What Is the Volatility Plugin Contest?
The Volatility Plugin Contest is an annual competition run by The Volatility Foundation, first held in 2013, that invites participants to build plugins for the Volatility Framework. According to the Foundation, it is "your chance to gain visibility for your work and win cash prizes — while contributing to the community." If you write memory forensics tooling and want recognition, prize money, and a way to give back to the open source project, this is the entry point. Details live on the Contest section of volatilityfoundation.org.
What the contest is
The Volatility Framework is described by the Foundation as the world's most widely used memory forensics platform, relied on by law enforcement, military, academia, and commercial investigators. The Foundation itself is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit that maintains and promotes open source memory forensics around that framework.
The contest extends that mission by rewarding new plugin development. Rather than a general essay or capture-the-flag event, it centers on plugins — the modules that add analysis capabilities to Volatility.
What participants get
- Visibility. The Foundation frames the contest as a chance to gain recognition for your work within the memory forensics community.
- Cash prizes. Winners receive cash awards, per the Foundation's description.
- Community contribution. Submissions feed back into the ecosystem the Foundation works to keep "free and open to all."
Who it suits
The contest fits people already comfortable with memory forensics concepts and Volatility's plugin model — students, researchers, and practitioners who want their tooling seen. If you are new to the framework, the Foundation's training courses are the more natural starting point; the contest assumes you can produce a working plugin.
How to take part
- Go to volatilityfoundation.org and open the Contest section.
- Read the current year's rules, submission requirements, and deadlines there — these are set per edition, so the site is the authoritative source rather than any summary.
- Develop your plugin against the Volatility Framework, which the Foundation notes is free, open source software available for download on GitHub.
- Submit according to the instructions posted for that year's contest.
Practical notes
- The contest is annual, so timing matters; check the Contest page for the active cycle rather than assuming a rolling deadline.
- Because the framework is open source on GitHub, you can study existing plugins to understand the expected structure before writing your own.
- The Foundation also runs training and maintains a community presence, so if your goal is learning rather than competing, those routes may serve you better first.