December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

MIT AI Lab PGP keyserver back up...
by Brian A. LaMacchia 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The PGP public key server at the MIT AI lab is now back up, running PGP 2.6. You can access the keyserver via e-mail to: public-key-server(a)pgp.ai.mit.edu, or pgp-public-keys(a)pgp.ai.mit.edu Please use the alias "pgp.ai.mit.edu" when sending mail to the server. I expect the keyserver to move from its current host (martigny.ai) to another machine sometime this summer. The CNAME pgp.ai.mit.edu will always point to the right place. If you have a WWW client with forms support (Mosaic, Lynx, Emacs-W3) you can also use my WWW interface to the keyserver. The URL is: http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~bal/pks-toplev.html [www-swiss is another alias. Our WWW server is moving soon, too.] NOTE: As a result of MIT's legal review of the patent issues surrounding PGP 2.3 and PGP keyservers, this keyserver has been configured to not accept "add" requests containing keys identified as being produced by PGP 2.3 or earlier versions. If you're running a PGP keyserver and would like to sync with this server, drop me a note. --Brian LaMacchia pgp-public-keys-request(a)pgp.ai.mit.edu

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Reputation systems, sources?
by rishab＠dxm.ernet.in 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Marcos Javier Polanco <marcos(a)dogen.persona.com>: [in private mail] > Is there a mailing list explictly talking about the "distributed > trust' issue? I am very interested in reputational mechanisms. If not > mailing lists, what papers should I download? I don't think there's a mailing list on this. I know that at least Bill Garland wants to set up an experimental reputation market. Anyone else know about papers or projects? > - marcos j. polanco > - marcos(a)dogen.persona.com > - nataraja (contact(a)dogen.persona.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh rishab(a)dxm.ernet.in Voicemail +91 11 3760335; Vox/Fax/Data 6853410 H-34C Saket New Delhi 110017 INDIA The National Short-Sleeved Shirt Association says: Support your right to bare arms! --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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seeking Pr0duct Cypher
by steven＠echonyc.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am working on a story for WIRED about digital money, and notice here that someone named Pr0duct Cypher is behind the scheme that some people are experimenting with. Would Pr0duct Cypher mind contacting me? Use this email (steven(a)echonyc.com) to make the connection. Also, if anyone else wants to point me to interesting stuff, feel free. I'm probably on top of the obvious (Chaum, etc), but better to assume that I'm missing stuff. Steven Levy _______________________________________________________ Steven Levy steven(a)well.com steven(a)echonyc.com author, Hackers, Artificial Life, Insanely Great contributor, Macworld, Wired "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." _______________________________________________________

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crypto in June Byte
by bart＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Three items. On p.41 at 2/3 page review of Schneier's "Applied Cryptography" favorable if not raving. In the What's New Hardware pages: The Crypto-Com V.32bis asynchronous pocket modem ($895) from Western Datacom (Westlake, OH) encrypts all data transmissions between two of the companies modems. 800 262 3311 [ It uses single DES they said when I called ] Lastly a seven page article "Distributed and Secure" by a Russell Kay whose bio says he edited Infosecurity News and Computer Security Journal. The box on the front page says "When you distribute information and processing, you also delegate security responsibility. Good access controls, eyes open administration, and communication encryption can make all the difference". Login control token technology is reviewed, Kerberos discussed and explained, PK crypto including PGP, and the Andrew file system. Something new to me was: "... NSA recently placed a large order for what it calls 'sniffless password generators' with Secure Computing in Roseville, Minnesota. With the company's Lockout system, instead of sending a password over the wire "in clear," you send a cryptographic representation of it, using a one time encryption key. Each time you login, the password is encrypted with a different key. The NSA will use Lockout in conjunction with its Tessera Crypto Card, a PCMCIA device. ... It uses both NIST's Digital Signature Algorithm and the NSA's Mosaic encryption algorithms."

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Re: MIT has released PGP
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

R.>the following questions: R.>Are you a citizen or national of the United States or a person who R.>has been lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United R.>States under the Immigration and Naturalization Act? Wait a goddamned minute. Since when does the ITAR prevent illegal aliens (who are resident in the US) from obtaining munitions? And what about our Canadian bretheran? I guess they didn't want to register as a munitions seller which I gather you have to do if you export to Canada. DCF --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165

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Re: Patentability (was Graph
by Pierre Omidyar 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Reply to: RE>Patentability (was Graph isomorphism based PK cr) [disclaimer: I'm not an expert, but I've done some work with patents.] I believe the best way to ensure that something becomes unpatentable is to: 1. Publish it first. That reserves your right to file a patent if you want. No one else can patent your original work. 2. Don't file a patent within one year of publication. After one year you lose your right to file. No one else can file, because by then the invention is considered to be public knowledge (since it was published), so it would not satisfy the "original and novel" patentability test. If you keep the process a secret, someone else could independantly invent it and patent it. If you publish it before someone else files, it becomes public knowledge and is unpatentable except by the original inventor within one year of publication. Pierre -------------------------------------- Date: 5/25/94 9:21 AM To: Pierre Omidyar From: perry(a)imsi.com Harry Bartholomew says: > > Jay Prime Positive says: > > > I only worry that if I publish, it could be patented. And I don't > > > want the algorithm to end up in the hands of the software patent > > > folks. Especially if they will be making money off it, and I wont. > > > > If you publish, only you could patent it. There is only danger if you > > don't publish, in which case others can independently make the same > > discovery and patent it. > > > > Perry > > But you would then need to file within one year of the publication > date I think. His whole point was that he wanted to render the process unpatentable. Perry ------------------ RFC822 Header Follows ------------------

