid10  Minimize Carbon Intensity (4P)            0     2026-10-30 23:59:59 CET
...

status is where you stand on every test at a glance:

$ npx netsectool@latest status
Your results for netsec-2026

TEST   TITLE                                         RESULT     RUNS      POINTS
tid01  Basic Connectivity Test (1P)                  v passed   5/5 runs  1/1 P
tid02  Basic Multipath Test (1P)                     v passed   5/5 runs  1/1 P
tid10  Minimize Carbon Intensity (4P)                ~ partial  3/5 runs  2.4/4 P
tid11  Maximize Bandwidth with Bounded Latency (5P)  x failed   0/5 runs  0/5 P
tid20  EPIC Hidden-Paths (2P)                        - queued (#3)
tid30  FABRID Basic Connectivity (3P)                - judging
tid31  FABRID: manufacturer A or B (1P)              - not submitted
...

14.4 of 27 points
One test in detail: netsectool status <task-id>

What each result means:

| Shown | Meaning | |---|---| | - not submitted | You have not sent anything for this test yet | | - queued (#3) | Received and waiting for the judge; the number is your place in line | | - judging | The judge is running your client right now | | v passed | Every verifier run passed this test | | ~ partial | Some verifier runs passed; you get that fraction of the points | | x failed | Your client ran, but no verifier run passed this test | | x build failed | Your file did not compile | | x import check failed | Your file imports a package that is not allowed | | ! judge error | Something broke on our side, not yours — tell your instructor |

Give it a task id to see the history for one test, with the time of each attempt:

$ npx netsectool@latest status tid01
2 submission(s) for tid01

latest  2026-09-22 14:03:11 CEST  main.go
        sub_01HQ8ZK3  sha256 3f9a1c…  4.2 KB
        ACCEPTED  5/5 runs passed  1/1 P
  #2  2026-09-21 09:12:44 CEST  main.go
        sub_01HQ2FB7  sha256 8c40de…  3.9 KB
        WRONG_ANSWER  0/5 runs passed  0/1 P

Only your newest submission for a test counts — that is the one shown in the overview and the one a grader takes.

Seeing your result

Every submission is run by the course's judge: it builds your main.go and runs it against the verifiers, just as the final grading does. This takes a minute or two. Pass --wait to watch it finish:

$ npx netsectool@latest submit tid10 project/main.go --wait
Submitting main.go to tid10...
✓ Submitted  (id: sub_01M36RH8, sha256: 6e0a85…, 12.3 KB)
  Received at 2026-09-23 11:11:18 CEST

  queued (position 3)...
  judging...
sub_01M36RH8  tid10  main.go  2026-09-23 11:11:18 CEST

  Verdict  PARTIAL  3/5 runs passed
  Test     ID 10
  Points   2.4 of 4
  Judged   2026-09-23 11:13:02 CEST

Without --wait, the verdict appears in status and result once it is ready:

npx netsectool@latest result             # your newest submission
npx netsectool@latest result tid10       # your newest submission to tid10
npx netsectool@latest result sub_01M36RH8 --wait

| Verdict | Meaning | |---|---| | ACCEPTED | Every verifier run passed this task's test | | PARTIAL | Some runs passed; you get that fraction of the points | | WRONG_ANSWER | Your client ran, but no run passed this test | | IMPORT_CHECK_FAILED | Your file imports a package that is not allowed. result shows which | | BUILD_FAILED | Your client did not compile. result shows the compiler output | | SYSTEM_ERROR | The judge itself failed. Not your fault; tell your instructor |

You see the result for the task you submitted to only. Submitting the same file to another task gives that task's result, and it is instant: identical files are judged once.

Commands

| Command | What it does | |---|---| | login | Verify a token and store it | | logout | Remove the stored token from this machine | | whoami | Show who the stored token belongs to | | tasks | List tasks, deadlines and your submission counts | | submit <task-id> <file> | Submit a file; it is queued for the judge | | status [task-id] | Your submission history and verdicts, newest first | | result [id] | The judge's verdict and compiler output (submission id, task id, or your newest) |

Options

| Flag | Meaning | |---|---| | --server URL | Talk to a different server | | --token TOKEN | Use this token instead of the stored one | | --wait | submit / result: wait until the judge has a verdict | | --json | Machine-readable output, no colour | | --no-color | Disable colour | | -h, --help | Help | | -v, --version | Version |

Environment variables

| Variable | Meaning | |---|---| | NETSECTOOL_SERVER | Default server (--server wins) | | NETSECTOOL_TOKEN | Default token (--token wins) | | DEBUG=netsectool* | Print stack traces on failure |

Exit codes

Useful if you submit from a script or a Makefile:

| Code | Meaning | |---|---| | 0 | Success | | 1 | Something went wrong (including a file that cannot be submitted) | | 2 | You invoked the command incorrectly | | 3 | Authentication problem — log in again, or ask for a new token | | 4 | The server considered your submission and rejected it | | 5 | The server could not be reached |

With --json, successful output is a single JSON document on stdout; errors are JSON on stderr, so a pipeline reading stdout either gets clean data or nothing at all.

When something goes wrong

Errors are one line plus a hint:

error The deadline for "tid01" has passed.
hint: The deadline was 2026-10-30T23:59:59+01:00.

"That does not look like a valid API token." — tokens start with nst_ and are one long line. Copy the whole value, with no surrounding spaces or quotes.

"… is readable by other users." — the credential file's permissions were loosened. Run chmod 600 ~/.netsec-auth-token, and ask your instructor for a new token, since it may have been exposed.

"Could not reach the submission server." — check your network. If you are off campus your course may require the VPN.

"This API token has been revoked." — ask your instructor for a new one.

Your submission stays queued for a long time. Near a deadline many students submit at once and each run takes a minute or two. result shows your position in the queue. Your submission counts from when it was received, not from when it is judged.

For anything else, re-run with DEBUG=netsectool* and include the output when you ask for help:

DEBUG=netsectool* npx netsectool@latest submit tid01 project/main.go

Privacy

The tool sends your token, the file you name, its filename, and its SHA-256. It does not read anything else from your machine and does not send telemetry. Your submissions are visible to you and to the course staff — never to other students.