December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Death of the North American Crypto archive?
by Michael Paul Johnson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Alas, it wasn't government regulation. It wasn't patent entanglements. It wasn't spooks. It is economics. Can anyone suggest an alternate host that might provide room for a few hundred megabytes of ftp access for free (or nearly free)? Can someone else in North American mirror all of that data, quickly, before the site shuts down? I really don't want to shut http://www.sni.net/~mpj/crypto.htm down, but I don't want to face the bills alone... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQA/AwUBM+qSN0SP4McX10e7EQKAagCg0qQJTkunB3KZpwtiH00epx01xEoAnix0 2KdLJaN3VKsG6P9mSeZtUXiJ =WMhh -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Michael Paul Johnson mailto:mpj@ebible.org (aka mpj(a)csn.net) PO Box 1151 http://www.ebible.org/bible <- Holy Bible Longmont CO 80502-1151 http://www.sni.net/~mpj/crypto.htm <- Crypto archive USA PGP RSA key fingerprint (mpjA): 3E67 A580 0DFB D16A 6D52 D3A9 1C07 4E41 PGP DSS/DH fingerprint: 28AE B775 DD65 62C7 0717 ECDA 448F E0C7 17D7 47BB

3 2

JYA Up
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

AOL/PrimeHost has reactivated JYA. AOL's story for the takedown is that our seldom used ftp component was being used by unidentified parties to traffic in warez and that it had nothing to do with the http part, "whose content does not concern us." Still, it's odd we did not get a call about the problem as was done a few weeks ago for a similar warez invasion. At that time, we offered to close our ftp, but the PrimeHost rep said no, we'll monitor it, as we do other ftps. I specifically asked to be notified if it happened again, but wasn't. And it's not clear why it took a week for me to find out what was what. Or why not AOL did not just close the ftp and leave the http operating. 'Course, maybe the takedown was signal of distrust of JYA innocence. And a warning. Thanks to the folks who offered more help than the teapot tempest seems to have warranted -- so far.

3 4

Old Cryto stuff,
by Jason William RENNIE 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Can anybody suggest any good books on old cryto techniques ?? I'm finally learning to program, along with the stuff i've got to learn as part of the class i thought i would make a start on learning to code crypotgraphic algorithms. I was after some old ones that are simple to code in software. Unfortuently the one in the back of the Schnier book are a little to complex for my limited programming knowledge so far. So can anybody help or will i just be ignored like i have been at other times ? Jason =8-]

2 1

Re: forged cancels (Re: Entrust Technologies's Solo - free download)
by dlv＠bwalk.dm.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim Skirvin <tskirvin(a)math.uiuc.edu> writes: > >Yes, there are lots of folks who forge cancels for "inappropriate cross- > >posts" in the "big 8". > > Not accepted ones. They're treated as rogues, and asked to stop > it, and you know it. Net.Scum like Chris Lewis, Jan Isley, Tim Brown, Bob Curtis, etc are treated as rogues by me and my friends and told to stop by me and my friends - and if they don't stop, we usually get their plugs pulled. Tim Skirvin defended net-abuse by Jan Isley, just as he defends the "UDP" against UUNet. > > Please be advised that all of Tim Skirvin's FAQs are full of lies (except > > for the parts plagiarized from David Stodolsky :-). > > Umm, no. Examples of lies in Tim Skirvin's Magnum Opus, the "Cancel FAQ" (what else): 1. ]What is a Cancelbot? ] ] A Cancelbot is a program that searches for messages matching a ]certain pattern and sends out cancels for them all. ] ] ]Sounds cool. Where do I get one? ] ] If you have to ask, you don't get one. ] ] ]What? Why not? My cancelbot has been freely available for over 18 months. I've pointed this out repeatedly to Tim Skirvin who continues to provide an answer to a truly frequently asked question that reflects Skirvin's view of what the reality should be, rather than the reality. 2. ]What is Dave the Resurrector? ] ] After a particularly obnoxious run of cancels from ixc.net, ]Chris Lewis decided that it was time to write a program to repost stuff ]that was cancelled on news.admin.net-abuse.misc. The Resurrector, named ]Dave, was the result. ] ] The effect of this is that cancels to news.admin.net-abuse.misc ]are not effective unless Chris says so. It has been pointed out many times that Chris Lewis does NOT repost cancelled articles when he doesn't like the authors, such as myself. --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

2 2

Eternity Uncensorable?
by Mark Grant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Seems to me there's a fundamental flaw with the current Eternity server; as I understand it the messages are identified by a subject which is the SHA of their URL, so all that a government need do to censor a particular site is to scan for those messages and issue cancels. Sure, your site and those upstream may not accept such messages, but potentially they can still wipe out a large fraction of the system or at least force users to change their eternity URLs on a regular basis. It also doesn't provide true security, since when someone sets up an illegal site the gubment can find the messages on Usenet, decrypt them, and then threaten the remailer operator who posted them. I understand that this is just an alpha release, but I don't see any obvious way to fix these problems with a Usenet-based system. Mark

