December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: SecureDrive News - Win95 yes, Iomega zip drive no
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:33 AM 9/16/95 PDT, you wrote: >I'm sorry to report that SecureDrive does not support the Iomega ZIP >drive. I believe that's because the TSR driver supplied with the >hardware does not support a DiskBIOS interface. > >I had thought that Secure Device, another real-time encryption system, >would support this drive, since it works through a device driver >mapped to a dos file. But an actual trial proved otherwise. The >problem is that the DOS file must be present when the CONFIG.SYS >DEVICE= statement for the SECDEV.SYS is processed. But the zip drive >driver is a TSR that doesn't get loaded until after all DEVICE >statements have been processed. There's no particular reason that >Iomega couldn't have written their driver as an MSDOS device driver >rather than a TSR, in which case SecureDevice would probably work, but >they didn't, so it doesn't. There is a Win95 driver for the Zip drive that does not a TSR. It is a parallel to SCSI driver that is added through the "add hardware" control panel. I am not certain as to the order that the drivers load. I will have to test it. (The driver was released on the 9th of this month with little or no instructions.) Having encrypted Zip drives would be VERY useful. I will see if Borland's latest update for the C++ compiler has any additional information as to some of the driver interface issues (I doubt it, but it is worth a try). It is supposed to arrive "any day now", but it is backordered so who knows when I will get it. I may have to spend the bucks and get the Microsoft development disc subscription again. It will most likely have the information needed to convert the drivers to something Win95 will understand. | Visualize whirled keys | alano(a)teleport.com | |"It's only half a keyserver. I had to split the | Disclaimer: | |other half with the government man." - Black Art | Ignore the man | | -- PGP 2.6.2 key available on request -- | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.teleport.com/~alano | <fnord> |

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Rosing's Elliptic curve documentation question
by dan＠milliways.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I was reading Mike Rosing's documentation for his elliptic curve system from the Cypherpunks FTP site. In it, he uses the notation: sum a_i*b^2^i Now, like a good little Calculus 2 student, I assumed this must be a regular summation. But if so, which is the index of summation, and what are the bounds of summation? Someone want to give me a clue as to what this notation means? Dan Bailey *************************************************************** #define private public dan(a)milliways.org Worcester Polytechnic Institute and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ***************************************************************

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[NOISE] Re: SecureDrive News - Win95 yes, Iomega zip drive no
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 04:56 PM 9/16/95 -0400, darky wrote: > Have you tried an 'INSTALL=' line in the CONFIG.SYS to load >the drive's TSR first? INSTALL is a rarely-documented feature for the >CONFIG.SYS to load a TSR during its processing. I believe it also >saves memory by not loading some sort of header to into memory (DOS >PSP maybe?), which may also cause a problem. Can't hurt to try >though, eh? After thinking about this (and drinking more coffee) I realized that he is loading the GUEST.EXE driver. This is not the best way to get the Zip drive to work. (It is meant as a temporary fix.) There is actually a set of drivers that can be installed in the config.sys file. (Check the documentation for installing the ASPI drivers and install the PPA3 driver as the first of the three.) This is poorly documented by Iomega, but it works. | Minister of Forced Caffinization in the DNRC | alano(a)teleport.com | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmerman unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | | -- PGP 2.6.2 key available on request -- | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.teleport.com/~alano | <fnord> |

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Re: cypherpunks as a newsgroup
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:40 PM 9/16/95 -0400, Ian wrote: >I've been very impressed with the signal/noise ratio on this list. >In fact, people often put [NOISE] in the subject line to flag trivial >content. This ratio will certainly go down if we go to a newsgroup. I have a group of friends who get forwarded the "best" of the Cypherpunks list. The signal to noise ratio is high enough that I have to be careful how much I forward lest I get complaints at the volume of what I forward. Turning this into an alt group would destroy that. >One of the main benefits of Usenet is that anyone can _post_. >One of the main detriments is that _anyone_ can post. How true. | Visualize whirled keys | alano(a)teleport.com | |"It's only half a keyserver. I had to split the | Disclaimer: | |other half with the government man." - Black Art | Ignore the man | | -- PGP 2.6.2 key available on request -- | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.teleport.com/~alano | <fnord> |

