December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Clipper fact sheet with analysis
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

White House fact sheet, with analysis. Repost me! >Note: The following was released by the White House today in > conjunction with the announcement of the Clipper Chip > encryption technology. > FACT SHEET > PUBLIC ENCRYPTION MANAGEMENT UNIVERSAL WIRETAPPING SYSTEM >The President has approved a directive on "Public Encryption >Management." The directive provides for the following: The President, acting on advice from the Spooks, has decided to wiretap everyone's communications now, while it is still possible. >Advanced telecommunications and commercially available encryption >are part of a wave of new computer and communications technology. >Encryption products scramble information to protect the privacy of >communications and data by preventing unauthorized access. >Advanced telecommunications systems use digital technology to >rapidly and precisely handle a high volume of communications. >These advanced telecommunications systems are integral to the >infrastructure needed to ensure economic competitiveness in the >information age. Al Gore loves the wonders of technology. >Despite its benefits, new communications technology can also >frustrate lawful government electronic surveillance. The feds are having a hard time tapping your phone. >Sophisticated >encryption can have this effect in the United States. The FBI can't break the new codes people have invented. >When >exported abroad, it can be used to thwart foreign intelligence >activities critical to our national interests. Neither can the NSA. >In the past, it has >been possible to preserve a government capability to conduct >electronic surveillance in furtherance of legitimate law >enforcement and national security interests, while at the same time >protecting the privacy and civil liberties of all citizens. The NSA could break DES, and citizens weren't using crypto anyway. >As encryption technology improves, doing so will require new, >innovative approaches. DES is obsolete, and the NSA can't break the new ciphers which are going to replace it. So we have to build in the wiretaps up front. >In the area of communications encryption, the U. S. Government has >developed a microcircuit that not only provides privacy through >encryption that is substantially more robust than the current >government standard, but also permits escrowing of the keys needed >to unlock the encryption. The NSA built an encryption chip with a built-in wiretap. >The system for the escrowing of keys >will allow the government to gain access to encrypted information >only with appropriate legal authorization. The government will keep the keys and use them to wiretap people. But only when it's legal. We promise. Trust us. >To assist law enforcement and other government agencies to collect >and decrypt, under legal authority, electronically transmitted >information, I hereby direct the following action to be taken: To make sure we can still wiretap you, this is what we are going to do: >INSTALLATION OF GOVERNMENT-DEVELOPED MICROCIRCUITS >The Attorney General of the United States, or her representative, >shall request manufacturers of communications hardware which >incorporates encryption to install the U.S. government-developed >key-escrow microcircuits in their products. All telephone companies will be coerced into using the Clipper chip. Those who do not will be harassed, denied government contracts, and forbidden to export their products. If this doesn't work, we might have to resort to more forceful tactics. >The fact of law >enforcement access to the escrowed keys will not be concealed from >the American public. We will tell them their phones might be tapped, but not when. >All appropriate steps shall be taken to >ensure that any existing or future versions of the key-escrow >microcircuit are made widely available to U.S. communications >hardware manufacturers, consistent with the need to ensure the >security of the key-escrow system. We will give them the chips, as long as they use them the way we tell them to use them. But we won't tell them how the chips work. >In making this decision, I do >not intend to prevent the private sector from developing, or the >government from approving, other microcircuits or algorithms that >are equally effective in assuring both privacy and a secure key- >escrow system. Companies are free to design their own encryption systems, as long as they have wiretaps built into them. >KEY-ESCROW >The Attorney General shall make all arrangements with appropriate >entities to hold the keys for the key-escrow microcircuits >installed in communications equipment. The Attorney General shall make sure keys are available when we want to wiretap people. >In each case, the key >holder must agree to strict security procedures to prevent >unauthorized release of the keys. The keys shall be released only >to government agencies that have established their authority to >acquire the content of those communications that have been >encrypted by devices containing the microcircuits. The escrow keys shall be released to any agency which comes up with a credible excuse to request them. >The Attorney >General shall review for legal sufficiency the procedures by which >an agency establishes its authority to acquire the content of such >communications. The Attorney General shall make sure there are no legal loopholes which might allow someone to invalidate evidence from a Clipper wiretap. >PROCUREMENT AND USE OF ENCRYPTION DEVICES >The Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with other appropriate >U.S. agencies, shall initiate a process to write standards to >facilitate the procurement and use of encryption devices fitted >with key-escrow microcircuits in federal communications systems >that process sensitive but unclassified information. I expect this >process to proceed on a schedule that will permit promulgation of >a final standard within six months of this directive. The government will start buying lots of Clipper chips immediately to make sure there is a market for them. We need to get this off the ground before any opposition or alternatives arise. >The Attorney General will procure and utilize encryption devices to >the extent needed to preserve the government's ability to conduct >lawful electronic surveillance and to fulfill the need for secure >law enforcement communications. The Attorney General will make sure plenty of LEAF decoders are available to wiretap people, and the cops will use Clipper chips so people with scanners can't listen in on them. This will also create a bigger market for Clipper chips. >Further, the Attorney General >shall utilize funds from the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture >Super Surplus Fund to effect this purchase. The Attorney General will use money stolen from alleged criminals to buy Clipper chips and wiretapping devices. The more phones we tap, the more criminals we catch, the more property we seize, the more money we have for law enforcement to tap more phones...

