December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Ping of Death?
by james＠hotwired.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anyone heard of the Ping of Death, aka the Ping Bomb. It's a large chunk of hostile code, disguised as a mere ping, that can lead to server rebooting. James Glave Technology Assignment Editor, Wired News, http://www.wired.com/ Producer, Packet, http://www.packet.com/ Phone: 1.415.276.8455 Fax: 1.415.276.8499

4 3

UNIX crypt
by Anne Carasik 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but this has come to mind recently. Has UNIX crypt been broken? If so, what was used to break the encryption? Are there any documented cases of it? Thanks for your help, AC --------------------------------------------------------------- /_ __ / Anne Carasik / Professional Services Organization / / /_/ / TN 919.460.2368 / Raleigh Sales Office / / Fax 919.460.2249 / stripes(a)m3142axc.ssr.hp.com All opinions expressed are mine, no one else would want them

1 0

Van Eck's TEMPEST Paper
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As a supplement to Joel McNamara's exemplary new TEMPEST page, and thanks to Steve Schear, we've put Van Eck's 1985 paper on TEMPEST at: http://jya.com/emr.pdf (702 kb) It's a finely detailed paper on EMR snooping with copious graphics. As Joel and Seline note, it may be purposely misleading on TEMPEST, (as appropriate to TEMPEST legends; Seline's may be bent as well, but who knows what the disinfoes know). Read Joel's page for the bright light facts.

1 0

Microsoft IE may not work without censorship files
by Rich Graves 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Thought you'd find this amusing. Some names may have been changed to protect the innocent. - -rich - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 15:24:36 -0800 From: Alice D'Anonymous <> To: win95netbugs-owner(a)lists.stanford.edu Subject: Inernet Eplorer I reqiure assistance in obtaining my internet explorer connection. I made an error while deleting cache, history and temp files which somehow prevents me from hooking up to Microsoft's Explorer. In the control panel I attempt to click on the Internet Icon and the following occurs: A Content Advisor box appears and states the following: Content advisor configuration information is missing. Someone may have tried to tamper with it. Check content Advisor Settings. End of quote. In the internet properties box, I tried to look for what they recommended but was not sure what to look for. I have the Windows 95 disk. Could you please advise accordingly. P.S. Netscape works fine. I previously had Internet Explorer woking before I cleaned house. Thanks... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQBVAwUBMrcuKZNcNyVVy0jxAQF7dgH+JZt25esoFtkgsVx/p6iRJkvQVvkYpSDr OKoAL4PB01++okGIKOCGPdWC+Uxs9cQJTX+4ZW/8CTN5aHX/D2glmg== =qsrc -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: Ping of Death?
by ! Drive 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

read about it here http://www.sophist.demon.co.uk/ping/ At 02:39 PM 12/17/96 -0700, you wrote: >Anyone heard of the Ping of Death, aka the Ping Bomb. It's a large chunk of >hostile code, disguised as a mere ping, that can lead to server rebooting. > >James Glave > >Technology Assignment Editor, Wired News, http://www.wired.com/ >Producer, Packet, http://www.packet.com/ >Phone: 1.415.276.8455 >Fax: 1.415.276.8499 ------------------------------------ pgp KeyID 3D932EA9 pub key available via mailto:pgp-public-keys@keys.pgp.net subject: get drink(a)aa.net

1 0

Computer crime prompts new parole restrictions
by Lile Elam 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi all, I saw this article in the nando.net paper today and was interested in your thoughts on it. It looks like people on probation will be limited in there use of encryption and access to the Internet. To me, it seems like this could be equated to preventing people on probabtion from using something like a phone. I am having problems with it because I feel these limitations are too severe. I mean, a good way someone on probabtion to make a living is to learn how to use the web and prehaps get a job as a html coder. There is a hacker I know of (Kevin Poulsen) who is prevented from using computers during his current probation and it really has limited his options alot. I curated and maintain a website for him at URL: http://www.catalog.com/kevin/ where this issue is dicussed. It also seems to me that preventing people on probation from using encryption would be difficult especially when encryption is used in webservers (ie Netscapes Secure Server). One could accidentally access one and not know that he was sending/receiving information via an encrypted channel. thanks, -lile http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/info/121796/info1_7523.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer crime prompts new parole restrictions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Copyright © 1996 The Associated Press WASHINGTON (Dec 17, 1996 07:42 a.m. EST) -- The U.S. Parole Commission has approved restrictions on the use of computers by certain high-risk parolees. The Justice Department announced Monday that the panel voted this month to authorize such restrictions as requiring certain parolees to get prior written approval from the commission before using an Internet service provider, computerized bulletin board system or any public or private computer network. Other restrictions would: prohibit particular parolees from possessing or using data encryption programs, require some parolees to agree to unannounced inspection of computers by probation officers, require some parolees to compile daily logs of computer use or to pay for equipment to monitor their computer use. "Unrestricted access to the Internet and other computer online services can provide sophisticated offenders with new opportunities for crime and criminal associations," said Edward F. Reilly Jr., commission chairman. "We cannot ignore the possibility that such offenders may be tempted to use computer services to repeat their crimes." The commission noted a surge in "how-to" information on child molestation, hate crime and the illegal use of explosives available on the Internet and on computer online services. Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Do you have some feedback for the Nando Times staff?