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All Online Lusers, cryptoTCP
by don＠cs.byu.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Well, I read the tip on how to find out if AOL is checking what I download. The good news is, they're DEFINATELY NOT. ;) Anybody have a link to the encrypted TCP driver? I remember the original annoucement didn't give a link. Don "So what you're saying is, if too many people are breaking into my house, I should leave the key under the doormat so the police can chase the crooks???" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQB1AwUBMFs9VMLa+QKZS485AQFXuQL7Bd/u6MznUCYTMdKbIT4P+6IVj+j4IXjO CL4kg2tGefOKq5RD543ThP4PQx1HghIU1dHTg5ZeF9c52JE0owNFuRa2GgfDld5s SzZrlhmff0kqMdn6QyV4+mCICmiX9BnS =NsVn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- <don(a)cs.byu.edu> fRee cRyPTo! jOin the hUnt or BE tHe PrEY PGP key - http://bert.cs.byu.edu/~don or PubKey servers (0x994b8f39) June 7&14, 1995: 1st amendment repealed. Death threats ALWAYS pgp signed * This user insured by the Smith, Wesson, & Zimmermann insurance company *

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RE: Commercial Mixmaster
by syrinx＠c2.org (Syrinx Anonymous Remailer) 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Rich Salz <rsalz(a)nntp.com> wrote: > >No, I'm not accusing Lance. But if he no longer has the time to > >support Mixmaster, then perhaps some other crypto-friendly group > >should take over the task and keep it an OPEN system, with source > >code available. In fact, even freezing Mixmaster as is would be > >preferable to "improvements" that people don't/can't trust. > > This doesn't make sense. > > Someone wants to commercialize Mixmaster. You don't know who it is, > but you since you can't see how to make money doing this, you suspect > their motives. Yet on the other hand, you think they will be so > successful that enough people will buy binary-only servers such that > backdoors are a real threat, perhaps by forcing people to upgrade > or otherwise breaking interoperability with the current free-source > remailer network. > > You can't have it both ways. Of course not, but it only has to *LOOK* that way. What if, let's say, that this new "commercial" venture offers their "new, improved" version FREE for individual and non-profit use, much like Netscape is now offered, while supposedly working on the "commercial" development of the product. Now you've got a free product in the hands of end-users, plus it's compiled to support DOS, Win 3.1, Win95, Mac platforms, etc., as well as the current Unix. It doesn't matter if a commercial market is EVER developed, just so long as you provide a suitable "cover" motive for giving it away. Of course, source code is still not provided, since that would supposedly give competitors (for this supposedly developing commercial market) knowledge of the proprietary improvements. The idea would be to take a standardized product and "steal" market share from the various PGP-chaining schemes, while doing it in such a way to provide a back door of participating TLAs. Mixmaster is a superior product to the other schemes, but it suffers from lack of user-friendliness and availability on commonly-used platforms. Think about this: if you were a TLA, can you think of a more cost-effective solution for keeping tabs on the increasingly THREATENING (to them) growth of anonymous e-mail? IOW, invest a few million to get a Trojan Horse crypto product into people's hands that they THINK is secure, and thus trust. Do you think they could use brute force to crack large quantities of IDEA or 3DES encrypted traffic for less money? If they can't crack PGP, then get people to switch to something they *THINK* is "more secure". > But even if you could, there's a solution. :) Download the source > and start releasing "blender", a free-source anonymous remail system > that is upwardly compatibly, *and based on* the current Mixmaster. I think that's what I suggested, isn't it? Hopefully it will be a foreign (ITAR-exempt) individual or group.

