December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

JESUS SAVES!
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Part of the inspiration for OPERATION BLACKEN BLACKNET... ===cut=here=== RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest Thursday 10 February 1994 Volume 15 : Issue 49 Date: Sun, 6 Feb 1994 01:17:49 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Robinson <PAUL(a)TDR.COM> Subject: What goes around, comes around The following was posted on a local BBS about the recent incident on the network. ANDREWS NEWS Staff member suspended for network abuse, by Wendy Wein Clarence Thomas, systems administrator for "Redwood," the administrative computer, will be temporarily suspended from his job because he sent a 5,500 character religious message to between 1,200 to 1,500 news groups across the world through the Internet. This act violated the system's purpose, giving Andrews University a bad reputation among the Internet users. Over 1,200 complaints came over the Internet to the Andrews computer science department demanding justice. According to Mailen Kootsey, chair of the academic computing committee and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Thomas will be suspended from his position for a week. His status will be reviewed at the end of the time period. During this week Thomas will not have available access to the network computers. Sometime between five and eight o'clock Monday evening, January 17, Thomas sent his three-page message titled "Global Alert for All: Jesus is Coming Soon," from the Andrews computing center to the news groups which are accessible through the Internet, a computer system which connects computers throughout the world. These news groups deal with different individual topics. For example, if a news group is about cars, then only information about cars should be sent to that news group. Some people subscribe to more than one group and some universities and organizations are subscribed to almost all of them. Thomas sent his religious message to all of these groups. People who were not interested received this message, some more than once. Some organizations received 1,200 to 1,500 copies. For many of the subscribers religious input was not accepted very well. This message took up their time and money. The message accumulated 5.5 kilobytes of disk space. Within an hour after the message was sent, Daniel Bidwell, administrative contact for the network at Andrews, received Internet messages from the East coast. In two hours they came from the West coast and within four hours, complaint letters came in from other countries. The letters made statements such as "This is not what I am paying for" and "Will this guy be stopped?" In addition to the news groups, Thomas also sent his message through a mailing list, filling others' electronic mail. This could have been changed by sending it to only a few news groups so fewer copies could have been distributed. "If he sent his message through a news group which dealt with religious issues then everything would be fine," said Bidwell, "No one would have known." There are no laws against Thomas' actions, yet he violated and broke some of the unwritten rules of society. That is why many people are unhappy. This act created poor reactions towards the university. Thomas' intent was to spread the good news of Jesus' return to all those he could reach. Thomas was trying to witness to others, yet instead of creating joy in peoples' heart, he only created anger and resentment. "He was doing the right thing in the wrong way," said Bidwell. Some of those who wrote to complain said that they agreed with the message, but that Thomas delivered it wrongly. This message has created bad public relations for the church at another's expense. The letters that were received included threats. They wanted Thomas fired, or else the Internet connections from the Andrews campus could be "taken." People are now writing and finding ways to contact President Lesher. Not only have strangers called, but also a large amount of Adventists claiming that something must be done to save the church's sacred reputation. On Monday morning, January 24, Rob Barnhurst, Thomas's supervisor and director of the computing center, Ed Wines, vice president for finance, and Kootsey, met to discuss the incident. They decided to send out an apology through the Internet, explaining that they did not condone Thomas's act and will try to keep this from happening again. Thomas graduated from Andrews with a computer science degree. Those at the computer science department feel that he knew better then to send out that many copies. "It was clearly, very definitely abuse," said Ray Paden, chair of the computer science department. "He broke the guidelines for the Internet and violated the net etiquette. The trust was violated."

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Re: message pools.