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Re: All the free energy in the universe
by doug＠OpenMind.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May writes: >Not to split universes here, but it is interesting to consider that >some ciphers may not be breakable in _our_ universe, in any amount of >time. > >Our universe presumably has some finite number of particles (currently >estimated to be 10^73 particles). This leads to the "even if every >particle were a Cray Y-MP it would take..." sorts of thought >experiments. > >But I am considering _energy_ here. Ignoring reversible computation >for the moment, computations dissipate energy (some disagree with this >point). There is some uppper limit on how many basic computations >could ever be done with the amount of free energy in the universe. (A >rough calculation could be done by calculating the energy output of >stars, stuff falling into black holes, etc., and then assuming about >kT per logical operation. This should be accurate to within a few >orders of magnitude.) The above analysis may be incorrect... there may be no limit to the amount of computation that can be done with a given finite amount of energy. The late Nobel laureate Richard Feynman became very interested in the subject of computation and physics towards the end of his life. My understanding is that he concluded that there was no apparent limitation to the amount of computation that could be completed with a given amount of free energy. Computation may indeed always dissipate energy, but Feyman's conclusion was that this dissipated energy can be made arbitrarily small -- that there is no fundamental quantum limitation on the amount of computation that can be performed at any given mass-energy scale. The kT per logical operation can always be reduced to finer and finer scales. Presumably, this would require advances to ever new technologies, based on new physical forces that are relevant at finer scales (down to computation based on the interactions of quarks as in QCD, gravitons, etc.) Of course, since I can't give you references, you have to take this with a brick of salt... can anyone else comment on whether they have heard this about Feynman's conclusions? This is distinct from the issue of "quantum computers" and Shor's recent results... that issue has to do with whether quantum mechanics can be used to produce *qualitatively* different types of computation. In the above, I am simply discussing the use of quantum mechanical principles to produce fully "classical" computers, but with every greater computational powers using a given amount of energy, based on physics of the ultra-small. In fact, classical computers today rely on quantum mechanics, as the transistor cannot be described without it (electron tunneling, etc.) __ __ __ __ Doug Cutrell / ) /__) /_ /\ / /| /| / /\ / / ) doug(a)OpenMind.com \_/ / (_ / \/ / |/ | / / \/ /__/ ===================================================================

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Re: Question: Key Distr. in realtimeo applications?
by gtoal＠an-teallach.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

: Ideally, you want to pick up your crypto-phone, initiate a call to : another crypto-phone which you've never called before, and which was : possibly manufactured yesterday, and be able to exchange keys with it : in a secure fashion. But I can't think of any way to do this, without : opening yourself up to a man in the middle attack. The physical key exchange can be done by Diffie-Helman, but as you note it can be man-in-the-middled. I think what the STU sets do is to print the other guy's keyprint that was actually used on an LCD on the phone, and you read it back out to each other in voice mode. Of course, that can be m-i-t-m'd too but it's a damn sight harder... G

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Re: (fwd) Re: BSD random() - any good (source included)
by jamiel＠sybase.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 3:05 PM 07/08/94 -0500, Jim choate wrote: >Yes, I could do that if I were so inclined. I am not. Seems to me that just >Bottem line is that at this point there is no clear cut 'standard' that I >biggest problems w/ the list at this point is the range of expertise that >piss somebody off. The real question is whether it is worth the time to >reply to them (in general I hold it isn't) rather than just hitting 'd' >The bottem line is it was crypto related, was in reference to source code, Seeing how he is so fit for the job, and knows not only what we all need to see, but also what the bottem line is, I hereby nominate Jim for CypherGod, and urge him to, as his first action in that role, to pipe all of usenet through cypherpunks, because you Just Never Know when you might miss something that is crypto related, and after all, if you want to be crypto-savvy, you have to pay a little. -j -- "Blah Blah Blah" ___________________________________________________________________ Jamie Lawrence <jamiel(a)sybase.com>

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ITAR violation?
by Brian D Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Someone anonymously posted; >Reprinted with permission from the Chicago Sun-Tribune, 5 July >1994: >From Sun-Tribune Wires >Washington, D.C.- > In a Rose Garden press conference early this morning, >Justice Department spokesmen announced the indictment of a >Washington, DC. computer bulletin board system (BBS) operator, one >Mr. Gil Bates, for violation of ITAR munitions export laws in >connection with the operation of the infamous 'We got yer nudes >here' BBS. I would like to point out that the two major Chicago Papers are the Chicago Sun Times, and the Chicago Tribune. There is no Sun- Tribune. I liked the references to "A Georgetown Professor" and the obvious reference to Steganography, but otherwise this story reeks. Why the Hell post it anonymously? Larry are you out there? A lifelong Chicago resident Brian Williams Extropian Cypherpatriot "Cryptocosmology: Sufficently advanced communication is indistinguishable from noise." --Steve Witham "Have you ever had your phones tapped by the government? YOU WILL and the company that'll bring it to you.... AT&T" --James Speth -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLh2UVtCcBnAsu2t1AQGI8QP/d60uwuAHiGxwPTImsTZDNlfJmemX53Nn mT3JQIiK6GsEpl/xKQsG2Y9sitcyRMbq0e++R9PGocp/muBCPqEKFPUqfroSesKU 1SmoEPboaV64soltmCAPykp8PNWAIHCJGbRjigmHJdDZsv2C1NH4vWUV0At9OAVQ e3LZVkwzxYQ= =REcP -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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