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Blacknet trademark offence.
by catalyst-remailer＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

alt.conspiracy #43947 (0 + 24 more) [1] From: nyt(a)blythe.org (NY Transfer News) [1] Warning: "BlackNet" is not The Blacknet Keywords: bogus messages Date: Sat Feb 19 21:18:37 EST 1994 Distribution: world Organization: NY Transfer News Collective Lines: 47 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!! RE: ILLEGAL USE of the name BLACKNET! OFFENDER: "NOBODY(a)SHELL.PORTAL.COM" It has come to our attention our name The BLACKNET is being used ILLEGALLY and MALICIOUSLY by some party or parties unknown. Please be advised that this company/group/individual, etc. are in no way affiliated with our BBS. The Blacknet is a service mark registered with the Patent and Trademark Office and steps are being taken to protect our integrity in the online world, as well as to implement legal action against those who have defamed our name. I trust that those in the online world who do know us realize we are not behind this group and if you see any further messages to route them to us. For those who do not know us, we hope that the next time you see the name Blacknet it will not be associated with the disgusting message that has been circulating around the networks. Thank you for your attention and cooperation. Sincerely, Idette Vaughan for The Blacknet Brooklyn, NY idette.vaughan(a)f618.n278.z1.fidonet.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + 212-675-9690 NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE 212-675-9663 + + Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us + + e-mail: nyt(a)blythe.org info: info(a)blythe.org +

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CERT vs. Net Mafia?
by catalyst-remailer＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

NEWSWEEK, February 21, 1994, p.73 Technology: How to fight crime on the Internet A SWAT Team in Cyberspace Joshua Cooper Ramo The First Hint of trouble came at 3 a.m. one night last December. A panicky New York computer bulletin board operator called the Computer Emergency Response Team center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to report discovering an unauthorized program that could surreptitiously record users' secret passwords. CERT is the SWAT team of the electronic frontier; the call sent these cybercops scrambling to their keyboards to try and figure out who was behind the break-in - - and whether it had spread. "It's like finding rats in your apartment," says CERT manager Dain Gary. "When you see one, there are probably a hundred. In this case, there are probably 10,000." The New York bulletin board is hooked up to the Internet, an international web of computers that links 20 million users. If one system is compromised, many more are vulnerable. The December break- in turned out to be the first of hundreds of similar reports: earlier this month Gary's team concluded there was an organized effort to infiltrate the Internet. Although the culprits were still loose and their motives were unclear last week, CERT's detective work has won the team respect and new attention on the net. A typical Internet message: "It's nice to know that somebody out there is helping keep us techno-peons in the loop." Created by the Defense Department five years ago after the last widespread Internet break-in, the CERT team operates out of a sleek granite building. CERT has no legal power to arrest or prosecute; instead, the team of about 15 programmers pokes through violated systems using their only weapons: dozens of computers. Like the hackers they track, CERT team members often work round the clock, subsisting on takeout Chinese food. Gary, 52, CERT's manager, is a decorated army attack- helicopter pilot and an expert in computer security. Hackers are "the adversary," he says. "We try to help the victim" by posting warnings of "holes" -- vulnerabilities -- and fixes on the net. "But as the net grows, the incidents are climbing," he says. "The motives are changing." Net Mafia? Ten years ago hackers were usually youthful pranksters, mostly interested in demonstrating technical ingenuity. Now there's a growing feeling that more sinister forces may be loose, perhaps a kind of net mafia intent on outright theft through use of credit-card numbers or other data. Last year CERT responded to almost 1,500 calls, a 75 percent increase from 1992's. CERT won't disclose its budget, but clearly a lot of help comes from volunteers interested in preserving the integrity of the net. Particularly complicated security breaches are farmed out around the country to an unofficial brain trust of specialists in specific operating systems. The rest of the detective work is on line in Pittsburgh. Rich Pethia, 47, CERT's coordinator, has spent 25 years working on the net; he says his job gets tougher every year. The team must deal with increasingly sophisticated hackers and criticism from netters who think that providing hole data is like giving cybercrooks keys to computers. Unfortunately, finding holes is often easier than fixing them. CERT still doesn't have a long-term solution to the current break-in problem. Last week, in response to the CERT alarm, network operators around the world booted and rebooted their systems, looking for signs of trouble. Back in Pittsburgh, the CERT team members were hunched over their keyboards, ready for the next call.

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(fwd) iPower crypto chip in PCMCIA card
by kelly＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Newsgroups: alt.2600 Path: netcom.com!mocten From: mocten(a)netcom.com (Mark Hudson) Subject: iPower crypto chip in PCMCIA card Message-ID: <-62PjOECJDZt057yn(a)netcom.com> Sender: mocten(a)netcom.com (Mark "Marcus" Hudson) Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 02:02:38 GMT Lines: 21 I got this out of newsletter I received a few days ago. Hopefully it isn't old knowledge yet. Crypto Chip Debuts National Semiconductor has released the iPower encryption chip, which was designed for use in PCMCIA cards and provides a reange of security features. The chip can encrypt data via multiple enryption algorithms, and will self-destruct upon any tampering attempt, using a self-contained chemical. Cards that use the iPower chip can also provide additional functions such as tracking user access times. The iPower division is based in Santa Clara, CA. 408/721-8797. --Mark -- -- Mark Hudson is mocten(a)netcom.com (or vice versa) Mr. Congealiality--a suppository of knowledge. This has been a blipvert. (Hose down or prepare to explode.)

