About Us

The /upb/hack team formed as a group of students from the urge to learn more about IT security. We meet regularly and participate in Capture The Flag challenges, as they are a great way to learn more about the security of IT systems – but we are not exclusively a CTF team. We try to learn new stuff from every part of the IT security field.

What are CTFs?

“Capture the Flag (CTF) in computer security is an exercise where participants conduct and defend against real-world security attacks. CTFs cover a wide range of disciplines including binary exploitation, reverse engineering, web security, cryptography, and forensics.

Contests typically follow one of two formats: Jeopardy! (teams solve challenges across various categories for points within a set timeframe) or Attack/Defense (teams defend their own vulnerable services while finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in opposing teams’ services).”

Adapted from Wikipedia: CTF

Competitions & Events

We regularly compete in online competitions throughout the year. You can check out our ranking and the competitions we’ve participated in on our CTFtime profile.

We also occasionally travel together to on-site CTFs and security conferences, including:

• BruCON CTF (Belgium): Attended twice, placing 2nd in 2023 and 4th in 2025.
• Deutsche Hackingmeisterschaft (DHM): Placed 9th in the 2024 finals.
• Laokoon SecurITy CTFs: Regular participants, including 3rd place in Flag Wars (2026).

Beyond participating in external contests, we organize an introductory CTF each year for new bachelor students at Paderborn University to provide a fun entry point into IT security.

Join us!

If you are interested in IT security and want to join us, the best way is to join our Discord Server and keep an eye out for upcoming events. You can also reach out to us there anytime if you have questions.

We meet in person in Paderborn semi-regularly on Saturdays from 14:00 to ~22:00 to participate in CTF competitions together. Just bring your laptop! We usually speak German at our meetings, but we gladly adapt if non-German speakers join.

If you are concerned that you might not be experienced enough: that is not a problem at all. Everyone on the team is here to learn and explore. Our members come with different backgrounds and experience levels, and that is what makes it exciting – we learn from each other.

If you are also interested in broader tech projects and hardware hacking, consider checking out C3PB (Chaos Computer Club Paderborn). They run a local hackerspace with regular open evenings for anyone curious about technology.