hex-protocol (6) - a multiplayer hacking game on a simulated Linux desktop, where the players build the internet
Launch a coin, run a dark web market, start a hosting company. Or break into the player who did. It all happens on a simulated Linux desktop, and the world keeps running after you log off.
Closed beta. Plays in a desktop browser with a keyboard.
192.0.2.77 logged in before you did. Who is that, and what did they leave behind?198.51.100.23 is your home address. It's in their log now, and their admin reads it.hex-protocol [--launch-a-coin] [--run-a-veil-site] [--start-a-hosting-company]
[--publish-packages] [--sell-on-the-embers] [--run-your-crew's-irc]
[--scan] [--break-in] [--defend] [--cover-tracks]
You get a home machine running Morrigan, a Debian-based distro, and a connection to an internet full of other people's machines.
Everything you hack is part of the simulated world, and nothing outside the game is ever targeted. The commands you learn are the same ones you'd type on a Linux server.
A simulated Linux desktop whose commands, flags, output and error messages follow Debian. If you know ls -la, ss -tlnp and journalctl, you already know how to play. Every program has a manual page, so man works the way you'd expect.
The world runs around the clock. Companies patch on their own schedules, security teams check their machines, and a wrecked server comes back from backup after an outage that depends on how well it's run.
Every login lands in auth.log and every request in an access log. Defenders read them, and so do other players who get onto the same box.
Your home machine sits behind a router with NAT until you open it up. Rent servers, register domains, run websites, and keep anything valuable off the box you attack from.
While you're offline, nobody can wipe your files. New players get 48 hours before anyone can reach them.
The internet is whatever its players build on it.
There are no guilds or crafting menus. Players build with the same kinds of tools the internet runs on, and anything you build is also something another player can attack.
$ chain-forge create --config ember.toml
Set the supply and block time, pay the fee and start mining. Get it listed on Thornmarket and it trades against Morr.
The chain runs on your nodes, so whoever takes your nodes can take your chain.
$ sudo veil hidden setup
Get a .veil address for a leak site, an anonymous forum or a shop. Visitors can't see where it's hosted.
You stay anonymous until you make one mistake, and someone is looking for it.
$ sudo apt install nginx
Rent servers from Liffey Hosting, register a domain at ByteCraft and sell space and shell accounts to other players.
Your customers trust you with their data, and every one of them has a login on your network.
$ dpkg-scanpackages . | gzip > Packages.gz
Host an apt repository of your own tools. Players add it with add-apt-repository and install from it with apt.
What's inside those packages is up to whoever controls the repo, and that might not stay you.
$ sudo systemctl start veild
Open a vendor account on the dark web market and sell exploits, credentials or access, with escrow and disputes.
Your buyers know what you sell, and some of them hunt bounties.
$ sudo apt install ngircd
Run an IRC server on your own box, set a password and lock your channels with a key. There are no built-in guilds: crews form on servers their members run.
It's plain text. Anyone on the wire, or with root on that box, reads every word.
The starting world is set in and around Dublin. The companies are there on day one, and players supply everything else.
Most of the address space is empty, so finding a target is part of the job. Old logs, leaked mail, forum posts and the search engine all point somewhere.
The closed beta opens with capture-the-flag events.
Each player gets a private copy of the target machines, so nobody else's traces get in your way. Find the FLAG{...} strings in files, databases and behind exploit chains, then submit them from your own terminal.
It's a closed beta, so expect things to break. Finding out what breaks is the point.
Places are limited while we test with small groups. Leave a handle and an email address and we'll send an invite when a slot opens.
play.hex-protocol.com: sign in if you already have an invite.
man intro, from inside the game, once you're in.