Uncovering Cicada Wiki
Register
Advertisement

During the 2013 Cicada 3301 puzzle, the telnet prompt is a TCP server provided by 3301 as an hidden service at the address emiwp4muu2ktwknf.onion.

To know more about how this address was discovered and how it fitted with the rest of the puzzle, see the 2013 puzzle page.

 Web browsers are useless here.


      ,+++77777++=:,                    +=                      ,,++=7++=,,
    7~?7   +7I77 :,I777  I          77 7+77 7:        ,?777777??~,=+=~I7?,=77 I
=7I7I~7  ,77: ++:~+7 77=7777 7     +77=7 =7I7     ,I777= 77,:~7 +?7, ~7   ~ 777?
77+7I 777~,,=7~  ,::7=7: 7 77   77: 7 7 +77,7 I777~+777I=   =:,77,77  77 7,777,
  = 7  ?7 , 7~,~  + 77 ?: :?777 +~77 77? I7777I7I7 777+77   =:, ?7   +7 777?
      77 ~I == ~77= +777 777~: I,+77?  7  7:?7? ?7 7 7 77 ~I   7I,,?7 I77~
       I 7=77~+77+?=:I+~77?     , I 7? 77 7   777~ +7 I+?7  +7~?777,77I
         =77 77= +7 7777         ,7 7?7:,??7     +7    7   77??+ 7777,
             =I, I 7+:77?         +7I7?7777 :             :7 7
                7I7I?77 ~         +7:77,     ~         +7,::7   7
               ,7~77?7? ?:         7+:77777,           77 :7777=
                ?77 +I7+,7         7~  7,+7  ,?       ?7?~?777:
                   I777=7777 ~     77 :  77 =7+,    I77  777
                     +      ~?     , + 7    ,, ~I,  = ? ,
                                    77:I+
                                    ,7
                                     :77
                                        :

Welcome.

A Recreation

The CicadaSolvers community created a recreation of the telnet prompt. It's available at the clearnet address dontquitownit.com, port 3301.

To test it, you can just open a TCP stream to it. Note that, since it's not an hidden service, Tor doesn't need to be used (although it can). For example:

http://dontquitownit.com:3301
nc dontquitownit.com 3301


A word of warning: this recreation is only as accurate as we know about the original server. Thus, it shouldn't be used as a reference implementation or as a documentation.


Not a webserver. -> Printed when exiting after receiving "GET HTTP"?

Error messages

In case of a syntax error, one of the following messages was selected and printed, signaling the error. Most errors are references to famous syntax errors.

Error message Reference explanation
The command you typed
Does not seem to exist
But countless more do.
It's an haiku.
%3301, unrecognized command
 \?\
?
command not found
Common error used by Unix shells, such as bash
Not a typewriter
Despite its name, this error indicates an unsupported operation on a device in Unix.
?SYNTAX ERROR
It's the famous BASIC syntax error message.
Bad command or file name
It's a famous MS-DOS error message.

Commands:

Command: help, get help


Output: help, [number] (or number [number]), count [phrase], hello


Command [number]: outputs factors for a number (or series of numbers), if number is a prime, tries to factor the reverse of it, if number is palindrome outputs +, if word between numbers - outputs ..., max number is 0xffffffffffffffff anything beyond outputs 0 0


Command: hello, hi, get message, get 3301, get 1033


Output: http://pastebin.com/uCTgE2KA



Command: clue, hint, get hint

Output: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=tbbZd5vy https://pastee.org/tjdbs


Command: primes


Output: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=xGY4pbHV note: some ptimes are missing, might be relevant

Missing primes: http://uncovering-cicada.wikia.com/wiki/What_We_Know#Telneting_PRIMES


Command: exit, bye, goodbye, quit Command: cicada, adacic - outputs a +


Error messages are output at random for commands that are invalid (6 in total):

?SYNTAX ERROR, Not a typewriter, The command you typed Does not seem to exist But countless more do., Bad command or file name, command not found, %3301, unrecognized command \?\


  Other notes:

- reacts to as little as "get http" to close connection (partial GET / HTTP/1.x), does not react to all other HTTP verbs; has a peculiar bug wherein getting a file with an extension (js, txt, etc.) actually falls through to the shell.

- does not interpret special characters, apart from underscore _, all other characters (punctuation) are stripped; tabs are also not stripped, another character is EOT (end of transmission) 0x03, a.k.a. ^C, a.k.a. Ctrl-C makes the server unresponsive but connected.


Bruteforce:

the console has been bruteforced with the following:

1. [dict] where dict is a common words dictionary (12Dicts http://wordlist.sourceforge.net/ 2of12.txt)

2. get [dict] same as above

3. get [prime] where prime is one of first 10,000 primes

4. number [dict] see 1 and 2

5. random numbers and /dev/urandom

6. all 2- and 3-character wide alphas (aa, ab, ac... aaa, aab... zzz)

...to no avail

Advertisement