
Cicada 3301 - tosh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301
======
f47h3r
[http://sevens.exposed/](http://sevens.exposed/)
[http://www.1711141131131.xyz](http://www.1711141131131.xyz)

^^ Possible 2018 puzzle ... though some claim that they're not legit because
no PGP signatures have been found. Z 3301 has claimed to be a 2012 winner ...
and now running the puzzles. (based on emails claimed to be sent in 2017 -
[http://www.defango.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/05/CICADA2017...](http://www.defango.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/05/CICADA2017.pdf))

The most recent thing I've seen get dropped is a video on youtube a couple of
days ago ...

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fc990VvyvU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fc990VvyvU)

There's several groups still working on solving the Liber Primus from 2014 ...

~~~
bhhaskin
If there are no GPG signatures then it isn't legit. Thats pretty much rule
number 1 of 3301

------
motohagiography
I worked on x11-b-1381 until there appeared to be an encoding error in a
variation of the enigma cipher they used that made it unsolvable. The author
insists it wasn't a problem, but I think that one really derailed the puzzle.

It was very immersive, but the author giving interviews broke the spell.

There was another aspect of it that isn't talked about much, which was that
the x11-b puzzle author seemed to launch several hundred Tor exit nodes (named
for the puzzle) out of holland if I remember correctly. I didn't have my gear
or the time to start trying to find and extract injected malware from the
nodes or do diffs against the videos from the internet vs. those exit nodes,
but since that was a next level play, I couldn't take the time to run down
that rabbit hole.

------
ForHackernews
Good overview video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2O7blSSzpI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2O7blSSzpI)

------
dang
Some previous discussions:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Cicada%203301%20points%3E10&so...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Cicada%203301%20points%3E10&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0)

------
beaconstudios
to this day I'm still curious as to what the people behind 3301 were aiming to
achieve. They claimed they were building crypto tools for a freer internet (in
typical cypherpunk fashion) and that the puzzles were a way to recruit skilled
and like-minded individuals. But what _have_ they built/done, if anything?
Especially given the effort that went into creating the puzzles.

~~~
f47h3r
It seems like they are working on stuff. But it is unclear how large or what
the structure of the organization is. What they actually get up to continues
to be a mystery.

It seems they did have a finalist do some work on something called CAKES
(Cicada Anonymous Key Escrow System)...

[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/cicada-
sol...](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/cicada-solving-the-
webs-deepest-mystery-84394/)

It sounds like they rolled up his brood through and the project never came to
fruition. Which is too bad, because it sounds really cool.

Whatever the case, the do have an air of secrecy around them. But yeah from
what I can tell they're looking for talented individuals to work on crypto &
privacy projects, which is awesome. Kind of reminds me of the old Telecomix
folks.

A site came up a while back cicada3301.org, and then was either debunked as
not legit or something happened, and was promptly taken down... it is... still
however online ... though the DNS no longer points to the server.

I found this by doing a shodan search for Cicada 3301...

[http://185.92.222.67/](http://185.92.222.67/)

(I've got a local copy backed up already in case the author of the site takes
it down. But it's an interesting read.)

~~~
beaconstudios
yeah I read that site a while back. The ideas espoused there seem to line up
at least roughly with the philosophy 3301 spoke about, and it's theoretically
interesting, though it seems to have a generous dose of speculation and
esotericism thrown in too - not that that's uncommon when it comes to 3301
theories.

I read about CAKES and the brood system, but it seems like the 1 or 2 years
they managed to get people together (that are publicly known about), they
sacked off the brood fairly quickly.

