- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Netscape responds.
by droelke＠rdxsunhost.aud.alcatel.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Netscape now has an article on their home page about the latest break in their security. Dan ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Oelke Alcatel Network Systems droelke(a)aud.alcatel.com Richardson, TX

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NT and C2
by Weld Pond 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Here is the URL to an article in Network World by Winn Schwartau entitled, "One expert shares his views on Microsoft securitey features. http://www.iquest.net/cgi-bin/gate2?|mmMgT008://bbb.PHDx10.ix0/ibLD1P7i/ExU… If you need a username/password try cypherpunks/cypherpunks Here is an excerpt: Since Microsoft Corp. products are usually robust, I was looking forward to seeing what type of security features the company implemented in Windows NT Workstation Version 3.5. But after walking through the system with Microsoft product managers and developers, I was dismayed to find how woefully short on security features Windows NT is. Despite the fact that the U.S. government is expected to certify Windows NT as a secure operating system, Microsoft's first serious venture into security is not very impressive. Windows NT may pass muster with the federal government, but it does not meet the real-world security needs of corporations running complex, heterogeneous networked environments. Weld Pond - weld(a)l0pht.com - http://www.l0pht.com/~weld L 0 p h t H e a v y I n d u s t r i e s Technical archives for the people - Bio/Electro/Crypto/Radio

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NetManage - Cylink Press Announcement
by Bob Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There are quite a few open issues regarding the reliability, interoperability, and licensing of public key technology. All parties interested in access to code for testing and comment please respond to this email address. Thanks Bob ------------ NETMANAGE, Inc. Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Donna Loughlin, NetManage, (408) 973-7171 Donna(a)netmanage.com NetManage Licenses Public Key Cryptography from CYLINK The Two Firms to Promote an Open Interface for Internet Security which Corrects Flaws and Eliminates Financial and Interoperability Barriers for Cryptography. Cupertino, California - September 19, 1995- NetManage, the leader in TCP/IP Applications for Windows and Internet productivity software, announced today that is has signed a licensing agreement with CYLINK Corporation for technology which incorporates the fundamental patents covering public key cryptography. NetManage will be providing support for public key authentication and data encryption as a fundamental component of its Chameleon Enterprise strategy. The two firms further announced that they plan to provide support for an open interface for Internet security which will address recent flaws found in cryptographic implementations used by Netscape Communications and other unpublicized security holes in existing Internet security protocols. The standard is further intended to eliminate the financial and interoperability barriers that have been holding back widespread use of public key cryptography on the Internet. In a separate announcement released yesterday, CYLINK announced that it had prevailed in a patent lawsuit with RSA Data Security which found that RSA had infringed U.S. patents held by CYLINK which cover all known implementations of public key technology. About Internet Security ----------------------- Establishing a secure Internet connection requires any computer software program to perform two functions: Authentication of the user, and bulk encryption of data. The Authentication phase allows two computers to verify that each party is who they claim to be, and that they are authorized to enter into a secure communications session. This is done via 'public key' technology, which was developed and patented originally by Stanford University and licensed exclusively by CYLINK Corporation. During the authentication phase the two computers also agree upon the encryption method to be used for bulk data transfer during the time the two computers are communicating data between one another. These ciphers can be implemented in either software or hardware, including PCMCIA cards. Popular encryption ciphers include DES, Triple-DES, SAFER, IDEA, Skipjack, RC-2 and RC-4 and are available from a variety of software and hardware vendors. Limitations of Current Internet Security Standards -------------------------------------------------- Current implementations of security protocols proposed as standards by Netscape Communications and RSA Data Security, Inc. include security flaws and fail to fully accommodate open and interoperable secure communications between computers which use different bulk encryption ciphers. These problems have limited the adoption of Internet security as a widespread interoperable feature of all Internet software and hardware products including end-user applications, servers, firewalls, and secure routers. NetManage and CYLINK, along with other major software and hardware developers, will be announcing next week the release of a publicly available security implementation which allows for plug & play interoperability for users of Internet security, and the endorsement of protocol extensions which improve the reliability of current proposed Internet security standards. This open implementation will not lock software or hardware developers into the use of encryption technology from any one vendor. Related APIs, key exchange technology, and encryption will be made publicly available to other software and hardware developers. Licensing will include source code and no per-copy royalty fees. About NetManage --------------- NetManage Inc., the fastest growing software company in the United States, develops markets and supports an integrated set of Internet-based applications, servers and development tools for Microsoft Windows, Windows 95 and Windows NT. NetManage software allows corporations to facilitate communication, sharing of information and collaboration between workgroups using Internet technology. The company's award winning products include Chameleon, Internet Chameleon and ECCO. NetManage is a public company, whose shares are traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol NETM. Its products are sold world-wide by NetManage's direct sales force and authorized channel partners. About CYLINK ------------ CYLINK Corporation is the worlds largest provider of enterprise-wide network information security products and wireless communications. CYLINK is the exclusive holder of the fundamental patents which broadly claim the invention of public-key cryptography (Diffie-Hellman, Hellman-Merkle, and Helman-Pohling) and which were originally developed at Stanford University. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, CYLINK serves Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions and government agencies. Licensees of CYLINK technology include CISCO Systems, and other prominent hardware and software developers. # # #