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Blacknet trademark offence.
by mpd＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!! > > RE: ILLEGAL USE of the name BLACKNET! > > OFFENDER: "NOBODY(a)SHELL.PORTAL.COM" How embarrassing! I had completely forgotten about the FIDO Blacknet which is carried by a large number of BBS systems both in this country and abroad. These people must now be extremely pissed and running to their lawyers in droves. Oh well. :) -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.3a Public Key available $ mpd(a)netcom.com $ via Finger. $

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Remailer killing subject line
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, why do some remailers (e.g. anonymous(a)extropia.wimsey.com) kill the subject line of a message? It would be very usefull to remail the subject line also. Thanks

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Re: Blacknet worries
by dwomack＠runner.utsa.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

With all due respect....the U.S Government has PLENTY of tools to go after those deemed to be violators of various rules and regs...with or without Blacknet, with or without encryption. For the purposes of discussion, let's assume perfect, unbreakable encryption, all undistinguishable (even in principle) from noise. Yes, I admit, that is a big assumption. What other tools can be used, well... 1. Imputed income. If you live well, and don't show enough reportable income, the IRS can determine how much you are _Really_ making, and figure your tax thereon. You disagree? Prove it in tax court. By the way, the burden of proof is on ...YOU. 2. Criminal conspiracy. Elements are a. two or more people b. a prepatory act So...if we were talking about any number of possible illicit activities, conspiracy is a really viable charge. Even if nobody ever commits the act. Think about this one next time you talk with anyone you don't know really well about anything much more controversial than the *_Lovely_* weather we've been having! 3. CCE (Continuing Criminal Enterprise). Did you know that the statute of limitations is suspended under this law? And, testimony from third party *_unidentified_* informants is admissable? 4. IRS-1040, Schedule B, Part III, Foreign Accounts and Trusts. Except for one relatively minor loophole, if you fail to report a foreign bank account, it is considered prima facie evidence of tax fraud. Sound like a really bad day in the making? 5. If you have more than $10,000 in US Dollar value in an offshore account, you are required to fill out a special form for the IRS giving your account numbers; unless you want to declare that you have more than 20 such accounts, aggregating to more than $10,000. 6. RICO. They got Mike Miliken using this...indeed, Barron's magazine did an interesting report on RICO, with the conclusion that a determined Federal Prosecutor could use the law to convict a ham sandwich. 7. Did you know that Federal prosecutors have a better than 90% conviction rate? 8. HOW does one spend "magic money"? If you have bunches of cash offshore, and bring it in, records are created. If you buy something, potential witnesses are created. Can you really expect that the clerk in wire transfer at XYZ bank (who makes $6.50/hr) won't tip off someone when you wire in the $20,000 to buy ...whatever? 9.. Spies, criminals, and others often get in trouble due to their own and others' lack of discretion. Can we really expect users of a hypothetical blacknet would never drink too much, never wish to impress someone, never trust someone unwisely? NO, I'm not an attorney...by all means, check out what I've said; and, wherever you find errors, please correct them. Hopefully, I've not given offense. I enjoy encryption, and I'm all for more of it; but, I really don't think it will be anything more than a minor inconvenince for law enforcement and prosecutors if people engage in wholesale criminal acts. The rather silly efforts in Waco, where those inside used assault rifles to shoot at battle tanks; comes to mind as analogous to use of encryption to stave off prosecution. Now...your turn. Let the Flames begin! Regards, Dave

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signoff
by RFORBES＠Gems.VCU.EDU 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I can't keep up with the mail on the list. Can't sign on everyday. Would like to unsubscribe. Give me some help in removing my name from the cypherpunks list. Thanx.

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Re: REMAIL: down (sortof) remailers
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> (I figure they were just renamed and locked because the grad > student who admins rosebud probably can't figure out how to remove > an account being a VMS guy ;) Or he found the remailers and is handing over full logs to the FBI on a regular basis.

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No Subject
by nobody＠jarthur.claremont.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!concert!corpgate!news.utdallas.edu!wupost!howland.reston.ans.net!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ukma!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!daemon From: ww(a)blythe.org (Workers World Service) Subject: $28 Billion Black Hole in US Budget Message-ID: <1994Feb13.205638.22269(a)mont.cs.missouri.edu> Followup-To: alt.activism.d Originator: daemon(a)pencil.cs.missouri.edu Sender: news(a)mont.cs.missouri.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu Organization: NY Transfer News Collective Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH(a)MIZZOU1.missouri.edu> Distribution: usa Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 20:56:38 GMT Approved: map(a)pencil.cs.missouri.edu Lines: 62 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit U.S. Budget: THE $28-BILLION BLACK HOLE Within President Clinton's proposed $1.5-trillion 1995 federal budget lies a mysterious item. It is, according to the Feb. 8 New York Times, "hidden in false line items and deleted passages in the Pentagon's accounts." And it has been this way for over 40 years. We're talking about the annual budget for secret military and intelligence operations. This $28 billion--which is only an "approximation"--is set aside for covert military programs and repressive spy agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency; the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds spy satellites; and the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic eavesdropping. A black hole in space is so dense that not even light can escape from it. This secret budget operates much the same way. Money goes into it, but what it's spent for never sees the light of day. There isn't even Congressional oversight for how the money is used. In fact, an estimated budget wasn't even published until a decade ago. As is to be expected, the Clinton administration is content with this arrangement. Along with his overt support for covert operations, Clinton has shown his admiration for the military-industrial complex by offering the Pentagon $263.7 billion--$3 billion more than last year. While there is certain to be some wrangling among the politicians and military brass over which programs should get the most, overall the Pentagon will once again be awash in money. But don't think Clinton is showing favoritism only to the generals. There are also the big bankers. They're getting $212.8 billion in 1995 in the form of interest payments on the national debt. The capitalist government considers this budget item legally mandatory. All told, almost half-a-trillion dollars are going to the banks and the military! Think about that when the bosses and politicians tell you there's no money for jobs, child care and housing. -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww(a)blythe.org.) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + 212-675-9690 NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE 212-675-9663 + + Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us + + e-mail: nyt(a)blythe.org info: info(a)blythe.org +

