December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: denial of service and government rights
by Dale Thorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Mail Delivery Subsystem wrote: > ----- The following addresses had delivery problems ----- > <Tired.Fighter(a)dhp.com> (unrecoverable error) > 550 <Tired.Fighter(a)dhp.com>... User unknown > ----- Original message follows ----- > Tired.Fighter(a)dhp.com wrote: > > On 30 Nov 96 at 13:10, Black Unicorn wrote: > > > On Fri, 29 Nov 1996, Greg Broiles wrote: > > > > I don't see any reason why this wouldn't be true for a > > > > computer. Fed.Rul.Crim.Pro. 41(b)(1) allows the seizure > > > > (but seizure is not forfeiture) of "property that > > > > constitutes evidence of the commission of a > > > > criminal offense". > > [snip] > > > Please forgive my naivete, but are there no legal > > weapons available to the 'victims' in such cases? > > I'm passingly familiar with the Operation Sundevil > > fiasco -- i.e., with the outcome re the principal > > 'charges'. I'm appalled, however, at the apparent > > lack of remedies for return of such seized property. > > Are individuals who find themselves in such a > > predicament simply at the government's mercy (there's > > an oxymoron for ya)?? > > Just in case someone replies saying "It's not all that bad", or "It can't > happen here", etc., you should know this: > > The United States government has not been responsive to the people for > a long time, but what's become evident in recent years is that they're > also no longer responsive to basic law and order. > > They do respond to extreme pressure, as was applied in the Weaver, Waco, > and other similar cases, but, as a general rule, they do whatever they > want all the way to the top of the Justice dept. with impunity. > > Example: George Bush's old pal at the Wash. DC P.R. firm hires the > niece(?) of a Kuwaiti official to testify in front of Congress in full > view of the American people on television, that the Iraquis were throwing > babies out of incubators in Kuwait, thereby securing the necessary votes > in Congress to prosecute the Gulf War. > > When it was discovered (after the "war") that the Incubator Baby Scandal > was a lie, nobody was prosecuted. Further, in blatant violation of the > U.S. Constitution, Bush and Schwartzkopf were knighted by Queen Elizabeth > II of England. > > There are also numerous examples of the Justice dept. being caught red- > handed forging documents to frame people for whom they had no evidence or > insufficient evidence to prosecute, and what happens in those cases? > Nothing.

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No Subject
by Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Cross-posted to cyberia & cypherpunks] Links, albeit rather thin ones, to background info on the Technical Advisory Committee to Develop a Federal Information Processing Standard for the Federal Key Management Infrastructure appear at: http://csrc.nist.gov/tacdfipsfkmi/ The first (public) meeting will be Dec. 5-6 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel at Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport [Highway 114 & Esters Boulevard], 4440 W. John Carpenter Freeway, Irving, Texas. Alas, I won't be able to make it. On-the-spot reports most welcome... The committee is also asking for written submissions (35 copies!!). 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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No Subject
by vitamin＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I apologize if this is off topic. I received free one month trial in July from Netcom and in mid July I canceled my account with Netcom due to lousy customer service. When I called I was treated rudely because of canceling netcom. I called again the next day and the person who answered the phone apologized me for the behaviour of the previous employee and I was told my account will be canceled. Low and behold come July I got my credit card statement and netcom had billed me. I promtly called them and was assured that my account would be cancelled. Come September I was billed again for August and September. Once again I called and she assured me it would be cancelled. Again, it was not. Come October they still billed me. In my November statement they are still billing me. I prefer L.A. Better Business Bureau and District Attorney emails and physical addresses. Someone please help me!!!!! Thank You

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ANNOUNCEMENT: New low-noise cryptography mailing list
by Perry E. Metzger 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Sorry that this is several weeks late, folks.] "Cryptography" is a low-noise mailing list devoted to cryptographic technology and its political impact. WHAT TOPICS ARE APPROPRIATE: "On topic" discussion includes technical aspects of cryptosystems, social repercussions of cryptosystems, and the politics of cryptography such as export controls or laws restricting cryptography. Discussions unrelated to cryptography are considered "off topic". If you subscribe, please try to keep your postings "on topic". In order to assure that the quality of postings to the mailing list remains high, repeated postings "off topic" may result in action being taken by the list moderators. MODERATION POLICY: In order to keep the signal to noise ratio high, the mailing list will be moderated during its initial weeks of operation. This will be changed if it appears that the list will remain on topic without moderation. TO SUBSCRIBE: send mail to majordomo(a)c2.net with the line subscribe cryptography in the body of your mail. If you wish to subscribe a mailing address other than the one you are sending from, send a message with the line subscribe cryptography [address]

