Open Source

1. Why Open Source

Hack n Roll exists to teach ethical hacking and security research. Building the Platform in the open aligns with that mission: students and practitioners can inspect how the Platform works, learn from real implementation decisions, and suggest improvements.

Transparency supports review, learning, and community feedback. Open source does not by itself prove that a system is secure, but it helps others understand our approach and contribute to making it better.

2. License

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

Not everything is open source. Official challenge content, flags, solutions, and Hack n Roll branding remain proprietary. External libraries and dependencies remain under their own licenses. See Licensing for the full breakdown.

3. Public Repositories

Our public repositories contain Platform source code such as the backend API, frontend application, and related tooling. Some components remain private when they contain sensitive validation logic, infrastructure configuration, or secrets that should not be exposed publicly.

We do not publish challenge flags, secrets, or other sensitive material in public repositories. This boundary is essential to maintaining fair and educational CTF experiences.

4. Forks and Derivative Projects

Forks and modified versions of AGPL-licensed platform source code are allowed under AGPL v3. If you run a modified version as a network service, you must make the corresponding source code available to users of that service, as required by the license.

Hack n Roll branding, official challenges, and other proprietary materials are not included in that license. Modified or redistributed versions must not imply official Hack n Roll affiliation without permission. See Licensing.

5. Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Whether you fix a bug, improve documentation, or propose a new feature, here is how to get started:

• Browse our public repositories and read the contribution guidelines in each project.
• Open an issue to discuss significant changes before submitting a pull request.
• Follow existing code conventions and include tests where applicable.
• Contributions must comply with the applicable project license (AGPL v3 for our public platform repositories).
• Do not include secrets, flags, or proprietary challenge content in contributions.

6. Reporting Issues

For bugs and feature requests, open an issue in the relevant public repository. For security vulnerabilities, use our Responsible Disclosure process instead. Do not file public issues for security bugs.

7. Community Challenges

If you want to contribute a challenge for official publication, authors retain ownership of their work. Official publication requires the license described in Licensing and our Terms of Use. Community-contributed challenges help grow the Platform for everyone.