December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

CyberSitter to the rescue.
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Resent-Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 17:19:45 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: qnx.com: localhost [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org Cc: bostic(a)bsdi.com Subject: CyberSitter to the rescue. Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 16:08:19 -0500 From: glen mccready <glen(a)qnx.com> Resent-From: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org X-Mailing-List: <0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org> archive/latest/2639 X-Loop: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org Precedence: list Resent-Sender: 0xdeadbeef-request(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org Status: U Forwarded-by: Faried Nawaz <fn(a)LISP-READER.Hungry.COM> Forwarded-by: acb(a)zikzak.net (Andrew C. Bulhak) Forwarded-by: Matt Curtis <mattc(a)beam.com.au> This is from the PerForce mailing list, PerForce is a source code control system that doesn't use mounted drives, but instead uses TCP/IP socket communications to check code in and out. ----- Well, I just spent several hours tracking something down that I think is SO braindead that it must be called evil. I hope this will save someone else some hassle. There's an NT box on my desk that someone else uses every now and then. This machine is otherwise used as my programming box and backup server. All of a sudden, my programming files were being corrupted in odd places. I thought "hmm, my copy must be corrupt". So I refreshed the files. No change. "hmm, the code depot copy must be corrupt".. Checked from other machines. No problem there. Viewed the file from a web based change browser in Internet Explorer. Same corruption in the file. Telnet'd to the server machine and just cat'd the file to the terminal. Same problem. What's going on? The lines that were corrupted were of the form #define one 1 /* foo menu */ #define two 2 /* bar baz */ What I always saw ON THIS MACHINE ONLY was: #define one 1 /* foo */ # fine two 2 /* bar baz */ Can you guess what was happening? Turns out, someone had inadvertly installed this piece of garbage called CyberSitter, which purports to protect you from nasty internet content. Turns out that it does this by patching the TCP drivers and watching the data flow over EVERY TCP STREAM. Can you spot the offense word in my example? It's "NUDE". Seems that cybersitter doesn't care if there are other characters in between. So it blanks out "nu */ #de" without blanking out the punctuation and line breaks. Very strange and stupid. It also didn't like the method name "RefreshItems" in another file, since there is obviously a swear word embedded in there. Sheesh. It's so bad it's almost funny. Hope this brightens your day as much as it brighted mine :-). ---- +----------------------+---+ | Ross Johnson | | E-Mail: rpj(a)ise.canberra.edu.au | Info Sciences and Eng|___| | University of Canberra | FAX: +61 6 2015227 | PO Box 1 | | Belconnen ACT 2616 | WWW: http://willow.canberra.edu.au/~rpj/ | AUSTRALIA | +--------------------------+ --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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Spies Like Us.
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Resent-Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 12:33:35 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: qnx.com: localhost [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org Subject: Spies Like Us. Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 11:21:56 -0500 From: glen mccready <glen(a)qnx.com> Resent-From: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org X-Mailing-List: <0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org> archive/latest/2642 X-Loop: 0xdeadbeef(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org Precedence: list Resent-Sender: 0xdeadbeef-request(a)substance.abuse.blackdown.org Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev(a)bostic.com> Forwarded-by: chuck <Chuck(a)Yerkes.com> Forwarded-by: David HM Spector <spector(a)zeitgeist.com> Forwarded-by: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 13:42:26 -0800 (PST) From: Dan Tsang <dtsang(a)sun1.lib.uci.edu> To: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> Subject: CIA changes Web FAQ: concedes spying on Americans Last month, the CIA had to change its Web FAQ page because of my case, Tsang v. CIA, which was settled when the CIA promised not to spy on me again. But it refused to make the same promise to cover other Americans. The original FAQ page had said "No" to a question whether or not it spies on Americans. Now it concedes it spies on Americans. The new CIA FAQ is at: http://www.odci.gov/cia/public_affairs/faq.html See my account in Sunday's (Jan. 18) Los Angeles Times Opinion page: A CIA Target at Home in America. It can be found at: http://www.latimes.com/sbin/my_iarecord.pl?NS-doc-path=/httpd/docs/HOME/NEW… OPINION/t000005584.html&NS-doc-offset=1&NS-collection=DailyNews&NS-search-set=/ var/tmp/34c3e/aaaa001wBc3eacf& Daniel C. Tsang Bibliographer for Asian American Studies & Social Sciences (Economics, Politics) Machine-Readable Data Files Librarian Lecturer, School of Social Sciences 380 Main Library University of California PO Box 19557 Irvine CA 92623-9557 USA dtsang(a)uci.edu (714) 824-4978 (714) 824-5740 fax homepage: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang add suffix for news: /netnews1.htm politics: /pol.htm economics: /econ.htm asian american studies: /aas.htm soc sci data archives: /ssda.htm public opinion: /pod.htm AWARE: awarefs/htm host, "Subversity" on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County each Tuesday from 5-6 p.m.; selected shows w/ audio online: http://www.kuci.uci.edu/~dtsang/subversity N.B.: This is NOT official University of California correspondence. --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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Video & cryptography...
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, I was in a discussion with several people regarding the rate if improvement of current video production equipment and how it would effect the veracity of video images of all sorts in future legal cases. Is anyone aware of anybody working on a mechanism to digitaly sign video and photographs (a cool app of stego I suspect)? This would alleviate a great deal of mistrust for security video cams and such. What I had in mind was the manufacturer puts a unique key in each machines rom's and when each image comes in a signature of the image and the key is stored in the interframe retraces that are normaly not shown (ala videotext). I asked a couple of people in the biz that I know and it seemed a new concept to them. Just a thought... ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Cylink and Organized Crime?
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Mr. Gene Carozza Security Public Relations Cylink Corporation Dear Mr. Carozza, We have received two recent e-mail messages concerning Cylink's alleged links to organized crime. The messages may be seen on the Web at: http://jya.com/cylinked.htm This is a serious charge. Could you provide information to answer it? Sincerely, John Young

