April 1993 - cypherpunks-legacy

Security Dynamics
by Brad Huntting 13 Apr '93

13 Apr '93

The MIS department where I work has started using "Secure-ID" cards made by Security Dynamics Inc for access to their MVS systems. After listening to a presentation by marketing droids and technical support from Security Dynamics I had these impressions: The cards are programmed at the factory with a "random" seed. They have an internal clock, and a lithium battery. They use a proprietary encryption algorithm to encrypt the time of day using the internal seed and display it on an LCD display using about 6 or 7 digits. The display updates itself every 60 seconds (this frequency is adjustable when you order the cards) An authenticating host will have the cards seed, as well as the cards "clock offset" (the time the card was seeded, and the clock reset). The user has a 4 digit PIN (personal identification number) known only to the host (and of course written on the back of the card :-). PIN numbers must be unique since they are used to identify the user. At login time, the user is asked to type in her PIN, as well as the number currently displayed on the card. This is checked by the host, and if it's correct the user is authenticated. If used on a regular basis, the authenticating host can detect clock drift and will adjust it's database accordingly. Cards can be used across multiple "realms", but this nessesitates trusting the cards shared key with each host that wants to authenticate that card. The cards are timed to deactivate after some time interval (again, this is an option) the default lifespan is 3 years, they can go as high as 4 or 5, but after that, the battery isn't reliable. You can probably imagine some of the problems with such a system. First and foremost in my opinion, it uses an unknown proprietary algorithm which is a closely guarded company secret known only to them and anyone which a dissasembler. Obviously such an algorithm has never undergone any serious scrutiny. Most respectable researchers (outside of Ft Meade) do not need to disassemble code to find material to write papers on. Second, the cards are programmed at the factory, and the user has no way of reseeding them. The company actually touts the fact that they have all the card info for all customers on file, and will gladly send you encrypted tapes or floppys if you loose you database! Of course they will only talk with one designated contact at your site, and they will only ship materials to that person. In all fairness if your a big client, and you insist, they might be compelled to tell you how to seed the cards, and give you a batch of "raw" cards. When I mentioned how ludicrous it was for us to trust their internal security, they made some lame noises about employees being "bonded". In other words, they have established plausible denyability and are "out of the loop" should your security data be compromised. I was a little furious. Lastly, their expensive. Something on the order of $60/card in quantities of 250 to 500 for cards that last 3 years and change every 60 seconds. Programmable DES devices (used by DEC and others) which employ a challenge response system are about one third as much. I came away from the talk with a bitter taste in my mouth. As I understand it (and please correct me if I'm wrong) they are, at this point, one of the largest companies "crypto card" companies in the world. This is, to say the least, unsettling. If you want more info, they're Colorado office is at: Security Dynamics 5299 DTC Boulevard Suite 500 Englewood, CO 80111 Phone: +1 303 773-6519 brad

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Re: Security Dynamics
by Peter Honeyman 13 Apr '93

13 Apr '93

> I read an article about a pseudorandom number generator > which appeared random to every test they used on it. Then they went > and did a monte carlo simulation of something based on that prng. > Guess what? It wasn't quite random enough. Lesson: it can be *very* > hard to determine randomness. if this is the phys. rev. let. paper by ferenburg et al., there's a postscript copy up for ftp in csp2.csp.uga.edu:/pub/documents/amf1/. i can summarize. their simulations were based on five to ten runs, with 10^7 updates per run. they aren't precise about the exact number of random numbers needed, at least not in this paper, but i assume it's in the order of one per update, in which case 10,000 would not be enough. more info can be gleaned from the paper in /pub/documents/adler3/. they compared four basic rngs. a linear congruential algorithm (cong) x[n] = (16807 * x[n-1]) mod 2^31-1 two different shift register algorithms (sr250 and sr1279) x[n] = x[n-103] xor x[n-250] x[n] = x[n-103] xor x[n-1279] a subtract with carry generator algorithm (swc) x[n] = x[n-22] - x[n-43] - c if x[n] < 0 { x[n] += 2^32 - 5 c = 1 } else c = 0 a combined swc-Weyl generator (swcw) y[n] = (y[n-1] - 362436069) mod 2^32 x[n] = (swc[n] - y[n]) mod 2^32 the authors report that the tables were initialized with some care (i.e., with cong). the result reported in the phys rev let paper is that r250 gave results that were way off (the model being simulated has an exact solution), swc was better, but had error in the opposite direction, swcw was better but still showed signs of bias, and cong was within error limits. they also report that r1279 was much better than r250, but the tables are missing from the paper, so ... on the other hand, using every fifth value from r250 gave results within error limits. same with swc. odd ... maybe someone can comment on the particular rngs being tested here. they don't look particularly sophisticated to me, although the authors describe them as "ostensibly high quality rngs." hmmm ... looking over thir recent pubs, it doesn't look like this group (of statistical physicists) is following up on the rng testing angle. peter

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Re: FWEE!: kiosks
by karn＠qualcomm.com 13 Apr '93

13 Apr '93

Eric's comment about the complementary natures of a public kiosk and a person's home suggests a hybrid whistleblowing scheme that combines the best of both. The whistleblower creates his file in the privacy of his own home on a floppy disk, encrypts it in the public key of the whistleblowing system, and carries it to a public kiosk where he sends it. This gives the whistleblower plenty of time and quite a bit of privacy as he composes his message (unless the PTB have bugged his home computer, a possibility for a suspected repeat "offender"). The step of physically carrying his file to the kiosk eliminates anything that could be done to the whistleblower's phone (including traffic analysis), although it would not stop physical surveillance of the whistleblower. And if the whistleblower is accosted on his way to the kiosk, all they could seize would be the ciphertext of his message, encrypted in the public key of the whistleblowing service -- which the whistleblower himself would not be able to decrypt even if he wanted to. Think of the kiosk more as a public mailbox than a public phone. Phil

