Cicada 3301 is an anonymous group of people who released internet puzzles that have captured the imagination of people around the world. It has been described as "the most baffling and enigmatic mystery on the Internet" and was listed as one of the "Top 5 eeriest, unsolved mysteries of the Internet" by the Washington Post. 1 Caitlin Dewey, “Five of the Internet’s Eeriest, Unsolved Mysteries,” Washington Post, December 3, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/05/02/five-of-the-internets-eeriest-unsolved-mysteries/. It first appeared on 4chan in 2012 and has since reappeared on several other websites every few years. Cicada 3301 puzzles are typically released in batches, with each batch consisting of a series of increasingly difficult challenges. The puzzles often involve solving riddles, deciphering codes, and finding hidden messages in images and videos. To solve the puzzles, participants must work together and share their knowledge and expertise. This has led to the formation of online communities of Cicada 3301 puzzlers, who collaborate to solve the challenges. The puzzles are highly complex and require a deep understanding of cryptography, steganography, and other cryptography techniques. The stated purpose of the puzzles is to recruit "highly intelligent individuals." However, the ultimate purpose of Cicada 3301 remains unknown. There has been much speculation and many theories, including that they are recruitment tools for the NSA, MI6, Illuminati, a cult, or a hacker group. Only a handful of people have ever solved all of the Cicada 3301 puzzles. Those who have been successful have been rewarded with cryptic messages and invitations to join Cicada 3301. However, no one knows what happens to those who join Cicada 3301, or what their ultimate goals are. 2 Great Big Story, “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301 | EPISODE 2,” August 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx8pfheh6aI. Many first thought Cicada 3301 was an Alternate Reality Game, but still, very few know where this rabbit hole leads to. Those who do have disappeared from the internet. 3 Great Big Story, “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301| EPISODE 1,” August 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RatbYqc0-jE.
Chapter I - The Invitation (2012)
The story of Cicada 3301 begins on January 5th, 2012, when a mysterious image was posted on 4chan’s /x/ - paranormal board:
There is a message hidden in this image. After extracting it, you receive a string of letters and numbers that reads:
9=82<.342 122222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222 %&' (*456789 : CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz &' () *56789 : CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz TIBERIVS CLAVDIVS CAESAR says "1xxt>33m2mqkyv2gsq3q=w]02ntk"
If you look closely at the very last line, you can see that there is a “web address” hidden in the plain site. The “1xxt>33” at the beginning of the sequence is the clue to see “http://”, which is the beginning of every single web address. 4 Contributors to Uncovering Cicada Wiki, “What Happened (2012),” Uncovering Cicada Wiki, n.d., https://uncovering-cicada.fandom.com/wiki/What_Happened_(2012). Once you deciphered the entire string, you will get a link to an Imgur image: https://i.imgur.com/m9sYK.jpg, which is shown below:
The image contains two keywords that hint at how to get the real message out: guess and out. This indicates that you should use the steganography tool OutGuess. 5 Great Big Story, “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301| EPISODE 1,” August 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RatbYqc0-jE. If you use OutGuess, you get a much more interesting message:
Here is a book code. To find the book, and more information, go to https://www.reddit.com/r/a2e7j6ic78h0j/
Once you reach the Reddit forum, you would be greeted with two images:
Using the OutGuess Tool on the welcome image gives this text:
From here on out, we will cryptographically sign all messages with this key. It is available on the mit keyservers. Key ID 7A35090F, as posted in a2e7j6ic78h0j. Patience is a virtue. Good luck. 3301
This is a very important piece of information since many imposters are pretending to be Cicada 3301. This PGP (GnuPG) key is how to verify their authenticity. Only real messages from Cicada 3301 are signed with this key ID: 7A35090F. 6 Contributors to Uncovering Cicada Wiki, “What Happened (2012),” Uncovering Cicada Wiki, n.d., https://uncovering-cicada.fandom.com/wiki/What_Happened_(2012).
Using similar methods stated above, when you deciphered the second image, which looks similar to the Holy Grail, you will receive this message:
Call us at us tele numBer two one four three nine oh nine six oh eight
Various people tried to pull records on this phone number, but they soon found out that even the technical support and customer service teams could not access the records of that particular number. 7 Great Big Story, “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301 | EPISODE 2,” August 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx8pfheh6aI.
If you called the number, you would hear this message:
Very good. You have done well. There are three prime numbers associated with the original final.jpg image. 3301 is one of them. You will have to find the other two. Multiply all three of these numbers together and add a .com to find the next step. Good luck. Goodbye.