by Nikolaos Daniel Willmore 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

:: Request-Remailing-To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Jim asked about message pools. Why not just start using alt.test? It's really not such a noisy group compared to say comp.org.eff.talk ;-)! You must include "ignore" in your subject line, or the remailer you use will be swamped by autoresponder messages. And as long as a PGP message already tattles what the nickname on the key it is encrypted with is, you can up front put that nickname in the Subject header. At worse, if you want to "hide" it, just remove the header and footer that announces it's a PGP message. No one will really notice. You could even add a jpeg header and laugh at the poor soul who tries to view that "ignore Stacy" jpeg that he never saw in alt.binaries.picures.erotics. No remailer operators like me to have to trust. No central pool software. Fuck the waste of bandwidth complaints, your just running a TEST. You still have to run through a remailer though, to alt.test(a)news.cs.indiana.edu, so use encrypted remailing. You can't use those that strip Subject lines, though even if qwerty did strip Subjects, the return address is in there as "qwerty-remailer" so I wouldn't see the autoresponds. I know this isn't a new idea, but he did ask for ideas. You still have to get the other person to "join the pool" (read alt.test), but that's easier than getting them to join a real pool which will fill his mailbox daily with garbage. And you can tell him to "join the pool" in public, say anonymously on this list, or on Usenet or for God sakes send him an anonymous snail mail letter! Whatever you do, since "Stealth-PGP" isn't here yet, I don't see a reason not to include the person's anonymous nickname in the Subject line or at least in the message, and make everybody's lives much easier! I think certain post-by-mail services like news.cs.indiana.edu function like anonymous remailers if you forge mail to them, in that they strip much of you original headers away, including the real path but you then have to connect directly to that post-by-mail site and end up on their logs. As far as problems go, I don't think the bandwidth problem would be a big problem since what, maybe a dozen people would be really doing this in a given week? Perhaps "strength in numbers" isn't going to be possible yet in the next few years. So be a little naughty and use the world-wide pool that already exists. The hell with internet bandwidth; this is one's privacy at stake! I don't have an exciting enough life, so let me know how it goes if you try it. -=Xenon=- P.S. Maybe Stealth-PGP is a secret and is the reason the jpegs on alt.binaries.pictures.erotics have become so "noisy" lately ;-). P.S.S. I'm going to start reading alt.test and misc.test, but I will not look at anything unless you put "ignore Xenon" in the Subject line! Look Ma, I'm in a pool. Somebody send me a message, and send me an anonymous public key within it, and I'll respond back the same way. Don't sign the Encrypted message; clearsign the message within it! Then nobody will know "Mr. Nickname" signed it. Why not contact Pr0duct Cypher this way? Then you aren't taking up space in alt.security.pgp. Afterall what's a 40K-100K message compared to how much is in the binaries groups a day?! And you can easily scan a day's alt.test postings for you name, then trash the rest. You can even automatically scan the postings for you nickname with most news readers. Sorry this is so long. I do have a nasty habit of thinking in public. P.S.S.S Extropia already has a pool set up, but I've been lazy and don't know the details yet. With Usenet though, you never end up on any pool's member list, except the list of all Usenet readers, and possibly all remailer users if such a list exists. And a guy like Pr0duct can NEVER be tagged for having picked up the message! No? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLVrsWgSzG6zrQn1RAQEqXgP9GKqpDEvYfnq6z9Xfnj+BkFf8MiNTy5zS nHCrPwHkgrxEOTC352rgykcaOeChfwVZK9t43iPtegBK3uzZjYPdKxgcULx8Y4Rn nmKf8X64JrwXuqlGCGK5VEXIF/NFo7qbn0tHAHoWhY+kZuPbbP/xjBel1C/f3Brg EFpSRZA+AEA= =Md9H -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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message pools revisited
