Licensing

1. Overview

Hack n Roll combines open-source platform code with proprietary challenge content and branding. This page clarifies what you may use, modify, and redistribute.

2. Platform Source Code (AGPL v3)

Platform source code that Hack n Roll makes available under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPL v3), including the public backend and frontend repositories, may be used, studied, modified, and distributed under the terms of that license.

• AGPL applies only to that licensed platform source code, not to every Hack n Roll repository or internal component.
• AGPL does not grant rights to challenges, flags, solutions, branding, or other proprietary materials.
• If you run a modified version of AGPL-licensed code as a network service, you must make the corresponding source code available to users of that service.
• The full license text is included in the applicable public repositories.

For contribution guidelines and repository information, see Open Source.

3. Official Challenges (Proprietary)

Official challenge content is separate from platform source code. Descriptions, flags, challenge infrastructure, and related materials published on the Platform are proprietary and are not licensed under the AGPL.

Community-created challenges become proprietary Platform content only after acceptance and official publication under the challenge submission license described below.

• You may not redistribute, republish, or commercially exploit official challenge content without permission.
• Solving challenges for personal learning and discussing them in authorized forums is permitted under our Terms of Use and Challenge Rules.

4. Brand and Trademarks

The Hack n Roll name, logo, trademarks, and associated branding are not included in the AGPL license. AGPL rights to platform source code do not include permission to use Hack n Roll branding.

You may not use our branding in a way that suggests endorsement, affiliation, or official status without prior written permission. Modified or redistributed versions of the Platform must not imply that they are official Hack n Roll services without that permission.

5. User-Generated Content

Articles, tutorials, forum posts, comments, and similar community contributions remain owned by their authors. Publishing content on Hack n Roll does not transfer ownership to us.

By publishing such content on Hack n Roll, you grant Hack n Roll a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, and perpetual license to host, display, distribute, archive, and otherwise use that content as needed to operate and improve the Platform. See our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Hack n Roll may continue hosting and displaying content that remains on the Platform after account deletion or anonymization, as described in Data Retention. Authors remain free to publish the same content elsewhere. This license does not transfer ownership.

Community-submitted CTF challenges are not covered by this section. See User-Submitted Challenges below and the Terms of Use.

6. User-Submitted Challenges

Challenge authors retain ownership of challenges they create. Submission does not transfer ownership to Hack n Roll.

When a submitted challenge is accepted and officially published on Hack n Roll, the author grants Hack n Roll a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive license to publish, host, distribute, maintain, adapt, modify, and translate the challenge as part of the Platform.

That license applies only after acceptance and official publication. Rejected submissions are not licensed to Hack n Roll under this section. Unrelated projects by the same author are not affected.

After official publication, the author may not publish that challenge, or a substantially similar version of it, on another public CTF platform without our prior written permission.

• Authors may still receive attribution, identify themselves as the creator, include the work in portfolios, present it in talks, mention it in resumes, and use it for educational purposes.
• Once published as an official challenge, the challenge materials are proprietary Platform content and are not licensed under the AGPL, regardless of the original author.
• Submission does not guarantee acceptance. We may edit, adapt, or decline submissions at our discretion. See Terms of Use for related rules.

7. Third-Party Dependencies

Hack n Roll uses external libraries, frameworks, and other dependencies. Those components remain under their own licenses. Nothing on this page changes the license terms of third-party software included in our repositories or deployment stack.

8. Questions

For licensing questions, contact privacy@hacknroll.dev. For security-related concerns about our codebase, see Responsible Disclosure.