December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

>actual< classification categories
by tbyfield＠panix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I have copies of declassified documents with the following markings: secret (1985) top secret (1986) classified (1984) confidential (1985) eyes only (1986) Some have various combinations, such as: secret/sensitive top secret/sensitive eyes only/top secret/sensitive This isn't a complete list, but it's better than idle speculation. The vast majority of declassified paper documents that I've seen (not a small number) have explicit statements regarding _who_ is allowed to see it, _how_ they are allowed to move and/or distribute it, control #s and copy #s, semicomprehensible strings of characters, and so on; many have thiings like destruction instructions and expiry dates. More and more, slight variations are being introduced into each version for purposes of compartmentalization. It's conceivable that this is the source of the typo Hal spotted, but I doubt it. The fact that specific instrux were relegated to a separate "label file" seems very suspect; the fact that the warning tag is tacked onto the end is maybe noteworthy--it's in a different format, which is possibly odd, but it might've been put there for silly theatrical purposes. Basically, "top secret" without further comment is James Bond stuff, since in and of itself it doesn't tell those who need to know what they need to know. My guess is that someone stuck the "top secret" stuff on the beginning and end of something they found. But that doesn't make it a hoax, necessarily. Ted

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Re: "S1" encryption system
by Hal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sorry, yet another correction: the G1 box, G[1][i], is parity(i&0x17), not parity(i) as I said, where parity is 0 or 1 depending on whether its argument has an even or odd number of 1 bits. I have checked via a small program that this is correct and that the earlier formula I posted for G0 is correct. Hal

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Re: "S1" encryption system (was: this looked like it might be interesting)
by Hal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A couple of people have indicated that they did not see the original posting. I changed the subject heading in my followup. The original message was posted under the subject title, "this looked like it might be interesting". At least one person had commented on the similarity to Skipjack which is what prompted me to look at it a little more closely. Hal

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Re: "S1" encryption system (was: this looked like it might be interesting)
by danisch＠ira.uka.de 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> BTW, the code has been posted to Usenet by a Frank Falstaff -- look for > message ID <40b8tk$cj4(a)news.xs4all.nl> in sci.crypt (Wed, Aug. 9, 1995). > His article refers to a message ID (namely <40b50l$oa8(a)utopia.hacktic.nl>) > that differs from the message ID of the copy sent to c'punks. So it looks > like there was at least one additional recipient. That's a minimum of 5 > originals so far.... It has been posted twice to sci.crypt, once from "Frank Falstaff", and once through the remailer(a)utopia.hacktic.nl. sci.crypt seems to have been one of the recipients... Hadmut

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Hail South Florida Cypherpunks!!
by liberty＠gate.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- [All the rest of ye can delete this message now, with my sincere apologies, and return to the regularly scheduled flamewar. <Regarding just how hard it is to actually hit the "delete" key when a message ye don't want appears, as opposed to posting yet *another* message.>] HEAR YE, HEAR YE, the inaugural meeting of South Florida's Brew Crew O' (Cypherpunks), is scheduled for Saturday, August 12 at Ye Olde Riverwalk Brewery in Ft. Lauderdale. Good ale, good discussion and good friends will hopefully be a highlight of the fest. And should the invited Dark Knights (cops) arrive [we're expecting one] a lively jousting contest will ensue (the loser will be ceremoniously placed in the C-punk stockade and force fed Clipper Chips). Should Sen. Exon, the evil Sheriff of Congressham (or was that Congresspork?) attend our noble round table, we will have a hanging in the town square, preceded, of course by the traditional legume toss. [Beano, anyone?] There will be a short speech by my friend Ginger <Phiberflea(a)aol.com> who is fresh back from Las Vegas-shire and the DefCon III convention. She will describe what it's like to be one of the few wenches at a conference full of male hackers [guys, it looks like we're all in for some trouble!]... If one of ye brings a PGP-infested notebook, there may even be a keysigning! We can even discuss the recent "spooky" psoting to the list. Anyway, _everyone_ is invited! Peasants, squires, lords and ladies, jesters, knights, and royalty, a chair and ale await ye all. Feel free to invite any south-Floridians not on the list. No need to RSVP, (ye olde e-mail box is full-to-overflowing already), just show up around 5:00 and have fun! The Riverwalk Brewery isn't exactly Sir May's house, but here are the stats: Riverwalk Brewery 111 SW 2nd Avenue Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301 (305) 764-8448 >From Miamishire: I-95 North to Broward Blvd., Take Broward East (right) 2 miles to Moffat (just before RR tracks), Turn Right, second building on the right. >From Palm Beachshire: I-95 South to Broward Blvd., Take Broward East (left) 2 miles to Moffat (just before RR