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Re: Cylink
by Andrew Loewenstern 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

anonymous claims the WSJ said: > The arbitrators ruled that RSA hasn't had the right to sublicense > the Stanford patents since 1990. > > Cylink said it would seek royalties from companies that have licensed > software code from RSA and are redistributing it, arguing that they > are infringing the Stanford patents. hahahaha, this is funny if it's true... Anyone know which two patents they are referring to? (diffie-hellman and merkle-hellman?) Any ideas on how this will change the legal status of RSAREF and PGP? andrew

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A Netscape Server implementation error
by Andrew Roos 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi Sameer Thanks in advance for the T-shirt, and I like the Web site. On the subject of Netscape implementation errors, I note that the SSL protocol specification states in section 5.6.1 (CLIENT-MASTER-KEY) that "It is also an error if CLEAR-KEY-LENGTH is non-zero and the the CIPHER-KIND is not an export cipher". However, I note that Netscape Commerce Server 1.1 will happily accept a "secure" connection using the non-export cipher SSL_CK_RC4_128_WITH_MD5, even if the CLEAR-KEY-LENGTH is set to 16 and the *entire* master key is sent unencrypted. Here is an extract from an SSL session with www.netscape.com which illustrates the oversight: ------------------------------- Start of Session --------------------------- (1) The session was initialised as normal, and the following values were exchanged in the SERVER-HELLO and CLIENT-HELLO: Challenge: a2 ff 2e 94 8d f9 f4 e2 2c f6 bd ae 7f 47 db 6c Connection id: ef 47 3b 44 db d9 8d 1a f0 da 3e 14 73 97 a3 1f (2) I then sent the following CLIENT-MASTER-KEY message, which is reproduced in full: SSL Record Header: 80 9a Message type: SSL_MT_CLIENT_MASTER_KEY 02 Cipher kind: SSL_CK_RC4_128_WITH_MD5 01 00 80 Clear key length: 16 00 10 Encypted key length: 128 bytes 00 80 Key arg length: 0 00 00 Clear key data: the *entire* master key sent in the clear af 24 2e e8 2b b1 75 d1 27 a2 b8 76 8b 49 c3 f3 Encrypted key: this is a zero-length block formatted using PKCS#1 block type 2 and encrypted under Netscape's public key. Since it contains no data, an eavesdropper would not need to decrypt it in order to decrypt the rest of the session. af 24 2e e8 2b b1 75 d1 27 a2 b8 76 8b 49 c3 f3 9b 9b 0b ff cd e8 2f 2c 0d 16 4e 90 73 26 4e e7 e0 3f 45 8a ce 9a 21 d6 2a 6b b8 9a 20 4e bc cf d0 01 36 86 1c db e0 8b a8 e3 4c 9b 15 11 ea 95 b1 50 3f c9 42 9a 97 77 0f 9d 29 97 7e 87 1b 8f 77 b6 c9 c6 53 90 5b 74 4c 92 99 62 ad 8b bf 4c 28 ac 1b 11 32 64 56 c9 f0 d5 6f c9 89 6b 55 3f b9 42 aa 7b 7c f0 a1 89 93 22 13 46 e2 58 63 23 b2 51 83 92 76 46 05 65 87 86 5b 52 5a d1 02 ee (3) I calculated the session keys in the normal manner, using the master key which was sent entirely in the clear. The result was: Client read key: 14 3e 84 a6 54 57 d6 51 94 cf 54 f5 5a 29 4a ef Client write key: 9d e1 16 77 92 ee 89 f2 2d 30 c2 a2 e1 77 9f 5d (4) Instead of disconnecting, the Netscape server sent the following reply (the header has been removed): 28 40 00 75 b8 d6 60 68 f5 cf ba 65 78 49 35 83 d3 3a b5 d3 81 23 2d f8 7d c6 f8 47 4d 0c 62 c3 b4 This was decrypted using the client read key to give the following SERVER_VERIFY message: Message Authentication Code: 7b 95 2a 84 a1 55 fc 59 32 6b 53 ec e0 1d 80 4a Message type: SSL_MT_SERVER_VERIFY 05 Challenge data (which agrees with the challenge sent in the CLIENT-HELLO): a2 ff 2e 94 8d f9 f4 e2 2c f6 bd ae 7f 47 db 6c (5) The negotiation phase of the protocol was concluded with encrypted CLIENT-FINISHED and SERVER_FINISHED messages as per normal. (6) I sent the encrypted HTTP command "GET / HTTP/1.0" and received the following text (after decryption, stripping MAC and header, etc: HTTP/1.0 200 OK Server: Netscape-Commerce/1.1 Date: Tuesday, 19-Sep-95 21:15:23 GMT Last-modified: Tuesday, 19-Sep-95 21:14:09 GMT Content-length: 5278 Content-type: text/html Followed by the Netscape home page, which included the following statement: Find out how Netscape is responding immediately to upgrade customers and minimize risk of future threats. (7) Having obtained the warm, fuzzy feeling I so desired, I closed the connection secure in the knowledge that my secrets were safe with Netscape. -------------------------------- End of Session ----------------------------- This shows that Commerce Server 1.1 is prepared to accept a "secure" connection which is completely insecure as the entire master key has been sent in the clear and an eavesdropper could decrypt the session without any cryptanalysis. This does not mean that sessions between "well-behaved" browsers and Netscape servers are insecure, since the browser will send all 16 bytes of the key encrypted. Neither could it be used for an active attack, since if a new master was substituted for the one sent by the client, this would be detected during authentication of the SERVER-VERIFY message. However, it would provide an opportunity for a malicious browser supplier to "doctor" secure browsers so that they sent all (or part) of the master key in the clear, even when using non-export ciphers. (Of course there are better ways to do this; the "random padding" of PKCS block type 2 comes to mind). Although this is not nearly as important a result as Ian and Davids, it is the first server hack, so can I have another T shirt? :-) Andrew ________________________________________________________________ Andrew Roos <andrewr(a)vironix.co.za> // C++ programmers have class (but not much inheritance) PGP Fingerprint: F6 D4 04 6E 4E 16 80 59 3A F2 27 94 8B 9F 40 26 Full key at ftp://ftp.vironix.co.za/PGP-keys/AndrewRoos

