December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Crypto and six yr old sex perverts: Project Electric Potatoes [CRYPTO]
by Scottauge＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Using crypto may be required to keep ya outta jail, given the guberment has gone so far low as to "route out this six year old sex pervert busy kissing the girls." (Quoted for emphasis.) I wonder when sexual harassment will become a sex offence. Are the red sashed sex cores of Orwell's 1984 around the corner? I wonder if he will need to register with the sheriffs office in any towns he moves into as a sex offender - or has that law not passed yet? Soon I believe our communications will be turned against us - as I am sure I will hear about this one in the future.... Crypto can help us from the all intrusive guberment - it is far to big. Hence a new project for us all: Multicast Crypto referred to as Electric Potatoes as mashed up potatoes are hard to put back together. Purpose: Already we are seeing problems for speech on the internet (see radikal postings - though they are a bit fruity IMHO.) And it sounds like the law in one country is going to be very interested in arresting people in another. Hence, perhaps we need a crypto system (including human procedures and fail safes) for community discussions. Crypto is very much one to one right now, but can we implement a crypto for wide distribution to a very defined set of people? This should be useful in commerce too... like CC of mail to others, etc. Problem Definition Time: Who will be responsible for allowing a member into the community? (And all the other trust issues...) The software to implement the community must be available on multiple platforms like UNIX, Windoze, Macintosh, NeXT, etc. How do we over come the problems of storage - should the messages remain encyphered at all times in local storage of a member in case of a knock on the door, requiring the user to use the software to read, write, store, and organize messages. Is it even possible to overcome the human turncoat factor? Can we protect them as well as us from coercian, black mail, seizure, or defection? Is this even possible, because we are looking for the freedom to speak, yet nobody will be able to hear us!!! ********** Method of discussion: Since we will all hopefully have many ideas and comments on this exercise,may I provide a protocal: Please have Project Electric Potatoes in the subject heading - some of us use the delete key quite freely and don't want to accidently remove your valued comments and ideas. Should the message contain a problem definition, please have Problem in the subject. Should the message contain an answer please have Answer in the subject. Should the message contain a rant, please have Rant in the subject. I leave it to the writer to include [CRYPTO] in the header.... Thank You All, and I hope we get a great discussion going on here.

3 2

Re: GPS
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>2. The DoD is doing a study right now on how to make GPS useless to the >enemy at wartime. >I think figuring out a way to turn off A/S and getting accurate GPS on >commercial equipment at all times would make a nifty Cypherpunks project >- if it really involves breaking some encryption. Essentially the A/S works by having the publicly-readable signal contain fuzz fuzz in the low-order bits and the encrypted signal contain the real stuff; if they've done decent encryption, you won't crack it. However, the fuzz _is_ consistent - if you've got two nearby points, and you really know where one of them is, you can correct for it, and get better accuracy even than the full GPS with A/S turned off. The approach the Feds are taking to prevent competition from real differential GPS is to field a differential GPS system of their own, located at/near airports (who are the real people who want D-GPS, so they can do things like better instrumented or automated landings.) This way, nobody's got much financial incentive to deploy D-GPS correction transmitters of their own, and manufacturers have an incentive to deploy equipment tuned to the FAA's correction transmitters, so they can still turn them off if they want to. Except for takeoff/landing, airplanes don't much need differential GPS; you shouldn't be flying within a hundred meters of other planes anyway, and if you're doing cropdusting or barnstorming you'd better be able to see what you're doing or have good radar anyway - most topographic maps don't have tall trees marked on them. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> # You can get PGP software outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto

3 2

Re: Internet plug pulled on Colombia's guerrillas
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:05 PM 9/26/96 -0700, Chris Adams wrote: >Internet plug pulled on Colombia's guerrillas > 3:05pm EDT, 9/26/96 >BOGOTA, Colombia - A Colombian guerrilla group currently >involved in a bloody offensive in the mountains and jungles, >suffered a setback in its propaganda battle when its new-tech >voice on the Internet was mysteriously silenced. > >The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which >has periodically paralyzed half the country with road blocks, >found its route to the information superhighway barred. > >The Communist insurgents, who rose up in arms in 1964, >embraced new technology last year in their fight to overthrow the >government by launching a home page on the Internet. I couldn't resist smiling when I read this. Not that I want their access cut; quite the opposite. But it is REALLY reassuring to see the authorities behave in exactly the fashion you expect them to! Attempting to cut off dissenting political voices IRL is de rigeur; now, this shows that they believe "threat" to the government posed by allowing others to voice contrary opinions on the 'net is real. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

1 0

Re: sophie germain primes
by Ross Wright 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sir: Lot's of stuff on primes, right here: http://daisy.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/node10.html Hope it helps. On or About 28 Sep 96 at 23:44, Serge E. Hallyn wrote: > Could anyone direct me to an online list of small (less than 800-digit) > Sophie Germain primes? > > (actually any list would do) > > many thanks, > -serge > > hallyn(a)cs.wm.edu > > =-=-=-=-=-=- Ross Wright King Media: Bulk Sales of Software Media and Duplication Services http://www.slip.net/~cdr/kingmedia Voice: 415-206-9906

