July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

[cryptography] Sodium: NaCl repackaged for portability/ease-of-use
by Tony Arcieri 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hello crypto-people, Frank Denis just announced Sodium, a fork of NaCl containing only the reference C code, packaged using a standard autotools build system: http://labs.umbrella.com/2013/03/06/announcing-sodium-a-new-cryptographic-l… NaCl has traditionally been hard to use because it targets *IX exclusively and the assembly versions of the various algorithms are not PIC yet. For this reason there are a lot of issues making NaCl work portably (e.g. across 32-bit/64-bit platforms, let alone Windows) Sodium is designed to be portable, easy to compile/package, and it even works on Windows! Some might think this undermines some of the original goals of NaCl, however djb has suggested it as an option in the past: On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 10:27 PM, D. J. Bernstein <djb(a)cr.yp.to> wrote: > * More language support. The real work here is making everything > PIC. Of course, if what matters is the API rather than speed, then > achieving PIC is easy: just remove the asm. -- Tony Arcieri _______________________________________________ cryptography mailing list cryptography(a)randombit.net http://lists.randombit.net/mailman/listinfo/cryptography ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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If the state can't save us, we need a licence to print our
by Duncan Goldie-Scot 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

own money http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/george-monbiot-recessio… currencies If the state can't save us, we need a licence to print our own moneyIt bypasses greedy banks. It recharges local economies. It's time to think seriously about an alternative currency Comments (39) George Monbiot The Guardian, Tuesday 20 January 2009 Article history In Russell Hoban's novel Riddley Walker, the descendants of nuclear holocaust survivors seek amid the rubble the key to recovering their lost civilisation. They end up believing that the answer is to re- invent the atom bomb. I was reminded of this when I read the government's new plans to save us from the credit crunch. It intends - at gobsmacking public expense - to persuade the banks to start lending again, at levels similar to those of 2007. Isn't this what caused the problem in the first place? Are insane levels of lending really the solution to a crisis caused by insane levels of lending? Yes, I know that without money there's no business, and without business there are no jobs. I also know that most of the money in circulation is issued, through fractional reserve banking, in the form of debt. This means that you can't solve one problem (a lack of money) without causing another (a mountain of debt). There must be a better way than this. This isn't my subject and I am venturing way beyond my pay grade. But I want to introduce you to another way of negotiating a credit crunch, which requires no moral hazard, no hair of the dog and no public spending. I'm relying, in explaining it, on the former currency trader and central banker Bernard Lietaer. In his book The Future of Money, Lietaer points out - as the government did yesterday - that in situations like ours everything grinds to a halt for want of money. But he also explains that there is no reason why this money should take the form of sterling or be issued by the banks. Money consists only of "an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange". The medium of exchange could be anything, as long as everyone who uses it trusts that everyone else will recognise its value. During the Great Depression, businesses in the United States issued rabbit tails, seashells and wooden discs as currency, as well as all manner of papers and metal tokens. In 1971, Jaime Lerner, the mayor of Curitiba in Brazil, kick- started the economy of the city and solved two major social problems by issuing currency in the form of bus tokens. People earned them by picking and sorting litter: thus cleaning the streets and acquiring the means to commute to work. Schemes like this helped Curitiba become one of the most prosperous cities in Brazil. But the projects that have proved most effective were those inspired by the German economist Silvio Gessell, who became