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http://www.c2.org/hacknetscape/critique.phtml
by sameer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

My response to netscape's press release. -- sameer Voice: 510-601-9777 Community ConneXion FAX: 510-601-9734 An Internet Privacy Provider Dialin: 510-658-6376 http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest") sameer(a)c2.org

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Re: Crypto + Economics + AI = Digital Money Economies
by szabo＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I wholeheartedly agree with Tim that economics should play an important role in analyzing cryptographic protocols. It lets us step back and ask what features are important, and in general what we are trying to accomplish: usually something very different than the military uses of cryptography that have given rise to the current methodologies. To economics, especially game theory, I add a vast body of knowledge about human relationships, especially those involving commerce, that civilization has accumulated over the years: law, especially business law. If we step back and look at what many cypherpunks are trying to achieve, a major idealistic theme is a Ghandian cyberspace where violence can only be make-believe, whether in Mortal Komat or "flame wars". Cypherpunks want our telephone networks, Internet businesses, etc. to be both protected from force, and not dependent on force for their existence. Our 20th century information commerce systems, from publishing to credit cards, have often been very dependent on the threat of violence, usually law enforcement, to protect intellectual property rights, deter fraud, collect debts, etc. There is no utopia in sight where such threats can be completely eliminated, but we can recognize that they exist and carefully work to reduce our dependence on them. In a far more practical vein, the dawn of international commercial networks that criss-cross hundreds of jurisdictions with complex, obscure, and often contradictory regulations, gives rise to a vast market opportunity for substituting, where possible, network security mechanisms for law enforcement dependencies. The recent discoveries in cryptographic protocols provide us with a rich toolbox for solving these problems. Perhaps the most fundamental building block of business law is the contract. Strongly related to Tim's ontology of money is an area I have developed quite extensively called _smart contracts_. The terms of contractual relationships can often be formalized and standardized, and then performed via network-based protocols. These protocols, along with economic incentives, protect the performance of the contract from both fraud by the principals and attack from third parties. This is also the basic task of law enforcement in commercial law; thus smart contracts when successful reduce dependence on law enforcement as well as losses to fraud and cracking. Of special interest to cryptologists is that the principles of contract provide us with a methodology for the use of cryptography that is very different from, and potentially far more lucrative than, the traditional military paradigm. I have much more to say about these things in my essays under http://www.digicash.com/~nick/, and in a forthcoming article for _Extropy_. Nick Szabo szabo(a)netcom.com

