[ WP ] The root password for the universe is discovered .

`` Scientists prove that the Universe is in fact a simulation'' 
 
 `` Are we living in The Matrix?'' 
 
 
 `` Cracking the code of the Universe - literally?'' 
 
 The CERN announcement had taken the world by storm. Not long after proof had been found that the Universe was in fact a simulation, hackers had been able to open a port to the machine running the simulation itself. 
 
 
 Chad too, had managed to get his hands on the account being used to access the machine. While others were concerned with getting rich and famous, Chad's scientific inclination pushed him to test the limits of this system. 
 
 
 This account that everyone was using was n't a super user though, and it came with its limitations. No one had been able to get around the speed of light limit yet, to quote one example. Chad knew that the only way to truly change the world would be to break these limits, and for that he needed the root password. 
 
 
 Fortunately, cracking passwords was something of a specialty for him. Within a day, he had figured out the exhaustive list of users for the system and the authentication protocol being used. Whoever designed this system was n't too particular about security, it seemed. His brute-force cracker would do just fine here. 
 
 As his program looped through the trillions of possibilities, Chad thought about what he would try out first when he finally gained root access. Maybe he would try opening a wormhole, or should he try giving all humans tails. That would be fun. 
 
 user: root 
 password: 5 $ * ( @ NHS! & 8 
 
 The hell? What kind of a password was that? Well, there was time enough to figure out what it meant later. 
 
 
 He logged in. 
 
 
 A stray thought crossed his mind. What if this is n't really what everyone thinks it is? After all, no one had been able to do anything special with this `` port into the Universe'' yet. What if this whole thing was a giant scam by the NSA or something? The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. There really was only one thing to do to show those guys who was the boss around here. 
 
 
 Chad took a long sip of his Mochafrappucino and typed into his terminal 
 
 $ rm -rf /* 
 
 

