December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Thank you, MoJo Wire beta-testers
by Mother Jones Electronic Subscription 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thanks for being a MoJo Wire beta-tester. We appreciate all your comments and suggestions for our site. We've created a new mailing list to keep people up-to-date on the happenings at the MoJo Wire: http://www.motherjones.com/ Look for updates on: *Our Election 96 Area: Regular RealAudio and text field reports from our "smarty-pants political writers." *Mother Jones Magazine: We put every issue of Mother Jones magazine on-line. And we aren't just dumping in the text files either. Each issue is optimized for online viewing, with searchable databases, clickable imagemaps and more. *Special MoJo Wire Investigative features: Here's where we bring you what no print magazine can. We combine the flexibilty of the Internet with in-depth reporting to give you a whole new form of investigative journalism. To unsubscribe from our newsletter, please send an e-mail to majordomo(a)motherjones.com. In the body of the message (not the subject header) type: unsubscribe motherjones-list [your e-mail address] for example: unsubscribe motherjones-list umansky(a)motherjones.com Again, thanks for your help and we hope to see and chat with you on our web site and Live Wire (the interactive chat area of The MoJo Wire). Questions, comments? E-mail mailinglist(a)motherjones.com

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TED_hal
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

2-25-96. The Wash Post has a Page One lead about "atomic bomb spy" Theodore Alvin Hall, who, as a young physicist at Los Alamos provided the Soviets with Manhattan Project secrets. Hall's role was revealed by gradual code-cracking of cables under the Venona program. Though discovered, for unknown reasons Hall was never charged and went on to a distinguished career at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, England, where he now lives in retirement. Interviewed for the article he neither confirms nor denies he was the spy code-named "Mlad." He suggests it may be worth investigating why the US has kept silent about the case. The detailed story correlates Hall's role with the well- known atomic bomb spies; gives amazed responses of security officers then at Los Alamos; and lays out the long-term, never-give-up, FBI tracking and NSA cracking. For Unicorn and Bell: Hall was assigned to the Los Alamos "Gadgets" division and specialized in implosion devices. (With Hall, it's worth wondering if this ancient revelation and the recent 20-year-old NSA-spy have anything to do with the future of IC budgets -- teasing release of "if you knew what we know.") TED_hal

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Encryption Chips
by A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Faking crypto chips for public algorithims is theoretically >more difficult, because its simple to create a DES_verify routine to make >sure your DES chip is working right. a) chips do not need makeup b) t'were me, I would just fix the chip so that instead of 2^56 (DES) keys or whatever, the PRNG was "fixed" so that the total keyspace was only 2^32 for instance. Enough to be nearly impossible to check but small enough for a brute force engine to zip through in seconds *if you knew the algorithm*. The nice thing about am implimentation in software is that the code can be examined for just this sort of thing *on a randomly selected operating unit*. - hard to do with a chip. Warmly, Padgett

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WYZ_qak
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

2-25-96. TWP: "Scrambling for a Policy on Encryption Exports. As Technology Advances, U.S. and Industry Seek Compromise That Balances Public, Private Fears." A knowledgeable brief by Elizabeth Corcoran, with quotes by wisecracking Crypto-Wise-Quackers. WYZ_qak

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Extra
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The recent study by Blaze, Diffie, Shimomura, et al, of stunted cryptography is featured in the TWP story on crypto exports offered with WYZ_qak.

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White House Not Decent
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

(Reprinted without permission from the Seattle Times Personal Technology section) White House Site Blocked Add the White House to the Internet's extensive list of dens of sin. Surfwatch, a widely used software program that prevents access to, and downloading of, sexually explicit material on the Internet, accidently blocked access to the White House home page recently - all because a "White House for Kids" Web site address contained the word "couples." That's a dirty word in the Surfwatch universe because many sexually explicit online sites use it as part of their come-on. In this case, "couples" merely referred to the Executive Branch tandems of President and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Al and Tipper Gore. Surfwatch fixed the problem within hours, although some might still find the site offensive. For political reasons, that is.

