- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Netscape SSL implementation is broken!
by norm＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:29 PM 9/17/95, Perry E. Metzger wrote: >Christian Wettergren writes: >> I guess we should send them the draft-ietf-security-randomness-00.txt >> asap. > >I thought that was an RFC by now. > >Perry It is! RFC 1750.

2 1

Code of Law
by anonymous＠robo.remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Financial Times, Sept 18, 1995. Code to deny the money launderer The International Bar Association will this week call for the establishment of a code of practice for lawyers worldwide to deny criminals access to legal services which facilitate money laundering. At the IBA's business law conference in Paris, which opens today, Professor Ross Harper, IBA president, will ask representatives from 167 bar associations to pass a motion supporting efforts to counter money laundering and for the creation of common professional standards on the issue. "We are anxious that there be no safe havens for the ill-gotten proceeds of criminal activities throughout the world," he said yesterday. Estimates put the amount of money laundered worldwide each year at more than 500 billion pounds. On such a scale it is possible for economies, world trade and global banking to be subverted by organised crime, the IBA says. The motion urges member bar associations to press their national governments to adopt the principal recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering set up in 1989 by the Group of Seven industrialised countries and the European Commission. Robert Rice, London ----- Newsweek, Sept 25, 1995. A Law of Their Own: Extremists create do-it-yourself courts. One day last month Wichita District Attorney Nola Foulston looked at her copy of the Daily Record, a trade newspaper, and was stunned to read that she had been subpoenaed. She was ordered to appear in District Court and produce her license to practice law. If she failed to appear, the sheriff would be directed to arrest her. Her alleged crime: holding public office. The subpoena was an unofficial document drafted and filed by a local man who had been charged with a misdemeanor for burning trash without a permit. Angered by the government interference, he joined a growing number of disgruntled Americans who think they've found a better arbiter ofjustice. He went to a "Common Law court, " one of the latest incarnations of the extremist right. Foulston ignored the subpoena. "I don't practice in false courts," she says. But they're growing. Common Law courts have sprung up in at least 11 states in the farm belt and the West over the last year, organized by a cross section of people bent on directly challenging government. In living rooms, bingo halls and convention centers, dozens gather weekly to form juries, present evidence and issue kangaroo-court indictments, liens, arrest warrants -- and even death sentences. None of this has the force of law. The movement is based on a mixture of crackpot conspiracy theories and bizarre interpretations of the U. S. Constitution, the Bible and the Magna Charta. In brief, its leaders preach that Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "bank holiday" edict of 1933, which temporarily shut down the nation's banks, stripped the country of its safeguards against tyranny. "When you get to digging into what's going on today, you have a government operating outside the Constitution," says David Schechter, a court organizer. Court members keep in touch on the Internet, swapping information, posting meetings and organizing court sessions . They also vent their views in a Texas magazine called the AntiShyster. Mostly white men form Common Law courts; many come from the militia movement. Some are closely aligned with white-supremacy and anti-Jewish groups. "The basic idea behind the movement," says University of Oregon history professor Richard Brown, "is 'popular sovereignty,' that people are above the law. These people are alienated from the legal system. To some extent it sounds like they're also trying to settle personal scores." Nuisance filings: At times, the movement spills out of its bogus courts and into real ones. Followers have tied up courts and IRS offices with thousands of pages of nuisance filings. Common Law court "marshals" have even burst into federal courtrooms wearing official-looking badges and uniforms to serve their papers. Last year in Garfield County, Mont., 36 men and women formed a Common Law court and briefly occupied a courthouse. Another court offered $1 million bounties for the arrest of local officials and threatened to hang them. Garfield County Attorney Nick Murnion charged some members of the Common Law court with "criminal syndicalism," alleging that the group had advocated acts of violence for political purposes. One court member was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Others received smaller sentences. Some members try to use the rump courts to reverse real ones. Favorite targets are divorce decrees and foreclosure notices. "People who don't want to or can't pay their bills are turning to something that tells them they don't have to." says Kansas City attorney Berry F. Laws III, who has been targeted by Common Law courts because he forecloses on farm mortgages for the Farmers Home Administration. This is a serious business, but it has elements of unintended burlesque. William Ellwood of Columbus. Ohio, joined up after his small business collapsed and he found that he still owed the Internal Revenue Service $5,100. Frustrated and annoyed, he took to researching the Constitution and concluded that he was living in a land that infringed on his personal liberty. One thing led to another until he found himself ticketed by a police officer for weaving on a highway. His reading of the Constitution made the ticket null and void. "What we're saying," he patiently explains, "is the motor-vehicle laws are laws of commerce. I don't use the laws for private gain, so why do I have to be stopped?" Ellwood eventually paid the ticket, but not before he and a small group of like-minded citizens reached out to organizer Schechter. Now they meet every Tuesday to have their day in a court of their own making. Thomas Heath in Denver and Connie Leslie -----

