Is pwn.college safe?

http://pwn.college/

SafeStatus

Coveragestrong3 of 4 applicable core capabilities

Verdict

pwn.college is a legitimate, university-run cybersecurity education platform with no detected threats.

pwn.college is a free educational platform maintained by Arizona State University researchers and faculty. It offers cybersecurity training through interactive dojos and is open to global participants at no cost. The site shows no technical threats, uses valid TLS encryption, and has a clean reputation across security scanners.

The site is safe for educational use. Visitors can register for a free account to access cybersecurity training materials without financial or security risk.
Read full analysis
Calibrated safety spectrum

Where this site sits

  1. Dangerous1–20
  2. High Risk21–44
  3. Moderate Risk45–69
  4. Low Risk70–84
  5. Safe85–100

The score combines saved evidence strength and analysis quality. Coverage is reported separately.

01 · Investigation Brief

Investigation Brief

pwn.college is a free educational platform maintained by Arizona State University researchers and faculty. It offers cybersecurity training through interactive dojos and is open to global participants at no cost. The site shows no technical threats, uses valid TLS encryption, and has a clean reputation across security scanners.

University affiliation and platform purpose

The platform is explicitly described as maintained by an ASU team of hackers and powers much of the university's cybersecurity curriculum.

ASU News coverage from 2021 identifies pwn.college as a "cybersecurity dojo" founded by assistant professor Yan Shoshitaishvili to help students and the public practice thwarting cyberattacks.

Technical checks and reputation

the browser threat feed returned no threat warnings and the site uses valid TLS encryption for secure connections.

The hosting IP shows an abuse confidence score of 0/100 with no saved reports, and the domain has been registered for over eight years.

How visitors interact with the site

The homepage displays a prominent Register button that allows users to create a free account and access the educational content.

Additional navigation includes links to a chat feature and an external Discord server for community discussion, both non-commercial in nature.

Why the score is 95

The saved analysis does not include enough completed checks for a Safe rating. Coverage remains separate so missing sources cannot be mistaken for clean results.

02 · Security Evidence

Security evidence

Collected signals and independent provider data for this URL.

Antivirus Engines

0/ 92

No detections

Saved result - stale

No detections across 92 engines

No antivirus engine in this saved scan raised an adverse result. This is one signal, not a guarantee.

