December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: trusting the processor chip
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:14 PM 4/25/96 -0700, Paul S. Penrod wrote: > > >On Thu, 25 Apr 1996, jim bell wrote: >? >> >> This analysis seems to assume that the entire production run of a standard >> product is subverted. More likely,I think, an organization like the NSA >> might build a pin-compatible version of an existing, commonly-used product >> like a keyboard encoder chip that is designed to transmit (by RFI signals) >> the contents of what is typed at the keyboard. It's simple, it's hard to >> detect, and it gets what they want. >> >> Jim Bell >> jimbell(a)pacifier.com >> >> > >This is getting more rediculous by the minute. If NSA wanted to find out >what you were typing, they dont need to subvert microcode or chips on the >board. Unless you have a tempest device - all they have to do is pull RF >from your vicinty and they can *see* just exactly what your typing. You don't understand the subject, do you? While it is possible to determine a great deal of information from RF, there is an enormous difference in effort between analyzing the output of an uncooperative, inadvertent transmitter and a "cooperative" one. The most commonly understood source of RF signals come from CRT's, called Van Eck radiation. But passwords don't generally appear on CRT displays, so that is of limited value. I don't doubt that standard keyboards produce RF that might be analyzed, their output is probably not particularly easy to detect against a background of processor RFI. (It's short and low-amplitude) Far easier to analyze would be a chip that loudly and longly transmitted the current typed keyboard character, perhaps in some sort of serial binary code, possibly by driving the keyboard scanning lines according to a pre-arranged pattern designed to emit RF at a particular rate based on the clock oscillator. This transmission would be just about undetectable to anyone who didn't have a whole raft of sophisticated detection equipment. However, to those who know what to look for, it would probably be relatively easy to see. One particularly important reason for using such a chip, which you entirely overlooked, is that many computers are at sites with more than one, and in some cases many more than one computer. Their signals will mix, obviously, and will be very hard to separate. If it is possible to replace a keyboard chip with a Trojan Horse, the one desired target will be far more identifiable. Jim "He only talks about one thing" Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Is the public involved in the crypto policy debate?
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:50 AM 4/26/96, Alex Strasheim wrote: >> In the United States and Europe, encryption policy is formed by a mix >> of interests. Advocates of business, national security agencies, and >> more recently the police -- all play a large role in the policy >> debate. > >Someone's conspicuously absent here: us. To be fair to Jim Bell, he made the same point a day or so ago. I don't necessarily sift Stewart Baker's words for hermeneutical signs of what the government is planning. He might just as well have included "public opinion" in his list, and nothing would change. And I'm quite sure that Baker, Denning, Nelson, et. al. are acutely aware of the role of the "public" in these matters. The "public" as made manifest in newspaper articles critical of Clipper, in "Wired" features against key escrow and in favor of Cypherpunks-type themes, and so on. While the "vocal minority" that rails against Administration policy in sci.crypt, talk.politics.crypto, comp.org.eff.talk, this list, etc., are not the public at large, we are certainly a part of the public. I think the rejection of Clipper by "the public" is proof of this. (If we were leftist theoreticians, we could debate for years or even decades whether our movement is truly a mass movement, or just a vanguard movement, etc.) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: PGP + Pegasus Mail
by Jim Byrd 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:50 PM 4/26/96 +0000, G Ackerman wrote: >Hi, > >I want to know if it is possible - and how to use PGP from within >Pmail. (I want to use the Encrypt option in PMail with a method PGP >- is it possible and what must I do to get it to work) (including Digital >Signature, etc) I don't know the answer to this question, but there is a pgp-users mailing list where someone might know. Here's how to subscribe: "To subscribe to the list, simply e-mail "pgp-users-request @rivertown.net" with the word "subscribe" in the subject **NOT THE BODY** of the e-mail and you will be automatically subscribed to the list. To subscribe to the digest, sent your request to "pgp-users-d- request(a)rivertown.net" and your subscription will be likewise processed. Depending on list volume, digests will go out from once a day to several times a day."

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Bytes
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

May BYTE reports on topics seen here: Peter Wayner's deft assay of "Entrust," Nortel's E-mail encryption program. "An easy tool for securing E-mail unlocks the door to managing public and private keys." Michael Shoffner on "Java's Busting Out All Over." Andrew Davis on "A Digital Signal Processor Sampler." Rex Baldazo on the Be Operating System -- multiprocessing, multi-threaded and object-oriented -- "buzzword-compliant." Doug Anderson on the high-speed Fibre Channel network system. Among several other fine pieces.

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RE: Mindshare and Java
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 20:06 4/25/96, James Childers wrote: >> > As cool as many of the people on the Java team are, though, I am dubious >> > that Java is going to live up to the hype. > >Same here. If someone writes a secure electronic-wallet type system >with Java, then I'll be impressed. Until then, all I've seen >implemented is kEWL text graphics. Well, Sun just did unveil their Java Wallet. Specs are hazy at this time, but the slides I saw at the FSTC conference last week looked promising. Disclaimer: My opinions are my own, not those of my employer. -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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Mondex
by Michael Froomkin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Seth Godin, Presenting Digital Cash (1995) reports on p. 94: Mondex "spent four years developing state-of-the-art protection against reverse engineering by finding the world's best reverse engineers and give them [sic] a shot a cracking the chip in their smart cards." ==details anyone? Elsewhere, in the interview in the Appendix, Tim Jones admits they are currently vulnerable to a MITM attack, but promises a fix real soon. <> In other Mondex news, the American Banker newspaper reports they are going to field test a card in a British university; it will do meals, copies, etc... Any other Mondex news around? A. Michael Froomkin | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) Associate Professor of Law | U. Miami School of Law | froomkin(a)law.miami.edu P.O. Box 248087 | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's warm here.

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by 68864320＠canma.dyn.ml.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Re: [NOISE] What is "laser material"?
by stevenw＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>At 4:05 AM 4/26/96, Bill Frantz wrote: > >>> Moreover, a laser shot costs $3,000, compared to several >>> million dollars for a missile. Army officials envision the >>> Nautilus would be beamed from a truck capable of firing 50 >>> shots before requiring more laser material. >> >>Does anyone have any idea what "more laser material" means? >> > >Sure, most high-power lasers like this are chemical lasers, consuming >reactive materials. > >(This is not the same as "gas lasers," a la the early CO2 lasers. And of >course ruby and Nd-YAG lasers are not what is meant here, either.) > >P.S. I don't place much faith in laser weaponry. Some obvious >countermeasures are: spin the projectile to minimize heating of any one >spot, determine the wavelength of the planned laser and coat the projectile >with a suitably reflective coating, apply ablative layers that can burn off >without harm, etc. Such countermeasures are of course well-known to the >laser builders, but they still make the game much tougher. All a matter of >attack and counter-attack, and the costs of each. Like castles and siege >engines. Or like crypto. > >--Tim May Other problems include tracking the missile accurately for the one or two seconds (that's likely to be a mile or so if it's anything like a Scud) and handling the dispersive effect of the air temperature gradient caused by the laser itself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Weller | Weller's three steps to Greatness: | 1. See what others cannot | 2. Think what others cannot stevenw(a)best.com | 3. Express what others cannot

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Private Idaho and MS Exchange
by Ben Wern 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Has anyone has any experience with / tried to use Private Idaho with MS Exchange? I select the settings for Exchange, but it doesn't seem to transfer the message over properly. Ben Wern

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by 05551984＠turboma.dyn.ml.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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