by greg＠ideath.goldenbear.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- uunet!bilbo.suite.com!jim (Jim Miller) writes: > I think it is time to ask again. Do people think it would be a good > idea to create a news group for exchanging anonymous messages? > Alternatively, perhaps some cypherpunks with free time would like to > code up a simplified distributed message pool service modeled after > USENET. You would need servers to distribute the messages and > front-end "reader" apps to simplify searching for messages destined > for you. Any takers? I think it's time - messages to Pr0duct Cypher (sp?) have begun to appear on C-punks and on at least one of the Usenet groups; I think it's time for alt.crypto-traffic, or alt.W.A.S.T.E (from Pynchon's _The Crying of Lot 49_ - I think it was Tim May who first suggested alt.W.A.S.T.E). I found a nice Perl script to scan a news spool (or a subset thereof) for arbitrary text strings. It could easily be modified to send its output to mail; so one wouldn't even need to subscribe to the group to rcv messages, if correspondents would be so obliging as to mention the intended target of the message (which, of course, would create a security risk and facilitate traffic analysis; security or convenience, choose only one.) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.4 iQCVAgUBLVsisX3YhjZY3fMNAQFREAP/Qs/pc/jHotO8lGgvFP3JVAwrIuChVac/ OGucDlyhtohRRgrP2h8JNCURP8ZGOrwzXO0KqoJI0HqP6rHHxy+lY1+gPYrB/WLS XbS6hRdqe/awG19EiGXfvNGK9n1RoOObaleHxP1IruvC6LdX/19oax2TgcvRTOd/ mgN4teDrs4M= =5GsZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Greg Broiles ".. has bizarre Cyberanarchist theories relating greg(a)goldenbear.com to human punishment." -- L. Detweiler

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More on magic money problem
by qwerty-remailer＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It appears that the problem with bigendian magic money is specific to the "mint" function. Minting one coin works OK, but minting more than one causes every coin after the first to be rejected by the client. Creating a coins.dat file with the -p function of the client works OK, even with more than one coin. Sending the output.asc to the server works OK too, as does handling the ascii file that comes back from the server. Only minting fails. Here are hex dumps of two coins.dat files. The first one is OK. It was created by "c -p" and has two coins. Key size is 512. 0000000 c0c4 f7c6 cbe5 af34 0893 a6dc ab39 4292 0000020 8200 1101 000d 01fd 1098 23f4 a67e 1f58 0000040 8fbe 3199 67cb dc70 6cd1 6921 df53 aa8a 0000060 8b5b 2a63 5e67 94da 9b18 7f03 ece9 34b2 0000100 0535 75f3 4e6a 3a45 b25e 565e 3fbb 14db 0000120 f3fb c6a7 6def cf77 c05a 9043 0ba7 e490 0000140 0ff5 fa15 83ae cbb3 1a00 1101 000d 01fe 0000160 2c61 ff65 299d 987f 4d88 0a3c 4b13 9f8f 0000200 612a dba6 ad6f 250d f665 ce0c 868f 3b62 0000220 5d1f 725f 449e 15bc da50 c270 5fba 2386 0000240 49ad 2c45 e26e b3af b94e deed b1e6 5f15 Here is a similar coins.dat file created by "s m" and also holding two coins of the same value (but different bit patterns, of course): 0000000 c086 9b22 8601 2974 3e71 d344 f7f1 ab13 0000020 6400 1101 000d 01fd 10ea 1ecb 711a 5114 0000040 5361 a558 9e67 a0ce 9eda 49af 58e1 9203 0000060 8f6b 9056 673c 88fb 79da 4a21 0e98 0e95 0000100 08a6 40f9 81f6 9e76 21e7 ea8d accf 0ef1 0000120 6e41 3657 aacf 34fb c0cc 8cc5 f400 0130 0000140 1400 0000 0000 0000 5900 1101 000d 01ff 0000160 5568 2e3d 9c7e ded9 6489 ba47 687e dc1a 0000200 f4e6 743e 2f12 f095 1363 7b03 6394 83ef 0000220 dbab 598b 60db ecf0 d09a d5ce 5ea8 d2e6 0000240 8277 1061 076b fd00 8aa8 edd9 17d0 3eeb It is immediately obvious that the 2nd, bad, file has a block of 7 zeros where the other one has random data (on the line labeled 000140). If I am interpreting this file right, this block of 0's is towards the end of what should be a 16 byte block of random numbers. So it looks like something overwrote 7 bytes of this 16 byte block before it could be stored. Hope this helps. BTW, for the curious, the format of the coins.dat file is as follows. For each coin, there is first a c0. Then there are 16 random bytes, the "coin ID". Then there is a PGP-style multi-precision integer which is the exponent corresponding to the coin. In this case it is 0011 01000d. The first two bytes are the number of bits in the MPI, (11 hex equals 17 decimal) and then there are as many bytes as are implied by that many bits; these hold the value. This exponent MPI is followed by another MPI which holds the bank's signature. This can be expressed as (C.ID)^(1/e), where e is the exponent, and C.ID is a byte of 0, a byte of 1, padding bytes of ff, the magic 18-byte "ASN" string, then 16 bytes of the coin ID. In the examples above, the first coin ends exactly in the middle of the row labelled 000120. Try to see if you can pick out the sub-fields of each coin in the files.

