December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

PGP Disk
by Mixmaster 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Has anyone had the chance to try out the new McAfee PGP disk? It seems pretty straightforward, allowing for the creation of encrypted "drives" using the CAST algorithm. Is anyone aware of any security flaws with it?

1 0

Re: y2k/gary north delusions (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Subject: Re: y2k/gary north delusions > Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 17:40:59 -0600 (CST) > From: ichudov(a)algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home) > Well... The answer is that there is much less washing needed for > survival than it is needed for day to day civilized American life. True, you don't have to water your grass and wash your car. > For instance, I change my shirts every day. If shit hits the fan, > you can wear a shirt for two weeks. Similar story is with other > clothes. You won't do that sort of stuff for long. A couple of months at best before you get skin infections and then it's down-hill from there. It's pretty much a bogus point though since none of the systems like power, water, and sewer won't be down more than a week at most. ____________________________________________________________________ Technology cannot make us other than what we are. James P. Hogan The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Re: y2k/gary north delusions (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 20:22:18 -0500 > From: Michal Hohensee <mah248(a)nyu.edu> > Subject: Re: y2k/gary north delusions > You cannot sustain a modern city without a working sewer system. > Remember what cities were like in the middle ages? I believe some > historians refer to them as "population sinks" for the surrounding > countryside. Not for a lack of wealth or commerce, but for a lack of > sanitation. Paris and London had populations of over a million each and didn't have a sewer system. It was traditional for people to throw their chamber pots out into the street along with the offal from the various animals. The reality is that the folks who support the various systems would have them no manual over-ride within 24 - 48 hours so the worst case scenario won't happen. Countries that aren't automated won't notice the difference and the city services that are won't be down more than a week. ____________________________________________________________________ Technology cannot make us other than what we are. James P. Hogan The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

2 1

.
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

... > A few rules of thumb result from even cursory examination > of the likely environment: > ... > 5. Ultimately, the only way the remailers will provide > what might be described as Pretty Good Security will > be when we have software that maintains a regular > or random rate of messages to and from the remailer > cloud, a stream into which the meaningful messages > can be inserted with no visible change in traffic. > Until then, the best we can do is try to keep traffic > levels up, and to send and receive frequently enough > to frustrate end-to-end traffic analysis. Well, the existing remailer net doesn't make "Pretty Good" anonymity very feasible. I'd think something based on the general idea behind Crowds. (Furthermore, most remailer structures still can't erase some other security concerns -- 1: remailers acutally can be hacked or physically compromised 2: clients really can be screwed 3: etc. To help solve the first, you'd want a two-box setup doing remailing, with the security-critical stuff loaded on a box not directly connected to the Net with something 140-1ish to make tampering harder, a secure OS, etc. -- or, of course, you can scrap all that to get really big remailer count. To help solve the second problem, there needs to be a better web-of-trust setup -- that is, one which applies to code as well as keys. Those who wish to verify code get a .sig-verifying program from a trusted source then use a WoT to authenticate various facets of the program necessary for security. A solution to the third problem is expected RSN.) > > 6. Don't send anything that can have grave consequences. Remember the consequences to an adversary who uses its secret decoder ring, though: the more plausible it becomes that a certain source is being used for intelligence-gathering, the more likely it is that that source will promptly begin to run dry as the spied-upon realize that Something Got Broke. My advice, however, agrees with that of the other Anonymous. That is, unless you've really thought things out, think of an remailed message as merely .sigless, not anonymous. > > 7. Take names. Always take names. Some day... > > FUDBusterMonger > > It Ain't FUD til I SAY it's FUD!

2 1

PGP Disk
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Has anyone had the chance to try out the new McAfee PGP disk? >It seems pretty straightforward, allowing for the creation of >encrypted "drives" using the CAST algorithm. Is anyone aware of >any security flaws with it? I'm sure somebody will check if they are bored some day. Where can we find the source code? If the source code isn't available, don't trust it. That's a good general rule.

