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