December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

More to be paranoid about...
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Take a look at: http://www.spiritone.com/cgi-bin/plates Feed it an Oregon licence plate number and it will feed you back all sorts of info about the person/victim. The uses for such things are only limited by an evil imagination... --- Alan Olsen -- alano(a)teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ "We had to destroy the Internet in order to save it." - Sen. Exon "Microsoft -- Nothing but NT promises."

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WARNING: SecureDrive & PartitionMagic
by Geoffrey C. Grabow 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It seems rather obvious now, but since I learned the hard way, I figured that I'd save the rest of you from a painful experience. I have one HD of 1.2gb. I created a 50mb partition at the end of the drive using PM and encrypted it with SD14b. I ran out of room on the secured partition and wanted to enlarge it. I used PM to shrink the primary partition a little, and to enlarge the secured partition. When I shrank the primary, the free space on the drive appeared between the two partitions. To enlarge the secondary, I moved it to the free space, then enlarged it on the right. This was BAD! PM did its thing, but no matter what I did after that, I couldn't get the secured partition to a usable state. I ended up formatting the secured partition to recover. After some playing, it seems that PM tries to "re-align" the data on the 2nd partition when you move left. That's where things get screwed up. I tested a few combinations, and found that everything works fine if you decrypt the partition before moving/resizing, then re-encrypt after. Just some friendly info. G.C.G. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Geoffrey C. Grabow | Great people talk about ideas. | | Oyster Bay, New York | Average people talk about things. | | gcg(a)pb.net | Small people talk about people. | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | PGP 2.6.2 public key available at http://www.pb.net/~wizard | | and on a plethora of key servers around the world. | | Fingerprint = A6 7B 67 D7 E9 96 37 7D E7 16 BD 5E F4 5A B2 E4 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | That which does not kill us, makes us stranger. - Trevor Goodchild | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: Stop the presses -- Anti-terrorism bill not that bad
by Allen Robinson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Rather than resorting to such extreme measures as attacking the interior of the existing barrel with a file or nitric acid, simply replace the barrel with a new one (normally not prohibitively expensive), then put a few hundred rounds through the new barrel at the range so that it appears used when/if examined. Naturally this does not address the possibility of unique marks made on the primer by the firing pin, on the cartridge by the ejector, etc. AR #%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#% "In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free." - Edward Gibbon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Allen Robinson.........................sebago(a)earthlink.net PGP public key FE4A0A75 fingerprint 170FBC1F7609B76F 967F1CC8FCA7A41F

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Re: "And who shall guard the guardians?"
by Arun Mehta 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:20 03/08/96 -0700, Martin Minow wrote: >Does the English Only bill conflict with the UN Declaration of >Human Rights (Article 2): .. >For that matter, does the escrowed crypto legislation conflict with >Article 12: .. >My understanding is that the United States is (finally) a signatory >to the Declaration. A couple of points need clarification: A Declaration isn't, in international law, binding. A covenant is, provided you haven't just signed it but also ratified it (i.e. made it a part of national law). So the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is basically just a statement of good intentions. Much more important, legally, is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), http://www.pluggedin.org/amnesty/rights4.htm which the US *ratified* not so long ago. Says the ICCPR Article 17 1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation. 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 19 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. 3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; (b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals. ________ Key, in Article 17, is the term "unlawful." With this escape clause, the US gov has no problems, long as they make appropriate laws. Article 19 is more interesting, because restrictions must be shown to be necessary... Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta(a)cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta(a)cerfnet.com for public key

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SAC_ard
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

August ScaAm has longish article on smart-cards by Carol Fancher, a Motorola engineer and developer of the smart- card market. ----- http://jya.com/sacard.txt (26 kb) Lynx: http://pwp.usa.pipeline.com/~jya/sacard.txt Via www.anonymizer.com SAC_ard

