December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Crypto export legislation defeated in House Intelligence Cmte.
by gtoal＠an-teallach.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

: I recommend that we give up the battle and go fight the real war. We are : totally outgunned if we stick to this approach and are wasting our time. : What the entire net community should do is focus it's energies on chopping : NSA's budget, period. That's what these guys really care about after all. There was quite an interesting quotation in one of the British papers recently from Ames, the CIA spy who was caught - he said that the intelligence infrastructure in the US was a self-serving bureaucracy. I forget the exact wording, but it was the sort of thing you'd imagine the head of any big organisation like that would want to say but was never in a position to be able to - of course, now Ames can say what he likes :-) I wonder if he's available for interviews by the Cypherpunk Press ;-) G

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Re: Perry vs. the Math Teacher
by Jeff Gostin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

perry(a)imsi.com (Perry E. Metzger) writes: > the result applicable to factoring, I feel rather sad. Its depressing > commentary on what cypherpunks has become. Go figger. It's become a haven of learning, where the more learned teach those willing to learn, instead of the self-congratulatory elitist squad I was told it once was. That's why *I'm* here, to learn from those who know more than I do. I am VERY willing to learn what others have to teach. They know more than I do, and there's some very knowledgeable people here. I've recieved some very nice replies to my earlier question about what O(f(x)) meant, including one from you, Mike McNally, Bill O'Hanlon, and Douglas Sinclair (thanx guys!! If anyone else sent anything, I haven't recieved it yet, but you do have my thanx, in advance!). This only proves that there are people who are only too willing to teach if someone shows they are willing to listen, and learn. The moral of the story is this: Someone had to teach you at one time, didn't they Perry? One is well-advised to remember, and be humbled by, the fact that they weren't born knowing everything. Flames in e-mail, please. Constructive replies always welcome. --Jeff -- +------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Jeff Gostin jgostin(a)eternal.pha.pa.us | +------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | "The risk... is that our vision is too small, our dreams not large enough" | | -Jim Seymour | +------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+

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Re: Chained Remailing Strategy and Tactics
by fnerd＠smds.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

anonymous says- > In order to preserve anonymity and thwart traffic analysis in > chained remailings, it would seem useful to include a very BUSY > remailer in the chain, and try to ensure that the message arrives > at the busiest time of the day for that remailer, from a traffic > standpoint. Hitting a remailer at a slack time when, let's say, > only one message arrives over a period of several hours would > seem most unwise. The problem for someone trying to trace a message is, which of some set of outgoing messages matches this incoming message? (Or vice-versa.) The size of the set of possibilities determines how much uncertainty is introduced. If the remailer works by delaying messages a random amount of time up to a maximum, then the number of possibilities varies with the traffic. But if the remailer works in terms of sequence instead of time, it can hold the size of the set of possibilities constant (which makes the maximum delay time vary as a side effect). So, sequence, not clock time, is what matters (or ought to), all other things being equal, and there's no reason a remailer should be any less effective in low traffic periods. -fnerd - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - the liquidy snack that drinks like a beverage! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a aKxB8nktcBAeQHabQP/d7yhWgpGZBIoIqII8cY9nG55HYHgvt3niQCVAgUBLMs3K ui6XaCZmKH68fOWYYySKAzPkXyfYKnOlzsIjp2tPEot1Q5A3/n54PBKrUDN9tHVz 3Ch466q9EKUuDulTU6OLsilzmRvQJn0EJhzd4pht6hSnC1R3seYNhUYhoJViCcCG sRjLQs4iVVM= =9wqs -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Copyright
by rishab＠dxm.ernet.in 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Robert Lau <rslau(a)skat.usc.edu> does anybody want a 26Mb .au file (uncompressed)? WHAT'S the copyright laws on this stuff anyway? Not very different from those for all the articles that keep appearing on the net, reproduced without permission from Time etc... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh "Clean the air! clean the sky! wash the wind! rishab(a)dxm.ernet.in take stone from stone and wash them..." Voice/Fax/Data +91 11 6853410 Voicemail +91 11 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA

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Karl Hess Club
by j.hastings6＠genie.geis.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Fellow c-punks: Since the topic of regional lists and meetings has been recently discussed, I thought I could announce a libertarian supper club without getting flamed for being off-topic. The first meeting of the club, named after Karl "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice..." Hess, featured J. Neil Schulman, author of Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns. Next meeting Victor Koman talks about private space. Like any supper club I attend, I'll have the latest versions of PGP available for $1 per disk. Last time I announced news about Clipper, digital cash, and the MIT release, using information from this here list. Hope to meet some of you at this cypherpunk-friendly event. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- N A S A v s T h e K i n g s o f t h e H i g h F r o n t i e r =========================================================================== Victor Koman with his new novel, Kings of the High Frontier, goes where no libertarian went before... First he killed God -- the hardest-boiled private dick of the future did it (in The Jehovah Contract). Then he solved the Abortion Controversy -- saved the fetuses and kept a woman's Right to Choose (in Solomon's Knife). God and abortion were warm-ups; now Vic takes on Darth Vader's cadet academy: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. How many ways are there for free men and women to get to the High Frontier in spite of the best efforts of the Space Nazgl to keep them from it? Read Kings of the High Frontier and count them, baby! And come hear Victor himself blow the State out of our way into space at: the second meeting of the Karl Hess Club Monday, July 18, 1994 -- 7 PM Dinner at the Alpine Village Emerald Room, take the Torrance Blvd exit off the 110 fwy, just South of where the 405 meets the 91, between Vermont and Hamilton. PROGRAM == Presentation of the first ever Chauntecleer Medallion for Libertarian Activism by Samuel Edward Konkin III, for the movement, to Chauntecleer Michael for more than a decade of hard-core activism! == Announcements == Featured speaker (above) == Questions and Answers (moderated by the speaker) == Survey of Attendees: should this club move? == After-meeting until midnight. NOTES =* Full bar. Pitchers of good, foreign dark beer available! =* NEW: dinner (if you want to eat) now prix fixe $17 and includes a choice of four entres (schnitzel, sauerbrauten, Tyrolian chicken, plus one), coffee or tea, tax and tip. Only dessert extra. =* Still no reservations needed and no charge for program. =* Plenty of convenient parking available. =* Photography and tape recording encouraged. =* Smoking encouraged but not required. Kids welcome. Kent - j.hastings6(a)genie.geis.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLhHLUzQYUX1dU7vxAQFQZwQAtjPmbRVfgql/u97CZ/h2qchlzUHqBkr2 OIai3eCnel/sgOrFQNjZBiIixUNIU9Phg5Rv43QybLlGjeajUWJHm7xPV1VP67Pf gL6a+yXMj3l7TWtPpV8IZr5uPBnXQ5gjY0PTAvt45lD7MxI7PRStMBiDgCyZl6h5 fY+58UVxtGI= =l9Jp -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RE: Illegal Acts & Crypto
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Blanc Weber writes: > Images of the psychology of crypto-users: > . scurrying around like rats, hiding in the dark from regular > interactions (regular = unconcerned) > . fear of being onesself in the light, lacking courage > . having a view of life which is not trusting, but suspicious and cynical > . not identifying with the group, therefore keeping things from them, > something akin to hoarding & not sharing (closed to the other members > of the society, rather than open) > . not necessarily "officially" illegal, but generally not really > "one of us", as in hypocritical - "with us, but not *of* us" A lot of the crypto users I know are quite the opposite - folks willing to stand up in public, speaking truth to power, challenging the NSA in court or in the newspapers, and working to distribute and share free software with other programmers to improve the work done by everybody. Many of them are as trusting as anyone else intellegent I know, though I'll have to grant a certain amount of cynicism :-) > Consequential Circumstance: > . insufficient self-reliance, having to wait for the cavalry to come > over the hill to save oneself. Cypherpunks write code! Bill Celebrate Independence Day the traditional way - overthrow a government! :-)

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Programmer Wanted - Second Salvo
by schneier＠chinet.chinet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Greetings: I recently posted a posting (whatever) looking for a programmer to do some contract work. After talking with a few people, someone suggested that I post what I want on the mailing list. What I am looking for is someone to do some of the odd programming projects that I have been wishing someone would do. This isn't work that I have a contract to do, just things that I want to see done. Most of it, probably all of it, will end up as public domain code. I would do it myself, but 1) I am too busy, and 2) I am not really a good programmer. I am willing to pay for time, but I can't promise wages competitive with a commercial contract. This stuff won't make anyone rich, but it will give someone a piece of code you can put on your resume and may do some good for the world. First I am looking for a simple MS-DOS file encrypter. Something that works off the command line and uses a few different algorithms. Given that all of the algorithms are already in public domain C, I can't believe this will take all that long. After that I have an algorithm from Japan that I'd like to see coded up in C. Then an algorithm from South Africa. Then some stuff on stream ciphers. And so on. If anyone is interested, please give me some idea of what you would consider a fair hourly rate. And a telephone number, so I can call and talk with you. Bruce ************************************************************************** * Bruce Schneier * Counterpane Systems For a good prime, call 391581 * 2^216193 - 1 * schneier(a)chinet.com **************************************************************************

