December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Information on key handling with Microsoft products (fwd)
by Ray Arachelian 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> There's been some discussion recently on this news alias about how > Microsoft > handles key management (and some related topics) in CryptoAPI (more > specifically, the Microsoft base CSPs). Below is a document we've put > together to help answer these questions. > > Thanks, > -JasonG > > Product Manager, Windows NT Security > Microsoft Corporation > > > > Microsoft's Response to Recent Questions on the Recovery > of Private Keys from various Microsoft Products > > Recently, there has been discussion on some Internet forums about the > methods Microsoft uses to store private keys in some of its products, as > well as about CryptoAPI's role in key management. These discussions > included > some inaccurate information about the PFX and PKCS-12 formats, as well as > how Microsoft implements these formats in its products. > > This paper was prepared by the Microsoft Public Key Infrastructure team to > provide some additional insight and clarification on these issues, and in > some cases, identify long-term plans that Microsoft has to continue the > improvement of security in our products. > > CryptoAPI > One area to clarify at the outset is the role of CryptoAPI. Implications > that any key management problem on Microsoft's Internet products would be > an > example of fundamental problems with CryptoAPI are absolutely inaccurate. > CryptoAPI is a set of cryptographic technologies that are provided for use > by other software--sort of a cryptographic toolbox. The actual > cryptographic > functions are provided through Cryptographic Service Providers (CSPs), > which > are implemented as DLLs. With the exception of the details about a > possible > PKCS-12 attack, all the issues raised in the recent discussions are > specifically aimed at Microsoft's base CSPs, not at CryptoAPI. The base > CSPs are the royalty-free, software-based CSPs provided with Windows NT > 4.0, > Windows 95, and Internet Explorer. These attacks do not apply in general > to > other CryptoAPI CSPs and do not indicate any fundamental concerns with the > security of the CryptoAPI architecture or applications built upon it. > > PFX/PKCS-12 > Microsoft products do not "store" private key material using PKCS-12, > contrary to recent descriptions on the Internet. For clarification, > PKCS-12 > is a standard format, used for export/import of Public Key Certificates > and > related key material. At present, the only Microsoft product that > supports > use of this format is Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x. Internet Explorer > uses PKCS-12 solely as a means of migrating a user's Certificate and > public-private key pair between multiple Internet Explorer installations > or > between Internet Explorer and other products, such as Netscape > Communicator. > > > Some background might help. Microsoft originally developed the draft > specification for an encrypted export/import format, referred to as PFX, > but > the PFX specification was never implemented by Microsoft. Instead, the > PFX > specification was handed over to RSA Labs and it became the draft PKCS-12 > specification. The design was then reviewed, and contributed to, by a > number of other companies to arrive at the current PKCS-12 standard. > Microsoft and Netscape have both implemented PKCS-12 with 40-bit > encryption. > This was done to provide a common, exportable solution that was completely > interoperable. > > The example of breaking a PKCS-12 data blob, which was given in discussion > on the Internet, is not an attack on the "weak" cryptography of PKCS-12. > Rather, it is simply a dictionary attack (long known and well understood > in > cryptography), which works well if people use poorly-chosen passwords to > protect the PKCS-12 data blob. Examples of such bad passwords include > words > in the English dictionary. In our implementation of PKCS-12, we could > possibly do some things to make brute-force attack against an exported > PKCS-12 data blob more difficult. For example, performing a dictionary > check > on the password before accepting it for encrypting the data blob would > reduce the use of weak passwords. Alternatively, we could iterate the > setup > function to increase "diversity" making it much more expensive for an > attacker to search. However, neither of these methods are required for > protection of the data blob. Good security is always a combination of > technology and policy. As part of a strong security policy, strong > passwords > should be used on all resources. The Microsoft Security Advisor website > (http://www.microsoft.com/security) has some guidelines for choosing > strong > passwords. > > One statement by the original poster argues that Microsoft managed to > design > a security format that actually makes it easier to break into the > protected > data. As stated above, a number of well respected companies were involved > extensively in the design and review of PKCS-12 before it became a > standard. > An iteration count, which would make the type of attack described above > more > difficult (in terms of time), was added late in the PKCS-12 evolution. It > was, however, too late to make it into the Internet Explorer 4 product > release. Future versions of Internet Explorer will include support for the > an iteration count, further strengthening the security of exported key > material. > > Of course, in general the PKCS-12 data objects will not be available on a > user's machine, since they are only used by Internet Explorer 4.x when > exporting key material to, or importing key material from another system. > As > with any sensitive data, users should take care when working PKCS-12 data > blobs and not leave them on their hard drives. > > Exploiting Internet Explorer > One of the fundamental requirements to perform any possible cryptographic > attack discussed in the recent postings is the assumption that a malicious > entity could somehow access to data on a user's computer system, without > the > permission or knowledge of the user. This is a large leap of faith. > Users > that are using Public Key Certificates today are generally sophisticated > and > savvy users, or part of a larger corporate infrastructure with > knowledgeable > administrators. This class of users will certainly keep abreast of current > security issues and install security-related patches and updates as they > become available. Microsoft has been extremely responsive in dealing with > all known Internet Explorer security attacks and has posted patches for > all > currently known attacks. And, of course, security issues are certainly not > limited to Microsoft software. > > Information on security-related issues with Microsoft products is > available > on the Microsoft Security Advisor website at > http://www.microsoft.com/security. > > Attacks against Authenticode signing keys > Another concern identified was that if a malicious hacker could steal a > user's or company's Authenticode signing key, that hacker could sign > objects > with that key and distribute them. Then when other users tried to download > the signed object, they would think the key's owner really signed the > object, which might contain malicious code. The Authenticode program has > been designed to ensure that only trusted programs are allowed to run on a > users machine. As stated earlier Microsoft has been very responsive is > addressing security issues with IE. > > However, it is extremely unlikely anyone could be successful with a > simplistic strategy for stealing Authenticode signing keys and then using > them. As noted above, there are security patches already released for > known > Internet Explorer bugs that could possibly allow a key blob to be stolen > off > a user's hard disk (assuming a user left an Authenticode 'key' file on > their > hard disk). Second, anyone signing code using Authenticode technology is > extremely unlikely to leave their key material sitting on an end user > machine routinely used for browsing the Internet. > > Microsoft recommends storing key material, such as that used in > Authenticode, in hardware tokens. Such tokens prevent any of these attacks > from getting started as the keys are not stored in the PC and are not > exportable. The Authenticode signing keys that Microsoft uses for all our > software, for instance, are stored in such a physical hardware key storage > mechanism. > > Attacks on Encrypted Key material > There is some confusion over the algorithms and methods that Microsoft > uses > to provide protection of encrypted key material in Internet Explorer when > using the standard Microsoft base CSPs. There were changes between > Internet > Explorer 3.0x and Internet Explorer 4.x specifically to address any > possible > concern. Note, this concern is unlikely to be valid for any third-party > software CSP and is not relevant to hardware CSPs. > > Microsoft is constantly working to improve the security of our products. > We > determined that there were better suited methods for storing keys than > using > the RSA RC4 stream cipher algorithm used in Internet Explorer 3.0x. In > particular, a stream cipher, such as RC4, is not ideally suited for this > particular use because it can be susceptible to a "known-keystream > attack". > In a known-keystream attack, if you know the plain text, which you > arguably > might be able to determine given the number of standard PKCS-8 fields, you > can recover the keystream. If you recover the keystream, then a XOR > function will indeed decrypt anything else encrypted with the same key. > However, Microsoft only used this RC4-based implementation in the base > CSPs > that shipped with Internet Explorer 3.0x. The CSPs that shipped in > Internet > Explorer 4.x protect private key material in a form that is encrypted > using > DES, which is a block cipher and is not susceptible to the known-keystream > attack that can be used against RC4. > > Again, note that this kind of attack assumes some degree of security > breach > on the user's system such that the keystream could be obtained. > > Key export attacks > The original Internet posting raises concern about the CryptoAPI interface > CryptExportKey(). This function is fully documented and does indeed > export > private key material in an encrypted format. The presence of the > CryptExportKey() function is to support functionality such as migrating > key > material between machines for a user or creating a backup copy of a key. > It > should be noted however, that many CSPs, including most hardware based > CSPs, > do not allow exportable private keys and will return and error in response > to a CryptExportKey() request. > > Also, Microsoft's base software CSPs provide a means to mark keys as > non-exportable when they are generated. An additional security protection > is provided if the flag CRYPT_USER_PROTECTED is set, in which case each > use > of the private key, including export, requires the user to supply a > password > to access the key. Some commercial CAs are not currently setting this > flag > and do not provide the user a way to request it during Certificate > enrollment. We recognize this as a problem. We will continue working > with > CAs to assist them in supporting these security features. However, we > will > also make available a utility to allow setting this flag after key > generation for users concerned with this type of attack. > > The posting also asserts that an ActiveX control could be downloaded from > a > web page, simply ask for the current users key, ship the key off for > collection by an unscrupulous person, and then delete itself without a > trace. > > If users run unsigned code, or code from an unknown origin, a number of > unpleasant things can happen. This could indeed occur if the key as been > marked exportable and the CRYPT_USER_PROTECTED flag is not set. However, > such a scenario assumes that the user follows few or no policies with > regard > to good security, such as running code from unknown sources. Similarly, if > the user were running software from unknown/untrusted sources, that > software > could reformat their hard drive, or manipulate other user data. This > concept > is certainly not new. > > There was also discussion of 16 dialog boxes appearing to the user for > their > password if the CRYPT_USER_PROTECTED flag is set. Certainly asking the > user > too many times would be better than too few times, however in our tests, > under extreme (and uncommon cases), a user might be asked for their > password > at most four times when a key is used with the Microsoft base CSPs. > Perhaps > the claim came from an early beta release. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Users Guide http://www.microsoft.com/sitebuilder/resource/mailfaq.asp > contains important info including how to unsubscribe. Save time, search > the archives at http://microsoft.ease.lsoft.com/archives/index.html