1 0

The virus I got...
by Vincent Padua 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There was an e-mail sent to the list that had attached to it a virus. Well lucky me I got. It was a .com file that apparently turns your files into directories. I can't boot into Win95 since it turned my HIMEM.SYS into a directory. So, I seem to have fixed that, but now it says "access denied" and then prompts me with C:\>. Did anyone else get it? Has anyone heard or fixed this virus? Thanks //Vince

4 3

CERT Advisory CA-96.26 - Denial-of-Service Attack via ping (fwd)
by Genocide 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ok, fine :) here is the CERT on the "Ping of Death" G/T -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ============================================================================= CERT(sm) Advisory CA-96.26 Original issue date: December 18, 1996 Last revised: -- Topic: Denial-of-Service Attack via ping - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CERT Coordination Center has received reports of a denial-of-service attack using large ICMP datagrams. Exploitation details involving this vulnerability have been widely distributed. The CERT/CC team recommends installing vendor patches as they become available. We will update this advisory as we receive additional information. Please check advisory files regularly for updates that relate to your site. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Description The TCP/IP specification (the basis for many protocols used on the Internet) allows for a maximum packet size of up to 65536 octets (1 octet = 8 bits of data), containing a minimum of 20 octets of IP header information and 0 or more octets of optional information, with the rest of the packet being data. It is known that some systems will react in an unpredictable fashion when receiving oversized IP packets. Reports indicate a range of reactions including crashing, freezing, and rebooting. In particular, the reports received by the CERT Coordination Center indicate that Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets issued via the "ping" command have been used to trigger this behavior. ICMP is a subset of the TCP/IP suite of protocols that transmits error and control messages between systems. Two specific instances of the ICMP are the ICMP ECHO_REQUEST and ICMP ECHO_RESPONSE datagrams. These two instances can be used by a local host to determine whether a remote system is reachable via the network; this is commonly achieved using the "ping" command. Discussion in public forums has centered around the use of the "ping" command to construct oversized ICMP datagrams (which are encapsulated within an IP packet). Many ping implementations by default send ICMP datagrams consisting only of the 8 octets of ICMP header information but allow the user to specify a larger packet size if desired. You can read more information about this vulnerability on Mike Bremford's Web page. (Note that this is not a CERT/CC maintained page. We provide the URL here for your convenience.) http://www.sophist.demon.co.uk/ping/index.html II. Impact Systems receiving oversized ICMP datagrams may crash, freeze, or reboot, resulting in denial of service. III. Solution First, since crashing a router or firewall may be part of a larger, multistage attack scenario, we encourage you to inspect the running configuration of any such systems that have crashed to ensure that the configuration information is what you expect it to be. Then install a patch from your vendor. Below is a list of vendors who have provided information about patches for this problem. Details are in Appendix A of this advisory; we will update the appendix as we receive more information. If your vendor's name is not on this list, please contact the vendor directly. Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI) Computer Associates, Intl. (products for NCR) Cray Research Digital Equipment Corporation Free BSD, Inc. Hewlett-Packard Company IBM Corporation Linux Systems NEC Corporation Open Software Foundation (OSF) The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. (SCO) Sun Microsystems, Inc. ........................................................................... Appendix A - Vendor Information Below is a list of the vendors who have provided information for this advisory. We will update this appendix as we receive additional information. If you do not see your vendor's name, please contact the vendor directly. Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI) ===================================== BSD/OS 2.1 is not vulnerable to this problem. It correctly handles large packets without any problems. Computer Associates, Intl. ========================== (products for NCR) Not vulnerable. Cray Research ============= Attempts to send oversized ICMP datagrams are rejected with appropriate error messages. We believe that oversized ICMP datagrams sent to Unicos systems will also be rejected without crashing. Digital Equipment Corporation ============================= MSG ID: SSRT0429 From DSNlink/DIA Database The following is important information concerning a potential denial of service issue which affects Digital UNIX Operating System, Digital UNIX MLS+, Firewall implementations, and Digital TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS AXP & VAX COMPONENT: System Security / Potential Denial of Service DIGITAL UNIX Version: 3.0, 3.0b, 3.2, 3.2c, 3.2de1, 3.2de2, 3.2f, 3.2g, 4.0, 4.0a DIGITAL UNIX MLS+ Version 3.1a DIGITAL TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS AXP & VAX Versions - 4.0, 4.1 DIGITAL ULTRIX Versions 4.3, 4.3a, 4.4, 4.5 DIGITAL Firewall for UNIX DIGITAL AltaVista Firewall for UNIX DIGITAL VAX/ELN For more information check the DSNlink/DIA Articles (keyword PING), or the URL http://www.service.digital.com/html/whats-new.html for the latest information. ADVISORY INFORMATION: Digital recently discovered a potential denial of service issue that may occur by remote systems exploiting a recently published problem while executing the 'ping' command. Solutions and initial communications began appearing in DSNlink/DIA FLASH/articles in late October, 1996. SEVERITY LEVEL: High. SOLUTION: Digital has reacted promptly to this reported problem and a complete set of patch kits are being prepared for all currently supported platforms. The Digital patches may be obtained from your local Digital support channel or from the URL listed above. Please refer to the applicable README notes information prior to the installation of patch kits on your system. DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation, 1996, All Rights Reserved. Unpublished Rights Reserved Under The Copyright Laws Of The United States. Free BSD, Inc. ============== We have fixed the problem in 2.1.6 and -current. Hewlett-Packard Company ======================= For HP9000 Series 700 and 800 systems, apply the appropriate patch. See Hewlett-Packard Security Bulletin #000040 (HPSBUX9610-040) for