December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Paul Kocher's timing attack
by Matt Blaze 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Paul Kocher's brutally clever timing attack against on-line implementations of RSA, DSA and fixed-exponent Diffie-Hellman is reported on page A1 of Monday's New York Times ("Secure Digital Transactions Just Got a Little Less Secure" by John Markoff). The attack requires only a few thousand ciphertext samples and works against most implementations of public-key cryptosystems in which the attacker can measure accurately the target's computation time for each sample. I think Kocher's paper is online somewhere; I'll post the URL when I find it. -matt

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NSA rigs Crypto machines according to Balto Sun
by pcw＠access.digex.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Most of us might believe that the holes in Netscape's encryption software were simply the result of sloppy engineering. That was the public story. A story from today's Baltimore Sun (Sunday December 10, 1995) gives more reasons to be paranoid. The Baltimore Sun has been running a long series of articles on the National Security Agency. Some of the earlier ones have been largely positive and filled with stories of intelligence coups. Today's story, describes several reasons why one might believe that the NSA was party to a plan to rig the machines of the Swiss company, Crypto AG, so that the messages could be read by those who knew the game. Crypto AG sells its machines to other countries around the world who believe that the Swiss are neutral vendors of superior technology that wouldn't have such holes. The clearest link, in my mind, was the minutes from a design meeting at Crypto AG which was attended by an NSA cryptographer, Nora Mackebee. (She is now 55, retired and living at what the Sun calls a "Howard County horse farm.") But there are reasons to wonder about this link. Motorola was also part of the list. Also one employee got in a legal battle after being fired. The details were settled a few days before company engineers were scheduled to testify "that they believed the machines were altered." More anecdotal evidence was offered by someone who is listed as a "longtime colleague" of Dr. Kjell Ove Widman, the Swedish mathematician who "had total authority over Crypto algorithms." The colleague said that Widman would often travel to Germany and then return with design instructions. The impression was given that Crypto could only use an algorithm if it was approved. But approval is not, in my mind, proof of a secret attempt to read messages. I believe that the NSA probably did more to strengthen DES than weaken it during the classified design process at IBM. But I only have the work of Biham and Shamir to base these conclusions upon. Perhaps the machines were altered to make them stronger for western firms using them? The Mackabee meeting occured in 1975 during the height of the Cold War. The Soviets were grabbing Western technology left and right. Of course, the Sun also reports that Crypto AG "denied that intelligence agenies had ever rigged its machines." (The words in quote are the Sun's not Crypto AG's. ) So, is this what happened at Crypto AG? Is this what happened at Netscape? We may never no for certain, but there is a final warning for the folks at Netscape that is buried the Sun's article about Crypto AG: "Meanwhile, though the company has hastened to reassure its customers, business has declined and employees have been laid off." -=-=-=-=- There are two more articles in the series. Tuesday's will report that "Trolling for foreign secrets, NSA routinely picks up Americans' overseas calls. And it's legal." On Friday, the article reports, "The next war will be fought with computers. NSA is getting ready." You will be able to buy a reprint of the NSA stories from SunSource. $3.95. Call 410-332-6962.

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[NOISE] REQ: "Markov" filter as recently posted in .shar form
by Damaged Justice 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Apologies, but I already tried all standard net searches on this. Someone recently posted a .shar archive for a program called Markov, which filters input Usenet posts and outputs a reasonable facsimile of that person's "style". (It was posted in one of the "Alice" threads, in response to the claim that posting styles could be a unique form of identification.) I also looked on the archives at hks.net, but had no luck there. If some kind person will post it again, I'll give it a home on my page of WWW resources. I have the binary, and am impressed and amused enough to keep it for regular use.. anyone for alt.usenet.kooks.markov? -- http://yakko.cs.wmich.edu/~frogfarm ...for the best in unapproved information EmmaGoldmanCamillePagliaMarieCurieAynRandSapphoDianaToriAmosPJHarvey&Demona Hate, hate your enemies save, save your friends find, find your place I feel a groove comin' on | speak..speak the truth | Freedom...yeah, right.

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Re: Windows .PWL cracker implemented as a Word Basic virus
by dan＠milliways.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 8 Dec 1995 19:51:55 -0800 you wrote: > >Also, does NT use the same algorithm for saving network passwords? > No, but they're doing something that makes me very uncomfortable: As I read this, they're hashing the password and some other user information using MD4 then doing some proprietary permutations on that. Given their record with security, I'd rather they used straight MD4, rather than throwing in something that we can't analyze. Dan Bailey >From the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q102716 Storage of the Passwords in the SAM Database -------------------------------------------- User records are stored in the security accounts manager (SAM) database. Each user has two passwords with which it is associated: the LAN Manager compatible password and the Windows NT password. Each password is stored doubly encrypted in the SAM database. The first encryption is a one-way function (OWF) version of the clear text generally considered to be non-decryptable. The second encryption is an encryption of the user's relative ID (RID). The second encryption is decryptable by anyone who has access to the double-encrypted password, the user's RID, and the algorithm. The second encryption is used for obfuscation purposes. [snip] The Windows NT password is based on the Unicode character set, is case sensitive, and can be up to 128 characters long. The OWF version (called the Windows NT OWF password) is computed using the RSA MD-4 encryption algorithm, which computes a 16-byte "digest" of a variable length string of clear text password bytes. *************************************************************** #define private public dan(a)milliways.org Worcester Polytechnic Institute and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ***************************************************************

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Is it possible?
by Laszlo Vecsey 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Suppose I have the source of a C program that I would like to distribute on the Internet. This program computes some data (perhaps attempting to to do a partial brute force) and sends it's results to a server. The problem is someone might modify the source to simply contact the server saying "ok, my part of the brute force failed" and not even do anything. How can I be sure that the source has not been modified from the original distribution before it is compiled? My original plan was to compute many digits of PI using the new Plouffe formula (allows you to compute any Hex digit of PI in linear time) but perhaps trying to brute force things in this way isn't such a bad idea.

