December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Workers Paradise. /Political rant.
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 5:06 PM 9/13/96, Asgaard wrote: >From a >pure egotistical viewpoint I really should join the present calls >for, as the debate goes here in Sweden, transforming the enemployed >into 'maids and servants'. But I don't. I think it would backlash; >the 'lower classes' would come back at us and cut our throats >eventually (say, when 70% are serving the remaining 30%). The 70% already _are_ cutting the throats of the other 30%. It's called a 60%+ tax rate. This is the sum of: federal income tax, state income tax, city tax, sales tax, gas tax, energy tax, property tax, entertainment tax, special excise taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, etc., and miscellaneous other taxes tacked on...not to mention the "double taxation" of certain forms of income--every dollar Intel earns is taxed first at 48% by the Feds and the State of California, then what's left is taxed at 35-40% when it reaches the owners of the company. (Oh, and buyers of PCs containing Intel chips pay 8.25% for the privilege of buying the PC.) The masses have realized, as De Tocqueville predicted 150 years ago, that they can use the democratic process to pick the pockets of others. This is why I have no faith in "democracy," and consider crypto anarchy to be the best way to undermine this flawed system. >With the present rate of increase in world population the planet >will go to hell anyway. But suppose the population problem could >be fixed. Then, with technology escalating towards singularity, Cf. what sociologists call "the demographic transition." Countries that value learning and wealth are _not_ facing a population problem. In fact, many such countries are now at "below replacement" birth levels. >machines doing almost all labor, there could certainly exist a >system where the 'dumb' and 'lazy' could be fed and housed properly >without anybody complaining. Those who want to become maids and >servants for some extra pocket money, well, good luck to them. One need not wait for this fanciful "singularity"--by any reasonable standards of providing minimal food and minimal shelter, the unemployed poor of today are receiving this. Ask a peasant of, say, 18th century Europe if he'd consider himself sheltered and fed if he could have an apartment in a building, a microwave oven, a television, a MacDonald's nearby, and enough extra spending money for some beer. I predict that "the masses fed by the nanotechnological singularity" will be just as likely to riot and burn down their own neighborhoods as the "masses fed by industrialization and distribution" are prone to do today. (The point being that people want more than "basic food and shelter," but are often unwilling to make the commitments and sacrifices in their lives to gain the wherewithal to earn significant salaries.) >But to force people into menial service jobs just to literally >survive is not to my taste. No, give them minimal shelter for >nothing and from there on let the market anarcho-capitalistic >struggle begin, for obtaining a higher than minimum material >standard or reputational standing. There is a basic error here, one that I see often. Who says that the "anarcho-capitalists" will freely give away, say, some vast fraction of their profits so as to subsidize the overall society? Any more so than the owners of flour mills and computer chip companies give away 99% of their profits. And crypto anarchy means it will not be clear who is making what, who is generating what income, and where it is located. And the producers of wealth will be able to move accounts, resources, and even factories around the world. If one jurisdiction socks them with exorbitant taxes (which may be anything more than a nearly ignorable 10% overall tax), they can move. Regulatory arbitrage strikes again. Ask your fellow Swedes about the drain of talent out of Sweden in the 60s and 70s...the flight of Bergmann, actors and actresses, corporations, and even ABBA. (Though I understand most of ABBA moved back to Sweden and is now chummy with the Queen.) --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

7 6

Re: What is this nonsense? (Anti DVD piracy chip)
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:16 PM 9/13/96 +0200, Gary Howland wrote: >Taken from a recent Edupage: > >> SGS-THOMSON TAKES AIM AT DVD PIRACY >> SGS-Thomson Microelectronics has developed a computer chip that prevents >> would-be DVD pirates from making unlawful copies of movies from digital >> video disc players. The chip scrambles the disk's coding if it's duplicated >> on a VCR. (Investor's Business Daily 11 Sep 96 A6) > >Anyone know anything about this? Sounds like nonsense to me ... Probibly a variation on the Macrovision copy protection scheme. Of course they do not care that such copyprotection methods usually cause a loss in signal quality. (Which is why people buy laser discs in the first place.) Hopefully it will be something that never succeeds in the marketplace. (Although i expect it to be imposed whether the consumer wants it or not or how bad it screws up the signal.) --- 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."