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Another problem with IPG algorithm
by ichudov＠algebra.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Don and others, At the heart of IPG algorithm there is a pseudo-random number generator which generates values of A(JV). (see http://www.netprivacy.com/algo.html) DO JV=JV+1 IF JV=53 THEN JV=0 A(JV)=(A(JV)+B(JV)) MOD C(JV) UNTIL A(JV)<16384 Note that if B(JV) and C(JV) in a triplet (A(JV), B(JV), C(JV)) are not mutually prime, they will generate very few numbers and not a whole set 0-16383. For example, if C(JV) is 20000, and B(JV) is 10000, and initial A is (for example) 57, the only two numbers that this triplet will generate will be 57 and 10057. This refutes Don Wood's claim that the distribution of results approaches even. Even if only ONE triplet is such as I described (and it is VERY likely to happen statistically), the distribution will be skewed. Don, what do you think about it? igor

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Re: Ignoramus Chewed-Off on IPG algorithm
by ichudov＠algebra.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Igor Chudov @ home wrote: > > Hi, > > I was sort of tired of endless talk that "IPG algorithm was not > peer-reviewed, blah blah blah, so we won't even look at it, > blah blah blah", and decided to look at what Don Wood writes and > try to see how his program actually works. > > Of course, I am not an expert in cryptography, and will appreciate all > corrections. The web page to look at is http://www.netprivacy.com/algo.html, > and it describes IPG algorithm in some detail. > > First of all, the description of the algorithm is extremely unclear. I > understand that this may be Don Wood's writing style, but it is certainly > not the most efficient style for precise communications. I suggest that > Don tries to rewrite his description to be more structured. > > Second, I seriously suspect that his algorithm of "trimming" is NOT > going to work right. Just to remind everyone, he generates pseudo-random > A(JV), B(JV), C(JV) such that > > 16384 < C < 20361 > B < 12227 > A arbitrary (at least the web page contains no restrictions > on the value of A). > > and then goes on to "trimming" -- a process that obtains a new value > of A that is LESS than 16384 through this algorithm: > > DO > JV=JV+1 > IF JV=53 THEN JV=0 > A(JV)=(A(JV)+B(JV)) MOD C(JV) > UNTIL A(JV)<16384 > > We shall first note that THERE ARE CASES WHEN THIS ALGORITHM WILL NEVER > STOP! For example, if all A values are _initially_ 16385 and all C > values are 16386 and all B's are 0, it is obvious that the pseudocode > above will be stuck in endless loop. > > No good for IPG algorithm. > > in fact, if only some triplets of A, B, and C have B == 0 and 16384 < A < C, > these triplets will always be ignored (skipped) by his trimming process. Note also that if B(K) == 1, his algorithm will need to make C passes through the loop for JV == k, in order to generate a new value of A(JV). This is very inefficient and results in a bias for triplets with high Bs -- because they will generate good A(JV) more frequently. - Igor.

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RE: PGP 5.0??
by pclow 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ah! You got it! ---------- > ...and isn't all.net the site of the Good Doctor Fred Cohen?? andrew

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PGP DLLs for Windows
by Mark Grant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

BTW, someone was looking for PGP DLLs for Windows. There is a PGP Tools DLL documented at http://www.cam.org/~droujav/pgp/pgplib.html, though I presume that's as patent-infringing in the US as PGP Tools. I haven't seen the code as it doesn't seem to have escaped to Europe yet. Mark |-----------------------------------------------------------------------| |Mark Grant M.A., U.L.C. EMAIL: mark(a)unicorn.com | |WWW: http://www.c2.org/~mark MAILBOT: bot(a)unicorn.com | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|

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Encryption/data-changing in russia (fwd)
by gimonca＠skypoint.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Fri, 06 Dec 1996 14:23:48 -1000 > To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com > From: Benjamin Grosman <bgrosman(a)healey.com.au> > Subject: Encryption/data-changing in russia > A friend of mine who is Russian, but lives out here, frequently > corresponds with friends in Russia via email, and in the course of sending > emai, they occasionally send an attachment. However, the attachment that > _all_ his russian friends send, including the ones who use MIME capable > email clients such as Eudora, always, _always_, uuencode files, and they say > they can't do MIME. I am wondering if the encryption/data-changing laws in > Russia are so strict as to disallow MIME encoding even, but still allows UU > for some reason? > Probably has to do with the character set they're using; nothing more. -- Wild new Ubik salad dressing, not | gimonca(a)skypoint.com Italian, not French, but an entirely | Minneapolis MN USA new and different taste treat that's | http://www.skypoint.com/~gimonca waking up the world! | A lean, mean meme machine.

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EudoraWin95 3.0 /PGP plugin query
by Dave Farber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am trying to find the plugin but it seems to have vanished and lkinks to it seem to fail. Anyone there who can help me find it?

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