tracks), Turn Right, second building on the right. Specialty Beers: - Marlin's Light, Blackbeard's Gold, and Riverwalk Red. Dark Specials: - Offered on rotation: Panther's Porter, Swampwater Stout, Black Marlin Oatmeal Stout, Ramsey's Imperial Stout. Brewmaster's Special - changes monthly Pints $3.00 / 10oz Mugs $2.50 Happy Hour 4-7pm Pints $2.50 Appetizers Chicken Fingers, Wings, Spinach Dip, Calamari, [Mmmm...tentacles! :) ] Italian Baked Ziti, Fried Mozzarella, Potato Skins. ($4.50-$5.95) Soups & Salads Onion Soup, "Geek"/Caesar/Chef Salad, Souvlaki, Chicken Kebab ($3.50-$7.50) Dinner (Sorry, Dragon meat is unavailable.) New York Strip Steak, Grilled Twin Pork Chops, Shish Kebab, Chicken Marsala, "Shaslik of Steer" ??? (whatever *that* is), Grilled Sirloin Beef Tips, Grilled/Kebab Swordfish, Grilled Mahi-Mahi [dolphin], Cajun Chicken Fettucini ($10.95-15.95) Sandwiches & Burgers Burger/Cheeseburger, Chicken/Mahi Mahi [dolphin] Sandwiches ($5.95-$6.95) Dinners served 'till 11:00pm, Sandwiches served 'till 11:30pm, Bar closes at 1:00am., party will [probably] end before that. Ready your mounts and make haste! Ging and I will arrive ~5:00pm to partake of happy hour and fight back any invading hordes for a table. One of us (Ginger) may even be wearing a "munition," so watch out. I will wear my red "Hillary" headband. Hope to see you there! :) Ging. & Jim. JMR - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Freedom isn't Freeh iQCVAwUBMCmKv21lp8bpvW01AQH0BAQAgZNgdkA/6zdMeHXdD1djYN2/yuw8th53 cftYhVxvdA65qMSAlgZPR2NN+2RC16LhAvLS3E3g2OuSRIpbI/V1OcvpcMG1/JvB HTs1mxhsQrF8YwrUMhe4gOxftXryeR7lalmMBhfka2kpmeZNN2Cev52WQgr8ahWQ NZ20pnfDhLY= =dAdE - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Regards, Jim Ray "The people will again respect the law when the law again respects the will of the people." Jim Ray, Campaign '92 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PGP key Fingerprint 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 Key id. # E9BD6D35 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Support the Phil Zimmermann (Author of PGP) Legal Defense Fund! email: zldf(a)clark.net or visit http://www.netresponse.com/zldf ________________________________________________________________________ - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMCmPtioZzwIn1bdtAQFmTQF/SHKgZ/eKjEvBY4HBkDPKIMqpbiCP1agy aFuGk5ly6YePLPHo2bEn0KWIvrqSrd9j =f+JI -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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"S-1" key schedule
by Matt Blaze 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Well, I have to admit I've been staying up late playing with the "S-1" cipher that was posted here earlier. Hal Finney already noted what is clearly a bug in the code; only half the key schedule is ever used, and only in the first 16 of the 32 rounds. Even assuming that that is a typo rather than intentional, "S-1" still appears to suffer from key-related weaknesses. The key expansion function in "S-1" produces a skewed key schedule given uniformly distributed 80 bit input keys. Here's a histogram of the distribution of key schedule bytes produced by all 2^32 ways of generating each byte (each key schedule byte is a function of the F functions applied to four selected input keys bytes). The expected value for each line is 16777216. For just about any conventional block cipher, (e.g., DES) we'd expect this graph to be absolutely flat. Yet here some values are more than 5% away from expected. This behavior appears to be a consequence of the non-uniform distributon of "S-1"'s F output values, which are used to create the expanded key. This does not bode well for "S-1"; it means that some key bytes are applied against the ciphertext slightly more often than others, even when the input key itself is uniformly chosen. (Ditto for the outputs of the F functions themselves, even when their inputs are uniformly distributed, but that's still another story). Still, this may not be fatal; the key schedule is still much larger than the keyspace, so there might not be any easy way for the cryptanalyst to exploit this property to any great advantage. It is possible that the cipher's structure somehow cancels this out in some non-obvious way that manages to provide a flat 2^80 keyspace, but it's hard to see exactly how. My money still says the "TOP SECRET" markings and other clues that suggest that "S-1" has something to do with Skipjack are a hoax. -matt key number val produced #/exptd -- -------- ------- 00 = 16396100 (0.977) *************************************************** 01 = 16153930 (0.963) ************************************************** 02 = 15820450 (0.943) ************************************************* 03 = 16197600 (0.965) ************************************************** 04 = 16142020 (0.962) ************************************************** 05 = 15907790 (0.948) ************************************************* 06 = 16300820 (0.972) ************************************************** 07 = 16471530 (0.982) *************************************************** 08 = 16439770 (0.980) *************************************************** 09 = 16165840 (0.964) ************************************************** 0a = 16126140 (0.961) ************************************************** 0b = 16693850 (0.995) **************************************************** 0c = 16503290 (0.984) *************************************************** 0d = 16221420 (0.967) ************************************************** 0e = 15931610 (0.950) ************************************************* 0f = 16705760 (0.996) **************************************************** 10 = 16933000 (1.009) **************************************************** 11 = 16682900 (0.994) **************************************************** 12 = 16338500 (0.974) *************************************************** 13 = 16728000 (0.997) **************************************************** 14 = 16670600 (0.994) **************************************************** 15 = 16428700 (0.979) *************************************************** 16 = 16834600 (1.003) **************************************************** 17 = 17010900 (1.014) ***************************************************** 18 = 16978100 (1.012) ***************************************************** 19 = 16695200 (0.995) **************************************************** 1a = 16654200 (0.993) **************************************************** 1b = 17240500 (1.028) ***************************************************** 1c = 17043700 (1.016) ***************************************************** 1d = 16752600 (0.999) **************************************************** 1e = 16453300 (0.981) *************************************************** 1f = 17252800 (1.028) ***************************************************** 20 = 16916480 (1.008) **************************************************** 21 = 16666624 (0.993) **************************************************** 22 = 16322560 (0.973) *************************************************** 23 = 16711680 (0.996) **************************************************** 24 = 16654336 (0.993) **************************************************** 25 = 16412672 (0.978) *************************************************** 26 = 16818176 (1.002) **************************************************** 27 = 16994304 (1.013) ***************************************************** 28 = 16961536 (1.011) ***************************************************** 29 = 16678912 (0.994) **************************************************** 2a = 16637952 (0.992) *************************************************** 2b = 17223680 (1.027) ***************************************************** 2c = 17027072 (1.015) ***************************************************** 2d = 16736256 (0.998) **************************************************** 2e = 16437248 (0.980) *************************************************** 2f = 17235968 (1.027) ***************************************************** 30 = 16416750 (0.979) *************************************************** 31 = 16174275 (0.964) ************************************************** 32 = 15840375 (0.944) ************************************************* 33 = 16218000 (0.967) ************************************************** 34 = 16162350 (0.963) ************************************************** 35 = 15927825 (0.949) ************************************************* 36 = 16321350 (0.973) *************************************************** 37 = 16492275 (0.983) *************************************************** 38 = 16460475 (0.981) *************************************************** 39 = 16186200 (0.965) ************************************************** 3a = 16146450 (0.962) ************************************************** 3b = 16714875 (0.996) **************************************************** 3c = 16524075 (0.985) *************************************************** 3d = 16241850 (0.968) ************************************************** 3e = 15951675 (0.951) ************************************************* 3f = 16726800 (0.997) **************************************************** 40 = 16908220 (1.008) **************************************************** 41 = 16658486 (0.993) **************************************************** 42 = 16314590 (0.972) ************************************************** 43 = 16703520 (0.996) **************************************************** 44 = 16646204 (0.992) **************************************************** 45 = 16404658 (0.978) *************************************************** 46 = 16809964 (1.002) **************************************************** 47 = 16986006 (1.012) ***************************************************** 48 = 16953254 (1.010) **************************************************** 49 = 16670768 (0.994) **************************************************** 4a = 16629828 (0.991) *************************************************** 4b = 17215270 (1.026) ***************************************************** 4c = 17018758 (1.014) ***************************************************** 4d = 16728084 (0.997) **************************************************** 4e = 16429222 (0.979) *************************************************** 4f = 17227552 (1.027) ***************************************************** 50 = 17003210 (1.013) ***************************************************** 51 = 16752073 (0.999) **************************************************** 52 = 16406245 (0.978) *************************************************** 53 = 16797360 (1.001) **************************************************** 54 = 16739722 (0.998) **************************************************** 55 = 16496819 (0.983) *************************************************** 56 = 16904402 (1.008) **************************************************** 57 = 17081433 (1.018) ***************************************************** 58 = 17048497 (1.016) ***************************************************** 59 = 16764424 (0.999) **************************************************** 5a = 16723254 (0.997) **************************************************** 5b = 17311985 (1.032) ****************************************************** 5c = 17114369 (1.020) ***************************************************** 5d = 16822062 (1.003) **************************************************** 5e = 16521521 (0.985) *************************************************** 5f = 17324336 (1.033) ****************************************************** 60 = 17147760 (1.022) ***************************************************** 61 = 16894488 (1.007) **************************************************** 62 = 16545720 (0.986) *************************************************** 63 = 16940160 (1.010) **************************************************** 64 = 16882032 (1.006) **************************************************** 65 = 16637064 (0.992) *************************************************** 66 = 17048112 (1.016) ***************************************************** 67 = 17226648 (1.027) ***************************************************** 68 = 17193432 (1.025) ***************************************************** 69 = 16906944 (1.008) **************************************************** 6a = 16865424 (1.005) **************************************************** 6b = 17459160 (1.041) ****************************************************** 6c = 17259864 (1.029) ***************************************************** 6d = 16965072 (1.011) ***************************************************** 6e = 16661976 (0.993) **************************************************** 6f = 17471616 (1.041) ****************************************************** 70 = 16792580 (1.001) **************************************************** 71 = 16544554 (0.986) *************************************************** 72 = 16203010 (0.966) ************************************************** 73 = 16589280 (0.989) *************************************************** 74 = 16532356 (0.985) *************************************************** 75 = 16292462 (0.971) ************************************************** 76 = 16694996 (0.995) **************************************************** 77 = 16869834 (1.006) **************************************************** 78 = 16837306 (1.004) **************************************************** 79 = 16556752 (0.987) *************************************************** 7a = 16516092 (0.984) *************************************************** 7b = 17097530 (1.019) ***************************************************** 7c = 16902362 (1.007) **************************************************** 7d = 16613676 (0.990) *************************************************** 7e = 16316858 (0.973) ************************************************** 7f = 17109728 (1.020) ***************************************************** 80 = 16920610 (1.009) **************************************************** 81 = 16670693 (0.994) **************************************************** 82 = 16326545 (0.973) *************************************************** 83 = 16715760 (0.996) **************************************************** 84 = 16658402 (0.993) **************************************************** 85 = 16416679 (0.979) *************************************************** 86 = 16822282 (1.003) **************************************************** 87 = 16998453 (1.013) ***************************************************** 88 = 16965677 (1.011) ***************************************************** 89 = 16682984 (0.994) **************************************************** 8a = 16642014 (0.992) **************************************************** 8b = 17227885 (1.027) ***************************************************** 8c = 17031229 (1.015) ***************************************************** 8d = 16740342 (0.998) **************************************************** 8e = 16441261 (0.980) *************************************************** 8f = 17240176 (1.028) ***************************************************** 90 = 17416210 (1.038) ****************************************************** 91 = 17158973 (1.023) ***************************************************** 92 = 16804745 (1.002) **************************************************** 93 = 17205360 (1.026) ***************************************************** 94 = 17146322 (1.022) ***************************************************** 95 = 16897519 (1.007) **************************************************** 96 = 17315002 (1.032) ****************************************************** 97 = 17496333 (1.043) ****************************************************** 98 = 17462597 (1.041) ****************************************************** 99 = 17171624 (1.024) ***************************************************** 9a = 17129454 (1.021) ***************************************************** 9b = 17732485 (1.057) ******************************************************* 9c = 17530069 (1.045) ****************************************************** 9d = 17230662 (1.027) ***************************************************** 9e = 16922821 (1.009) **************************************************** 9f = 17745136 (1.058) ******************************************************* a0 = 17581410 (1.048) ****************************************************** a1 = 17321733 (1.032) ****************************************************** a2 = 16964145 (1.011) ***************************************************** a3 = 17368560 (1.035) ****************************************************** a4 = 17308962 (1.032) ****************************************************** a5 = 17057799 (1.017) ***************************************************** a6 = 17479242 (1.042) ****************************************************** a7 = 17662293 (1.053) ******************************************************* a8 = 17628237 (1.051) ******************************************************* a9 = 17334504 (1.033) ****************************************************** aa = 17291934 (1.031) ****************************************************** ab = 17900685 (1.067) ******************************************************* ac = 17696349 (1.055) ******************************************************* ad = 17394102 (1.037) ****************************************************** ae = 17083341 (1.018) ***************************************************** af = 17913456 (1.068) ******************************************************* b0 = 17048640 (1.016) ***************************************************** b1 = 16796832 (1.001) **************************************************** b2 = 16450080 (0.981) *************************************************** b3 = 16842240 (1.004) **************************************************** b4 = 16784448 (1.000) **************************************************** b5 = 16540896 (0.986) *************************************************** b6 = 16949568 (1.010) **************************************************** b7 = 17127072 (1.021) ***************************************************** b8 = 17094048 (1.019) ***************************************************** b9 = 16809216 (1.002) **************************************************** ba = 16767936 (0.999) **************************************************** bb = 17358240 (1.035) ****************************************************** bc = 17160096 (1.023) ***************************************************** bd = 16867008 (1.005) **************************************************** be = 16565664 (0.987) *************************************************** bf = 17370624 (1.035) ****************************************************** c0 = 16705850 (0.996) **************************************************** c1 = 16459105 (0.981) *************************************************** c2 = 16119325 (0.961) ************************************************** c3 = 16503600 (0.984) *************************************************** c4 = 16446970 (0.980) *************************************************** c5 = 16208315 (0.966) ************************************************** c6 = 16608770 (0.990) *************************************************** c7 = 16782705 (1.000) **************************************************** c8 = 16750345 (0.998) **************************************************** c9 = 16471240 (0.982) *************************************************** ca = 16430790 (0.979) *************************************************** cb = 17009225 (1.014) ***************************************************** cc = 16815065 (1.002) **************************************************** cd = 16527870 (0.985) *************************************************** ce = 16232585 (0.968) ************************************************** cf = 17021360 (1.015) ***************************************************** d0 = 16949520 (1.010) **************************************************** d1 = 16699176 (0.995) **************************************************** d2 = 16354440 (0.975) *************************************************** d3 = 16744320 (0.998) **************************************************** d4 = 16686864 (0.995) **************************************************** d5 = 16444728 (0.980) *************************************************** d6 = 16851024 (1.004) **************************************************** d7 = 17027496 (1.015) ***************************************************** d8 = 16994664 (1.013) ***************************************************** d9 = 16711488 (0.996) **************************************************** da = 16670448 (0.994) **************************************************** db = 17257320 (1.029) ***************************************************** dc = 17060328 (1.017) ***************************************************** dd = 16768944 (1.000) **************************************************** de = 16469352 (0.982) *************************************************** df = 17269632 (1.029) ***************************************************** e0 = 16953650 (1.011) **************************************************** e1 = 16703245 (0.996) **************************************************** e2 = 16358425 (0.975) *************************************************** e3 = 16748400 (0.998) **************************************************** e4 = 16690930 (0.995) **************************************************** e5 = 16448735 (0.980) *************************************************** e6 = 16855130 (1.005) **************************************************** e7 = 17031645 (1.015) ***************************************************** e8 = 16998805 (1.013) ***************************************************** e9 = 16715560 (0.996) **************************************************** ea = 16674510 (0.994) **************************************************** eb = 17261525 (1.029) ***************************************************** ec = 17064485 (1.017) ***************************************************** ed = 16773030 (1.000) **************************************************** ee = 16473365 (0.982) *************************************************** ef = 17273840 (1.030) ***************************************************** f0 = 16573690 (0.988) *************************************************** f1 = 16328897 (0.973) *************************************************** f2 = 15991805 (0.953) ************************************************* f3 = 16373040 (0.976) *************************************************** f4 = 16316858 (0.973) ************************************************** f5 = 16080091 (0.958) ************************************************** f6 = 16477378 (0.982) *************************************************** f7 = 16649937 (0.992) **************************************************** f8 = 16617833 (0.991) *************************************************** f9 = 16340936 (0.974) *************************************************** fa = 16300806 (0.972) ************************************************** fb = 16874665 (1.006) **************************************************** fc = 16682041 (0.994) **************************************************** fd = 16397118 (0.977) *************************************************** fe = 16104169 (0.960) ************************************************** ff = 16886704 (1.007) ****************************************************

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ciphergroupies
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As one of ciphergroupies (call a spade a spade, the man said, and, frankly, I don't write code, much less cryto-code) I agree with Perry. While I understand that crypto isn't the only thing discussed on this list, it used be quite apparent to anyone who signed on to this list that strong crypto and its consequences was the the focus of the group. Some days it's very apparent that that is not the focus. My mail.torrent skills are pretty well advanced these days, because I sit on lots of mail groups. The first high volume one was cypherpunks, where I got my bones in such matters, and I've gotten pretty adept at thrashing the noise out of the way. However, it does seem that, like Tim said a while ago, we're getting a lot of forwards from other groups, which dilute the content here pretty significantly. I've done this myself. A lot. Not as much as I used to, but it still happens: I just forwarded here an announcement for a digital commerce conference in Texas, for instance. So, I have a few suggestions. First, we might try to be more considerate of the other's wetware, while developing our own, and try to limit our postings to this net to original contributions where possible, even if it's just a summary of something you've read. Write it in your own words, in other words ;-). I'm not saying rewrite instead of forward if the message is extremely crypto (or consequent) relevant, we get action messages from EPIC, for instance, which are mostly relevant (opinions of the efficacy of EPIC aside, of course). Second, if you have something which people here might be interested in, and it's vaguely tangental, post a pointer. The classic case here is someone, who shall remain nameless for reasons you'll see in a moment, who's brilliantly cryptic (!) pointers to his droid-fed article stash have been a very useful and pleasantly salient feature of the landscape here for more than a year now. You can point to an FTP file, a web page, have people ask for it in an e-mail reply from you, and if it's something er, professionally written, and want it handled er, gingerly, you can probably contact the above mentioned droid-master for his help in distributing your find. I just sent him such an article on dark fiber / frequency multiplexing which he pointed the group to within the last week. Not that you should choke the droid factory, mind you, but it can be done in a special circumstance. Perry seems pretty burned up, and he's burned up for the right reasons, not the least of which is that he's been busting his butt in a project which will encrypt the net at the very core: the TCP/IP layer itself. This is very very important, and people should pay attention to it, and help however they can. (It's also likely to make Perry insufferable -- deservedly -- pretty soon ;-)). Like everyone else, he subscribes to this group to learn more about crypto, and he's finding the crypto content dwindling, the "S1" discussion notwithstanding, and as someone who's invested a lot of time, energy, and emotions in this group, he doesn't sound happy about it. This is also compounded by the fact that while Perry is one of my favorite people here, Perry is also a grouch. I usually laugh when he goes over the top about something, because his polemics are some of the best I've ever seen. That doesn't make it any better if you're on the receiving end of such invective, and he's pissed off people who agree with him most of the rest of the time as a result. He's usually right, however, and he's a grownup, so I don't think he's going to change his tone anytime soon, and I've just learned to ignore his more inflamitory remarks as a cost of doing business with his not inconsiderable talents. That goes for several people around here, by the way, and it's a shame when they don't play well with others, but, like Perry, they're grownups. Another cost of doing business. So, in summary, point instead of forward where possible, particularly if it's not explicitly crypto or crypto consequent; a good immediate way to help the cause of crypto on the net is to bone up on this IPSP stuff and see what you can do to help, because it's very important; and Perry and other people here are grouches and can't seem to play nice with each other on occasion (So, what else is new? ;-)). Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Shipwright Development Corporation, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 323-7923 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell >>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf(a)clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<

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Why DES in IPSEC ESP?
