December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Hiding data
by Mike Ingle 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To hide data on a hard drive, just optimize the hard drive with SpeedDisk or a similar program. This puts everything at the beginning. Now write the secret stuff from the end back. DOS allocates from the beginning out, so if you keep plenty of empty space on the disk, the secret data shouldn't get clobbered. If you have enough memory to hold all your secret data, you could zip the RAMdisk and write the encrypted ZIP from the end back. There is also a blank track. After the partition table, that whole first track is blank and never written to. The Linux boot program installs itself there and lets you choose an operating system to boot. Is there any way to read data back from a laser printer's memory? PCL lasers allow you to create macros, and these can hold image files. In this way a large amount of data can be put into the printer and stored there. Is there any way to get it back into the computer? Anyone seizing/stealing (any difference?) a computer would probably not check the printer for data before unplugging it. An assembler called A86 hides a signature in an executable by changing how it generates instructions. Some instructions can be generated with two or more equivalent forms. The assembler switches between them, encoding a bit with each of those instructions. As someone pointed out in a prior iteration of the steganography debate, if steganography becomes the only way to communicate privately, we have already lost the battle. --- Mike

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Re: STEALTH OCEANS
by Sergey Goldgaber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is my first post to this list, so please don't flame me if I make some trivial mistake. %-> IDEA Re: making random noise files "undetectable"... ~~~~~~~ On many machines the file system allows users to "delete" files without actually deleting them. This is usually accomplished by simply marking the disk blocks that make up the file as free. Thus it should be possible to write an encrypted (noise) file on to disk, pad the rest of the disk with more noise and "delete" the whole thing, making the disk look blank to all casual observers. PROBLEM: If the above idea is implemented, one could not write on to the ~~~~~~~ the disk for fear of accidentaly overwriting the "free" disk blocks. SOLUTION: Knowing the _exact_ location and size of the file, one could write ~~~~~~~~ directly to those block which are _really_ free. 2nd PROBLEM: In order to decrypt the file, one needs to know it's ~~~~~~~~~~~ _exact_ location and size (or use some undelete util)... Which brings me to the... 3rd PROBLEM: An undelete utility could make recovering the encrypted ~~~~~~~~~~~ file trivial for _anyone_. SOLUTION: Make the file undetectable to udelete utilitys by modifying ~~~~~~~~ the FAT table, or equivalent. One would, of course, have to keep track of the file in some other, non-standard, way. FINAL(?) PROBLEM: Implementing the above idea is trivial for the average ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ user. Making and recovering truely undetectable files may not be. All feedback welcome, Sergey

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No Subject
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I found this on the net someplace HACKTIC.NL Now has an encrypted remailer :) with the calgary remailer this could get interesting ... -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.3a mQCNAi1UdrEAAAEEALWuDmA6RLFilJQrzx/GHsBiZ5ODwkwaDITQEAANq8y9q4WJ 9NZ2WB0/m1sQ0YVvlm2tH9UlvxQ1JeGf9gamBCTtcY/dENRwXlRa/JEh4cGSeeFS cPGiBg4MxEWWHYep/aCT4asltdOqS3NRqqm+X571YEDoWXqd86QBed+kEHu5AAUR tC9IYWNrLVRpYyBBbm9ueW1vdXMgUmVtYWlsZXIgPHJlbWFpbEBoYWNrdGljLm5s PokAVQIFEC1WFN+UcphdeZT3BQEBk2wB/0UREDxp4Bj+os5mNyDkx+YTfYJO14Wz emTdDyn7x/uib7PMXGkTmCO1bSG5W92G0RnVetmlo1SmDpGEgFTtCv0= =RP9M -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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usenet gateway
by Grand Epopt Feotus 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hmm, I tried to route a letter thru a remailer and to the usenet gateway at cs.utexas.edu and it has shown no bounce back or appeared in the propernewsgroup. Is the utexas place still operating? Or, did I do something wrong. Basically what I did, was hit "R" in trn in order to make a reply, then I edited the headers and added the neccesary lines to forward the mail thru the remailer. hmm, or is the utexas place slow at sending out articles? You're eqipped with a hundred billion nueron brain, that's wired and fired, and it's a reality generating device, but you've got too do it. Free youself ----Tim Leary----

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MONEY: cryptocash is transaction money
by hughes＠ah.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've been getting questions about digital money lately which indicate a basic misunderstanding of its most important feature. Crypto cash is a way of moving money, not a way of holding money. Crypto cash is like a check or a note rather than like the dollar, franc, or mark. Crypto cash is a way of increasing one person's balance and decreasing someone else's balance. Since it's not a currency, it's not sensible to talk about its exchange rates. Digital money can be denominated in any currency you like, so long as you have a bank or other financial institution to handle it for you. This is only an obvious distinction if you already know it. "Money" is such an overloaded word that it's easy to get confused. If this isn't clear, _please_ let me clarify. If you don't get this, none of the rest of the digital money discourse will be understandable. Eric