1 0

Re: In defense, sort of, of Phill Hallam-Baker
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Robert Hettinga wrote: > However, I also think that Phill has this passion for order that sometimes > borders on the pathological. Maybe because, like Bertrand Russell (who > Phill and I both admire) says, romanticism, leftism and communism are > basically feudalism in disguise, and Phill's a closet aristocrat. ;-). > Maybe not. Of course socialism is grounded in paternalism. Robert Owen, its founder was in his day the equivalent of Steve Jobs, an extreemly rich and successful merchant who considered that wealth also implied responsibility. > I think what we see as his blustering trolls on this list come from > passion. But, I don't think they're trolls at all. I think they show, more > often than not, his outrage at the way the world's going to go. Which, > obviously, is *our* way, and not his. He knows very well the power of the > technology we talk about here, and deep down, I think he knows we're right. If people want to have a sensible disscussion about technology and policy then I think that keeping the discussion grounded in reality is a good thing. I don't think that the political situation is going in a libertarian direction, quite the opposite. I see technology as having greatly increased the power of government and that it will be necessary to institute checks and balances to make it work. I also think that you are being very naive with regards to the threat posed by corporations to individual liberties. I see no reason to distinguish between corporate intrusions and state intrusions except in one respect. If we can't find a way to make society work without some form of intrusion the agency that is responsible has to be under democratic control. I think that unless the case for privacy is put in a way which society at large accepts then Freeh and the corporations will win. HMOs will be touting peoples medical records on the open market (many already do), employers will vet empoloyees on the basis of reports drawing on information on video rentals and so on. I certainly don't agree with Denning or Sternlight. Sternlight is either a fool or an invention of the NSA. Denning bases her argument against crypto on hidden sources. I know my experience in the area concerned to be significantly greater than hers since if she had operational experience she would say so. Phill

1 0

Possible subs attack????
by paul＠fatmans.demon.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> whose list is this, and why am I on it? Please delete my name > now. I have noticed a lot of these messages on the list over the last day or two, I can only assume Vilus/Detweiller/Some other troublemaker has decided to subscribe a few people using fake return addresses, anyone else got any ideas on what else could have caused people to be subscribed? Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: 5BBFAEB1 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

2 1

quotation
by um＠c2.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Found in a sig file: "The people involved in the crypto debate are all intelligent, honorable and pro-escrow, but they never possess more than two of these qualities at once." -- Kenneth Neil Cukier (100736.3602(a)compuserve.com)

2 1

Re: Public domain SHA-1 in C
by Steve Reid 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thanks to Eric Young's suggestions, my SHA-1 is now _very_ fast. If you downloaded the older version (before 5:30pm Pacific time) you'll probably want to download the new-and-improved version. http://www.edmweb.com/steve/sha1.c ===================================================================== | Steve Reid - SysAdmin & Pres, EDM Web (http://www.edmweb.com/) | | Email: steve(a)edmweb.com Home Page: http://www.edmweb.com/steve/ | | PGP (2048/9F317269) Fingerprint: 11C89D1CD67287E68C09EC52443F8830 | | -- Disclaimer: JMHO, YMMV, TANSTAAFL, IANAL. -- | ===================================================================:)

1 0

Re: VCRS and Crypto
by craigw＠dg.ce.com.au 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If the average person cared about quality rather than what is marketed as bestand the must have, we might have laser disk instead of video rental stores. Also, where would M$ be > >Remember the VHS/Beta VCR wars? With a fairly equal market in about 1978, > >Beta died 10 years later because the market couldn't support two > >incompatible standards. It wasn't that one was dramatically better than the > >other, it was simply that having two standards forced the market to > >duplicate stocks, for the machines as well as tapes, particularly > >pre-recorded tapes. Notice, however, that VCR's are relatively "isolated": > >It doesn't really matter if you have one format and your neighbor has > >another, unless you want to swap tapes. But crypto telephones inherently > >require (in the long term) full intercompability. If you didn't have that, > >there'd be half a world of people you couldn't call! > ,'~``. \|/ ,'``~. (-o=o-) (@ @) ,(-o=o-), +--.oooO--(_)--Ooo-----oOO-(_)-OOo-------oooO--(_)--Oooo.------+ | | | Soon, we may all be staring at our computers, wondering | | whether they're staring back. | | | | [Network Admin For WPA Business Products. aka doshai >;-) ] | | .oooO http://pip.com.au/~doshai/ Oooo. | | ( ) Oooo. .oooO ( ) | +-----\ (----( )-------oooO-Oooo--------( )--- ) /---------+ \_) ) / \ ( (_/ (_/ \_) Key fingerprint = 2D F4 54 BB B4 EA F1 E7 B6 DE 48 92 FC 8D FF 49 Send a message with the subject "send pgp-key" for a copy of my key. (if I want to give it to you)

1 0

Re: Mousepad RNG's?
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:14 PM 9/27/96 +0200, Anonymous wrote: > I just downloaded a copy of the beta version of Datafellows > Windows 3.1 SSH and it asked to move the mouse around to > generate some randomness. In reading Applied Crypto, it > mentioned that there is no such thing as generating > randomness from a personal computer unless something like > a Geiger counter is used. Is there any way to create a > fairly random sample from the mouse? Should one use lots > of jerky movements, or take ones time with it? In this case the entropy is the negative of the logarithm of the probability that you or someone else could exactly duplicate those mouse movements. I would guess that you get at least three bits a second just doodling around, so half a minute of doodles (a pretty long time) should be unbreakable. Some time ago, at a cypherpunks conference, people were making all sorts of ridiculous proposals for being really, really, really, sure that you had real entropy, and a prominent cypherpunk, possibly Tim May, said, "This is ridiculous: Nobody ever broke good crypto through weakness in the source of truly random numbers". Sometime after that Netscape was broken through weakness in the source of truly random numbers. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

2 1