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Re: message pools.
by catalyst-remailer＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Jim asked about message pools. Why not just start using alt.test? It's really not such a noisy group compared to say comp.org.eff.talk ;-)! You must include "ignore" in your subject line, or the remailer you use will be swamped by autoresponder messages. And as long as a PGP message already tattles what the nickname on the key it is encrypted with is, you can up front put that nickname in the Subject header. At worse, if you want to "hide" it, just remove the header and footer that announces it's a PGP message. No one will really notice. You could even add a jpeg header and laugh at the poor soul who tries to view that "ignore Stacy" jpeg that he never saw in alt.binaries.picures.erotics. No remailer operators like me to have to trust. No central pool software. Fuck the waste of bandwidth complaints, your just running a TEST. You still have to run through a remailer though, to alt.test(a)news.cs.indiana.edu, so use encrypted remailing. You can't use those that strip Subject lines, though even if qwerty did strip Subjects, the return address is in there as "qwerty-remailer" so I wouldn't see the autoresponds. I know this isn't a new idea, but he did ask for ideas. You still have to get the other person to "join the pool" (read alt.test), but that's easier than getting them to join a real pool which will fill his mailbox daily with garbage. And you can tell him to "join the pool" in public, say anonymously on this list, or on Usenet or for God sakes send him an anonymous snail mail letter! Whatever you do, since "Stealth-PGP" isn't here yet, I don't see a reason not to include the person's anonymous nickname in the Subject line or at least in the message, and make everybody's lives much easier! I think certain post-by-mail services like news.cs.indiana.edu function like anonymous remailers if you forge mail to them, in that they strip much of you original headers away, including the real path but you then have to connect directly to that post-by-mail site and end up on their logs. As far as problems go, I don't think the bandwidth problem would be a big problem since what, maybe a dozen people would be really doing this in a given week? Perhaps "strength in numbers" isn't going to be possible yet in the next few years. So be a little naughty and use the world-wide pool that already exists. The hell with internet bandwidth; this is one's privacy at stake! I don't have an exciting enough life, so let me know how it goes if you try it. -=Xenon=- P.S. Maybe Stealth-PGP is a secret and is the reason the jpegs on alt.binaries.pictures.erotics have become so "noisy" lately ;-). P.S.S. I'm going to start reading alt.test and misc.test, but I will not look at anything unless you put "ignore Xenon" in the Subject line! Look Ma, I'm in a pool. Somebody send me a message, and send me an anonymous public key within it, and I'll respond back the same way. Don't sign the Encrypted message; clearsign the message within it! Then nobody will know "Mr. Nickname" signed it. Why not contact Pr0duct Cypher this way? Then you aren't taking up space in alt.security.pgp. Afterall what's a 40K-100K message compared to how much is in the binaries groups a day?! And you can easily scan a day's alt.test postings for you name, then trash the rest. You can even automatically scan the postings for you nickname with most news readers. Sorry this is so long. I do have a nasty habit of thinking in public. P.S.S.S Extropia already has a pool set up, but I've been lazy and don't know the details yet. With Usenet though, you never end up on any pool's member list, except the list of all Usenet readers, and possibly all remailer users if such a list exists. And a guy like Pr0duct can NEVER be tagged for having picked up the message! No? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLVrsWgSzG6zrQn1RAQEqXgP9GKqpDEvYfnq6z9Xfnj+BkFf8MiNTy5zS nHCrPwHkgrxEOTC352rgykcaOeChfwVZK9t43iPtegBK3uzZjYPdKxgcULx8Y4Rn nmKf8X64JrwXuqlGCGK5VEXIF/NFo7qbn0tHAHoWhY+kZuPbbP/xjBel1C/f3Brg EFpSRZA+AEA= =Md9H -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Glimpse of the Bowel Movement
by L. Detweiler 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

