Code4rena Code of Conduct

Code4rena wardens are held to a high standard in creating a professional and objective environment designed to empower each individual to do their best work. While C4 audits are highly competitive, we are a collaborative community working together to help each other improve our skills and to help sponsor projects become more secure.

It is our individual and collective responsibility to contribute to an environment that helps each contributor feel welcomed and respected. Working as a warden means agreeing to abide by these standards in order to create a productive, professional, and high quality environment for everyone.

This Code of Conduct applies to all Code4rena spaces and in any communication with employees of C4 and its affiliates, contractors, sponsors, or Code4rena community members—both online and off.

At the discretion of C4 staff, any person who violates this code of conduct may be subject to suspension, removal from the community, or forfeiture of awards.

Professional standards

All wardens are expected to:

• Conduct yourself in an ethical manner when performing security research or disclosing vulnerabilities—both within C4 competitions and outside C4.

• Refrain from using alternate accounts and from any other attempt to circumvent the intent of C4 competition incentives and guidelines.

• Take an objective, collegial, and intellectually open tone in considering and discussing all findings.

• Treat other wardens, sponsors, judges, staff, and their work with respect and an assumption of positive intent.

• Maintain confidentiality: Treat the contents of ALL submissions as private and confidential until the audit report is made public.

• Disclose any conflicts of interest or unfair advantages in competitions and either recuse yourself or declare your ineligibility and forfeiture of awards.

• Contribute constructively: Accept that the process is human and therefore imperfect, and take an attitude of blameless postmortems. Rather than attempting to retroactively reverse a result you disagree with, find ways the process can be improved for better results in the future.

• Avoid engaging in any discussion and evaluation of submissions you have made, except to answer questions or provide additional context or clarification when requested by a judge or sponsor.

• Respect judges’ decisions as final.

Community standards

The following behavior is not permitted:

• Discriminatory language

• Aggressive, belittling, or harassing behavior

• Physical threats or abusive, creepy, or inappropriate comments

• Association or identification with hate groups

• Posting people's private information without consent (”doxing”)

• Off-topic spam or shilling, including unsolicited links, referral/affiliate links, and self-promotional DMs

• Job postings or recruitment offers

• NSFW content, including in user avatars, handles, and emoji

Scope and enforcement

All rules apply to text and voice channels within the Code4rena community and platform. At the discretion of staff, this Code of Conduct may also apply to behavior outside community channels which violates our standards and interferes with sponsors', wardens', judges', or staff’s ability to accomplish their objectives.

Violations of this Code of Conduct will result in consequences at the sole discretion of staff, which may include warnings, suspension, permanent removal from the community, and forfeiture of awards.

Reporting a violation

If you notice another warden violating this Code of Conduct, you are encouraged wherever possible to first go directly to the relevant person and kindly provide them with feedback. If additional support is necessary, you may report violations of this Code of Conduct to a C4 staff memeber so that C4 can take any necessary steps.

Reports will be handled by C4 staff or their designees. If the person implicated is a member of staff, that person will excuse themselves from handling your incident. Staff will respond as promptly as they reasonable can. Reporting should be private (e.g. private thread in the C4 Discord or C4 Help Desk request) and not done via public discussion in any online or physical space.

All good-faith reports will be taken seriously. This may include behavior outside Code4rena spaces in instances where behavior crosses an ethical line. Staff reserve the right to reject any report they believe to have been made in bad faith. Reports intended to silence legitimate criticism may be ignored without response.