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Re: TED_hal
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:17 PM 2/25/96, Brad Dolan wrote: >Lipke's neighbors indicate his income didn't match his lifestyle. > >FINCEN at work? I'm skeptical. How would Lipka's neighbors know what his "income" is, unless he told them? (My neighbors don't have any idea what my income is, for example.) Sounds like typical bullshit by neigbors, saying they knew something was "suspicious" (always after the fact, it seems). Also, all indications so far revealed are that Lipka was only paid by the Sovs in the mid-to-late 60s. And then only, according to released information, something like $500 to $1000 per dead drop, about once a month. Hardly a huge sum, even back then. Even if he invested this, which is unlikely, how would his neighbors know if this was part of his "income" or not? Sounds more like, "Yeah, we knew there was something strange about him," which about half of all neigbors say about arrested fugitives in their midst. (The other half saying, "But he was a really nice guy.") --Tim Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Encryption Chips
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:47 PM 2/25/96, "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security" >The nice thing about am implimentation in software is that the code can be >examined for just this sort of thing *on a randomly selected operating unit*. >- hard to do with a chip. But of course one's compiler may have been subverted, as Ken Thompson showed some years back. Software implementations are sensitive to different sorts of attacks than hardware implementations are. Me. I don't have any hardware crypto chips at all, and think it unlikely I will in the next several years. So I use only software crypto implementations. And I admit to not having verified that my copy of MacPGP is the same one now at the various sites...I figure that if the NSA has pulled a blag bag job on me and replaced my MacPGP with a special version that I've got other problems to worry about! Your mileage may vary. If I were responsible for crypto for large financial transactions, I'd have a different set of worries. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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RE: White House Not Decent
by Chris Grantham 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Gee, Someone should forward this thing to Bill, Hmm I think I will... Chris ---------- From: Anonymous[SMTP:nobody@REPLAY.COM] Sent: Sunday, February 25, 1996 9:43 AM To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Subject: White House Not Decent (Reprinted without permission from the Seattle Times Personal Technology section) White House Site Blocked Add the White House to the Internet's extensive list of dens of sin. Surfwatch, a widely used software program that prevents access to, and downloading of, sexually explicit material on the Internet, accidently blocked access to the White House home page recently - all because a "White House for Kids" Web site address contained the word "couples." That's a dirty word in the Surfwatch universe because many sexually explicit online sites use it as part of their come-on. In this case, "couples" merely referred to the Executive Branch tandems of President and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Al and Tipper Gore. Surfwatch fixed the problem within hours, although some might still find the site offensive. For political reasons, that is.

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Hack attempt? "12 days" from anon.com
by Rishab Aiyer Ghosh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Regarding the mysterious mail from mailer-daemon(a)anon.com that many people have received: 1. The mail was apparently sent by a daemon bouncing an undeliverable mail. anon.com is a "virtual domain" hosted at io.com, so it's unlikely that the daemon would have an anon.com address. 2. Headers show it was routed through 38.10.221.81 and smtp1.interramp.com. That IP address showed up as ip81.la.ca.interramp.com the first time I tried a traceroute. The second time it showed up as ip81.syracuse.ny.interramp.com. In any case, traceroute went recursive between los-angeles.ca.isdn.psi.net (38.145.221.110) and lan.losangeles.ca.psi.net (38.145.221.1). This indicates the target could not be reached - perhaps it's a PPP address, or disconnected. 3. There is an X-Sender: (Unverified) header entry. So the mail was SMTP faked without the HELO protocol. 4. The error purpoting to originate from mailer-daemon(a)anon.com says the mail was addressed to PeppermintPty(a)loacst.org. loacst.org is not a registered domain. 5. PeppermintPty is obviously Peppermint Patty; the "original message" is signed Marcie. Peanut fans will recognise these characters. So - what was it all about? An elaborate prank? A convoluted NSA plot? I would lean towards the first, but perhaps we'll know on March 1st, the date to "gain access to target". Rishab ps. the copy I received follows: >From mailer-daemon(a)anon.com Fri Feb 23 20:08:00 1996 Received: from m-net148.arbornet.org (m-net.arbornet.org [148.59.250.2]) by shellx.best.com (8.6.12/8.6.5) with SMTP id UAA20969 for <rishab(a)best.com>; Fri, 23 Feb 1996 20:07:44 -0800 Received: from smtp1.interramp.com by m-net148.arbornet.org with smtp (Smail3.1.29.1 #4) id m0tqBGv-0009SHC; Fri, 23 Feb 96 23:07 WET Received: from [38.10.221.81] by smtp1.interramp.com (8.6.12/SMI-4.1.3-PSI-irsmtp) id XAA24970; Fri, 23 Feb 1996 23:06:42 -0500 X-Sender: (Unverified) Message-Id: <v01520db9ad53979e9858(a)[38.10.221.81]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 08:11:33 -0800 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: mailer-daemon(a)anon.com (System Mail Manager) Subject: Twelve Days of Christmas Status: RO -- <System Report> -- UNDELIVERABLE MAIL: Unknown Host("PeppermintPty(a)loacst.org") UNDELIVERABLE MAIL: Bad Key -- <Original Message Follows> -- *** TOP LEVEL: DESTROY IMMEDIATELY UPON READING *** *** DO NOT PRINT OR SAVE. Code1.8 Table2Hex6 *** DAY 10: DR. BLACK located a promising entry point at the target site. DR. BLACK recovered four of the six password tokens before his position was compromised. DR. BLACK will be replaced by DR. ORANGE. Estimated time to recover the remaining two password tokens and gain access to target: EIGHT DAYS (03.01.96) Confidence is HIGH. My team has been working around the clock for a month now. Please tell your people to be more tolerant. Yelling doesn't help anything. Marcie

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