`Somebody' sent this to me... <g> ===cut=here=== From: tcmay(a)netcom.com Subject: Update for Jan 1994 Cyphertentacles, Some of you have asked about our plans for the next month. There have also been many questions about the Detweiler situation. Here's a summary of our current situation and status: The Netcom project is almost complete. We have 12 active accounts on this system, of which only 3 have been compromised. The internal keyserver net is in place. Each of our accounts will have its own PGP key. This will help to defuse any suspicion which may arise. People tend to accept digital signatures as valid, regardless of who did the signing. Just look at the number of unsigned keys on the servers. Their carelessness will be their demise. The phase change is getting closer. Eric has finished the mods to the toad.com sendmail. Any mail sent to this address, except from one of us, will bounce as though the account did not exist. Fingerd has likewise been modified, and security has been greatly enhanced on all the lists. BlackNet Enterprises has successfully infiltrated one of the major credit bureaus. For obvious security reasons, I can't tell you which bureau is involved or give any details. For the present, we will be archiving large numbers of credit records. Within a few years, they will be salable for the expired information they contain. The seven-year limit is ridiculous. Creditors will be willing to pay for more complete information. *.fi should have their digicash system operational within a year. We need many more Cypherpunks-style remailers outside North America to operate the digicash system and protect the servers. Now, about the Detweiler problem: we finally got rid of an12070/S.Boxx (thanks Julf!) but we're not out of trouble yet. We need more posters in the newsgroups, to help with the damage control. Also, please sign each others' pool keys. As I said earlier, the technology of encryption tends to impress people and cause them to believe things, where they would otherwise be skeptical. A recent posting which I made to public Cypherpunks, "Who is L. Detweiler?", has somehow found its way back to Detweiler. This is not serious, since public is only a propaganda organ, but it points out the security problems we face. Detweiler may have an agent on the public list. We must protect the privates, particularly this one and Colorado, from similar infiltration. Imagine what could happen if L. Detweiler gained access to this list! Even one post, if it fell into the wrong hands, could be extremely damaging. Be very careful not to expose any list traffic. More information will follow as it becomes available. For now, please continue the newsgroup activity. Use all the pools, not just a few of them. It was just this kind of carelessness which burned szabo. Keep up the good fight! --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power:2**859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.

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Nx2 DES Found Weak
by ritter＠cactus.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ritter Software Engineering 2609 Choctaw Trail Austin, Texas 78745 (512) 892-0494, ritter(a)cactus.org Nx2 DES Found Weak Terry Ritter February 11, 1994 Summary Any Nx2 DES system succumbs to meet-in-the-middle attack at a cost only N times that of normal DES, and is probably not worth using. If we assume that DES would fall with 2^55 cipherings (on average), then the 4x2+ DES system which I previously recommended would require only 2^57 cipherings. Such an attack, however, might require substantially more storage and might be more difficult to mechanize and slower in operation than an attack on normal DES. Nx3 DES systems seem not to be affected by this attack, but they are also not faster than triple-DES (1x3 DES), which was the main reason for recommending Nx2 DES over triple-DES. On the other hand, Nx3 DES systems apparently would provide added strength against dictionary attacks; such attacks might be possible against ASCII plaintext when ciphered in small 8-byte blocks. Double-DES A 1x2 DES construct (double-DES) is something like this: A v k1 -> DES1 v B v k2 -> DES2 v C Each single capital letter represents an 8-byte DES block. Meet-In-The-Middle Attack on 1x2 DES (double-DES) [ This is probably similar to: Merkle, R. and M. Hellman. 1981. On the security of multiple encryption. Comm. ACM 27(4): 465. which I have not seen. This analysis resulted from trying to understand the comments on NxM DES made by email from Eli Biham, which led me to: Davies, D. and W. Price. 1984. Security for Computer Networks. Wiley. 75. and the attack on double-DES. Obviously I did not expect that attack to work on Nx2 DES, or I would have skipped Nx2 entirely. ] First we need some known-plaintext (A) and its associated ciphertext (C). Now we encipher A with every possible random key k1 and save the results. Then we decipher C with random keys k2, eventually finding a match to the enciphered data. There are many possible pairs of keys (k1, k2) which will produce matching B's. Since there are 112 key bits (k1, k2), and we match 64 bits each time, there should be about 112 - 64 or 48 bits of freedom (that is, 2^48 possibilities) to be resolved with one or two more known-plaintext blocks. We can guarantee to find the correct key pair if we try every possible key for k1 and also every possible key for k2; this is only twice the effort of a full DES key search, and we need only search half that, on