1 0

Re: did you go to school?
by Jim Ray 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: robert(a)precipice.v-site.net, cypherpunks(a)toad.com, remailer-operators(a)c2.org Date: Fri Sep 13 17:07:32 1996 "Hipcrime" Detweilled: ... > JMR, it's hard to believe that your English education is SO LACKING, > that you missed the fact, that in my sentence quoted above, the word > "ours" refers to MANKIND IN GENERAL, not me personally. > > Go sit in the corner with the duncecap on, and don't come out until you > can read an 8th grade piece of literature (with full comprehension). > [This doesn't deserve comment, and I have already killfiled this asshole-liar-who-is-unable-to-admit-when-he's-wrong, but...] 1. Go run a remailer if you proclaim that you like them so much. 2. Private property that belongs to "mankind in general"? A new one on me. Webster's may help you understand English, but your debate skills are akin to your personality, and yes, once again, that was private email. JMR -- "who is beginning to get used to this from the net.jerk population. Regards, Jim Ray -- DNRC Minister of Encryption Advocacy "As govt.s grow arithmetically, corruption grows exponentially." -- Ray's Law of official corruption. Defeat the Duopoly! Stop the Browne out. Harry Browne for President. Jo Jorgensen for Vice-president. http://www.HarryBrowne96.org/ http://www.twr.com/stbo ___________________________________________________________________ PGP id.E9BD6D35 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 I will generate a new (and bigger) PGP key-pair on election night. <mailto:liberty@gate.net> http://www.shopmiami.com/prs/jimray ___________________________________________________________________ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMjnNGm1lp8bpvW01AQFp/AP/UlGf+g56m/KjFOV6sTvD0+xTrAoQ9WFp TThhZ9OLgQ2FQqEBJZ/vfGSUf7OxpYd5Q8cynLsnRXvH+9+z0XpzStC8KYyCuv5E VFu10VeTs4egEX3dy6JSmFgZehJxDNsu/nVceTLmVX54JC+qMJ8hC7PPRZtvrSCy LU8E9pWJMEY= =8Cyf -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: PANIX.COM down: denial of service attack
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:13 AM 9/13/96 -0400, pjb(a)ny.ubs.com wrote: >> "As to who might be targeting Panix, the firm's Mr. Rosen speculated it > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > >It could, of course, also be someone, from a set of several million, that >find Mr. Rosen to be such as odious prick that they did it just to drive him >out of their misery. Just thinking out loud.. Or it could be any of the readers of 2600 (which published an article on SYN floods in the last issue). --- 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."

2 1

Forwarded message from Christopher Klaus (SYN Flooding [info])
by Mycroft 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

