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Which messages and puzzles are genuinely Cicada's?

Asked 26 Oct 2026 by ·Part of Who set the Cicada 3301 puzzles, and why?·3 answers·0·0 following
Most likely: only material signed with key 7A35090F (fingerprint ending 181F 01E5 7A35 090F) is Cicada'sAhead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

Where it stands

Three answers have been proposed. Only material signed with key 7A35090F (fingerprint ending 181F 01E5 7A35 090F) is Cicada's. leads, with evidence 2 for: partly supported by its tests. Two are still possible.

Why it matters

Any analysis of who wrote the puzzles depends on a clean corpus. Cicada said in January 2012 that it would sign every message with one key⁠[1], and imitators have used the name since.

Answers 3

Evidence: 2 for
Most likely
Evidence: 1 for
Most likely
None of these.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: none yet
Still possible

History

  1. Cicada 3301: the key, created 5 January 2012, remains on public keyservers.For: Only material signed with key 7A35090F (fingerprint ending 181F 01E5 7A35 090F) is Cicada's.
  2. Hern puts forward: some genuine Cicada material (images, posters, book pages) was never signed and must be authenticated another…
  3. Hern: physical posters and image puzzles carried clues rather than signatures and were reached through the chain.For: Some genuine Cicada material (images, posters, book pages) was never signed and must be authenticated another…
  4. Noble puts forward: only material signed with key 7A35090F (fingerprint ending 181F 01E5 7A35 090F) is Cicada's.
  5. Noble: the first signed message stated that all future messages would be signed with this key.For: Only material signed with key 7A35090F (fingerprint ending 181F 01E5 7A35 090F) is Cicada's.
  6. Asked on this site
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