December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

A practical use of c'punk brain power.
by bogus＠no.return.address 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Greetings c'punks! I have an Excel 4.0 spreadsheet to which I do not have the password. Do any of you know a clever way to break the Excel protection either by divining the password or removing the layer of encryption in the file? Any help is appreciated! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help(a)anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin(a)anon.penet.fi.

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Re: Electronic Revolution and Guerilla Warfare?
by System Operator 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Kelly.Goen(a)Eng.Sun.COM (Kelly Goen [CONTRACTOR]) writes: > I would suggest initially that one examine the > e-book "Terminal Compromise" by Winn Schwartau and also > Information Warfare by the same author. In addition one also may want [...] > Check out loompanics press... they have many such titles useful to your > research... also checkout Paladin Press and Loompanics press. I second the motion for Loompanics and Paladin Press. Two books that might be directly related, both from Paladin Press and both by Lawrence W. Myers are "SPYCOMM: Covert Communication Techniques of the Underground" and "Improvised Radio Jamming Techniques: Electronic Guerrilla Warfare." Both are full of practical, "nuts and bolts" discussions of the issues you're pursuing. Dan -- system(a)decode.com (System Operator) Cryptography, Security, Privacy BBS +1 410 730 6734 Data/FAX

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Re: your mail
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Black Unicorn <unicorn(a)access.digex.net> Market forces are lathargic, sometimes they need a boost. I propose this boost be accomplished with motivators like tax breaks, market assisters and privatization. . . . . Anyone who thinks the Federal Government is the driving force behind the majority of technological advancement (aside the space program and military hardware) needs to take a good look. .............................................................. Market forces being lethargic, sometimes they need a little boot, a little tax break, a little assistance. Anyone who doesn't think so needs to examine their current Federal allowance. Blanc

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penet remailer
by fhalper＠pilot.njin.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What's the status of the penet.fi remailer. Is it secure? Reuben -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuben Halper "I'm not growing up, I'm just burnin' out." Montclair High - Green Day - Montclair, NJ E-mail: fhalper(a)pilot.njin.net or PGP 2.6ui Public Key Reuben8878(a)aol.com available upon request --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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NYC C'PUNKS MEETING
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, If you live in the NYC area or will be visiting this coming weekend, you are invited to a Cypherpunks get-together. We will be meeting at Linn & Barbara Stanton's apartment on Saturday from noon till whenever. The Stanton's live at 315 W. 106th, Apt. 2A in Manhattan. This is between West End and Riverside. The nearest subway station is on the 1 and 9 lines at 103rd. If you need better directions, call them at (212) 316-1958. We will actually start at noon, so plan to arrive sometime before that hour. Everyone should eat first or bring some snacks with you. Later, if attendees want, we can have food delivered or go out for dinner afterwards. Though I will attempt to hold court, I expect it will be every bit as anarchistic as the Bay Area meetings. Anyone wishing to depose me, is welcome to do so. If someone has something for the "agenda," let me know when you RSVP. Or don't. If you are sure, kinda sure, or think maybe you will attend Saturday, please e-mail me at this address. (If your message bounces, try ssandfort(a)attmail.com) Give me your best guess on the likelihood of your showing; I'd like to have a reasonably accurate estimate of how many we will have. Please feel free to bring anyone you think might be interested/interesting. If possible, let me know that too. S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: A practical use of c'punk brain power.
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

