December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re:Edited Edupage, 18 Aug 1996 [SATELLITES]
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:24 PM 8/26/96 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote: >At 12:35 AM 8/21/96 -0800, mccoy(a)communities.com (Jim McCoy) wrote: >>You want to avoid moving parts like the plague in orbit. They eventually >>wear out or fail and once that happens you have a very expensive piece of >>junk in orbit. Solid-state storage is the _only_ way to go if you want to >>avoid things like neding to pressurize the drive (eliminating any cost >>advantage over solid-state.) > >Why do you need to pressurize the drive? Most hard disk drives >for the last N years have been airtight sealed containers, >haven't they? (Removables are different, of course.) While I haven't looked at the more recent ones closely, most hard drives have an ultra-fine (<0.1 um particles?) filter element separating "inside" from "outside." It allows air to pass to equalize pressure and humidity, while keeping out the dust. (it is probably made of the same kind of material that is used, internally, as a filter for the airflow within the drive.) Even if they didn't, there is a big difference between an enclosure that's good enough to hold a hard disk on earth, and one which can spend N-years in a high vacuum yet maintain enough air to run a hard drive. > >I'd worry far more about the stresses of launch bothering >the drives. That's not a problem at all. Most modern drives are rated for 10's of G's, non-operating. Satellite launches are probably a breeze compared to this. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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"The Observer" calls the internet a child pornography ring
by jamesd＠echeque.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Banner Front page headline in the British Observer, Sunday 25th "The Peddlers of child abuse" see http://scallywag.com/ The internet is presented as a conspiracy by child molesters. There is a picture of Johan Helsingius, the man who free of charge provides an anonymous remailer service: The picture is captioned "The internet middle man who handles 90% of all child pornography" He is represented as personally profiting from the distribution of child pornography, though in fact no posts to binary newsgroups can go through his system, and no large binaries can go through his system, and he provides the anonymising service free of charge. There is a picture of Clive Feather, the man who runs the largest internet service provider in Britain, captioned "The school governor who sells access to photos of child rape"]] The observer article savagely demonizes all who use the internet, presenting it as primarily existing for the purpose of distributing child pornography, and demonizes and libels by name those who have sought to defend the liberty of netizens. I urge you all to check out this article, and send snail mail letters to the observer condemning (since they are obviously too low tech to read email) and email letters of support to those netizens who have been savagely libeled for their defence of liberty. --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ James A. Donald jamesd(a)echeque.com

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FYI: GOP's Stolen Laptop...
by Steve O 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

FYI: Front page of the New Jersey Star Ladger: "GOP's Stolen Laptop had credit card Details" NJ Republicans' convention info and card card numbers and info was on the laptop insecurely, a letter went oput to the NJ Republican committee informing them of the 'inconveince'. Several key Rebulican Reps' cards were among those stolen including: Dick ZImmer and Christopher Smith as well as the State Committee's credit card. etc... "True Utopia can only be reached by an uncensored and secure Internet, True Chaos can only be reached by the government, True love can only be reached in the movies." S.O. "Bang your head, Metal Health will drive you mad!" Quiet Riot "Welcome my friend, Welcome to The Machine" Pink Floyd -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQCNAzHF2iIAAAEEAKw9QZ8yNG0X1YOGvaYeLaOQphDSEFYxelYED8a4YKoxnHuX Wd7CPKXBS6Bhx9uGFpNa/7Km33TfhzJhuolHPb60upBIsNTdrkzVlSYyiE0aWuFt EORVWEG6Rmy9w2yZ8obQAIx9aAy7h1wDi2mdSrDH+rPBw0pXelhDCiQ5KnJpAAUR tCBTdGV2ZSBPIDxwcml2c29mdEBpeC5uZXRjb20uY29tPg== =J4Tk -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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File System Encryption
by drifter＠c2.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm aware of the three main disk encryption programs SFS, SECDRV, and SECDEV, but I need to find a solution that works with Windows 95 32bit or Windows NT 4.0. I'm currently using SFS 1.17 and Secure Drive under Win-95, but am unable to continue to work in dos compatability mode due to severe performance hits. I am open to commercial products that have passed peer review, but know of none. If anyone could suggest a solution (outside of switching OS's), I would be *most* gratefull. Please respond to the list, as I am a subscriber under another account. The Drifter

