December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Public report of the EU crack.
by hallam＠Etna.ai.mit.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From the Sunday times:- http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/Sunday-Times/stifgnnws01015.html?y… AMERICAN intelligence agents have hacked into the computers of the European parliament and European commission as part of an international espionage campaign aimed at stealing economic and political secrets, according to investigators, write Tim Kelsey and David Leppard. The European parliament has called in British communications experts to improve its security and to block further attempts by American govern ment agents to spy on its workings. Security officials at the parliament's Luxembourg offices say they have discovered several recent instances in which its communications system was compromised by American hacking. They have also found evidence that the Americans used information obtained from hacking to help them in negotiations last year on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt). Lord Plumb, leader of the British Tory MEPs in the European parliament, said he was shocked by the disclosure. "I will be taking this up directly with the American ambassador [to the European Union]," he said. The CIA has already been accused by the Japanese and French governments of hacking into their communications networks in an attempt to obtain confidential trade secrets. The European parliament's computer network links more than 5,000 MEPs, officials, researchers and other staff to each other, and to the European commission headquarters in Brussels and the council of ministers. Traffic across the network by telephone and computers includes details of the private medical and financial records of many MEPs and officials, and discussion documents on confidential issues, including trade, tariff and quota agreements. The records of closed committees of inquiry into BSE and fraud are also stored on the system. European parliament sources say the Americans accessed the network by compromising the information exchanges that link the parliament's internal networks with the Internet and external users. The devices, called "routers", filter entry to the European parliament's network. It is understood the Americans were able to obtain access to what is called the simple network management protocol (SNMP), the language that enables the networks to talk to each other. They were able to exploit the fact that parts of the system were manufactured by two American firms. The breach came to light when officials believed that American negotiators had been given advance warning of confidential European Union positions in last year's trade negotiations. "It was established that the system had been penetrated just days before the talks," an EU source said. "Our principal concern is not to establish what has already been copied but to ensure that it does not happen again. This is an on-going problem." A spokeswoman for Antonio Cavaco, director of data processing at the commission, confirmed that allegations of hacking had been investigated. However, she said she was unable to provide any details. [end] I consider the political dimension of this affair to be more significant that the technical. This brings the US and the French into the same category of anti-crypto government with a habit of poking its nose into other people business and getting caught. Phill

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A SPANIARD IN THE WORKS? (non-crypto)
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, Is there anyone on the list who lives in Spain? If so, please reply by private e-mail. Thanks, S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Cookies on Microsoft Explorer?
by Anne Eisenberg 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone know what the equivalent technology is on Microsoft to Netscape's cookie technology? Does Microsoft have support for cookies or not? All of the discussion on the list to do with cookies is related to Netscape. Does this mean that if one switches to Microsoft Explorer one can avoid the problem? Many thanks. Anne Eisenberg aeisenb(a)duke.poly.edu

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Personal View @2.0 Released
by Frank Schroth 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear ZD Net Member: We're pleased to announce that the all-new ZD Net Personal View, the Web's premier source for personalized computing news, is now available at no charge, exclusively to registered members of ZD Net. With computing news and information -- now from over 650 respected sources -- ZD Net's Personal View allows you to create your own computing information service on the Web, tailored to track only the information that matters most to you. Save time searching and surfing. Use Personal View to get a wide spectrum of coverage on the computing information you need to stay ahead. And remember, it's all available in one place, it's updated 24 hours day and it's FREE for our registered users! We'd like to invite all of our ZD Net members to put the new Personal View to work for you. Click on the Personal View link on ZD Net's home page or go direct to www.pview.com to check out our brand-new look and, more importantly, all of our new features: -- More news from a wider range of sources (over 650!), -- Expanded search capabilities (including 2 months of archived information) -- More flexibility in creating your personal Profile -- Plus links to the very latest ZD Net news and features related to your unique interests. If you've already come to rely on Personal View, we know you'll be impressed with the improvements we've made. And if you haven't had the chance to visit Personal View, now is the perfect time. Just point your browser to www.pview.com, take a minute to set up your Custom profile and you'll have you're own personal information service on the WWW. Thank you for your continued use of ZD Net! We look forward to serving your computing information needs for a long time to come. Sincerely, ZD Net Personal View Team

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Stealth cookies
by Mike McNally 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There's been a thread here about some outfit that, by being referenced from web documents here and there, would insert its cookie in your browser even though you've never directly visited that site. I've nuked any & all messages about that; if anybody recalls any details, I'd be thankful for the information. ______c_____________________________________________________________________ Mike M Nally * Tiv^H^H^H IBM * Austin TX * For the time being, m5(a)tivoli.com * m101(a)io.com * <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101> * three heads and eight arms.