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Re: Cylink and Organized Crime?
by Gene Carozza 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear John, Thanks for your inquiry. These "serious charges" are completely inaccurate. Regards, Gene C. At 12:42 PM 1/26/98 -0500, John Young wrote: >Mr. Gene Carozza >Security Public Relations >Cylink Corporation > >Dear Mr. Carozza, > >We have received two recent e-mail messages concerning >Cylink's alleged links to organized crime. The messages >may be seen on the Web at: > > http://jya.com/cylinked.htm > >This is a serious charge. Could you provide information to >answer it? > >Sincerely, > >John Young > > > Gene Carozza Phone: 408-328-5175 Sr. Public Relations Manager Fax: 408-774-2522 Cylink Corp. Pager: 1-800-716-6434 910 Hermosa Ct. Cell: 408-529-8402 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 email: carozza(a)cylink.com www.cylink.com

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Burning Papers - Plastics - Cyanides - Reference
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, It took a few minutes to find one, but below is just one of the many standards that are implimented for plastic uses in the home that make reference to minimal levels of HCN in particular. Despite what some folks would like you to believe, plastics in conflagration are *NOT* safe to inhale even in small quantitites because of these gases. Note that I edited a bunch of lines out for brevity. Forwarded message: > X-within-URL: http://www.cern.ch/CERN/Divisions/TIS/safdoc/IS/is41/table1.html > > IS 41 : TABLE 1 > > Test Standards and Specifications > for the Selection of Plastics > > TEST > Standards (1) > Requirements > _________________________________________________________________ > [text deleted] > > Duration of flame application 60 s unless > otherwise stated according to Clause 5. > Time to extinction: 30 s * > Damaged length (mm) must be measured* > > FV0 or FV1 > 94 V0, 94V1 > > FT >260!C. Length burnt > _________________________________________________________________ > [text deleted] > _________________________________________________________________ > > > Toxicity > Toxicity of fire gases > > ABD 0031 > > HF HC1 HCN SO2 + H2S CO NO + NO2 > _________________________________________________________________ > [remainder deleted] ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Latest Clinton dodge?
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Clinton said this morning: >>>> I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time -- never. These allegations are false. <<<< The question then becomes, of course, what does "sexual relations" mean? Is it oral sex? -Declan