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Re: Stop the presses -- Anti-terrorism bill not that bad
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:37 AM 8/4/96 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote: > >On Sun, 4 Aug 1996, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM asked: > >> Is there truth to the rumor that poking a file inside the barrel >> will alter the marks on future test firings? >I have heard, but have not evidence for, is that with use, these >characteristic markings change. As a result, putting 200-300 >rounds through a gun at the range is enough to alter its >identifiable barrel markings sufficiently to defeat forensic >matching. Don't know, just heard, but it sounds reasonable. Heard same thing here; it's almost certainly true. It would help if the gun got a thorough cleaning as well: You can "de-copper" a barrel by plugging one end, and filling the barrel with an ammonia solution. (this is available as a commercial product for guns, at wildly-inflated prices. Ordinary ammonia solution works just as well, cheap.) This dissolves the copper left from the passage of copper/brass-jacketed bullets. You can tell it's working: The copper forms the distinctive blue cupramine ion in solution. BTW, all this changes is the microstructure of the markings: The number of riflings and the twist of the riflings are, obviously, unchanged. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: Stop the presses -- Anti-terrorism bill not that bad
by David.K.Merriman.-.webmaster＠toad.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com, sandfort(a)crl.com Date: Sun Aug 04 13:07:42 1996 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SANDY SANDFORT > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > > C'punks, > > On Sun, 4 Aug 1996, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM asked: > > > Is there truth to the rumor that poking a file inside the barrel > > will alter the marks on future test firings? > > I don't know the answer to this one, but my best guess is, > A) yes, but not enough to alter the test firing, and > B) whether or not it did, it would be strong evidence of an > attempt to screw up such a test. There are few (no?) legitimate > reasons to harm one's gun thusly. > > I have heard, but have not evidence for, is that with use, these > characteristic markings change. As a result, putting 200-300 > rounds through a gun at the range is enough to alter its > identifiable barrel markings sufficiently to defeat forensic > matching. Don't know, just heard, but it sounds reasonable. > > Considering the relative strengths/hardnesses of the metals involved (high-grade steel for barrel, lead and/or copper for projectile), I'd suspect that it would take more than 200-300 rounds to have any significant impact on the barrel rifling. This, of course, is for 'normal' weapons and ammo; using diamond projectiles in a saturday night special voids all warranties, express or implied :-) my ha'penny's worth. Dave Merriman PS - Been using Pronto Secure beta software the last couple of days for email. It's not Eudora, but *very* convenient for signing/encrypting. A couple of bugs/gotchas, but nothing I'd expect to see in for-sale version. I'm actually mildly impressed with how smoothly and transparently it works with PGP on a DOS/Win95 system. PGP Email welcome and encouraged. Visit my web site at http://www.shellback.com/p/merriman for my PGP key and fingerprint -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMgQwKsVrTvyYOzAZAQGacAP+L8CfV6aFmuAsJYTM5ttHqWu6B49vL2cx Ejnxwp2bRcM7winGALg+LQwwqjx1eNd1gKLsjrIRdh4oQgCBobfdEMU2poJvceTD shfPhvZqDWQQgZf0B1OkqzporGprdKM6V/rEbguzDMGt1SaUX585dZaYq5/CtyOO b+NFH+WSemc= =VWgA -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Internet telephony (was Freeh slimes again)
by Arun Mehta 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 13:11 02/08/96 -0700, Lucky Green wrote: >The sound quality really isn't there, unless you have a fast machine or a >fat pipe. In addition, the vast majority of Intel based computers lack the >crucial (for user acceptance) full-duplex soundcard. Add to that the >physical impossibility of getting decent real time services over a >non-isochronous network, such as the Internet, I'net phones just don't >provide suffcient speech quality for business/serious personal use even >without the added overhead of crypto. What I'd like to see -- for which technology is all in place, and none of the shortcomings you mention apply -- is voice mail that functions seamlessly between people who only have a phone, and those with Internet connections on computers with a sound card. Many companies practically use voice mail as an alternative to long phone conversations. This might also help the Internet spread, because with a connection you would be able to save on long-distance charges -- and strong crypto could be used. I'm sure the software for this exists too -- the ISPs only have to run it on their servers. It would be nice, though, if the ISPs had a facility that when there is a voice message for you, it either phones or pages you... Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta(a)cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta(a)cerfnet.com for public key

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ANNOUNCE:- RSAEURO Version 1.03
by RSAEURO General 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