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unsubscribe
by THOMAST＠UWSTOUT.EDU 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Unsubscribe

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Re: Source Level
by nobody＠soda.berkeley.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 18 Feb 1994, Greg - Kucharo wrote: > Eric, > In your idea to give usenet users a chance to have competing moderated groups > with unmoderated ones.Don't you think that the large numbers who want a > moderated group will kill all demand for the unmoderated ones?Then we would be > left with only moderated groups,who grated would have more signal to noise but > less lively debate.People post so much to groups because they know they can in > a free manner,moderation would slow the onslaught of banal posts and plenty of > posts from folks who think thier ideas too wild for the moderator.Remember the > root of moderator is moderate.As in,"This food is moderately good." > > Greg. > kryten(a)shell.portal.com "This space available" > > i for one would stick to the UNmoderated groups. I think that many people thrive on the chaos there and the openess. I personally don't think I would like to have to submit articles for some guys approval, just something uncool about it to me. I don't mean uncool, like fashion, I mean it just doesnt fit with my idea of free exchange of ideas. I mean no matter how much you stress that the moderator be lenient and open you are gonna run into problems. The Inet is full, or should I say fool, of BIG fuckin egos, and they have a nifty way of clashing. A moderator just doesnt fit into my free exchange idea. Too much like an "Official(tm)" thing to me, and i don't particulalry take to official things. To me the beauty of usenet is the chaos and mass amounts of info, even the noise that goes flying thru it. Without that it would be just like every other stale BBS forum with no edge and no fun. wow, these remailers are neat

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dos stego
by Brian D Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Fellow Cypherpatriots, I just finished mailing uuencoded stegodos.zip to all those who requested it. I also uploaded it to soda.berkeley.edu to /pub/cypherpunks/incoming. The file is stegodos.zip. Brian Williams Extropian Cypherpatriot "Cryptocosmology: Sufficently advanced comunication is indistinguishable from noise." --Steve Witham -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLWTlctCcBnAsu2t1AQFiZAQAlNnvZh5Iy4ZTZHM9lT3GYVfj0/dcEw+9 AoxuEp0uRMc0kqSPH6AL7OtgKfhxLnUZ9GGoMpGdjoMAiqSjnICMZUwLLlVzJ5Dd xIY28uwT1mqv3yCx6mynCpVlNUQ/5L+toQIvTEyhD2bScSdOeb/zdgNF3C9Y5i7L vrSUMWslTI0= =EIUS -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Mimicry
by Gary Jeffers 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I find hiding info. in falsely deleted files to be futile because of the following reasons. 1. too easy to write over them. 2. procedures to keep track of everything too complicated. 3. direct sector writing is a non-trivial programming problem, rather risky, & complicated with today's compressed disks. I have thought of a related alternative however: The use of one of the virus maker's tools - the false "BAD SECTOR" trick where good data is written into these "bad sectors". You would only want to mark a few sectors as bad & then put in only high quality information. Some kind of a "bootstrapping" operation such as a simple XOR program that turns a "garbage file" into a PGP file. The PGP could in turn be use to decrypt a stenography system for a real high security encrypt system. Remember that a user supplied password must also be used. Incidentally, if we are forced to rely on stenography systems exclusively, we may have lost a battle or 2, but we will win innumerable other battles & later - the war. Yours Turly, Gary Jeffers GO TEAM GO! GO TEAM GO! PUSH EM BACK! PUSH EM BACK! WAAAAYYYY BBAAACCCKKK! BEEEAAATTT STATE!

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Re: Tentacle Contest -- Great!
by joshua geller 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>That contest by SQUISH is great! I think I was laughing halfway through >the first paragraph through to the end! >Can I become a tentacle? 8) >I hope no one takes you TOO seriously -- oh please. > > > _____ > ____......------'-----`------......_____ > -=======================================================- > `-----....._________.....-----' > ____ \ | / ____ > (____) __/_|_\__ (____) > \\_________.-'_.-----._`-._________// > `---------`.. `-----' ..'---------' > `~~~~~~~' > /------------------------------------------------------------------\ > | If God had wanted us to explore space, he would have given us | > | a moon. -- The Discovery Channel | > |------------------------------------------------------------------| > | The world is moving so fast that the man who says 'it can't be | > | is usually interrupted by the man doing it. | > |------------------------------------------------------------------| > | Joshua Danowitz, Csci Major, Hunter College, City Univ. of NY | > | Internet Address -- JODHC(a)CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU | > | Bitnet Address -- JODHC(a)CUNYVM.BITNET | > | Snail-Mail Address -- 12 E. 86 St./Apt. 605, New York, NY 10028 | > \------------------------------------------------------------------/ this is disgusting. stop it at once. or change your name or something. josh

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