4 3

Re: "alt.cypherpunks" Newsgroup vs. Mailing List?
by jgrubs＠left.webcasters.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

hallam(a)w3.org writes: > > >Should there be an "alt.cypherpunks" type of newsgroup instead of this > >mailing list? > > Bad idea, it would simply mean that every kook on USEnet would add > alt.cypherpunks onto the crossposting line. We would have black helicopters, > loons, Waco Wako's, Loonytarians and turkish government propaganda spamming > forever. Hey, create the alt. group and let it draw the kooks. Nobody said WE have to read it. We can stay here as usual... -- WebCasters(tm) James C. Grubs jgrubs(a)left.webcasters.com 6817 Maplewood Avenue Tel.: 419-882-2697 Sylvania, Oh 43560 Fax: 419-885-2814 Internet consulting, HTML programming, Information brokering

1 0

Re: "Hackers"-- brief review and anecdote...
by Steven Levy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It's my impression that the play was staged a few years after my book came out in 1984 (though I chose the title in 1982). I remember reading the reviews then, and they didn't seem to mention that it was a revivial of a years-old play whose name I had unintentially used for my own book. (Unlike the case for the current movie, whose screenwriter seemed to know of my own book.) If you have evidence that the play was indeed produced before 1984, please let me know. Otherwise, I'd be happy to accept your apology, Peter. On Mon, 18 Sep 1995, Peter Trei wrote: > > > >I saw "Hackers" yesterday. It's not bad and its political sensibility is > > >very cyberpunk. The ad campaign even uses the tag line, "Their only crime > > >is curiosity." > > > It may not be a crime, but it's not nice to steal a title. > > You mean, like you stole it from Dale Luck's (duck@mit oz) stage play of the same name? > I saw this (in an Off-Off-Broadway production), years before your book came > out. > > > > > Peter Trei > Senior Software Engineer > Purveyor Development Team > Process Software Corporation > http://www.process.com > trei(a)process.com >

2 1

Re: "Hackers"-- brief review and anecdote...
by Peter Trei 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> It's my impression that the play was staged a few years after my book > came out in 1984 (though I chose the title in 1982). I remember reading > the reviews then, and they didn't > seem to mention that it was a revivial of a years-old play whose name I had > unintentially used for my own book. (Unlike the case for the current > movie, whose screenwriter seemed to know of my own book.) If > you have evidence that the play was indeed produced before 1984, please > let me know. Otherwise, I'd be happy to accept your apology, Peter. > > On Mon, 18 Sep 1995, Peter Trei wrote: > > > >I saw "Hackers" yesterday. It's not bad and its political sensibility is > > > >very cyberpunk. The ad campaign even uses the tag line, "Their only crime > > > >is curiosity." > > > It may not be a crime, but it's not nice to steal a title. > > You mean, like you stole it from Dale Luck's (duck@mit oz) stage play of the same name? > > I saw this (in an Off-Off-Broadway production), years before your book came > > out. If I'm wrong (and I would not be suprised - I'm relying on fuzzy memories here), please consider my abject apology tendered. Namespace collisions seem to happen quite frequently in titles. I can remember when TMC made a big deal out their intention to air 'Brainstorm", the 1983 film with Natalie Wood. I settled down to watch, and up came a black and white movie with a totally different plot - it turned out they had been sent the 1965 film of that name, and no one had checked. Looking in the (ex)Cardiff film database, I note that there is now a 3rd movie of the title (1994). A couple weeks ago my daughter was making a big deal about wanting to watch 'The Red Shoes" on Disney. I was thinking of the 1948 ballet movie, and told her I didn't think she'd like it. She insisted, and it turned out to be a 30 minute (and charming in cloying sort of way) cartoon. Peter Trei Senior Software Engineer Purveyor Development Team Process Software Corporation http://www.process.com trei(a)process.com