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Key escrow for all encryption?
by jimn8＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Fellow Cypherpunks, Please gently correct my misinterpretation of the White House press release. I read it to state that commercial encryption must embody key escrow, even if it's not Clipper. Does this mean we must turn over our one-time pads and our PGP private keys to a government agency? I don't like this. Not one bit. Perhaps the CPSR request for votes should have read, "I oppose key escrow," not just "I oppose Clipper." - Jim Nitchals

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New Remailer up!
by Matthew J Ghio 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At last, my long-promised pseudo-account remailer is open for testing. Here's how it works. Send mail to mg5n+getid(a)andrew.cmu.edu you will receive back an encrypted email address of the form: mg5n+eaxxxxx(a)andrew.cmu.edu (ea=encrypted address, in case you were wondering) All mail sent to that address will be forwarded to you. When you post anonymously, you can include that address for people to make replies to. That way, people can send replies to your messages but not know who you really are. Most of the cypherpunk remailers allow you to insert a Reply-To: header. Random padding is added to the address before it is encrypted. Therefore, every time you request an encrypted address, it will be different. This allows you to get a different email address for each of your cypher-tenacles. :) Messages sent thru the remailer are not anonymized. The complete, unaltered message is forwarded. If you want anonymnity, first send your mail thru one of the anonymous remailers. Source code is availaible. Email me if you want it. P.S. Expect a moderate delay for messages sent thru this remailer.

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Rer: autosigning pearl script
by Jeremiah A Blatz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> $header = "/tmp/header.$$" ; > $body = "/tmp/body.$$" ; Ummm, whoidn't it be a bit safer to put these in the users local directory? /tmp isn't really safe, unless you have your own net. Hoping he's not making a fool of himself, Jer darklord(a)cmu.edu | "it's not a matter of rights / it's just a matter of war finger for Geek | don't have a reason to fight / they never had one before" Code, PGP Key | -Ministry, "Hero"

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ADMIN: cypherpunks went down
by hughes 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This message counts as a test message. Please DO NOT respond to it. Hugh and I took the list down last night. This is the same list spewing problem that we had last week, only this time it's worse, because toad.com just got a CPU upgrade; it's four times faster now. Sorry. Please, Please, PLEASE in the future if this happens, DO NOT send more mail to the list; it only makes the problem worse. These messages were started to spew as well. Send urgent mail about list problems to me, hughes(a)ah.com, or postmaster(a)toad.com. Many thanks to Hugh Daniel for squashing sendmail processes like cockroaches. (He was laughing maniacally for a bit, there, "DIE!, DIE!") We managed to catch the problem before it went on for too long. I took everyone off the list after backing it up and left only me and Hugh on it, so most of the problem didn't go to the list. What happened was that the sendmails started spawning faster and faster. I got a megabyte and a half of repeated mail before we squished everything. Eric

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Re: New Remailer up!
by stevenJ 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Elric of Melnibone muttered something about... :: ::Ok, is it Just me. or did Mr. Ghio send 10 copies of that letter saying ::his new remailer is up? No, it was more like 50 copies of the item. How kind of him to do this for those of us who have poor memories. e x t r a p o l a t e steve j. white _____________________________________________________________________________ Gort, klatu barada nicto. aragorn(a)alpha1.csd.uwm.edu

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ADMIN: another test message
by hughes＠ah.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is another test message. Please don't respond to it either. Eric

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ADMIN: majordomo is running on toad.com
by hughes＠ah.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The two preceding test messages were brought to courtesy of majordomo(a)toad.com, to which all list requests should now be directed. Sending a blank message there will get you a help file. Sending mail to cypherpunks-request will get you a different help file. We enabled the unsubscribe filter that majordomo has, so that problem may go away. I've got some list traffic from the last day salted away, but I'm pretty sure I didn't manage to snag all of it. I'll get as much as I can out this evening, but I'm going to discard all the commentary about "how many messages". I hope this all helps. We didn't put up the extropians list software because we didn't have it and because we needed something quickly. There is a 'who' command available on majordomo, so it's even easier to get a list of subscribers now than it used to be. If you don't like this, get off the list or get a pseudonym. Removing the feature requires majordomo hacking, which is not high on my priority list. Many thanks to Hugh Daniel for doing most of the installation. Eric

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Gun conversion info banne
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

M >Has this law ever been challenged in court? I doubt if it would stand M >up, as long as the books are written as "here's how one would..." M >rather than actively encouraging you to do it. Technical information M >cannot be banned, as long as you aren't inciting violence. M > M >--- Mike Sorry I'm years behind in my list reading... Mike, recall the precedents. FDA burning of Reich's books in the '50s as "labeling for an unlawful medical device" -- the Orgone Accumulator. Likewise FDA seizures of Scientolgy literature in the '60s as "labeling for an unlawful medical device" -- E-meters. Then there are the moves against vitamin literature in recent FDA raids. I don't think the courts have ever faced the specific issue of regulatory censorship. DCF Then there's the time in the early '80s when the Consumer Products Safety Commission banned the "Button Book." --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165

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Banning of scientific information (re:FDA,etc.)
by ccat＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I don't know if they are still doing it,but last year there was a discussion on sci.med about the FDA's pressure on certain medical journal publishers not to publish certain peer-reviewed medical studies here in the US. And,as far as I can see,their policy of supressing information is effectively suppressing an effective nutritional therapy that helps people quit crack..(L-Tyrosine) Why?,Who knows. But it's telling that they always seem to support the large corporate approach to global pharmaceutical marketing.. Shades of the Opium Wars. Remember,its ten years after 1984.