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Re: Burning papers (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 19:05:54 +0100 (MET) > Subject: Re: Burning papers (fwd) > From: nobody(a)REPLAY.COM (Anonymous) > As usual Jim, your posting is prolific but your science is lacking. Ad hominims, opinions, and no proof... > bind to whatever it comes in contact with (usually oxygen). The only way > cyanide could escape in gaseous form is as HCN, however this cannot happen > because the hydrogen has a lower activation energy for combining with > oxygen, and thus the reaction is starved of free hydrogen by the time the > carbon begins to burn. Various other nitrogen compounds are produced, > such as NOx, but this is true of all combustion and not limited to plastic. I have forwarded to the list a single safety standard for plastics and fires. It *specificaly* mentions HCN, so apparently it not only can happen but does often enough they want to test for it on a national level. There are many more out there and as I said before, if you contact your local fire dept. they can provide you with documentation as well. > A more likely (and deadly) result, which you did not mention, is sulfur > dioxide. Most plastics don't contain sulfur, but rubber products may. Sulfur dioxide is present and does pose a threat, fortunately it's a rather short termed threat and treatable. Sulfur dioxide turns into sulphuric acid in the water of the body. Not to mention it burns up the oxygen in formation. The biggest threat with the acids that are produced in a fire is to your possessions. They soak this stuff up and then when the firemen put the fire out they use water which creates acids. These acids effect the components of your possessions over an extended time. > Sulfur dioxide combines with water to produce H2SO3 and H2SO4 (sulfuric > acid) which is quite toxic if inhaled. Depends on the molarity. It is nowhere near as toxic as cyanide on a per part basis. > Most smoke inhalation deaths result for particles clogging the lungs rather > than gases. Cats have a tendency to hide when they feel threatened or > injured, an instinct which often imperils them in a burning building. Actualy most smoke inhalation deaths occur because of lack of oxygen and the elevated temperatures. The actual clogging process would take much longer than the 2-3 minutes most smoke deaths take to occur. As to cats hiding, they tend to hind *under* furniture which is actualy the *safest* place to be, the clearest air is next to the floor. It was also where my cats were found, in the living room under the couch where the smoke very clearly never got below about shoulder height - it stains the walls quite well. The fire didn't even make it into that part of the house, it stopped in the next room. The fire itself burned for less than 20 minutes total because the neighbor saw it about 5 minutes after the person who accidently set it off had left. The fire station was on the next block. It was very quick. The firemen were very careful to explain to me exactly why the cats died, gases from the plastics (HCN was specificaly mentioned) and the temperature of the air (they estimate over 350F). While not enough to cause spontaneous combustion it is more than enough to cook the lungs. The air was hot enough that several plastic bags holding wargame materials within 1 ft of the floor were melted but the paper materials were not even scorched. This would further indicate that the damage was done by the temperature of the gas and not direct flame or smoke. > Also remember that computers have materials in them other than plastic, for > example lead and other heavy metals. Batteries and electrolytic capacitors > are also sources of many toxic materials. The leads on most components are an aluminum compound (my background is EE) and they typicaly don't start to burn until well over 800F, aluminum itself burns at 600. Since typical tip temperatures in soldering (lead eutecticts only - not indium composites) are in the 600 to 700 it is clear that pure aluminum would not be desirable. So they mix tin and other compounds with it. As to electrolytics, the liquid plastics that make up the dielectrics are very toxic and most certainly give off xCN compounds when burned. Just for the record, Lead (the element) is not generaly used in modern electronics except in a eutectic solder mix for connections. I have several computers that were burned in the fire and the majority of the solder on the pcb's was *not* evaporated. In most cases it wasn't even melted even though the case was completely gone (2 A1000's that work fine though the cases were completely destroyed by the temperature of the air, not fire). > In short, it's not the plastic that's toxic, it's all the other crap (ink, > dye, glue, solder, batteries, dielectric, etc) Malarky. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Re: Video & cryptography... (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > From: Adam Shostack <adam(a)homeport.org> > Subject: Re: Video & cryptography... > Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 13:56:57 -0500 (EST) > Schneier, Wagner and Kelsey have done some work on an authenticating > camera. > > One issue to be concerned with is that what the camera sees is not > always the truth. Putting a film set together to film bigfoot is > easy. The fact that the film is authenticated as having come from the > camera doesn't mean a whole lot in some cases. Doesn't this same sort of issue arise from any other digital signature process then? There should be nothing fundamentaly different between the characteristics of a video camera signing a frame than a person signing email. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Re: Latest Clinton dodge?
by miner 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:55 PM 1/26/98 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote: > >Clinton said this morning: > >>>>> > I want you to listen to me. I'm >going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that >woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time >-- never. These allegations are false. Doesn't gennifer flowers has(had?) an audio tape of clinton asking her to deny their affair, there is no proof, etc.? I think a sequence of that audio and then the above statement played maybe 10 times on CNN would make a nice piece of news. ><<<< > >The question then becomes, of course, what does "sexual relations" mean? > >Is it oral sex? > >-Declan > > >

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