further details. The bulletin is available from the HP SupportLine and ftp://info.cert.org/pub/vendors/hp/ Patch Name(Platform/OS) | Notes --------------------------+---------------------------------- PHNE_9027 (s700 9.01) : PHNE_7704 must first be installed PHNE_9028 (s700 9.03/5/7) : PHNE_7252 must first be installed PHNE_9030 (s700 10.00) : No patch dependencies PHNE_9032 (s700 10.01) : PHNE_8168 must first be installed PHNE_9034 (s700 10.10) : PHNE_8063 must first be installed PHNE_9036 (s700 10.20) : No patch dependencies --------------------------+---------------------------------- PHNE_8672 (s800 9.00) : PHNE_7197 must first be installed PHNE_9029 (s800 9.04) : PHNE_7317 must first be installed PHNE_9031 (s800 10.00) : No patch dependencies PHNE_9033 (s800 10.01) : PHNE_8169 must first be installed PHNE_9035 (s800 10.10) : PHNE_8064 must first be installed PHNE_9037 (s800 10.20) : No patch dependencies --------------------------+---------------------------------- For our MPE operating system, patches are in process. Watch for the issuance of our MPE security bulletin. IBM Corporation =============== See the appropriate release below to determine your action. AIX 3.2 ------- Apply the following fix to your system: APAR - IX59644 (PTF - U444227 U444232) To determine if you have this PTF on your system, run the following command: lslpp -lB U444227 U444232 AIX 4.1 ------- Apply the following fix to your system: APAR - IX59453 To determine if you have this APAR on your system, run the following command: instfix -ik IX59453 Or run the following command: lslpp -h bos.net.tcp.client Your version of bos.net.tcp.client should be 4.1.4.16 or later. AIX 4.2 ------- Apply the following fix to your system: APAR - IX61858 To determine if you have this APAR on your system, run the following command: instfix -ik IX61858 Or run the following command: lslpp -h bos.net.tcp.client Your version of bos.net.tcp.client should be 4.2.0.6 or later. IBM SNG Firewall ---------------- NOTE: The fixes in this section should ONLY be applied to systems running the IBM Internet Connection Secured Network Gateway (SNG) firewall software. They should be applied IN ADDITION TO the IBM AIX fixes listed in the previous section. IBM SNG V2.1 ------------ APAR - IR33376 PTF UR46673 IBM SNG V2.2 ------------ APAR - IR33484 PTF UR46641 To Order -------- APARs may be ordered using Electronic Fix Distribution (via FixDist) or from the IBM Support Center. For more information on FixDist, reference URL: http://service.software.ibm.com/aixsupport/ or send e-mail to aixserv(a)austin.ibm.com with a subject of "FixDist". IBM and AIX are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Linux Systems ============= We recommend that you upgrade your Linux 1.3.x and 2.0.x kernels to Linux 2.0.27. This is available from all the main archive sites such as ftp://ftp.cs.helsinki.fi/pub/Software/Linux Users wishing to remain with an earlier kernel version may download a patch from http://www.uk.linux.org/big-ping-patch. This patch will work with 2.0.x kernel revisions but is untested with 1.3.x kernel revisions. Red Hat Linux has chosen to issue a 2.0.18 based release with the fix. Red Hat users should obtain this from ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/redhat-4.0/updates/i386/kernel-2.0.18-6.i38… NEC Corporation =============== - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- OS Version Status - ------------------ ------------ ------------------------------------- EWS-UX/V(Rel4.0) R1.x - R6.x not vulnerable EWS-UX/V(Rel4.2) R7.x - R10.x not vulnerable EWS-UX/V(Rel4.2MP) R10.x not vulnerable UP-UX/V R1.x - R4.x not vulnerable UP-UX/V(Rel4.2MP) R5.x - R7.x not vulnerable UX/4800 R11.x not vulnerable - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NCR ==== see Computer Associates, Intl. Open Software Foundation (OSF) ============================== OSF's OSF/1 R1.3.3 maintenance release includes a solution for this problem. The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. (SCO) =================================== The following SCO products are known to be vulnerable: SCO OpenServer 5.0.0, 5.0.2 SCO Internet FastStart 1.0.0, 1.1.0 SCO Open Desktop 3.0 SCO TCP/IP 1.2.1 on SCO Unix System V/386 Release 3.2 Version 4.2 The symptoms encountered vary greatly and seem to be related to the type of network interface device being used. Support Level Supplement (SLS) OSS449 is being developed for use with the following releases: SCO OpenServer 5.0.0, 5.0.2 SCO Internet FastStart 1.0.0, 1.1.0. This SLS will be available in the near future. Watch the following URL for availability information of SLS OSS449: ftp://ftp.sco.COM/SLS/README Should more information become available for either SCO's OpenServer or UnixWare products, SCO will provide updated information for this advisory. Sun Microsystems, Inc. ====================== We are looking into this problem. ........................................................................... - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CERT Coordination Center staff thanks AUSCERT, the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team, and DFN-CERT, the German team, for their contributions to this advisory, and we thank Mike Bremford for permission to cite the information he has made available to the community. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT Coordination Center or your representative in the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (see ftp://info.cert.org/pub/FIRST/first-contacts) CERT/CC Contact Information - ---------------------------- Email cert(a)cert.org Phone +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline) CERT personnel answer 8:30-5:00 p.m. EST(GMT-5) / EDT(GMT-4) and are on call for emergencies during other hours. Fax +1 412-268-6989 Postal address CERT Coordination Center Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890 USA Using encryption We strongly urge you to encrypt sensitive information sent by email. We can support a shared DES key or PGP. Contact the CERT/CC for more information. Location of CERT PGP key ftp://info.cert.org/pub/CERT_PGP.key Getting security information CERT publications and other security information are available from http://www.cert.org/ ftp://info.cert.org/pub/ CERT advisories and bulletins are also posted on the USENET newsgroup comp.security.announce To be added to our mailing list for advisories and bulletins, send your email address to cert-advisory-request(a)cert.org - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1996 Carnegie Mellon University This material may be reproduced and distributed without permission provided it is used for noncommercial purposes and the copyright statement is included. CERT is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This file: ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-96.26.ping http://www.cert.org click on "CERT Advisories" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Revision history