finance minister in Gustav Landauer's doomed Bavarian republic. He proposed that communities seeking to rescue themselves from economic collapse should issue their own currency. To discourage people from hoarding it, they should impose a fee (called demurrage), which has the same effect as negative interest. The back of each banknote would contain 12 boxes. For the note to remain valid, the owner had to buy a stamp every month and stick it in one of the boxes. It would be withdrawn from circulation after a year. Money of this kind is called stamp scrip: a privately issued currency that becomes less valuable the longer you hold on to it. One of the first places to experiment with this scheme was the small German town of Schwanenkirchen. In 1923, hyperinflation had caused a credit crunch of a different kind. A Dr Hebecker, owner of a coalmine in Schwanenkirchen, told his workers that if they wouldn't accept the coal-backed stamp scrip he had invented - the Wara - he would have to close the mine. He promised to exchange it, in the first instance, for food. The scheme immediately took off. It saved both the mine and the town. It was soon adopted by 2,000 corporations across Germany. But in 1931, under pressure from the central bank, the ministry of finance closed the project down, with catastrophic consequences for the communities that had come to depend on it. Lietaer points out that the only remaining option for the German economy was ruthless centralised economic planning. Would Hitler have come to power if the Wara and similar schemes had been allowed to survive? The Austrian town of Wvrgl also tried out Gessell's idea, in 1932. Like most communities in Europe at the time, it suffered from mass unemployment and a shortage of money for public works. Instead of spending the town's meagre funds on new works, the mayor put them on deposit as a guarantee for the stamp scrip he issued. By paying workers in the new currency, he paved the streets, restored the water system and built a bridge, new houses and a ski jump. Because they would soon lose their value, Wvrgl's own schillings circulated much faster than the official money, with the result that each unit of currency generated 12 to 14 times more employment. Scores of other towns sought to copy the scheme, at which point - in 1933 - the central bank stamped it out. Wvrgl's workers were thrown out of work again. Similar projects took off at the same time in dozens of countries. Almost all of them were closed down (just one, Switzerland's WIR system, still exists) as the central banks panicked about losing their monopoly over the control of money. Roosevelt prohibited complementary currencies by executive decree, though they might have offered a faster, cheaper and more effective means of pulling the US out of the Depression than his New Deal. No one is suggesting that we replace official currencies with local scrip: this is a complementary system, not an alternative. Nor does Lietaer propose this as a solution to all economic ills. But even before you consider how it could be improved through modern information technology, several features of Gessell's system grab your attention. We need not wait for the government or the central bank to save us: we can set this system up ourselves. It costs taxpayers nothing. It bypasses the greedy banks. It recharges local economies and gives local businesses an advantage over multinationals. It can be tailored to the needs of the community. It does not require - as Eddie George, the former governor of the Bank of England, insisted - that one part of the country be squeezed so that another can prosper. Perhaps most importantly, a demurrage system reverses the ecological problem of discount rates. If you have to pay to keep your money, the later you receive your income, the more valuable it will be. So it makes economic sense, under this system, to invest long term. As resources in the ground are a better store of value than money in the bank, the system encourages their conservation. I make no claim to expertise. I'm not qualified to identify the flaws in this scheme, nor am I confident that I have made the best case for it. All I ask is that, if you haven't come across it before, you don't dismiss it before learning more. As we confront the failure of the government's first bailout and the astonishing costs of the second, isn't it time we considered the alternatives?