average. (In practice, we would do some k1's and then some k2's, repeated until success occurred.) However, we should note that this technique may require the intermediate storage of 2^56 results. This would be over 2^59 bytes of store, and this amount of storage and lookup is not nearly as easy or fast as the on-chip ciphering-and-compare solution for DES. Still, the result is not comforting. A 2x2 DES construct is something like this: A B v v k1 -> DES1 k2 -> DES2 v v C D Exchange Half E F v v k3 -> DES3 k4 -> DES4 v v G H Meet-In-The-Middle Attack on 2x2 DES Suppose we first try the 2x1 approach: With one known-plaintext block, we can search two keys (say k1 and k2) until a match is found for the center block. Then we can validate that match with additional known-plaintext blocks. (Since there is only a 32-bit match-check and a 112-bit keyspace, there will be 112 - 32 or 80 bits of freedom to resolve at about 32 bits per known-plaintext pair, so we would want to check a minimum of 3 or 4 other known-plaintexts. The cost of the subsequent cipherings and comparisons would be relatively insignificant, however.) We can guarantee that the two keys will be found by searching all possible k1 and k2. This is only twice the normal DES keyspace, and we only need search half of that, on average. And we can do this again for the other two keys at a similar cost. Again, the attack hardware will be considerably more awkward than any simple search for a DES key which matches a given ciphertext value, but the total number of DES cipherings will be about twice the DES keyspace, on average. Nx2 DES Falls Similar arguments lead to the conclusion that, for any N, Nx2 DES must be generally comparable in strength to DES itself. This means that the larger block has not helped strength much in any Nx2 DES system, despite the fact that every ciphertext bit is demonstrably a function of every plaintext bit in the large block as well as every bit in all the separate DES keys. Note that the form of the inter-stage permutation has absolutely no effect on this attack or overall strength, despite the fact that a great deal has been written about designing S-P permutations. The meet-in-the-middle attack seems not to apply to Nx3 DES. Dictionary Attacks Normally we define "strength" as the *minimum* effort expected to "break" a cipher, when taken over *all possible attacks*. Working out the extent of "all possible attacks" is a major part of the effort in cryptography. With respect to DES, most of the current attacks have considered the relatively-small 56-bit keyspace. But I am also concerned by the relatively-small 8-byte block size. Consider an 8-byte block of ASCII text: Modern data-compression programs typically compress such data by 60 percent. This means that we typically have less than 26 bits or so of "uniqueness" in the various blocks. Rigidly-formatted business documents, letters, or forms would be even less unique, and, thus, even more attackable. To the extent that a substantial amount of known-plaintext could be acquired (or possibly even inferred), a dictionary attack becomes possible. For this reason, if a change is to be made, then I would like to see a block size at least four times that now used. This would be a reasonable approach with a 4x3+ DES system, which would be comparable in throughput to a 1x3 DES system, but, alas, not faster. Conclusion A two-stage or Nx2 DES construction is probably not worth using.

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What is the CANNET/NEWBRIDGE RNG-810
by Paul Elliott 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I have been asked by several cypherpunks what the CALNET/NEWBRIDGE RNG-810 is. It is a board you can place in a 8 or 16 bit slot of an 80x86 computer. Each time you do an inb instruction for the board's port address you get a random byte. I have one in my computer, and it works. I got mine from CALNET electronics INC. I paid $300 for it several years back. However I have been informed that CALNET no longer sells them and they must be obtained from NEWBRIDGE MICROSYSTEMS. See quoted message: >From: bretth(a)Newbridge.COM (Brett Howard) >To: Paul.Elliott(a)hrnowl.lonestar.org >Subject: Calnet RNG-810 > > >Paul, > >The RNG-810 is now licensed to Newbridge Microsystems. I have done some work > with a 1-bit hybrid version of the technology (RBG-1210) and I do > know a *little* bit about it. If you have questions, you should > probably write to Newbridge (address at bottom) or you can email > me and I'll do my best! > >Take care, >Brett > >Newbridge Microsystems >603 March Rd. >Kanata, Ontario >Canada K2K 2M5 >Tel: 1-800-267-7231 > 613-592-0714 >FAX: 613-592-1320 I have a catalog from Newbridge Microsystems, Document:90000.MD300.02, Copyright 1992. Page 4-77 Says: "The NM 810 RNG Random Number Generator is an implementation of the latter approach, with eight RBG 1210s in parallel and a