1 0

Re: y2k/gary north delusions (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Subject: Re: y2k/gary north delusions (fwd) > Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 18:46:17 -0600 (CST) > From: ichudov(a)Algebra.Com (Igor Chudov @ home) > > Paris and London had populations of over a million each and didn't have a > > sewer system. It was traditional for people to throw their chamber pots out > > into the street along with the offal from the various animals. > > Guess why they had those devastating epidemics. True enough, but that sort of stuff takes more than a week or two. The various cities could go around setting up port-a-potties and latrines in parks with plastic liners for easy removal, etc. It isn't nearly the civilization shaking event some would make of it. ____________________________________________________________________ Technology cannot make us other than what we are. James P. Hogan The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

3 2

Re: Vengeance Libertarianism
by Michael Motyka 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

My oh my, The alternative to outright revolution has historically been to pack up and ship out to whatever frontier was in vogue. Dangerous, difficult, but apparently compelling if the home situation sucked badly enough. Potentially very rewarding to the survivors. The historical fate of any frontier has been that as soon as it has become somewat hospitable the shitheads arrive with their carpet bags and make it over into the same fucking thing that everyone ran away from in the first place. The first sign of inFESTERation was often a church, followed by a town hall which filled up quickly enough and shortly thereafter hired a sheriff to enforce the town gun ban and who eventually needed more men... And so the cycle repeats with the virtual frontier we're in right now. It was just fine until "they" came along to "civilize" it. Unfortunately backs are to the wall and there is nowhere else to go because SPACE SUCKS MOOSE ALIENS DRY LIKE BUGS. Top that. they - esRb to civilize - to own, regulate, commercialize and tax esRb - evil, scumsucking, Reptilian bastards I could probably develop some sort of virtual space cowboy allegory here that would go on for (p)ages and involve the painful, bloody death of many an evil villian at the hand of a courageous hero and enough deviant sex ( whinny ) to keep the audience enthralled to the very end. The story could probably be continued until well after the traffic has subsided but what the hell, I like driving 5 mph, it's good for my car's engine, my patience and the bandwidth shortage. m

1 0

pgp disk
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:05 AM 12/5/98 +0100, Anonymous wrote about some new product: >If the source code isn't available, don't trust it. That's a good general >rule. Where is the source for pgpfone?