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European Commission: data retention voice: 1 year and
by Hendrik Rood 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Internet 6 months Prof. Farber, The European Commission yesterday has put forward it's proposal on traffic data retention. With kind regards, Hendrik Rood -- http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/1167&form… 0at=HTML Commission proposes rules on communication data retention which are both effective for law enforcement and respectful of rights and business interests ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Reference: IP/05/1167 Date: 21/09/2005 IP/05/1167 Brussels, 21 September 2005 Commission proposes rules on communication data retention which are both effective for law enforcement and respectful of rights and business interests The European Commission has adopted today a proposal for a Directive on the retention of communications traffic data. The proposal provides for an EU-wide harmonisation of the obligations on providers of publicly available electronic communications, or a public telecommunications network, to retain data related to mobile and fixed telephony for a period of one year, and internet communication data, for six month. The proposed Directive would not be applicable to the actual content of the communications. It also includes a provision ensuring that the service or network providers will be reimbursed for the demonstrated additional costs they will have. For its adoption, the proposal requires the approval both of the European Parliament and the Council. The Council is currently discussing an alternative text, a Framework Decision which would allow for data retention of up to 3 years and could be adopted by the Council alone. "This proposal is a very balanced and constructive one, which takes account of the fundamental rights to security, to a private life and protection of personal data, as well as different interests, in particular those of law enforcement authorities and communication providers", said Vice President of the Commission Franco Frattini, responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security. As EU citizens expect the three EU institutions to work jointly on this sensitive but important issue and to form a united front in the fight against terrorism and organised crime, he added: "I am dedicated to working on a co-decision basis with the European Parliament and the Member States in the Council, and in particular its UK Presidency, to try to reach an agreement on this issue before the end of this year- counter terrorism effectively requires that we have no time to loose." The proposal was developed in full agreement with Commissioner Viviane Reding, responsible for Information Society and Media: "I am satisfied that the proposal adopted today is in line with the Commission's new Lisbon strategy for which the Information and Communication industry is a key factor for Europe's competitiveness. The Commission proposal now puts data retention rules on a sound legal basis, ensures the full co-decision of the European Parliament and limits the data retention periods to the extent absolutely necessary. In contrast to the text at present discussed in the Council, the Commission proposal in particular requires that all additional costs for the industry, which are proven to have been caused by data retention obligations under the new Directive, will have to be reimbursed." As the investigations following the tragic events of Madrid in March 2004 and London in July 2005 clearly demonstrated, communications traffic data are essential for law enforcement agencies when investigating serious crime and terrorism because such data can disclose associations between persons and events by time and location. The retention of communications traffic data has therefore been identified by a number of different Council meetings as one of the most important instruments for preventing and combating (organised) crime and terrorism, most recently by the European Council of 16/17 June and, following the London attacks of 7 July, the extraordinary Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of 13 July. Fundamental rights aspects have been carefully weighed in the preparation of the proposal, and solid data protection rules will be applicable, given that the general and specific data protection provisions established under Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC will apply. The processing of such data will be under the full supervisory powers of the data protection authorities established in all Member States. The Directive is also fully in line with the European policy on consumer protection. The proposal has taken into account to a significant extent the ongoing works on an initiative from Member States for a Framework Decision on the same topic, which has been in discussion within the Council since April 2004. However, the Commission proposal is founded on a different legal basis (EC Treaty instead of EU Treaty), which means that the European Parliament will be fully involved in the decision making process. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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[IP] European Commission: data retention voice: 1 year and Internet 6
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

months X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.734) Reply-To: dave(a)farber.net Begin forwarded message:

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If the state can't save us, we need a licence to print our
by Duncan Goldie-Scot 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

