December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

PhoneBook: Making your PC 'Police-Ready'
by Nostradumbass＠SAFe-mail.net 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

[Wherein the author of Freemail reveals his latest project idea. Comments to the author are appreciated.] PhoneBook is a suite of Linux software that allows you to protect your privacy by creating encrypted filesystems, in such a way as to defend you from both technical and legal attacks. http://www.freenet.org.nz/phonebook/

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Re: Zombie Patriots and other musings
by Anonymous 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

The devil is in details. Given small numbers and absence of any other grouping factor there needs to be an "obvious" place for ZPs to refer to. Any obvious place that becomes even remotely attractive to ZPs will be immediately raided. Because ZPs have potential to be actually dangerous to the gang in power, as opposed to everything else I've seen so far. So we're back to square one - effective anonymous publishing is prerequisite for the regime change and executing post-natal abortions. And it has been for centuries. When I say "effective" I don't mean posting a message to Usenet via WiFI-ing into some sucker's open AP. No one gives a fuck for Usenet postings, blacknet etc. - and ZPs are unlikely to educate themselves and search for them. Effective means untouchable web site with untouchable DNS entry. Effective means something doable by average determined person. Like tuning to Radio London from occupied Europe in WW2. Like I said, we're back to square one - all effective means are firmly shut down. Most cpunk talk about secret/stego messaging is mental masturbation that does not relate to the real thing. We want sex.

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Re: Stego worm
by Thomas Shaddack 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003, Peter Fairbrother wrote: > > Any Chinese want to get immortalized in Internet history? > > And deleted with a bullet, for which they'd have to pay. That's insane. > > The creations of the majority of presently active virii/ worms are not > attributable to individuals. :) That's true. However, you can be immortalized even if your identity isn't known; you can be known under a nym "unknown creator of the StegoWorm". Besides, even Unknown Soldiers sometimes get statues. :) > But:! you will stop all the people who are now using stego .. all two of > them .. their stego will be corrupted Only the ones who use it to store documents in images on read-write media. The files in transit and on read-only wouldn't be corrupted. Speaking of storing data... the best for stego are big not-too-compressed or uncompressed files. Occassionally playing in a garage band or having a DV camera could be a good cover for having disks full of the only copies of WAV and video files, where no "virgin" versions are available for comparison for bit-level changes. Decreasing prices of DV camcorders could be helpful here.

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Good Quote!
by Neil Johnson 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

"They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years, and Hell, we're not using it anymore." -Jay Leno -- Neil Johnson http://www.njohnsn.com PGP key available on request.

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Idea: Using GPG signatures for SSL certificates
by Thomas Shaddack 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

The problem that makes me feel uneasy about SSL is the vulnerability of the certification authorities; when they get compromised, everything they signed gets compromised too. However, the system could be for some applications potentially get hardened to certain degree, using the web-of-trust approach. The server presents its certificate to the client. The client then can optionally request the GPG signature of the certificate from the server either by always trying if it is there or only if its presence is indicated in the certificate data fields, and verify it by the specified GPG public key (which then can be firmly embedded in the web of trust). The server's key may be stored on the server itself together with the certificate signature file, or the signature file may indicate the keyserver it should be fetched from. Being signed by several trusted keys is crucial for this purpose, as otherwise it would be trivial to compromise the GPG pubkey together with the signature and the SSL certificate, if the adversary gets access to the server and manages to compromise the CA (risk especially with in-house CAs, or when Agencies get involved). The clients should cache the server's authentication information, and report any changes, like SSH does. The location of the signature may vary; it can be stored in a default place on the server (https://secure.server.com/cert-gpgsignature.asc) or the location can be specified in a X509 field. Is it a good idea? Could it fly? If not, why?

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Re: Zombie Patriots and other musings
by Nostradumbass＠SAFe-mail.net 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

From: An Metet <anmetet(a)freedom.gmsociety.org> > The devil is in details. > > Given small numbers and absence of any other grouping factor there needs to be an "obvious" place for ZPs to refer to. Any obvious place that becomes even remotely attractive to ZPs will be immediately raided. If you mean a physical location you're probably right. > Because ZPs have potential to be actually dangerous to the gang in power, as opposed to everything else I've seen so far. > > So we're back to square one - effective anonymous publishing is prerequisite for the regime change and executing post-natal abortions. And it has been for centuries. Not at. All that is required is for a few "early adopters" to point the way and then make their statments through the popular press. Look at what havoc two Joe Sixpacks caused D.C. operating out of the back of a slightly modified sedan. Imagine if they had the home addersses of lots of federal agents instead of randomly picking other Joes filling up their gas tanks. I've heard a project has been underway for some time to create and publish dossiers for federal officers. > > When I say "effective" I don't mean posting a message to Usenet via WiFI-ing into some sucker's open AP. No one gives a fuck for Usenet postings, blacknet etc. - and ZPs are unlikely to educate themselves and search for them. Effective means untouchable web site with untouchable DNS entry. Effective means something doable by average determined person. Like tuning to Radio London from occupied Europe in WW2. Create dossiers on a broad variety the hoster management. If sites are terminated or their DNS is disabled so will managemnt and/or their familes. Like a force of nature, no explanation warning or threat. I2P is coming. With six months it should offer a stable and fairly bullet proof platform for lots of nice apps. It should be easy to install and operate in most consumer net situations. > > Like I said, we're back to square one - all effective means are firmly shut down. Waaa!!! Waaa!!! What a cry baby. Pick you target, go out and shake things up.

