What is @HACK 2025?

Hosted by TECHNATION and Hexploit Alliance, a graduate student-led cybersecurity group at Concordia University, @Hack (“At Hack”) is one of the largest cybersecurity student hackathons in Canada.

This annual event welcomes hundreds of cybersecurity enthusiasts to Concordia’s downtown Montréal campus for a weekend filled with unique cybersecurity challenges.

The event took place at Concordia University, Montreal on March 1st-2nd, 2025.

The second of its kind, this year introduced all new super fun and mind-glitching challenges, with a beginner track for CTF first timers.

Grab your friends, form a team, and get ready to hack your way to glory.

March 1st

7:00 - 9:15 AM

Meet at Hall 1st floor for check-in

9:30 - 10:30 AM

Opening Ceremony

11:00 AM

Hacking Begins

1:00 - 5:00 PM

Workshop

2:00 - 6:00 PM

Career Fair

5:00 - 7:00 PM

Dinner

7:30 - 9:00 PM

Capture The Crowd

[CTF is paused from 7:30 to 9:00 PM]

March 2nd

3:00 - 6:00 AM

Support Closed

10:00 - 11:30 AM

Breakfast

12:00 PM

Scoreboard Closes

2:00 PM

Hacking Ends

2:15 - 3:15 PM

Closing Ceremony

Rules of Engagement

The following specifies the Rules of Engagement (RoE) each member (hacker) partaking in the event must adhere to.

Registration is open to Canadian post-secondary students (including abroad) or international students in a Canadian post-secondary school. Recent graduates who completed their studies within the past six months are also eligible.
Proof of enrollment (with a student ID) is necessary upon entry to the competition.
Registration for the event will occur in two separate steps:
- An initial registration where participants enter their information on our registration system - dates announced on event web page
- A secondary confirmation step where prior-registered participants confirm their desire to attend the event. Emails will be sent to registrants towards the end of January with confirmation steps.

Teams are composed of 2 - 4 members; each member must be an eligible registrant (see Eligibility and Registration for details).
Team construction will take place over Discord, which will be available after the registration and confirmation phases
There are no “solo” teams of one member.
Registering and competing in two different teams is strictly forbidden (e.g., under two different accounts). Any faulting participant will be expelled.

The event begins March 1st, 2025 [7 AM Check-in] and ends on March 2nd [2 PM Hacking closes, closing ceremony ends at 3:15 PM]. All times are in reference to Eastern Standard Time (EST).
A portion of CTF challenges will be available on the first challenge day, while an additional subset will be unveiled on the second.
Submissions will have a strict closing time, details of which will be available during the event.

Rooms for hacking will be labelled with specific door signage.
Rooms without signage are not allowed to be used, and any team unwilling to adhere to this rule will be removed from the room immediately. Volunteers will circulate to verify compliance with this rule; please respect them if they request you leave your room.
Rooms can be reserved on the morning of the event by writing your team’s name on the signage. If the room only has room for a single team (four chairs and a table), only one team name can occupy it; multi-team rooms are open to as many teams that can sit in the allotted seats in the room.
No team is allowed to reject other teams’ use of a multi-team room.

Challenges contain 1 to multiple flags.
Flags will be scored in terms of the difficulty needed to capture them.
The total score of all flags from the same challenge will be made available in each challenge description.
Teams will be ranked by the scores associated with the number of flags captured across the provided challenges.
In the case of a tie-breaker, the first team to reach the tie-score will be the victor.

The participants are split in two tracks (named “beginner” and “regular”).
Each track is an independent competition.
Teams are not allowed to compete in both tracks.
Teams are not allowed to change track after the beginning of the competition.
The choice of participating in the “beginner” or “regular” track is made through a self-assessment of the team members, and is done at registration. Teams are expected to select the track that genuinely reflects their skill level to ensure a fair and enjoyable experience for all participants, especially those in the beginner track.
The beginner track is reserved only for students who have not taken part in a CTF competition before.
The organizers reserve the right to investigate and ensure that the track in which a team registered actually reflects their skill level. In particular, regular/advanced participants should not register in the “beginner” track, and the organizers reserve the right to change a team’s track if it is deemed necessary, even during the course of the event.
Each track has their own scoreboard, and its own cash prize. In no way a team scoring higher than prize-winning teams on the other track can claim their prize instead (for instance, team A in regular track scores 3,000 points and ranks 5th, while team B in beginner track scores 1,500 points and ranks 1st; team A cannot claim the prize of team B in any circumstances).
The same challenges will be made available to participants regardless of the track they are registered in. Similarly, the scoring system will be the same.

Teams will submit flags through the custom CTFd platform hosted on @Hack’s infrastructure.

Only registered members of the event are permitted to partake in the problem solving and submission of events.
A team is not allowed to share insights, findings, solutions and flags with other teams, and will be immediately disqualified under such conditions. This includes teams coming from the same establishment but competing in different teams.
Teams are expected to cooperate with the organizers if asked to show, explain, or demonstrate a solution they used to solve a particular challenge. Failure to comply may result in the revocation of flag points or, in severe cases, the disqualification of the team.

