December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: if this is RC4
by jazz＠hal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>> Decompilation would not preserve the original style. > >Of course it would. If a symbol table was present, you'd even end up >with the same variable names. Decompilation would not preserve stylistic things like indentation and brace usage. With optimized compilers, it's getting pretty hard for a decompiler to actually figure out the original input source statement. The result of a decompile, when again compiled, may indeed produce the same object; but the original and decompiled source code may look radically different. The RC4 source code contains at least one example of a coding idiom that would almost certainly decompile differently. In a couple instances, the posted alleged-RC4 source takes modulo-256 of a particular value. A compiler would in almost all cases emit code which did a simple logical-AND with 0xff; when decompiled, the C code would reflect that logical-AND rather than a mod-256 operation. It looked like real source to me, rather than decompiled. Jason

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Re: The mother of all FAQs
by merriman＠metronet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Rishab Aiyer Ghosh writes: > >Yes, "FAQ" is a misnomer (a miscyphernomer?). And as long as it is, it >won't answer questions that get asked here, such as: > >"I've looked for a FAQ on versions of RC4 that run on the Amiga, and I >can't find anything." > >(Well, I'm kidding about this one, but similarly obscure questions do >come up. Rishab is right that most "FAQs" are becoming much more than >that. It seems to me we need a new term.) > Knowledgebase? Reference? Dave Merriman - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Finger merriman(a)metronet.com for PGP/RIPEM public keys and fingerprints. Unencrypted Email may be ignored without notice to sender. PGP preferred. Remember: It is not enough to _obey_ Big Brother; you must also learn to *love* Big Brother.

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THE I-WAY
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE FIVE HUNDRED CHANNEL, MULTI-MEDIA, MOVIE-ON-DEMAND, INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY (AS THE GOVERNMENT SEES IT) "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the hori- zontal. We will control the vertical.... Sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to participate in a great adventure; you are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Al Gore Limits." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Thank you Bob Anderson (fwd)
by jim＠RSA.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

FYI... I'd appreciate if you posted this wherever you saw RC4... WARNING NOTICE It has come to RSA Data Security's attention that certain RSA trade secrets, in the form of confidential and proprietary source code, have been misappropriated and disclosed. Please be advised that these acts, as well as any retransmission or use of this misappropriated source code is a violation of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and various other state and federal laws. Any person or entity that acquires, discloses or uses this information is subject to criminal and civil penalties including an injunction, compensatory damages, punitive damages and payment of RSA's attorneys fees. RSA considers this misappropriation to be most serious. Not only is this act a violation of law, but its publication is a gross abuse of the Internet. RSA has begun an investigation and will proceed with legal action against anyone found to have violated its intellectual property rights.

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RSADSI vs Remailers?
by Hal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Newsgroups: alt.security.pgp,sci.crypt,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.org.cpsr.talk,alt.security.ripem > From: strnlght(a)netcom.com (David Sternlight) > Subject: RSADSI Warning > Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 23:27:18 GMT > > The notice below is being posted by request of Jim Bidzos, President of > RSADSI and PKP. I have no business connection with RSADSI except as a > licensee of RSAREF. > > WARNING NOTICE > > It has come to RSA Data Security's attention that certain RSA > trade secrets, in the form of confidential and proprietary source > code, have been misappropriated and disclosed. Please be advised that > these acts, as well as any retransmission or use of this > misappropriated source code is a violation of the Uniform Trade > Secrets Act and various other state and federal laws. Any person or > entity that acquires, discloses or uses this information is subject to > criminal and civil penalties including an injunction, compensatory > damages, punitive damages and payment of RSA's attorneys fees. > > RSA considers this misappropriation to be most serious. Not only > is this act a violation of law, but its publication is a gross abuse > of the Internet. RSA has begun an investigation and will proceed with > legal action against anyone found to have violated its intellectual > property rights. Note the original post header. It came via the jpunix remailer. > From inbox/cpx Fri Sep 9 20:41:47 1994 > From owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com Fri Sep 9 20:17:32 1994 > Date: Fri, 9 Sep 1994 22:11:49 -0500 > Message-Id: <199409100311.WAA12423(a)jpunix.com> > To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com > From: nobody(a)jpunix.com > Subject: Thank you Bob Anderson > Remailed-By: remailer(a)jpunix.com > Complaints-To: postmaster(a)jpunix.com > Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com > Precedence: bulk I wonder if there is any connection to this: > From owner-remailer-operators(a)c2.org > From: "John A. Perry" <perry(a)jpunix.com> > Subject: getting in trouble.. > Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 14:56:51 -0459 (CDT) > Sender: owner-remailer-operators(a)c2.org > > > Well it's happened, > > Someone out in net land felt it was necessary to call my place of > employment and complain that the remailer was being used to send > copy-written software as well as encrypted software out of the country. > Needless to say, my employers didn't take kindly to this. The remailer at > jpunix is temporarily shutdown for a few days until this blows over and I > can find out exactly what the legal implications are. I'll keep everyone > updated. > > John

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RC4 - A response from RSA Data Security, Inc.
by schneier＠chinet.chinet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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NYT/Markoff article on RC4
by Brian A. LaMacchia 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