ANNOUNCE:- RSAEURO Version 1.03 =============================== What is RSAEURO? ---------------- RSAEURO is a cryptographic toolkit providing various functions for the use of digital signatures, data encryption and supporting areas (PEM encoding, random number generation etc). To aid compatibility with existing software, RSAEURO is call-compatible with RSADSI's "RSAREF(tm)" toolkit. RSAEURO allows non-US residents to make use of much of the cryptographic software previously only (legally) available in the US. RSAEURO contains support for the following: * RSA encryption, decryption and key generation. Compatible with 'RSA Laboratories' Public-Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) #1. * Generation and verification of message digests using MD2, MD4, MD5 and SHS (SHS currently not implemented in higher-level functions to maintain compatibility with PKCS). * DES encryption and decryption using CBC (1, 2 or 3 keys using Encrypt-Decrypt-Encrypt) and DESX(tm), RSADSI's secure DES enhancement. * Diffie-Hellman key agreement as defined in PKCS #3. * PEM support support for RFC 1421 encoded ASCII data with all main functions. * Key routines implemented in assembler for speed (80386 and 680x0 currently supported). International Use ----------------- IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please do not distribute or use this software in the US it is 'illegal' to use this toolkit in the US, as RSADSI and Cylink hold patents relating to public-key cryptography. If you are a US resident, please use the RSAREF toolkit instead. On The Web ---------- RSAEURO can now be found at http://www.sourcery.demon.co.uk/rsaann.html Ftp Sites --------- RSAEURO can be found at ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/misc Author Details -------------- With comments and suggestions, please address them to Stephen Kapp, at 'rsaeuro(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RSAEURO: rsaeuro(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk RSAEURO Bugs: rsaeuro-bugs(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 468 286034 Http: http://www.sourcery.demon.co.uk/rsaann.html RSAEURO - Copyright (c) J.S.A.Kapp 1994-1996. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Digital Telephony costs $2
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:09 PM 8/3/96 -0800, Jim Bell talked about mixing telephony, voice compression, and modem functions on future modems, and how doing a 28.8 modem uses up most of a DSP chip, while 2400bps voice coding and decoding also each use up about half, making full duplex tough. One advantage of higher-speed modems is that you can get away with 16kbps ADPCM coding, which is dirt-simple computationally; your 386 probably has enough horsepower to do it, though a PC's interrupt structure may make it tough to shove all the data in and out in real time. You still need a sound card that'll do the A/D and D/A conversion simultaneously if you want full-duplex; that wasn't part of the original market vision of Soundblaster, so vanilla sound cards don't all do it. It also has the advantage that the data is being moved through your CPU, so encryption is an easy add-on, rather than having one combined modem/voiceblaster card which doesn't have any hooks for crypto or other processing. >Sure, it may not be necessary to compress voice audio all the way down to >2400 bps, since the current modem standards allow 28.8kbps and beyond, but I >suggest that decreasing net traffic by a factor of 12 (28.8k to 2.4k) is a >desirable goal. One problem is that tighter compression methods are far more sensitive to network latency than crude ones, and need to process more milliseconds of speech before putting out a packet on the net (e.g. a 64-byte tinygram is 200ms of speech at 2400bps, vs. 32ms at 16kbps.) For modem-to-modem communications, this is no problem; for Internet random delays it is. Also, another big difficulty with full-duplex transmission is that you need echo-cancelling, especially with high-latency circuits. Half-duplex is annoying, but it doesn't echo, and it's more tolerant of delay because you're not expecting it to have natural timing... >The reason I think a system I've described has a future is that modem >manufacturers have a PROBLEM. Their problem is that they've pretty much run >out of room to improve the bit-pushing through a 3 KHz bandwidth. Given that the "3KHz" is almost universally transmitted over 64kbps digital channels, there's really no point in pushing past 33.6 with analog-based coding; better to just do ISDN. (You can still do analog-only calls if you're on an analog central office talking to someone else at the same exchange, but it'd be a flat-rate local call anyway. If there's anybody still using analog trunks between offices, it's some mom&pop rural telco, and you can't get 28.8 on barbed-wire...) # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Defuse Authority!

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