October 1992 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Keystone
by George A. Gleason 23 Oct '92

23 Oct '92

Re BBSs and encrypted email. Of course it would eliminate liability; well I would expect the Powers That Be to simply outlaw the use of encryption on BBSs or find some legal convolution which has a similar result. The only way we can win on this is to do what we're doing: get this stuff out there far & wide before anyone has a chance to stop it. -gg

1 0

Diffie-Hellman
by Scott Collins 23 Oct '92

23 Oct '92

Subject: Diffie-Hellman >Since there's no perceived value and since all the software would >require license from RSADSI, it won't happen that way. It was not my understanding that RSA held any patents, copyrights or other controls over Diffie-Hellman key exchange. The 'big-number' math required is not difficult and is fully documented in Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming", vol2: Seminumerical Algorithms; section 4.3: Multiple Precision Arithmetic. Also note that this multiple precision code is available in the PGP source in the file mpilib.c. The exchanged key could easily be a DES (or other fast symmetric cypher) key -- and usually is. Unless you want to perform an authenticated key exchange with Diffie-Hellman as described in "Authentication and Authenticated Key Exchanges" [Diffie, Van Oorschot and Wiener in "Designs, Codes and Cryptography", 2, 107-125 (1992)] using certificates signed with the RSA algorithm, then RSA doesn't have to enter the picture at all. Is my understanding of RSAs controls incorrect?

1 0

Eavesdropping on a printer's signature
by nobody＠soda.berkeley.edu 23 Oct '92

23 Oct '92

While doing a summer (1980?) co-op with Raytheon Submarine Signal division in Newport RI, a milk-truck-sized van pulled up out front and opened a sliding side door. Inside was a line printer that was busy printing out the same text that an internal (in the middle of the building, perhaps 150 feet away) line-printer was printing. There were mistakes, but it was readable. My guess is that with all the electromechanical pulses the printer was emanating this was pretty easy. Probably harder to do with a laser printer...

1 0

temporary request
by DELTORTO＠AppleLink.Apple.COM 22 Oct '92

22 Oct '92

Greetings CypherFolk, I, one of your newest members, am on vacation in Europe (right now I'm in Holland enjoying the "coffee" shops) and am temporarily restricted to using AppleLink as my gateway to Internet. Because it costs $0.50 to $0.80 per piece of email, I asked Eric to _temporarily_ remove me from the general alias until I return to the US in December, saving me major bucks. When I get back, I'll announce that you can send me mail at "ddt(a)well.sf.ca.us". I enjoyed the repartee I sampled and look forward to joining in as I learn more. Offer of the Week: If anyone needs me to physically pick up a PGP key from someone here in Europe, I have a train pass good for another month (maybe longer if I can alter it again) and will consider any request that will take me to interesting locations and connect me with interesting folks. Further Request: If any of you send any interesting stuff to the group alias (e.g. Russ Whitaker's article on "computer cryptography" from the Economist) and think it might be of general interest to someone learning about the whole encryption process (i.e. me), please cc me at "deltorto(a)applelink.apple.com" anytime. This would be appreciated. I also encourage anyone who has helpful learning material to forward it to me so I can get up to speed. I am working on an interesting project I would like to share with the right people, but I am not prepared to discuss it in public. Does anyone have a copy of PGP 2.0 that runs on a Macintosh? If you email it to me, I will cover any costs you incur. Coolness. Until we all meet in person, dave

1 0

re: Keystone
by Tom.Jennings＠f111.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG 22 Oct '92

22 Oct '92

re: PGP interface to email. I've completed my "RM" program. The PGP interface is single-keystroke, and includes optional pass-phrase management. I've released it with source under the copyleft agreement. It can be downloaded or filerequested from me if anyone's interested. (MSDOS and .MSG format only) --- ReadMail * Origin: World Power Systems / FidoNews / San Francisco CA (1:125/111) -- Tom Jennings - via FidoNet node 1:125/555 UUCP: ...!uunet!hoptoad!kumr!fidogate!111!Tom.Jennings INTERNET: Tom.Jennings(a)f111.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG

