GitHub Security Lab CTF Contest Rules & Instructions

Rules can be a bummer, so we blame our lawyers for making us put these in here. We included them so they sleep a little better at night. Please read these rules closely because we wouldn’t want you to miss any of the important details.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How many times can I enter?

You can submit as many entries as you want within the Contest Period, but you can only receive one prize. Your best entry will be used to award prizes.

When does the contest close?

The contest ends on December 31, 2019.

Who can enter?

Anyone 16 and over who’s not in Quebec, CA or a region being sanctioned by the United States.

How do I enter?

You’re here, so you’re doing well so far. Next, read the rules below and then start working on queries!

OFFICIAL CONTEST RULES

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.

CONTEST ONLY OPEN TO THOSE LOCATED OUTSIDE QUEBEC, CA AND COUNTRIES WHERE THE UNITED STATES HAS ISSUED EXPORT SANCTIONS OR OTHER TRADE RESTRICTIONS, INCLUDING CUBA, IRAN, NORTH KOREA, THE CRIMEA REGION OF UKRAINE, SYRIA, AND SUDAN.

VOID WHERE PROHIBITED

The GitHub Capture the Flag Contest (the “Contest”) begins on November 13, 2019 at 12:00 PM U.S. Pacific Time (“PT”) and ends on December 31, 2019 at 11:59:59 PM PT (“Contest Period”). Administrator’s computer is the official Contest clock.

The Contest is sponsored and administered by GitHub, Inc., 88 Colin P. Kelly Jr. St., San Francisco, CA 94107 (“Sponsor”, “Administrator”). By participating, each entrant agrees to abide by these Official Contest Rules (“Official Rules”) and decisions of the Sponsor, which shall be final and binding in all respects relating to this Contest.

1. Eligibility:

This Contest is offered to anyone who has internet access and is sixteen (16) years of age or older, except for citizens or residents of Quebec, CA and of countries/regions under sanctions by the United States, including North Korea, Syria, Iran, Cuba, the Crimea region of the Ukraine, and Sudan. Employees, officers, directors, representatives, and agents of Sponsor, Administrator, and each of their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, and companies involved in the implementation and execution of the Contest (collectively “Contest Entities”) and each of their respective immediate family members (e.g., spouse, parent, child, sibling, and their respective spouses and the “steps” of each, regardless of where they reside) and persons living in the same household of each, whether or not related, are not eligible to enter or win. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. All applicable federal, state, provincial, territorial, and local laws and regulations apply. Participation in the Contest is contingent upon an individual satisfying the eligibility requirements of this section (“Entrant”).

2. How to participate:

During the Contest Period, an eligible person must visit https://securitylab.github.com/ctf (the “Website”) and follow the rules in order to participate in the Contest. An Entrant agrees they are at least sixteen (16) and have read and agreed to be bound by these Official Rules. In order to submit an entry into the Contest, Entrant must email their Contest responses to ctf@github.com (a “Submission”).

Participation in the Contest constitutes Entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules and Sponsor’s decisions and interpretations, which are final and binding in all matters related to the Contest.

3. Prizes:

1. Two (2) Grand Prizes: The Grand Prize will be awarded to two (2) winning Entrants. As a Grand Prize, each of the two winners will receive one Nintendo Switch. The Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) of the Grand Prize is 300 USD. Any difference between the estimated ARV and the actual value of the prize will not be awarded. Prizes will not be redeemed or exchanged for cash, except where required by law.
2. Ten (10) First Prizes: The First Prize will be awarded to ten (10) winning Entrants. As First Prize, each of the eight winners will receive a coupon valued at $25 USD that can be used to purchase a collection of apparel and accessories from the GitHub shop, located online at https://github.myshopify.com/. Each coupon will have an ARV of $25 USD. Prizes will not be redeemed or exchanged for cash, except where required by law.

4. Winner Selection:

Entrants’ Submissions will be judged at the end of the Contest Period based on the skill level of their Submission(s). Sponsor’s judging criteria includes, but is not limited to, the number of Contest steps completed in a Submission, the precision of the queries in the Submission, and the style and quality of the queries in the Submission. Though an Entrant can submit multiple Submissions, an Entrant can only receive one (1) prize. The Entrant’s best Submission, based on the judging criteria, will be used to determine whether they are selected as a winner. The two (2) Grand Prize winners will be the Entrants who have demonstrated the highest level of skill in their Contest Submission based on the judging criteria. The Entrants with the next ten (10) most highly scored Submissions will be the ten First Prize winners. There will be a total of twelve (12) Contest winners.

If a Grand Prize winner can’t accept the Grand Prize or decides they don’t want it, then they will be awarded one of the First Prize awards instead, thereby passing the Grand Prize to the next winner by order of the judges’ scoring of each Submission.

Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein. Entrants and/or potential winners may be required to provide proof of identification and eligibility as required by Sponsor.

5. Winner Notification:

Grand Prize and First Prize winners will be notified within fourteen (14) days of the end of the Contest Period, and the notification may include a request to supply a mailing address. Winning Entrants will be notified via the same email address that they used to submit their winning Submissions.

6. How to claim a prize:

Grand Prize winners must respond to the Winner Notification email within fourteen (14) days of Sponsor’s conveyance of that email to claim their prize. First Prize winners must respond to the Winner Notification email within seven (7) days of Sponsor’s conveyance of that email to claim their prize. Failure to claim a prize within the appropriate period may result in forfeiture of the prize or relegation from the Grand Prize to one of the First Prizes.

7. Release of Liability:

By participating, each Entrant agrees to release, discharge and hold harmless Sponsor and their respective parents, affiliates and subsidiaries, and the respective officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and representatives of the forgoing (collectively, "Released Parties") from: (i) lost, late, incomplete, stolen, misdirected, postage due or undeliverable e-mail notifications, telephone calls, or postal mail; (ii) any computer, telephone, satellite, cable, network, electronic or Internet hardware or software malfunctions, failures, connections, or availability; (iii) garbled, corrupt or jumbled transmissions, service provider/Internet/website accessibility, availability or traffic congestion; (iv) any technical, mechanical, printing or typographical or other error; (v) the incorrect or inaccurate capture of registration information or the failure to capture, or loss of, any such information; (vi) any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, technical error, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to the Contest; (vii) any injury or damage, whether personal or property (including any injury related to creating the entry), to Entrants or to any person's computer related to or resulting from participating in the Contest and/or accepting or using a prize; and (viii) entries that are late, forged, lost, misplaced, misdirected, tampered with, incomplete, deleted, damaged, garbled or otherwise not in compliance with the Official Rules. Further, the Contest Entities are not responsible for any undelivered telephone calls, messages or e-mails, including without limitation, e-mails that are not received because of an Entrant’s privacy or spam filter settings that may divert any winner notification or other Contest related e-mail to a spam or junk folder.

By entering the Contest, each Entrant agrees: (i) to be bound by these Official Rules, including Entry requirements; (ii) to waive any rights to claim ambiguity with respect to these Official Rules; (iii) to waive all of their rights to bring any claim, action or proceeding against any of the Released Parties in connection with the Contest; and (iv) to forever and irrevocably agree to release and hold harmless each of the Released Parties from any and all claims, lawsuits, judgments, causes of action, proceedings, demands, fines, penalties, liability, costs and expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees) that may arise in connection with: (a) the Contest, including, but not limited to, any Contest-related activity or element thereof, and the Entrant’s entries, participation or inability to participate in the Contest; (b) acceptance, attendance at, receipt, travel related to, participation in, delivery of, possession, defects in, use, non-use, misuse, inability to use, loss, damage, destruction, negligence or willful misconduct in connection with the use of a prize (or any component thereof); (c) any change in the prizing (or any components thereof); (d) any wrongful, negligent, or unauthorized act or omission on the part of any of the Released Parties; (e) lost, late, stolen, misdirected, damaged or destroyed prizing (or any element thereof); or (f) the negligence or willful misconduct by Entrant.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, EVERYTHING REGARDING THIS CONTEST, INCLUDING THE PRIZE, IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

8. Publicity Grant and Consent:

By participating, each Entrant agrees to the use by Sponsor and its designees of her/his name and GitHub user name, for advertising, promotional and other purposes, in any and all media, now or hereafter known, worldwide and on the Internet, and in perpetuity, without compensation (unless prohibited by law) or additional consents from Entrant and without prior notice, approval or inspection, and to execute specific consent to such use if asked to do so.

Entrant consents to Sponsor’s use of their name, as mentioned above in this Section 8, and acknowledges that their personal data may be used to comply with legal obligations, including the provision of a Winner List, as described in Section 9.

9. Winner list:

To obtain a listing of the names of the winners, send an email to support@github.com with the subject, "CTF Contest - Winner List Request", and include the specific Contest Period you entered. Winner List requests must be received within one (1) year of the Contest Period.

10. Miscellaneous:

These Official Rules will be construed, interpreted, and applied in accordance with the laws of the State of California (excluding its body of law controlling conflicts of law). In the event of any action arising out of these Official Rules or breach thereof, or between you and the Sponsor, such action shall be brought and maintained exclusively in San Francisco County, California. If any provision of these Official Rules or any word, phrase, clause, sentence or other portion thereof should be held unenforceable or invalid for any reason, then that provision or portion thereof shall be modified or deleted in such manner as to render the remaining provisions of these Official Rules valid and enforceable. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of these Official Rules or any prize documents will not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision. Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision and such provision shall remain in full force and effect.