bogus(a)no.return.address sez: :Greetings c'punks! : I have an Excel 4.0 spreadsheet to which I do not have the password. :Do any of you know a clever way to break the Excel protection either :by divining the password or removing the layer of encryption in the :file? : I reply: Found this on alt.security, you said any help appriciated so here goes. Pleeeeeeeze, no flames. Newsgroups: alt.security From: agriffiths(a)vnet.ibm.com (Alan Griffiths) Subject: Re: Excel pass crack Sender: news(a)hawnews.watson.ibm.com (NNTP News Poster) Message-ID: <CwH0Jo.15sv(a)hawnews.watson.ibm.com> Approved: myself Date: Wed, 21 Sep 1994 08:21:24 GMT Lines: 103 Reply-To: agriffiths(a)vnet.ibm.com (Alan Griffiths) Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM. References: <Rw+xX1t.cinepott(a)delphi.com> Nntp-Posting-Host: nhbrp75.caanerc.uk.ibm.com Organization: LORAL CAA NERC Project X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.01 In <Rw+xX1t.cinepott(a)delphi.com>, Bob <cinepott(a)delphi.com> writes: >Someone was looking for a crack to excel's passwords, apparently they >forgot their password ? Well I found these helpful tidbits posted >previously. > >|>Encryption of Ms Excel files >|> From: Fabio Ottolina <fabio(a)tdc.dircon.co.uk> >|> Date: 29 Jan 1994 12:51:18 GMT (1 screen) >|> >|> I have saved an Excel 4.0 for Windows file with password-protection, and >|>I can't remember the password (how remarkably stupid! :-)). >|>Is there any way to crack the password-protection of Excel files? You may find the following program of help. I am sorry it's in QBasic but that's the only free language I have at present. The program removes document protection from Excel worksheets. I haven't tested it extensively so there are no guarantees or warranties. Always keep a backup copy of your files etc... The protection scheme does two things: 1. When you protect your document, Excel hashes your password to a 16 bit value, stores it somewhere and sets a few flags to say that the document is protected. 2. When Excel saves a protected document it encrypts the content of each block using 16 different alphabetic substitutions. This allows Excel to read and display protected documents before knowing their password. The program below unscrambles a protected document, removes an extra 8 byte block at the beginning, and resets the flags and passwords to zero. I don't know if it can cope with all combinations of protection available in Excel. It works fine on the simple protect document option. Similarly, charts etc. will probably get munged since I don't think the titles etc get scrambled. Hope this stuff is of use to someone. Alan. PS. Ironically enough, I found Excel of great value in recovering the set of magic numbers used in the program. It allowed me to very quickly generate and evaluate possible decryption formulae! -------------------cut here------------------------------ DECLARE FUNCTION decrypt$ (c$, adr&, blen%) DEFINT A-Z DIM SHARED magic(15) FOR i = 0 TO 15 READ magic(i) NEXT DATA 196, 115, 164, 32, 60, 91, 212, 23, 240, 31, 40, 19, 240, 75, 180, 3 COLOR 14, 1 CLS INPUT "Enter input Cyphertext filename: ", cf$ INPUT "Enter output Plaintext filename: ", pf$ OPEN pf$ FOR BINARY ACCESS WRITE AS #1 OPEN cf$ FOR BINARY ACCESS READ AS #2 chdr$ = INPUT$(18, #2) phdr$ = LEFT$(chdr$, 10) PUT #1, , phdr$ fp& = 10 cbh$ = INPUT$(4, #2) WHILE NOT EOF(2) PUT #1, , cbh$ blen = ASC(MID$(cbh$, 3, 1)) + 256 * ASC(MID$(cbh$, 4, 1)) btyp = ASC(MID$(cbh$, 1, 1)) + 256 * ASC(MID$(cbh$, 2, 1)) fp& = fp& + 4 IF blen > 0 THEN cblk$ = INPUT$(blen, #2) x$ = decrypt$(cblk$, fp& - 4, blen) IF blen = 2 THEN SELECT CASE btyp CASE 18, 19, 99 x$ = STRING$(2, 0) END SELECT END IF PUT #1, , x$ END IF fp& = fp& + blen cbh$ = INPUT$(4, #2) WEND CLOSE #1 CLOSE #2 END FUNCTION decrypt$ (c$, adr&, blen) offset = (adr& + blen) AND 15 d$ = STRING$(blen, 0) FOR i = 1 TO blen c = ASC(MID$(c$, i, 1)) crot = ((c * 8) MOD 256) OR (c \ 32) ctst = magic(offset) clss = (2 * (crot AND ctst)) AND 255 d = (256 + crot + ctst - clss) AND 255 MID$(d$, i, 1) = CHR$(d) offset = (offset + 1) AND 15 NEXT decrypt$ = d$ END FUNCTION -------------------cut here------------------------------ Alan Griffiths CAA NERC Project agriffiths(a)vnet.ibm.com Tel: +44-705-561325 Fax: +44-705-214094 All opinions expressed are my own and do not represent IBM in any way

