December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: why compression doesn't perfectly even out entropy
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I suspect, that all of us, Perry included, will react the same way if we find that our one time pads read like "Hamlet", or equally likely, "The Comedy of Errors". That is, we will tear the source of the pad apart to find out why it isn't working. If we find that it IS working correctly, we will wish we had used that one truly magic[*] moment to buy tickets in as many lotteries as possible. * Probability much less than 10 ** -50 in the life of the universe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Frantz | The CDA means | Periwinkle -- Computer Consulting (408)356-8506 | lost jobs and | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | dead teenagers | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

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Announce: new Microsoft CryptoAPI mailing list
by Microsoft Internet Announcements 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CryptoAPI on listadmin(a)lists.msn.com CryptoAPI is a mailing list (discussion list) for Microsoft Cryptographic API (CryptoAPI), which provides services that enable application developers to add cryptography to their Win32 applications. For more information about CryptoAPI, see <http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/>. You can subscribe to the regular mailing list or a digest version. To subscribe, send e-mail to listAdmin(a)lists.msn.com with the following text in the message body (not subject line): subscribe CryptoAPI your(a)email.address or digest CryptoAPI your(a)email.address where <your(a)mail.address is your actual e-mail address. To unsubscribe, send e-mail to listAdmin(a)lists.msn.com with the following text in the message body (not subject line): unsubscribe CryptoAPI your(a)email.address To send a message to the subscribers of the list, send e-mail to CryptoAPI(a)lists.msn.com.

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[Explanation] Re: "STOP SENDING ME THIS SHIT"
by Patrick May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Perry E. Metzger writes: > "Adam Pingitore" writes: > > I've got news for you all. This 'jerk' was spammed by some > > ass out there. I've canceled by subscription so would you > > all quit whining already. Sorry if I sent you people > > inappropriate mail, but I just wasn't very happy getting > > 2000 e-mails a day. [ Mr. Metzger's amusing flame elided. ] I run a small mailing list that has been subject to problems similar to the recent spate of "unscrives". Apparently there is a list of mailing lists circulating the warez boards along with scripts for spoofing subscription requests. Over the past few months my list has periodically received batches of bogus subscriptions for accounts ranging from Fidonet sysops to Al Gore to random AOL users. Email from other mailing list admins indicates that these same accounts, perhaps two hundred in all, were subscribed to several hundred lists. Crypto relevance: This attack will be eliminated when more mail agents support public key crypto and the mailing list software can be modified to check signatures on subscription requests. pjm -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.4, an Emacs/PGP interface iQEVAwUBMXXU22AA81GB0e9dAQEjowf9EpmBXt3smBCduo3QF6/FLRRsC7NX65Ew 7jDI48XO9BWCOTXwwsFgibGgvefjtRKosB77SgeOy0q8QbukWjO8SXzqmQBSH3hK MBbP6Z1HVlP29KkyVpuWf9RAdsFMYGRuUjrFBNsc+ohpztW75MXvBkqHX7jGEk9K fpmTfQv8TRyygjNR8bqiAXGWMP3OWq/gIO27ydCDG8+7czzqcCX6/JiGsYdH8ns5 sBAPe5oJsm15at4i8khNtpNbf/+JTm6cS+TTAhQLaBTxmdxUDAa/zQlxeevSsrfl sBo9fRF+IgU4v9Zw7BSDcc4E3FKCjpZ39PXLfW+QPH7WBPu9hRjQVw== =4GcH -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Welcome to Express!
by Express 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Guest: Merci! and thank you for registering. At Express Online, your user name is "cypherpu" and your password is "cypherpunks". To enter the world of Express, use this user name/password combination. Please save this record for future reference, so you can always download the latest news from Express on fashion, shopping, travel, music and more.

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Re: (Fwd) RE: Noise Sphere in Java
by Andrew Loewenstern 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Deranged Mutant writes: > Noise spheres will show certain correlations in the data. It > doesn't mean that the RNG is crypto-usable if it looks good. > But if it looks bad then you know to be suspicious.... "Statistical tests cannot find good (P)RNG's, only bad ones." This has been said before in various ways on the list, but it is worth repeating... andrew

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RE: math patents
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:54 PM 4/18/96 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote:

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Announce: new Microsoft CryptoAPI mailing list (fwd)
by Rich Graves 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

You read it here first. Or is this not really new? I'm approving three or four more MS announcements to comp.os.ms-windows.announce now. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 16:15:06 -0700 From: Microsoft Internet Announcements <inetannc(a)microsoft.com> To: "'Comp.os.ms-windows.announce Moderator'" <win-announce(a)metrics.com> Cc: Microsoft Internet Announcements <inetannc(a)microsoft.com> Subject: Announce: new Microsoft CryptoAPI mailing list CryptoAPI on listadmin(a)lists.msn.com CryptoAPI is a mailing list (discussion list) for Microsoft Cryptographic API (CryptoAPI), which provides services that enable application developers to add cryptography to their Win32 applications. For more information about CryptoAPI, see <http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/>. You can subscribe to the regular mailing list or a digest version. To subscribe, send e-mail to listAdmin(a)lists.msn.com with the following text in the message body (not subject line): subscribe CryptoAPI your(a)email.address or digest CryptoAPI your(a)email.address where <your(a)mail.address is your actual e-mail address. To unsubscribe, send e-mail to listAdmin(a)lists.msn.com with the following text in the message body (not subject line): unsubscribe CryptoAPI your(a)email.address To send a message to the subscribers of the list, send e-mail to CryptoAPI(a)lists.msn.com.

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No Subject
by steven farr 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

unscribe sfarr.SAF(a)worldnet.com Steven A Farr

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plaugue of unsubscribes
by Alex Strasheim 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've started sending mail to postmasters when I get one of those "take me off your list!" messages. I explain that the user is on a high volume list, that he wants off, but that he seems unwilling or unable to do it himself. He's harassing the members of the list, who don't have the ability to remove him, and he doesn't seem to be reading our replies to his "take me off!" messages, which tell him how to solve his problem. Then I ask the postmaster to explain how to get off the list to the user. These guys are abusing email, and since they don't read our mail, the postmaster is the only solution. Perhaps if a few of us start writing to the postmasters, they'll help the user figure out how to get off.

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Re: why compression doesn't perfectly even out entropy
by JonWienke＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Is it possible to find a percentage of the key space to eliminate that >will optimize security assuming that the attacker will try the easy >stuff first (and is it possible to quantify "easy stuff")? If you eliminate all repeating byte sequences, such as 00 00 or 7F 7F, you will reduce your possible entropy by .07058% (7.99435 bits per byte), and eliminate the (astronomically remote) possibility of Hamlet or some other English text popping out of your RNG/PRNG. As long as your key is long enough to withstand this slight entropy reduction, you are still OK.

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