# Terms of Service

Effective Date: March 2026

1. Operator

This Platform is operated by Terminal43 SRL, a company registered in Bucharest, Romania ("we", "us", "the Operator").

2. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing, registering for, or using Terminal43CTF ("the Platform"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Terminal43CTF. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Platform.

Your continued use of the Platform following the posting of any changes to these Terms constitutes acceptance of those changes. We encourage you to review these Terms periodically.

3. Description of Service

Terminal43CTF is a cybersecurity education and competition platform that provides the following services:

• Capture The Flag (CTF) Challenges -- Hands-on cybersecurity exercises across multiple categories including Web, Pwn, Crypto, Forensics, OSINT, Reverse Engineering, and more, with dynamic scoring and containerized environments.
• Interactive Courses -- Structured learning paths featuring video lessons, code playgrounds, labs, quizzes, and certificates of completion.
• Classrooms -- Instructor-managed educational environments with assignments, grading, analytics, and student progress tracking.
• Organizations -- Multi-user team management with private content, custom branding, billing, and administrative controls.
• Live CTF Events -- Time-bound competitive events with real-time scoreboards, team modes, and various formats (Jeopardy, Attack-Defense, King of the Hill, and others).
• Community Features -- Writeup publishing, discussion forums, user profiles, achievement systems, and leaderboards.
• Course Marketplace -- A platform for creators to publish and monetize cybersecurity courses.

4. Service & License

Terminal43CTF is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. When you purchase a subscription or enroll in a course, you are purchasing access to the service, not the content itself. Specifically:

• You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the challenges, courses, labs, and related materials solely through the Platform for your personal educational purposes.
• No ownership of any course content, challenge materials, lab environments, or platform resources is transferred to you.
• Access to content is provided only within the Platform. You may not download, copy, screenshot for redistribution, record, or otherwise extract course materials, challenge descriptions, or lab configurations for use outside the Platform.
• Your access to paid content depends on having an active subscription or valid enrollment. If your subscription expires or is terminated, your access to paid content ends accordingly. Free challenges and community features remain accessible.
• We reserve the right to update, modify, or retire challenges and course content at any time to improve quality, accuracy, or relevance.

5. User Accounts

To access most features of the Platform, you must create an account. By creating an account, you represent and warrant that:

• You are at least 16 years of age. If you are under 18, you confirm that you have obtained parental or guardian consent to use the Platform.
• All registration information you provide is accurate, current, and complete, and you will maintain and update it to keep it so.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account.
• You will maintain only one account per person. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent bans, scoring rules, or resource limits is strictly prohibited.
• You will notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security.

Terminal43CTF reserves the right to suspend, disable, or terminate any account at any time, with or without notice, for conduct that we determine, in our sole discretion, violates these Terms, is harmful to other users or the Platform, or for any other reason.

6. Acceptable Use

Terminal43CTF is a cybersecurity training platform. Challenges are intentionally designed to contain vulnerabilities and are meant to be exploited -- that is the entire purpose of the Platform. However, the following activities are strictly prohibited:

• Attacking platform infrastructure. Do not attempt to exploit, compromise, or disrupt the core Platform systems, databases, servers, or networking infrastructure. Your exploitation activities must remain within the designated challenge environments.
• Attacking other users. Do not attempt to access, modify, or interfere with other users' accounts, sessions, containers, or data.
• Sharing flags or solutions during active competitions. During live CTF events, sharing flags, solutions, hints, or walkthrough information with other participants undermines fair competition and is prohibited. Writeups may be shared after the event concludes or after you have solved the challenge (for non-event challenges).
• Automated mass flag submission. Brute-forcing flags through automated scripts or tools designed to submit large volumes of guesses is not permitted.
• Disrupting shared challenge containers. Shared challenge instances serve multiple users simultaneously. Do not intentionally crash, corrupt, deface, or otherwise disrupt these shared environments beyond what is required to solve the challenge.
• Uploading malware to the Platform. Do not upload malicious software, backdoors, or harmful code to the Platform itself. This restriction does not apply to activities within designated challenge containers where such techniques may be part of the intended solution.
• Harassment or abuse. Engaging in harassment, hate speech, threats, doxxing, discrimination, or any other form of abuse toward other users through community features (forums, chat, writeups, profiles) is prohibited.
• Circumventing access controls. Do not attempt to bypass subscription restrictions, access paid content without authorization, or manipulate the scoring or gamification systems.

Violations of these rules may result in warnings, temporary suspensions, permanent bans, disqualification from events, or forfeiture of points and achievements, at our sole discretion.

7. Intellectual Property

Platform Content. All content created and provided by Terminal43CTF -- including but not limited to challenge designs, course materials, platform code, visual design, logos, and documentation -- is the intellectual property of Terminal43CTF or its licensors and is protected by applicable copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from Platform content without prior written consent.

User-Generated Content. You retain ownership of content you create and submit to the Platform, including writeups, forum posts, course materials (for marketplace creators), and profile information. By submitting content, you grant Terminal43CTF a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, display, reproduce, and distribute your content in connection with operating and promoting the Platform. You may request removal of your content at any time.

Challenge Solutions and Writeups. After successfully solving a challenge (or after a live event concludes), you may publish writeups describing your solution approach. You are responsible for ensuring your writeups do not violate any applicable competition rules or instructor-imposed restrictions.

