Rules

Official rulesH4ckc0n 2026

By registering, you agree to these rules, the event Code of Conduct (link) and the platform's terms of service.

Instant disqualification: flag sharing, flag hoarding and flag spamming. See sections 4, 6 and 11.

01 Event details

when and what

who can play

Open to everyone.
Prizes are only available to winners with an Indian bank account (see section 9).

1 to 6 members

Teams have 1 to 6 members.
One account per person and one team per person. Do not share accounts.
Collaborate only within your registered team.
Team names must follow the Code of Conduct. We may rename or remove offensive names.

play clean

Do not share flags, solutions, hints or partial progress with anyone outside your team until the event ends, unless explicitly mentioned otherwise.
You may discuss the challenges that are open to discussion, but directly hinting at or sharing the flag, fully or partially, is not allowed.
Asking for, buying or receiving flags counts as sharing. Both teams are penalized.
Do not use multiple accounts or play on behalf of another team.
Submit flags as soon as you solve a challenge. Holding solved flags back and submitting them later to manipulate the scoreboard or tie-breaks (flag hoarding) is not allowed. Organizers judge this from submission logs and solve timing.

equal points

Teams with equal points are ranked by the earliest time of their last score-increasing submission.

5 submissions per minute

Only the targets listed in each challenge are in scope.
Do not attack, scan or overload the scoring platform, registration system, flag submission system, hosting infrastructure, other players or any third party.
No denial-of-service. No automated brute force of flags or logins. Automated tools may be used against a challenge only if that challenge says so.
Report platform bugs and unintended solutions to the coordinators on Discord. Do not exploit them. Helpful reports may earn recognition.
Flag submissions are limited to 5 per minute. Spamming flags, including guessing, brute forcing, or submitting at a rate meant to bypass this limit, is not allowed.

currently unrestricted

There is currently no constraint on AI usage, but for the sake of clarity AI brackets have been kept.

after the event

Do not publish writeups, solutions or challenge files until the event ends.
After the embargo, writeups are welcome. Share them at hashtag, page or channel.

only for winners with an Indian bank account

Prizes: 1st ₹5000 2nd ₹3000 3rd ₹2000
Before prizes are confirmed, we may message you for writeups. Failing to send one may lead to disqualification.

your data

if something goes wrong

Breaking these rules can lead to a warning, point deduction, removal of a solve, loss of prize eligibility, or disqualification.
Decisions are based on evidence such as platform logs, submission records and flag data.
Flag hoarding and flag spamming can lead to immediate disqualification.
Flag sharing leads to immediate disqualification as well.
To dispute a decision or score, make a ticket on Discord within 48 hours of the results with your team name and reason.
The organizer's decision after review is final.