Cicada 3301 began on January 4, 2012, when an anonymous user posted an image on the Random section of 4chan that supposedly concealed a “secret message.” It wasn’t the first time someone had presented a puzzle of this kind, but its complexity and scope turned the entire web upside down. Thus was born Cicada 3301, a challenge wrapped in rumors and conspiracies that managed to bring out the best in enthusiasts and cryptography experts around the globe. However, the mystery remains unsolved after seven years. Who created Cicada 3301? What is its real goal? Is there a legitimate interest behind it, or is it one of the most elaborate pranks ever seen?
The Puzzle Begins
Some challenges are simply impossible to resist, and that’s exactly what happened with Cicada 3301. Once the first image appeared on 4chan, the web didn’t stop until it crossed the first barrier. A simple opening of the original image in Notepad revealed an encrypted link to another image that seemed to be a decoy, but further analysis led to a subreddit accompanied by a code. The subreddit contained information about a book ("The Mabinogion"), and by applying the code to the book, participants received a phone number, where a recording sent them back to the original image to extract more information. Many thought the puzzle would end there, but they discovered there was an additional phase... in the real world.
The Real-World Phase
A series of coordinates distributed across five different countries (several of them less than an hour from an airport) revealed the existence of small posters with the Cicada 3301 logo and a QR code. The codes led to an image, the image to a riddle, the riddle to a book, and the book to a page on the dark web. However, the organizers of Cicada 3301 decided to use this point as a filter. Only the first to reach that site managed to move forward, while the rest of the web was left out of the race. A month later, the subreddit posted a new image declaring its search for individuals over, “for now.” There were many impostors trying to imitate Cicada 3301, but a year and a day later, the hunt began again. How did users know it was the real Cicada? The previous messages had been protected with PGP. Any message without that verification was to be discarded immediately.
The Third Phase: Liber Primus
More messages hidden in images, new books, and small melodies were added to Cicada 3301. The second phase did not receive an official conclusion like the first, but participants obtained a piece that would later be vital: a rune translation table called Gematria Primus. As before, Cicada’s activity dropped to zero for almost a year, until its return in early 2014. The beginning of the third phase was relatively simple, though this time all the mystery was concentrated in a book: Liber Primus. The text appears to have been written by the creators of Cicada 3301, and it is assumed that the only way to translate it is by using the runic table obtained during the second phase. I say “it is assumed”… because the work is incomplete. Liber Primus is something like a manifesto, combining multiple philosophical branches, from existential nihilism and Nietzsche’s Übermensch to the death of the ego, the concept of “global brain,” and the belief that we live in a simulation. With the first translations of Liber Primus, many began to believe that Cicada 3301 was a kind of cult, but the text is full of clues protected by an encryption layer. Fewer than 20 pages out of a total of 74 were successfully translated.
The Dark Web and the Winners
2015 passed without news, and just one message in 2016 confirmed that the only way to advance Cicada 3301 was to solve Liber Primus. The extra information we have about the challenge was apparently leaked by those “chosen ones” who crossed the last threshold of each phase. One of the emails talks about “an international group without names, without symbols, and without member lists”, which believes that the right to privacy is inalienable… but that email did not have the PGP signature, so there are doubts about its legitimacy. The attention turned to the participants who made it to the end, and one of the most publicized is Marcus Wanner. The details are in a Rolling Stone article, but to summarize, he received a link that led to a forum on the dark web, where he found about 20 other “recruits” and supposed members of Cicada. There they announced that their goal was to improve privacy and security in the Digital Age and to develop apps following that ideology. However, without the appeal of the puzzle, the adventure became work, and the recruits’ interest disappeared.
The Final Message
The story of those who “won” the second phase is similar: they received an invitation to join Cicada 3301, were told they hoped to work with them in the future, and indicated to “be patient”… but all communications stopped. More questions than answers. Who is Cicada? For some, activists of the Cypherpunk movement. For others, an agency or company that only wants to “identify talent.” And finally, those who believe it is a joke that has lasted too long. The last official communication from Cicada 3301, dated April 2017, only says “beware of false paths,” and it has the PGP signature. Cicada 3301 is still out there…
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