Years ago I played notpr0n, which is a puzzle very similar, in which you use links, urls and other web-based "locks" to advance to the next level.

http://notpron.org/notpron/

It is also interesting for non-geeks to learn about how the internet (and computers) work.

Oh, come on -- don't cheat!

Though I admit I don't currently have the time to get far (I've gotten the first couple but have work to do tonight...). I love these puzzles, though!

I quite enjoyed going through the web penetration puzzle posted here a year or so ago -- where to access the next URL at each step involved a slightly trickier exploit (starting at just reading the HTML source, to modifying form fields, to tweaking cookies, etc.) -- anyone remember where this was?

It was educational (as well as fun), so at least I could excuse burning some time doing it.

That was Stripe's Capture the Flag: https://stripe-ctf.com/

Super fun!

Let's hope HN can help me with this. Trying to go through the puzzle and brute-forcing with a dictionary.

If you want help, here are the first few ROT-13'd http://www.rot13.com

-b-a-r-

-q-b-a-r-

-z-n-a-

-z-n-a-r-

-a-n-z-r-

-r-a-n-z-r-y-

We just got that last one but haven't been able to advance!

Welp. Brute-forced and got all the single-word answers, but some of the answers are multi-word.

4a) bgure.ugz

4b) bagureha.ugz (Pink Floyd!)

5a) vgevrq.ugz

5b.1) ohevrq.cat

Just FYI, the filename extension can be omitted. E.g. http://lowercase.billyjanitsch.com/one

for the one after that, you need to fix the grammatical mistake, and the typo.

- hey, ninja'd by an edit! -

Next one has a hint (but I haven't gotten it yet... my first guess takes me to nowhere special, PNG, as far as I can tell... trying variations on Flores etc. aren't working)

yeah, I'm stuck on five:a.

---------------------

buried.

7S144E

<!-- greenwich -->

----------------------

That position, 7S, 144E, appears to be in the Marianas Trench, just south of Papua New Guinea. "buried" contains similar enough letters to the previous answer, that I'm assuming it's related in some way, but I'm not getting anywhere. Need to step off for a few minutes and let things clear a bit.

It's in PNG, not south of it: https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q...

Ah, duh. And I'm giving hints before I myself realized the answer.

How many red fish are there?

Just got it, finally! Gotta check your assumptions.

Indeed - just got it!

oh wow, no doubt! Tricky move, sis!

I don't get it. I got as far as PNG and am thinking along a buried "."

You're quite close, but not in the way you think ;)

I wonder how far people have gotten. For me:

5b) fur 6a) natyr 6b) natyvn 7b) nqnz 8a) cebqhpg

Is there an obvious trick to 8a that I'm missing? I've been staring at it for longer than I'd care to admit...

Edit: by "8a", I mean the puzzle that leads to 8a ("get out your notepad")

8b) cebhfg

I guess that's it. And fun times were had by all.

How does it work? what's the URL of the second step?

I guess that's a part of the challenge. There's nothing on the page that indicates what the second step could be, I gave up.

> each level contains two sections (a, b) between which the url will require only a slight modification

This sentence made no sense for me.

Second url: http://lowercase.billyjanitsch.com/done.htm

Thrid: http://lowercase.billyjanitsch.com/man.htm

rot13("qbar")

I got that one just by guessing, I don't really get how this works.

At the bottom of one.htm it asks you whether you've finished reading the instructions; to which you answer the affirmative.

one.htm also states that only slight modifications are needed between the two sections (only one letter needs to be inserted)

Yeah, that's how I managed to guess the second page, but I don't really "get it". Are these suppose to actually be mechanically derivable, or is this just a guessing game?

So far they seem like riddles to me.

It's basically a sequence of riddles. Not a technical challenge.

done?

Please use ROT-13 if you want to give answers; http://www.rot13.com

Vague hints are fine, but putting "SPOILER ALERT" right above the answer doesn't help; it's impossible to read past those posts to see the less giveaway hints.

Nice! Reminds me of notpron[0] which entertained me for weeks.

[0] http://notpron.org/notpron/levelone.htm

Any idea on 5a? It gives you a pair of coordinates which point to Papua New Guinea (according to Gmaps), yet the source makes a Greenwich reference.

The Greenwich reference is just to let you know that you're dealing with a latitude and longitude.

from done.htm it looks like the next answer is ginger bread man but I can't figure out what the right url for it should be...

Same here. And I felt so smart after getting the first step!

There's an oblique hint in the source code, sometimes.

Though with that one, the first line of the hint helped me, but the second just confused me (I've just looked up the full story behind the "Run run" reference -- I suppose it was a reminder of the ending to the story? Lost on anyone who doesn't remember the full thing, though...).

Supposedly it is the catchphrase of the gingerbread man.

http://www.folktale.net/GBman.html

Having never heard that tale, I was stumped. I supposed it is part of US culture? I'm from Sweden myself, so if I was told the story as a child, it wouldn't have been in english anyway.

It's just "man"

Pay attention to the number of underscores.

Oblique spoiler alert?

What does a cow's leer mean? I can't think of any permutations of the letters in 'name' that make sense.

six b has me stumped. The obvious interpretation is that you need to do something with "4 down" and "2 across" from the crossword puzzle shown. But according to typical numbering, that puzzle wouldn't even have a "2 across".

Edit: OK, I got it. Tricksy tricksy.

I'm absolutely stuck on that. Any hints?

There is a four down, but there isn't a two across. So 2a must refer to something else.

This brings back fond memories of thisisnotporn, which sadly seems to have vanished from the internet.

   how can you spot a lyin' male

   in a crowd of females? 

The answer to this was NOT apple.htm

lol

I've got to five:a but I've hit a bit of a roadblock.

furrfu!

SPOILER ALERT

four is adam

Adam is #7