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Sweedish police weed out hackers
by Ray Arachelian 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 14:05:57 -0500 From: Salvatore DeNaro <Salvatore_DeNaro(a)usccmail.lehman.com> To: Ray Arachelian <sunder(a)brainlink.com> Subject: Forward this to the list? *** Swedish police weed out hackers 2 young Swedish hackers who turned a Swedish county's home page into an advertisement for pornography and marijuana and broke into the U.S. space agency's computer system have been tracked down, local media reported. After a yearlong hunt, police in Umea in northern Sweden finally traced the 2 youths, aged 18 and 15, and seized their computers, the newspaper Vasterbottens Folkblad said Wednesday. Police were quoted as saying no charges would be laid because no economic crime had been committed. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=7065918-55d

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update.350 (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: >From physnews(a)aip.org Wed Dec 10 16:59:59 1997 Date: Wed, 10 Dec 97 14:35:44 EST From: physnews(a)aip.org (AIP listserver) Message-Id: <9712101935.AA25024(a)aip.org> To: physnews-mailing(a)aip.org Subject: update.350 PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News Number 350 December 10, 1997 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein QUANTUM TELEPORTATION has been experimentally demonstrated by physicists at the University of Innsbruck (Anton Zeilinger, 011-43-676-305-8608, anton.zeilinger@ uibk.ac.at; Dik Bouwmeester, Dik.Bouwmeester(a)uibk.ac.at) First proposed in 1993 by Charles Bennett of IBM (914-945-3118), quantum teleportation allow physicists to take a photon (or any other quantum-scale particle, such as an atom), and transfer its properties (such as its polarization) to another photon--even if the two photons are on opposite sides of the galaxy. Note that this scheme transports the particle's properties to the remote location and not the particle itself. And as with Star Trek's Captain Kirk, whose body is destroyed at the teleporter and reconstructed at his destination, the state of the original photon must be destroyed to create an exact reconstruction at the other end. In the Innsbruck experiment, the researchers create a pair of photons A and B that are quantum mechanically "entangled": the polarization of each photon is in a fuzzy, undetermined state, yet the two photons have a precisely defined interrelationship. If one photon is later measured to have, say, a horizontal polarization, then the other photon must "collapse" into the complementary state of vertical polarization. In the experiment, one of the entangled photons A arrives at an optical device at the exact time as a "message" photon M whose polarization state is to be teleported. These two photons enter a device where they become indistinguishable, thus effacing our knowledge of M's polarization (the equivalent of destroying Kirk).What the researchers have verified is that by ensuring that M's polarization is complementary to A's, then B's polarization would now have to assume the same value as M's. In other words, although M and B have never been in contact, B has been imprinted with M's polarization value, across the whole galaxy, instantaneously. This does not mean that faster-than-light information transfer has occurred. The people at the sending station must still convey the fact that teleportation had been successful by making a phone call or using some other light-speed or sub-light-speed means of communication. While physicists don't foresee the possibility of teleporting large-scale objects like humans, this scheme will have uses in quantum computing and cryptography. (D. Bouwmeester et al., Nature, 11 Dec 1997; see also www.aip.org/physnews/graphics) DO EARTHQUAKES HAVE ELECTRICAL PRECURSORS? The elastic waves measured by seismometers are transmitted by the flexing crust while an earthquake is doing its worst. But some scientists believe that flexing also goes on in the hours and even weeks before a quake. Too small to be detected seismically, the flexing might well be sensed electrically. As underground strata rearrange themselves before a quake, the thinking goes, pockets of water are squeezed into new configurations, changing local conduction properties, which can be monitored with buried electrodes. On this basis Panayiotis Varotsos at the University of Athens (011-30-1-894-9849, pvaro(a)leon.nrcps.ariadne-t.gr) has reportedly predicted certain quakes in Greece weeks ahead of time by triangulating voltage differentials at the level of 10 millivolts/km over distances of 100 km. (Some skeptics dispute this assertion.) In new research, Varotsos buttresses his claims with laboratory studies of another system under pressure which puts out transient electrical signals before it fractures, namely a crystal containing a variety of dislocations and defects. Conductivity patterns in the crystal convince Varotsos that analogous patterns (although on a much bigger distance scale) observed in the buried electrode arrays constitute a true earthquake precursor. (Varotsos et al., Journal of Applied Physics, 1 Jan, 1998; journalists can obtain the paper from physnews(a)aip.org.)

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RE: Latest Clinton dodge?
by dlv＠bwalk.dm.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

David Honig <honig(a)otc.net> writes: > At 07:11 PM 1/26/98 EST, you wrote: > >"Roger J Jones" <cyber(a)ibpinc.com> writes: > > > >> > >> Thanks for the info - while I am at it - has anyone ever disclosed the > >> "distinguishing characteristic" that Paula Jones claims will prove its > Bubba > >> Bill? > >> > >Can you spell "curvature"? > > So you *do* have intimate knowledge of the president.... > but I won't tell :-) What is the difference between Bill Clinton and the Titanic? Only 1700 people went down on the Titanic. --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

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No Subject
by Mix 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The only `culture' Timothy `C' Maypole possesses is that cultivated from his foreskin scrapings. ,/ \, ((__,-,,,-,__)), Timothy `C' Maypole `--)~ ~(--` .-'( )`-, `~~`d\ /b`~~` | | (6___6) `---`