PC XT/AT bus interface. Random bytes are input to the computer through an I/O (Input/Output) port. Any data type (integer, floating point etc.) can then be easily constructed in software by using successive random bytes and arranging them according to the desired internal data format." I do not know if Newbridge still has RNG-810s to sell. Perhaps someone will call the 800 number above and find out. One restriction that I received in the docs with my CALNET RNG-810 is that if you attempt to read the device too fast (less the 40u sec between reads), the succesive bytes are not randomly independent. This is a problem for my IO driver as you do not want to do a spin wait on a real operating system like OS/2 and timer interrupts only occur 18.2 times per second. This causes my driver to run _MUCH_ slower than the hardware would require. I believe that the simple interface used by the RNG-810 is natural enough that it is likely to be used by others who create random number generators. And so my driver may be useful with other devices. But I have received mail recently from someone that makes a RNG that you attach to you serial port and runs at 9600 baud. You could probably use your standard serial port driver with such a device. - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Paul Elliott Telephone: 1-713-781-4543 Paul.Elliott(a)hrnowl.lonestar.org Address: 3987 South Gessner #224 Houston Texas 77063 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLVtrJ/BUQYbUhJh5AQH6UQP/TXJ5X14vUKPf1J8To5AtwQchPrgabUBT 03lN0+XbsDE6JEgJm7SDN1e3B5EqNEZGi3RMh63HMN7oYf1f7UUMGVoZJdqFNmBM e09s37VcGsZZaZZnlXb5ogQwnjeNGkRSoldWqMcwYQWSBZJskpohHvqrhoge7MQ4 Ka9jDhGCNhg= =ULN8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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An available RNG
by bart＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I got this recently, but hesitated to post, after previously being told by folks on the hardware list "thats too much". Perhaps not, compared to the RNG-810 that Paul Elliot spoke of. Forwarded message: > From bierman(a)cc.ruu.nl Mon Feb 7 08:44:23 1994 > Date: Mon, 7 Feb 1994 17:42:36 +0100 > Message-Id: <199402071642.AA18036(a)accucx.cc.ruu.nl> > X-Sender: bierman(a)accucx.cc.ruu.nl > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > To: bart(a)netcom.com (Harry Bartholomew) > From: bierman(a)cc.ruu.nl (Dick J. Bierman) > Subject: Re: Your hardware RNG > > NOW AVAILABLE (second series)/ ordering info at the end of this file/ > > > Hardware Random Number Generator > > Random Number Generator > Excerpt from the USER MANUAL > > How the RNG works > The Random Number Generator consists of two independent analogue > Zener diode based noise sources. Both signals are converted into random bit > streams, combined and subsequently transmitted in the form of bytes to the > RS-232 port of your computer. Special timing circuits ensure that crucial > logical operations occur at moments that the device has stable signals. > The baud rate is 9600. So the device is capable of supplying you with about > 960 random bytes or 7600 random bits per second > Power is drawn from the RTS and TXD signal. (pins 4 and 2 of the D-25 > connector). In order to work properly the RTS signal should be high (5 volts > or higher) and one should not send bytes to the device! > > WARNING: part of the RNG is shielded. It is not recommend to open the > device. It is not allowed to copy or use the design of the RNG without > written permission of the developer, the Foundation for Fundamental > Research on Man and Matter (FREMM). > > The testdata > Each RNG passes a 256 run randomness test before being shipped. Each run > consists of 8192 samples. The unselected results of this test are included > with the package. If at the end of the test runs the cumulative first order > deviation is larger than 1.5 standard deviations the RNG is tested another 20 > times. If it is accepted after these 20 tests this will be indicated. > > How to connect the RNG to the computer > The RNG is functionally similar to a 'crazy' modem producing random > information to your machine. It should be connected like any modem. In > some cases when the computer has a standard D-25 male connector you can > plug the RNG directly into that connector. In other cases (e.g.. for Apple > machines) you have to connect the RNG through a standard modem cable. > > > > SOFTWARE supplied on the disk > > DOS > > The program RTEST (for listing see appendix) takes two arguments. > > RTEST <port> <ncycles> > > <port> indicates which serial port is used (either 1 or 2. (default:2)). > <ncycles> gives the number of test runs. One test run consists of reading > 26500 bytes and calculating the Chi-2 and the number of bits on each one of > the eight positions within the byte. If more test runs are specified the > numbers (except the chi-2) accumulate. > If the program is started it will