December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Flame Wars
by zoetrope＠infinet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am sorry if I have annoyed or offended anyone here, It was not my intention of course......I dont want to hold any grudges especially with Sameer....I havent done much cracking and have alot of questions I bet alot of you had when you were 13 anyway zoetrope as in coppolla's studio....again sorry If I offended or annoyed you.... Sincerely, CyberPunc X

3 2

Serial port radiation detector?
by Jeff Simmons 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Sometime back during the RNG discussion I though I saw mention of a radiation detector that would plug into a PC's serial port and was fairly inexpensive. Any information about this would be appreciated. - -- Jeff Simmons jsimmons(a)goblin.punk.net -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMH3n/uL8IP70uJJBAQE7RwP/dQD9t8H8Es+3XmQLJgoq4hikPrJsJUuY wEdLuDH20oqByiRQm/Jv5N4HaYlLsm9cPV3DnxPNuKji0PhQn6FNsxBNw8gorCMt 6xpNiNi3eIG3C8STX+ca+L0iglxi0pBz5vNuXL3KRZRqItETBTsncCvj8nCdZwrP xfXjiVOs15k= =Jc44 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Majordomo & PGP
by Bob Snyder 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Here's something that might be of interest..... Bob Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 12:01:00 -0400 Message-Id: <9510121601.AA14372(a)hawww.ha.osd.mil> To: cwilson(a)slurp.neu.sgi.com, majordomo-workers(a)GreatCircle.COM Subject: PGP'ger-rated Majordomo ready for testing/comments Sender: majordomo-workers-owner(a)GreatCircle.COM Precedence: bulk I've just finished integrating PGP into Majordomo 1.93. I would like some feedback on it's ease of use, functionality etc, so I may improve it before releasing the code to the Public. And there's always that doco thing... Should be ready by months end. If secure 'domo administration or secure distribution is of interest to you, send the following commands in an email body to Majordomo(a)hawww.ha.osd.mil: help <-- not the usual stuff. better read it. info pgptest info pgpdomo-announce If you are a PGP user, please subscribe to pgptest(a)hawww.ha.osd.mil. This is a PGP protected test list that needs a workout. I'll spew pieces of my code to pgptest for people to review. Any comments, bug reports, oversights, anything (except money), please forward to phollins(a)hawww.ha.osd.mil. Thanks

1 0

hardware
by zoetrope＠infinet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

is there any Hardware involved in cryptology and code hacking other than a comp andf some accelerator chips? CyberPunc X

1 0

Welcome to the list
by Rich Salz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

You will probably find it most helpful to read through a few months archives of the list (ask around for back digests, usenet access, etc). And read the Tim's cyphernomicon. You'll find most intro-level answers there, and you're less likely to annoy the natives. :) /r$

1 0

The Economist on Netscape "hackers"
by Raph Levien 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Looks like every cypherpunk's favorite newsweekly has slipped a bit. This week's Economist (Oct 7-13, 1995, pp. 77-78) has a story about banks getting on the Internet, and some of the security risks involved. It's not _too_ bad, but, well, judge for yourself: "By far their biggest worry, however, is the threat posed by computer hackers. In recent months, numerous defects have been detected in the state-of-the-art Navigator program developed by Netscape, the leading maker of Internet ``browsing'' software. Earlier this year, a French hacker broke the program's code, albeit with the help of 120 computers. Although Netscape claims that the glitches in Navigator have now been smoothed out, their very existence has shaken confidence. ..." Sigh. No mention of export restrictions (I wanted to add "of course," but for the Economist it shouldn't be an "of course"). Shall I write the letter to the editor, or does someone else want to? One thing I'll need is a brief outline of Damien Doligez's acheivements to support the idea that characterizing him as a "hacker" is not quite right. Raph (who's wondering if there's something inherent in the media process that keeps them from getting their stories straight)

4 3

looking for anti-tamper software
by ecarp＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I used to have this C source that I could embed in a program, and it would tell me if the software had been tampered with at runtime. I've lost/mislaid/whatever the source, and I was wondering if anyone had anything that would do the same thing. As I recall, it calculated a simple CRC and embedded it into the .EXE file (it was written for MS-DOS). It doesn't need to be cryptographically secure - I just need to check to see if the executable has been corrupted. I've leafed through alt.sources and comp.sources.*. Thanks in advance... -- Ed Carp, N7EKG Ed.Carp(a)linux.org, ecarp(a)netcom.com 214/993-3935 voicemail/digital pager Finger ecarp(a)netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key an88744(a)anon.penet.fi "Past the wounds of childhood, past the fallen dreams and the broken families, through the hurt and the loss and the agony only the night ever hears, is a waiting soul. Patient, permanent, abundant, it opens its infinite heart and asks only one thing of you ... 'Remember who it is you really are.'" -- "Losing Your Mind", Karen Alexander and Rick Boyes