by Andy Brown 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I suppose this is really addressed at Perry: Why was (single) DES chosen as the algorithm for the ESP part of IPSEC? If someone's IP traffic is being monitored and collected offline by some agency then they're going to get about a couple of hours of security while the special purpose key search hardware kicks into action. I know other algorithms can optionally be used, but surely it would have been better to have a second, stronger algorithm specified mandatory as well. - Andy +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Andrew Brown Internet <asb(a)nexor.co.uk> Telephone +44 115 952 0585 | | PGP (2048/9611055D): 69 AA EF 72 80 7A 63 3A C0 1F 9F 66 64 02 4C 88 | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

3 3

CAC_kle
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

8-10-95. NYPaper Page-Oner: "With Internet Cachet, Not Profit, New Stock Is Wall St.'s Darling." A 15-month-old company that has never made a dime of profit had one of the most stunning debuts in Wall Street history yesterday as investors rushed to pour their money into cyberspace. The Netscape Communications Corporation became the latest -- and hottest -- company in the Internet business to list shares on the nation's stock exchanges. Shares of Netscape, which had been priced at $28 before trading began at 11 A.M. opened far higher -- at $71. The shares soon surged to as high as $74.75. It was the best opening day for a stock in Wall Street history for an issue of its size. But even more significantly, it was a sign of how the rush to commercialize the global computing web known as the Internet has created an investor frenzy not seen in the technology industry since the early days of the personal computer more than a decade ago. "There is a mania under way," said Michael Murphy, the editor of The Overpriced Stock Service, a newsletter in Half Moon Bay, Calif. The company's co-founder and chairman, who holds 9.7 million shares, ended up holding a stake valued at a half-billion dollars. Making his first fortune yesterday was Marc L. Andreessen, Netscape's 24-year-old vice president of technology and an inventor of its prize software. Based on yesterday's closing price, his interest in Netscape is worth more than $58 million. CAC_kle

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Re: "S1" encryption system (was: this looked like it might
by Peter Trei 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> On a fair number of occassions I have been told that federal type folks > have made statements to the effect that there is no such thing as a "TOP > SECRET" classification of US government docs. Since really secret things > tend to get neither confirmed nor denied, I am inclined to believe this. > Thus SECRET is the top classification in today's government/military. If > anybody knows otherwise I would be interested in the information. > JWS Well, I held an active SECRET clearance until last November. This is how I remember it. There are three basic levels of classification - Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. There are many sub-categories, such as FOUO (For Official Use Only), NOFORN (no foreigners), COMSEC (Communications Security) etc. Within TS, data may be placed in 'compartments', the names of which may themselves be classified, and separate clearance is needed for each compartment. Orthoganal to that is the existance of three separate agencies which provide clearance - the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the NSA. If you had a DoD clearance, that did not cut much ice with the spooks - you needed to have a separate investigation to their standards (though the actual groundpounding and investigation was done by the same organization for all three). Finally, there was 'need to know'. It didn't matter if you had a Tippy Toppest Secret clearance, signed by the directors of the NRO, NSA, and DoE; if there was a piece of classified information which was not relevant to your work, you didn't get it. (One of the problems with the system is that this leads to a lot of duplicated effort). While I did not get to see Top Secret data (and in fact, avoided classified projects whenever possible), TS was a very real classification level at least until late last year. The only explanation I can think of for your claim above is that most TS data is not simply 'TS'; it usually has various endorsments, such as which compartment it's in. Peter Trei

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