1 0

DCSB: "A Middleware Guy Looks at Issues in Digital Commerce"
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Digital Commerce Society of Boston (Formerly The Boston Society for Digital Commerce) Presents Rich Salz Open Software Foundation "A Middleware Guy Looks at Issues in Digital Commerce" Tuesday, December 5, 1995 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA Rich has been with OSF for nearly four years, where he has been the technical lead of the OSF DCE 1.1 and 1.2 releases. He is also helping write the secure multi-threaded WWW server for the DCE-Web project. He has been active in Usenet, and is the author of INN, one of the most popular Usenet/NNTP implementations. His home page is http://www.osf.org/~rsalz. Rich says: >In the rush to separate lift even more money out of your wallet >-- sorry, to provide consumers with more choice and opportunity >-- the electronic commerce community has largely been ignoring >issues that the distributed systems field has been trying to >address for years. This meeting of the Boston Society for Digital Commerce will be held on Tuesday, December 5, 1995 from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $27.50. This price includes lunch, room rental, and the speaker's lunch. ;-). The Harvard Club *does* have a jacket and tie dress code. We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, December 2 (that's two weeks from this Saturday), or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent back. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, c/o The Shipwright Development Corporation, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they must be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston". If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had to work with a few glacial A/P departments ourselves, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. January's speaker will be Art Hutchinson of Northeast Consulting Resources, Inc. We are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, and you would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the BSDC Program Commmittee, care of Robert Hettinga, rah(a)shipwright.com . For more information about the Boston Society for Digital Commerce, send "info bsdc" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu . If you want to subscribe to the BSDC e-mail list, send "subscribe bsdc" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu . Looking forward to seeing you there! Cheers, Bob Hettinga Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMKooW/gyLN8bw6ZVAQFMAQP+MQn6wlKxMVHekN1mruUrwILBR0KTcxSK RQo7ELRJAP0aEiEskio3bphrgCpWgxKHJn9KP3YEHuNbwwXZGVzVTlijvzmbVksf ybtAsspMERb/9yWOe4AT69R/hSTAjEkzCwx86iP4FbjBccPiQPQD1eKJ+4C4obW+ WFuq7mpizeU= =J6UH -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 958-3971 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell The e$ Home Page: http://www.webstuff.apple.com/~vinnie/Rah >>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf(a)clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<

1 0

So. FL Cypherpunks Keysigning/Party
by liberty＠gate.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Greetings South Florida cypherpunks-- All cypherpunks in or near Dade county who wish to meet will be getting together at 7:30PM on Wednesday, November 29th. In keeping with past South Florida cypherpunks tradition, we are going to meet where the _beer_ is, and (better yet!) this South Florida cypherpunks meeting will coincide with the monthly meeting of the Miami Area Society of Homebrewers ("M.A.S.H.") at the Abbey Brewing Company on Miami Beach. This bar serves a selection of barsnacks, not quite as extensive as the food at The Riverwalk Brewery, but at least they aren't going out of business... Location: The Abbey Brewing Company (305) 538-8110 1115 16th Street, Miami Beach Directions: [From North: Take I-95 South to 195 exit, over to the beach, and go South on Alton Road. Look for a green sign that says "BAR" atop the building.] [From South: Take I-95 North to 395 exit, over to the beach, and go North on Alton Road. Look for a green sign that says "BAR" atop the building.] I will be bringing the videotape of the "Mitchells In The Morning" talkshow featuring PRZ that I mentioned a while ago, but The Abbey has no VCR, and the atmosphere might not be right for a showing. Because the meeting is on Miami Beach, folks from far away are urged to carpool or use Tri-rail to Metrorail and then get a ride from Jim Ray (I will try to stay *somewhat* sober). e-mail <liberty(a)gate.net> for ride or carpool details & I'll try to coordinate the transportation aspect of the meeting for those in need of a ride. Joe Block <jpb(a)miamisci.org> is willing to coordinate the keysigning aspect of the meeting, and he will post in a few days. JMR -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Freedom isn't Freeh iQCVAwUBMKoxZm1lp8bpvW01AQHLywP/YUWrjYBGyhTXVNyJa05WrUZPtZcNx2sK e6Q0Zc4CYm2q3y5Xq2jdOz8pql95y2L/anSNAJS3zdAR4SFpGR45ZxNtLXy1YU6r 6KDCwPpjoJ4+aUdXrfcW/2DR3BMatHIy25I26SqWmwiVSFRvjIBEH9PO73QA9c7Z Yo5nKaDvRu0= =oRZQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Regards, Jim Ray "...the politicians have been arguing over whether to increase the budget enormously or just hugely. The news media refer to this process as 'cutting' the budget." -- Dave Barry Visit my "Pretty Good Homepage" at http://shopmiami.com/prs/jimray/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PGP key Fingerprint 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 Key id. # E9BD6D35 (key on page & servers) <liberty(a)gate.net> IANAL ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Phil! email zldf(a)clark.net or http://www.netresponse.com/zldf _______________________________________________________________________

