December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Zimmermann/NSA
by Loren Fleckenstein 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The World Affairs Council has cancelled the Aug. 25 crypto policy debate between PGP author Philip Zimmermann and NSA official Clinton Brook because of low interest and rescheduled it for Oct. 27 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. I will post more details as they become available. Although I'm disappointed for selfish reasons by the delay, the rescheduling may work to everyone's advantage. The later date gives the World Affairs Council more time to line up news media coverage. One network news magazine has expressed interest in taping the event for repackaging in some type of feature on encryption and civil liberties. Also, National Public Radio has expressed an interest as well. I've rearranged my schedule to attend the event and will prepare a transcript of the debate to upload to any BBS, forum or news group that will carry it. Stay tuned.

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Remailer pings.
by remailer＠rebma.rebma.mn.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I regret sending this to the list, but other attempts to contact the people involved haven't been successful. I won't send more than this one message. The remailer at rebma.mn.org is connected via a UUCP link. Rebma picks up its mail in the middle of the night, Central Standard Time. There are a half dozen people who are pinging the remailer on an hourly or half-hourly basis. You can do the math, I'm sure. There is no point in pinging this particular remailer in this way. You won't get up-to-the-hour reports on its availability, since it doesn't pick up the mail until late in the evening. You aren't adding to the traffic mix in any useful way, because your messages aren't chained and are only encrypted once, to the remailer. If you think it's a problem for the enemy to do traffic analysis on identical messages from the same person over the same mailpath that are sent every hour on the hour, you're an idiot. And there's an even better reason. People who do this for any length of time are added to the Detweiler list, and the remailer becomes useless to them in any form. I recognize that people are trying to provide a remailer service. I realize they are trying to do a good thing. It just doesn't apply, here, in this case, for this remailer. Once a day would be sufficient, because that's all the more often the mail is retrieved from my service provider.

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Brands cash in perl
by Rick H. Wesson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Below are two Perl psudo-Functions as I see Brands Cash as described by Hal (hfinney(a)shell.portal.com) Am I comming close or am I way off, Personally I understand code better than the written word and I can loose lots in the translation. If this is on the "right track" then where does $g come from, can I take it from the modulo of a PGP key? # mPrime(m') is passed as $CASH with the two submitter generated # Check values $A and $B. &GetChallenge returns the random challenge # we requested as $c0, the two additional ones ($c1 and $c2) were # supplied by the depositor. sub Deposit{ local($CASH, $A, $B) = @_; if(($A*$B) == $CASH){ ($c0, $c1, $c2) = &GetChalenge; $Catch = $A*($B ^ $c0); $Check = $Amt^$c1*$g^$c2; if($Catch == $Check){ sql("insert into account Balacne=Balance+$CASH"); print "ALL OK; CASH Accepted\n"; }else{ print "Double Spender!!\n" &CatchCriminal($CASH); }else{ print "You Lie!!!\nStop making up stuff\n"; &CatchCriminal($CASH); } } # Supplied with a users account number, however this happens via a form # or E-Mail, we generate m' and sign and deliver it... sub mPrime{ local($Acct, $Amt, $g) = @_; $RandomNumber = &GetHugeRandomNumber; $Acct = sql("Lookup $Person's Account"); sql("update Balance=Balance-$Amt where AccountID=$Acct"); $CASH = $Amt**$RandomNumber * $g**($Acct*$RandomNumber); sql("Intert $CASH into outstanding insterments"); return(&Signed($CASH)); }

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Neutron sources, alpha sources, pulling dragon's tail
by Brad Dolan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Various comments on this thread, all lumped into an easy-to-ignore wad: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: IN%"werewolf(a)io.org" To: IN%"cypherpunks(a)toad.com" CC: Subj: RE: Nuclear Weapons Material > > iqg1550 says: > > Let's all rejoice at the birth of the latest member of The Horsemen of > > The Criminal Apocalypse -- The Nuclear Weapons Material Smuggler. > > I'm sure his four siblings will make plenty of room for their baby brother. > > I will point out, of course, that anyone who can afford the tens of > millions to hundreds of millions the smugglers are reportedly charging > for critical masses worth of Plutonium and Uranium, odds are that they > can afford to buy un-escrowed secure communications equipment... Not to mention the fact that without tritium, the "trigger" for nuclear weapons (and extremely expensive and rare at $ 100m a gram) all you have is a radioactive paperweight. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This misconception was put to rest by a number of postings such as the following: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IN%"psmarie(a)cbis.com" To: IN%"werewolf(a)io.org" CC: IN%"cypherpunks(a)toad.com" Subj: Nuclear Weapons Material > Not to mention the fact that without tritium, the "trigger" for nuclear > weapons (and extremely expensive and rare at $ 100m a gram) all you have > is a radioactive paperweight. The "trigger" isn't tritium. Tritium (along with lithium 6) is used in fusion bombs. A fission-only device, ala Hiroshima or Nagasaki, doesn't require any. The trigger in the center of the plutonium core is a neutron source, polonium if memory serves correctly. Tritium is a beta emitter. --Paul ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IN%"ghio(a)chaos.bsu.edu" "Matthew Ghio" To: IN%"cypherpunks(a)toad.com" CC: Subj: RE: Nuclear Weapons Material pstemari(a)bismark.cbis.com (Paul J. Ste. Marie) wrote: > Mark Terka wrote: > > Not to mention the fact that without tritium, the "trigger" for nuclear > > weapons (and extremely expensive and rare at $ 100m a gram) all you have > > is a radioactive paperweight. > > The "trigger" isn't tritium. Tritium (along with lithium 6) is used > in fusion bombs. A fission-only device, ala Hiroshima or Nagasaki, > doesn't require any. > > The trigger in the center of the plutonium core is a neutron source, > polonium if memory serves correctly. Tritium is a beta emitter. A neutron source is usually a light element with a high neutron/proton ratio, coupled with an alpha emitter. I believe the Nagasaki bomb used beryllium-9. An alpha particle impacting a beryllium nucleus will fuse with it, forming carbon-12, and the binding energy will eject a neutron. I think aluminum and a few other light elements will undergo similar reactions to release neutrons in the presence of alpha particles. Polonium is primarilly an alpha emitter. It would work as part of a neutron source, but it is not a particularily good choice because its half-life is only 138.4 days (polonium-210). This makes it expensive to obtain, and impractical to store. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Plutonium itself is a decent alpha emitter. Seems like I've been around a Pu-Be neutron source somewhere ( but not too close!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IN%"ecarp(a)netcom.com" To: IN%"ghio(a)chaos.bsu.edu" CC: IN%"cypherpunks(a)toad.com" Subj: RE: Nuclear Weapons Material > Polonium is primarilly an alpha emitter. It would work as part of a > neutron source, but it is not a particularily good choice because its > half-life is only 138.4 days (polonium-210). This makes it expensive > to obtain, and impractical to store. They used to use polonium in static eliminators in darkrooms - don't know if they use them anymore, though. -- Ed Carp, N7EKG Ed.Carp(a)linux.org, ecarp(a)netcom.com Finger ecarp(a)netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key an88744(a)anon.penet.fi If you want magic, let go of your armor. Magic is so much stronger than steel! -- Richard Bach, "The Bridge Across Forever" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can still buy those neat little brushes intended to remove dust from negatives. Each comes with a polonium source to help kill the static charge holding the dust. I've got one right next to my Sunshine Health Mine radon-emitting pillow. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IN%"ecarp(a)netcom.com" To: IN%"perry(a)imsi.com" CC: IN%"werewolf(a)io.org", IN%"cypherpunks(a)toad.com" Subj: RE: Nuclear Weapons Material > Mark Terka says: > > Not to mention the fact that without tritium, the "trigger" for nuclear > > weapons (and extremely expensive and rare at $ 100m a gram) all you have > > is a radioactive paperweight. > > This is sheer ignorance. First of all, tritium is not nearly that > expensive. Its quite cheap, in fact, and can be manufactured without > that much trouble. Second of all, tritium is not a necessary component > of non-thermonuclear (i.e. hydrogen) bombs. Third, tritium isn't a > "trigger". Lastly, an ordinary A-bomb is just a way to bring together > a critical mass of a fissionable material, like U-235 or Plutonium. > Once a critical mass is in one place the chain reaction will handle > the rest. Quite true. All you really need for a fission bomb is a casing to hold everything together, 2.2 kilos (or so) of U-235 (or a sufficient quantity of critical mass other stuff <grin>), and something that will hold it together long enough for it to fission. And no, Taylor, holding them together in your hands won't work (unfortunately)... hehehe :) [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, you can do it - only you just get a pffutt instead of a bang. A couple of folks at Los Alamos have tried it. Regrettably, they're no longer with us. I think the practice was called, "pulling the dragon's tail." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ bdolan(a)well.sf.ca.us

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Electronic Postcards
by Ben Goren 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Dear Editor, Most everybody I know puts almost all mail in an envelope before dropping it in the mailbox. The only time we do otherwise is when sending a postcard that says, "I'm here, wish you were fine." So why does everybody send all email in a way that's just as easy to read as a postcard? Why, then, all the fuss over ASU officials reading electronic postcards? If you don't trust the various system operators through whose computer your message might pass, put your email in an envelope--by encrypting it. If you use the most popular email encryption software on the Internet, PGP--Pretty Good Privacy, written by Philip Zimmerman and now maintained and distributed by MIT--then even the National Security Agency, the super-secret government agency entrusted with electronic surveillance, would resort to a beating with a rubber hose before expending the computer power necessary to decrypt your messages. And that's making the rather doubtful assumption that such power even exists. In other words, only my friend John could tell you that - -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.6 hIwCHxG346w4ZyEBBACo5V85syKa2oJ+TpgR5/NFqiSlFLXxSTFQghLb0owAHHqN 9cAmaJB7kvMWq3vKIP/p9s+DCFtuPLe2FF3UFYc9iOibd4LrxWPZpHzHN0DvqiCm 1M8HxJ+DgUpWHZ2jwTTZL/2XR3sfbqw6NyGgDrMspNLXsPu4WN9jctumUfyS/KYA AADRbSMnDQQZFC040LykyL783+ezN8EnLlBRZeXxqSs1fjULqybj0t9x9Sb4EGKG S3KvFUuGfvSBmrx/IKsDyAZ/5LZuFk0KhdGI/a3zP8/Bt4umQQOtIlwh3Kl/qV7I 42sh8Cx1tgXnDrfDav3pXOjlCwcjp8ChvHy79YUcUMuCGnm80fs+I7YjMKeHHlm0 qPcYE3AZRkfu8dRqisD+raXn8bpgzvyvEaFs5IMJjIhb9n3i5UaU3C3HmsvNrAps 3MTgfhDTN+XkrsaJygTvva67/5Q= =FQw9 - -----END PGP MESSAGE----- Really means, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Since I've deleted the original, even I couldn't tell you what it says except from my own fading memory. Because of an obscure code of laws known as the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations, strong cryptography, including PGP, is classified right up there with anti-tank missiles. Never mind that any program that is readily available in the States is also readily available abroad, there are stiff fines and prison sentences for those who export cryptography from the US or Canada. Thus, if you wish to get a copy of PGP for yourself--absolutely free--you must get it directly from MIT. Use anonymous FTP--which you can do from any computing site on campus--to connect to net-dist.mit.edu, and get the file /pub/PGP/README. It contains instructions on how to get the software. While a technical description of how PGP works is beyond a letter to the Editor, I would be more than happy to provide such via email to those who ask. Just write to me at Ben.Goren(a)asu.edu And, of course, PGP-encrypted messages are most welcome. Yours truly, Ben Goren Faculty Associate School of Music 5-0429 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 Comment: My key is not 'escrowed' with any government agency. iQCVAgUBLlrPMkNl71nP8jvVAQGyVAP9HyYZcmhssvvtFMrZ6kISvs4jXsgvx5ZT UHJYzcmtMXoQOP+xYZeLh31ILiX8glJXUeq1n49HNIRh10YPxAeAj3zVQCWlBIbX SjMEQpYDdNpE8sTULL0nmKlGq5P9q89KEfHlT8C8CZyS0+0ZaY2dFs4uYGaFdDq4 zyCVVTrEyUk= =lbBs -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Note to those receiving this message as a Cc: This letter is in response to a front-page article and an editorial in Arizona State University's student newspaper, the _State Press._ The one described and the other decried a draft resolution which would formalize the current policy of allowing administrators to examine any account on any university computer for no cause other than "reasonable suspicion." b& -- Ben.Goren(a)asu.edu, Arizona State University School of Music net.proselytizing (write for info): The battle is over; Clipper is dead. But the war against Government Access to Keys (GAK) goes on. Finger ben(a)tux.music.asu.edu for PGP 2.6 public key ID 0xCFF23BD5.