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sat survailience
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 14:55:09 -0500 From: Somebody Subject: sat survailience To: rah <rah(a)shipwright.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Bob - something else to be paranoid about! <somebody's .sig> <snip> When Is a Satellite Photo An Unreasonable Search? By <some reporter> Staff Reporter of <A big newspaper> Over the years, satellite photos have plotted the course of Soviet warships and tracked the movements of Iraqi troops. Last year, they also nailed Floyd Dunn for growing cotton on his Arizona farm allegedly without an irrigation permit. Mr. Dunn contends that he did have the required permits but paid the $4,000 fine to maintain good relations with the Arizona Department of Water Resources. "You can't argue with a satellite," he says. "Being caught like I was caught is kind of unfair." As state and local agencies make more use of satellite imagery -- for everything from surveying illicit crops to detecting unauthorized building -- they're raising questions about the propriety of spying on American civilians from the sky. "It certainly has a 'Big Brother Is Watching You' flavor to it," says Larry Griggers, a director at the Georgia Department of Revenue. "But it prevents us from having to spend money for other types of enforcement." The state tax authority plans to use National Aeronautic and Space Administration satellites to check all 58,910 squares miles of the state for unreported timber cutting. It also plans to share the photos with any state agency that asks, which could lead to a wide variety of enforcement actions. Does taking satellite photos of private citizens and their property -- generally without their knowledge -- violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches? The American Bar Association has organized a task force to explore that question, as well as such issues as how long photos can be kept on file and how freely they can be shared with police. Because U.S. Justice Department officials are on the task force, the recommendations are expected to influence how law-enforcement authorities and civil agencies use the new images and at what point they require warrants. Use of satellite images has increased markedly since the early 1990s, when the Russian space agency, Sovinformsputnik, began selling spy-quality photos to raise cash. The U.S. lifted its own restrictions on sale of high-resolution satellite photos in 1994, which encouraged entrepreneurs to launch satellites of their own that could compete with the Russian imagery. Those efforts may soon pay off. This year a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co. hopes to launch a satellite that will yield imagery detailed enough to distinguish sedans from minivans. Another firm, Earthwatch Inc. of Longmont, Colo., says it is proceeding with plans to launch a similar satellite in 1999 -- despite the recent loss of radio contact with a less-advanced model the firm launched in December. Both enterprises decline to discuss their public-sector clients. Some state and local agencies have been purchasing photos from French, Indian and U.S. government satellites since the 1980s, and increasingly powerful computer software is allowing them to make better use of the imagery. The Arizona Department of Water Resources spotted Mr. Dunn's cotton crop, for example, because it routinely obtains photographs from the French government's SPOT satellites of 750,000 acres of central Arizona farmland. State officials then compare the images with a database of water-use permits to determine which farmers might be exceeding water-use rules. "A week doesn't go by where somebody doesn't propose a new use," says John Hoffman, whose Raleigh, N.C., business, Aerial Images Inc., has become the main reseller of images taken by Russian intelligence satellites. Much of what Mr. Hoffman has available is old imagery of Western cities. But he says he can also take orders for new photos on upcoming missions. Price: $6,500 to photograph 10 square kilometers with resolution of about six feet, which he says is sharp enough to distinguish cars from pickup trucks. In North Carolina several counties are using Mr. Hoffman's photos to find unreported building activities, agricultural development and other property improvements that would raise property-tax assessments. Demand from state and local agencies in his region is so strong, he says, that Sovinformsputnik, the Russian space agency, has scheduled a Feb. 17 launch of a satellite that will concentrate mainly on photographing the Southeastern U.S. Pictures taken from airplanes at lower altitudes are often more revealing, but satellite imagery can be much more cost-effective. Photographing an area the size of a small town, for example, can cost tens of thousands of dollars by airplane, approximately twice the cost by satellite. Some satellite imagery is faster as well. Although the satellites Mr. Hoffman works with use conventional film that is developed after the satellite returns to earth, newer camera platforms can transmit images digitally just minutes after they are taken. To date, there have been few legal challenges to the use of satellite imagery. But the technology of overhead photography is evolving faster than the law. Courts have allowed government officials to take detailed pictures from airplanes flying as low as 1,200 feet. And in 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was permitted to photograph a Dow Chemical facility in Midland, Mich., because the EPA used relatively conventional airplane-camera equipment. But the high court raised a red flag in that case: "It may well be ... that surveillance of private property by using highly sophisticated surveillance equipment not generally available to the public, such as satellite technology, might be constitutionally proscribed absent a warrant." The ABA task force is exploring just these questions. Sheldon Krantz, chair of the task force and a partner at Piper & Marbury LLP in Washington, says that it will propose in April that law-enforcement agencies be required to obtain warrants to use "satellite cameras [that] can focus on images of a few feet across." That standard would probably include most advanced satellite images, although the task force has yet to agree on more specific definitions. "We need to make some big value judgments about these practices before they become so widespread," says Mr. Krantz. Some businesses say they welcome oversight from space. Georgia-Pacific Corp. and other big timber concerns support the Georgia Department of Revenue's forest survey, saying it will help to disprove accusations that they have secretly cut trees without paying taxes. Several small timber owners already have been fined a total of $2,000 in a test of the statewide program that took place in Wayne County, near Savannah. And as sharper-resolution photos become available, some Georgia officials suggest the program could be used to look for objects as small as backyard porches, to check if homeowners have their construction permits in order. <snip> --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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RE: Latest Clinton dodge?
by J-Dog 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 01:15 PM 1/27/98 EST, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote: >David Honig <honig(a)otc.net> writes: > >> At 07:11 PM 1/26/98 EST, you wrote: >> >"Roger J Jones" <cyber(a)ibpinc.com> writes: >> > >> >> >> >> Thanks for the info - while I am at it - has anyone ever disclosed the >> >> "distinguishing characteristic" that Paula Jones claims will prove its >> Bubba >> >> Bill? >> >> >> >Can you spell "curvature"? >> >> So you *do* have intimate knowledge of the president.... >> but I won't tell :-) > >What is the difference between Bill Clinton and the Titanic? >Only 1700 people went down on the Titanic. > >--- > >Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM >Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps > most people get Aids from sex clinton gets sex from Aids lates J-Dog

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Privacy and presidential philandering, from the Netly News
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

******** http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1714,00.html The Netly News (http://netlynews.com/) January 27, 1998 Private Parts by Declan McCullagh (declan(a)well.com) Already you can hear the plaintive sound of President Clinton's partisans whining about privacy. The allegations about Will's wandering willy are too intimate, too sensitive and (if the truth be told) too embarrassing to be discussed publicly, they claim. Yesterday the wire services were busy recycling Hillary Clinton's plea for a "zone of privacy"; a Clinton defender wrote in USA Today that nobody should be "inflicting the details of his sex life on the public"; a piece in the New York Times complained about a "fishing expedition into the President's sexual history." On NBC's Today show, Hillary groused about living in "a time where people are malicious and evil-minded." On many electronic mailing lists, the talk nowadays seems to be of little else. "The current pursuit of Clinton -- whatever the facts turn out to be -- strikes me, itself, as an obscenity," griped Edward Kent on a First Amendment list. "We need more protections of privacy in this country." Michael Troy replied, "I don't think there is a constitutional right to privacy for an employer (who is also a public figure) having sex with an employee in the workplace." He's right. The call for greater "privacy protections" is a call for censorship in disguise. [...]

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Re: Latest Clinton dodge?
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > Next thing you know, he'll say "She gave me a blow job, but didn't > swallow, so it's not sex." :) Is that like "if you don't get pregnant," it's not intercourse??? Gotta be a lot of virgins out there then.

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New Plan for America!!!!!
by bubbabill＠whitehouse.gov 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tonight at the State of the Union I will announce my new plan for America - "Swallow the Leader"

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[Fwd: Check this out!] (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: >From stugreen(a)bga.com Tue Jan 27 16:01:14 1998 Sender: root(a)coney.lsd-labs.com Message-ID: <34CE5A63.9D29DD2(a)bga.com> Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 16:06:27 -0600 From: Stu Green <stugreen(a)bga.com> X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01GoldC-Caldera (X11; I; Linux 2.0.33 i586) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: ravage(a)ssz.com Subject: [Fwd: Check this out!] Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Received: from mail1.realtime.net (mail1.realtime.net [205.238.128.217]) by zoom.bga.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id MAA14988 for <stugreen(a)bga.com>; Tue, 27 Jan 1998 12:39:17 -0600 Received: (qmail 13392 invoked from network); 27 Jan 1998 18:39:14 -0000 Received: from isdn5-69.ip.realtime.net (HELO bga.com) (205.238.160.69) by mail1.realtime.net with SMTP; 27 Jan 1998 18:39:14 -0000 Message-ID: <34CE2AD0.F3822BFE(a)bga.com> Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 12:43:28 -0600 From: David Neeley <dneeley(a)bga.com> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: stugreen(a)bga.com Subject: Check this out! Content-Type: text/plain; charset=koi8-r Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In case you don't get an e-mail newsletter called "Tasty Bits from the Technology Front" I offer for your enjoyment: ..A warning on Microsoft (in)security Basic crypto weakness undermines all claims to security, expert says Longtime readers know that TBTF has been reporting on security weak- nesses in Microsoft's products, particularly Internet Explorer, for more than a year [25]. Now a security expert from New Zealand, Peter Gutmann, has posted a paper [26] claiming that the flaws are so ser- ious that Windows 95 users should entirely refrain from using the Web. Among the problems Gutmann points out is a critical weakness in the way Microsoft software protects (or does not protect) users' master encryption key; this weakness undermines all other encryp- tion components in Web servers and browsers. Gutmann outlines how a cracker could quietly retrieve the private key from a victim's ma- chine and break the encryption that "protects" it in a matter of seconds. The attacker has, Gutmann says, then "effectively stolen [the user's] digital identity, and can use it to digitally sign contracts and agreements, to recover every encryption session key it has ever protected in the past and will ever protect in the future, to access private and confidential email, and so on." TechWeb coverage is here [27]. [25] http://www.tbtf.com/resource/ms-sec-exploits.html [26] http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/breakms.txt [27] http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980123S0007

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Ultra computer.
by Trei, Peter 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I also find the merriment at Nobuki Nakatuji poor English skills offensive - I wish I spoke Japanese as well as he can write English. That's not to say I think we should all go off and work on MISTY right away. However, on his 'NEC supercomputer', there's a somewhat low-content press release at http://www.nec.co.jp/english/today/newsrel/9801/2101.html They've been asked to design as 32 TFlop machine, with an aim of building it by 2002. It's a highly parallelized vector machine, ostensibly aimed at weather forcasting. It'll have 4 TB of RAM, and 'thousands' of processors. I wish I knew just what processor it's supposed to use, but it's probably only on paper at the moment. Here's a really rough calculation Assume integer instructions are no slower than the FP instructions. Best DES code for Alpha gets 94 clock cycles/key - guess 200 instructions/key. 2^56 *200 = 1.4e19 instructions = 450360 seconds = 125 hours to exhaust key space, or about 2.5/days on average. even if I'm off by a factor of two, this is pretty quick for a general purpose machine.