8. Organizations & Classrooms

Organizations and Classrooms provide collaborative environments with elevated administrative visibility:

• Administrative Visibility. Organization administrators, managers, and classroom instructors can view member activity, progress, submissions, grades, and analytics within their respective scope. By joining an organization or classroom, you consent to this level of visibility.
• Organizational Responsibility. Organization owners are responsible for ensuring that their members comply with these Terms. Misuse of organizational features (such as bulk account creation for abuse, or hosting unauthorized events) may result in suspension of the entire organization.
• Classroom Rules. Classroom content, grading policies, collaboration policies, and hint availability are subject to the instructor's discretion. Students are expected to follow any additional rules set by their instructors.
• Data Access. Organization and classroom administrators only have access to data that falls within their organizational or classroom scope. They do not have access to your activity outside of their managed environments.

9. Payments & Subscriptions

Certain features of the Platform require paid subscriptions or purchases. All payments are processed through Stripe, a third-party payment processor. By making a purchase, you also agree to Stripe's terms of service.

• Subscriptions. Paid subscriptions (individual Pro plans, organization plans, course subscriptions) automatically renew at the end of each billing cycle unless cancelled before the renewal date. You may cancel at any time through your account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.
• Pricing. Prices are displayed in the applicable currency at the time of purchase. We reserve the right to change pricing at any time, but changes will not affect active subscription periods.
• Refunds. Refund requests are handled in accordance with applicable consumer protection laws. If you believe you are entitled to a refund, please contact us at the address provided in Section 18.
• Course Marketplace. Course creators set their own subscription pricing for courses published through the marketplace. Terminal43CTF takes a commission on marketplace transactions as specified in the creator agreement. Access to paid courses requires an active subscription; access is revoked when the subscription lapses.
• Virtual Currency (Coins). Coins are a virtual currency used within the Platform for unlocking hints, purchasing cosmetic items, and accessing certain features. Coins have no real-world monetary value and are non-refundable, non-transferable, and cannot be exchanged for cash.

10. Containers & Infrastructure

The Platform provides containerized environments for challenge solving and lab exercises. These containers operate under the following conditions:

• Sandboxing. Challenge containers are isolated and sandboxed. They do not have internet access by default and are subject to CPU, memory, network, and disk resource limits.
• Container Escapes. You must not attempt to escape the container sandbox unless that is explicitly the objective of the challenge. Unauthorized attempts to access the host system, other users' containers, or Platform infrastructure from within a container constitute a violation of these Terms.
• Resource Limits. Containers are subject to resource quotas. Exceeding these limits or attempting to consume excessive resources (e.g., fork bombs, crypto mining) is prohibited.
• Timeouts. Containers automatically terminate after a configurable idle timeout (default: 30 minutes) or maximum lifetime (default: 4 hours). You may extend or restart containers within the allowed limits.
• Data Persistence. Container data is ephemeral. Any data stored within a challenge container may be lost when the container is stopped, restarted, or terminated. The Platform is not responsible for loss of data within containers.
• Concurrent Limits. The number of containers you may run simultaneously depends on your subscription tier. Exceeding your limit requires stopping existing containers first.

11. Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. Our collection, use, and protection of your personal data is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the Platform, you consent to the practices described in the Privacy Policy.

12. Disclaimers

As-Is Basis. The Platform and all content, services, and features are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Ethical Use. The skills, techniques, and knowledge gained through the Platform are intended exclusively for ethical and authorized purposes, including but not limited to education, authorized penetration testing, security research, and professional development. Terminal43CTF is not responsible for how users apply the knowledge gained through the Platform. Any unauthorized use of these skills against systems you do not own or have explicit authorization to test is illegal and solely your responsibility.

Intentionally Vulnerable Code. Challenges and lab environments may contain intentionally vulnerable code, misconfigured services, and exploitable software. This code is provided solely for educational purposes. You must not deploy, replicate, or use any challenge code, configurations, or techniques in production environments.

Service Availability. We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation of the Platform. Scheduled maintenance, system updates, and unforeseen outages may temporarily affect availability. We will make reasonable efforts to provide advance notice of planned downtime.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Terminal43CTF, its officers, directors, employees, agents, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to:

• Your access to, use of, or inability to access or use the Platform;
• Any conduct or content of any third party on the Platform;
• Any content obtained from the Platform;
• Unauthorized access, use, or alteration of your transmissions or content;
• Loss of data stored within challenge containers or temporary environments;
• Any actions taken by users based on skills or knowledge acquired through the Platform.

In no event shall our total liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Platform exceed the amount you have paid to Terminal43CTF in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim, or one hundred US dollars ($100), whichever is greater.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability shall be limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.

14. Termination

By Terminal43CTF. We may suspend or terminate your account and access to the Platform at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Reasons for termination may include, but are not limited to: violation of these Terms, fraudulent or illegal activity, extended periods of inactivity, or conduct that is harmful to other users or the Platform.

By You. You may delete your account at any time through your profile settings. Upon deletion, your personal data will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws (including GDPR rights to erasure). Please note that certain data may be retained as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

Effect of Termination. Upon termination, your right to access the Platform ceases immediately. Any active subscriptions will be cancelled, and no refund will be issued for the remaining portion of the billing cycle unless required by applicable law. Running containers will be terminated. Content you have published (writeups, forum posts) may remain on the Platform in anonymized form.

15. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. When we make material changes, we will notify users through one or more of the following methods: a prominent notice on the Platform, an email to the address associated with your account, or an in-app notification.

The updated Terms will include a revised "Effective Date" at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Platform after the effective date of the revised Terms constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree with the revised Terms, you must stop using the Platform and may delete your account.

16. Dispute Resolution

In the event of a dispute, we encourage you to contact us first at contact@terminal43.ro to seek an amicable resolution. If no resolution is reached within 30 days, the dispute shall be submitted to mediation before litigation.

17. Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Romania. Any disputes arising from or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Bucharest, Romania, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer protection provisions of your country of residence that may apply under EU law.

18. Contact

If you have questions, concerns, or legal inquiries about these Terms, please contact us at: