December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: NP-hard Labor for Cyherpunks Subversives
by joshua geller 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>>Ringleaders of the so-called >>Cypherpunks group, a subversive organization, have been sentenced to >>NP-hard labor at Fort Meade, Maryland >>-- Zek May, serving a polynomial term >Yea, Zek copped a plea for a feasible probation. cut it out, detweiler. josh

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RE: ((subscribe msgs to list) && (DOS stego deleted filespace))
by Matt Thomlinson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

subscribe msgs: I've been thinking about this problem as long as the rest of you have, and have finally come to the conclusion that 1) eric doesn't want to change the way the list software and 2) eric is going to continue to be human and not be able to reply to subscribe/unsub messages as fast as something like majordomo could. Knowing this, I propose: A vacation.msg file or equivalent on cypherpunks-request(a)toad.com should be constructed that: o replies to ALL messages o Explains that ALL requests are done by a human and to expect a week or more for subscribe/unsubscribe requests. o Also describes large volume of mail (useful for those who are attempting to subscribe) Now when someone sends the subscribe request and fails to read the message sent regarding how to unsubscribe, and then (from traffic volume) decides to unsubscribe the explanation will be mailed again automatically. Might keep some of the garbage off of the list. Yes, this is basic. No, this has not been done, obviously. dos stego: I don't think the current discussion is taking into account the fact that if someone suspects you of using steganography they're going to check. If what you are describing becomes a popular way of steganography, you're out of luck -- they'll check that first. Think about it: your 'bad-sector' stego or 'wiped-filespace' stego begins gaining popularity. Wouldn't you think they'd check for funny bad sectors if they were going to check your computer for contriband info? Another thing that has bothered me: if you didn't have the sectors marked, you'd need to remember where they were (so you could protect them from writes). You wouldn't necessarily want to do this on the computer; it'd be there for the picking. How to do it?f Someone suggested you just use the end of the wiped filespace (use norton or other utility to defrag the disk and move empty space to the end of the disk, then use portion of disk furthest away from being written to. This might work, except for the fact that fragmentation _does_ go on, and when you were to write files to the drive (heck, I do every time I start up windows and write a huge temp swapfile) you're going to be playing roulette with your data. I think the point about the blank track (the one linux uses) is interesting; then again, once your method becomes well-known, it is no longer useful. Just thoughts; I wish I had more answers. Heck, ANY answers would be nice. mt Matt Thomlinson Say no to the Wiretap Chip! University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. Internet: phantom(a)u.washington.edu phone: (206) 548-9804 PGP 2.2 key available via email or finger phantom(a)hardy.u.washington.edu

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REMAIL: down remailers
by Karl Lui Barrus 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Cypherpunks, Bad news on the remailer front... both elee7h5(a)rosebud.ee.uh.edu and elee6ue(a)rosebud.ee.uh.edu are gone. I just found out now, when some anonymous mail intended for elee6ue(a)rosebud.ee.uh.edu bounced back to me (the middle mystery hop of my recent remailer is my account on owlnet). I tried fingering both accounts, and it does appear they are gone (before my old account elee7h5@rosebud was merely locked, so I couldn't log in but the remailer I set up there kept on running). The shut down will also unfortunately take out the one at barrus(a)tree.egr.uh.edu, since that was just the first stage of a remailer that worked here and finally sent out through elee6ue@rosebud. Mail to barrus(a)tree.egr.uh.edu was forwarded to my account here, and I was using the elm filter command to direct that mail into the remailer scripts for processing. I can't run a remailer on owlnet (at least not so obviously, I risked it before since remailed messages appeared to originate from elee6ue@rosebud on not my account klbarrus@owlnet) since it is forbidden by the user policy. So I have three messages (the one bounce, and 2 queued with latency) waiting to be remailed, but that can't happen anymore since the secret key for elee6ue@rosebud is gone. I'll delete them soon since they can't be decrypted anymore. I have no idea why this has suddenly happened: I haven't had any complaints or questions directed to me. It could be anything from the grad student who admins rosebud cleaned up old user accounts to complaints from receipients of anonymous mail. Anyway, I'll make the changes to the remailer list, and include the new one at hacktic.nl. Karl Barrus klbarrus(a)owlnet.rice.edu -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLWWZNIOA7OpLWtYzAQFomwQAi8W+JlGX80kcLt0dDovYVvNddFSChEwL 1fFUi8VfGztOLFc0uTpq0XurNmIiF9X4HyisPQSZiQrr5Uq4n6P263YGq8rw311W N7x6K7zx0hkPV0jKDC39Go5X6wTX+6YL9IuvyuehPolY1Xyfjrv+KoHMSKCyh5xT OedW0JGaEkM= =98Pz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Newsgroup/list moderation techniques
by Derek Upham 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

So people are arguing that USENET newsgroups need moderation to keep out extraneous posts. Other people are arguing that moderation brings the danger of ``cabals'' and the like; who chooses the moderators? How about this: anyone can be a moderator. Supposed Ann wants to be a moderator. She sends e-mail to the moderator site saying ``make me a moderator''. Afterwards, she gets periodic mail messages containing newsgroup posts. For each message, she responds to the moderator site saying "APPROVED" or "NOT APPROVED". >From the point of view of the moderator site, it gets newsgroup messages through e-mail and then forwards that e-mail to one person chosen randomly from the moderator list. Soon afterwards, it gets an "APPROVED" or "NOT APPROVED" message back from that person, and depending on the response, either posts the message or does not post the message to the newsgroup. This moderation method has two major benefits: the load of culling posts is distributed among many people, which helps responsiveness; and the decision of culling posts is distributed among many people, which reduces the risk of partisanship. There are, of course, issues of how do we deal with people who can't be reached or who don't read their mail in a reasonable time, but they can be answered, I'm sure. For an example of a similar system of distributed responsiblity, look at the fabled USENET Oracle... Derek Derek Lynn Upham University of British Columbia upham(a)cs.ubc.ca Computer Science Department ============================================================================= "Ha! Your Leaping Tiger Kung Fu is no match for my Frightened Piglet Style!"

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Crypto conference in Santa Barbara
by solovay＠math.berkeley.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What follows is the call for papers, in latex. For the latex-impaired, the conference will be in Santa Barbara on August 21--25, 1994.

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Hacktic remailer works?
by Mike Ingle 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does the remailer at hacktic work? I've tried it and have not received a response. Does it use the standard syntax? --- Mike

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your guess
by hkhenson＠cup.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

dThe other day I was asking myself out loud just what the heck is going on with Bill and Al and their oddly strong support for Clipper. A voice said ask not *that* question, but who is it that has a *lot* of influence over them, and what three letter agency were they working for a while back? Hmm. Could this describe a certain person who decided against being Sec. of Defense? Very good! said the voice. Now, what kind of reason could people in the highest positions in the US have for doing things which are rather impolitic and out of character for them? Well, I said, *I* don't know what kind of pressure might be brought to bare, but "no such agency" *would*. Do you think they would have the nerve to blackmail a prez? The voice softly said "Kennedy and Hoover."

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Mac securedrv help..
by rarachel＠prism.poly.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hey guys I posted this message all over AOL, CIS, Fido and UseNet. I'd like to post it on here as well. If you happen to know someone who has written disk drive device drivers for the mac, please forward this to them so that I can write something like SecureDrive for the Mac. :-) (I've already written some vastly cool, vastly portable code thatprovides much much more than an encrypted drive!) I will make a FREE no-frills crypto-drive available (only in the USA of course...) but there will also be something along the lines of a shareware crypto-stacker with data compression and encryption. I've written most of the compressor related code already, and tried to keep it fairly portable... This should give eDisk, Stacker, and x2 a bit of healthy competition. :-) (It will be VERY low cost compared to them.) Hey there, I tried to get a printed copy of InsideMac:Devices, however it won't be published for a while. In the mean time, I printed out some of the relevent chapters from the beta version on the d e v e l o p bookmark cd... I'm trying to write a disk device driver that will be loaded from an application (after the Mac is started up, and INITs have loaded.) I already have code that installs a driver in this manner. I've looked at the SCSI C/ASM sample code on the CD... But, here are some questions I still have: Is it okay for my driver to call FSRead FSWrite from its Prime routine? (It will be reading from a file or writing to a file.) Do I have to make the driver asynchronous? If not, how do I tell the OS that it isn't async? If yes (or if asynch is better) how do I write such a beast? The demo SCSI driver is synchronous, however I hear that the new AV macs use asynch drivers. Would an async driver work on older Macs? Would a non-async driver work on an AV Mac? Where can I get sample code for an Async disk driver? All I need is basically a bit of a source code skeleton that I can stick in READ_A_BLOCK, WRITE_A_BLOCK, Initialize, and Shutdown functions... Also, a MAJOR thing, how do I set the sector/block size of a disk device driver such as the one I'm writing? I understand that 512 bytes seems to be the size in general. I also understand that the Mac clusters sectors together if the drive is larger than 65535 sectors because of the pointers it uses. (I'd like to be able to use 512, 1024, 4096, or even upto 32K sectors in my driver, but if 512 is the normal it's not too big a deal...) I have written most of the routines that this driver needs, but I need a working, good skeleton of a driver, and as the warnings on the SCSI sample code indicate, I don't trust it. :-) Thanks. (if you'd like to email me the replies instead, my internet address is: rarachel(a)photon.poly.edu. This is preferred since I generally get to the photon machine more often...) ---------On countless worlds the earth shakes as the forces of Chaos strive to gain control. Whilst they unleash their devastating weaponry upon their foes there is no time for peace - only Eternal War.

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;pgpit
by Hal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I was just logging out, by typing "logout". I accidentally placed my right hand on the wrong keys, offset to the right by one. Instead of "logout", what appeared on my screen was ";pgpit". Good idea! One we should all take to heart. ;-) Hal

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RE: MONEY: cryptocash is transaction money
by Pat Farrell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In message Thu, 17 Feb 94 12:41:00 -0800, hughes(a)ah.com (Eric Hughes) writes: > I've been getting questions about digital money lately which indicate > a basic misunderstanding of its most important feature. Crypto cash > is a way of moving money, not a way of holding money. > > Crypto cash is like a check or a note rather than like the dollar, > franc, or mark. Crypto cash is a way of increasing one person's > balance and decreasing someone else's balance. > > Since it's not a currency, it's not sensible to talk about its > exchange rates. Digital money can be denominated in any currency you > like, so long as you have a bank or other financial institution to > handle it for you. > > This is only an obvious distinction if you already know it. "Money" > is such an overloaded word that it's easy to get confused. > > If this isn't clear, _please_ let me clarify. If you don't get this, > none of the rest of the digital money discourse will be > understandable. I've been following the digital money issues here for quite some time, and I do not understand this distinction at all. Sandy said essentially the same thing in different words, and that too was beyond me. Except for tangible money (i.e. 99.99% pure gold coins) I don't see that any money is anything other than a mutially agreed upon way of moving "barter tokens" between folks. Sometime the government (or Fed) can define the true value of the barter tokens, and othertimes their attempts fail. When the attempt fail, the usual course is to have a "devaluation" that reflects market realities. I don't see how digital money is fundamentally different than private bank notes that were common in the US in the last century. They are good if they are accepted, and useless if not. If this is really a critical distinction, since I don't see it, I'd appreciate a more concrete explaination. Thanks Pat Pat Farrell Grad Student pfarrell(a)gmu.edu Department of Computer Science George Mason University, Fairfax, VA Public key availble via finger #include <standard.disclaimer>

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