Terms of Service

Last updated: 14 May 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Terminal43 platforms and services. By accessing or using our services, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account or using any Terminal43 platform (including Terminal43 CTF, Terminal43 System, Terminal43 Code, and the Terminal43 Hub), you confirm that you:

  • Are at least 16 years of age
  • Have read and agree to these Terms
  • Have read our Privacy Policy

If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use our services.

2. Description of Services

Terminal43 provides educational platforms for technical skill development, including:

  • Terminal43 CTF -- cybersecurity challenges, capture-the-flag competitions, and security training
  • Terminal43 System -- hands-on operating system courses with real Linux/SSH environments
  • Terminal43 Code -- programming education with interactive coding challenges
  • Terminal43 Hub -- central portal linking all platforms, blog, and newsletter

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any service at any time with reasonable notice.

3. Nature of the Offerings: Provision of Digital Services

All paid offerings on the Terminal43 platforms (including but not limited to courses, course modules, lessons, challenges, tasks, exercises, scenarios, simulations, learning paths, training programs, sandboxed environments, certifications, hint packs, and subscriptions of any kind) are supplied to You as digital services. They are not goods, not tangible products, and not downloadable digital content delivered on a tangible medium.

Consumption of any paid offering requires the active, continuous use of computational resources operated by Terminal43, including but not limited to sandboxed execution environments, ephemeral Docker containers, code-evaluation and grading systems, packet-capture infrastructure, virtual terminals, real-time validators, watchers, scoring engines, and other server-side processing. Without such computational resources, the offerings cannot be consumed, executed, validated, or completed. The supply therefore falls within the scope of Directive (EU) 2019/770 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services and Romanian Law no. 296/2004 (Codul consumului), as the supply of digital services.

Commencement of performance and waiver of the 14-day right of withdrawal. By purchasing, subscribing to, redeeming, or otherwise activating any paid offering, You expressly request and consent to Terminal43 commencing the provision of the service immediately upon successful payment and account access. You acknowledge that, in accordance with Article 16(m) of Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights (transposed into Romanian law as OUG no. 34/2014, art. 16 lit. (m)), the statutory 14-day right of withdrawal is irrevocably waived once the service has begun to be performed with Your prior express consent. Performance is deemed to have begun upon the earliest of: (i) the first launch of a sandboxed challenge container or execution environment associated with the offering; (ii) the first submission of code, a flag, an answer, or other content for automated evaluation; (iii) the first access to a paid lesson, course module, learning-path stage, or restricted resource; (iv) the first redemption of any reward, hint, or benefit included in the offering; or (v) any other interaction that consumes Terminal43 computational resources associated with the offering. Until performance has begun, You retain the statutory withdrawal right and may exercise it by written notice to contact@terminal43.ro.

Pro-rata fee on termination after performance has begun. Where Romanian or Union law nonetheless grants You a right to terminate a partly-performed service contract, You shall pay Terminal43 an amount that is in proportion to what has already been provided to You up to the point at which You inform Us of the termination, calculated on the basis of the total contract price agreed.

Consumer rights for non-conforming services preserved. Nothing in this section limits Your statutory rights in case Terminal43 fails to provide a service that conforms to the agreed terms, including the right to seek remedy under Directive (EU) 2019/770 (digital content and digital services) and Romanian implementing law.

4. User Accounts

  • You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials.
  • You must provide accurate information during registration.
  • One person per account. Sharing accounts is prohibited.
  • You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account.
  • We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

5. Acceptable Use

When using our platforms, you agree not to:

  • Attempt to access systems, networks, or data beyond what is explicitly provided in challenges
  • Attack or disrupt the platform infrastructure (DDoS, resource exhaustion, etc.)
  • Share challenge solutions, flags, or writeups unless explicitly permitted
  • Use automated tools (bots, scrapers) to interact with the platform without authorization
  • Attempt to escalate privileges beyond what a challenge intends
  • Upload malicious content, malware, or exploit code targeting other users
  • Harass, threaten, or impersonate other users
  • Use the platform for any illegal activity
  • Circumvent rate limits, container restrictions, or security controls

Challenges are sandboxed environments designed for learning. Any attempt to break out of the sandbox or affect systems outside the challenge scope is strictly prohibited.

6. Challenge Environments

Our platforms provide Docker-based challenge containers (SSH, web, packet capture). By using these:

  • You acknowledge that containers are temporary and will be destroyed after their time-to-live (TTL) expires.
  • You must not store personal or sensitive data in challenge containers.
  • Any data in challenge containers is not backed up and may be lost at any time.
  • Resource limits (CPU, memory, disk, network) are enforced. Attempts to bypass them may result in account suspension.

7. Intellectual Property

7.1 Definition of “Knowledge Content”

For the purposes of these Terms, “Knowledge Content” means any educational, training, or skill-development material made available through, hosted on, or generated by the Terminal43 platforms, including without limitation: courses, course modules, lessons, challenges, tasks, exercises, problems, learning paths, scenarios, simulations, datasets, packet captures, writeups, hints, model solutions, sample code, evaluation rubrics, grading criteria, watcher scripts, badges, achievements, certificates, leaderboard configurations, and any other text, code, audio, video, image, or interactive material intended to convey, test, or assess knowledge or skill.