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opinion of Crypt::DES & Crypt::IDEA
by John Blair 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hello, Does anybody on this list have an opinion of the quality of the Crypt::DES and Crypt::IDEA perl modules? I'm concerned with whether or not the modules use electronic code book instead of cipher block chaining encryption mode. The documentation does not make this clear. If nobody knows the answer to this I'll figure it out from the source code. However, I suspected I could save some time by asking here. Besides this question, does anybody have an opinion of the quality of these routines? I'm not asking for opinions regarding the quality or lack of quality of DES or IDEA, but of these particular implementations. thanks much, -john. ...................................................................... . . .....John.D.Blair... mailto:jdblair@uab.edu phoneto:205.975.7123 . . http://frodo.tucc.uab.edu faxto:205.975.7129 . ..sys|net.admin.... . . the university computer center ..... ..... g.e.e.k.n.i.k...the.university.of.alabama.at.birmingham.... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNM5d0QJjTpK3AXhBAQGN6QQAr14AZWWRPrRx4vRMTtecboL66rz2kmby +d5E1troSBDDvxkdpbsg4PhS05KEDrRJjjoCHUWDQlGeZ5RTsJUCgLOi1plXKsml K5oDqyEToa7AKazwcPC9DZj8JNf0/oNuZfWKw1cPW4r/QCmZI6DmdDb1xz3OFC+m 7+Okl/YERiU= =KxmH -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

