TRACE-THE-WUMPUS

»An exciting simulated hunt in a hidden maze of caverns and twisting tunnels!
Seek out the lair of the Wumpus, while avoiding perils along the way!«

~$ traceroute6 -f 8 -q 1 wumpus.quest

traceroute to wumpus.quest (2a06:2904::10:10:10), 30 hops max, 80 byte packets
 8 W-------------------------------------------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:10)  32.379 ms
 9 W---WWWWWWW--WWWWWWW---WWWWW---WWWWWWW--WWWWWWW---------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:11)  56.951 ms
10 W---W--W--W---W----W---W---W----W----W---W----W---------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:12)  69.030 ms
11 W------W------WWWWWW---WWWWW----W--------WWWW-----------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:13)  59.887 ms
12 W------W------W--WW----W---W----W----W---W----W---------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:14)  41.416 ms
13 W-----WWW----WW---WW--WW---WW--WWWWWWW--WWWWWWW---------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:15)  44.857 ms
14 W-------------------------------------------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:16)  62.604 ms
15 W--------WWWWWWW--WW---WW--WWWWWWW----------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:17)  51.063 ms
16 W--------W--W--W---W---W----W----W----------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:18)  53.221 ms
17 W-----------W------WWWWW----WWWW------------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:19)  47.669 ms
18 W-----------W------W---W----W----W----------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:1a)  38.514 ms
19 W----------WWW----WW---WW--WWWWWWW----------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:1b)  74.751 ms
20 W-------------------------------------------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:1c)  71.737 ms
21 W---WW-------WW--WW---WW--WW---WW--WWWWWWW--WW---WW--WWWWWW---W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:1d)  35.490 ms
22 W----W---W---W----W---W----WW-WW----W----W---W---W---W--------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:1e)  26.461 ms
23 W-----W-W-W-W-----W---W----W-W-W----WWWWWW---W---W---WWWWWW---W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:1f)  65.190 ms
24 W------W---W------W---W----W---W----W--------W---W--------W---W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:20)  55.469 ms
25 W-----WW---WW------WWW----WW---WW--WW---------WWW----WWWWWW---W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:21)  17.370 ms
26 W-------------------------------------------------------------W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:22)  44.477 ms
27 W--NEW.GAME--play.wumpus.quest-------HELP--help.wumpus.quest--W (2a06:2907::ff:ff:23)  18.802 ms
28 W-------------------------------------------------------------W (2a06:2904::10:10:10)  33.176 ms

Overview

TRACE-THE-WUMPUS is a traceroute-based computer game ported from Hunt the Wumpus (1973) by Gregory Yob. It was first published in The Best of Creative Computing in 1976.

This repository contains a programming task for network students and engineers. It provides a ready to use Docker setup and teaches IPv6 network programming on layers 2-7 using Python.

The task

You need to implement a Python component that emulates a network on layers 2-7. Incoming traceroute packets towards that network must trigger replies corresponding to the output of the TRACE-THE-WUMPUS text adventure. A game engine provided with this code package determines response IP addresses based on given source and target IP addresses of incoming packets:

# Local imports
from wumpus.game import Game

# Constants
INTERFACE = "eth0"

# Global game engine
game = Game(verbose=True, debug=True)

# Sample game input
src = "2001::1"
dst = "2a06:2904::10:10:10"
proto = "udp"

# Sample game output
hops = game.handle_input(src, dst, proto)

Your task is to capture packets for the given INTERFACE and craft TTL-exceeded packets according to the hops information provided by the game engine. You may test your implementation using standard traceroute on Windows, macOS or Linux.

Refer to src/trace.py for a full list of TODOs and first steps.

NOTE: The docker container provided with this repository sets up routing on your local machine such that all packets towards wumpus.quest are forwarded to the docker container. Updates to src/trace.py outside the container trigger a restart of the Python component within the container (suitable for rapid prototyping).

Background

For an introduction to the Wumpus game and the features of the traceroute port, refer to the slides presented at RIPE89.

Solution

There is a running instance of TRACE-THE-WUMPUS that can be played online via traceroute6 wumpus.quest. If you are the teacher/advisor of a programming course, you may contact us and we'll happily provide you with the reference implementation.

Compatibility

This package is compatible with python3.6 and pypy3.6-v7.0.0 or greater.

Installation

Install docker.io and docker-compose-v2 and run

~$ docker compose build
~$ docker compose up

to start the Wumpus docker container.

Author

Johann SCHLAMP <schlamp@leitwert.net>

License

Copyright (C) 2014-2025 Leitwert GmbH

This software is distributed under the terms of the MIT license.
It can be found in the LICENSE file or at https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT.

_{OOPS - BUMPED A WUMPUS.}