December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Timed-release crypto - Proactive security plug
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 7:03 PM 11/13/95, Amir Herzberg wrote: >A small note/plug: the schemes by Tim and Michael are based on `long lived' >secret sharing, i.e. you trust each share of your secret to a server for a >really long time. Some people may be concerned that such a long time would >allow an attacker to break into most servers and reconstruct the secret (key). > >A solution to this is proactive secret sharing, as described in [HJKY95]. >In this protocol, the secret shares are periodically refreshed (i.e. new >shares are computed distributively and then the old shares are erased). >In this manner, an attacker has to break into most servers during the same >period; shares from one period are worthless on the next period. > >Best, Amir > >[HJKY95] `Proactive Secret Sharing', A. Herzberg, H. Krawczyk, S. Jareski, >M. Yung, Crypto 95. I also was sent a copy of Ron Rivest's latest paper on timed-release crypto (also available at the URL http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/) These noted cryptographers, Amir, Ron, and others, are of course doing "real cryptography" on this timed-released stuff....my speculations in '93 and later are informal, rough considerations. There are dangers in using "common sense" in protocols like this, but, then, few of us have the time to explore things in enough detail. I just wanted to clarify things, though I suspect most of you know that many of my arguments (and those of others, too) are based on informal, bull session, sorts of foundations. This is often enough at a very early stage. No substitute for much more rigorous, published-paper-quality analyses, of course. >> --Tim May >> >> Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. > >How do you know that? :-) In the past, I have actually gotten warning letters from some of my Internet Service Providers saying that my views were inimical to their own views. One provider, who shall remain nameless, actually *turned off* my access to NetNews until I agreed to post a clarification that the views I was expressing were not his views! --Tim May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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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Q: Bookshop in Seattle
by Jonathon Fletcher 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Can someone point me towards a bookshop in Seattle that is likely to have the second edition of Applied Cyptography ? Sincerely, -Jon -- Jonathon Fletcher, j.fletcher(a)stirling.ac.uk

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Who needs time vaults anyway?
by Bryce 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I don't really understand the use for "can't be opened until Christmas" tricks. If you don't want anyone to see your info until Christmas then just don't give them a copy until then! If you want to prove that you have it but not let them see it until later then do timestamping of hashes, zero-knowledge proofs and so forth. Can anyone explain what use this theoretical "time-sensitive" crypto box would be good for? Regards, Bryce signatures follow "To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield." <a href="http://www-ugrad.cs.colorado.edu/~wilcoxb/Niche.html"> bryce(a)colorado.edu </a> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Auto-signed under Unix with 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.01 iQCVAwUBMKRNe/WZSllhfG25AQGXxAP9HuZU4tJZ92c4keUHbpSNjWcwyYhTOOWA Atz/Ej8y0Q6xAwRdr2ggqYc7tgWUGMjGZy0vIoET9W6ofkXXnyZzUIFACzXuS7IK 8xOV740ShvnX//5j8x1TMOJuykRNrs0+y8eZI8gDLQ5R1vEEbv7JkmsVVUgdZpau WMR6cG/9qu4= =v4q/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Register
by ahupp＠primenet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From: viking(a)pacifier.com (Robert East) >Date: Wed, 08 Mar 1995 22:46:45 -0800 >Subject: Register > >Register > >I'd like to sign up for email > >Bob I'd like to sign up for a clue Thanks! :) _____________________________________________________________ "We work in the dark We do what we can We give what we have Our doubt is our passion And our passion is our task The rest is the madness of art." --Henry James ___________________________________________________________

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"Not the views of my government"
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:16 PM 11/13/95, Brian Davis wrote: >And, being personally familiar on the Government's position on many of >the issues discussed here, I can certify that many/most/all of Tim's >views are not the views of the United States government! Indeed. Though many would argue that some (large) fraction of the views I and others express are right in line with the views of the Founders. Certainly Jefferson, Franklin, Henry, and others would be aghast at the modern interpretations of the Constitution. "What do you mean my inn may not allow smoking? Surely it is up to customers to freely choose to enter my inn or not enter my inn." "What do you mean I must hire fixed quotas of various ethnic and racial groups, no matter my preferences?" "How can the government command me to pay more for a worker than I wish to freely pay?" "Why are these things you call helicopters flying over my farm at all hours? if they are looking for "illegal crops," why is this their concern? Why do they subsidize tobacco production? Why is government paying farmers to grow some crops and not to grow other crops?" "What, pray tell, is this "key escrow" business? Do we no longer have protections against unlawful search? Are our papers and conversations now to be "escrowed" with the King's men? What country have I been brought back into?" "I am just an ignorant Founder; I know not the ways of your strange land." --Timothy Jefferson May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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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URL Version for ALPHA.C2.ORG FAQ
by Andre Bacard 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hello Remailer Users, Due to popular demand, I've created a URL version of my ALPHA.C2.ORG Remailer FAQ. Please link to this address: http://www.well.com/user/abacard/alpha.html See you in the future, Andre Bacard ====================================================================== abacard(a)well.com Bacard wrote "The Computer Privacy Stanford, California Handbook" [Intro by Mitchell Kapor]. http://www.well.com/user/abacard Published by Peachpit Press, (800) Enjoy your privacy... 283-9444, ISBN # 1-56609-171-3. =======================================================================

