December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

They`re Baaaaack!
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

For the second week in a row; the Admin, fascism, and computers made the front page of the Saturday NYT. "U.S. Seeks Wiretap Software for Law Enforcement" They are going to legislate the Digital Telephony Initiative or the kinder, gentler, version thereof. Telecoms customers will get to pay $300+ million to tap themselves. The Klinton proposal is alleged to be mellower than Bush's because it exempts "private networks." That means it's meaningless since virtually all future voice and data services will be delivered over "private networks." DCF "But the President of the United States *is* named Schicklgruber." -- Firesign Theater Liberation Front --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165

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The Clipper connection
by hkhenson＠cup.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If I may boil down one side of the Clipper/Capstone debate, it is certain members of the government saying: "We need to implement this encryption method so as to avoid problems we think may be coming. Trust us! We promise not to abuse your privacy." [except for the following--expandable--list of reasons.] Unlike some in this debate, I do not doubt the sincerity of Dorothy Denning or others like her. And I would have a lot fewer problems with Clipper/Capstone proposal if the people who will be granting access to the keys and those with legal access to the keys were of Dorothy's caliber. However, people of good will are not likely to be the ones who apply for these keys to your privacy in the future. I am right in the middle of a case which has remarkable similarities to a Clipper "request for keys." Full details have been posted to comp.eff.talk and misc.legal, but in brief summery, a Postal Inspector from Tennessee is attempting (for political reasons) to impose the obscenity standards of that region on an adult BBS run from Milpitas (just North of San Jose). To this end, he obtained a warrant to take the BBS hardware. Because of contained email and First Amendment activities of a BBS, subpoenas, not warrants, are required under two sections of federal law. The laws are Title 42, Section 2000aa, and Title 18 Section 2701, the same ones which were applied in the well-known Steve Jackson Games case. Pointers to these federal laws were *posted* on the BBS. The postal inspector downloaded this file (most of which *I* originally wrote), and *included* it in his affidavit for a search warrant to a Magistrate-Judge in San Francisco, along with a remarkably weak theory of how he could avoid application of these laws to himself. To obtain a warrant to take email and 2000aa materials, a number of judicial findings should have been made. None were. The postal inspector got his warrant, mailed child pornography to the BBS, served the warrant, and "found" the child porn. To give you an idea of the good will (and competence) of the particular agent involved, he had not included the child porn in the warrant, and so had to fill out another document at the time of the search. On this form he specifically described the material as "sent without his knowledge" (referring to the sysop). Of course this statement did not prevent this child pornography (in the sysop's house for all of half an hour) from being the basis of one count (of 12) of a grand jury indictment the BBS sysop faces in Tennessee. This warrant example applies to the Clipper situation. The risk under Clipper is that your private communications will be protected by the *weakest* link in the chain--one of the thousands of low level Magistrate-Judges among whom law enforcement agents shop for warrants and will shop for keys. These judges tend to be busy, or lazy or both, and they *trust* law enforcement agents. Even if the law is *directly quoted* in search warrant affidavits or key requests, and these laws *expressly forbid* granting warrants or key requests under the conditions cited, the judge may not even read a lengthy supporting affidavit before approving it. He is *very* unlikely to consider a the underlying laws when granting a request. The key escrow agents provide no protection whatsoever since they simply fill orders from agents with approved applications. Judges ignore the law with impunity, and so do law enforcement agents because one agency will almost never investigate another. As a practical matter, applications for search warrants are almost never denied. The same situation is certain to occur for Clipper key applications, no mater how weak the justification happens to be, or what laws are being violated by those seeking the keys. Keith Henson

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Patches for magicmny
by nobody＠jarthur.Claremont.EDU 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I had to make a few patches for pgptools and magic money to compile on a dos system with microsoft c 6.0. #include <mem.h> and #include <io.h> do not work with this compiler. I added #ifdef __TURBOC__ around these includes in mm.c, s.c, c.c, and ptd.c. In pgpmem.c, this system has malloc.h but not alloc.h. Change the #ifdef MSDOS to #ifdef __TURBOC__. With these changes it worked.

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copyrights of anonynous messages
by jito＠iikk.inter.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Can someone tell me what the understanding is about reprinting and reposting messages send via anonymous remailers? IE if I am writing an article and want to quote from this list, I will try to get permissions from the author. What do I do about anonymous notes? - Joi -- true name: <Joichi Ito> closest email address: <jito(a)netcom.com> closest fax number: <+81-3-5454-7218> current physical location: <Tokyo> travel path: <.> mosaic home page: http://iikk.inter.net/ -- finger jito(a)netcom.com for PGP Public Key, RIPEM Public Key --

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No Subject
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Developers using the current version of PGPtools should becareful to add keyspace FIFO and passphrase "burns" to their applications to insure that security critical information is NOT left carelessly in memory... while PGP 2.3A is VERY scrupulous, PGPTools package does NOT have sufficient internal checks and "burns" at present...this is left to the developer at pressent... I also noted a fifo_unlink routine where a burn should be performed prior to the unlink from the FIFO queue... Anon

