Black Box: Hacker Day One

Black Box: Hacker Day One is a hacking game played entirely through a simulated desktop. With 72 hours before missiles launch, you take on a covert operation to break into North Korea’s military network and redirect the rockets. Talks have collapsed, and a forceful attack on the launch sites would start a war early.

Operation Lunar Redirect

Your handler, Mr. Bob, sends objectives through an encrypted messenger. You take over from Ghost, the previous operator, who set up the operation before disappearing three days ago. His files remain on the machine, including dead drops, unfinished notes and a map of the network.

The plan is to enter the STAR-7 network and change every rocket’s targeting to the Sea of Tranquility, an empty stretch of the Moon. The rockets still launch, and the world panics for a few minutes, but they head into space without killing anyone.

Work from the desktop

The desktop is the game interface: you open a terminal, type commands, move windows, read email and buy equipment on a darknet market. Briefings arrive by email, money sits in a wallet app, and tips come from darknet contacts. A miner works on Bitcoin in the background while the radio plays and the clock shows the actual time. You watch Mr. Bob type his messages, with no cutscenes or scene transitions; the deadline continues to approach as you work.

You use commands such as ls, cd, cat, ssh, nmap, exploit and decrypt in a terminal that behaves like one. The game has more than 30 commands and a virtual filesystem. You scan for WiFi, crack passwords and work through increasingly difficult networks; scan server ports, deploy payloads, gain root access and use SSH to retrieve files and credentials. You can also read inboxes containing launch codes and classified files, then wipe logs and cycle your VPN to avoid a trace.

Five phases

The operation unfolds across five phases:

• Orient: Learn the machine, read Ghost’s files, study the network map and find his dead drops in /tmp.
• Recon: Get online, crack the embassy WiFi and find a way into the DPRK network.
• Breach: Compromise the border router, work through the servers behind it and evade a live trace.
• Access: Reach the command server, read General Pak’s email and take Bitcoin from an exchange to pay for the final job.
• Endgame: Reach launch control, find the override key and redirect the rockets.

Side jobs and choices

Other jobs arrive through unsolicited emails. A Nigerian minister requests a security audit and insists it is legitimate; a neighbour’s router turns out to be a CIA listening post; and a government archive holds files that should not exist. These jobs pay and reveal more about the world. How cleanly you operate and whom you trust affect how the story ends. After completing the story, you can play in a sandbox without the usual restraints.

Tools and systems

You earn, steal and spend Bitcoin on equipment from the darknet shop. Its stock includes adapters, exploit kits, rootkits, a VPN, wordlists and, if you can afford one, a zero-day; you upgrade tools as the heat rises. WiFi cracking, port scanning, exploits and SSH work together as you move through the network.

The game also includes a windowed desktop with a taskbar and start menu, a timer-based inbox for story events and side jobs, CRT-style feedback that flickers and shakes in response to your actions, saving and autosaving, and multiple possible story outcomes.