1 0

Keystone
by Eric Hughes 22 Oct '92

22 Oct '92

Re: adding D-H key exchange to PC software gnu(a)cygnus.com writes: >Given a working Unix implementation, it would be relatively easy to >add to the terminal program, if source code for any decent terminal >programs was available. But source code is not available. The trouble is that all the decent terminal programs for PC's are shareware or commercial (or were originally shareware and have become commercial). I too would like to know of any source-available PC terminal programs, but I suspect there are none because of the prevailing shareware culture. Re: getting an author to license D-H key exchange The reason this will not happen is not the bootstrapping problem (chicken/egg), but that there is no perceived value to an encrypted link. The sysop is already has access to everything on the dedicated machine and may even have a policy of scanning all messages. External hackers can't really get in because shell access isn't really done remotely. The only ones you are protecting against are people with a hard tap on the phone line itself. For most people, this is not a concern. Since there's no perceived value and since all the software would require license from RSADSI, it won't happen that way. Re: using a protocol layer avalon(a)coombs.anu.edu.au writes: >Rather than rewrite the terminal progs, why not rewrite the BIOS level >drivers and such ? (if its possible). That's not possible either. Most terminal programs write directly to the hardware. This is single-tasking, standardized hardware, remember, and the original BIOS interface for the serial port was totally unusable. Some communications programs use FOSSIL drivers, but many (if not most) terminal programs don't support it. (FOSSIL is a BIOS-level serial port interface description which could hooked into or rewritten to support a protocol.) Look, I wish all this stuff were in use. Everyone should encrypt all their communications links as a matter of policy. (That includes voice, and if you thought the PC terminal program bootstrapping was difficult ...) Let's move incrementally, though. If we can get people to at least encrypt all of their e-mail, that will be an excellent start. One incentive would be for the BBS operators to phase in a policy that they will accept no e-mail which is _not_ encrypted. Comments? Eric

1 0

Re: Keystone
by fnordbox!loydb＠cs.utexas.edu 22 Oct '92

22 Oct '92

:But the user interface problem can be solved. Just make a bunch of :.com files which do nothing but spawn pgp by invoking the correct :arguments. Very simple; a few lines of C is all. Even the PGPPATH :can be set before the spawn. It's an easy encapsulation. It will run :a bit slower for load time, but not appreciably. And you won't have :to recompile PGP from the distributed executables. That's a real good idea. I shoulda thunk of it myself. :-) Loyd *************************************************************************** * loydb(a)fnordbox.UUCP Once you pull the pin, * Loyd Blankenship * * GEnie: SJGAMES Mr. Grenade is no longer * PO Box 18957 * * Compu$erve: [73407,515] your friend! * Austin, TX 78760 * * cs.utexas.edu!dogface!fnordbox!loydb * 512/447-7866 * ***************************************************************************

1 0

terminal progs to do pgp...
by avalon＠coombs.anu.edu.au 22 Oct '92

22 Oct '92

Rather than rewrite the terminal progs, why not rewrite the BIOS level drivers and such ? (if its possible). At least this way, it would be one hack which would work on all terminal programs...you'd just need a way to turn it on/off which I'm sure wouldn't be that hard :-) cheers, darren

1 0

"Cypherpunks write code"
by whitaker＠eternity.demon.co.uk 22 Oct '92

22 Oct '92

Eric Hughes writes: > > Cypherpunks write code. > > This will mean someone who knows Procomm, Crosstalk, Qmodem, Telix, > etc. for the PC, someone who knows the various Mac, Amiga, Atari, and > other machines. This will mean someone to write nice pretty visual > interfaces for PGP to put all the PGP options on menus where they are > all visible. This will mean people to think about BBS/terminal > protocols. This will mean lots of individual contributions, no single > of which need be large, but whose sum will be. > > Eric > Count me in on the Procomm scripting. I *may* do something for Telix, too. Who knows? I may sell the scripts/interfaces on AMiX. ;-) Russell Earl Whitaker whitaker(a)eternity.demon.co.uk Communications Editor 71750.2413(a)compuserve.com EXTROPY: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought AMiX: RWHITAKER Board member, Extropy Institute (ExI) ================ PGP 2.0 public key available =======================

1 0

Put me on your mailing list!
by Campbell James A 21 Oct '92

21 Oct '92

Hey, I'd like to be on the mailing list for CYPHERPUNKS. My address is: ujacampbe(a)memstvx1.memst.edu If you need this too, here's my PGP 2.0 public key: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.0 mQCNAirkL4AAAAEEANAomYnlPXopnms9RtU0ln9CiLJljssOeflC9A+QIDujXhPT yApbL6VPqSUSoFF/e72xTJixyrwBQhw5lAvfvQPEiGIFQQYxviF+Qg/+6/JVvLCj vnGVFl9kKTEYVeONxBNGiaXuSE0VMQLx47iP9AU+wYw62aXmTNtW1BUtX5BHAAUR tDBKYW1lcyBBLiBDYW1wYmVsbCA8dWphY2FtcGJlQG1lbXN0dngxLm1lbXN0LmVk dT4= =0rCj -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Thanks! James A. Campbell Memphis State University Memphis, Tennessee

1 0