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How to easily increase remailer traffic
by rjc＠gnu.ai.mit.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Recently I was reading a message about how fast ftp porno sites go down because as soon as they are announced they undergo constant heavy use. Given an anonymous remailer network, there is no need for sending random noise messages to keep a constant traffic. Simply set up a double blind porno e-mail archive site. The site address itself would be a self-addressed pgp remailer block, and all return addresses would be SASE too. Not only would this provide a constant background of data flowing to hide important messages in, but it would also incentivize thousands of people on the net into using pgp via e-mail daily and would educate them about crypto. The double blind mechanism would keep the site safe from direct attack, and would give many people more confidence about requesting such files (since they could be encrypted on delivery) As more sites pop up using the double blind mechanism to avoid discovery, more and more remailers would be added to the network. People would be encouraged to set up simple light-weight remailers in their .forward once they figure out that there is safety in large numbers. Pornography is usually the first media to use new technology. Whether it's modems, networks, bbs, minitel, irc, muds, cd-roms, independent phone service, desktop video, desktop publishing, video games, you name it. Let's harness its power to found cryptoanarchy in cyberspace. All that's needed is a uucp setup, about 20 megs for jpeg picture archive or story archive, pgp, and some slightly more powerful remailer software. This is guaranteed to generate a steady stream of remailer usage (possibly too much) -Ray (unsubscribed still) -- Ray Cromwell | Engineering is the implementation of science; -- -- rjc(a)gnu.ai.mit.edu | politics is the implementation of faith. --

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Broadening the use of Cryptography
by Matthew Bernardini 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Maybe I have just missed something in this whole discussion, so please hold back the flames, but has a SIMPLE desktop mailer that encrypts using PGP been writen and widely distributed on any platform ? The common person will only do something if you make it simple for them to access. The attitude of don't complain, write the code youself won't fly with average Joe who wants to help by spreading the use of PGP. Most people have barely just enough time to worry about reading the news and checking their mail, let alone downlaod, compile and implement an encryption scheme. The priority should be to get people encrypting first, then worry about whether they understand the protocol for double-blind remailers. It seems to me that Universities should be the highest priority for spreading the use of PGP. It is the students who are willing to adapt to new technology the quickest. Some sort of product should be developed that can be distributed on the PC and Mac, like Pegasus mail (for those that are familiar with it), that will support PGP. It all comes down to marketing. Why not make a nice free-ware game that can carry a Cypher bill-board with it ? How many people see the Maelstrom start up screen on a Mac ? X-tetris on Unix ? Minesweeper on Dos ? It seems to me that widespread advertising should be a higher priority if PGP is going to succede. Matthew Bernardini

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Blatant Plug
by Chris Goggans 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

After a complete sellout at HoHo Con 1993 in Austin, TX this past December, the official Legion of Doom t-shirts are available once again. Join the net luminaries world-wide in owning one of these amazing shirts. Impress members of the opposite sex, increase your IQ, annoy system administrators, get raided by the government and lose your wardrobe! Can a t-shirt really do all this? Of course it can! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "THE HACKER WAR -- LOD vs MOD" This t-shirt chronicles the infamous "Hacker War" between rival groups The Legion of Doom and The Masters of Destruction. The front of the shirt displays a flight map of the various battle-sites hit by MOD and tracked by LOD. The back of the shirt has a detailed timeline of the key dates in the conflict, and a rather ironic quote from an MOD member. (For a limited time, the original is back!) "LEGION OF DOOM -- INTERNET WORLD TOUR" The front of this classic shirt displays "Legion of Doom Internet World Tour" as well as a sword and telephone intersecting the planet earth, skull-and-crossbones style. The back displays the words "Hacking for Jesus" as well as a substantial list of "tour-stops" (internet sites) and a quote from Aleister Crowley. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All t-shirts are sized XL, and are 100% cotton. Cost is $15.00 (US) per shirt. International orders add $5.00 per shirt for postage. Send checks or money orders. Please, no credit cards, even if it's really your card. Name: __________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________ City, State, Zip: __________________________________________ I want ____ "Hacker War" shirt(s) I want ____ "Internet World Tour" shirt(s) Enclosed is $______ for the total cost. Mail to: Chris Goggans 603 W. 13th #1A-278 Austin, TX 78701 These T-shirts are sold only as a novelty items, and are in no way attempting to glorify computer crime.

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Meeting Thanks
by Greg - Kucharo 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thanks to everyone who organized and presented at saturdays meeting,I had a great time and learned a great deal.I'm already looking foward to the next meet. Greg/kryten

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Re: SCI: Brain Wave Alteration
by jdwilson＠gold.chem.hawaii.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Re use of strobe in EEG's - yes, the use of strobe lights with both closed and open eyes at various frequencies are still part of the standard EEG diagnostic protocol for differentiating among other things epelepsy, narco- lepsy, and other neurological disorders of this nature. -Jim

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