Looking at the image posted on 4chan, it has no obvious prime numbers, but the size of the image is 509 x 503 pixels. It happens that both 509 and 503 are prime numbers. With the original number of 3301 being the third number, you can calculate the total number as 509 x 503 x 3301 = 845145127. 8 Great Big Story, “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301 | EPISODE 2,” August 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx8pfheh6aI.
The website 845145127.com shows an image of a cicada and a countdown:
People used OutGuess on the image to reveal another message:
You have done well to come this far. Patience is a virtue. Check back at 17:00 on Monday, 9 January 2012 UTC. 3301
People waited with the greatest anticipation. They could not have been prepared for what came next. When the countdown reached 0, the message hidden in the image changed. It now contained what looked like coordinates, spread across the globe. The locations were spread out over the world in California, Australia, Hawaii, South Korea, Poland, and other places. 9 LEMMiNO, “Cicada 3301: An Internet Mystery,” May 19, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2O7blSSzpI. Visiting these exact locations there were real posters with an image of a cicada and a QR code:
The QR code lead people to another book called Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) by William Gibson. The book contained a poem, which came on a 3.5-inch disk with the book, and was programmed to encrypt itself after a single use. The content of the book redirects people to a series of technical puzzles including the RSA puzzle and the MIDI puzzle. 10 Contributors to Uncovering Cicada Wiki, “What Happened (2012),” Uncovering Cicada Wiki, n.d., https://uncovering-cicada.fandom.com/wiki/What_Happened_(2012).
People who solved those puzzles received an encrypted email from Cicada 3301, which included a statement saying that they were not a hacker group and they did not engage in illegal activity. They claimed that they operated similarly to a think tank, with a primary focus on researching and developing techniques to increase liberty, privacy, and security. 11 Great Big Story, “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301| EPISODE 1,” August 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RatbYqc0-jE.
A month after the release of the original image, the image on the subreddit changed:
Then nothing was heard from Cicada until January 2013, when they launched their next puzzle.
Chapter II - Liber Primus (2014)
On January 5th, 2014, Cicada released their third major puzzle, a series of steps that led to a 58-page book of symbols and runes. They called it the “Liber Primus”, meaning "First Book" in Latin. 12 Great Big Story, “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301| EPISODE 1,” August 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RatbYqc0-jE.
The book quotes directly from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" by William Blake. It is remarkable for its complexity and the various encryption and encoding techniques it employs. The puzzle's origins and purpose remain mysterious. Additionally, its content includes references to Jungian psychology and philosophical ideas. The exact meaning and message of the Liber Primus remain a subject of debate and interpretation among those following the Cicada 3301 puzzles. 13 Contributors to Uncovering Cicada Wiki, “Liber Primus,” Uncovering Cicada Wiki, n.d., https://uncovering-cicada.fandom.com/wiki/Liber_Primus.
The puzzle has attracted the interest of codebreakers and puzzle enthusiasts around the world, yet the complexity and technicality of this puzzle surpassed most followers’ abilities. Among the 58 pages, only 17 pages have been deciphered and shared publicly online. 14 Great Big Story, “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301| EPISODE 1,” August 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RatbYqc0-jE.
The solved pages of the puzzle utilized Gematria Primus to encode messages. First found during the 2013 puzzle, it is an alphabet with 29 runes, each with an English equivalent and a numerical value, The numerical values are consecutive prime numbers in ascending order. The Gematria Primus alphabet is similar to many old futhorc rune alphabets, but is most similar to an old rune poem. Since Gematria Primus is nearly identical to the poem, it seems to be based on it. A common theory is that 3301 found a prime number-length alphabet and decided to turn that into their alphabet. 15 Contributors to Uncovering Cicada Wiki, “Gematria Primus,” Uncovering Cicada Wiki, n.d., https://uncovering-cicada.fandom.com/wiki/Gematria_Primus.
Here are examples of the deciphered pages:
Translation: Believe Nothing From This Book Except What You Know To Be True Test The Knowledge Find Your Truth Experience Your Death Do Not Edit Or Change This Book Or The Message Contained Within Either The Words Or Their Numbers For All Is Sacred
Translation: An End Within The Deep Web, There Exists A Page That Hashes To 36367763ab73783c7af284446c 59466b4cd653239a311cb7116 D4618dee09a8425893dc7500b 464fdaf1672d7bef5e891c6e227 4568926a49fb4f45132c2a8b4 It Is The Duty Of Every Pilgrim To Seek Out This Page
Translation: Parable : Like the instar tunneling to the surface. We must shed our own circumferences. Find the divinity within and emerge.