1 0

Wei Dei's "b-money" protocol
by Adam Back 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Wei Dei recently announced (on cypherpunks) his "b-money, a new protocol for monetary exchange and contract enforcement for pseudonyms". Below is the text of his proposal. Comments to follow. Adam ====================================================================== http://www.eskimo.com/~weidai/bmoney.txt ====================================================================== I am fascinated by Tim May's crypto-anarchy. Unlike the communities traditionally associated with the word "anarchy", in a crypto-anarchy the government is not temporarily destroyed but permanently forbidden and permanently unnecessary. It's a community where the threat of violence is impotent because violence is impossible, and violence is impossible because its participants cannot be linked to their true names or physical locations. Until now it's not clear, even theoretically, how such a community could operate. A community is defined by the cooperation of its participants, and efficient cooperation requires a medium of exchange (money) and a way to enforce contracts. Traditionally these services have been provided by the government or government sponsored institutions and only to legal entities. In this article I describe a protocol by which these services can be provided to and by untraceable entities. I will actually describe two protocols. The first one is impractical, because it makes heavy use of a synchronous and unjammable anonymous broadcast channel. However it will motivate the second, more practical protocol. In both cases I will assume the existence of an untraceable network, where senders and receivers are identified only by digital pseudonyms (i.e. public keys) and every messages is signed by its sender and encrypted to its receiver. In the first protocol, every participant maintains a (seperate) database of how much money belongs to each pseudonym. These accounts collectively define the ownership of money, and how these accounts are updated is the subject of this protocol. 1. The creation of money. Anyone can create money by broadcasting the solution to a previously unsolved computational problem. The only conditions are that it must be easy to determine how much computing effort it took to solve the problem and the solution must otherwise have no value, either practical or intellectual. The number of monetary units created is equal to the cost of the computing effort in terms of a standard basket of commodities. For example if a problem takes 100 hours to solve on the computer that solves it most economically, and it takes 3 standard baskets to purchase 100 hours of computing time on that computer on the open market, then upon the broadcast of the solution to that problem everyone credits the broadcaster's account by 3 units. 2. The transfer of money. If Alice (owner of pseudonym K_A) wishes to transfer X units of money to Bob (owner of pseudonym K_B), she broadcasts the message "I give X units of money to K_B" signed by K_A. Upon the broadcast of this message, everyone debits K_A's account by X units and credits K_B's account by X units, unless this would create a negative balance in K_A's account in which case the message is ignored. 3. The effecting of contracts. A valid contract must include a maximum reparation in case of default for each participant party to it. It should also include a party who will perform arbitration should there be a dispute. All parties to a contract including the arbitrator must broadcast their signatures of it before it becomes effective. Upon the broadcast of the contract and all signatures, every participant debits the account of each party by the amount of his maximum reparation and credits a special account identified by a secure hash of the contract by the sum the maximum reparations. The contract becomes effective if the debits succeed for every party without producing a negative balance, otherwise the contract is ignored and the accounts are rolled back. A sample contract might look like this: K_A agrees to send K_B the solution to problem P before 0:0:0 1/1/2000. K_B agrees to pay K_A 100 MU (monetary units) before 0:0:0 1/1/2000. K_C agrees to perform arbitration in case of dispute. K_A agrees to pay a maximum of 1000 MU in case of default. K_B agrees to pay a maximum of 200 MU in case of default. K_C agrees to pay a maximum of 500 MU in case of default. 4. The conclusion of contracts. If a contract concludes without dispute, each party broadcasts a signed message "The contract with SHA-1 hash H concludes without reparations." or possibly "The contract with SHA-1 hash H concludes with the following reparations: ..." Upon the broadcast of all signatures, every participant credits the account of each party by the amount of his maximum reparation, removes the contract account, then credits or debits the account of each party according to the reparation schedule if there is one. 5. The enforcement of contracts. If the parties to a contract cannot agree on an appropriate conclusion even with the help of the arbitrator, each party broadcasts a suggested reparation/fine schedule and any arguments or evidence in his favor. Each participant makes a determination as to the actual reparations and/or fines, and modifies his accounts accordingly. In the second protocol, the accounts of who has how much money are kept by a subset of the participants (called servers from now on) instead of everyone. These servers are linked by a Usenet-style broadcast channel. The format of transaction messages broadcasted on this channel remain the same as in the first protocol, but the affected participants of each transaction should verify that the message has been received and successfully processed by a randomly selected subset of the servers. Since the servers must be trusted to a degree, some mechanism is needed to keep them honest. Each server is required to deposit a certain amount of money in a special account to be used as potential fines or rewards for proof of misconduct. Also, each server must periodically publish and commit to its current money creation and money ownership databases. Each participant should verify that his own account balances are correct and that the sum of the account balances is not greater than the total amount of money created. This prevents the servers, even in total collusion, from permanently and costlessly expanding the money supply. New servers can also use the published databases to synchronize with existing servers. The protocol proposed in this article allows untraceable pseudonymous entities to cooperate with each other more efficiently, by providing them with a medium of exchange and a method of enforcing contracts. The protocol can probably be made more efficient and secure, but I hope this is a step toward making crypto-anarchy a practical as well as theoretical possibility. ======================================================================