------- start of forwarded message (RFC 934 encapsulation) ------- Content-Length: 3804 Return-Path: owner-bugtraq(a)NETSPACE.ORG Received: from brimstone.netspace.org ([128.148.157.143]) by chrome.DataSphere.NeT (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id NAA05258 for <mycroft(a)DATASPHERE.NET>; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 13:20:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: from netspace.org ([128.148.157.6]) by brimstone.netspace.org with ESMTP id <24730-24839>; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 14:27:52 -0500 Received: from netspace.org (netspace [128.148.157.6]) by netspace.org (8.7/8.6.12) with SMTP id OAA28644; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 14:27:19 -0400 Received: from NETSPACE.ORG by NETSPACE.ORG (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 397572 for BUGTRAQ(a)NETSPACE.ORG; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 14:23:31 -0400 Received: from netspace.org (netspace [128.148.157.6]) by netspace.org (8.7/8.6.12) with SMTP id OAA27584 for <BUGTRAQ(a)NETSPACE.ORG>; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 14:19:44 -0400 Approved-By: ALEPH1(a)UNDERGROUND.ORG Received: from phoenix.iss.net (phoenix.iss.net [204.241.60.5]) by netspace.org (8.7/8.6.12) with SMTP id LAA05934 for <bugtraq(a)netspace.org>; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 11:02:26 -0400 Received: (from cklaus@localhost) by phoenix.iss.net (8.6.13/8.6.12) id KAA06507 for bugtraq(a)netspace.org; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 10:58:24 -0400 X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP2] Content-Type: text Approved-By: Christopher Klaus <cklaus(a)ISS.NET> Message-ID: <199609131458.KAA06507(a)phoenix.iss.net> Reply-To: Christopher Klaus <cklaus(a)iss.net> From: Christopher Klaus <cklaus(a)iss.net> Sender: Bugtraq List <BUGTRAQ(a)NETSPACE.ORG> To: Multiple recipients of list BUGTRAQ <BUGTRAQ(a)NETSPACE.ORG> Subject: SYN Flooding [info] Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 10:58:24 -0400 [Below we have a software tool that will recognize SYN floods and correct the problem.] Possible solution to SYN Flooding attacks The attack is on! Both 2600 and Phrack, 2 of the biggest well-known underground hacking magazines, have posted exploit code to do one of the nastiest denial of service attacks that the Internet has seen so far. Hundreds of people have access to these programs to bring down services on the Internet. Many of these people are targeting their attacks at various organizations such as ISP. Panix, an ISP, has been under attack for quite a few days now and they have not been able to receive email. Many other ISPs are suffering from the SYN flood attack. This attack is being discussed on many mailing lists, newsgroups, and Thursday's Wall Street Journal (9/12/96). Fortunately a solution already exists as we discuss below. Everyone connected to the Internet relies on TCP/IP. When you establish a connection with TCP, you do a 3-way handshake. The connecting host sends a SYN packet to the receiving host. The receiving host sends a SYN|ACK packet back and to fully establish a connection, the connecting host finally responds with an ACK packet. In a SYN flood attack, an attacker host sends many SYN packets and does not respond with an ACK to the SYN|ACK's. As the receiving host is waiting for more and more ACK's, the buffer queue will fill up and the receiving machine can no longer accepts legitimate connections. This means that attackers can block your email, web, or any other service you are providing on the Internet. To even make this attack worse, the code exploiting the problem randomizes the source address of the attacking host. Thus, the receiving machine gets packets that appear to be from all over the Internet, hiding the location of the attacker. Solution There are several things we can do to stop these attacks from being effective. With the routers for most ISP, they should be blocking any non-internal addresses from leaving their network and going to the Internet. This will stop an attacker if their ISP implements this. Unfortunately, this does not stop an attack from areas on the Internet that do not block that. But at least the ISP can feel comfortable to know that an attacker can not launch his attack from that ISP. Here are two methods of helping eliminate the problem. Some of the exploit code I have seen does not pick a random source port. It would be easy to block the attack with a router denying any packets coming from a specific source port. This may not be too effective because of the trivial nature of adding code to randomize the source port, sequence number, source address, and TTL. But it might help you temporarily if you notice the attacks have any pattern that can be blocked by router rules. Another way to fix this is to set the kernel maximum number of half open connections allowed (SO_MAXCONN) to a higher number than the default value. We have a tool that will look for SYN packets that do not get followed with ACK and clean the half open connections by sending a RST packet. This unclogs the port and allows legitimate connections to happen. This tool is called RealSecure (tm). To obtain a copy of the RealSecure tool, send email to majordomo(a)Iss.net and within the body of the message, type: subscribe realsecure RealSecure (tm) is a comprehensive attack recognition and real time response tool that ISS is alpha testing and will expire in 60 days. - -- Christopher William Klaus Voice: (770)395-0150. Fax: (770)395-1972 Internet Security Systems, Inc. "Internet Scanner finds Ste. 660,41 Perimeter Center East,Atlanta,GA 30346 your network security holes Web: http://www.iss.net/ Email: cklaus(a)iss.net before the hackers do." ------- end ------- -- [:]====================================================================[:] [\] Mycroft <mycroft(a)datasphere.net> >>>>>[DataSphere]<<<<< [=] [=] Key fingerprint = DD B1 A7 D9 2D DF A0 F7 23 C2 6B EC 5A AD 01 A9 [\] [:]====================================================================[:]

1 0

NANDO: Radikal
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've sent (using wURLd Presence) the URLs of some of the mirror sites to several search engines. -Allen > _________________________________________________________________ > The Peanut Roaster > _________________________________________________________________ > GERMANS PROBE COMPUTER FIRMS OVER ELECTRONIC PAPER > __________________________________________________________________________ > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net > Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service > BONN (Sep 13, 1996 4:05 p.m. EDT) - Germany's Federal Prosecutor's > Office said on Friday it was investigating a number of so-called > Internet providers because they were giving computer subscribers > access to a radical left-wing electronic newspaper. > A spokesman for the office said the firms were suspected of inciting > criminal activity and advertising for a terrorist group because they > had failed to block access to the left-wing Internet page "radikal > 154." > Among other things, the electronic site provides instructions on how > to sabotage railway lines. Prosecutors consider it to be terrorist > propaganda. > On Friday, the page was still available via major Internet providers > CompuServe Inc, AOL and T-Online, the online service of > telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom. > AOL said in a statement that it was technically impossible to block > the server where "radikal" originated, and that the page was anyway > now available via at least 30 other servers and in thousands of > electronic copies. > Authorities have been getting increasingly frustrated that radical > left- or right-wing material whose distribution is a criminal offence > in Germany can be picked up here on the Internet from computers in > foreign countries. The server where "radikal" originates is located in > the Netherlands. Chuckle... > Firms giving access to the Internet -- a network of interlinked > computers providing access to millions of electronic pages -- say they > are no more responsible for the contents than a telephone company is > for the conversations it carries. > On Thursday Germany's office for the protection of juveniles for the > first time put an Internet page -- produced in North America by > leading Nazi apologist Ernst Zuendel -- on its list of banned > publications. > But officials conceded that the move was likely to have little > practical effect, and provider T-Online said it had no intention of > blocking the page. [...] > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net