1 0

Re: Parolees limited from using computers, Internet
by rcgraves＠ix.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- E. Allen Smith wrote: [As title] When I saw the title, I though this was a parody, but sad to say, it's not. Why yes, the world has gone mad; it's not just Vulis. What's next, libraries? (Scratch that -- libraries are already censored.) - -rich -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEPAwUBMrdDQEFGBFr0lf2RAQFqAAfQtp9UwxMaq70WGp7AiXKekwPDGTy1CKvI xmJB/rICQVqaZZOLe40rIgDHVS7wPeIqtjpXoxEskR9qBOTkZwmNVTMMYzPNQlX5 SdVgm8ikfRQiSXM6HIuDIj6AdFjOz0SE5htR8ZGWFIbG8K3F30KF3lno0/oIr0I9 rMttYasUINoF6lObn0G/mObQ0OkG9u9t1vq7xbs1q7ro20BkXelA/x3/4aCYKg85 NUXR4ZeAAiS2NgfKAH8sLWjCo7CnUe1+yJFgqnhyS86nGucWMauSqtzHmMg+0WN4 1vLVCqq/AKF6tZSmSw2kIJbhzMw2eyQuwR3SIjA4NXVR8g== =d+pm -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: Securing ActiveX.
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 04:41 PM 12/17/96 -0500, Phillip M. Hallam-Baker wrote: >I am still waiting to see a Java applet that does anything usefull. Most >do no more than an animated gif would. The most elaborate are little >more than carbon copies of the standard computer games. <http://www.ozemail.com.au/~geoffk/anon/anon.html> Try it now. It is not only good, it is fast. -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred Make your mark in the history of mathematics. Use the spare cycles of your PC/PPC/UNIX box to help find a new prime. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/justforfun/prime.htm

1 0