3 6

Fwd: Attn. INTERNATIONAL FIREARM COMMUNITY !
by Jean-Francois Avon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE================== >Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 22:35:56 -0800 >From: Donna Ferolie <donnaferolie(a)sympatico.ca> >Subject: Attn. INTERNATIONAL FIREARM COMMUNITY ! This message has gone out to firearm owners all over the world as well on the cdn-firearm chat and cdn-firearm digest. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ATTENTION INTERNATIONAL FIREARM COMMUNITY This message is specifically dedicated to sport shooters from around the globe. I would like to acknowledge our friends from the U.K, South Africa, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia and the good old U.S.A. I have just sent out idividual messages to all of these countries and some others including Germany, Belgium, Austria, Boliva, Argentina, Aruba Slovakia and Barbados. If your country has not been listed please contact me directly. I am trying to develop a list of countries that are logging onto our open firearms chat line. It is my goal to have firearm owners from every country monitoring and sharing their experiences. Please encourage fellow shooters in your country to come on line and take advantage of this open forum. I fully realize that the primary focus of the Canadian Firearms Chat Line is aimed at Canadian gun laws; however, there is a great deal of pertinent international information that could be shared in this medium and we will all be the beneficiaries if we willfully share our ideas and experiences. I have another strategy up my sleeve regarding rallying the international firearm community prior to the final outcome of the United Nations firearms workshops in the year 2000; therefore it is paramount that we maintain frequent global communications. I will be exploring some of my ideas with the NRA and the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia in the new year and floating some draft strategies for open discussion. Moreover, I fully intend on attending most of the United Nations firearm workshops therefore having everyone connected to one open forum would assist me in getting this information out all of you in a quick concise manner. I've had a few myopic individuals ask me why I should be so concerned about gun control in other countries ? As far as I am concerned we should all be concerned -VERY concerned ! When one of our sister countries falls we should all feel their pain and learn something valuable, because we may be next. We cannot for a minute forget about the draconian laws rammed down the throats of other Commonwealth countries in particular or any free-thinking society. Can we really delude ourselves into thinking that it couldn't happen here- don t kid yourself, as I write, the erosion of our rights is going down the same path as Australians are treading, faster than we care to admit, and we all should instinctively know it? How would Canadians like to have all of their semis and pump shotguns and rifles declared illegal and confiscated overnight by a communist-leaning, bleeding heart liberal government- think about it !! It is important for Canadians to realize that countries all over the world feel no different that we do. They feel just as vulnerable and thus are seeking guidance and support. We are in an excellent position to offer assistance to each other via this open forum. I truly believe we can learn from each others mistakes and triumphs. Perhaps if we can tap into this universal intelligence on a continuous basis we could overtake the mighty Goliath. If time permits I would like to post the names of all anti-firearm NGO's and their meetings which are going on simultaneously all over the world as we speak. I think it is high time that we banded together as one solid global unit in an effort to effectively launch a counter attack against those that take glee in the gradual erosion of our civil rights and liberties. A frequent complaint about this type of forum is the problem of receiving an excessive number of messages, but I believe the rewards associated with this hassle far out weigh the inconvenience. I care very much that our friends in South Africa are now subject to new guns laws. I am sickened by what has transpired in Australia and the U.K. I want the world to know how crime has escalated in Brazil and yet they live under the most stringent gun control laws. As a point of interest the " boys from Brazil " will be preparing a written paper outlining this very fact which I will present on their behalf to the anti-gun Brazilian delegation at the next U.N workshop in Vienna in the latter part of Jan/99. In conclusion, if you are interested in banding together as one strong universal voice, then get your friends connected to this open chat /and or digest. Let us not lose focus of our own battle at home, but let us not turn a blind eye to our global neighbours struggles. I understand that English is a problem for some of you, but we are understanding and we willing to work through any language barriers. So please do NOT feel uncomfortable to communicate with us - we d love to hear what has transpired in your country ! Remember, repeated blows to the lower extremities will eventually cause the giant to fall ! You can subscribe to the Canadian Firearms Digest and the Firearms Chat line by 1) Subcribe to the cdn chat & cdn digest ( separately ) 2) e-mailing the following address for both chat & digest: <majordomo(a)sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca> 3) Leave the subject section blank 4) Write in the body of the message subscribe cdn-firearm chat end subcribe cdn-firearm digest end Remember when you are subscribing to the chat is separate from the digest. Please feel free to contact me anytime at the following: donnaferolie(a)sympatico.ca Donna Ferolie Keep up the fight! Donna Ferolie Canada ===================END FORWARDED MESSAGE===================

1 0