December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: BofA+Netscape
by amanda＠intercon.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> It my personal feeling that Netscape doesn't have the right > talent mix to develop secure software. It's my personal feeling that Netscape doesn't have the right talent mix to develop *any* Internet software, secure or not. Although, I have to say, I've never seen a startup that pissed off so much of the Internet industry and user community in so short a time. Even Apple & Microsoft agree that Netscape is brain dead... Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation

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Re: BofA+Netscape
by alano＠teleport.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Lads, > >I thought many of you would be interested in the text of this story. I'm >wondering if anyone has any comments on the excryption mechanism (i.e. >"eavesdropping" protection) being used. I believe, from my visits to the >Netscape (formerly Mosaic) Communications Inc. offices that they are using >RSA, but I'm not sure how *secure* their implementation is (eg. key size, >etc.). I'll be contacting my local branch to inquire as to how soon I'll be >able to use the service and will post my experiences with it as soon as >possible. If you check their WWW page, you will find information on the Secure Sockets Layer. It explains the algorythm used (RC4) and key size (40 bits). The specification is available from a web page off of their site. With the latest version of Netscape, you can enable a "secure" connection with their site. To do so use: https://home.mcom.com/ as the home page address. (You need at least .96 to do this.) I am not certain as to their key exchange protocol... | "Encryption ROT13s your mind." | alano(a)teleport.com | |"Would you rather be tortured by the government | Disclaimer: | |forces or the people's liberation army?" -mklprc | Ignore the man | | -- PGP 2.6.2 key available on request -- | behind the keyboard.|

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Re: Real-time surveillance of the police
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:04 PM 12/11/94 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >This was an idea explored in detail by David Brin in 1990 in his novel >"Earth." Video cameras are ubiquitous and have a major effect on >casual street crime. Hard to forget Brin's description of little old ladies sitting on their front porches, "armed" will full-sensoria headgear, laying in wait for extremely uneducated juvenile miscreants... Humorous. >This scenario is a likely way that "position escrow" will evolve, from >a voluntary escrowing (incl. timestamping, etc.). "Those with nothing >to hide" will agree to escrow their movements...this will exculpate >them in suspected crimes, etc. A slippery slope. In "City of Angles", Kim Stanley Robinson(?) talks about just a virtuous all-surveilling governmental "privacy" authority which is supposed "protect" your privacy from the police, who had to subpoena the information to get it. > >On the topic of how these localizers actually work, I'm not at liberty >to talk about the technology. It's novel, and uses a *lot* if digital >signal processing. It doesn't use GPS and it's not a variant of >cellular telephones. I wonder if they're using an active/transponder system. That's what O'Niell's Geostar system was designed with in the early '80's. It would have put up cheaper sattellites and smaller earth transponders. The way you saved on transponder size was with very small bursts at very high power. You could send a signal to a small net of satellites 30,000 miles up with a box initially no bigger than an HP12C, and which would shrink more with time. The feds never liked Geostar 'cause they already had the passive/receiver GPS in the works, and they wanted to "amortize" the social cost of an essentially military (hence the requirement for a passive system) system on the backs of commerce. The only thing which saved GPS for mere mortals like us was the MIC's usual severe understimate of Grove's Law and the exponential cost effectiveness of integrated circuits over time. If my hunch is correct, with lots more local antennas, the power requirements of the tranceiver, and as a result, the tranceiver size, gets pretty small. Small enough to be worn on one's ankle. Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923

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Re: Remailing Services Questions