own money http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/george-monbiot-recessio… currencies If the state can't save us, we need a licence to print our own moneyIt bypasses greedy banks. It recharges local economies. It's time to think seriously about an alternative currency Comments (39) George Monbiot The Guardian, Tuesday 20 January 2009 Article history In Russell Hoban's novel Riddley Walker, the descendants of nuclear holocaust survivors seek amid the rubble the key to recovering their lost civilisation. They end up believing that the answer is to re- invent the atom bomb. I was reminded of this when I read the government's new plans to save us from the credit crunch. It intends - at gobsmacking public expense - to persuade the banks to start lending again, at levels similar to those of 2007. Isn't this what caused the problem in the first place? Are insane levels of lending really the solution to a crisis caused by insane levels of lending? Yes, I know that without money there's no business, and without business there are no jobs. I also know that most of the money in circulation is issued, through fractional reserve banking, in the form of debt. This means that you can't solve one problem (a lack of money) without causing another (a mountain of debt). There must be a better way than this. This isn't my subject and I am venturing way beyond my pay grade. But I want to introduce you to another way of negotiating a credit crunch, which requires no moral hazard, no hair of the dog and no public spending. I'm relying, in explaining it, on the former currency trader and central banker Bernard Lietaer. In his book The Future of Money, Lietaer points out - as the government did yesterday - that in situations like ours everything grinds to a halt for want of money. But he also explains that there is no reason why this money should take the form of sterling or be issued by the banks. Money consists only of "an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange". The medium of exchange could be anything, as long as everyone who uses it trusts that everyone else will recognise its value. During the Great Depression, businesses in the United States issued rabbit tails, seashells and wooden discs as currency, as well as all manner of papers and metal tokens. In 1971, Jaime Lerner, the mayor of Curitiba in Brazil, kick- started the economy of the city and solved two major social problems by issuing currency in the form of bus tokens. People earned them by picking and sorting litter: thus cleaning the streets and acquiring the means to commute to work. Schemes like this helped Curitiba become one of the most prosperous cities in Brazil. But the projects that have proved most effective were those inspired by the German economist Silvio Gessell, who became finance minister in Gustav Landauer's doomed Bavarian republic. He proposed that communities seeking to rescue themselves from economic collapse should issue their own currency. To discourage people from hoarding it, they should impose a fee (called demurrage), which has the same effect as negative interest. The back of each banknote would contain 12 boxes. For the note to remain valid, the owner had to buy a stamp every month and stick it in one of the boxes. It would be withdrawn from circulation after a year. Money of this kind is called stamp scrip: a privately issued currency that becomes less valuable the longer you hold on to it. One of the first places to experiment with this scheme was the small German town of Schwanenkirchen. In 1923, hyperinflation had caused a credit crunch of a different kind. A Dr Hebecker, owner of a coalmine in Schwanenkirchen, told his workers that if they wouldn't accept the coal-backed stamp scrip he had invented - the Wara - he would have to close the mine. He promised to exchange it, in the first instance, for food. The scheme immediately took off. It saved both the mine and the town. It was soon adopted by 2,000 corporations across Germany. But in 1931, under pressure from the central bank, the ministry of finance closed the project down, with catastrophic consequences for the communities that had come to depend on it. Lietaer points out that the only remaining option for the German economy was ruthless centralised economic planning. Would Hitler have come to power if the Wara and similar schemes had been allowed to survive? The Austrian town of Wvrgl also tried out Gessell's idea, in 1932. Like most communities in Europe at the time, it suffered from mass unemployment and a shortage of money for public works. Instead of spending the town's meagre funds on new works, the mayor put them on deposit as a guarantee for the stamp scrip he issued. By paying workers in the new currency, he paved the streets, restored the water system and built a bridge, new houses and a ski jump. Because they would soon lose their value, Wvrgl's own schillings circulated much faster than the official money, with the result that each unit of currency generated 12 to 14 times more employment. Scores of other towns sought to copy the scheme, at which point - in 1933 - the central bank stamped it out. Wvrgl's workers were thrown out of work again. Similar projects took off at the same time in dozens of countries. Almost all of them were closed down (just one, Switzerland's WIR system, still exists) as the central banks panicked about losing their monopoly over the control of money. Roosevelt prohibited complementary currencies by executive decree, though they might have offered a faster, cheaper and more effective means of pulling the US out of the Depression than his New Deal. No one is suggesting that we replace official currencies with local scrip: this is a complementary system, not an alternative. Nor does Lietaer propose this as a solution to all economic ills. But even before you consider how it could be improved through modern information technology, several features of Gessell's system grab your attention. We need not wait for the government or the central bank to save us: we can set this system up ourselves. It costs taxpayers nothing. It bypasses the greedy banks. It recharges local economies and gives local businesses an advantage over multinationals. It can be tailored to the needs of the community. It does not require - as Eddie George, the former governor of the Bank of England, insisted - that one part of the country be squeezed so that another can prosper. Perhaps most importantly, a demurrage system reverses the ecological problem of discount rates. If you have to pay to keep your money, the later you receive your income, the more valuable it will be. So it makes economic sense, under this system, to invest long term. As resources in the ground are a better store of value than money in the bank, the system encourages their conservation. I make no claim to expertise. I'm not qualified to identify the flaws in this scheme, nor am I confident that I have made the best case for it. All I ask is that, if you haven't come across it before, you don't dismiss it before learning more. As we confront the failure of the government's first bailout and the astonishing costs of the second, isn't it time we considered the alternatives?