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Easy PGP use from the Mac
by doug＠OpenMind.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

For all those who have been complaining about the inconvenience of using PGP to sign their messages, decrypt received messages, etc., and who primarily use a Macintosh for their private mail reading... I use a set-up which is as simple as: 1) Type a message into a Eudora window 2) Double click on a desktop icon 3) Wait about 15 seconds, and the message in the window is replaced with a signed and/or encrypted version of the original message. (Plus typing in a recipient into dialog box for encryption, and entering a passphrase for signing -- or the passphrase can be "saved"). Decrypting and signature verification is almost as easy... but the decrypted text appears in a text editor window instead of a new Eudora window. No big deal. All disk based plaintext files can be automatically wiped during this process. All you need is: 1) Commercial Eudora for the Mac (costs about $50) 2) Applescript 1.1 (buy it now, or provided with System 7.5, due out soon) 3) MacPGP 2.6ui 4) Some carefully written scripts for combining the above three components. I found it necessary to tweak the scripts that someone else had written to do all of the above, but now it's all working great. The main disadvantage that I can see is that MacPGP 2.6ui is required to make this work (the "USA-domestic" MacPGP 2.6 does not have the required scripting support). But since you can configure 2.6ui to pretend to the outside world that it is regular 2.6, this doesn't seem like much of a problem for most people. By the way, Eudora comes with Unix-mail program interface scripts that enable many people to use it in combination with a terminal Unix account (such as a standard Netcom account). I'll be happy to provide more details/help on request, or to send a copy of my slightly modifed scripts. The desktop icons I alluded to in the beginning are just aliases to the scripts. Doug ___________________________________________________________________ Doug Cutrell General Partner doug(a)OpenMind.com Open Mind, Santa Cruz ===================================================================

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Re: Nuclear Weapons Material, Truly?
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Responding to msg by perry(a)imsi.com ("Perry E. Metzger") on Wed, 24 Aug 9:10 AM >(I'm not sure >that people outside of the bomb building industry >really know *for sure* what the geometries used in the >atomic weapon that sets off the fusion reaction.) Perhaps. However, there is much detailed design and production info in the "Nuclear Weapons Databook" series: U. S. Nuclear Warhead Production, Volume II, 1987. U. S. Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles, Volume III, 1987. Soviet Nuclear Weapons, Volume IV, 1989. And others. The series provides pretty detailed textual and graphic descriptions of the entire history of design, production, testing and deployment of nuclear weapons. These are written by the folks at Natural Resources Defense Council and are available there and from Ballinger Division, Harper and Row, New York. The beloved McGeorge Bundy is quoted on the covers: "A powerful antidote to the simplistic deceptions peddled with such zeal from high places . . . contains more facts about the past, present and future of [U. S. nuclear] forces than have ever been put in one place before . . . meticulous and responsible . . . the effect is overwhelming." They are mesmerizing. But then maybe they were written only for the ignorant. John