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Re: Zombie Patriots and other musings
by An Metet 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

The devil is in details. Given small numbers and absence of any other grouping factor there needs to be an "obvious" place for ZPs to refer to. Any obvious place that becomes even remotely attractive to ZPs will be immediately raided. Because ZPs have potential to be actually dangerous to the gang in power, as opposed to everything else I've seen so far. So we're back to square one - effective anonymous publishing is prerequisite for the regime change and executing post-natal abortions. And it has been for centuries. When I say "effective" I don't mean posting a message to Usenet via WiFI-ing into some sucker's open AP. No one gives a fuck for Usenet postings, blacknet etc. - and ZPs are unlikely to educate themselves and search for them. Effective means untouchable web site with untouchable DNS entry. Effective means something doable by average determined person. Like tuning to Radio London from occupied Europe in WW2. Like I said, we're back to square one - all effective means are firmly shut down. Most cpunk talk about secret/stego messaging is mental masturbation that does not relate to the real thing. We want sex.

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Is Matel Stalinist?
by Tyler Durden 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

Well, I wouldn't apply the word "oppressive" across the board to the cultures of big companies, but the fact is that modern American coporate culture more often than not imitates a top-down, 'statist' culture that is so universal we rarely recognize it. For instance, high-level strategic decisions are made almost entirely in the vacuum of power. And often, that's appropriate. But many times, the actual people who do the work and know the most about the subject are completely out of the loop. Silicon Valley at its best operates in a very different way...companies are far more driven from the product/technology/service perspective, instead of imagining that balance sheets can make a Lucent into a Cisco. (And at its best, if some hot engineers along with a couple of useful management types feel strongly enough about a missed opportunity, they just split off and start doing it.) But the best of Sillicon Valley is a rare exception. Most of the time "they" make decisions and people who are the technical experts must merely quietly implement those decisions. It's interesting to imagine what would have happened to Lucent if, for instance, the employees could have voted on the acquisition of Chromatis. They would have quickly realized that they were getting a raw $3B deal on a mediocre product, AND that they already had something equivalent ready in-house. Retail is the absolute worst. FOr whatever reason (and I don't believe it has anything to do with competitiveness), big CD or Book chains never empower or reward employees on their ability to purchase books for their store that sell well. In fact, almost zero real purchasing decisions are done locally. But nobody seems to notice...we're completely used to being passive cogs in a big, fat machine-state. So in a sense, it's gone way beyond 'repression'...no need for that rat-cage around our heads anymore. -Tyler Durden >From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> >To: "James A. Donald" <jamesd(a)echeque.com> >CC: cypherpunks(a)lne.com >Subject: Re: Decline of the Cypherpunks list...Part 19 >Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 09:45:33 -0600 > >On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 04:27:38PM -0800, James A. Donald wrote: > > Everyone agrees that big corporations are oppressive, > > bureaucratic, inefficient, etc. No one more so than the > > management advisers to big corporations. > >I'm not sure I'd agree that big corporations are oppressive. How? >I once worked at Xerox and had a splendid time. Didn't feel "oppressed" >at all. > >As for bureaucratic and inefficient, perhaps, but I've seen 50-people >organizations devolve quite well. I suppose it all depends on your >frame of reference. If you mean, "I can find perceived >inefficiencies," I'm sure you can. But if they become too inefficient, >well, over time competitors will rise to take advantage of those >inefficiencies. Xerox can be an example here as well. This is just >common sense. > >-Declan _________________________________________________________________ Take advantage of our best MSN Dial-up offer of the year six months @$9.95/month. Sign up now! http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup

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Re: Is Matel Stalinist?
by Tyler Durden 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