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Re: ****Tacoma, Washington Starts Taxing Internet Access 07/30/96
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:42 AM 8/5/96 -1000, NetSurfer wrote: > >On Wed, 31 Jul 1996, Joseph M. Reagle Jr. wrote: > >> >> >WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1996 JUL 30 (NB) -- By Bill Pietrucha. >> >Tacoma, Washington, has just gained the distinction of being the >> >only municipality in the United States to tax Internet Access >> >providers (IAPs) like telephone service providers. >> > > >Hawaii has been taxing this (and everything else incl. collected >taxes, food & medical) for years :-( calling it a "general excise tax" I believe the reason the Tacoma ordinance is getting so much flack is that they are wanting to charge sales tax on all transactions that take place from ISPs in Tacoma. This type of taxation is not new. Various jurisdictions have tried to use the same thing on mail order houses. Having worked for a service bureau that dealt with mail order, I know what a hassle it is to try to keep track of such taxation. There is a company that will sell you the data of all of the sales tax rates throughout the country. This includes every little podunk city, county, and fire district tax. They are divided by zip code, but that is no guarantees that you have the right place. The reality is that trying to "be legal" under such regulations is next to impossible, even with the proper data. I know of few mail order firms that are willing to go to that extreme. (Unless, of course, they have gotten the proper threats from some miffed tax baron.) And they wonder why there is so much disrespect for the law... --- 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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Re: Internal Passports
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Sun, 4 Aug 1996, Bill Stewart wrote: >> You can still travel in a car if someone else is driving, >> and you can still get on a train without identification, >> but without papers you can't fly or drive, and you can't >> ride a horse on the freeway except in the back of a horse trailer. >> Driver's licenses were the beginning of a long downhill trend. Don't forget the bus. Of course you can still drive a car without a DL. Just don't get stopped. Additionally, driving without a license is a pretty minor offense. Stick with cheap cars so confiscation isn't a problem. Most also forget that the Driver's License can be issued by any nation on earth. Some countries have easier standards for license issuance. Strange facts about cars and drivers in the US: 1) It is legal for an unlicensed driver to own or drive an unregistered car as long as he stays off the public streets and roads (what for expansion of the definition of public streets and roads). 2) It is legal for a licensed driver to drive a car owned by some other person or legal entity. Ownership and control can be two different things. 3) A car can be registered in other states or in other countries and still be driven anywhere in the US. 4) A licensed driver is one with a license from any jurisdiction on earth (try to stick to ones most cops have heard of). 5) A US court cannot suspend a foreign license (but they can bust you for other stuff if you get caught in the same local jurisdiction twice.) >> I wonder if they'll still accept an American passport; the country >> has obviously been taken over by Pod People while we weren't looking.... > At 12:52 PM 8/5/96 -0400, Black Unicorn wrote: >I often have trouble with foreign passports and one of my associates often >has extensive problems trying to use an american passport for anything in >the United States. > >Comments uttered in my presence on the subject have included: > >"We don't accept THOSE." > >"Sorry, we need to see OFFICIAL identification." > >"Don't you have something state issued?" > >"Uh, we need a driver's license number." At least the Passport doesn't have your address or much useful information on it. And if you've done things properly, it's not connected to your SS number. Should work for flight ID at the airport these days, however. DCF