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Remailer Update
by Matthew J Ghio 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Eric Hughes wrote: > We managed to catch the problem before it went on for too long. > I took everyone off the list after backing it up and left only me > and Hugh on it, so most of the problem didn't go to the list. > What happened was that the sendmails started spawning faster > and faster. I got a megabyte and a half of repeated mail before > we squished everything. I'm glad you caught the problem. I'd hate to see what would have happened if it had gone on for too long. :) My remailer was off-line from midnite to about 18:00 hours (eastern time) today. I took it off-line so I could handle the toad.com mail bomb. I have restored the remailer and FAQ server to normal operation. About 15 messages piled up in the queue during this time, and I sent them out about an hour ago. Let me know if there were any problems. Also, let me know your opinions on overall functionability of the remailer, and any bugs/problems. To everyone who requested the source code, sorry I haven't gotten to it yet. I will... P.S. The remailer info I maintain at mg5n+remailers(a)andrew.cmu.edu has gotten quite popular. When I first set it up, I got at most 2-3 requests a day. The last couple of days I have been getting 10 to 15 remailer-info requests a day. I wonder where they're coming from...I guess some non-cypherpunks groups have gotten on the anonymnity bandwagon. Wow... there goes another one. (I have it display a message on my screen whenever a request goes thru.)

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Re: new remailer up!
by Martin.Greifer＠f28.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

* Reply to msg originally in CYPHERPUNKS Uu> Ok, is it Just me. or did Mr. Ghio send 10 copies of that letter Uu> saying his new remailer is up? He must be snubbing you. I've received 48 so far. X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X |--=[martin.greifer(a)f28.n125.z1.fidonet.org]=--{PGP Key 8248D5}--| |--=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=-| X "Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the X | SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns | | doesn't serve the State." - Heinrich Himmler (& Janet Reno?) | X--=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=-X | "JUST SAY NO TO BIG MOTHER GOVERNMENT AND THE CLINTON AGENDA!" | X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X----X ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 -- Martin Greifer - via FidoNet node 1:125/1 UUCP: ...!uunet!kumr!shelter!28!Martin.Greifer INTERNET: Martin.Greifer(a)f28.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG