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NSA flying disk follow-up [Extremely Frivolous]
by cman＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I spoke with Dennis Cisco at the NSA today, and he is unwilling to sell or otherwise distribute the NSA flying disk promotional items "except at trade shows where we are promoting our technology transfer program." Since they are not planning on attending any such conferences in my area in the near future, it is unlikely I'll be able to help any of the (numerous) people who expressed an interest in obtaining one of these fine flying disks. (http://www.communities.com/foo/NSAfris.gif) If you'd care to discuss this matter with Mr. Cisco yourself, he can be reached at: (301) 688 0701. Note that this is in Maryland. Also, the (301) 688 0606 number listed on the frisbee seems to be either always busy or not answered -- I'm assuming it's the # for the NSA tech transfer office. Please let me know if any of you have better luck.

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Re: ADDRESS DATABASE?
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, So far, no one has come up with anything stronger than specula- tion about my database question. Some "anonymous" told me how easy it was to buy *phone numbers* on CD-ROMs. Great, but I didn't give the guy my phone number. On Thu, 14 Dec 1995, Rich Graves wrote: > One of the easiest ways to get quick address changes is to subscribe to > the US Postal Service's mail forwarding lists. They're advertised in > direct marketing magazines. Fine, but I haven't put in any changes of address with the PO. > Local and long distance phone companies probably sell telephone > forwarding lists too. Yeah, maybe, but my original question was, "does anyone KNOW how the trick was done? ^^^^ S a n d y P.S. I'm not looking for movie makers, but for movie investors. Jeez ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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PAY-OFF TIME FOR BUG-BUSTERS, NETSCAPE PLEDGES "DOGFIGHT"
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Fri, 15 Dec 1995, Alice de 'nonymous wrote: > Can anyone tell me whether Ian Goldberg and David Wagner got their $25,000 > from Netscape for finding the HUGE security flaws in Netscape's existing > product line?? > > Alice de 'nonymous ... <an455120(a)anon.penet.fi> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Heh, hey Alice, you know this discussion a short time ago where you claimed that you wouldn't use PGP for signing because it wasn't secure or something, what's with the use of the penet address? Surely a penet address offers even less protection for your id? Or have you done something nifty like create the penet address with a nymserver address? (the real) Alice de 'nonymous ... ...just another one of those... P.S. This post is in the public domain. C. S. U. M. O. C. L. U. N. E. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMNHFeIbu8OQjKS7RAQFsmAP/SKKz7XCVmTxUQhLL+IEQaleMaTgp+rCO GAsCDcESY6DBDd3NLR07fkNxZufGxyTFqOeL8SFlH5fMGYvwuLrytLwc9guqkr5I aAXiq+hz13GHhoCkr0SnK+ti1M8ERj8EwTvyUWHnUy4b3Nb4K8oD0OzgZwcHVMkP jvdsCUnQQfo= =z2td -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Balto Sun Followup: Crypto AG a friend of Cypherpunks?
by pcw＠access.digex.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In an earlier posting, I summarized an article in the Baltimore Sun about the Swiss company Crypto AG that makes encryption machines for the world market. The newspaper ran a follow up article today (12/15/95) that discussed a two page statement issued by Crypto AG. Some of the quotes from the statement that made it into the Baltimore Sun article are: "Pure Invention" "old hearsay" "The allegations are not new at all and just repeat tales which date back 25 or more years" [Crypto AG] "has no political ambitions or claims." My favorite detail, however, was the hint that the rumors are a "well conceived ploy" to harrass a company that is making strong crypto for independent countries. So maybe they're cypherpunks? The rest of the Baltimore Sun article goes on to summarize why the paper printed what it did. These include interviews with apparently anonymous sources identified as "several former Crypto engineers." These engineers told the Sun that they were forced to make design changes by their boss based upon "technical documents provided by mysterious visitors to the Zug plant." -Peter Wayner If you care about this matter, you should dig up the original article from the Baltimore Sun. $3.95. Dial 410-332 6962.

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[NOISE] The Enquirer
by Mr. Boffo 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

THE CYPHERPUNK ENQUIRER "Encyphering minds want to know." The Podunk, Idaho Cypherpunks chapter held its annual meeting this past weekend at Buffalo Jim's Bar and Grill, where the sole attending member, Frank Semalo, was promptly arrested by local authorities for wearing a "munitions" T-shirt. He was released the next morning when the NSA confirmed that the T-shirt was probably legal to wear in Podunk as long as Mr. Semalo did not enter the local Mexican or Chinese restaurants. By a 17-13 vote today, the Remailer Operators Association decided to start sending out ALL anonymous remailer e-mail with a header entry of: From: Alice de 'nonymous. Surgeons at Netscape Communications successfully removed Jim Clark's foot from his mouth today. The foot was reported to be doing fine, but a little wrinkled and in need of a good pedicure. Company spokespersons reported that the reason the foot was in there so long was that Mr. Clark was in Washington, D.C. discussing the future of government regulation of the Internet with 'top government officials', and could not return to Mountain View for surgery until recently. In related medical news, proctologists at Bethesda Naval Hospital reported that Louis Freeh's head was still firmly stuck. Spam of the month: Friend The International Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals announced today that it was investigating the Blue Wave Corporation to determine if any of the snakes were harmed or killed in the production of its signature product, SimplySafe. Just a coincidence? Immediately after Tim May announces that he will not be discussing Netscape anymore because he's making some financial plays on the stock (hinting that he's probably shorting it), it drops 30 points?

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