An article by John Markoff on the release of RC4 source code just came over the NYT wire. It's coded "financial;" I expect it to appear in Saturday editions. Doesn't say much we don't already know (quotes the RSADSI statement that "...its publication is a gross abuse of the Internet."). The article does mention this list, which is called, "a specialized computer network mailing list of computer researchers who oppose the Government's stringent controls on data encryption technology." There's a bug in the article: it says the code was first circulated on Tuesday, Sep 13, and was posted via an anonymous remailer in the Netherlands. I assume Markoff is talking about the message: Message-Id: <199409132036.AA24724(a)xs1.xs4all.nl> Subject: RC4 ? To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com From: nobody(a)vox.xs4all.nl (An0nYm0Us UsEr) The "Thank you Bob Anderson" message (which was the first posting of the RC4 code that I saw) was posted last Friday, Sep 9, via the anonymous remailer at jpunix.com. --bal

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Re: RC4 - A response from RSA Data Security, Inc.
by Jim Gillogly 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From: jim(a)RSA.COM (Jim Bidzos) > Any person or > entity that acquires, discloses or uses this information is subject to > criminal and civil penalties including an injunction, compensatory > damages, punitive damages and payment of RSA's attorneys fees. Let's count the entities that have acquired this information. What're the most recent valid Usenet survey numbers from Brian Reid about the distribution of sci.crypt? Collecting a dollar from each of these entities would pay the salaries at RSA for a while... Jim Gillogly 26 Halimath S.R. 1994, 04:24

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RC4 article in Saturday (Sept 17) New York Times
by Matt Blaze 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

John Markoff has a piece on the RC4 betrayal in the Business section of the Saturday NY Times (page 37), "A secret computer code is out -- Key to data security appears on internet". Not much that hasn't already been said here or on sci.crypt, but there was an interesting quote from Jim Bidzos that suggested that one of the conditions RSADSI agreed to in order to get approval of 40 bit RC4 for export in shrink-wrap software included keeping the algorithm confidential. Bidzos speculated that the NSA could revoke RC4's export status as a result of the disclosure. Also, the piece reports that "The RC4 formula was first circulated on Tuesday to a specialized computer network mailing list of computer researchers who oppose the Government's stringent controls on data encryption technology. The mailing list, which has thousands of computer users around the world, is known as Cypherpunks, and the mailings usually consist of highly technical discussions of data encryption technology." I guess Markoff gets Eric Blossom's moderated version of the list :-) -matt

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PKZIP encryption broken
by khijol!erc＠apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - From a recent comp.risks post: Newsgroups: comp.risks Subject: RISKS DIGEST 16.39 Message-ID: <CMM.0.90.1.778901594.risks(a)chiron.csl.sri.com> Date: 7 Sep 94 01:33:14 GMT Sender: usenet Reply-To: risks(a)csl.sri.com Distribution: world Organization: The Internet Gateway Service Approved: risks(a)csl.sri.com Lines: 624 RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest Tuesday 6 September 1994 Volume 16 : Issue 39 FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator ***** See last item for information on RISKS (comp.risks) ***** Contents: PKZIP encryption broken (known plaintext attack) (Paul Carl Kocher) - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Sep 1994 17:31:28 -0700 From: Paul Carl Kocher <kocherp(a)leland.Stanford.EDU> Subject: PKZIP encryption broken (known plaintext attack) I finally found time to take a closer look at the encryption algorithm by Roger Schlafly that is used in PKZIP and have developed a practical known plaintext attack that can find the entire 96-bit internal state. The basic encryption algorithm has four steps, two of which are based on linear shift registers, one is like a linear congruential, and the final converts the contents of an internal state register into an 8-bit value to XOR onto a plaintext byte. A complete description of the algorithm is included in the file APPNOTE.TXT, which is included with PKZIP version 1.1 (check Archie for "pkz110.exe"). Although the algorithm is substantially better than the toy ciphers used in many products, I have developed a practical known plaintext attack that finds the 96 bit internal state. Unlike the ZipCrack program I released a couple years ago, this attack finds the internal state registers directly and does not involve a brute-force attack on the password. If adequate known plaintext is available, my attack will find the state, regardless of the password's size or content. My attack is an improvement on a known plaintext attack described in a paper by Biham (unpublished work) that takes 2^38+ operations. My improvements reduce the amount of work required by approximately a factor of 1500 with 200 bytes of plaintext. With less plaintext the attack will take somewhat more time, but just 40 bytes should be enough to be practical. I've written code for all steps of the attack; a version written in C with a few optimizations in inline assembly runs in less than a day on my '486. The attack will work with versions 1.1 or 2.xx of PKZIP and other programs using the same algorithm. A more in-depth description of the attack will be made available soon, but I wanted to let people using PKZIP (and any other programs that use the same algorithm) know immediately about the weakness. Paul C. Kocher kocherp(a)leland.stanford.edu Independent data security consultant/contractor. 415-323-7634 [Disclaimers removed. PGN] - -- Ed Carp, N7EKG Ed.Carp(a)linux.org, ecarp(a)netcom.com Finger ecarp(a)netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key an88744(a)anon.penet.fi ** PGP encrypted email preferred! ** "What's the use of distant travel if only to discover - you're homeless in your heart." --Basia, "Yearning" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAwUBLnqUyiS9AwzY9LDxAQECcQP/cYtGpd8882KPmdPN0N1MZf4sjo4Mu8SY V9zEcRnU7VXU1WgqJiGSgyOQbYAaRxDSudtYKH5DHY+qvqLE397nkRuv1qjf5d9b PZ5Pw4YOEhAxVeq4DDSLYO5Lf2T4qs7IjVMETZjibV0feodbridG9XliEFdhrPWK vVhX3ZMWXH8= =oH6T -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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