9 18

Query on cookies
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have a detailed understanding of how cookies work? I've read Netscape's explanation of the protocol, but I still have some questions. -Declan

5 8

"Virtuosity" -- A New Movie
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I make no apologies for this not being "on topic," where "on topic" is defined as "coding in C." If you don't like my comments to our community, you know how to filter out my messages. I saw "Virtuosity" today, not expecting much. It's been called "a stinker" by at least one reviewer. But I enjoyed it. It had fairly impressive effects and fairly accurate treatments of: -- "microlocators" (implantable localizers) (The technology of which, in the real world, Bob Fleming and Cherie Kushner described at the "Cypherpunks Santa Cruz" meeting/party at my place on Saturday. By the way, the meeting was well-attended, with 22 attendees, including Greg Broiles from Eugene, Oregon, Jeff Simmons from San Luis Obispo, and a bunch of folks from the Santa Cruz area and Bay Area.) -- nanotechnology...well done -- genetic algorithms and evolving programs...very, very well done! -- virtual reality...less well done, especially as it's been done before There were a few disconnects, such as that the time for the movie seemed only a few years in the future, and yet certain technologies were very far advanced. I was impressed, much more so than with "The Net" or other recent high-tech movies. (I can' t wait for "Pulp Science Fiction"!) For those who think this off-topic, "Man does not live by coding alone." --Tim ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

1 0

Cypherpunks are a bunch of happy people
by nobody＠replay.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Cypherpunks are a bunch of happy people basr Discussed were, amongst many other subjects, PGP encryption, building personal anonymous remailers, encryption of IP packets, and a kind of anonymous remailing system for IP packets (http, ftp, ...) using 'onion' servers. These guys promised us some nice stuff for our homes and schools in the near future like your own nice 'n' small anonymous remailer. If many people put these up and a system of anonymous remailers who give messages to each other before delivering it to the addressee is established, you can always say that *your* remailer was just one of the middlemen, receiving stuff from other anonymous remailers. Next, we are going to get cheap (under US $1.000) linux routerboxes that encrypt all traffic you send out to the network. Specially designed for the school and the home. This makes surfing in the childrens bedroom perfectly safe again! On the anonymous remailing of IP packets project the cypherpunks are workng together with the naval security of the USA. Why? These naval security people are working on the same thing, and they need other traffic using the same protocols to hide their own traffic in. Otherwise everyone can see they are transmitting from A to B. However, the cypherpunks had to explain the naval security first that if they want this technique more widespread, they have to make it available for cheaper machines and morre widely used operating systems... something they had not thought of themselves. You might think: "Is all this not illegal?" No it's not (yet, in most countries), and making up laws costs more time than writing good encryption software, so say the cypherpunks. That is... if they can find enough people to write the software. Yes, you guessed right, they are hiring! http://magazine.dds.nl

1 0

Re: R.I.P. John Brunner
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:03 PM 8/28/95, Alan Bostick wrote: >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > >Science fiction writer John Brunner died last Friday, August 25, from >a massive stroke, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention >in Glasgow, Scotland. > >Among several other notable works, Brunner was the author of THE SHOCKWAVE >RIDER, a groundbreaking vision of the information age that inspired and >forsaw much that was pertinent to the Internet in general and the >Cypherpunks in particular. > >Let us pause a moment to note his passing and honor his life and >contributions. I am saddened to learn this. And, yes, this has a lot to do with Cypherpunks. I read "Stand on Zanzibar" with rapt attention in 1969 or so, and it had a big influence on me. Ditto for "The Shockwave Rider," one of the very first explications of how identities would be changed, how the State would insist on computerized identities. (Indeed, "1984" came first, and is an even more important work, by any standards, but Brunner still nailed the effects of computers in a way that Orwell could not possibly have.) Christ, what an imagination he had! --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

1 0

Correction: List of crypto-related courses
by Avi Rubin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Oops, I got the URL a bit wrong in my last posting. Here it is again with the corrected URL. For the last year or so, I have built and maintained a list of graduate level courses on cryptography and security. The current list can be found at http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~rubin/courses.html I would like to keep this list as current as possible, so if you have any additions/corrections, etc, please let me know. I am only interested in full-semester courses at universities. Thank you, Avi ********************************************************************* Aviel D. Rubin rubin(a)research.att.com Secure Systems Research Dept. Adjunct Professor at NYU AT&T Labs - Research 180 Park Avenue http://www.research.att.com/~rubin/ Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971 Voice: +1 973 360-8356 USA FAX: +1 973 360-8809 --> Check out http://www.clark.net/pub/mjr/websec/ for a new book on web security (The Web Security Sourcebook). *********************************************************************

1 0