Tim May wrote... "Not only does it not make sense, but clearly this would cause pileups at _some_ stores (too much Spam) and shortages at _other_ stores (still not enough Spam, even with the latest "send more Spam to all stores" order. The fact that neither shortages nor pileups (that I can see) are apparent at any of the stores I visit, and that all of them use UPC and POS methods for _all_ sales of ordered products, is consistent with the reorder method described earlier." Oh I have certainly experienced those back in my retail days during college. I was working in a Waldenbooks where the auto-inventory was sent based on sales (as a scaling factor). The store I worked at was basically quite small, but with Class A sales, so during some seasons we were DUMPED with books that we simply couldn't keep up with. They were eventually thrown out or listed as "shrinkage". (But all of that was behind the scenes...the customers couldn't SEE the pileup.) But, notice how Waldenbooks has gotten WACKED by these big Borders' and B&Ns. Maybe these are smarter (or, these "giant" bookstores don't really need to consider shelf space...). Continuing... "I repeat: the "despised by anti-capitalists" Borders store has a deeper and broader inventory of books than the "cherished by Greens and locals" locall-owned bookstore. And they also use UPC and POS and reorder books dynamically." Well, don't lump me in there. My point was not that such stores COULDN'T provide the level of service that an indpendent could. My point was that the "statist" culture that we are so used to prevents many big retail chains from taking advantage of their "human capital". If Borders learned, then great. (In fact, I helped quash a local bookstore during aforementioned stint...the guy was just a shitty, arrogant businessman and deserved to be run outta town. My only regret was that I made $3.35/hour to do it.) Food is different from music or books, however. Books are much less of a commodity in that a particular neighborhood may respond very strongly to certain types of books, and ignore other kinds. Inventory systems can't really get the ball rolling on that kind of thing...they don't tell you what the locals want (but you don't have), they only tell you what they've already bought. Thus, a well-run chain would hire smart local college kids and let them order (in additionto the "basics" that come from the inventory systems). What I've yet to see is where a low-level retail kid is actually given a piece of the action: "Here kid...if you increase the sales of this Sci-Fi section by 45% then you'll get 2% of each book sold after that." I'd like to see a chain try that kind of a thing, but that seems WAY too down-up for most corporate cultures. -TD >From: Tim May <timcmay(a)got.net> >To: cypherpunks(a)lne.com >Subject: Re: Is Matel Stalinist? >Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:36:03 -0800 > >On Dec 11, 2003, at 1:56 AM, ken wrote: >> >>>Corporations have sales tracking software out the wazoo. If it sells, >>>they buy more and sell them. Sounds like they're doing precisely what >>>their owners want them to do. >> >>Yes, but, it might be that a corporation makes more money for its owners >>by centralising and systematising and reducing the local autonomy of >>business units. It's a lot easier to manage a thousand identical stores >>than a hundred unique ones. So from "Tyler Durden's"'s POV there might be >>more responsiveness from an independent store than a chain. >> >>Though like you said, that doesn't seem to apply to books. Might to food >>though. >> > >I doubt it applies to food, either. > >If my local grocery store runs low on "Spam," say, they will order more. >This is why they track items with POS terminals and UPC labels (largely >replacing the inventory people who used to be seen in the aisles counting >items and entering them into a small computer or, earlier, onto an >inventory log sheet). > >It makes no sense to "lump" or "consolidate" all of the stores into one >lump calculation and then issue order to "send more Spam in this amount to >each store." Not only does it not make sense, but clearly this would cause >pileups at _some_ stores (too much Spam) and shortages at _other_ stores >(still not enough Spam, even with the latest "send more Spam to all stores" >order. The fact that neither shortages nor pileups (that I can see) are >apparent at any of the stores I visit, and that all of them use UPC and POS >methods for _all_ sales of ordered products, is consistent with the reorder >method described earlier. > >I repeat: the "despised by anti-capitalists" Borders store has a deeper and >broader inventory of books than the "cherished by Greens and locals" >locall-owned bookstore. And they also use UPC and POS and reorder books >dynamically. > >(For another list I've been discussing lazy evaluation languages, like >Miranda and Haskell, and like Scheme can be "forced" to do, and the >similarities between demand-driven evaluation of partial results and the >obviously demand-driven inventory practices of modern businesses is >striking. There's an essay here for some political thinker, along the lines >of Phil Salin's "Wealth of Kitchens" essay drawing parallels between free >markets and object-oriented systems.) > >--Tim May _________________________________________________________________ Cell phone switch rules are taking effect find out more here. http://special.msn.com/msnbc/consumeradvocate.armx

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Stego worm
by Thomas Shaddack 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

It's unknown to which extent the Adversary can detect presence of steganography in images being sent over the Net. But whatever capabilities they have, they can be jammed. Imagine a worm that spreads from machine to machine, and on the infected machine it finds all suitable JPEG files, generates some random data as source and encrypts them with random key, and stegoes them into the files. In few days or even hours, a sizeable portion of images on the Net contains potentially detectable stegoed encrypted data. Any Chinese want to get immortalized in Internet history?

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