December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Project: a standard cell random number generator
by koontz＠MasPar.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>At 02:50 PM 9/20/95 -0700, you wrote: >> In this sense, NSA ought to be *encouraging* Intel and >>IBM and Motorola to put "generate random bits" instructions into >>their instruction sets... Intel produces a random generator (in a chip package) that is used in STU-II..'s. You can't buy such devices, random sources good enough to be used for initialization for military grade cryptography are Controlled Cryptographic Items. One would think that the NSA is attempting to exploit the lack of availability of random initialization values against their targets. The question becomes one of whether or not the general populace (of the U.S.) is considered a potential target, or simply casualties of the situation in undeclared hostilities. As a minimum one could infer that the availability of random numbers is considered quite important for NSA secure communications. I used to work at a company that subscribed to NSA (National Standards Association) which provided government and other standards on microfiche and/or hardcopy. There was an interval before Reagan took office when the NSA provided all of their unclassified standards into general availability, an era of open- ness that came to an end with the Star Wars era. One of those standards was for random data sources. The only recent standards that come to mind are the X.509 stuff for session key generation, FIPS PUB 140-1 which describes randomizer tests, and the recent FIPS PUB for a password generator. These three use block ciphers to produce psuedo-random output. If NSA requires real stochastic results for military crypto, what would we as casual cryptographers feel comfortable with? The Netscape episode shows the comfort level needs improving. How good is good enough?

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Netscape sub rosa?
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:33 AM 9/20/95, Alan Olsen wrote: >At 03:06 PM 9/19/95 -0500, you wrote: >>NPR reported on the security flaw in Netscape, >> >>3:05 pm CDT. > >As well as CNN Headline news. (With the big Netscape N logo and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >everything.) They spent a fair amount of time (for CNN Headline news) on >the story. Gee, where's that "Cypherpunks logo" when you really need it? A rose covering the Netscape "N" logo? A crypto eagle swooping down and pecking at weak keys? Netscape sub rosa? --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Forwarding of Federalist Papers from Canada for U.S. Citizens promoting democracy
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Six wrote: > If you have a desire to educate the citizens of foreign countries > as to the value of democracy, I would be pleased to forward a copy of > the Federalist Papers to any email address you desire, upon receipt > of only the email addresses, with no instructions or requests. I think we should all send a copy of the Federalist Papers to Sadaam Hussein. It would be the American thing to do. Six also wrote: > If for any reason you feel that the terrorists who are ruling your > country might be able to persecute you for exercising free speech, > I would be happy to forward PGP 5.0 upon receipt of only the email > addresses, with no instructions or requests. I am certain we can trust Six not to mix up the addresses with no instructions and no requests meant for forwarding the Federalist Papers with the addresses with no instructions and no requests meant for forwarding strong encryption. TrustingMonger

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Government promotes strong crypto!!!
by EFF 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Electronic Forgery Foundation] <Bienfait, Saskatchewan> [Washington, DC] In a startling turn of events, the U.S. government has come out in support of the use of strong encryption. In order to give incentives to criminals to use strong encryption, the government has announced that the penalty for using weak encryption in the commission of a crime will be an extra five years in prison. Lying Nazi Fuck Freeh stated, "Theoretically, the law applies to those criminals who use strong encryption, as well, but in practice, we will not be able to prosecute, because if we can't break it, then we have no way to prove it is being used for criminal purposes." Dog-faced Child Murderer Reno stated that the high level of publicity given to the effective use of encryption in crime has served the government's aim of making certain that the vast majority of criminals will recognize the value of using encryption to hide evidence. Lying Nazi Slut Dying FineSwine stated that she opposed the use of strong encryption by child pornographers because she and the vice police had grown so accustomed to high-quality computer graphics of child pornography, that they just couldn't get off on photographs any more. Marked for deletion SwineSwine said that she would like to comment more on child pornography, but talking about it made her hot, and she then rushed of to the ladies room. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was forged under the auspices of the Electronic Forgery Foundation. Any misuse or abuse of this message will probably give your Congressman a hard on. They're weird that way. -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Any talk of limiting _existing_ crypto?
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

