December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Crypto Rules Report
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thanks to MH, The report is available by anon ftp from ftp.wimsey.com in /pub/crypto/Doc/crypto_policy_report.12.95 or from a WWW browser via URL: ftp://ftp.wimsey.com/pub/crypto/Doc/crypto_policy_report.12.95

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Re: Mixmaster On A $20 Floppy?
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On small boxes, John Dvorak in Jan 23 PC Mag: "Other Things of Interest Dept: Virtual I-0, the Seattle company that brings you those nifty 3-D LCD eye-glasses, was showing [at Comdex] a complete hard disk-based computer the size of a beta video cassette. The idea was that you could plug in a keyboard and the video headset and finally have that computer-without-a-screen concept that we've been promised. Perfect for someone wanting genuine privacy, although I think once we start seeing a plane load of people all wearing virtual reality headsets, the world becomes a little creepier. Most Interesting Rumor Dept: Supposedly, Microsoft is quietly wooing Hitachi and has secretly ported Windows 95 to the Hitachi 32-bit RISC processor. It hopes to have Casio build and market a small RISC computer about half the size of the Newton in an attempt to open up the market for those little hand-held, do-all gizmos that seem to be attracting a lot of attention in Japan. This is being developed by the same group who did the Timex/Microsoft watch, I'm told. When I pressed on whether this will really be Windows 95 or Windows NT with a Windows 95 shell, I was told it will be plain-vanilla Windows 95 stripped down to fit on a smaller platform. If Microsoft ports plain Windows 95 to other chips, this will not sit well with Intel. Maybe this thing is the wallet computer that Gates keeps mumbling about in his more recent speeches."

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ssn
by belize＠ix.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Send info on ssn# belize(a)ix.netcom.com

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Re: \"Concryption\"
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:13 PM 1/4/96 -0800, Bill Frantz wrote: > What I interpreted their press release as saying was that they had patented > the idea of doing the compression AND the encryption in one pass over the > data. If they got a patent for this, then the patent office has totally > lost the concept that in order to be patentable, the idea must not be > obvious to those well versed in the state of the art. All bureaucracies act in to extend their power, regardless of the laws and the official purpose of the bureacracy. We will soon have a patent on bicycles. > > >----------------------------------------------------------------- >Bill Frantz Periwinkle -- Computer Consulting >(408)356-8506 16345 Englewood Ave. >frantz(a)netcom.com Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: please stop the Mitnick stuff
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Perry's askance leads me to propose stealing Littman's book. It's as techno-thrilling as cypherpunks in describing the melodrama of unexpected human/technology malfunctions. True, only a bit of bare crypto in it, with Kevin advising Littman to use PGP so his Well mail could not be read -- as Kevin's e-mail to Littman was by Shimomura and Markoff. Littman says that was how Markoff learned of Kevin's and Littman's exchanges and why Markoff started hustling Littman for leads on Kevin to feed the trackers. Also, crypto-related: The fact that Shimomura's supposedly secret files were not protected by encryption or other security is what causes Littman and others to think there was a sting (perhaps with TLA help) rather than foolish vanity of the security wizard. Best, the book provides Clancy-like fun in deciphering the question of why humans abuse technology to mask their own frailty.

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Re: What to do about Germany
by Mark Neely 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

jirib(a)cs.monash.edu.au wrote: <discussion about german law snipped>7 >What if the laws actually contradict each other? > >Eg if there was a country that forbade women speaking on the net, and >another that forbade distinctions between men and women to be made? I guess one thing politicians should consider _real_ hard is whether they want the Internet to be ruled by the lowest common denominator (so to speak). If the US (or Germany etc.) wants to impose it's version of morality/PC then it really doesn't have any grounds to complain when other countries decided to do so. Mark ___ Mark Neely - accessnt(a)ozemail.com.au Lawyer, Professional Cynic Author: Australian Beginner's Guide to the Internet Work-in-Progress: Australian Business Guide to the Internet WWW: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~accessnt

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Re: Mixmaster On A $20 Floppy? (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > From: John Young <jya(a)pipeline.com> > Date: Sat, 6 Jan 1996 20:27:02 -0500 > Subject: Re: Mixmaster On A $20 Floppy? > > "Other Things of Interest Dept: Virtual I-0, the Seattle > company that brings you those nifty 3-D LCD eye-glasses, > was showing [at Comdex] a complete hard disk-based computer > the size of a beta video cassette. The idea was that you > could plug in a keyboard and the video headset and finally > have that computer-without-a-screen concept that we've been > promised. Perfect for someone wanting genuine privacy, > although I think once we start seeing a plane load of > people all wearing virtual reality headsets, the world > becomes a little creepier. Anyone looking for small 486 compatible pc's should check out the system that scuba divers have been using for the last couple of years. They strap on your tank, have a cable with one-hand keyboard (usually hangs on the R. since your console is on the L.) that emulates a standard 101 and uses a small display that hangs off your mask. They run standard windows apps and are not too expensive. Check your local dive shop for specifics.

