December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

response to netscape's press release
by sameer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I plan on releasing a press release regarding the misleading statements made by Netscape in their statement about the seed bug, announcing the web page describing my objections in detail. The document is http://www.c2.org/hacknetscape/critique.phtml detailing my objections to their statements.. I would appreciate comments, corrections, and criticisms. Thanks. (The press release will not be written in the style of the web page. ;-) IN REPLY TO NETSCAPE Netscape announced that they are going to "fix" the problem. In traditional Internet style, I will respond to their post. With this knowledge, an experienced computer programmer could decrypt messages sent by Netscape Navigator to other computers in a few hours of computation time. "a few hours"? Ian and David's program generates keys in 25 seconds. The random information is found through a variety of functions that look into a user's machine for information about how many processes are running, process ID numbers, the current time in microseconds, etc. Specifically, the Parent Process ID, the Process ID, and the time in microseconds. See the exploit code for more details. The current vulnerability exists because the size of random input is less than the size of the subsequent keys. The vulnerability exists because the random input isn't random. Since when is the time "random"? I'm sure a few physicists would love to see your theories on that one. (Berkeley Standard Time notwithstanding) Once this improvement is made, protection of the random information will be as strong as the rest of the security built into Netscape Navigator. That's not saying much, considering that the security community has not had a chance to independently verify the security in Netscape Navigator. Netscape has also begun to engage an external group of world-class security experts who will review our solution to this problem before it is sent to customers. So after someone violates Netscape Navigator's security do they decide to have an external group verify their code. (Note that they still don't plan on making it available for the security community at large to review). According to RSADSI's Jim Bidzos, his company offered to review Netscape's security when it was first introduced, but Netscape declined. "They're asking us to review it this time," he said. This discovery does not affect the strength or security of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), RC4, or any other portions of our security implementations. True, but this implies that SSL is a secure protocol, which has been shown to be false. At the beginning of their release: Netscape secure software has been in use for almost a year on the Internet by millions of customers and no thefts of actual customer information protected by our security have been reported - this posting on the Internet reported a potential vulnerability, not the actual theft of customer information. Yes, Netscape is very lucky that Ian and David are students, and not criminals. I sincerely hope that the next time someone finds a hole in Netscape that it's someone who would rather win a free T-shirt than steal lots of money. -- sameer Voice: 510-601-9777 Community ConneXion FAX: 510-601-9734 An Internet Privacy Provider Dialin: 510-658-6376 http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest") sameer(a)c2.org

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Investing on Information We Get Here
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:35 PM 9/19/95, Duncan Frissell wrote: >At 11:00 PM 9/18/95 -0400, John Young wrote: >> The New York Times, September 19, 1995, pp. A1, D21. >> >> >> Security Flaw Is Discovered In Software Used in Shopping >> >> By John Markoff > >On the Front Page, *above* the fold. Perhaps John was trying to make up for >being scooped by the WSJ on the SSL Crack story. Also front page, above the fold, for the "San Jose Mercury News," the newspaper of record of the Silicon Valley. And CNBC is reporting the story on its hourly updates of the news. (These computer lists are really great for investors! I heard about the Apple problems a few days before they hit the street, and was able to unload a bunch of shares at $45, a day before it dropped, now down to around $36. "He who hesitates to act on inside information is lost.") P.S. On Netscape, I've finally decided to do some buying. Sure, this latest flaw is another embarrassment. But more deals and link-ups than ever are being inked, and they've got the resources to really spruce up Navigator and related products. I just don't see too many competitors on the horizon. Actually, I was planning to buy some Netscape stock, now that the IPO froth has settled. And since I have this info on the flaw, I _have_ to buy it, else be guilty of "insider non-trading." As Stew Brownstein, a friend of mine, has noted, if insider trading rules are interpreted logically, then _failure_ to make a planned trade on the basis of insider information is just as illegal as deciding to make some trade on the basis of insider information. The SEC should require all insiders to file a daily report, preferably before the market opens in NY, listing all of their planned transactions for that day, so that violations of the "insider non-trading" laws can be detected and prosecuted. (Yes, I know that I am not an "insider" by SEC definitions. Poetic license.) --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: Big Brother is watching
by Sean Roach 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:18 PM 9/4/97 -0700, Alan wrote: > ... >Depends if the camera is watched. ... >Spray paint cans on long poles (as used by agitprop graffiti artists) are >useful. (Under the cover of night...) ... >An air rifle or pellet gun may be quiet enough to hit the camera from a >distance, breaking the internals of the camera. (A crossbow will work as >well, but those may be best saved for those unmarked helicopters planting >pot seeds on your property so the government can seize it later.) > ... >I am sure others will have useful suggestions. ... Alan's mention of spray paint reminded me of paintball guns. I'll leave the specifics to you to work out.