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

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hallam-Baker Wrote -- > Date: Sun, 04 Aug 1996 20:20:20 -0400 > I personally think that tagants is an insuffieicent approach to > the problem. Given the number of gun related homicides in the > US it is not unreasonable to require each individual cartridge > to be stamped with a serial number and for gun dealers to be > required to record each individual purchase. That at least > was my advice to the UK govt after Dunblane. There's four major problems with this. First off, a large number of guns used in homicides are revolvers or derringers (anyone got the numbers?). These guns don't spit out the shells. So, it would be utterly useless to do so. The second problem is the number of shells expelled in the US every day. I doubt there's enough room on the butt end of a shell to print that number (it couldn't be printed on the sides, as this would screw up the fit of the shell, and possibly weaken it). And, it'd be almost impossible getting gun manufacturers to pay for the equiptment that it would take to emprint serial numbers. The third number is that cartridges are recycled. Aside from reloading your own, there's a large number of people that sweep up brass from gun ranges to reload themselves. The idea that someone swept up the brass could get almost anyone off. The final problem is the paperwork. Cops today can barly keep up with the paperwork involved with the Brady Bill. Could you imagine if they had to keep track of AMMO purchases? > If people go arround claiming that ownership of guns is necessary > so that people can commit acts of treason against the US govt > then it is inevitable that there will be pressure for greater The provision to give people the means to commit treason against the government are in the Constitution. That's why the second amendment is there -- to empower the people to protect themselves against the government. Then there's the first amendment, which is there partially so that the people can keep the government in check with speech and the press. > regulation. The NRA has been playing a bad hand stupidly. By > raising the militia argument they have played into the hands > of abolitionists. It would be entirely foolish for the crypto The NRA, I'm sorry to say, has screwed up royally. It's about time that they regroup, or else they fall. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBMgUWzVZoKRrkPmSJAQGNPQf/TMJdVIPG+znJdWK3DlxmANXyLpz7qs8Z ESHxWo5unmVuDMSGhLGNT15GabdlMozgmatM11iFXmtpzXSBDMwUQOGS29ScgF6l PW3PBJ0AMscr16GFJu7EcaJStXXAKPCb3mIQmd/JEs51uwpPVgz65fMyRhq3LALF 2fSnNybWGpX60QefZfvtxd6ePx5FyO05v5BJD916N9rh5sRcyspO9Bn5gdvqZaEF MjcYiDuV1qMl1oO7FAF41HDpw1x8hVp1BsUyN812aBl2YbYYxTaQwjE+BaEmExM7 wLgwUBLZ809fqBWeXpGw8CBmy4FmM7KwiI4fxGxdbcgnFBvRavTrdQ== =SY5x -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Sean Sutherland | mailto:maverick@interconnect.net PGP Key ID - e43e6489 | http://www2.interconnect.net/maverick -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- GCS/C d- s+:+ a--- C+++ V--- P L E- W++ N++ K w o O-(++) M-- V PS+ PE++ Y PGP++ t--- 5+++ X++ R b++ DI+ D+ G e- h! !r y -----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

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Public report of the EU crack.
by drose＠AZStarNet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hallam-Baker wrote: >I consider the political dimension of this affair to >be more significant that the technical. This brings the >US and the French into the same category of anti-crypto >government with a habit of poking its nose into other >people business and getting caught. > > Phill Say what? John Young I can understand; this blather? Att: "Doc" Baker/Mr. Hyde, err, Hallam: any rudimentary text on diction/grammer/syntax might be helpful to you. Sheesh! At least Sternlight seemed to be acquainted with the English language.

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Re: Destroying client/server model, anonymous broadcasting.
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:42 AM 8/5/96 -0400, you wrote: >Getting back to the Dining Crypto Problem, is it possible to complete a >round by passing information around the circle of participants (each >individual communicates and maintains a connection with the person on the >left and right) rather than sending the round results to everyone via a >central server that everyone is connected to? In effect no one would be a >server, or everyone would be a server depending on the way you look at it. >A circular linked list would be maintained and kept in sync by every >client so that error recovery could come into play if someone mysteriously >disconnects. Could it work? How would the protocol differ. There's an obvious simple way to do this which appears to be slightly wrong. Somebody (assume it's Alice) announces a round "This is round N, size S bytes, value vvvv....", everybody who receives it does their calculations, XORs them in with the data, and passes it on. Once it gets all the way around (and Alice xors in her real number xor the nonce she started with), it goes around again so everybody can see the message. The catch is that two players can collude to monitor the player between them. Since Eve knows what data she passed (Dr.) Fred, and their random numbers, and Gorby knows what Fred passed him, and their random numbers, they can tell whether Fred added any data of his own. With a server-based system, on the other hand, collusion that Eve and Gorby also find out Fred's output, either by eavesdropping or colluding with the server. (Hmmm - I suppose this also happens with Chaum's NSA dinner? The example essentially used broadcast to exchange all the users' contributions.) Also, to set up a DCnet, you almost need a server of some sort to coordinate who talks to whom. # 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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