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A crypto-oriented inet connected household
by Sameer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- This is something that I've decided to do, and we have to get working on things, quickly. Check it out-- if you're interesting joining this thing, mail me, and we'll talk. (sameer(a)soda.berkeley.edu) The idea at this point is to get a place in June, and then get our net link maybe in the fall or winter sometime. (We'll likely have a SLIP link starting in June.) If you're not a hacker/tech/geek/etc. -- don't worry. Read through this and if you think there's something you can contribute, we can talk. The name "NEXUS-Berkeley" *really* needs some improvement. We haven't thought of a good replacement yet. (This is still a draft) 1) Introduction What's the NEXUS-Berkeley Project all about? It's a lot. There are goals, and there are dreams. Most of all though, we're optimistic. We know we can do it. So, then.. what are we doing? We're hardwiring the Gaia Consciousness. In other words. A bunch of people who want high-quality net access to their home are getting together, pooling funds, so that they can do it. That's us, the NEXUS-Berkeley folk. Our plan right now is pretty simple. We're going to find a place in Berkeley to move into. Thus we all have to work on how a bunch of net-fiends like ourselves can live together. Then we're going to get a dedicated line to the internet, and connect it to out home network of computers. I'd like to see a terminal in the kitchen, the bathroom, a few in the living room, and personal privately owned machines in each individual's bedroom. All this hardware will be wired together into a local network, which is then connected to the internet, via a dedicated line of some sort. Then we're going to start moving towards self-sufficiency-- providing internet services to the local community to bring in income. Minimally, the net-link should be paid for by our income. Ideally, we'll have enough income to pay the rent. The first step is shell accounts, sold cheaply. We can't compete with the giants, netcom, crl, etc. We will provide a service along with the shell accounts that won't be found at the giants-- a community-oriented personalized approach. We want to build a community around this thing. We'll have a local BBS, monthly meetings, internet tutorials, and maybe even parties, where the attendants can take a break from dancing and log into vrave. We don't want just tech-folk, though. We want BALANCE. We need writers, artists, teachers, techies.. If you have a talent, it's likely that the NEXUS could put it to good use. We need teachers to run the tutorials. Artists to make flyers and decorate the place. Writers to write press releases and other written work. Sociologists to study us and keep us from killing each other. 2) Technical issues A) The link We have a bunch of options for the link. For startup we can probably only afford at 56k line. There's a few choices in that regard. We can go with The Little Garden, a cooperative, whom Sameer would very much like to deal with, because of the cooperative nature of it all. There's Internex-- they provide ISDN, which is high-bandwidth, but right now ISDN runs .01/minute. If ISDN ever goes to untimed service it would be excellent, but I'm not counting on it. There's sharing 5 SLIP lines with another site, which has the benefit of cost, and a max-throughput of 56k, but it's sharing it with another site, which has its obvious drawbacks. If we want to resell the link 56k can only last so long. T1 is an inevitable situation. We will probably end up with an overbooked T1 [The Little Garden] and move up from there (time and money will tell) The provider is also quite up in the air. We can't be positive who we will want to deal with. Demand exceeds supply, so finding a provider who is civil and non-anal retentive about usage could be a chore. (Sprintlink seems like a good option.) B) The computers and hardware We'll need a main computer (or cluster, depending on how much CPU-power we need) which is owned by the group, some terminals, (bad ones for the kitchen & bathroom, but good ones for the living room) a router, and a CSU/DSU pair. Individual resident members should use privately-owned computers for their rooms. I'd like to have it set up so that there's a main NFS-mounted filesystem with most stuff, email, news, general files, but each individual's private computer is very isolated and paranoid about security, where they can store sensitive things such as PGP private keys. CFS can also be installed on the personal workstations, so that private computers need not have that much local drive space, while preserving privacy. The main choices of processors seem to be quite numerous. We have pretty much ruled out intel processors at this point. Sun and DEC seem to hold the most promise for servers. We have to learn a lot more about machines before deciding what will suit our needs. We can get something used. What kind of ethernet are we going to use? How fast will it be? What vendor? C) Machine Speed/Upgrades We will constantly be wondering exatcly where our income will be best spent. Trying to make sure all of the hardware we have is up to the task is going to be a royal pain. Each upgrade brings new problems and exposes new bottlenecks. A vitally important factor is machine speed. People hate waiting 30 sec to a min for their mail or news to index or for a program to start. This gets people complaining fast. Batch processing: For incoming mail and news, we can deal with slower machines here, but we will need power news and mail get backed up at another site and we get hit with a deluge all in one day (this happens more than you may think) We should probably allow users to use 5 megs of diskspace with maybe a one dollar per meg per month charge for diskspace used over five megs. We need need to know this before we know how much HD space to buy. D) Dialups This is a HUGE pain in the ass. The system Aron currently on staff for (eskimo.com) has a basic policy of 90% free. Meaning 90% of the time you get through on the first try. This has worked out to 13 users per dialup. We will likely find something similar. Optimally I would like to see around 10 per dialup, but resources will again be a factor. E) Miscellaneous Services Games: Something where the user has a graphic client at home and uses our machines to communicate with other users in the same general area or around the world I know DOOM can be played on networks. It would be interesting to talk with id software and see what we can hack together. 3) Social issues A) Residents We have to decide how many resident members we want. They all have to be pretty compatible in living style, as well. It seems that 5-10 would work out pretty well, with seven as the ideal. We also need *balance*. We need techs, artists, writers, teachers, and more sorts to round out the local community. A household full of tech/hacker/geek-types won't be well-rounded enough for my tastes. (Well all be net-fiends, though, of course.) Residents will be those that can make a healthy commitment of time and money to the nexus. Time and a desire to work are *clearly* more important than the size of your monetary contribution. We will however need a decent amount of capital to get the ball rolling. All types of people need apply. We have enough people to run the tech end of things even now (though we would like a few more). We intend to try living together for a month or 3 to iron out the kinks before sinking our hard won cash into a ton of equipment. There are a ton of horrible nasty issues that have to be worked out before we can even THINK of doing this seriously. B) Local community We can set up a BBS to serve everyone in the community, to help foster the community-oriented aspects. Sameer thinks that the local discussions groups should be accesible ONLY via the BBS (hopefully we can find a good free BBS system for UNIX) because there's an entirely different feeling when accessing something via a usenet newsreader than a BBS interface. We want people logging into the BBS (if they want to login directly to a shell that is cool too) as the default. Something that is intuitive and user friendly. Something that encourages communication between our