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128-bit Netscape v4 for Linux???
by ichudov＠Algebra.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hello, I am wondering if Netscape Communicator version 4.* is available for Linux with 128-bit encryption. Please email me or post a followup. Thank you. - Igor.

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Re: NYT on Netscape Crack
by Holger.Reif＠PrakInf.TU-Ilmenau.DE 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Is it a good idea to use different (unrelated!) seeded PRNG's for the challenge data (which can be seen by sniffing) and the masterkey (which should never leave out of client's memory? read you later - Holger Reif http://remus.prakinf.tu-ilmenau.de/Reif/

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Show Me the Warheads!
by Mike Duvos 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In an interview to be aired on "60 Minutes" this Sunday, Alexandr Lebed, former Russian National Security Advisor, will reveal that his country has lost track of more than 100 nuclear bombs made to look like suitcases, and has no idea what happened to them. Probably not a good time to visit the Zionist Entity. :) -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ enoch(a)zipcon.com $ via Finger $ {Free Cypherpunk Political Prisoner Jim Bell}

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Re: SSL implementation problem at Netscape
by jsw＠neon.netscape.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In article <43o47v$fsd(a)cnn.Princeton.EDU>, dawagner(a)flagstaff.princeton.edu (David A. Wagner) writes: > In article <david-1909951219130001(a)192.0.2.1> from sci.crypt, > David Sternlight <david(a)sternlight.com> wrote: > > If the above is, in fact, accurate it appears to apply to previous > > versions of Netscape, not the 2.0 versions for which the public beta goes > > out next week. > > We haven't tried it on v2.0, as we only have a copy of v1.1 right now. > But the front-page New York Times article today said that the next version > also has the same flaw, and that it'll be fixed before release. First off, Sternlight is not an agent working for netscape. :-) The same fix that will be going out to patch old versions will be applied to 2.0 before we do a public beta. As with any code it will be refined as necessary before the final release of 2.0. [ stuff deleted ] > While we don't yet know exactly how long it would take to break Netscape's > PRNG in this threat model, I think it's clear that Netscape's current > implementation is insufficient and insecure. Agreed. See other messages of mine for a more detailed response. > We don't know about e.g. PC's yet -- this is another area we were still > working on. I will note that Netscape didn't try to claim that any version > was safe from this flaw, for what that's worth... Again, see my other messages on this and related topics for more details of what the code was doing on PC and Mac. > Hopefully this will be quickly fixed by Netscape, and then we can all stop > worrying about it! :-) Yup. Then I can get back to working only 16 hours a day. :-) --Jeff -- Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist Netscape Communication Corporation jsw(a)netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw Any opinions expressed above are mine.

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Re: FBI calls for mandatory key escrow; Denning on export ctrls
by Nick 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There was a story a few weeks ago about how the various federal bueracracies are not keen on giving their keys to ANY sort of "trusted third party" whether it is a psuedo private or overtly gov't entity. They don't trust each other and are of course interested in being able to keep their own dirty little secrets to themselves. They seem to realize that the plan gives the administration and it's FBI, Stalanesque powers over every other dept, as well as the citezenry. Then earlier this evening,an administration spokesman, issued a press statement distancing the administration from Freeh's testimony in an effort to deflect some of the resulting fallout. > The on-line NYT's claim today that everyone except the > administration is opposed to its crypto policy is daring > hyperbole. What's your take on that? > > http://jya.com/crypto-tops.htm > >

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standardizing encryption
by Nobuki Nakatuji 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Do you think do to use standardizing encryption? I think It isn't too very good. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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Re: netscape's response
by Pat Farrell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Jeff Weinstein" <jsw(a)netscape.com> writes: > The issue is that any statement that only mentions the 1 minute figure > is only stating part of the story, just as a statement giving a figure > of several hours is only mentioning a part of the story. All of the > news articles I've seen (not an exhaustive sample) have only mentioned > the 1 minute number, which only really effects a relatively small > number of our customers. The Washington Post ran an article today in the Business section. Its byline said Elizabeth Corcoran. It refered to the four hour attack figure. It appeared to be mostly a rewrite of the Netscape press release -- nearly no quotes, no quoted local sources (TIS, Denning, etc.) I expect that many papers that are far from Silicon Valley will print it with a similar spin. Pat Pat Farrell Grad Student http://www.isse.gmu.edu/students/pfarrell Info. Systems & Software Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA PGP key available on homepage #include <standard.disclaimer>

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