future proofing algorithms
by John Kelsey 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- [ To: Cypherpunks, Adam Back ## Date: 01/26/98 ## Subject: future proofing algorithms ] >Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 01:18:31 GMT >From: Adam Back <aba(a)dcs.ex.ac.uk> >Subject: future proofing algorihtms (Re: (eternity) Eternity > as a secure filesystem/backup medium) >It is interesting to note that Tim May's recent suggestion >of LAM (Local Area Mixes) would help here because if 5 of >those mixmaster nodes where part of a LAM, it is unlikely >that the NSA would be able to archive inter remailer >traffic, thus increasing effective pool size to 100^5. So >one advantage of the LAM approach is that it provides links >which are protected by physical security. This is a good point. The crypto looks like the strongest link in the chain right now, but if it turns out not to be, reliance on local physical security isn't a bad idea. (This works only if the huge numbers of the local machines must be subverted for an attack to work; if the attacker has to take over only a couple machines, he can probably manage this.) Discovering a better way to bypass my physical security today doesn't let you know who sent what last year, and security guards don't become retroactively twice as cheap to bribe every eighteen months. >> Note that, in practice, this isn't likely to be useful >> unless you've done the same kind of thing for symmetric key >> distribution, random number generation, etc. Otherwise, >> your attacker in 2050 will bypass the symmetric encryption >> entirely and factor your RSA modulus, or guess all the >> entropy sources used for your PRNG, or whatever else you can >> think of. >Yes. We need to build constructs for all areas. A mega >hash would be nice, with a large output size even in the >face of birthday attack, preferably as secure as a >collection of hash functions. Right. I've seen some work done on this, mostly informally. The basic result I'm aware of with hash functions is like this: Let f() and g() be two different hash functions, such as SHA1 and RIPE-MD160. Let X,Y be the concatenation of X and Y. Then: Hash1(X) = f(X),g(X) Hash2(X) = f(g(X)),g(f(X)) You can quickly convince yourself that Hash1(X) is at least as resistant to collision as the stronger of f() and g(), but it's only as resistant as the weaker of the two to leaking information about X. (That is, if f(X) just gives you the low 160 bits of X, then Hash1(X) gives you the same thing.) Hash2() won't leak information unless both f() and g() leak information about their inputs, but you can't guarantee that it will be very good against collisions. (That is, if f(X) = 0 for all X, then all possible X values cause a collision in Hash2(X).) If f() and g() are independent, and one of them looks like a random function of X, then Hash3(X) = f(X) XOR g(X) looks pretty good. But it's possible for either f() or g() to be non-reversible without Hash3() being nonreversible. (The obvious case occurs when you think of something like f(X) = X g(X) = encrypt_{knownKey}(X) XOR X. Note that g() looks rather like some existing hash functions, where encrypt() is a known function. >That gives us something to wash our pseudo random number >input entropy with, and then we can go on to combine public >key systems. Right. Choosing the PRNG well is important, but I suspect that the real issue is going to be getting enough input entropy. If you can get 80 bits of real entropy today, you have a reasonably secure system now, but NSA may not find your system that secure in twenty years. For resistance to cryptanalysis, we can use the same set of stream ciphers as before. If we run Blowfish, 3DES, and SAFER-SK128 in OFB-mode, and XOR the streams together, we get an output stream that's no easier to predict than the weakest of the three ciphers used. Entropy collection on a wide range of different machines, without specialized hardware, is just a hard thing to do well. It's especially hard if you're postulating a massively powerful attacker years in the future. >A problem with public key systems however is that there >isn't a lot of choice -- basically all based on discrete log >or factoring. So perhaps RSA and DH combined in a construct >with an optimistically proportioned key size would be near >all that could be done. That sounds about right. Note that LAMs and such can use shared symmetric keys along with the public keys, so that an attacker has to get both to defeat the system. When the number of mixes is small, maybe some informal password-sharing at conferences might help this. For LAMs, some level of hand-carried key exchange can be used. Then, actual keys can be encrypted as RSA(R_0), ElGamal(R_1) are sent Previously shared secret key K_2 is known. Session Key = SK = E_{K_2}(R_0) XOR E_{K_2}(R_2). Also note that DH should probably be used with many different prime moduli, to resist any massive precomputation on one modulus. Maybe each mix could have several expensively-prepared Sophie Germaine primes, and senders could randomly select one for DH or El Gamal encryption. This would spread out a future attacker's resources, though of course, the attacker's effort scales only linearly in the number of (expensive to find) primes. >I suspect archiving world Network traffic would pose >something of a operational and financial strain :-) On the other hand, perhaps this is how NSA will pay their employees' salaries once crypto becomes sufficiently widespread: They will start a search engine service on all those archives of usenet/internet traffic for all these years: ``Check up on your political opponents' newsreading habits. Read the love letters of libertarian activists in the 90s. Find out whether Chief Justice Clarence Thomas ever visits adult web sites these days. *Only* at http://www.archives.nsa.org '' It would actually be very funny if historians in a couple centuries got access to the NSA's archives of recorded phone calls, telegrams, and e-mails. Imagine the odd assumptions that would result, with history students having this image of twentieth century america based on recorded phone calls of anarchists, antiwar activists, civil rights activists, communists, important politicians, mobsters, suspected spies, and wealthy businessmen. >Adam Note: I read CP-LITE instead of the whole list. Please CC me on replies. - --John Kelsey, kelsey(a)counterpane.com / kelsey(a)plnet.net NEW PGP print = 5D91 6F57 2646 83F9 6D7F 9C87 886D 88AF -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNM5efSZv+/Ry/LrBAQGN8wP/aHKJbm024oDMNZIozcBGW+Vt4bKKLDoZ xhV6DQ3e4v9UadYJeKpCfRjrMDC06H6eP3D4E8vizEHVk2JCvHDTN3Fshf5pOtB2 tgrooYOP1pC5FuQAPPyhkJ840V7ve0mlpy3VWz5/hSvkkP1BW7KHoFv47sniVHZe RFsiz/hW7jc= =2Oml -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Easy Money
by tgustavo.sanjuan＠interredes.com.ar 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is it! THE MOST PHENOMENAL WEALTH-BUILDING BONANZA IN HISTORY. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to upgrade the quality of your life forever. Your chance to automatically capitalize on the historic outpouring of humanity on to the Internet. (It will only happen once ... and it's happening RIGHT NOW!) Take just four minutes to discover the secret that WILL IMMEDIATELY CHANGE YOUR LIFE. (Do you *really* have something else to do more important than THAT?) You are about to embark upon a wonderful journey to amass a small fortune in a short time. (Even a LARGE fortune, if you choose to devote some effort.) It's easy and fail proof. All you have to do is take the first step. You've paid your dues; you deserve it. Now it's your turn. WITHIN 90 DAYS, YOU'LL HAVE MORE THAN $50,000 ... and that's just the beginning! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? Simple: To begin with, realize that there were only about two-million Internet "host sites" in 1994 -- yet that number had soared to around 20 million by the end of 1997. In other words, the rate of Internet growth is geometric -- like 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc. And, for the moment, even THAT rate is accelerating. Now, the most famous example of a host site is aol.com, America Online(tm). It, by itself, has over ten-million people as members. (Not all host sites have members, though.) HERE'S THE IMPORTANT PART: Following the present trend, the number of host sites will skyrocket to nearly ONE HUNDRED MILLION during 1998. And that's just the host sites! Now, imagine how many individual PEOPLE are rushing on line for the first time ... right now ... this very instant. This creates tremendous opportunity for you. But there's no time to waste! (How long can THAT growth rate continue? Oh, sure, it will keep growing -- just not at the historic 1998 rate.) IF YOU'RE WAITING FOR YOUR SHIP TO COME IN, THIS IS IT. (Don't let it sail away without you.) So here it is, the easiest money-generating system you'll ever hear about. One that's showing extraordinary appeal to an ever-expanding mass of people who feel the need for additional income. And YOU can help them fulfill that need. HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. HOW? In short, by developing a mailing list of people who need extra money. (I know: it doesn't seem very exciting yet, but keep reading.) And people will pay you to be on your list. A LOT of people. (See: it's already starting to sound better.) Let's go through it step by step so you'll know exactly what to do ... and why (Step #4!) so many people feel hope again. If you've seen a lot of posts like this, you already have PROOF that THIS SYSTEM WORKS. ____________________STEP 1._________________ You will need these instructions later; so save them on your hard drive. (FILE then SAVE. If you have a choice, choose a "text" or "ASCII" file type.) Now print these instructions so you can read them more easily. (Go ahead, I'll wait for you ...) ____________________STEP 2._________________ This is the step where you invest money. Less than $10. (Try not to cry.) About the same as the price of a movie ticket, or a 12-pack of beer, or a few lottery tickets. In this "lottery," however, YOU control the results. YOU CANNOT AFFORD *NOT* TO DO THIS. On a sheet of paper, write "Processing fee to add me to your mailing list". (You, too, are one of those people wanting extra income, aren't you? Besides, the inherent value of being on that mailing list is what makes this a legal program. [The relevant American laws are in the United States Code, Title 18, §1302, §1341, and §1342.]) Fold the sheet around a US $1 bill. Mail this to the List Manager in Position A, located at the end of these instructions. Double- check the postage for any mail going outside your country. Repeat that for the other List Managers. ___________________STEP 3.__________________ Use Notepad (preferably) or some other word processor to open the file you saved in Step 1. Scroll to the List Managers section. Delete the name and address under Position F. Move the name and address from Position E down to Position F. Then, in order, move each of the others down one until Position A is left vacant. That's where your name and address go! Double check your address: whatever is there is where all your money will go. Save the file. (If you don't have Notepad, be sure to save it as an "ASCII" or "text" file.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ NOW, HERE'S THE MAGIC PART . . . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ____________________STEP 4._________________ THIS STEP MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. It's also where you invest a little time. As much as four hours, if you use America Online. (Try not to cry.) If it'll be easier on you, take an hour per day. Skip those X Files episodes you've already seen twice. In THIS show, YOU control the ending. All those people coming on line for the first time. Nearly TWO-THOUSAND NEW PEOPLE PER DAY ... and growing! Where do they go? Sooner or later --but usually immediately-- they go to the newsgroups. Isn't that where YOU discovered this opportunity? Over 40,000 newsgroups, now, and that's growing, too. (There's a list of 49,000 at ftp://ftp.alt.net/pub/news/active.) So, simply take the file you saved in Step 3 and post it to some newsgroups. Three hundred, to be precise. (How? See below.) How many people will be exposed to your offer during the two weeks your post will remain in the newsgroup? Depending on how you choose the newsgroups, anywhere from 10,000 to OVER A MILLION PEOPLE WILL SEE YOUR OFFER. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The implications of that are down right staggering. Even more so than it might seem! (See the Example section, below -- especially the first and last paragraphs.) ___________________STEP 5.__________________ Now begins the greatest money-making exprience of your life! In about a week, you start receiving requests and processing fees from opportunity seekers around the world. And they all want to be added to your mailing list. WHY do they want to do this? Well, for the most of the same reasons YOU want to do this! What will you do with all those requests? It's up to you. For example, you can sell them to professional list brokers, found in the Yellow Pages, who will see that offers are sent out. You can take up exotic-stamp collecting. To some of the addresses, you might even send these instructions: Most people want to jump right back in again as soon as their name moves out of Position F; after all, they already KNOW how well this works! And, what will you do with all that money? That, also, is up to you. (You can think of something, can't you?) ____________________________________________ Example ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ This example assumes that you post, one time, to just 300 newsgroups, with an average readership of merely 100 people during the dozen days your message stays on file. It assumes that VIRTUALLY EVERYONE --9,998 out of every 10,000 potential readers-- does NOT even see your opportunity, does NOT read it, or is already involved or, in any case, does NOT take any action. In marketing terms, this assumes a response rate of merely one fiftieth of one percent (0.0002). That's considered almost no response at all! (NOW can you see why this works so well?) You in Position A: Only 6 respond to your efforts. 6 x $1 = $6 You in Position B: Only 6 respond to each of the 6 in A. 36 x $1 = $36 You in Position C: Only 6 respond to each of the 36 in B. 216 x $1 = $216 You in Position D: Only 6 respond to each of the 216 in C. 1,296 x $1 = $1,296 You in Position E: Only 6 respond to each of the 1296 in D. 7,776 x $1 = $7,776 You in Position F: Only 6 respond to each of the 7776 in E. 46,656 x $1 = $46,656 _______ Your income $55,986 If, however, these people each get a mere 8 responses (out of 30,000 people!), your income increases to well over a quarter of a million dollars! PEOPLE ARE TRULY ACCOMPLISHING THIS. RIGHT NOW! *WHY NOT YOU?* How? The details are in your hands this very instant. THAT'S IT. All you have to do is actually begin. You may even wish to try for 20 people. You literally won't believe how much THAT produces. So, do the numbers for yourself. (I'll give you two hints: a. For ten, it's 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = $1,000,000. b. Have you heard of a "sixty-four million dollar question"?) You just might end up wanting to spend a few DAYS posting, and to take it to a few of your friends. But start -- start today -- and start with just 300 newsgroups. THIS IS THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. __________How To Post To Newsgroups_________ To post, just "cut and paste": Highlight the entire text of these instructions. Choose EDIT then COPY. You only need to do that once. Here's the part you repeat: Go to the newsgroup. Click on Send New Message, Post Article, To News, or whatever applies. Type your headline in the Subject box. (Some subject heading samples are listed below.) Go to the Message box. Paste these instructions by holding down your Ctrl key while you depress the letter V. Click on Send, OK, or whatever is there. STEP-BY-STEP DIRECTIONS FOR AMERICA ONLINE: Go on line. Click on the Internet globe at the bottom of your Welcome page. Edit the Web Address window to read --without the quotes-- "http://members.aol.com/TouchMidas/private/aol-gold.txt". Click on Go To The Web. When you see the directions, print them out by clicking on the printer icon at the top of your screen. (If you receive a "URL Not Found" error, carefully re-type the address. If the it seems to have been discontinued, try this address: "http://home1.gte.net/docthomp/AOL.htm".) ___________Sample Subject Headings__________ .A Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity .How You Can Make $25,000 Per Month .How To Re-Invent Your Life .The Greatest Wealth-Building Bonanza In History! .Upgrade The Quality Of Your Life .FA$T, EA$Y MONEY! <-- Why you see so many of these: .Work At Home With Your Computer .Financial Independence .! > FA$T, EA$Y MONEY! < .Income Opportunity .Be a millionaire in 1998 .Make money with your computer .!!$$ Hard Fast Cash $$!! .Immediate Internet Income At Home (complete instructions) .Safe Income Now .$$ Need Cash? $$ .! Earn THOU$AND$ posting to newsgroups! .Income From The Internet .Yes, you can make money working from home .MAKE MONEY FA$T & EA$Y .Home-Based Business Opportunity .Internet Income <-Why you're gonna see more of this You're really here; you made it! Congratulations on your breakthrough to financial independence and an enhanced quality of living. Or... ******************************************** * WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? ******************************************** Maybe things like this never work for you? (You are surely correct ... unless you're already grabbing an envelope.) You tried something like this before? (Have you *REALLY* ever reached 30,000 people before?) Maybe you'll only get $10,000? (Life is cruel.) Maybe you're already making $2,000 per hour? Maybe nobody else will do this? (Look around the newsgroups: they already ARE doing this. How much proof do you need?) Then, maybe everyone else is already doing this? (Definitely NOT! But you'll END UP being right if you keep putting this off.) "I'll do it later, really!" (Yeah, right.) Maybe the Easter Bunny will change your life, so you won't have to bother? Is the price of a movie ticket truly more important than your future? GO FOR THE GOLD: What have you got to lose? !-------REMEMBER, follow these steps and be honest, and the money will pour in! ________________List Managers_______________ #1 B. Spiegeleer 31 rue de la Montagne de lEsperou 75015 Paris Francia #2 C. Leyton Bulnes 737 San Bernardo, Santiago Chile #3 A. Curth Azcuenaga 1360 PB2 Buenos Aires, CF 1115 ARGENTINA #4 L Mastrogiacomo Maipú 596 1er piso Merlo (1722) Buenos Aires ARGENTINA #5 P. Oregioni Salta 662 Merlo (1722) Buenos Aires Argentina #6 A. Alvarez Chopin 149 norte Santa Lucia (5411) San Juan Argentina Note: If you don't read spanish send me an e-mail and I will send you a translated copy. Believe me, IT's WORTH IT! acurth(a)usa.net ----- Las puertas del año se abren, ----- como las del lenguaje, ----- hacia lo desconocido. ----- Anoche me dijiste: ----- mañana habrá que trazar unos signos, ----- dibujar un paisaje, tejer una trama ----- sobre la doble página ----- del papel y del día. ----- Mañana habrá que inventar de nuevo, ----- la realidad de este mundo. Octavio Paz ________________________________________________ This is a true story! Esta historia es Real! Días atrás, cuando "navegaba" por estas páginas de Newsgroups, así mismo como Ud. lo esta haciendo ahora, se me apareció un artículo similar a este que decía que uno puede ganar miles de dólares en pocas semanas con una inversión de $6.00!. Enseguida pensé, "Oh no! otra estafa más?", pero como la mayoría de nosotros, la curiosidad pudo más, y seguí leyendo. Y seguía diciendo que Ud. enviará $1.00 a cada uno de los 6 nombres y direcciones mencionados en este artículo. Entonces Ud. anota su nombre y dirección al final de la lista reemplazando al #6, y envíe o ponga este artículo a por lo menos 200 "Newsgroups"(Hay miles de estos en todo el mundo). Ningún truco, eso fue todo. La gran diferencia entre este sistema y otros es que Ud. tiene una lista de 6 en vez de 5... Esto significa que su promedio de ganancia será aproximadamente 15 veces mayor!!! Después de pensarlo una y otra vez, y consultar con unos amigos primero, decidí probarlo. Pensé que lo único que podría perder eran 6 estampillas y $6.00, verdad?. Como probablemente muchos de nosotros, estaba un poco preocupado por la legalidad de todo esto. Entonces consulté en las oficinas del Correo Central y me confirmaron que en realidad era legal!! . Entonces invertí mis $6.00......IMAGÍNENSE QUÉ!!!...a los 7 días, empecé a recibir dinero por correo!!!. Estaba sorprendido! todavía pensaba esto terminará enseguida, y no pensé más en otra cosa. Pero el dinero seguía llegando. En mi primera semana hice unos $20.00 a $30.00 dólares. Para el final de la segunda semana tenia hecho un total de más de $1,000.00!!!!! En la tercera semana recibí más de $10,000.00 y todavía seguía llegando más. Esta es mi cuarta semana ya hice un total de más de $41,000.00 y esto sigue llegando más rápidamente(mi esposa e hijos se pasan abriendo los sobres y yo consiguiendo "Newsgroups"). Esto se puso serio!!!! Todo esto realmente valió la inversión de $6.00 y 6 estampillas. Me gastaba más que esto en sorteos y loterías!! Permítanme explicarles como funciona esto y lo más importante el por qué funciona....también, Ud. asegúrese de imprimir una copia de este artículo AHORA, para poder sacar toda la información a medida que lo necesite. El proceso es muy fácil y consiste en 3 pasos sencillos: PASO No. 1: Obtenga 6 hojas de papel y escriba en cada una de ellas: "FAVOR DE INCLUIRME EN SU LISTA DE CORRESPONDENCIA O E-MAIL". Ahora consiga 6 billetes de US$1.00 dólar e introduzca cada dólar en un sobre con la hoja de manera que el billete no se vea a través del sobre!! Mejor ponerlo encerrado en un papel de color oscuro para prevenir robos de correspondencia. **OPCIONAL: Mande una tarjeta postal de su ciudad o país. Ahora Ud. debería tener 6 sobres sellados y en ellos un papel con la frase mencionada, su nombre y dirección, y un billete de $1.00 dólar. Lo que Ud. esta haciendo con esto es crear un "servicio" y eso hace que esto sea ABSOLUTAMENTE LEGAL!! Enviar los 6 sobres a las siguientes direcciones: #1 B. Spiegeleer 31 rue de la Montagne de lEsperou 75015 Paris Francia #2 C. Leyton Bulnes 737 San Bernardo, Santiago Chile #3 A. Curth Azcuenaga 1360 PB2 Buenos Aires, CF 1115 ARGENTINA #4 L Mastrogiacomo Maipú 596 1er piso Merlo (1722) Buenos Aires ARGENTINA #5 P. Oregioni Salta 662 Merlo (1722) Buenos Aires Argentina #6 A. Alvarez Chopin 149 norte Santa Lucia (5411) San Juan Argentina PASO NO. 2: Ahora elimine el #1 de la lista de arriba y mueva los otros nombres un número para arriba (el #6 se convierte en #5, el #5 se convierte en #4, Etc.) y agregue SU NOMBRE y dirección como el #6 en la lista. PASO No. 3: Cambie todo lo que crea conveniente de este artículo, pero trate de mantenerlo lo más posible cercano al original. Ahora ponga su artículo en por lo menos 200 "Newsgroups"(existen más de 24,000 grupos). Solo necesita 200, pero cuando más cantidad lo ponga, más dinero le llegará!!!. Aquí van algunas indicaciones de como introducirse en los "Newsgroups": -------------------------------------------------------------- COMO MANEJAR LOS "NEWSGROUPS" -------------------------------------------------------------- No.1> Ud. no necesita redactar de nuevo toda esta carta para hacer la suya propia. Solamente ponga su cursor al comienzo de esta carta, haga click y lo deja presionando y bájelo hasta el final de la carta y lárguelo. Toda la carta deberá estar "sombreada". Entonces, apunte y haga click en "edit" arriba de su pantalla, aquí seleccione "copy. Esto hará que toda la carta quede en la memoria de su computadora. No.2> Abra un archivo "notepad" y lleve al cursor arriba de la página en blanco. Presione "edit" y del menu seleccione "paste". Ahora tendrá esta carta en el "notepad" y podrá agregar su nombre y dirección en el lugar #6 siguiendo las instrucciones de más arriba. No.3> Grave esta carta en su nuevo archivo del notepad como un .txt file. Y cada vez que quiera cambiar algo ya lo puede hacer. ---------------------------------------------------------------- PARA LOS QUE MANEJAN COMMUNICATOR ---------------------------------------------------------------- Seleccione "message center". 1- Haga doble click sobre "News". 2- Aparecerá la ventana "Subscribe to Discussion Groups". 3-Seleccione los grupos a suscribirse. 4-Presione "suscribe". 5- Presione "OK". 6-Ahora seleccione desde "news" un servidor y mande este documento. ---------------------------------------------------------------- PARA LOS QUE MANEJAN NETSCAPE ---------------------------------------------------------------- No.4> Dentro del programa Netscape, vaya a la "ventana" titulada :Window" y seleccione "netscapeNews". Entonces elija del menu "Options", seleccione "Show all Newsgroups". En segundos una lista de todos los "Newsgroups" de su "server" aparecerá. Haga click en cualquier newsgroup. De este newsgroup haga click debajo de "TO NEWS", el cual deberia estar arriba, en el extremo izquierdo de la página de Newsgroups. Esto le llevará a la caja de mensajes. No.5> Llene este espacio. Este será el título que verán todos cuando recorran por la lista de un grupo en particular. No.6> Marque el contenido completo del .txt file y copie usando la misma técnica anterior. Regrese al Newsgroup "TO NEWS" y Ud. esta creando y empastando esta carta dentro de su programa o "posting". No.7> Presione "send" que está en la parte superior izquierda. Y UD. HA FINALIZADO CON SU PRIMERO!...CONGRATULACIONES!!! . ---------------------------------------------------------------- LOS QUE USAN INTERNET EXPLORER ---------------------------------------------------------------- PASO No. 4: Vaya al Newsgroups y seleccione "Post an Article. PASO No. 5: Carge el artículo. PASO No. 6: Repita el No.6> más arriba. PASO No. 7: Presione el botón "Post". -------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________ ES TODO!. Todo lo que tiene que hacer es meterse en diferentes "Newsgroups" y empastarlos, cuando ya tenga práctica, solo le tomará unos 30 segundos por cada newsgroup! **RECUERDE, CUANTOS MÁS NEWSGROUPS CONSIGA, MÁS RESPUESTAS (Y DINERO) RECIBIRÁ!! PERO DEBE DE ENTRAR EN POR LO MENOS 200** YA ESTA!!!.... Ud. estará recibiendo dinero de todo el mundo, de lugares que ni conoce y en unos pocos días!. Eventualmente querrá rentar un P.O.Box por la cantidad de sobres que irá recibiendo. **ASEGÚRESE DE QUE TODAS LAS DIRECCIONES ESTEN CORRECTAS Ahora el POR QUÉ de todo esto: #6 - De 200 enviados, digamos que recibo solo 5 respuestas (bajísimo ejemplo). Entonces hice $5.00 con mi nombre en la posición #6 de esta carta. #5 - Ahora, cada uno de las 5 personas que ya me enviaron los $1.00 también hacen un mínimo 200 Newsgroups, cada uno con mi nombre en el #5 de la lista y solo responden 5 personas a cada uno de los 5 originales, esto hace $25.00 más que yo recibo #4 - Ahora estas 25 personas pone un mínimo de 200 Newsgroups con mi nombre en el #4 y solo se recibe 5 respuestas de cada uno. Estaría haciendo otros $125.00 adicionales. #3 - Ahora esta 125 personas ponen sus mínimo de 200 grupos con mi nombre en el #3 y solo recibe 5 respuestas cada una, yo recibo un adicional de $625.00!. #2 - OK, aquí esta la parte más divertida, cada una de estas 625 personas ponen sus cartas en otros 200 grupos con mi nombre en el #2 y cada una recibe solo 5 respuestas, esto hace que yo reciba $3,125.00!!!. #1 - Estas 3,125 personas enviarán este mensaje a un mínimo de 200 Newsgroups con mi nombre en el #1 y si solo 5 personas responden de los 200 grupos, estaré recibiendo $15,625.00!!. De una inversión original de $6.00!! más estampillas. FABULOSO! Y como dije antes, que solo 5 personas respondan muy poca, el promedio real seria 20 o 30 personas!. Asique pongamos estos números a calcular. Si solo 15 personas responden, esto hace: en la #6 $15.00 en la #5 $225.00 en la #4 $3,375.00 en la #3 $50,625.00 en la #2 $759,375.00 en la #1 $11,390,625.00 Una vez que su nombre ya no esta en la lista, saque el ultimo anuncio del Newsgroup y envíe otros $6.00 a los nombres en esa lista, poniendo su nombre en el #6 y repetir todo el proceso. Y empezar a ponerlos en los Newsgroups otra vez. Lo que debe recordar es que miles de personas más, en todo el mundo, se conectan al Internet cada día y leerán estos artículos todos los días como USTED Y YO LO HACEMOS!!!. Así que creo nadie tendría problemas en invertir $6.00 y ver si realmente esto funciona. Algunas personas llegan a pensar..."y si nadie decide contestarme?" Que!! Cuál es la chance de que esto pasé cuando hay miles y miles de personas honestas (que como nosotros) buscan una manera de tener independencia financiera y pagar cuentas!!!., y estan dispuestas a tratar, pues "No hay peor lucha de la que no se hace". Se estima que existen de 20,000 a 50.000 nuevos usuarios TODOS LOS DIAS! (en todo el mundo) ******************************************* OTRO SISTEMA PARA COMUNICARSE ES CONSIGUIENDO E-MAIL DE PERSONAS PARTICULARES, DEBE SER POR LO MENOS 200 DIRECCIONES, Y ESTO TIENE UNA EFECTIVIDAD DE MINIMO 5% AL 15%. SI SOLO BUSCAN PERSONAS QUE HABLAN ESPAÑOL, VAYAN A UN PROVEEDOR DE E-MAILS E IMPRIMAN UN APELLIDO LATINO Y YA. Recuerde de hacerlo esto en forma CORRECTA, LIMPIA Y HONESTAMENTE y funcionará con toda seguridad. Solamente tiene que ser honesto. Asegúrese de imprimir este artículo AHORA, Trate de mantener la lista de todos los que les envían dinero y siempre fíjese en los Newsgroups y vea si todos están participando limpiamente. Recuerde, HONESTIDAD ES EL MEJOR MÉTODO. No se necesita hacer trucos con la idea básica de hacer dinero en esto! BENDICIONES PARA TODOS, y suerte, juguemos limpio y aprovechar esta hermosa oportunidad de hacer toneladas de dinero con el Internet. **Dicho sea de paso, si Ud. defrauda a las personas poniendo mensajescon su nombre y no envía ningún dinero a los demás en esa lista, Ud. recibirá casi NADA!. He conversado con personas que conocieron personas que hicieron eso y solo llegaron a colectar unos $150.00, y eso después de unas 7 semanas!. Algunos decidieron probar otra vez, haciendo correctamente, y en 4 a 5 semanas recibieron más de $10.000. Esto es la más limpia y honesta manera de compartir fortuna que yo jamás haya visto, sin costarnos mucho excepto un poco de tiempo. El TIEMPO ES IMPORTANTE!, no dejar pasar más de 7 días del momento que vea este artículo!. También puede conseguir lista de E-MAIL para obtener dinero extra. Sigamos todos las reglas del negocio! Recuerde mencionar estas ganancias extras en sus declaraciones de impuestos. Gracias otra vez y BENDICIONES A TODOS!!