customers. Encourages them to make their own spaces within the BBS (various conferences or groups-- it should be trivial for a user to start his or her own local group). We should encourage people use the machines for thier projects and interests -- hopefully things we haven't even conceived. It is important to get the users as involved in the bbs as possible. Aron has noticed that people will put up with a lot of crap if you tell them *why* it is happening and *what* is being done to fix it. Encourge folks to build a place where they will feel comfortable. Once again the community aspect of the bbs is key, it is the only thing we will be able to offer folks that crl and netcom can't. Although I do not want to do this at the expense of performance, community is something that we can only work to foster; if we pull it off will not cost us anything in the way of money. Although 95% of all muds are complete shit there are a select few that are very much worth playing. They also do a ton for a community vibe (at least some of them do) This is another thing that can start small (depending on resources) and grow to hugeness. C) Nexus Fissioning These are basically the issues of nexi fissoning, or ouside parties with the recources to do so "glomming on". Most of this can be addressed at a later date. D) Meetings User meetings are key. We nned to be able to meet these folks face to face and show them that we are in fact real folks. It makes people feel better about the service and enhances the community vibe. Aron would suggest monthly meetings. Sunday afternoons are usually the best time. A place like a pizza joint usually has no problem with this since they get little buisness on sunday afternoons. Also that is the time most people will be able to make a meeting. Before Aron left Seattle eskimo was getting between 20-30 folks a month sometimes as many as 50. He's sure it has swelled since eskimo's subscriber base has exploded. 4) Economic issues A) Incorporation We should get an EIN, and a bank account, and all that good stuff, but the question is whether or not we should incorporate as a non-profit? It has been mentioned that the "safest" way for us to go about organising as a buisness is to organise as a corperation. This protects us from being sued as individuals and has tons of other nice benefits-- limited liability. There are also numerous reasons we would like a corporation for tax reasons, because by moving personal expenses to corporate expenses we can get bigger tax writeoffs. B) Incomes for residents At the outset everyone will need day jobs. C) Self-sufficiency Once the nexus becomes self-sufficient (I'm optimistic) dealing with new arrivals/departures will get VERY interesting. D) Shell accounts for the community We can provide dialup access to the net, and our edge on the big providers will be the niche market I've been talking about. The community-oriented approach will give us our market. I'd like it to be sorta like the well but less expensive, and less elitist. Monthly meetings for users, occasional parties, and the like will build a strong commitment between the nexus and the dialup members. A good pricing structure could be $15/month, $30/quarter, and $90/year. F) Anonymous crypto services 5) Projects Projects will be what gives us noteriety in the E and RL communities. They will also be a major source of income (depending on the nature of the project obviously). Hopefully, they will also be a hell of a lot of fun. We need any and all ideas for more project areas. People who joined the NEXUS-Berkeley will have to decide for themselves how they can contribute using their own particular skills, in their own project. Thus before anyone joins the NEXUS-Berkeley an individual should write up an informal "Project Proposal" such that their commitment is made firm and we know how they'll be able to help. We will be writing up a "Request for Projects" and posting it among various newsgroups, so that interested people may join us if they so desire. A) Programming Being a mostly E oriented group (although not totally E, but that will be the focal point and that which brings us together, a facilitator if you will) we will most likely have tons of programming projects going. Some of which will relate directly to the BBS, others which may have uses to a variety of people. Writing free software for net distribution and the like. The majority of the things below are just ideas I am throwing at you. Feel free to pick them up and run or add your own. B) AI This is an interest of Aron's and he would like to work on various things in this area. C) Graphics Eye candy anyone? SGI or Amiga kinda stuff here, Dunno how we can turn it into money though I *know* there are many ways. We could possibly offer the basic scanning and manipulation services in order to help pay for the workstations and other assorted equipment. D) Cryptography Sameer is very interested in implementing and developing cryptographic and anonymity tools through the Nexus for fun & profit. There is a good deal that we can do, including pay for use anonymous remailing services, anonymous IP forwarding (IP laundry) TCP in UDP tunnelling so that nomads can have TCP/IP connectivity whereever they have a telnet dialup. Each of these schemes can bring in a good sum of money, if arranged properly E) Operating Systems Have you ever been 100% satisfied with the OS you were using? Although the manpower (ok personpower) for such a massive undertaking would not come solely from the Nexus. I do not see why it could not be a focal point for development. There is a ton of public domain code to start with and build on. I would favor a microkernel UNIX variant. We could offer free accounts to other folks who are willing to do coding (up to a reasonable level). We could offer a full blown killer OS for the price of Windows or System 7. Aron fully realizes this is one of his "lofty" goals, but he would love to see it happen. F) Zines Chris Blosser has expressed his desire to publish a 'zine for his contribution to the project. It would be a wonderful form of community building, including merely public relations all the way to contributions from subscribers to the various services which we will sell. G) Music Making money in that buiness? If we had the space (correctly zoned of course) we could put on shows of various types, showcase slightly obscure bands, and make some money in the process. There is quite a bit of shit to consider insurance and crap. We could incorporate the net into our music making-- some intercity/international collaborative music-making would be an excellent project. This could be incorporated into collaborative artwork as well, similar to things such as the OTIS Project. H) Raves & Parties As for a raves and rave like parties, these are other things we can do (both free and for profit though if anyone wants to throw a $20 event we will kill them) We have a few folks who are knowledgeable about what to do here. It would be really great to put on parties at which we have terminals available, either logged into vrave or connected with other Nexus-homes across the world each of them holding parties at the same time, so that international parties can be arranged. Sameer has mentioned this idea to many people and they are very interested-- this seems a great way of getting people interested in becoming members or simply attending our parties. Of course there are concerns about securing the equipment and noise in the neigborhood. And numbers of people. This is a great idea for community building. Do we even let folks know where the house is? All these party ideas are great, but do we really want a ton of people we don't know, knowing that we have 100 grand worth of equipment in our house? Security is a big issue here, as well as the fact that we may not have enough room to pull shit like this off. This is definetly something that needs to be hashed out. I) Testers We will probably end up with a wealth of people who want to beta test our projects. We can offer incentives to these people as well (although early use of the program should be enough). 