General Rules

Overview

These rules apply to all participants in competitions hosted on the DUCA CTF platform, operated by the Deakin University Cybersecurity Association (DUCA). By registering and competing, you agree to follow these rules in addition to our Terms of Service.

Fair play

• Do not share flags, solutions, or hints with other teams or players unless the competition explicitly allows collaboration.

• Do not attack the platform infrastructure, other users' accounts, or any systems outside the scope of a challenge.

• Do not brute-force flags against rate limits or attempt to circumvent submission restrictions.

• Do not use multiple accounts to gain an unfair advantage. One person, one account.

• Do not publish or distribute challenge files, flags, or writeups before the competition has ended, unless organisers allow it.

Challenge scope

• Only interact with challenge resources and targets described in the challenge description.

• Denial-of-service attacks against challenge servers or shared infrastructure are prohibited.

• If a challenge appears broken, report it to organisers instead of exploiting unintended behaviour for extra points.

Scoring and solves

• Points are awarded for correct flag submissions as configured by organisers. Scoring is static unless otherwise stated.

• First blood and solve order may be displayed on leaderboards and solve feeds.

• Organisers may apply per-challenge submission limits. Failed attempts may be logged.

• Organisers reserve the right to adjust scores, invalidate solves, or remove submissions in cases of rule violations or technical issues.

Conduct

• Be respectful in any community channels linked to the event.

• Harassment, hate speech, or disruptive behaviour may result in disqualification and account suspension.

Organiser decisions

Competition organisers and platform administrators have final authority on rule interpretation, tie-breakers, and penalties. Decisions are made in good faith to keep events fair for all participants.

Questions

For rule clarifications during an event, contact the organisers through official competition channels. For platform issues, reach DUCA via duca.au.