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"alt.cypherpunks" Newsgroup vs. Mailing List?
by aba＠dcs.exeter.ac.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May <tcmay(a)got.net> writes: > Should there be an "alt.cypherpunks" type of newsgroup instead of this > mailing list? Not instead of, that would *kill it* with all the effects every one has been quick to point out, things like more noise, cross posts, loss of community like atmosphere. Please don't anyone do that! My 2nd post on the subject just before yours in my mbox, contains my negative views on this idea. I just thought it would be a good medium for a separate discussion forum for Peter's proposed 'technology transfer', and public awareness idea. I am really not keen on combining the two, I think if it there is a need for it, and it gets created at all, it should be as a separate forum. > It would be easy to create "alt.cypherpunks." I've been expecting to > see it happen for the last 3 years. It could still happen. In fact, > there's been talk of doing it (sorry for the passive "there has been > talk," but I'll let the folks talking about doing it do the talking > about it here). Sure, alt groups are easy to create there was a series of them in our spool with names from alt.-.-.-.-.0.0.0.0.0 through alt.-.-.-.-.-9.9.9.9.9 or something like that till some admin cleaned them up, or some one put out a cancel for them. > [more on why cpunks should stay as it is] > > In some sense, the Cypherpunks list is somewhere in-between a full > newsgroup and a small working mailing list. Couldn't agree more. Keep cpunks the way it is. > Second, would the benefits of wider exposure, as "alt.cypherpunks," > more than balance out the negative effects mentioned above? Don't think it'd be worth destroying the cypherpunks list over, alt.groups are great for censorship free discussion, (alt.security.pgp and some of the other crypto groups have their good moments, and there are quite a few people who frequent the a.s.pgp group acting as pgp guru's anwsering questions systematically at the rate of half a dozen a day or so it would seem. It's gotten to the stage where a pgp newcomer can post how do you blah fingerprint blah, and there will be a whole bevy of regulars keen to help. Probably is very useful for PGP newbies.), so perhaps an alt.cypherpunks could develop this kind of a use. But some people view alt.* groups with disdain and don't look at them, so it might depend on the intended audience. Wider audience might be achieved with a comp, or other big8 group. I thought recently about writing a cpunk technology FAQ, even got started with a list of what I wanted to include. What I wanted to do was to gather together pointers to all of the available technology available, crypto libraries, disk encryptors, remailers, etc, in a form which would be a useful quick reference, to know just what was available, it can sometimes be tricky to find all of these things, as you see people asking about disk encryptors in a.s.pgp, and about remailers, etc I just got finished with the contents list, when I came across by browsing someone's cpunks page, Tatu Ylonen's 'International Cryptography Pages', so I junked my 'table of contents only' FAQ at that point because he had done it all, in comprehensive detail. I reckon perhaps WWW is a useful way to put across info, most of the FAQs which get posted to newsgroups have a WWW home, or end up being WWW only, and not posted at all, or pointer only. I'm really impressed with Tatu's pages, take a look if you haven't seen it as it's a really good cypherpunks technology resource guide, the software packages section is likely very useful reading, and would answer a lot of FAQ like questions for some people with security, and privacy questions. I reckon perhaps some of Peter's aims could be furthered by posting Tatu's pointer as a FAQ to a few of the crypto and security groups: http://www.cs.hut.fi/ssh/crypto/ > This brings up a final point, with more than 10,000 newsgroups, > including nearly a dozen devoted to crypto, PGP, security, and > anonymity, aren't there already enough? A likely effect of > "alt.cypherpunks" is this: > > From: david(a)sternlight.com (David Sternlight) > Newsgroups: sci.crypt,alt.security.pgp,talk.politics.crypto,alt.cypherpunks Yeah, that is a problem, all the security groups seem to get merged, much to the annoyance of people on sci.crypt, and leading to the creation of sci.crypt.research. Also the point of there being lots of newsgroups already is interesting because when you look at the crypto and privacy related groups there are already a whole load of related ones. It is just the noise ratio on most of them is rather bad. Perhaps a systematic posting of some useful FAQs and URLs would generate a useful effect in terms of increasing use and awareness of cryptographic solutions to security problems, and as privacy preserving methods. Larry Detweiler used to post the CRAM series, some of the info disseminated was useful. Perhaps a similar approach could be taken, posting cypherpunks technology FAQs to relevant groups. MPJs getting PGP FAQ has lots of PGP info, something similar or just the insistant, helpful reposting of Tatu's URL in places where people ask about such info might be useful. > But, if anyone wants it, create it. Then people can vote with their > feet. Both the list and the newsgroup can co-exist, and if the > newsgroup "wins," the list can be dropped. I for one would prefer to see it in a co-exist mode, with different objectives. I'll go away now, and let Peter continue, if he hasn't been put off by the mixed responses. Adam