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Detweiler clone at WSJ
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A less prurient article on youngsters use of online services appeared in The New York Times today. Titled "In Cyberspace, and Talking to Strangers", by Felicity Barringer. Barringer states: "... there are precious few people who have been parents in the computer age. In matters electronic, the children rule." After recounting concern for her son's safety during a few mildly racy incidents online, she concludes that he will learn to cope with whatever comes up. And that after giving him "his electronic safety pointers, it's time to let him go".

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MAIL: chained remailing strategy
by Karl Lui Barrus 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Can some of the major remailer operators make available some > "sanitized" traffic stats of average traffic by hour and day of the > week? Well, I don't run a remailer at the moment, but I can about ones I used to run. One I ran (elee9sf(a)menudo.uh.edu) batched all incoming messages and remailed them randomly at midnight. So in some sense it didn't matter when during the day mail arrived. During its operation, the remailer averaged about 15-20 messages a week, or about 2-3 a day (I don't remember which days of the week if any were more popular). Sometimes there were severe usage "spikes", when the remailer would handle several times its average (once nearly 100 messages in a week, and 20 in one day). However, I feel that this was due to users repeatedly submitting messages - perhaps testing the remailer - without realizing the remailer only resent at midnight. I don't know what loads remailers operated with, but more messages circulating via anonymous remailer would definitely help. > Can someone familiar with remailer software answer something? When > a message is encrypted, using the "Encrypted: PGP" header, will > everything after the end of the encrypted message itself be ignored? > I ask, because this seems like a good place to introduce "padding" > into the message length to thwart detection of identical messages, > assuming that such extraneous material wouldn't screw something up. Yes, the extra text is ignored. In fact, the remailer implemented this form of padding (however, it only padded messages shorter than 2K out to 2K). This isn't the best way to do padding since it is quite obvious that it is in fact padding. Hal Finney wrote some perl scripts which pad inside the pgp message (add random text without likewise updating the message length field; upon decryption the extra text is throw away) and this is a better approach. I think one thing that screws things up (Bill O'Hanlon pointed this out months ago) is if somebody encrypts a message with the -m option (for eyes only) - this causes the remailer to hang, waiting for keyboard input. I'm not sure if this problem is easily fixable on the remailer side. > What's the best strategy for utilizing a given group of remailers > in a chain? Which ones would be most advantageous as the FIRST Run your own and use that one as the first link ;) > How would "someone", hypothetically, follow the chain backwards? Hm... I guess exactly the way you describe, by going to each machine and trying to piece together the remailing path, possibly with help from the syslog file. > What, if anything, would prevent that? By disabling sendmail logging, if the remailer operator is able to. (I wasn't able to on any of the remailers I ran). Of course, other forms of logging would need to be disabled as well. > For the sake of argument, let's assume a worst-case scenario: a > chained message to "president(a)whitehouse.gov" containing a Well, I'm not sure. A few months ago, there was only one remailer outside of the U.S. (in Canada, @extropia.wimsey.com). However, now there are several, in the Netherlands, and one in Italy (?). I guess it would depend on whether the chain includes out of the country remailers, if each remailer keeps logs (including syslog which may or may not be in control of the remailer operator). All the same, I would recommend remailers block @whitehouse.gov. :) Karl Barrus klbarrus(a)owlnet.rice.edu -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLhJHbcSF/V8IjI8hAQEGswP+LmW+DqIOr7UZS82/EVINGn57e+LtBzlJ 0HOonCMuId7DmC7OiqbRyHD2TSHNZB5KrPOVGg7N4QXtuzioJ55e/S9mdMxsSy0G 9oan4UGzMZEyw9rD09KIu5MqG4vt/KVQqpNhy7F8XMZwt9wwlbupeQv1v/92VdRU rDOlw9pCnZE= =A4af -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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What motivates Crypto-folk?
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sandy Thanks for your thoughtful comments. However the message was not by me but by Sherry May <scmay(a)rschp2.anu.edu.au>. I forwarded it from talk.politics.crypto where it has produced an interesting thread with good discussions. Tim May pointed to this thread on c'punks a few days ago and has joined the fray there. I agree with Tim's statement there that Sherry has initiated a topic of substance by her letter. I hope that c'punks will respond as well.

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