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Modem encryption proposal
by miron＠extropia.wimsey.com 13 Apr '93

13 Apr '93

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Let's talk less and do more. :) How about adding encryption to kermit and iScreen so that they may talk to each other in a secure manner? I am proposing these two programs because they are widely portable. kermit works on most Unix and MSDOS systems. iScreen works on most Unix systems. (Note that this would solve the network/modem eavesdropping problem, but not the untrusted remote system problem. The latter has no solution in my opinion. You just have to trust the sysadmin.) I propose writing a link encryption library which could be usable in other comm and BBS programs. Any takers? BTW, watch for an encrypted Unix talk program coming to a ftp site near you. - -- Miron Cuperman <miron(a)extropia.wimsey.com> | NeXTmail/Mime ok | Public key avail AMIX: MCuperman | PSM 18Mar93 0/0 Laissez faire, laissez passer. Le monde va de lui meme. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.2 iQCVAgUBK8jc6pNxvvA36ONDAQEJlAP9HYJ94Ll7H0YHr5tNj3Kp3xQ8WRryyO2W BNLKYhBvoPapNMZ/4mPiPSgVZw8Tu/JXFdVtbhhA2Q7u8ef7+daf2g/fyi4M1Mb4 0a9+AKjDG6FvwMMo4AjlqTG1x0+Xl/YeizBqD1hVW/2pAu3I7IyvZavWY2HkVwwD tTDfiOSIxVk= =zhoD -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Security Dynamics
by karn＠qualcomm.com 13 Apr '93

13 Apr '93

Several years ago, before leaving Bellcore, I got so annoyed at the SecurID cards and how they were being foisted on us by a paranoid security organization that I built an alternative one-time password system of my own. It's now called "S/KEY" (no, I didn't pick the name). Essentially, I reinvented a scheme of Leslie Lamport involving iterated one way functions. Each time you log in, you crunch your password N-1 times through a one-way function like MD4 or MD5, where N is the number of times you did it last time. The host crunches it once more (to make its password file somewhat less sensitive) and compares it to the stored password. If it matches, the file is updated and you get in. A passive eavesdropper cannot generate the next password in the sequence from the current one because that would require inverting the one-way function. The nice thing about this scheme is that it provides essentially the same service as SecurID (protection against passive eavesdropping of user passwords) without having to pay exhorbitant prices for cards and integrating some really clunky hardware into your host. You have the option of building the algorithm into your own comm programs, or even the ultra-low-tech option of printing out a list in advance and putting it in your wallet. (Use rice paper if you fear capture - you can eat it! :-)) The bad thing about this scheme is that it provides no more protection than SecurID -- it doesn't stop someone from hijacking your session after you've authenticated it, nor does it protect the session itself against eavesdropping. And frankly, at the time I was more concerned about the security droids reading my email off the Ethernet than I was about some outside cracker guessing my password. Phil

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Thanks a lot!!!!!
by vanam＠interceptor.ksu.ksu.edu 12 Apr '93

12 Apr '93

Thank for your answers and any other help for a beginer would be helpful... But to all that answered Thanks again... Stephen

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Help, please.
by vanam＠shadow.ksu.ksu.edu 12 Apr '93

12 Apr '93

I am very new to the world of hacking... Could you all give me a hand understanding...(aka suggested reading and helpful tips for a newbie.) Thanx in advance Stephen

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Re: REMAIL: cypherpunks strategy
by norm＠netcom.com 12 Apr '93

12 Apr '93

In-Reply-To: <26H11B1w164w(a)ideath.goldenbear.com> I just got around to Greg Broiles interesting note where he describes his practice of using several account names. He feels apologetic about it. Authors have used pen-names for a long time without opprobrium. The mathematician Eric Temple Bell wrote science fiction under the pen name "John Taine". Several authors have written different styles of works, one pen name per style. As I understand the law there is nothing illegal in using an alias as long as the purpose is not fraud, which is already illegal. One must protect the reputation of each alias. Where aliases are common negative reputations loose their bite but the benefits of positive reputations provide incentives for good behavior.

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a new usenet group
by Eric Hughes 12 Apr '93

12 Apr '93

There is a new Usenet group that some on this list might be interested in. It's called alt.privacy.anon-server This group seems to have been created as a spillover for the debate on anonymity in news.admin.policy. My nntp server has seen less than 100 articles to date. I would encourage those in this group who have strong opinions to participate in this new forum, as it seems the advocates of strong privacy are not so numerous as they are here. Eric

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Real-time BBS Encryption??
by Michael McMahon 12 Apr '93

12 Apr '93

I thought of this the other day, but don't know enough about programming and cryptography to do it, or if it actually could be done. Anyways, I figured I'd share it with all of you and see if anyone has any ideas. Here's the situation: We all know that some advanced computer systems have real-time encryption built into all modem connections. When a bank branch dials into the main office the entire transmission may be encrypted. This occurs even between terminal connections and the host. I'm wondering if there is a way to do this with PCs? Say I'm setting up a computer bulletin board for my company that is going to run off of a DOS PC. Is there a way to encrypt a remote users entire connection with the BBS, so that they would have to have a special term program to access the system? It would be best if the user only had to load a device driver or something so that they wouldn't all have to use the same comm program. Could this be done by loading a special device driver on both the host and remote so that all data going through com port 2 (or whatever) is encrypted? Anybody know if something like this is available? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Mike McMahon * * Internet: 585-7625(a)mcimail.com * * PGP Fingerprint: 95 F9 2A 1B 81 4F D8 31 56 ED BC A5 4F 64 A7 02 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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