2 1

Re: 90%
by patrick＠Verity.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From: zoetrope(a)infinet.com > > Can I ask a question....are you guys into cryptology for the interesting > facts and knowledge or fer cracking unix codes and raising havoc? > For the cyphergroupies of course...they rule! Some day I'm going to write a book about the better known, shall I say "famous" ones, and then I'll be a bazillionaire...oh yeah, that's the other reason I'm on cypherpunks, to get rich! (Did I mention fame?) And they serve a great breakfast too! You can get anything you want at the cypherpunks restaraunt, ta da da da da da da, you can...help me help me Mr. Blobby, I think my neural nets are insufficiently trained! Bzzzt! Patrick _______________________________________________________________________ / These opinions are mine, and not Verity's (except by coincidence;). \ | (\ | | Patrick J. Horgan Verity Inc. \\ Have | | patrick(a)verity.com 1550 Plymouth Street \\ _ Sword | | Phone : (415)960-7600 Mountain View \\/ Will | | FAX : (415)960-7750 California 94303 _/\\ Travel | \___________________________________________________________\)__________/

1 0

Re: 90%
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:01 PM 10/12/95 -0400, you wrote: >Can I ask a question....are you guys into cryptology for the interesting >facts and knowledge or fer cracking unix codes and raising havoc? Cryptography can cause far more interesting kinds of havoc than scaring a few marketroids about crackers cracking their market shares, or scaring a few spooks that they might not be able to eavesdrop on the American public. Cryptography is a way of changing the balance of power about who owns your personal information. Computers are very good at centralizing and combining information - once something's in a major database, it's easy for the people who own databases to compare them with other databases, so your Social Security Number and Driver's License Number and credit cards and phone numbers and TRW credit report all pretty much tell people what you're doing, what kind of lifestyle you lead, where you're travelling, what magazines you read, where to find you if they want, where your money is, what kind of junk mail to send you, whether your house is worth burglarizing, whether you'd be a good target for the draft or a tax audit, etc. Not much you can do about it except not give people information, and that's getting tougher to do, especially if you like conveniences of modern American life like employee-style jobs and renting or buying houses or having a driver's license when the cops stop your car for no good reason. But with cryptography, you can structure transactions so that people get all the information they need to do business with you (if you want them to), and none of the information they don't need. Imagine if your credit smart-card didn't have your name on it (because only you have the PIN), and gave out a different number every time you used it (but Visa doesn't mind, because they know who you are.) Imagine if, instead of having one master SSN that you write on every bloody form you fill out in your life, you have a list of tax id numbers, and can get more if you need them, so everybody who needs to send the IRS a chunk of your money can do so, but the numbers aren't tied together except back at the tax office, where nobody's going to care until you retire. (That doesn't even take cryptography, though it helps.) Imagine if people started thinking that your own private information was your own, and didn't _need_ to see three kinds of picture ID to let you rent a mailbox or a car, because you could use crypto methods to give them the information they need to charge you for the car if you rip it off, without all the other baggage. And imagine if all you need to do business is that barcode tattooed on your arm, which you can wave by the machines anywhere you go, for everything you do. Crypto's the alternative. ===== Now, as far as the things you first asked about go, the theoretical stuff _is_ pretty neat, and has finally given me an excuse to go study up on number theory, and scaring the public about weaknesses of the computer products they use is something the mass media and legislators like better than many of us do (though having your friends get their pictures in Wired and the New York Times is kind of fun...) - it'd be nice if the people who make popular software would take security seriously, instead of putting out some of the thoughtlessly weak stuff that they do. Sometimes it takes a 2x4 to do the job; sometimes the press just overreacts. I do occasionally hang out with people who have the police watch them because their politics aren't correct (whether to the left, right, or deep center), or because they like recreational chemicals that are safer than tobacco and alcohol, or just because they're weird. That's wrong, and people have a right to their privacy. (Hasn't stopped me from offering the Philadelphia Police Red Squad coffee when they were watching a convention I was at (they'd brought their own :-) - but those guys really still are in business.) #--- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, Freelance Information Architect, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # Phone +1-510-247-0664 Pager/Voicemail 1-408-787-1281 #---

1 0

NNTP holes paper updated thatnks to Rich Salz
by fc＠all.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Rich Salz read over the NNTP paper and helped greatly to improve it. The new version is now on-line. Thank you Rich. -- -> See: Info-Sec Heaven at URL http://all.net Management Analytics - 216-686-0090 - PO Box 1480, Hudson, OH 44236

1 0