1 0

Re: Hardware-random-bits interface
by jimbell＠pacifier.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I've been thinking about physically random bits recently, so >I'd like to offer a simple, easily implementable interface to a >source of such bits, along with a design sketch using a common >radio receiver chip as the noise source. The interface consists >of two bits in the standard PC parallel port, one serving as >the data line and the other the sampling clock. [stuff deleted] > Device probing: the device should somehow identify itself > as a random bit generator. One way to do this is to wire > one of the parallel port data bits to a status line; for > example, data bit 0 (pin 2) could be wired to status bit 5 > (pin 12). Software can then twiddle the data bit and > watch for the response. I'm not a crypto expert, or a mathematician, or anything like that, but I think I have a few suggestions that you should consider. 1. DON'T let the random-number generator "know" that it is being accessed, even with something as simple as a clock. The reason is that if it became important enough, an agency with a BIG BUDGET could make a custom chip that implemented the same apparently-random function, (but might really be a 10**18 state machine with, say, only 10**6 starting positions) but could be "alerted" and reset by a specific pattern of external accesses, possibly activated by a special-purpose virus. The resulting "fake" chip would appear to result in random output, if never reset, but would produce a data stream with a predictable series with a limited number of starting points. 2. Since the main goal of the project is to have this end up being an ECONOMICAL board, you'll probably end up with a data stream which has some sort of slight bias in one direction or another. As far as I can see, that's okay, because it merely means that you're getting somewhat less than one bit of randomness with each accessed bit. But as I understand it, the solution to this is to combine the bits in software so that you end up with fewer bits. While it's been months since I've read Schneier's book, I recall that it talked about extracting more-perfectly-randomized bits from a larger collection of not-quite-so-randomized ones. 3. In addition, for most trustworthy results, I think you should XOR the resulting data with a long-period pseudorandom stream of bits derived and modified from some reasonably random inputs, such as keystroke timings and free-running-system-clock bits. The reason is that (as far as this neophyte knows) a stream of GOOD randomized numbers XOR'ed with a stream of reasonably randomized numbers results in a stream at least as randomized as the better source. More importantly, such a procedure should help deter any attempt to corrupt the physically-random source, because even going to that trouble of subverting it they'd only defeat only one stage in the process. 4. I think the user should be given the option of socketing the IC's. True, that would make it easier for an interloper to replace, but it would also allow the user to quickly swap the critical chips, possibly at intervals of a few days to a few weeks, to partially guard against sabotage. 5. The whole assemblage should be able to be stored in a package sealed with evidence tape.

1 0

Canada (was Re: Regulation of citizen-alien communications (Was: Choices))
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Attributions lost in the flow] > >Oh? You mean that I can get busted for giving my Canadian spouse a copy > >of PGP? > > > > Nah - Canada is America's 51st state :-) Until you try to bring your laptop back across the border. On a recent trip, I was actually stopped at customs and asked about my 4 year old Dell. Of course, I had purchased it in the US, but I didn't even want to think about the .. er .. things that I had on the hard drive. Linux with pgp, cfs, ssh, and a number of other interesting packages installed. Should I have been worried? yup

1 0

information on SSL brute force hacks wanted
by sameer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm putting together the hack netscape promotion (I still need to find someone to design the t-shirt) and need to know some information. 1) Who wrote the sslbrute software package and keyserver? Who managed the distributed cracking event? 2) Who broke Hal's first challenge? Please send me names email addresses and URLs. If you know of other people who you think deserve recognition for hacking netscape products, contact me. To see the page while under construction look at http://www.c2.org/hacknetscape -- please don't link to it, as it is obviously under construction. -- sameer Voice: 510-601-9777 Network Administrator FAX: 510-601-9734 Community ConneXion: The NEXUS-Berkeley Dialin: 510-658-6376 http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest") sameer(a)c2.org

1 0