display one sample from the specified port. > More samples can be displayed by hitting the ENTER-key. > Continuous sampling of the test runs is started by the ESC key. The results > will be available for further statistical analysis in the textfile 'TEST'. > > The program RAND3 takes one argument. > > RAND3 <port> > > This program starts in the same way as RTEST by displaying individual > samples after each time the ENTER key is hit. . After hitting the ESC key > continuous sampling starts and the bytes are displayed tin a graphical form > in real time. The continuous samples can be restarted by hitting the space- > bar. Exit through the ESC key. > > The software addresses the serial port directly. It is also possible to > implement a driver which is interrupt driven (like the software supplied for > the Mac). A driver is available upon request and can also be obtained > electronically from the FTPsite: > PSI_LINE.psy.uva.nl > in directory GUESTS/RNG/SOFTWARE/DOS > In the near future this site will also offer PK-test programs. > > Macintosh > > The Macintosh software is based upon the standard serial port drivers rather > than on direct access of the serial ports. The bufferspace for this driver > should be large enough to hold incoming bytes while the driver is active and > no reading occurs. In cases where this is not clear one should close the > driver and reopen it when needed. > In the examples the modem-port is used. In the listings it is indicated how to > use the printer-port. > > RNG_test > The program rng_test will ask for the number of test runs to perform. Each > test run consists of 8192 samples. The chi-2 (df=255) and the number of '1' > bits minus the number of '0' bits on each of the positions within the byte are > displayed after each run. Chance expectation is of course 0. When more runs > are specified the cumulative number of '1' bits minus the cumulative > number of '0' bits are displayed as well as the corresponding standard > deviation. > All data are saved in the file RNGTESTDATA. Each run on a separate line > and the data separated by spaces. > > __________ END OF EXCERPT FROM USER MANUAL _______ > > ORDERING INFORMATION: > > Single unit: $195, -excl shipping; add $10 shippng for the US & Asia, > $5 for Europe > > Reduction is possible for larger quantities. > > > Send check to: > Stichting FREMM > Alexanderkade 1 > 1018 CH Amsterdam > The Netherlands > > Make check payable to: Stichting FREMM > > or send your order by FAX to: > > (+31) 20 4206075 > > With a signed specificiation of your mastercardnumber & expiration date. > > Contact for more info: > bierman(a)cc.ruu.nl > > > _______ DJB________ > > >

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No more "Nazis on the Nets"
by danisch＠ira.uka.de 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hi everyone, we have to stop this discussion. I have more than 20 mails in my mailbox, everyone very long, serious, interesting and waiting for response. But I can't answer them all within reasonable time, I also have to do my regular work. Furthermore I have a lot of mails of people asking me to stop this discussion "between two persons". Some don't see that it has anything to do with cryptography. I don't share this oppinion, because if we talk about communication, we also have to talk about the danger and the restriction of communication. The german right-/left-wing as well as the american Mafia are known to use modern computer networks, cryptographical software and methods of system security and access control. We can not close the eyes and just don't care about what is done with the tools we are contructing. Meanwhile I can somehow understand that there has to be any form of export restriction if people constructing such tools have so many problems with thinking about possible forms of bad use of their tools. And again I got confirmed what we find so often in so many cases: People love to talk and form a judgement of Germany and don't even really know what they are talking about. This is a never-ending problem of Germany. In this special case of Naziism you should be aware that they found not only germany nazi computer networks. They found this network to be the international connection to other country's nazis, especially Austria, Great Britain and USA. Two of the german politicians asked to forbid private mailbox systems and even modems. Of course this is stupid, but perhaps your politicians get the same idea. When I read the clipper proposals I think they already had such an idea. Hadmut -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLVuI3mc1jG5vDiNxAQGenwQAhruLOjvjbLuLGgnN+48gXneOtT3x0iV7 DIexTGAubZUCW8UCMy5/pOF1nGMgs5GMdZzUzy4TJGoAAsyuoLRTuVjVDqMjBIL1 9mIH/wNRxGj/55YjEWXylPM+PzSZwCerTbJs0Vo2YWwcMRbqd4a/+hb0ji6ul6iT 83Tby8FihjE= =Uy5j -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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