1 0

Re: did you go to school?
by hipcrime 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

JMR, is everybody WRONG, who does not follow your line of thinking?????????????? We just disagree, nobody's WRONG here. CypherWimps need, more than anything else, to get down off their high-horses for once. CyberSpace ain't Reality . The reverse is true as well. --HTTP://www.HIPCRIME.com

1 0

Re: really undetectable crypto
by jim＠suite.suite.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Your assumptions are correct. Applied Cryptography by > Schneier discusses this method, referring to it as a > "subliminal channel". Why am I not surprised. :-) > Because of the very (VERY) slow transmission times (on > the order of 1 bit/message), he notes it primarily as a > secure method of exchanging keys. > I would think you could do better than 1 bit per message. Using just hashes, I would think you could get at least 4-8 bits per message using a standard Pentium-class machine. Maybe more, I haven't actually run any tests to see how long it would take to generate innocent messages that produces hashes with specific bits in certain positions. > In his discussion, he also incorporated a bit in the > signature, thus assuring the communication is > travelling to the intended recipient unmolested. I don't see why this is necessary. If the hidden message is encrypted using a key (or key pair) known only to Alice and Bob, then Walter should not be able to fool Bob. Walter could disrupt the communications in any number of ways, but he wouldn't be able to generate innocent messages that produce hashes that contain bits that combine to form a message encrypted using a key (or key pair) known only to Alice and Bob. > However, to be "extremely sublime", your method could be > incorporated with otherwise signed messages: while the > signature appearing with your message includes an MD5 > hash, the real "stego bit" is the first bit of an RC4 hash of > the same file, as computed by an external program on the > receiver's end. > The above paragraph has given me an idea: You don't need to send hashes or digital signatures to send hidden encrypted messages. All Alice needs to send is the carefully constructed plaintext. Bob can generate the hashes himself, extract the proper bits and attempt to decrypt the hidden message. If the hidden message does not decrypt, then either the plaintext was tampered with, it was forged, or not all of the plaintext arrived. That being the case, then I think we have a very simple proof that any communications channel, even one that allows only unsigned plaintext messages, can be used to send arbitrary encrypted messages (if a bit slowly). So much for Clipper. Jim_Miller(a)suite.com

1 0

Re: 56 kbps modems
by William Ehrendreich 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Yeah... and besides that ... if your local telco has lifted your load coils then you have a much better chance! ---------- > From: Enzo Michelangeli <enzo(a)ima.com> > To: Asgaard <asgaard(a)Cor.sos.sll.se> > Cc: cypherpunks(a)toad.com > Subject: Re: 56 kbps modems > Date: Friday, September 13, 1996 10:24 AM > > On Fri, 13 Sep 1996, Asgaard wrote: > > > >U.S. Robotics and Rockwell International are planning new modems with > > >speeds up to 56 kbps a second, almost double the speed of the fastest > > >rate now available. The new devices should be available by the end of > > >the year, although their top speed initially may be less than 56 kbps. > > >(Wall Street Journal 12 Sep 96 B11) > > > > People who seemed to know used to say that 'the Shannon limit' > > set an absolute upper limit around 40 kbps. Has Shannon been > > proven wrong, or what? > > Well, it all depends on the signal-to-noise ratio. Also, if the noise is > not white gaussian the situation can be even better. > > Enzo >

1 0

Re: 56 kbps modems
by norm＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 5:09 AM 9/13/96, Asgaard wrote: >>U.S. Robotics and Rockwell International are planning new modems with >>speeds up to 56 kbps a second, almost double the speed of the fastest >>rate now available. The new devices should be available by the end of >>the year, although their top speed initially may be less than 56 kbps. >>(Wall Street Journal 12 Sep 96 B11) > >People who seemed to know used to say that 'the Shannon limit' >set an absolute upper limit around 40 kbps. Has Shannon been >proven wrong, or what? > >Asgaard I imagine that both modems in a connection become phase locked with the underlying 8K digital carrier. Then each modem signal element is carried by just one 8 bit digital sample. That carrier moves 8 bit bytes 8000 times per second. Stopping at 56 Kb instead of 64Kb means that a 7 bit DA converter for the sending modem and a 7 bit AD converter in the receiver, plus some fancy analog filters to undo the subscriber loop effects. Going for 64Kb would require twice the signal to noise ratio on the local loops. I think that modern PBXs have a digital link to the phone company. This would mean that an ISP would not have to buy fancy modems. A modified PBX could transmit and receive bits to a computer directly. It will impact the phone compnany's ISDN service but I don't think that they can stop this.

1 0