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Re: Sen. Leahy's "impeccable cyberspace credentials"
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:50 AM 8/26/96 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote: >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 12:23:57 -0400 >From: Jonah Seiger <jseiger(a)cdt.org> >To: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)eff.org> >Cc: shabbir(a)vtw.org, fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu, brock(a)well.com, > telstar(a)wired.com >Subject: Re: INFO: Democratic convention chats online! Be there! (8/25/96) >Declan: >In a world where we have very few real friends, I simply don't understand >what you are trying to accomplish. It's fine (and healthy) to raise >concerns about the particular positions a member of Congress takes (hell, I >don't agree with everything Leahy does), but to simply dismiss Leahy as a >'no friend of the Net' is naive and counterproductive. > >Look at the record. Leahy is hands down the strongest supporter of the Net >in Congress. Period. No other Member (including our small but growing >handful of other friends like Burns, White, Wyden, Cox, Eshoo, etc) has >been a more forceful or consistent advocate for your causes for as long as >Leahy has. What exactly do you want? Perhaps we should elect you to >Congress and see how well you can do. Leahy's crypto bill sucked, bigtime. The portion of the bill criminalizing the use of encryption that had the effect of thwarting a government investigation is classic, "foot in the door" creeping government manipulation. I was particularly disgusted to notice that a number of the traditional net-freedom organizations rushed to announce that they were in favor of that bill, without even a few days of analysis, and did not retract or even restrict that support when a more careful study (specifically, that of Peter Junger) showed how seriously flawed it was. Indeed, I never saw another analysis that purported to defend Leahy's bill, despite the fact that it would have been the responsibility of any organization which claimed support of it to prepare one. I believe that it is particularly suspicious that these bills come into existance without even cursory "vetting" on the Internet. Both the Leahy bill and even the Burns crypto bill popped into public view without any indication of how they were written, or any public input on their intent and scope. Perhaps this "take it or leave it" practice is old hat to politicians, but frankly I'm disgusted at politicians' presumption that they can prepare a law with no identifiable input from the public. I am similarly disgusted at any organization (even if, ostensibly, acting in support of "net freedom") that assisted in the development of the Leahy crypto bill (and to some extent, even the Burns bill) because they clearly failed to solicit the kind of public input that such bills should automatically get. And in a sense, "the Net" doesn't NEED "strong supporters": what we need are politicians who are willing to LEAVE US ALONE! It should come as no surprise that the call you frequently see among net-freedom- supporters for new legislation is that which repeals existing restrictive laws, such as ITAR and censorship laws. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re:
by Sean Sutherland 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Sat Aug 24 19:00:18 1996 > Does anybody know what I can get for generating the credit card > numbers? > And they say there's hope for the youth of America. - --- Sean Sutherland | GCS/C d- s+:+ a--- C+++ V--- P L E- W++ N++ K w o PGP Key ID: E43E6489 | O-(++) M-- V PS+ PE++ Y PGP++ t--- 5+++ X++ R b++ Vote Harry Browne '96 | DI+ D+ G e- h! !r y -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Key: finger or email w/ 'send key' in subj. http://www2.interconnect.net/maverick iQEVAwUBMh+Xk1ZoKRrkPmSJAQGj+Af8C2P7D+3ZZ4f8h76+6UfdgqEubOO0mkWj 2DazxBMuY1b1sx1G6gaIGR9Tc11vIcoCY3pmBzhBW7Nc6do8gfOK8Bkkon6Pck1g 61tCFH6qPb2bSH0HnbzjrXJhRD6dFv9ondTtyZgiFIeMuVDDIx4+ZKvelL6BHk8x o6sLdY4Y/Nmnvz9HXrBj0DaYR8pcY96+dexwj5luvcgVkdsDjghWXZy/mHkeDXMI bvOuUOMLQyExS0Ts4D5K4/XfIhP0HUiPfdeL9oxONcLUYznywxAUevBMfHceqvsS qFnxcDcyHa8ynHLRH9Qg0t5QuKVUvTpZh3YjPXCF9QKwvIFbZukHKw== =e03n -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: MSIE cryptography
by John Hemming - CEO MarketNet 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>> Just downloaded the most recent English Version 2.1 for Windows 3.1. >> This does appear to do the same in terms of no encryption at all after >> the server hello. >I understand that some versions of MSIE support SSL level 3. SSL3 includes a >capability to switch 'cipher suites' in mid-session, or pick one at the start of the >session. One of the standard cipher suites performs authentication, but not >encryption. This is consistant with your description. >Please ensure that the server you are connecting to is not configured for >authenticate-only. It would be a pity to raise a big ruckus over what may be >just a mis-configured server. The server is one which interoperates correctly with Netscape and my own routines. It does strike me that this change is potentially the source of the bug. However, to have a "locked" symbol on the bottom right hand of the display would indicate to me as a user that a secure session has occurred. For SSL devotees the records sent are: 1. Client hello (from the client) 2. Server hello (from the server). 3. Plaintext data packaged up in SSL records from the client. 4. The client then accepts plaintext data packaged up in SSL records. SERVER_VERSION_MSB and SERVER_VERSION_LSB indicate version 2 of SSL. I have not changed the code in any way to deal with version 3 of SSL making I think the valid presumption that browsers using 3 and 2 should be able to cope with a server using 2. I shall reboot my system, trace a bit of a session and post that.