Looking at the language used in Liber Primus, It is easy to see why some people speculated that Cicada 3301 was a cult. “For All Is Sacred”, “Experience Your Death”, “The Duty Of Every Pilgrim”, and “Find the divinity within and emerge”. In fact, many zealots tried to mimic Cicada's messages on various websites and forums after the release of Liber Primus. 16 Contributors to Uncovering Cicada Wiki, “PGP Signed Message April 2017,” Uncovering Cicada Wiki, n.d., https://uncovering-cicada.fandom.com/wiki/PGP_Signed_Message_April_2017. For several years, Cicada did not release any new puzzles but made several statements, such as:
After they released this statement in 2017, no further public communication was made by Cicada til now:
Beware false paths. Always verify PGP signature from 7A35090F.
Where did they go? Is Cicada still “alive”? Will they release new puzzles? Is Liber Primus the “End Game”? We may never know.
Chapter III - Coincidence, or not? The Possible Origins of Cicada
In the last 10 years, fans and followers have tried every single method imaginable to find the real identity of Cicada 3301. Some of their discoveries have led to surprising yet reasonable connections. One of these connections is a group of people called “Cypherpunks”.
Solving Cicada puzzles requires public access to strong encryption and a free flow of information. These ideas flourished in the early days of the internet at the University of California, Berkeley, which was one of the early intellectual hubs of the resistance fighting for digital security. In the early 90s, the internet was new and little-understood. However, scientists could already see the potential threats to privacy the government posed, as they could track and record anyone’s activity online without anyone’s knowledge. A group of hackers came together to fight for internet privacy and digital rights. They were graduate students, professors, and staff of UC Berkeley, such as Eric Hughes, Timothy C. May, and John Gilmore, unified under the name “Cypherpunks”. 17 Great Big Story. “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301 | EPISODE 4,” August 16, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GanHp3XCYgg. Their ultimate goal was to create publicly available systems and platforms for encryption and anonymous communication. Their beliefs are further exemplified in A Cypherpunk's Manifesto:
"Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. ... We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy ... We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. ... Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and ... we're going to write it." 18 Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. eBooks, 1997, http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=285692.285725.
Cypherpunks valued the privacy of communications and data retention, as afforded through anonymity and pseudonymity. They strongly opposed censorship and wanted to help people hide the “act of hiding”. 19 Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. eBooks, 1997, http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=285692.285725. Because of these beliefs, a mailing list was started in 1992 to facilitate technical discussions ranging from mathematics, cryptography, computer science, to political, and philosophical discussion. The mailing list was an email address @cicada.berkeley.edu. On top of that, there is a server located in the Soda Hall of UC Berkeley called cicada.berkeley.edu. 20 Great Big Story. “Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301 | EPISODE 4,” August 16, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GanHp3XCYgg. Although no member of Cypherpunk has openly admitted the creation of Cicada 3301, this seems too much to be a coincidence.
What’s next for Cicada 3301?
Cicada 3301's enigmatic puzzles and clandestine nature have left an indelible mark on the internet community, challenging individuals to think critically about cryptography, steganography, data privacy, and the power dynamics within the digital world. Their intricate challenges have ignited a global fascination with cryptography, inspiring a generation of codebreakers and cryptographers to delve into the intricacies of digital security.
Perhaps the true legacy of Cicada 3301 lies not in the answers they provided, but in the questions they raised. They have forced us to confront the complexities of online anonymity, the vulnerabilities of our digital identities, and the delicate balance between privacy and security in the ever-evolving landscape of the internet.
Their puzzles have served as a stark reminder that the digital world is not merely a virtual extension of our physical reality, but a realm with its enigmas waiting to be unraveled. As we continue to navigate the uncharted territories of the internet, Cicada 3301's legacy will endure, challenging us to think beyond the surface and delve into the depths of the digital frontier.
In the age of true-crime podcasts and internet sleuths, the key to unraveling Cicada 3301's secrets lies not in the hands of elite cypherpunks or government agencies, but in the collective minds of the internet-savvy generation. With their insatiable curiosity and penchant for decoding mysteries, perhaps this generation will finally crack the code and reveal the true identity and purpose of Cicada 3301.
