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Solving the darknet riddle (2022)
- WaffleIronMaker 3y agoThis very much feels like an ARG. Super neat!
- ancientstraits 3y agoI am so impressed that you were able to figure so many things out in the puzzle! I feel like I would never be able to do that, but I feel like all that is needed is a lot of patience, a lot of time, and a lot of deep thought.
- kylebenzle 3y agoYes! OP is far more clever than me. I used to think I was a smart person but it takes regular reminders like that to assure me I'm average at best!
- spacebacon 3y agoAced it … good work.
- petetnt 3y agoNotPron is a classic of this genre, highly recommended for anyone how enjoyed reading that article! Neat that people are still doing these kinds of mysteries! http://notpron.com/ http://notpron.com/
- peteforde 3y agoHow much time has to pass before an [admittedly fascinating] walkthrough such as this isn't a legitimate spoiler?
- syene 3y agoNone. If you’re solving the darknet riddle on your own, you won’t click through into the article; the title’s a spoiler warning.
- joombaga 3y ago> The ‘get‘ word was chosen purposely and it referred to a http GET request. This never would have occurred to me. What can one do for their brain to make this kind of lateral leap? Seems like it would be helpful in the debugging and comedy parts of my life.
- dj_mc_merlin 3y agoIt's probably experience in this case. Correlating clue texts and finding a common word that has an alternate meaning is not a new challenge in online riddles. And the author seems very aware of the usual tricks. Also not pictured: all the things he did try that were not the inteded meaning of the text.
- Gratuity1901 3y agoI think this one is just about context. If you know about HTTP then it becomes clear, if that isn't on your mind it isn't. I have been following through a book on TLS and HTTPS so it is very on my mind.
- rambambram 3y agoThis was the only obvious one to me. But I'm only a simple webdev, so that might explain it.
- Terr_ 3y agoI'm getting flashbacks to the circa-2000 CyberArmy/Zebulun challenges. Your level of success affected certain site flair/permissions.
- sterlind 3y agoFeels like Cicada 3301. Something about being hosted on Tor makes the puzzles feel spicy rather than an ordinary ARG. Are there any currently active?
- jtriangle 3y agoCicada was/is a cypherpunk recruitment effort.
- sterlind 3y agoI was going to dispute your assertion, but instead ended up confirming it: https://uncovering-cicada.fandom.com/wiki/The_Leaked_Email https://uncovering-cicada.fandom.com/wiki/The_Leaked_Email Apparently the email I was thinking of where they describe their goals is, in fact, PGP-signed. Still, quite ARG-like.
- pests 3y agoAh man, one childhood mystery I wish I didn't know the answer to.
- jtriangle 3y agoWell if it makes you feel any better, Liber Primus isn't anywhere near solved yet, so, if you get the bug, you can certainly take a stab at it. Or if you're looking to get into the CIA, get into airforce intel, do well, and behave yourself, and you too can file paperwork for the most illustrious of spy agencies.
- leetrout 3y agoMy mom bought me a simple puzzle game subscription called "Finders Seekers". The puzzles are much, much simpler than this but still give you a great "that was clever" feeling. I will be playing the next installment with her next weekend. If you like the escape room board games you should check it out. I also heard "Box One" is good and we'll pick that up in a couple months.
- Gratuity1901 3y agoI super don't mean to be rude if you truly enjoy this game but this sounds a lot like a youtube-esque product placement
- ibicha 3y agoReminds me of a classic riddle French website called "Ouverture Facile"
- GoodUser77 3y agoReally good story
- jackyard86 3y agoThat Russian word had a useful information. It means "contrast", and that obviously implies "Increase the contrast to reveal the secret message".
- ale42 3y agoIt also reads KONTRAST, you don't even need a dictionary or google translate ;)
- denton-scratch 3y agoThe "riffle shuffle" (dovetail) is presumably taken to be deterministic? I take the shuffling of a card-deck to be non-deterministic; but what do I know, I don't hang around in casinos or with card-sharps.
- noman-land 3y agoA good card shuffler can absolutely deterministically shuffle a deck of cards by making sure the shuffle alternates cards perfectly. Do this a few times and you get back to the original order.
- denton-scratch 3y agoYeah, I get that; I wouldn't bet on a riffle-shuffle if it wasn't augmented by (a) my cut, and (b) an alternative shuffle. But I regard determinstically shuffling as cheating.