Malicious
0
Suspicious
0
Total
92
All 92 engine results
  • 0xSI_f33d - unrated - Clean
  • Abusix - clean - Clean
  • Acronis - clean - Clean
  • ADMINUSLabs - clean - Clean
  • AILabs (MONITORAPP) - clean - Clean
  • AlienVault - clean - Clean
  • alphaMountain.ai - clean - Clean
  • AlphaSOC - unrated - Clean
  • Antiy-AVL - clean - Clean
  • ArcSight Threat Intelligence - unrated - Clean
  • AutoShun - unrated - Clean
  • Bfore.Ai PreCrime - unrated - Clean
  • BitDefender - clean - Clean
  • Bkav - unrated - Clean
  • BlockList - clean - Clean
  • Blueliv - clean - Clean
  • Certego - clean - Clean
  • ChainPatrol - unrated - Clean
  • Chong Lua Dao - clean - Clean
  • CINS Army - clean - Clean
  • Cluster25 - unrated - Clean
  • CRDF - clean - Clean
  • Criminal IP - unrated - Clean
  • CSIS Security Group - unrated - Clean
  • CTX AI - clean - Clean
  • Cyan - unrated - Clean
  • Cyble - clean - Clean
  • CyRadar - clean - Clean
  • desenmascara.me - clean - Clean
  • DNS8 - unrated - Clean
  • Dr.Web - clean - Clean
  • EmergingThreats - clean - Clean
  • Emsisoft - clean - Clean
  • Ermes - unrated - Clean
  • ESET - clean - Clean
  • ESTsecurity - clean - Clean
  • Forcepoint ThreatSeeker - clean - Clean
  • Fortinet - clean - Clean
  • Fortra - unrated - Clean
  • G-Data - clean - Clean
  • GCP Abuse Intelligence - unrated - Clean
  • Google Safe Browsing - clean - Clean
  • GreenSnow - clean - Clean
  • GreyNoise - unrated - Clean
  • Gridinsoft - unrated - Clean
  • Guardpot - unrated - Clean
  • Heimdal Security - clean - Clean
  • Hunt.io Intelligence - unrated - Clean
  • IPsum - clean - Clean
  • Juniper Networks - clean - Clean
  • K7AntiVirus - unrated - Clean
  • Kaspersky - clean - Clean
  • LevelBlue - clean - Clean
  • Lionic - clean - Clean
  • Lumu - unrated - Clean
  • Malwared - clean - Clean
  • MalwarePatrol - clean - Clean
  • MalwareURL - unrated - Clean
  • Mimecast - unrated - Clean
  • Netcraft - unrated - Clean
  • OpenPhish - clean - Clean
  • PhishFort - unrated - Clean
  • Phishing Database - clean - Clean
  • Phishtank - clean - Clean
  • PREBYTES - clean - Clean
  • PrecisionSec - unrated - Clean
  • Quick Heal - clean - Clean
  • Quttera - clean - Clean
  • Rising - clean - Clean
  • SafeToOpen - unrated - Clean
  • Sangfor - clean - Clean
  • Sansec eComscan - unrated - Clean
  • Scantitan - clean - Clean
  • SCUMWARE.org - clean - Clean
  • Seclookup - clean - Clean
  • Snort IP sample list - unrated - Clean
  • SOCRadar - unrated - Clean
  • Sophos - clean - Clean
  • StopForumSpam - clean - Clean
  • Sucuri SiteCheck - clean - Clean
  • ThreatHive - clean - Clean
  • URLhaus - clean - Clean
  • URLQuery - unrated - Clean
  • Viettel Threat Intelligence - clean - Clean
  • VIPRE - unrated - Clean
  • ViriBack - clean - Clean
  • VX Vault - clean - Clean
  • Webroot - clean - Clean
  • Xcitium Verdict Cloud - unrated - Clean
  • Yandex Safebrowsing - clean - Clean
  • ZeroCERT - clean - Clean
  • ZeroFox - unrated - Clean

Security Scans

Browser Threat Feed
Not flagged on major threat lists

Checked against the browser threat feeds available to this scan — no hit.

What we observed

CAPTURED PAGE
pwn.college
Visual analysis

Visual context from the captured page

pwn.college | Dojos Workspace Help Chat Search Register Login

Context only

What the captured page showed

1 observation
  1. 01

    pwn.college | Dojos Workspace Help Chat Search Register Login

03 · Investigation Story

Investigation story

The behavior, reputation, and operator evidence that explains how this site may affect a visitor.
  1. What the site claims

    pwn.college

  2. What we observed

    The page content was captured and checked alongside 92 antivirus results.

  3. What independent research found

    2 external findings were saved and compared with the page evidence.

  4. What remains unverified

    1 of the 4 applicable core capabilities did not complete, so those gaps remain visible in the coverage ledger.

What kind of site and risk is this?

Threat category

No threat category confirmed

Service and business model

Content

Free

Observed behavior

No disruptive browser behavior saved

Evidence behind this classification

  1. 01Explicitly maintained by Arizona State University researchers and faculty for cybersecurity education.
  2. 02Explicitly maintained by Arizona State University researchers and faculty for cybersecurity education.
  3. 03No threats detected by the browser threat feed; valid TLS and clean hosting IP reputation.

Web research findings

Independent findings for pwn.college, including public complaints, named review sources, registration records, and look-alike-domain evidence. A missing result is shown as unverified, never converted into a clean bill of health.

Business registration
No public record found
Could not match the site to a registered company — common for small sites.
Clone check
No clone detected
The completed research found no supported clone indicator.
Typosquat check
No look-alike match
The completed research found no supported look-alike match.
Web mentions
2 positive
Positive reviews (2)
Public quotes that support the operator's credibility.
  • pwn.collegeopen

    "This platform is maintained by an awesome team of hackers at Arizona State University. It powers much of ASU's cybersecurity curriculum, and is open, for free, to participation for interested people around the world!"

