Solution to Some Trolleys Named Lust

by Alex Vandiver

This is an Athena run-around of sorts. Many of the Athena commands are named after characters from 'A Streetcar Named Desire', hence the puzzle's title.

-c SPIES-STATUS-NOTIFICATIONS

The first step is to subscribe to the zephyr class 'spies-status-notifications'. Every 60 seconds, a zephyr is set there containing the words 'eit-headquarters'.

TAG

'eit-headquarters' is a mailing list. Using 'moira', one can tell that it has multiple users on it:

        athena% blanche eit-headquarters
        STRING:red herrings are tasty fish

...however, the *real* clue lies in the 'tags' of the users on the list, as can be found using 'blanche -t':

        athena% blanche eit-headquarters -t
        STRING:red herrings are tasty fish (eit-komputer)

VENDOR

'eit-komputer' is (as its name implies) a computer. Using 'stella', we find:

        athena% stella eit-komputer
        Machine:  EIT-KOMPUTER.MIT.EDU
        [...]
        Vendor:   LARRYBEN            Location:        64-G509
        [...]

UID

Next, we must find 'larryben's user id, using hesinfo:

        athena% hesinfo larryben passwd
        larryben:*:22148:101:Lawrence G Benedict,,4-110,6172534052,:/mit/larryben:/bin/athena/tcsh

OWNER

'22148' is actually a list! Using blanche, we find:

        athena% blanche 22148 -i
        List: 22148
        [...]
        Owner: USER alexmv

PLAN

Using finger, we find 'alexmv's .plan:

        athena% finger alexmv
        Login name: alexmv
        [...]
        Plan:
        To take over the world!  Bwahaha!
        I maintain the chmrr.net domain in my copious spare time.

TXT RECORD

Using 'dig', we can find the 'TXT' record of the chmrr.net domain:

        athena% dig -t TXT chmrr.net
        [...]
        ;; ANSWER SECTION:
        chmrr.net.              259200  IN      TXT     "eit-backdoor"

LOCATION

'eit-backdoor' is a computer. Using 'stella', we find:

        athena% stella eit-backdoor
        Machine:  EIT-BACKDOOR.MIT.EDU
        [...]
        Location:        56777

MEMBER

56777 is the group id (GID) of a group. Using hesinfo, we can find the group:

        athena% hesinfo 56777 gid
        ambiguous:*:56777:

...and from there, its members, using 'blanche':

        STRING:1. validate locker slash file
        STRING:2. http web slash file
        STRING:3. perl-lib locker slash file
        STRING:4. accounts locker slash file
        STRING:5. resnet locker slash port

SIZE

Those point to five files; their content is irrelevant, all we care about is their sizes:

        /mit/validate/file         18
        http://web.mit.edu/file   101
        /mit/perl-lib/file          3
        /mit/accounts/file         92
        /mit/resnet/port        31337

CONNECT

Connecting to the IP address 18.101.3.92:31337, we recieve a 1.3M file:

        athena% nc 18.101.3.92 31337 > saved
        [...]

WIRETAP

Using 'file', we determine:

        athena% file saved
        saved: tcpdump capture file (little-endian) - version 2.4 (Ethernet, capture length 65535)

It is easiest to analyze this file in Ethereal or tcpflow (from the sipbnet and outland lockers, respectively). Running tcpflow on the file:

        athena% add outland
        athena% tcpflow -r saved

...produces one file, signifying that all of the information was one-way between two hosts.

WORD 64636

Using 'file' on the output from tcpflow, we determine:

        athena% file file 010.000.000.018.60430-018.101.003.088.31337
        010.000.000.018.60430-018.101.003.088.31337: gzip compressed data, from Unix

We unzip this using gunzip:

        athena% cat 010.000.000.018.60430-018.101.003.088.31337 | gunzip > unzipped

...and we find a lone list of words. Taking the 64636th word, we obtain "warmths."

Thus, the answer is WARMTHS.

2006 MIT Mystery Hunt