1 0

Re: Virtual Machines - what is their use?
by Ted Smith 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On Tue, 2010-10-12 at 16:01 +0100, Matthew wrote: > If an individual is using Tor, Polipo, Torbutton, NoScript, and > BetterPrivacy then why is a VM needed? > > How can VMs improve one's Tor experience? Presume you are being pursued by the Illuminati, because you alone have knowledge of the Holder of the Fourth (you lucky devil, you). They have 0-day exploits for Firefox (because Mozilla is actually a front for the Illuminati - sorry I had to be the one to tell you), and are thus able to circumvent Torbutton and Noscript and execute arbitrary code from the user account that is running Firefox. If you are running Firefox as your normal user account with no further limitations on it, the Illuminati will be able to go into your pictures folder and see what you look like, or modify your .bashrc and your PATH to install a malicious wrapper program that pings their server every time you start vim (better switch to Emacs). If you're running Firefox as a user on a VM, and running it over a forwarded X session, all the Illuminati can do is access files on the VM and try to exploit your X server. This is a case of the security principle of defense-in-depth: running torified programs in VMs allows some degree of risk mitigation if you assume the program in question has been compromised, so even if you assume you're running malicious code, you can contain the damage, remain anonymous, and evade the Illuminati. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: Virtual Machines - what is their use?
by Ted Smith 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On Tue, 2010-10-12 at 16:01 +0100, Matthew wrote: > If an individual is using Tor, Polipo, Torbutton, NoScript, and > BetterPrivacy then why is a VM needed? > > How can VMs improve one's Tor experience? Presume you are being pursued by the Illuminati, because you alone have knowledge of the Holder of the Fourth (you lucky devil, you). They have 0-day exploits for Firefox (because Mozilla is actually a front for the Illuminati - sorry I had to be the one to tell you), and are thus able to circumvent Torbutton and Noscript and execute arbitrary code from the user account that is running Firefox. If you are running Firefox as your normal user account with no further limitations on it, the Illuminati will be able to go into your pictures folder and see what you look like, or modify your .bashrc and your PATH to install a malicious wrapper program that pings their server every time you start vim (better switch to Emacs). If you're running Firefox as a user on a VM, and running it over a forwarded X session, all the Illuminati can do is access files on the VM and try to exploit your X server. This is a case of the security principle of defense-in-depth: running torified programs in VMs allows some degree of risk mitigation if you assume the program in question has been compromised, so even if you assume you're running malicious code, you can contain the damage, remain anonymous, and evade the Illuminati. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