by L. McCarthy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Anonymous writes: > If you can, please also let us know if there is a way for us to subscribe > via an anonymous remailer to an address we designate, like for instance > with the command > > subscribe special(a)address.here > > where the special address given is obviously different from the one in the > header of the subscription message (which would merely be a remailer). Could you explain this a bit more ? I'm not sure what you're asking. > Does anyone know more about Sameer's C2-services? > In the interest of widespread usage, please post a summary to the entire > cypherpunks-list. Also urge others to copy, forward and post elsewhere. First, here's an excerpt from http://www.c2.org:80/services/: - - --- begin included text ----------------------------------------------------- Fully blind anonymity If you want to protect your privacy and still have mail go to your normal mailbox (either at work, at school, or through any other way you get internet mail), you can sign up for the blind anonymous server. You can set up an alias with us and mail to your alias will get to you, even though we have *no* idea who you are or where mail to you ends up going. This is available for only $10 for about every five megs of traffic which goes through the system. When you sign up you will get about one meg of free traffic. Also available is a Blind Server Client to make things easier. - - --- end included text ------------------------------------------------------- I reproduce below the current contents of http://www.c2.org/services/blindserver.html: - - --- begin included text ----------------------------------------------------- The Blind Anonymous Server by Sameer Parekh <sameer(a)c2.org> Copyright 1994 Introduction I hatched up the Blind Anon Server because of Eric Hughes's comments about the safety in ignorance. I wanted to run an anon server, maybe similar to Julf's remailer, but I did *not* want to know the connection between anon-ids and real IDs. I still wanted it to be easy to use so that someone who wanted to send mail to an anonymous person need only send it to a standard mail address, instead of using Hal's remailer return address block, which is an incredible pain to use. The system I have hatched up is relatively secure. If you take the proper steps to secure your identity from me, even if I were keeping complete logs, I would still know nothing of your true identity and if my records were subpoenaed, I could freely hand over the contents of my records without any worry that the privacy of my users will be violated. The system requires all commands to be pgp signed. Thus you will create a public/private keypair for your anonymous identity, and all administrative commands to the list regarding this identity must be signed by that key. You can send list commands from any address-- an anon remailer, a friend's address, Julf's remailer, whatever.. and as long as it is signed by your identity's key, all will be well. If you don't want to deal with every detail of the server, you can just use the blind client program that's been written to make using the server much easier. Setup First you have to create your alias on the anonymous server. Creating the alias is easy, but setting it up to work right takes a bit of effort and bookkeeping on your part. (Maybe I'll write a client which can take care of all the bookkeeping.) Create a pgp keypair with a User ID of the form "Psuedonym <alias(a)omega.c2.org>". Send your public key to admin(a)omega.c2.org with the subject line, "addkey". This will create for you an anonymous id which can be accessed via "alias(a)omega.c2.org". You should only send one key to the server in any single addkey request. You have to choose an account name which hasn't been used before. In order to get the list of all account names which have been used and are not available, send a message with the subject "sendused address" to admin(a)omega.c2.org and the list of unavailable names will be sent to address, with the body of your request tacked on to the top, so you can use a remailer for the "address" and the body can be an encrypted mailing block-- you need not reveal your identity to me in any case. Starting an account gives you 1000 credits. Now if you would like to send a message to someone from your newly formed alias, you can send a signed message to the administration address (admin(a)omega.c2.org) with the "mailmessage" command. For example: ::mailmessage To: barney(a)black.net Subject: here's the plans to the stealth bomber Keywords: bomber Here's the plans... - - --END OF MESSAGE-- The message will be sent out from omega.c2.org just as if you had sent it out using a standard mail program from omega.c2.org. Then comes the more complex part. You have to tell my anonserver how mail to your alias will actually get to you. There are various levels of security which you can use. Because the remailernet is not very reliable, the idea is that you setup a number of paths which mail can get to you through, so that if one path goes down you can still use the other paths to get mail. You can either configure it so that mail to you goes through every path (for reliability with less security) or one path chosen at random (more secure but less reliable). To add a path to your list of paths, you must send a signed message to the list, with the lines ::addpath