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Re: MSIE cryptography
by John Hemming - CEO MarketNet 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

For the real SSL devotees here are the first three transmissions. Client Hello 16.8 1025->443 seq 00000001 ack 00000001 PSH ACK wind 4096 data 30 80 1C 01 00 02 00 03 00 00 00 10 02 00 80 69 AE 0E F0 FA 2E 01 63 BC 59 AF 0F 1C C1 B1 7B 16.8 443->1025 seq 00000001 ack 0000001F PSH ACK wind 5640 data 590 Server Hello 82 4C 04 00 01 00 02 02 2E 00 03 00 10 (cert starts) 30 82 02 2A 30 82 01 93 02 05 26 FB 85 54 3F 30 0D 06 09 big snip of server hello (of the certificate) CC 1F BC A8 9C D7 47 41 D2 33 27 (cert has ended) 02 00 80 4A E7 13 36 E4 4B F9 BF 79 D2 75 2E 23 48 18 A5 16.9 1025->443 seq 0000001F ack 0000024F PSH ACK wind 4096 data 333 Client Master Key should be here, but instead we get 81 4B 47 45 54 20 2F 20 48 54 54 50 2F 31 2E 30 G E T sp / sp H T T P / 1 . 0 0D 0A 41 63 63 65 70 74 3A 20 2A 2F 2A 2C 20 71 Server Hello 82 4C 04 00 01 00 02 02 2E 00 03 00 10 (cert starts) 30 82 02 82 4C - SSL RECORD 04 - Server Hello 00 - Session ID Hit (no prior session) 01 - Certificate Type 00 - Server Version MSB 02 - Server Verson LSB (ie server version of SSL is 2) 02 2E - Certificate length (mainly snipped) 00 03 - Cipher specs length 00 10 - Connection ID length I think the probability is that the unusual circumstance that causes what seems clear to me as an error is that the cert is signed by a CA other than Verisign. Essentially, however, I do not think it is right for a program to display a locked key regardless of any other issues if the data being transferred is not encrypted.

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Re: Stego Virus
by Robb＠SpeakOut.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

For a virus (a program) embedded in a .gif file to affect you, it would have to unsteg and then run. Just dont run it it you unsteg it. Robb Hill National Association for Home Care 228 7th Street SE Washington DC 20003 202-547-7424 202-547-9312 fax robb(a)speakout.org

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Anti-Racist Laws Stifle Political Liberty
by qut＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

llurch(a)stanford.edu (Rich Graves) writes: > Incidentally, [don't college speech codes] belong in the past > tense? Stanford hardly lifted a finger to defend the Grey > Amendment, which was designed and widely regarded to be the most > carefully tailored speech code around. I don't know of any > universities that have tried to enact a speech code since. The > attempt would be futile. (Background: Grey applied only to > "fighting words" directed at individuals. It was fine, under the > [overturned] Stanford policy [which I voted against], to create a > "hostile environment" by screaming hostile verbiage at nobody in > particular; but you couldn't say the same thing to someone's face.) The mere lack of enforcement of an unjust law does not justify the continued extancy of that law. That very "dead letter" law can be fired up at any time to harass critics of the university's anti-racist administration. Some examples of dangerous dead letter laws: * Abortion Most people presume that abortion is legal in the USA, wrong. Most states make abortion very illegal, our whole abortion freedom as currently exists rests entirely on a few federal court decisions. If the previous Supreme Court decisions are overturned, most states will suddenly start enforcing their fascist anti-abortion laws. * Hate Crime Denmark used to be presumed by racists to be the only country in Europe where racism was legal. Denmark's anti-racist laws were not enforced in ages. Yet, the anti-racist laws sprung into action to persecute Gerhard Lauck, an American Nazi who desired to move to Denmark on the account of a provocateur that his organization would not be harrassed in Denmark. Mr. Lauck was deported to Germany where he was sentenced to four years in prison to the outrage of professional anti-racists of the "moderation" of his punishment for merely speaking in pro-Nazi terms in Germany, where politics that challenge the ruling order is strictly illegal. * Racism In Other Countries Racist politics are explicitly illegal in every "white country" in the world except, so far, the USA. The mere lack of enforcement in many of the countries such as South Africa, Canada, Denmark, Russian Federation, Malaysia, Australia, etc., does not exonerate that country from the charge of censorship as political intrigue. * "We Will Take Power" A lot of fake anti-censorship activists insist they are for free speech in the sense of allowing such political purposes as "we don't like your policies and we want you to change," but desiring to make illegal such political goals as "we don't like your power and we're going to try to take it away from you." Yet there is no purpose, no purpose whatsoever in political speech, if there is no threat allowed to the ruling order expressed in idealogical terms and organizational forms. Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and all the nationalist founders of the American nation would approve of radicals organizing and expressing their goals of seizing power legally, or if denied the means of a republic for succession, illegally. * Unfree Nations Germany is an example of a nation that prohibits any type of Nazi political party. Therefore, Germany is not a free country, not an honest republic, in fact, less free even than Wilhelmian Germany in allowing radical parties to challenge the power structure. -- I marvel at the resilience of the white people. Their best characteristic is their desire to learn. No other people has such an obsession with the intellect.

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