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No Subject
by dfloyd＠runner.utsa.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- To whom it may concern: In a previous mailing called "An Asshole using PGP" which does have a valid message and my signature, he basically killfiles me in the worst manner possible. Before sentence is passed, and the sound of a thousand plonks is sent in my direction, I would like to speak my part. In an earlier mailing, Mr. May was mentioning how annoying it is to obtain a PGP encrypted message, download it to their home machine, and then find a message like "wow... pgp's kwl man.". I composed the reply that Tcmay so generously posted for everyone to marvel at. I signed it, but re-read it, and DID found it to be as one would put it "nitrogenous cow waste." I composed another reply in the same directory as the original, which is irrelevent now because of this ad hominum attack. To make a long story short, I mailed the wrong file. If tcmay feels that I am such a low life that I am worthy of the plonk sound, so be it. I refuse to have judgement passed on me by the whole of this list without speaking my part. Tim May definitely has more clout than I do, and the people on the list respect him, while I am less anarchistic, more conservative about the way the government is. (I do NOT like the pressure of GAK and the Klinton Klown stuff though, let me make this clear.) Again, I am not asking for anything, but you not to killfile me for a mistake, though stupid it may be. I apologize to you, Mr. May, but I find it rude for you to take something out of private mail, and onto this list. Unless there is some major change in circumstances, consider this the last mailing from me on this as I will NOT trouble this list, and go on personal flamewars. My mailing address is dfloyd(a)runner.jpl.utsa.edu, and if you have any problems, please take this to me. I will not have this mailing list, the only mailing list I've really participated on polluted by petty ad hominum attacks. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLlsHoXDkimqwdwa5AQFZSAP8CPzDk8g8HZcQ0KH1O33k2mNgABTGslPG q2YSmuQqn6SKoNRt5VNVSlZJNrLcVbx4umo+1tw0xTSWJBQlHr57B8/+innhop3m ErNK1Pais/xnkRU3Mw0D9ya+Oy+CLM7nwEhE/IYSxYAU9l7Nd3fKqLD13nZJij8w diyNr7WVzI4= =F2jA -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Voluntary Governments?
by Jim Dixon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In message <9408232042.AA18345(a)fnord.sybgate.sybase.com> Elton Wildermuth writes: > Here's the closest applicable dictionary definition of "government", The closest "applicable" definition is not the SOLE definition, it is only definition 1 in your dictionary, and even then [I won't go into boring detail] the dictionary meaning is wider than the narrow reading you are trying to apply to it. > "Rule", or "political ... control" are only ever exercised through force. > People keep using that word, "enforce", without looking carefully at it. > >From the same dictionary: "to put or keep in force; compel obedience to." Have you never admired someone so much that that person's displeasure was a compelling force? > >I grew up in a small town of 5,000. It had a city government. The > >county government was in the same town. No one denies that California > >has a government, I think. And then there was the US government. And > >we had city police, the sheriff's office, the Highway Patrol, and the > >FBI paid an occasional visit. > > Uh ... you _do_ understand that that's a specious argument, yes? Uh ... you _do_ understand that that is a silly comment, yes? I was illustrating some of the common uses of the word. Linguistic arguments are best met with linguistic replies, not political bullshit. Your insistence that there is only one 'true' government in the United States, and that all other governments are in some sense derivative, does not agree with my reading of the US Constitution, but this is not a matter that I, for one, will pursue. > Here, someone will surely object that by this definition, the Mafia can > be considered a government. Well, yes, of course. It has quasi-governmental functions in southern Italy. > Well, if they can successfully kick the > existing thugs off of some plot of ground, and then defend it against > all comers, then yes: that's exactly what they'll be. How else do you > suppose that governments become established? This is supposed to be a revelation? -- Jim Dixon

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Computer Security Conference & Exibit
by Claborne, Chris 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Has anyone been to the Computer Security Conference & Exhibition? If so, what did you think of it. I am thinking of goin to the 21st annual on Nov 14-16 in Washington D.C. PGP key signing party??? 2 -- C --

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