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Re: please stop the Mitnick stuff
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 21:16 1/6/96, John Young wrote: > Also, crypto-related: The fact that Shimomura's supposedly > secret files were not protected by encryption or other > security is what causes Littman and others to think there > was a sting (perhaps with TLA help) rather than foolish > vanity of the security wizard. [I do belive this has CP relevance.] Of course it was a set-up. Mitnick got into Shimomura's computer by impersonating the IP address of one of Shimomura's machines. The router should have never let packets in from outside that have an IP address that is supposed to be inside. That a 'security expert' would overlook such a blatant and well publicized hole in his _own_ router is inconceivable. Shimomura was trying to get someone to break into his system. If the bait was specifically for Mitnick, we may never know. -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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Re: please stop the Mitnick stuff
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 3:45 AM 1/7/96, Lucky Green wrote: >Of course it was a set-up. Mitnick got into Shimomura's computer by >impersonating the IP address of one of Shimomura's machines. The router >should have never let packets in from outside that have an IP address that >is supposed to be inside. That a 'security expert' would overlook such a >blatant and well publicized hole in his _own_ router is inconceivable. > >Shimomura was trying to get someone to break into his system. If the bait >was specifically for Mitnick, we may never know. I've met Shimomura several times, and I don't think he was trying to get someone to break into his system. I tend strongly to believe his basic story, that he found someone entering his system. (Shimomura as I have met him is not some kind of Junior G-Man, intent on catching minor criminals. He's about as counter-cultural as any of us. Thus, his account that he found Mitnick breaking into his systems and stealing things as a taunt rings more true than some view that he is an FBI or BATF narc in training.) As to whether a security expert should have seen this coming, there are a couple of factors at work. First, being a security expert/consultant doesn't mean one has perfect security oneself (the shoes of the cobbler, etc.). Second, new attack modes are often involved. Third, Shimomura _did_ ultimately find the attack. As to what really happened with Shimomura, Markoff, Mitnick, and the Feds, I have no idea. The Littman account is one side of the story. The Shimomura-Markoff book will be another. The various movies and other deals will further complicate the picture. (There are some mighty strange characters involved. Katie Hafner, former wife of Markoff, wrote a piece for one of various weeklies or monthlies (maybe "Esquire," as I recall) about a former prostitute living in a trailer in Nevada--do former prostitutes ever live anywhere else?--who was badmouthing Shimomura and praising her buddy Mitnick...bizarre stuff...maybe it's make it into the movie. I understand that Christian Slater has agreed to play Mitnick, John Lone will play Shimomura, and Richard Drefuss will get the role of Markoff.) Knowing Markoff, Shimomura, and (vaguely) Menapace, and not knowing either Littman or Mitnick, I am somewhat biased toward the M-S-M view of things. While I don't think news of Mitnick is utterly alien to our group, I think people need to be discriminating in ascribing pro-Mitnick views to the Cypherpunks, at least as individuals. Supporting Mitnick just because he is a "hacker" or a "cracker" or a "cyber-outlaw" is wrong-headed. Also, I'm not persuaded that the Feds used blatantly illegal search and seizure tactics to arrest Mitnick. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Domains, InterNIC, and PGP (and physical locations of hosts, to boot)
by Michael Handler 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The InterNIC (the company responsible for registering .COM, .EDU, .ORG, and .NET domains) has had a great deal of trouble lately, with people submitting malicious CHANGE DOMAIN requests (change admin or technical contact, point root nameserver entries to rival ISPs, etc). In response, the InterNIC has created "the Guardian project" which delineates who has access and authorization to change data in the InterNIC's record. Not much new cpunk relevance, but much of what has been discussed here is very applicable to this project (digital signatures, common access to databases, etc). I'm not completely pleased with their implementation, but it will do for now. They _do_ support PGP as an access controller within the Guardian project, and they have purchased a copy from ViaCrypt for this purpose. A good thing, says I. Check out their proposal: ftp://rs.internic.net/policy/internic/internic-gen-1.txt ObGPS/cpunk/physical-location-of-machines: A recent IETF proposal would create a new DNS record that encoded the physical location of a machine, encoded in latitude and longitude. This would solve the problem MIT has had in distributing PGP, i.e. where exactly is unix5.netaxs.com? However, there's nothing to stop you from adding records that say your machines are at the latitude and longitude of, say, Fort Meade... ;-) ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1876.txt Again, I'm not too sure of the viability of this proposal. Not on effectiveness of proving true location -- it is more geared toward "visual 3-D packet tracing" -- but simply because I have _no_ fricking idea where our machines are (in terms of lat and long) to any degree of accuracy. ("They're somewhere in PA." Brilliant, you can find that out via WHOIS.) The document suggests using GPS to locate your true location, but I'll be damned if my boss is going to spend $1,000 just so I can have more DNS entries to maintain... -- Michael Handler <grendel(a)netaxs.com> <URL:http://www.netaxs.com/~grendel> "Hours of frustration punctuated by moments of sheer terror."

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