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Re: ULotD? Cuban Tattoos.
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Resent-Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 14:54:29 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: qnx.com: localhost [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org Cc: bostic(a)bsdi.com Subject: Re: ULotD? Cuban Tattoos. Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 13:41:24 -0500 From: glen mccready <glen(a)qnx.com> Resent-From: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org X-Mailing-List: <0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org> archive/latest/2674 X-Loop: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org Precedence: list Resent-Sender: 0xdeadbeef-request(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry(a)piermont.com> The story posted is an urban legend. It is NOT an urban legend that someone has been tattooed with "RSA in Perl". A picture of Richard White's tattoo is at: http:/www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/tattoo.html It is also not entirely an urban legend that this has been joked about -- a friend of mine (a Greek computer security expert who's name I won't mention) was forced to spend a couple of years back in Greece after completing his PhD because of restrictions on his original visa, and his friends joked heavily about giving him a crypto tatoo to render him non-exportable. However, it was only a joke (albeit one that was told regularly in computer security circles because the person in question is fairly well known among security weenies.) However, the stated story is completely bogus. Perry --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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Kooks and their Kookies
by ichudov＠Algebra.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I have just looked into my cookies file, and noticed an interesting kookie (pun intended): www.netscum.net FALSE / FALSE 123456789 visited the%20Home%20Page%2c%20Name%20Q.%20Deleted (Name Deleted is the name of one of the well known USENET personaes, and there is a number instead of 123456789). This is really interesting. If netscum.net ever comes up again, do not view it except through the anonymizer or the crowds, and filter out the kooks' kookies. - Igor.