1 0

European Commission: data retention voice: 1 year and
by Hendrik Rood 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Internet 6 months Prof. Farber, The European Commission yesterday has put forward it's proposal on traffic data retention. With kind regards, Hendrik Rood -- http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/1167&form… 0at=HTML Commission proposes rules on communication data retention which are both effective for law enforcement and respectful of rights and business interests ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Reference: IP/05/1167 Date: 21/09/2005 IP/05/1167 Brussels, 21 September 2005 Commission proposes rules on communication data retention which are both effective for law enforcement and respectful of rights and business interests The European Commission has adopted today a proposal for a Directive on the retention of communications traffic data. The proposal provides for an EU-wide harmonisation of the obligations on providers of publicly available electronic communications, or a public telecommunications network, to retain data related to mobile and fixed telephony for a period of one year, and internet communication data, for six month. The proposed Directive would not be applicable to the actual content of the communications. It also includes a provision ensuring that the service or network providers will be reimbursed for the demonstrated additional costs they will have. For its adoption, the proposal requires the approval both of the European Parliament and the Council. The Council is currently discussing an alternative text, a Framework Decision which would allow for data retention of up to 3 years and could be adopted by the Council alone. "This proposal is a very balanced and constructive one, which takes account of the fundamental rights to security, to a private life and protection of personal data, as well as different interests, in particular those of law enforcement authorities and communication providers", said Vice President of the Commission Franco Frattini, responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security. As EU citizens expect the three EU institutions to work jointly on this sensitive but important issue and to form a united front in the fight against terrorism and organised crime, he added: "I am dedicated to working on a co-decision basis with the European Parliament and the Member States in the Council, and in particular its UK Presidency, to try to reach an agreement on this issue before the end of this year- counter terrorism effectively requires that we have no time to loose." The proposal was developed in full agreement with Commissioner Viviane Reding, responsible for Information Society and Media: "I am satisfied that the proposal adopted today is in line with the Commission's new Lisbon strategy for which the Information and Communication industry is a key factor for Europe's competitiveness. The Commission proposal now puts data retention rules on a sound legal basis, ensures the full co-decision of the European Parliament and limits the data retention periods to the extent absolutely necessary. In contrast to the text at present discussed in the Council, the Commission proposal in particular requires that all additional costs for the industry, which are proven to have been caused by data retention obligations under the new Directive, will have to be reimbursed." As the investigations following the tragic events of Madrid in March 2004 and London in July 2005 clearly demonstrated, communications traffic data are essential for law enforcement agencies when investigating serious crime and terrorism because such data can disclose associations between persons and events by time and location. The retention of communications traffic data has therefore been identified by a number of different Council meetings as one of the most important instruments for preventing and combating (organised) crime and terrorism, most recently by the European Council of 16/17 June and, following the London attacks of 7 July, the extraordinary Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of 13 July. Fundamental rights aspects have been carefully weighed in the preparation of the proposal, and solid data protection rules will be applicable, given that the general and specific data protection provisions established under Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC will apply. The processing of such data will be under the full supervisory powers of the data protection authorities established in all Member States. The Directive is also fully in line with the European policy on consumer protection. The proposal has taken into account to a significant extent the ongoing works on an initiative from Member States for a Framework Decision on the same topic, which has been in discussion within the Council since April 2004. However, the Commission proposal is founded on a different legal basis (EC Treaty instead of EU Treaty), which means that the European Parliament will be fully involved in the decision making process. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

1 0

[IP] European Commission: data retention voice: 1 year and Internet 6
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

months X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.734) Reply-To: dave(a)farber.net Begin forwarded message:

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Re: Certicom? [...] [Fwd: NSA Turns To Commercial Software For Encryption]
by harley＠argote.ch 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

RAH wrote: > > FWIW, this is about going rate for RSA too, BTW. > Was. RSA's patent has expired. And ECC never has been and never can be patented. Some protocols and implementation methods are (just as they are for RSA etc.) >BTW, the only decent *software* ECC, FEE, is patented, by Apple. Are you serious? So many holes... so little time... Let's see. Are you talking about software or about technology? Re: Software; I have never seen FEE software lauded. Apple uses an implementation of it in MacOS... other than that... uh...??? Re: Technology; Apples uses it is as a minor PR opportunity to claim that they are doing crypto research. The patent is an abusive one on trivia (see below). One day Crandall thought of using simple primes in ECC (like about 1000 other people) and patented it. NeXT used this as a PR opportunity to claim that they had developed it on purpose to avoid licensing RSA. They also said anybody could use FEE without licensing it. Then Apple bought NeXT. Dunno what their position is but it is irrelevant. FEE is bog standard ECC over prime fields, using primes of the form p = 2^d-c with small c such as 2^233-3. This makes reduction simpler and speeds up operations a bit. It is absolutely trivial to pick other simple primes not covered by the patent, such as p = 2^248-2^100-1. All of the NIST curves over prime fields are of this form, such as p = 2^224-2^96+1. Personally, I would avoid such special cases anyway. Regards, Rob. .-. .-. / \ .-. .-. / \ / \ / \ .-. _ .-. / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / `-' `-' \ / \ / \ \ / `-' `-' \ / `-' `-' _______________________________________________ FoRK mailing list http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

1 0