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BIRD BRAINS
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, Todd Masco wrote: ... there was a variety of smart-bomb developed in WWII that used a pigeon as its brain. The pigeon would be trained to peck at a building on a map, and then in the falling bomb it would guide the bomb by pecking at a clear panel.... I remember seeing a TV documentary that included this technology. The way it actually worked was that a special steerable bomb had a camera obscura in its nose. An image of whatever was below the falling bomb was rear projected onto a screen made out of frosted glass. The screen was somehow rigged so that it could sense where it was being pecked. The pigeon was immobilized except for its head and neck, but it could easily peck any point on the screen. They use operant conditioning to train the pigeon to peck at images of ships at sea. If the ship was off-center on the screen, the pigeon's pecking would cause airfoils to correct the bomb's aim. Just before the bomb hit, the pigeon would parachute to safety. (I made that last part up.) S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: NYC C'PUNKS MEETING
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Responding to msg by yusuf921(a)raven.csrv.uidaho.edu (Herbie) on Tue, 4 Oct 4:7 PM > how do we know this isn't an NSA attempt to get us >to show our faces so they can get our photos? > I know that 315 W. 106th is a prison barge moored 500 feet off-shore in the Hudson River toward Jersey. It also serves as a testing laboratory for rubber hoses and the removing of hair and blood therefrom. However, take the address number, semi-reverse, hack by Omega, parse to the left, bend over, chant Dixie in Sanskrit, and the safe house address will appear on your SS card in twisted bar code. Hold the code close to your right lobe, left hand clinched on the chest, whistle Aida diachronically and you will be rocketed to the next station into a soft-landing in a tub of jellied non-alcoholic beverage. Sandy will lift you by the short hairs and take you to the party, provided you have persuasive ID anonymously chain-remailed-via-Tasmania.com.edu.mil.not.penitentiary.fi.foo.f oo/pug/tcmaybe/Censurecon-a-cop. Meet these conditions or trust that Sandy's post is not a set up. Acen

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Cyber honor
by macorp!moonlight!ken＠uu4.psi.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Recently, I wrote about forging mail and introduced the idea of honor in cyberspace: >I've been vaguely following the thread, which seems to be attempting to >close a loophole in port 25. Assuming you succeeded, wouldn't a clever >demon hacker simply find another way to forge messages? I have seen that >any system a human can devise, another human can eventually break. This >leads me to believe that eventually we will have to begin acting on our >honor, and provide severe consequences for dishonorable behavior. I >haven't finished working out what "honor" means in this social context. to which Jim McCoy responded: >Like what? When identity is "weak" then honor has no meaning... That sounded reasonable to me until Crim Tideson asked: >I've created a pseudonym and a PGP key pair for that pseudonym. ... >I have no intention of revealing who "me" actually is. ... >I want to make and keep a reputation.... So honor may after all have meaning in cyberspace, as some code of behavior that preserves one's "reputation". James A. Donald, whose thinking I tend to respect, points out that, >Ken Landaiche writes >> I have seen that >> any system a human can devise, another human can eventually break. > >False. Most cryptographic algorithms these days are secure. I'm glad to take your word on this. But I still think that the cryptographic system can be broken: subversion, torture, and "truth serums" come to mind. If someone strong enough wants your secret badly enough, they can probably get it, as long as at least one keeper of the secret is alive. This argument relies on one's adversary having no scruples. Since, as I mentioned before, I have little knowledge of the mathematics of cryptography, but still share the cypherpunks' interest in liberty, I'm focusing my efforts on the social end of the solution. As I said: > This > leads me to believe that eventually we will have to begin acting on our > honor, to which JAD responded: >Walking through a security hole on a computer is not necessarily >dishonorable, though many dishonorable things can be done once >you are through that hole. What do you mean by "dishonorable"? Is walking through a security hole like walking through a stranger's insecure door? The latter is an invasion of privacy to me, something I would consider damaging to me and would label a "dishonorable" act. >> and provide severe consequences for dishonorable behavior. > >If "we" provide "sever consequences" then we are not relying >on honor, but on coercion. Consider reputation systems, kill files, and the famous "If no one reads your posts, you're dead." Death is a pretty severe consequence, and one that many people admit to imposing. For target practice, I suggest that at the most basic level, net entities will have "honor" or a good reputation who do the following: 1. Tell the truth. 2. Keep their agreements. 3. Do not injure their neighbors.

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Re: NYC C'PUNKS MEETING
by merriman＠metronet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > >On Tue, 4 Oct 1994, Sandy Sandfort wrote: > >> C'punks, >> >> If you live in the NYC area or will be visiting this coming >> weekend, you are invited to a Cypherpunks get-together. We will >> be meeting at Linn & Barbara Stanton's apartment on Saturday from >> noon till whenever. The Stanton's live at 315 W. 106th, Apt. 2A >> in Manhattan. This is between West End and Riverside. The >> nearest subway station is on the 1 and 9 lines at 103rd. If you >> need better directions, call them at (212) 316-1958. >> > > > how do we know this isn't an NSA attempt to get us to show our faces so >they can get our photos? > *trust* him.... :-) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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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