A Discord channel will be available during the event for reporting CTF-related issues, not limited to:
- Challenge clarifications
- Scoring discrepancies
- Technical problems (e.g., submission issues)
Organizers can be reached through Discord for any non-technical concerns, like sleeping arrangements, food allergies, etc.
A hotline number will be available for emergency situations and provided at event opening. If you see something abnormal, do not intervene, and alert the organizers.

Any of the following will lead to team-wide expulsion:
- Any attempt to alter the equipment on site, to attack other participants, to set up a hotspot, fake scoreboard, wifi scan, or to use the competition as an excuse to attack elsewhere.
- Denial of service attempts
- Brute force on the flags submission system. Don’t attack the scoreboard in general.
- Giving out flags or writeups/solutions during the competition.
- Flag tampering
- Attempts to attack or probe the event’s infrastructure, including but not limited to: services hosting online challenges, networks and devices utilized to access the internet.

Participants must maintain an air of respect towards other participants, organizers, sponsors, volunteers, and university staff. Failure to do so will lead to personal disqualification.
The event will not tolerate any form of harassment - be it verbal or otherwise - and will lead to personal disqualification.
No form of taunting, ridicule, or belittling will be tolerated, and will lead to personal disqualification.

Regular Track (Total $13,000)
- 1st - $6,000 ($1,500 per person)
- 2nd - $4,000 ($1,000 per person)
- 3rd - $3,000 ($750 per person)
Beginner Track (Total $3,000)
- 1st - $1,200 ($300 per person)
- 2nd - $1,000 ($250 per person)
- 3rd - $800 ($200 per person)
Prizes are always per-person. A winning team with fewer than 4 members still win the per-person prize rate.

Involvement in illegal activities, such as (non-exhaustively) smoking, using drugs, and drinking on location is not permitted and will result in immediate disqualification.
Hacking of any university infrastructure (routers, access points, student and lab computers, etc.), as well as other participant devices is strictly prohibited.

Any changes to the event will be announced primarily through Discord, as the layout of the event will allow hackers to disperse. Volunteers will assist by verbally spreading the word to reserved rooms.

Feedback will be collected following the event through a post-event email sent to participants.

Organizers reserve the right to make on-the-fly decisions and modifications to the rules in the case of unforeseen circumstances, and we request your patience and understanding in this regard.

Each participant in the @HACK 2025 hackathon (“Hackathon”) gives express permission to TECHNATION, Hexploit Alliance and Interac Corp. to photograph and video record them, their voice and statements in connection with their participation in the Hackathon and related activity (“Recording”) and to reproduce, publish, display or otherwise use the Recording in any manner and media for promotional purposes without additional compensation.

All intellectual property rights in any work, invention, design or idea created, developed or produced by a participant during the Hackathon (“Works”) shall be owned solely and exclusively by Interac Corp. No Hackathon participant shall claim ownership or intellectual property rights to any Works that are in development or have already been developed by Interac Corp. prior to the participant’s participation in the Hackathon.

By participating in the Hackathon, each participant agrees to comply with all of the Rules of Engagement and releases the Hackathon organizers and sponsors, including Interac Corp., and each of their officers, directors, employees and agents, from all liability in connection with their participation in the Hackathon, the awarding and use of a prize, and any injury or damage to a participant or their or another person’s computer or device or other equipment related to or resulting from participating in the Hackathon.

Luna Etihad

LEAD MARKETING & DESIGN

Anthony Andreoli

LEAD LOGISTICS / PRESIDENT

Alireza Toghiani

LEAD APP DEV / VICE-PRESIDENT

Ali-Moussa Darkallah

LEAD FINANCE / TREASURER

Dhiaa Elhak Rebbah

LEAD WEB DEV

Anis Lounis

LEAD CTF DESIGN

Hugo Kermabon

LEAD CTF DESIGN

Jeremy Frandon

LEAD INFRA

Sofiane Benahmed

LEAD INFRA

@HACK 2025 Team

What is @HACK 2025?

Timeline

March 1st

[CTF is paused from 7:30 to 9:00 PM]

March 2nd

Challenge Champion Sponsor

Supporting Sponsors

Official T-Shirt Sponsor

Funding Partner

Hosted by

2025 Event Recap

$16,000

~600

60+

2 Tracks

27

57

$6000 In Interac Prizes

🏆 @HACK 2025 Winners 🏆

Main Track

Regular Competition

UofTCTF

Pas UofT

3 ½ français [PolyCyber]

Beginner Competition

flag-a

offsETS

Mauribec

Interac Track

Regular Competition

HUBERT HACKIN''

Hack The PlanETS

WWF

Beginner Competition

Jerry and The Totally Spies

Bored Team

Shmackathon

Photos from @Hack 2025

Rules of Engagement

Hexploit Alliance Committee

Luna Etihad

Anthony Andreoli

Alireza Toghiani

Ali-Moussa Darkallah

Dhiaa Elhak Rebbah

Anis Lounis

Hugo Kermabon

Jeremy Frandon

Sofiane Benahmed

Hexploit Alliance Team Members

Organizers

Volunteers

Special Thanks