firsthop PATH INFORMATION GOES HERE - - --END OF PATH-- The firsthop is the first hop along the path between my anon server and you. It can be your address, in which case there is a good deal of reliability, but you get absolutely no good security. The "path information" is what gets tacked onto the top of the body before the message gets sent to the first hop. Suppose your firsthop was Hal's remailer, hfinney(a)shell.portal.com.. You would have something like: ::addpath hfinney(a)shell.portal.com :: Encrypted: PGP - - -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.3a hEwCKlkQ745WINUBAfwPrO+z9LMBz7boyyC7gUqX/QCEZkXmJCeZYoskgtH5qqbi y4mYUL5a0ApbzrhPs8ULkPnW2c4Pfr1AfYSSgvrzpgAAAEvJtPOuQsW8IVQfl+iW CAr2gd5jax+t75qbux5U/RRxlbsq4cOeGrO/i/6Km6m71Vsdj0rquEQBvREnXxdj 81YsBM9QlFNxQAB8rrQ= =Ylli - - -----END PGP MESSAGE----- - - --END OF PATH-- That pgp message is encrypted for Hal's remailer. When Hal's remailer gets the message, it will have this block on the front of the body. Hal's remailer can then decrypt it.. Maybe on the inside of this block you can put: :: Anon-Send-To: So then there's only one remailer on the chain between myserver and your real address. For more security you can embed *another* hop to another remailer with another encrypted address block. This can continue for as long as you want. The longer the path, the more secure, but the less reliable. Once the path has been added, you will be sent mail (through the anon server) encrypted with your key (all mail to your alias will be sent out encrypted with your key) with the pathnumber that your command created. Store this path number in a safe place, because you will need to use it when you test all your paths for reliability. You can create multiple paths in this fashion. The remailer defaults to "spray" mode-- this means that mail to your alias will be sent through *each* of your paths. This adds reliability at the expense of security. (It makes traffic analysis easier.) If you would like to turn off spray mode, send a command to admin(a)omega.c2.org: ::randmode To turn spray mode on: ::spraymode You can actually use this spray mode for more than just an anon-server. If you'd like to create a mailing list, you can generate a keypair, distribute to everyone on the mailing list the secret key, and everyone can send into the anon server a path to themselves. Using spray mode, mail to the address will go out to every path. This of course means that anyone can subscribe or unsubscribe (Removing paths is described below) people to/from the list. The Credit Scheme When you startup an account, you get 1000 credits. When mail is sent out along one of the paths, credit is deducted from the account-- 1 credit per 512 bytes of traffic. Note that if you are in spray mode credits are deducted for every path which is active for your alias. If your account does not have enough credit, when a message comes in you will get mail detailing the size of the message that was lost and the amount of credits you have in your account. (Size is listed in 512 byte blocks) More credits will be added to your account upon receipt of payment for additional credits to your account. The one thousand credits is in general enough to take care of occasional mail using the 'nym. Only if you use the 'nym heavily should you expect to run out of credits. Removing paths If a certain path which you have active flakes out and becomes ineffective, you need some way of turning that path off so you're not paying for it in spray mode, and so you don't lose mail in random mode. That's what the disablepath command is for. To run the disablepath command you simply send the command (signed, as always) to admin(a)omega.c2.org: ::disablepath pathnumber Pathnumber, here, is the number of the path which was assigned when you created that path. Hence it is useful for you to keep good records of your active and disabled paths. It is possible to reenable a path once it has been disabled. In order to do this you need to remember the path number and the remailer that it's associated with. To recover a path you just send: ::recoverpath firsthop pathnum And the path with the number pathnum is reactivated, with the firsthop that you give it in the recover command. Path Verification You will likely want to keep tabs such that you know when a given path flakes out on you. For this reaon the "regping" option is available. This command lets you tell the system how often you want the anon-server to send a message through every path of yours, with the pathnumber in the message (encrypted, of course) so that you can keep tabs on which paths are flaking out on you. To set your ping frequency, use the regping command: ::regping frequency Where frequency can be none, hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. Remember that you are still being charged for these testpings. The system defaults to weekly. To get a list of all your active paths, use the command "showpaths". This command