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FC: Getting caught on the Net, by Rebecca Eisenberg
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>X-POP3-Rcpt: declan(a)relay.pathfinder.com >Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 16:10:15 -0800 (PST) >From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> >To: politech(a)vorlon.mit.edu >Subject: FC: Getting caught on the Net, by Rebecca Eisenberg >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Sender: owner-politech(a)vorlon.mit.edu >Reply-To: declan(a)well.com >X-Loop: politech(a)vorlon.mit.edu >X-URL: Politech is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ > >********** > >http://www.examiner.com/skink/skinkJan25.html > >San Francisco Examiner -- Net Skink > >Jan 25, 1998 >Getting caught on the Net > >A wave of shock has washed over the Net population in the >past two weeks. What you write on the Internet, people >realized, can actually get you fired. > >First came the news that Timothy McVeigh, not the bomber >but a 17-year Navy veteran and crew chief on a nuclear >submarine, was recommended for honorable discharge by the >Navy for describing himself as gay on his AOL profile. > >[...] > >For better or for worse, there is not much privacy on-line. >That is the benefit of free expression -- the free >expression we won when the Supreme Court overturned the >overly broad and unconstitutional Communications Decency >Act. However, freedom of expression does not come with a >guarantee that everyone will like what you say. > >"Privacy is not a right, but a preference," writes Declan >McCullagh, 26, Internet expert and journalist in >Washington, D.C. "Some people want it more than others." >Although we are protected from intrusions by the >government, the free exchange of information between >private parties drives the marketplace and the media. > >"The best solution to harmful disclosures is to avoid them >in the first place. Patronize banks, hardware stores and >Internet providers with strong privacy policies," McCullagh >says. "Privacy advocates who call for new government powers >are missing the point. The government intrudes more on our >privacy than corporations ever can. > >"On a more practical note," he continues, "technological >solutions are the only ones that have half a chance of >working globally. Maybe after years of lobbying, you get a >privacy law passed in the U.S., but the Web site you want >to shut down moves to Anguilla 30 minutes later." > >[...] > > > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology >To subscribe: send a message to majordomo(a)vorlon.mit.edu with this text: >subscribe politech >More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >

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No Subject
by Zooko Journeyman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

(A letter to Andy Patrizio of TechWeb, www.techweb.com, Cc: to cypherpunks(a)toad.com, malda(a)slashdot.org and gnu(a)gnu.org. May I remind the audience to use the technique which will benefit your goals rather than harm them: politeness.) Sir, I beg to differ regarding your assertion in "http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980126S0015" that open source code has little value. While your article makes the very good point that a higher level of abstraction (the API level) is a better platform for most "interoperation" or "extension" uses, you omit several important considerations. I will attempt to describe three of those considerations here. The first consideraton is that open source code is of unparalleled value in ensuring security and stability of a complex system. Witness the fact that when the Pentium "F00F" bug was discovered last year, the Linux operating system had a fix distributed within 7 calendar days, while Microsoft took more than twice as long to issue a fix. This is doubly important for mission-critical systems and triply so for security-critical systems which may be subject to hostile attack. Indeed, many computer security professionals of my acquaintance say that they _will_ _not_ use a system to protect valuable data unless they and their peers are able to examine the source code. The second consideration is that an open software development model can (sometimes) generate a surprising amount of quality code at high speed. The pre-eminent example of this phenomenon is the Linux operating system, which in many ways has outstripped comparable proprietary operating systems in performance, features, stability, _and_ in time-to-market. The third value in open source code is more controversial-- it gives your users more control over the product. An all-too- common business tactic in the software industry is, as Scott McNealy calls it, "proprietary lock-in", in which a company deliberately makes their product incompatible with competing products in order to ensure that the customer can't use that product in conjunction with a competitor's product. With the current trend towards a convergence of interoperating software products, this tactic is becoming increasingly oppressive to customers. This tactic is not possible with open source code, because competitors, customers, or free-lance hackers can use the open source in order to make the two products interoperable. Needless to say, not all in the business community would consider this last feature to be a benefit. (Although I think that all in the business community would consider the first two features to be a benefit.) I hope that this letter has been of interest to you. I have been a software developer, industry-watcher, and open-source- code enthusiast for years, and I was grieved to think that your article might deter open-minded readers from considering the full implications of an open source code strategy. The idea of open source code has been a "fringe" concept for decades (see seminal open-source advocate and hacker Richard Stallman, www.fsf.org) and I'm delighted to think that with Netscape's move, and with the rumored possibility that Sun will open some of its Java source, that this idea could finally get a fair hearing before the business community. Regards, Zooko, Journeyman Hacker P.S. Among software professionals that I know, the only ones who make USD 100K/year or more are the ones who consider themselves to be "hackers". :-)

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Re: State of the Union Address
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Does anyone happen to know how to figure the energy requirements or yields >for a reaction? Just to make sure I'm not misinterpreted, I mean how much energy is required or is liberated by a given reaction. I don't mean "...figure the energy, requirements, or yields," or "figure the energy requirements or products it yields."

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can you believe the Bulgarians?
by Attila T. Hun 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- can you believe it? a site dedicated to declaring they believe Bubba is innocent! --and have a petition. you can join Jack The Ripper, Ted Kaczynski, Ted Bundy, JFK, and a host of others in support of free oral sex in the Whitehouse. just type your nym and vote early and vote often. 1300+ hits and less than 100 marks. Monica was quoted as saying she was "going to Washington to get her presidental knee pads." enjoy... http://faith.digsys.bg/prj/clinton/clinton.html attila out again... in disbelief that "the Creep" is still President! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: latin1 Comment: No safety this side of the grave. Never was; never will be iQBVAwUBNM9leLR8UA6T6u61AQHYMwH/Sge0rVd2cYoE6gJyPCXBxf8kpNdvogB8 bsYdhV5/zwQJIdSVX+fGRLl6fdi+Qugdiii6dMP/2Y2jFDFIpYzHIg== =/k4R -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Response to ticket 012398-6918-403
by kozmo killah 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Interesting Chemical Reaction
by ichudov＠Algebra.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

An interesting experiment is to mix the ordinary ammonium nitrate (a fertilizer) with room temp. water. Try to put in as much ammonium nitrate as it is possible to dissolve. You will see the temperature of the mixture DROP to below the freezing point (for pure water that is). Wow. I did that 12 years ago and was amazed. A really easy way to get cold water if no freezer is available. - Igor.

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Re: State of the Union Address
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I guess those high school students aren't the only ones with no clear >idea of the way the world works. While salt water does not ordinarily >explode, in this case salt water is the ultimate product -- but massive >heat released when acids and bases join and recombine to produce salts >(in this case table salt) and water. Interesting thread. While we're on the topic of chemistry and heat: Does anyone happen to know how to figure the energy requirements or yields for a reaction? My college chemistry book doesn't say a whole lot about it. In fact it doesn't say enough to actually be useful at all; it gives energies for four or five different bonds in a table and then launches into a really bad explanation of how to calculate this. If I have to use a table of bond energies is there one available online? Or is there a simpler way to just calculate the bloody things? I really ought to take more chemistry courses before I get my diploma. Or at the very least audit them.

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Re: State of the Union Address
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Another Anonymous writes: >>Does anyone happen to know how to figure the energy requirements or yields >>for a reaction? > >Just to make sure I'm not misinterpreted, I mean how much energy is required >or is liberated by a given reaction. I don't mean "...figure the energy, >requirements, or yields," or "figure the energy requirements or products it >yields." It has been fifteen years since I even opened a chemistry book, but I think what you're looking for is called the "heat of enthalpy." You could find this in most any intro-level chem book, and there's probably a whole shitload of reactions listed in the _CRC Handbook Of Chemistry & Physics_. Since HCl+NaOH is an acid-base reaction, you could also use something called the "heat of neutralization." IIRC, that's something like 57 KJ/mol for strong acids. But don't take my word for it; I'm Not A Chemist Any More. P-Chem gave me a great appreciation for math and computers.

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