6) The house A) Location Sameer wants it to be close to the UC Campus. Sameer attends the UC, so I'd like to live close by. There's more people in the area, which is a plus, as well. Choosing a place close to the PacBell's Berkeley Cental Office would give us improved line quality and a cheaper leased line. The location is to be somewhere in Berkeley, while there is also a small possibility that the house could be in San Francisco. There are a variety of factors involved, some of which will not be resolved for a while. There is also a more miniscule possibility that the nexi will fission off before even getting started with locations in each city. (If we end up with say 20 *seriously* interested people this would be the most likely scenario.) B) Size The house should be large enough to house 5-10 people (around 7 being considered optimum) When it comes to floors and number of rooms, that is still up in the air this depends mostly on how people want to live, some can handle living in rooms with one or 2 other people while other people *need* thier own space. Ideally, the lower level would be with a kitchen, living room, and bathroom, and the upper levels would house the private spaces of all the residents, so that we can host parties while preserving the security of each individual resident's space. C) Cost ??? I don't know much much a 6 BR place near campus costs. I read one ad that was a 6 BR place, allegedly "close to UC" for $2400/month. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLWmcq3i7eNFdXppdAQHS0AP9EvGLjvpZf/p2uSaywniS2GW/gMiP7P1P UKc9Dt5Sh8bhxFlW/pc2UsR7x4Xx2/qdkYHMbSP/KjbBJTa7viXtqLIP63vrgScz 9TaY6suKaelp7Hzg+S9zxbkzxry1LwXFpmGkxGze8prOG4FdEXCPQALCfaQI/E9U xHEPWrALQZU= =PqFj -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Young cypherpunk seeks summer position in the Bay Area
by Sameer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- (Could some exi-bayer please forward this to the main Extropians list? I've been busy lately and unsubbed. Thanks.) This young motivated, energetic, talented cypherpunk is in search of some sort of summer position, internship, whathaveyou which will use his skills to the fullest. I've been hacking UNIX for the past three and a half years now, and I've been employed using UNIX for the past semester. I've been spending much time outside of class & work learning perl and other fun elements of UNIX-- I've installed linux and xwindows on my roommate's 486. I've recently been working on a fully anonymous anon server which protects users against direct attacks upon the server itself. Although I spend a great deal of time outside class learning to administrate my local machine, I have still found the time to do well in my classes. I plan on majoring in both Computer Science and Physics because they are both so compelling that I can't choose one or the other. While I would prefer a position which is BARTable from Berkeley, because I don't own a car, I can probably get a car if needed. -Sameer SAMEER PAREKH 2650 Durant #802F Berkeley, CA 94720 510-643-1741 (voice) 510-321-1014 (pager) sameer(a)soda.berkeley.edu OBJECTIVE: A summer position in the Bay Area utilizing my computer skills. EDUCATION: University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 Graduation: 1997 Intended Majors: Computer Science/Physics --- GPA: 3.9 Libertyville High School, Libertyville, IL 60048 Graduated 1993 --- GPA: 4.343 Class Rank: 8/460 Languages: 5 years Spanish, 3 years Latin COMPUTER EXPERIENCE: Systems: UNIX (System Vr4 & BSD: SunOS, Ultrix, HP/UX, Dell, Dynix, Linux), XWindows (tvtwm, olvwm), MS-DOS, Macintosh, GS/OS Languages/ Shells: C, C++, Perl, Awk, Sed, Bourne Shell, TC Shell, Scheme, Pascal, BASIC EMPLOYMENT: Assistant Network Administrator - Haas School of Business Computer Center September 1993-Present o Install network hardware/software o Write programs and scripts for the day-to-day administration of the UNIX computers, including automated mail alias creation and modification o Write and maintain UNIX scripts to manage mailing lists, gopher, and other UNIX services Student Technician - Libertyville High School March 1992-June 1993 o Operate lighting, sound, & fly systems for private groups renting the school's theatre and auditorium facilities o Train underclassmen in operation of lighting, sound, flies, and other technical equipment o Responsible for operation of auditorium facilities for school events, including concerts and assemblies ACTIVITIES: Computer Science Undergraduate Association AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS: National Merit Scholarship Finalist Illinois State Scholar Advanced Placement Scholar Semifinalist for the US Physics Team Junior Engineering Technological Society District Competition First Place Physics Third Place Computer Fundamentals Most Valuable Team Player State (Illinois) Competition First Place Physics Fourth Place Computer Fundamentals REFERENCES: Available upon request -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCUAgUBLWmf7Xi7eNFdXppdAQHkLwP3XBGQrvKGxk0l7TxRqBE5ghOjA+Ojo+Cp EJx207mn+6yjR4UNLheHSPGWQhG7RtYsH6ziXR2XqfjBNv7YSMG6Tb5nmteySTMO 4uy7I8dozZ4mQBf+sAbkvk0SpSgw+Md9lz6WRmUI2PCbQSwHlHbp5zgoqpwk9AY7 4DFzz3GeNw== =g5Wv -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Just wrote a simple perl script to autosign messages
by Sameer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I just a simple perl script which autoencrypts a message based on the To: line.. it's not very robust, but: The To: line must be of the form: To: Name <address> To: address (Name) To: address It uses a userid of "address" to encrypt. It doesn' allow multiple names on the To: line. #!/usr/bin/perl $pgp = "PGPPATH=/home/sameer/safe/pgp /usr/local/bin/pgp" ; $header = "/tmp/header.$$" ; $body = "/tmp/body.$$" ; open (HEADER, "> $header" ) ; while(<>) { print HEADER $_ ; $to = $1 if /^To: (.*)$/ ; $to = $1 if /^To: .* \<(.*)\>$/ ; $to = $1 if /^To: (.*) $.*$$/ ; last if /^[ \t]*$/ ; } close ( HEADER ) ; open (PGP, "| $pgp -eaf \"$to\"\ > $body" ) ; select (PGP) ; print <> ; close (PGP) ; select (STDOUT) ; open ( HEADER, $header ) ; print <HEADER> ; close HEADER ; open ( BODY, $body ) ; print <BODY> ; close BODY ; -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLWm2Rni7eNFdXppdAQHB1gQAjOVUdh+45+u1t9hiYS6IeK5A0LoRWpS/ 3ekx8ohTudmXND1OKr3r9j9mjWtZr8TD8Upc7rVy6Ez3P7vdHa75uiuqzy4mwaUM ORDrBL19gjqR9w8leoSylFpNRAHVOCTx4NzoFpDTEXWpGcq6fF7jL4OPpRIMH7lj hkIuR7BnAjY= =AxMi -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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PGP Tools question, and soda archives.
by Seth Morris 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hey all. I've been trying to get the PGP Tools library to work on my system (MSDOS, Turbo C 2.0, 286), and have been having a hell of a time. Aside from the problems getting the makefile to function here (the DOS 127 character command line limit killed the ptd.exe cc line), the demo locks up in fifo_destroy. Looks like there's a missing NULL termiantor. Now, I saw a bug fix on the list a few days (weeks?) ago, and I'm not certain if the file I have has that included (pgptl10c.zip), so I tried to check the cypherpunks archives at soda.berkeley.edu to find the reference. I don't have shell acces here (have to use a menu, can't use elm's filter, no ftp, no telnet, etc), and gopher failed to connect to soda to let me look. When I borrowed a friend's shell account for a few moments to try the ftp, soda shut down when I told it I was anonymous. So, is soda still the archive (have I missed a major announcement?)? Is there a later version of pgptools? Has someone else fixed the MS-DOS support? (I finally just yanked the multiple platform support from my copy, figuring that if my code compiles here with MS-DOS support forced but I haven't changed the library code itself then my code SHOULD compile on a machine where the multiple platform support is functional)? Is there a fix to fifo I need to make or track down? Has soda locked out anonymous ftp permanently? (I also use the White Wolf archives there.) Is there an approved of pool or newsgroup to send messages to Pr0duct Cypher? I hate to add to the cypherpunks traffic with comments directly to him/her. (We NEED to get the return addresses working, or Pr0duct should try the new anonymous address server (from Ghio? I should know, I saw the name 50 times today!)!) Seth Morris (Seth.Morris(a)launchpad.unc.edu)

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