will send out a listing of the pathnumber and first hop of each of your active paths: ::showpaths Defeating Traffic Analysis The system works in concert with remail(a)c2.org, which does the work to defeat traffic analysis. All mail to each path is first sent through remail(a)c2.org for added difficulty in traffic analysis. remail(a)c2.org is a standard cypherpunks remailer with PGP with a few added features. All outgoing mail is not delivered immediately upon receipt. Outgoing messages are stored in a pool until five minutes after each hour, when all messages in the pool are delivered in a random order, ignoring the order in which they came in. Every minute there is also a chance that a random uuencoded message is injected into the remailernet. Each message injected into the remailer net is sent through a random path of the remailers in the remailernet, usually between five and 20 hops. - - --- end included text ------------------------------------------------------ > Last, I support the idea of a while ago that the remailer-operators mailing > list should be open for public subscription so all those interested can get > on and follow what is happened there. But how do we subscribe? > Let us know, Sameer! remailer-operators is a Majordomo-managed list. Send mail to majordomo(a)c2.org with "subscribe remailer-operators" in the body to subscribe to the list. The list address is (surprise) remailer-operators(a)c2.org. Hope this helps. I don't know anything about the Extropia message pool, sorry. - - -L. Futplex McCarthy; PGP key by finger or server "We've got computers, we're tapping phone lines; I know that that ain't allowed" --Talking Heads - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBLuuINWf7YYibNzjpAQHhywP/W7F29XQGxxQ5m6trH4XgHaocfoSVr5h2 zSgjucQ3RkvNk++n8lX4LFKnqrd6s8tXoWm/dqKtUjLEOfP3lgLua3quh2x8PSSm zzjklsrrdhCxKo5wwaacgaq1DtUP2AjTHhxjh9OFmuiI7tqw/N0Br9RyuGyKYxdt LSvzP6e9+xA= =BszC - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLuuJeioZzwIn1bdtAQEXNAF/Q5ziXcXXBxdnV7bbNqZGMV8f9kJhD+d2 nfdNgEqH1183JG5AyMokIdsCqaEeM5qd =IKyL -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Netscape competence
by L. McCarthy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Marc Andreessen writes: > In article <199412091814.NAA07757(a)hermes.bwh.harvard.edu>, adam(a)bwh.harvard.edu (Adam Shostack) wrote: > > > It my personal feeling that Netscape doesn't have the right > > talent mix to develop secure software. For example, they may well get > > the RSA parts right, and then store the passphrase in a text file, > > 'for ease of use.' > > My goodness, that's a bit malicious and unsubstantiated, isn't it? Excuse me, but Adam Shostack didn't write that paragraph you quoted. Amanda Walker <amanda(a)intercon.com> did, as I recall. BTW, welcome to the list.... - - -L. Futplex McCarthy - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBLuuJZ2f7YYibNzjpAQERXQP/SJnxzt7tckazsBBtfQrKA3c08RLjYUs9 1xK3b/WqqFvmCDyMpwQg5yLzEk7uq7SFp725FMP/jZ8ZUnvpQGBxPdEaFOxpjlHU cPZOb1R1OzLQ2m0023H6LyBM3WMlCd7Nah+zOqaoTbQ1kofE9hZ2gXEfljurUy+8 7scWCfdrZfw= =sIUK - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLuuKryoZzwIn1bdtAQF/jgF/SPy47fk1vvZgyXl8UBBDuASGJn+COQC5 84E+ICfuxxvxR4GauaaLLwCPdzH4l1DL =KuB4 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Netscape competence
by L. McCarthy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Adam Shostack writes: > Until you hire the experts mentioned below, I'll continue to > assume that your talent mix does not include said experts. Whoops, sorry, Marc A. had the attribution correct after all. Amanda W. made some similar comments, but apparently I'm conflating the two. Please ignore my prior message. - - -L. Futplex McCarthy - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBLuuKRWf7YYibNzjpAQEU/AQA5T/HnMDdRp2xMkDO7//G0ycCZnkEUwpv bz0MG8mUDE6XD2iTMCt/+VUDk6sx5BpNrofZOx0A57/XYsAxc0WsXk0Rb0Kh6o7x sPFTL6BJq97sFYbObO2uXvN5bbEQ1CL40rfZghds+exWhNix2fiNfy3SSaihd+qR kZl7CiLt7wY= =V6JA - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLuuLhCoZzwIn1bdtAQFi3QF+KaUcUOTrly37pZkowVc313X3qq+4Jy/j O9X/cSYleflVJl1rplCHm8cKB1KE0ICF =a9ik -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: What Happened to Xenon ?
by fhalper＠pilot.njin.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It seems he lost his Internet access(I think he moved to work at some university which does not have an Internet node). The Macintosh Cryptography Interface Project list which he started to make some porgress in getting a mac like inter -face for PGP still exists. I can give you the necessary info if you'd like. -RH- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuben Halper I'm not growing up, I'm just burnin' out." Montclair High - Green Day - Montclair, NJ E-mail: fhalper(a)pilot.njin.net PGP 2.6ui Public Key available upon request ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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A few articles of interest...