  • ASU Newsopen

    "Enter Arizona State University’s pwn.college, described as a “cybersecurity dojo” by founder Yan Shoshitaishvili, an assistant professor in ASU’s School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering."

Reputation Sources

How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.

Google Safe Browsing
Not listedCheck ↗
VirusTotal
Not listedCheck ↗
AbuseIPDB
Not listedCheck ↗

04 · Domain & Infrastructure

Domain & infrastructure

Timeline · identity · encryption · redirects · hosting

The plumbing behind the site — who registered it, how it’s encrypted, where it’s hosted, and where it links out. A valid certificate or a calm server doesn’t mean the business is honest — scam sites pass these checks too. Use this to corroborate the verdict, not to overturn it.

Infrastructure map

How the saved page connected to the wider web.

  1. Domainpwn.college
  2. Redirects topwn.college
  3. Hosted byCloudflare, Inc.
  4. Referencescdn.jsdelivr.net · discord.gg

Domain Timeline

  1. Aug 22, 2018
    Domain registered

    First appeared in WHOIS records — 8.0 years old today.

  2. Aug 31, 2026
    Saved security review — Reviewed as safe

    This saved scan found no active threat signals in the checks it completed.

pwn.college has operated for years with no threat signals in this review — a long, stable track record, though it is never a guarantee on its own.

Contact Verification

Saved contact details can help identify the operator. Their presence supports traceability; it does not prove the business is trustworthy.

What We Found
Has a contact email on its own domain
Emails on site's domainpwn@pwn.college
Phone numbers5020273
Postal addressNot listed
Linked social profiles1
Signal Summary
Contact details look reasonable
  • Contact email on the site's own domain (pwn@pwn.college).
  • Phone number listed (5020273).
  • Links to 2 social profiles.

Domain & Encryption

Domain History
Age8 years old
RegistrarNameCheap, Inc.
RegisteredAug 22, 2018
ExpiresAug 22, 2027
Owner privacyUnknown
Encryption Certificate
StatusValid
ProtocolTLSv1.3
IssuerGoogle Trust Services · WE1
ExpiresNov 3, 2026 (64d)
Self-signedNo
Hosting & Technology
HostingCloudflare, Inc.
Server locationUS
Web servercloudflare

Redirect Chain

Hops
1
Cross-domain
No
Lookalike
No
Punycode
No
  • 1307http://pwn.college/
  • 2200https://pwn.college/

Server Reputation

Abuse Intelligence
Confidence score0%
Reports on file0
ISPCloudflare, Inc.
Usage typeContent Delivery Network

Referenced Domains

05 · Evidence Ledger

Evidence ledger

Coverage, provenance, and source freshness remain separate so a missing check is never mistaken for a clean result.
  1. Antiviruspartial
  2. Browser threat feedcomplete
  3. Page contentcomplete
  4. Analysiscomplete
  5. Visual evidencecomplete
Completed analysis

The conclusion is supported by the evidence saved with this report.

Technical threat

unknown

Malware, phishing, credential theft and hostile infrastructure.

No confirmed evidence in this dimension.

Operator / customer risk

unknown

Complaints, withdrawals, business conduct and commercial traps.

No confirmed evidence in this dimension.

Source coverage and freshness

Status shows whether usable evidence was saved; finding shows what that evidence observed.

Antivirus
Result0 of 92 engines flagged
CompletionLimited
FindingNo saved finding
Freshnessstale fallback · Aug 31, 2026
Browser protection
ResultNo browser threat-list match
CompletionCompleted
FindingNo adverse finding
FreshnessNot available
Page content
ResultPage fetched · HTTP 200
CompletionCompleted
FindingNo adverse finding
FreshnessNot available
Visual evidence
Result1 visible observation saved with the page capture
CompletionCompleted
FindingNo adverse finding
FreshnessNot available
Independent research
Result2 independent findings were saved
CompletionCompleted
FindingNo adverse finding
FreshnessNot available

06 · Your Next Move

Your next move

Still, stay alert

No major threat indicators — but a clean scan does not guarantee every page is safe, and phishing emails routinely spoof real domains.