7.2 Platform Knowledge Content

All Knowledge Content created, authored, designed, developed, commissioned, or licensed by Terminal43 (“Platform Knowledge Content”), together with the Terminal43 platform software, infrastructure code, sandbox and spawner code, recommendation engines, learning-path algorithms, design system, logos, trademarks, trade names, and visual identity, is the exclusive intellectual property of Terminal43 SRL or its licensors and is protected by Romanian, Union, and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

Subject to Your continuing compliance with these Terms and payment of applicable fees, Terminal43 grants You a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use the Platform Knowledge Content solely for Your own personal, non-commercial learning, while Your account is active. No other right or license is granted, whether by implication, estoppel, or otherwise. You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, transmit, modify, translate, adapt, create derivative works of, reverse-engineer, decompile, extract by automated means, or commercially exploit any Platform Knowledge Content without the prior written permission of Terminal43.

7.3 User-Generated Content

Any content that You as an individual user create and upload to the Terminal43 platforms (including code submissions, flag answers, writeups, comments, forum posts, profile bio, avatar, and similar contributions, collectively “User-Generated Content”) remains Your property. You retain all intellectual property rights in Your User-Generated Content.

You grant Terminal43 a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, display, adapt for technical purposes, and serve Your User-Generated Content solely to the extent necessary to operate the platforms, deliver the service to You and to other authorised users, generate anonymised and aggregated statistics, and comply with legal obligations. This license terminates when You delete the User-Generated Content or close Your account, except for anonymised aggregations that no longer identify You and for copies retained for legitimate backup-cycle expiration (maximum 90 days) or where retention is required by law.

You warrant that You own or have the necessary rights to grant the license above and that Your User-Generated Content does not infringe any third party’s rights or violate any law.

7.4 Organization Knowledge Content

Where an Organization (such as a school, university, employer, training provider, or community) uses the Terminal43 platforms to upload, sync, import, author, or otherwise make available its own Knowledge Content for the benefit of its members (“Organization Knowledge Content”), the following applies:

  • The Organization retains all intellectual property rights in its Organization Knowledge Content. Nothing in these Terms transfers, assigns, or licenses any ownership of Organization Knowledge Content to Terminal43.
  • The Organization grants Terminal43 a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license, exercisable solely for the purpose of operating the platforms, to host, store, reproduce, transmit, display, evaluate, grade, and serve the Organization Knowledge Content to the members and authorised users of that Organization (and to no other users), for the duration of the Organization’s account or until the Organization removes the content.
  • Terminal43 shall not use Organization Knowledge Content to train machine-learning models, to market to other organizations, to repurpose for Platform Knowledge Content, or to display, license, or otherwise make available outside the scope of the Organization’s own members, except with the Organization’s prior written consent.
  • The license terminates automatically upon (i) the closure or non-renewal of the Organization’s account, (ii) the Organization’s removal of the Organization Knowledge Content, or (iii) the Organization’s written request for return or deletion. Terminal43 will, within 30 days of such termination, permanently delete or, at the Organization’s written request, return all copies of the Organization Knowledge Content in its possession or control, except where retention is required by law or for legitimate backup-cycle expiration (maximum 90 days).
  • The Organization warrants that it owns or has the necessary rights and licenses to upload the Organization Knowledge Content and to grant the license above, and that doing so does not infringe any third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights. The Organization shall indemnify and hold harmless Terminal43 from any third-party claim arising from the Organization Knowledge Content.
  • Member access to Organization Knowledge Content is incidental to the member’s use of the Organization’s services and does not grant the member any ownership or rights beyond authorised use during membership.

7.5 Trademarks and Brand Assets

“Terminal43”, “Terminal43 CTF”, “Terminal43 System”, “Terminal43 Code”, “Terminal43 Hub”, the Terminal43 logo, and related word marks, logos, and slogans are trademarks of Terminal43 SRL. You may not use any Terminal43 trademark without prior written permission, except for nominative fair use in factual references to the service.

7.6 Notice of Alleged Infringement

If You believe that any content on the platforms infringes Your intellectual property rights, please send a written notice to contact@terminal43.ro containing: (a) Your contact information, (b) identification of the work claimed to be infringed, (c) identification of the allegedly infringing material with sufficient detail to locate it, (d) a statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorised, (e) a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and that You are the rightsholder or authorised to act on the rightsholder’s behalf, and (f) Your physical or electronic signature.

8. Scoring and Competitions

  • Points, rankings, and achievements are tracked automatically by the platform.
  • We reserve the right to adjust scores, revoke achievements, or disqualify users who violate these Terms or engage in unsportsmanlike conduct (flag sharing, exploiting scoring bugs, etc.).
  • Competition-specific rules, when posted, supplement these Terms.

9. Availability and Warranty Disclaimer

Terminal43 platforms are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not guarantee:

  • Uninterrupted or error-free service
  • That challenge environments will always be available
  • The accuracy or completeness of educational content
  • That the platform will meet your specific requirements

10. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Terminal43 and its team shall not be liable for:

  • Indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages
  • Loss of data, profits, or business opportunities
  • Damages arising from use or inability to use our services
  • Actions of other users on the platform

This limitation applies regardless of the legal theory (contract, tort, negligence, or otherwise).

11. Privacy and Data Protection

Your use of our services is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, and protect your personal data in compliance with GDPR. Our Cookie Policy describes the cookies we use.

12. Termination

  • You may delete your account at any time by contacting contact@terminal43.ro.
  • We may suspend or terminate your account for violation of these Terms, with or without notice.
  • Upon termination, your right to use the services ceases immediately. Data deletion follows our Privacy Policy retention schedule.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. Continued use of our services after changes constitutes acceptance. For material changes, we will provide notice via email or platform notification.

14. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Romania, without regard to conflict of law provisions. Any disputes shall be resolved in the competent courts of Bucharest, Romania.

15. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

16. Contact

For questions about these Terms:

  • Email: contact@terminal43.ro
  • General contact: Contact form