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Re: POTP Security
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

We ordered POTP based on the initial blurbs by Kahn and others. It took a while to get it, we talked to Elementrix HQ and got voicemail, stutters and recordings saying be patient. We read c'punks' slash and burns in the waiting period. When the boxes appeared, we read the extra-thin documents -- mostly PR gush -- reflected, decided to leave the red white and blue boxes At No Time Padded. Later a POTP distributer's rep called to ask how we like the product. We said, haven't tried it, because we learned a bit from reading cryptography lists. We wondered if he knew what was being said. He said, yes, we know, but they're all wrong, it's a fabulous product, totally secure. How you gonna prove it, we asked, to consumers like us who don't know who to believe? You know, we're reading more these days about hacks of cryptography and we want to know more than press releases. The people you're citing for endorsement aren't cryptographers. Yes, he said, that's what we're hearing, that's why I'm calling you, we looking for users to endorse the program while we're waiting for patent approvals, and trying to get the crypto authorities to sign NDA's. Sorry, we said, we're can't take a chance on your product. Call us back after you get the crypto fuck-authorities to hack at it in public.

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Re: unsuscribe all news groups [NOISE]
by liberty＠gate.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Someone wrote: > >I wish to unsuscribe to all news groups as I feel I should be on a different >planet. The planet of the clues. JMR -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Freedom isn't Freeh iQCVAwUBMKex/m1lp8bpvW01AQEvdAQAqjSV16hsO3mvGF71I1UkD9Ti/scw5slg yd51BAttoIb7qDMox7W6ofBAaRW9YrJuD2hoU+/FGJMecEDgsjGnZgcPO2joh4AF zJD4RU3a2VnEHzKRL+n9xQEtzn6Swo+rnDpRmJKtWso9jpUNXkasl9VTvVRzhf78 hweN2FR/nN4= =4bJ9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Regards, Jim Ray "...the politicians have been arguing over whether to increase the budget enormously or just hugely. The news media refer to this process as 'cutting' the budget." -- Dave Barry Visit my "Pretty Good Homepage" at http://shopmiami.com/prs/jimray/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PGP key Fingerprint 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 Key id. # E9BD6D35 (key on page & servers) <liberty(a)gate.net> IANAL ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Phil! email zldf(a)clark.net or http://www.netresponse.com/zldf _______________________________________________________________________

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Re: Photuris Primality verification needed
by Phil Karn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I don't know. Maybe the right thing to do is require conforming >implementations to support a large modulus but include recommended >smaller moduli. Then Alice can always force Bob to use the large >modulus but, if both agree, they can use something smaller from the >standard or even their own home-grown modulus. Thanks. That's pretty much what we are doing -- requiring a particular 1024-bit modulus but recommending several others as options. There's a 2048 bit optional modulus and may even be a 4096-bit option if I can find one in reasonable time. There was going to be a 512-bit optional modulus but the group has reacted so strongly to it that I'm willing to withdraw it. Phil

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Hakim Bey mention of gvm't crypto policy
by Jon Lasser 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is a very brief excerpt from a Hakim Bey piece available at http://www.t0.or.at/hakimbey/boundary.htm, dealing with... well... lots of stuff, actually. Including stuff talked about on the list. I recommend the entire piece highly. Jon -------------------------------------------- Knowledge itself can be seen as a kind of virus. On the psychological level this perception manifested recently as a panic about "computer viruses", and more generally about computer hacking -- boundary violations in cyberspace, so to speak. The government wants access to all computer cypher-codes in order to control the "Net", the InterNet, which might otherwise spread everywhere, transmitting secrets, even secrets about "abuse" and kiddy porn -- as if the Net were a disease, rather than simply a free exchange of information. America's immune system can't take "too much knowing" (or whatever T.S. Eliot's lame-ass phrase was); America must be "protected" from penetration by foreign chaos cabals of evil hackers (who might look just like you and me) -- borders must be imposed. ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jon Lasser <jlasser(a)rwd.goucher.edu> (410)494-3072 Visit my home page at http://www.goucher.edu/~jlasser/ You have a friend at the NSA: Big Brother is watching. Finger for PGP key.

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