  1. Double-check the exact URL in your address bar

    Confirm you are actually on pwn.college and not a lookalike like p-wn.college or an IDN homoglyph.

  2. Use a password manager

    Password managers only auto-fill on the exact domain they were saved for — they refuse to fill lookalike domains, which is the single best phishing defence.

  3. Discuss this site on the forum

    If you have first-hand experience with this site — good or bad — share it with the MalwareTips community.

    Open

07 · Safety FAQ

Safety FAQ

Common questions, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers reflect the saved verdict and evidence in this report.

Is pwn.college legit and safe?
Our automated security review found no threat indicators on pwn.college, so it appears legitimate. All 92 antivirus engines we queried report it clean, and the domain is 8 years old, registered on August 22, 2018 — established domains are far less likely to be scams. Even so, always double-check the exact address in your browser, because phishing emails routinely spoof real, trusted domains like this one.
Is pwn.college safe to use?
pwn.college has a Safety Score of 95/100 (Safe). The saved analysis does not include enough completed checks for a Safe rating. at scan time. Treat unexpected login or payment requests with normal caution.
Could a legitimate site like pwn.college still be used in a scam?
Yes — and this is worth understanding. Even trustworthy domains get spoofed in phishing emails (a fake message that only looks like it's from pwn.college), and legitimate sites are occasionally compromised on specific pages. A clean verdict means the site itself checks out today; it does not mean every email or link claiming to be from pwn.college is genuine. Always reach the site by typing the address yourself rather than clicking links in unexpected messages.
Has pwn.college been flagged by antivirus engines?
No — all 92 antivirus and blocklist engines in our malware network currently report pwn.college as clean. That's a good sign, though antivirus coverage is only one of the many signals we weigh, and brand-new scam sites can appear clean before vendors catch up.
Is pwn.college on any phishing or malware blacklists?
No — pwn.college is not currently on the major browser blocklist feeds that Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge rely on. Note that blocklists can lag behind brand-new scam domains, so "not listed" is reassuring but not a guarantee on its own.
How old is the pwn.college domain?
pwn.college is 8 years old, registered on August 22, 2018 through NameCheap, Inc.. A multi-year registration history is one of the stronger signals against a scam, though it's never a guarantee on its own — established domains can still be misused.
Does pwn.college have a valid SSL certificate?
Yes — pwn.college presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Google Trust Services · WE1, valid for another 64 days. Important caveat: SSL only encrypts the connection between you and the site — it does not verify who runs it. Almost all scam sites now have valid SSL too, so a padlock alone never means "safe".
Where is pwn.college hosted?
pwn.college resolves to an IP operated by Cloudflare, Inc. in US (Content Delivery Network). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad — but hosting that doesn't match a brand's claimed country, or that sits on networks known for abuse, is one of the many signals we weigh alongside the verdict above.
How often is the pwn.college report updated?
This report is a record of the scan run on August 31, 2026, and the verdict reflects that point in time. Scam sites change fast — they can go live, get flagged, or vanish within days — so if you believe something about pwn.college has changed, MalwareTips staff can run a fresh scan that re-checks every signal from scratch and republishes an updated verdict.

08 · Final Verdict

Final verdict

The saved conclusion, decisive evidence, and practical action in one final view.
Verdict score
95/100
Safe

pwn.college is a legitimate, university-run cybersecurity education platform with no detected threats.

Saved capturepwn.collegeCapture-safe
Captured during this scan. Opening this report does not revisit the site.
Conclusion

pwn.college is a free educational platform maintained by Arizona State University researchers and faculty. It offers cybersecurity training through interactive dojos and is open to global participants at no cost. The site shows no technical threats, uses valid TLS encryption, and has a clean reputation across security scanners.

Recommended actionThe site is safe for educational use. Visitors can register for a free account to access cybersecurity training materials without financial or security risk.
Saved evidence only

Missing checks are never treated as a clean result.

Scan another URL
Continue toCommunity

09 · Community

Community

First-hand experiences add human context after the scanner has reached its conclusion.