by alano＠teleport.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

For those who have not seen it... The January 1995 issue of Dr. Dobbs has tw articles of interest. - Bruce Schneier has an article on GOST. (A Soviet varient on DES.) - An article on RC5 by Ron Rivest! (Which includes source code!) Dr. Dobbs has had a number of good crypto related articles as of late. (Having a regular column by Bruce Scheier could be part of it...) Also, for those who are interested in Windows 95 (users 0)... Andrew Schulman has an article on Windows 95 from the inside. (This is part of his new book and the reason he got kicked off of the beta team.) Interesting reading. | "Encryption ROT13s your mind." | alano(a)teleport.com | |"Would you rather be tortured by the government | Disclaimer: | |forces or the people's liberation army?" -mklprc | Ignore the man | | -- PGP 2.6.2 key available on request -- | behind the keyboard.|

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Further comments on Netscape et al.
by Amanda Walker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE----- Proc-Type: 4,MIC-CLEAR Content-Domain: RFC822 Originator-Certificate: MIIB4DCCAXUCBQJBAAI3MA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAgUAMGMxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVTMSAw HgYDVQQKExdSU0EgRGF0YSBTZWN1cml0eSwgSW5jLjEyMDAGA1UECxMpVW5hZmZp bGlhdGVkIFVzZXIgQ2VydGlmaWNhdGlvbiBBdXRob3JpdHkwHhcNOTQwNTE2MDAw MDAwWhcNOTYwNTE2MjM1OTU5WjB6MQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzEOMAwGA1UEERMFMjIw NzAxETAPBgNVBAgTCFZpcmdpbmlhMRAwDgYDVQQHEwdIZXJuZG9uMR4wHAYDVQQJ FBUyMDEgRWxkZW4gU3RyZWV0IKYxNzMxFjAUBgNVBAMTDUFtYW5kYSBXYWxrZXIw XDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAsYTQHrGTWxpS22owJLNVkmBNxGW6Z8TK 5Qdsg9co9J8uyHOuqEIHIxOIDsVA7X/bsYVXxvitmc5PYKp2RuWj+QIDAQABMA0G CSqGSIb3DQEBAgUAA1YAIR3BS02rsquq3dY6sGWcieXW3HtChMtsReRhDdY/nGPz rIUYuWt087c4T4afrsG9FbouJOkAsR/5SkLI9UpXonDIUskdl4/JlRKpyLaX07RK mUyTSR== MIC-Info: RSA-MD5,RSA, lOMm69acu9EUeHUNrqC3tVCGCxCYQn24LMZIdJLsHHh+yHQUzowi3hysYfSuJEeR 15mklYr0pLdP8HQCyqv4mg== Sigh. I wasn't intending to ignite a firestorm on the list, especially on a topic that is at this point only marginally crypto-related. I bear Netscape and its staff no ill will--they have done some wonderful stuff, and I'd be more than happy to compete with them however the market ends up. I am irritated by some of how they've gone about things, but this is as much cultural as anything else--the market will decide in the end, whatever they or anyone else do. If I have offended anyone on the list or at Netscape, I'm completely willing to continue the discussion in email, comp.infosystems.www, or wherever else, but I'm going to stop sending my replies to cypherpunks at this point unless they actually have to do with cryptography or WWW security per se. Vendors do take potshots at each other from time to time; I'm sorry that I indulged myself and did so on this list instead of in a more appropriate manner. Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation -----END PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE-----

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Re: Broadcasts and the Rendezvous Problem
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim wrote: >L. Todd Masco wrote: > >> Seems to me that one of the fundamental building blocks necessary to >> a host of anonymous services is a means of rendezvousing in a manner that >> is not vulnerable to traffic analysis. >> >> The obvious solution to this is through the use of a broadcast medium. >> Has anybody created an alt.* group purely for remailer-associated >> rendezvous? > >Isn't this what "alt.anonymous.messages" is all about? > >(It's been at my Netcom site for many months now...I don't recall who >created it, but it seems to me it was one of us.) Which brings us back to the news -> mail gateway. There has to be a better way. I know that a small fraction of the net goes via satelite. Is there a way to inject truely anonymous datagrams? Any hams out there? -- Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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