OK, so the imminent legislation will ban sale or distribution unescrowed crypto products after 1999 or 2000 or whatever. Exact details unclear. But I see no language declaring existing products to be contraband. (Though such language could still come, of course...nothing would surprised me at this point.) So, what about Alice and Bob using PGP 5.0 or Explorer with S-MIME, or whatever. Plenty of crypto already out there. They can drop their encrypted text into whatever mail program or browser they're using. If existing crypto is fully legal to use, then it could be years and years before the Freeh-Reno-SAFE outlawing has any significant effect. Is there any reasonable interpretation of any of the SAFE or Pro-CODE bills that could make it illegal to use preexisting crypto programs (before the ban)? Any way they could make it illegal to use PGP or Lotus Notes or whatever in conjunction with a mailer or browser? If not, then our strategy should be to get the simpler, text-centric, crypto programs massively and widely deployed. Spend the year or so we have before D-Day getting crypto onto every CD-ROM being distributed, every public domain site, etc. (An old strategy, and one great progress has been made on. But now we have to really go into high gear, to _really_ get crypto widely deployed.) Integration with mailers and browsers may not even be such a good idea, as the evolution of such products will cause obsolescence. Better, perhaps, to leave the crypto at the "text edit" level, the ASCII level, where it can be dropped in cleanly to whatever program is current. (Also an old strategy, one with many advantages.) The war criminals in Washington will have a real hard time rounding up the crypto deployed between now and D-Day. Fucking criminals. Fight the _real_ criminals. Nuke em til they glow. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Cypherpunks Bay Area Meeting, This Satuday September 13th
by Hugh Daniel 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What: Cypherpunks September 1997 Bay Area Meeting When: Saturday September 13, 12 noon till 5pm Where: PGP World Headquarters, 2nd floor meeting room Bayview Bank Building, just south of Hwy. 92 2121 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo California http://www.pgp.com/pgpcorp/contactpgp.cgi#head Agenda: Forbes Article background, everyone Cypherpunks at HIP'97, Lucky Green, David Del Torto Ecash announcement, Jeremey Barrett, BlueMoney Software Corp. Linux Onion Router, Jeremey Barrett Diffie-Helman Free of Patent, ??? New FBI Anti-Crypto Bill, how to react, everyone Domain name conference report, John Gilmore Attacks on US remailers etc., Bill Stewart ??? After: Eat dinner somewhere yet to be decided... PGP Building Access: This is an Open Meeting on US Soil and it is free for anyone to attend. There is a minor building security formality due to the facilities being in a bank building: anytime after 12 noon, approach the Bayview Building's Information window (in the plaza, see below for directions), and ask the Guard on Duty to let you up to the 2nd Floor for the Cypherpunks meeting (use the passphrase "cypherpunks release code"). If you have any difficulty (eg. if the guard is on a break), simply call DDT at +1 415 730 3583 he I'll let you in. You can arrive at any time during the scheduled meeting hours, though earlier is better if you want to hear the interesting stuff.

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Bean Counting
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

After giving careful consideration to the amount of press coverage dedicated to the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, and judging the proportion of outrage over the deaths of the children in the daycare center compared to the amount of outrage over the remaining victims, I have come to the conclusion that in the interests of saving lives terrorists and psychos should be encouraged to murder the youngest children possible. While my studies are preliminary, they indicate that terroists and madmen would only have to kill half as many people to achieve comparable results in the arena of publicity and public attention if they were to confine their slaughter to young children. This figure declines further if the children are white, and even further yet if they are cute. By promoting cute young white children as the target of preference for terroists and crazy people, we could save innumerable lives each and every year. Next Week: The role of Senior Citizens in slow check-out lines.

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Re: More on House Intelligence committee amendment on crypto
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:38 PM 9/11/97 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote: >So I'm reading through the 43-page amendment to SAFE that the House >Intelligence committee approved today. It includes: > >* Ban on sale of crypto without a backdoor. Five year & fine (maybe >$250,000?) if violated. Prosecutions can be held in closed-door >courtrooms, publishers of info about case to be held in contempt of court. Does the bill retain the 5 years first offense, 10 years second offense provisions for using crypto in the comission of a crime? Let's see: Lucky sells five copies of PGP. That's 5+(5+4*10)=50 years in prison. Or is it (5*5)+(5+4*10)=70 years? Doesn't make much of a difference at my age, I suppose. --Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. DES is dead! Please join in breaking RC5-56. http://rc5.distributed.net/

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null
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Cypherpunks Bay Area Meeting, This Satuday September 13th
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 06:08:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Hugh Daniel <hugh(a)ecotone.xanadu.com> To: cypherpunks-announce(a)toad.com Subject: Cypherpunks Bay Area Meeting, This Satuday September 13th Reply-to: hugh(a)xanadu.com What: Cypherpunks September 1997 Bay Area Meeting When: Saturday September 13, 12 noon till 5pm Where: PGP World Headquarters, 2nd floor meeting room Bayview Bank Building, just south of Hwy. 92 2121 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo California http://www.pgp.com/pgpcorp/contactpgp.cgi#head Agenda: Forbes Article background, everyone Cypherpunks at HIP'97, Lucky Green, David Del Torto Ecash announcement, Jeremey Barrett, BlueMoney Software Corp. Linux Onion Router, Jeremey Barrett Diffie-Helman Free of Patent, ??? New FBI Anti-Crypto Bill, how to react, everyone Domain name conference report, John Gilmore Attacks on US remailers etc., Bill Stewart ??? After: Eat dinner somewhere yet to be decided... PGP Building Access: This is an Open Meeting on US Soil and it is free for anyone to attend. There is a minor building security formality due to the facilities being in a bank building: anytime after 12 noon, approach the Bayview Building's Information window (in the plaza, see below for directions), and ask the Guard on Duty to let you up to the 2nd Floor for the Cypherpunks meeting (use the passphrase "cypherpunks release code"). If you have any difficulty (eg. if the guard is on a break), simply call DDT at +1 415 730 3583 he I'll let you in. You can arrive at any time during the scheduled meeting hours, though earlier is better if you want to hear the interesting stuff. --Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. DES is dead! Please join in breaking RC5-56. http://rc5.distributed.net/

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