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Look, a *.cypherpunk group already exists!
by carolann＠censored.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Over here at Primenet, there is a newsgroup called mail.cyperpunks. It came in as a newgroup a couple of weeks ago. New articles posted to it make the list. I'm amazed we haven't been commercially spammed yet! But it's there already. Just in the mail hiearchy that's all. alt.cypherpunks? ohmigawd! Sheesh! Love Always, Carol Anne -- Member Internet Society - Certified BETSI Programmer - Webmistress *********************************************************************** Carol Anne Braddock (cab8) carolann(a)censored.org 206.42.112.96 My Homepage The Cyberdoc *********************************************************************** ------------------ PGP.ZIP Part [017/713] ------------------- M8H,),S$8G>&.WP(8IRA`-M['+`Q%&_C"">5-F%LX@<_Q$;*P'',Q$Z/AA[8M MF=O0H+*%(-S%&>S%+FS&<LS%3(Q&#W1"<]2%`H^;,]^1C$'HBN8PX$4SYAU^ MPGD<Q0ZLA0D+,`MCT!LA**4M[-JPAK9F?40!AJ,CW"'%DR#:'9?Q)3[%<DQ` ------------------------------------------------------------- for next chunk to export --> http://dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/export/

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Quantum computing info?
by Jeff Simmons 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Could anyone point me to information on 'quantum' computing? -- Jeff Simmons jsimmons(a)goblin.punk.net

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Anonymous WWW proxies
by Laurent Demailly 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I'm halfway in the coding of a simple anonymous WWW proxy, but before going any furter, I'd like to know: + If this has not been done before and is available ? (and where) + If there is any interest + Chaining would be a imo good idea (ie cli <-> anonproxy1 <-> anonproxy2 <-> ... <-> server) but how would you manage to tell your favorite web browser to add in its header something like Http-Proxy-List: anonproxy2, ... An alternative would be to have a database of avaibale (running) proxies and that the proxy itself randomly choose a next route ? + A way to solve previous pb and to add in encryption (but would it be fast enough for web browsing ?) would be that each user runs a local proxy (that could be optionnaly used by other folks) that would do pgp encryption/decryption, 'routing' selection,etc... Would ppl with mail remailers and/or W3 experience comment ? (or tell me the pointer toward the already solved, already implemented beast that would do the above) - -- Laurent Demailly * http://hplyot.obspm.fr/~dl/ * Linux|PGP|Gnu|Tcl|... Freedom Prime#1: cent cinq mille cent cinq milliards cent cinq mille cent soixante sept -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.3, an Emacs/PGP interface iQCVAgUBMFtiGXk52/beodHxAQETVgP/avWKpD/AUiRPM0ljX0BH0e7q10KYEOdA Hu+/Bsr7PWANdfhefs/ASrJn/kiOIQwo+RGV1K3UKWu7IyYdHHrINZkp0OcFlIR5 8TIfW6/FqBaUwAzuCV0/acUhXW6ah7xpPkgiHJ04Nlu8BKh72QGawJLJDoT2JmIi o67LVdD5ajg= =/kSM -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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