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New Kid On The Block
by Aleph One 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Aleph One / aleph1(a)dfw.net http://underground.org/ KeyID 1024/948FD6B5 Fingerprint EE C9 E8 AA CB AF 09 61 8C 39 EA 47 A8 6A B8 01 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 19 Sep 95 14:25:20 PDT From: Bob Williams <bobw(a)netmanage.com> To: "Larry J. Hughes Jr." <hughes(a)indiana.edu>, Adam Shostack <adam(a)bwh.harvard.edu> Cc: ssl-talk(a)netscape.com Subject: Re: details on security bug? The problems with SSL extend beyond the random number generation hole widely publicized in the press today. SSL 2.0 poses both financial and interoperability barriers to widespread use of Cryptography that will be addressed in the very near future. ------------------------------- NETMANAGE, Inc. Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Donna Loughlin, NetManage, (408) 973-7171 Donna(a)netmanage.com NetManage Licenses Public Key Cryptography from CYLINK The Two Firms to Promote an Open Interface for Internet Security which Corrects Flaws and Eliminates Financial and Interoperability Barriers for Cryptography. Cupertino, California - September 19, 1995- NetManage, the leader in TCP/IP Applications for Windows and Internet productivity software, announced today that is has signed a licensing agreement with CYLINK Corporation for technology which incorporates the fundamental patents covering public key cryptography. NetManage will be providing support for public key authentication and data encryption as a fundamental component of its Chameleon Enterprise strategy. The two firms further announced that they plan to provide support for an open interface for Internet security which will address recent flaws found in cryptographic implementations used by Netscape Communications and other unpublicized security holes in existing Internet security protocols. The standard is further intended to eliminate the financial and interoperability barriers that have been holding back widespread use of public key cryptography on the Internet. In a separate announcement released yesterday, CYLINK announced that it had prevailed in a patent lawsuit with RSA Data Security which found that RSA had infringed U.S. patents held by CYLINK which cover all known implementations of public key technology. About Internet Security ----------------------- Establishing a secure Internet connection requires any computer software program to perform two functions: Authentication of the user, and bulk encryption of data. The Authentication phase allows two computers to verify that each party is who they claim to be, and that they are authorized to enter into a secure communications session. This is done via public key technology, which was developed and patented originally by Stanford University and licensed exclusively by CYLINK Corporation. During the authentication phase the two computers also agree upon the encryption method to be used for bulk data transfer during the time the two computers are communicating data between one another. These ciphers can be implemented in either software or hardware, including PCMCIA cards. Popular encryption ciphers include DES, Triple-DES, SAFER, IDEA, Skipjack, RC-2 and RC-4 and are available from a variety of software and hardware vendors. Limitations of Current Internet Security Standards -------------------------------------------------- Current implementations of security protocols proposed as standards by Netscape Communications and RSA Data Security, Inc. include security flaws and fail to fully accommodate open and interoperable secure communications between computers which use different bulk encryption ciphers. These problems have limited the adoption of Internet security as a widespread interoperable feature of all Internet software and hardware products including end-user applications, servers, firewalls, and secure routers. NetManage and CYLINK, along with other major software and hardware developers, will be announcing next week the release of a publicly available security implementation which allows for plug & play interoperability for users of Internet security, and the endorsement of protocol extensions which improve the reliability of current proposed Internet security standards. This open implementation will not lock software or hardware developers into the use of encryption technology from any one vendor. Related APIs, key exchange technology, and encryption will be made publicly available to other software and hardware developers. Licensing will include source code and no per-copy royalty fees. About NetManage --------------- NetManage Inc., the fastest growing software company in the United States, develops markets and supports an integrated set of Internet-based applications, servers and development tools for Microsoft Windows, Windows 95 and Windows NT. NetManage software allows corporations to facilitate communication, sharing of information and collaboration between workgroups using Internet technology. The company's award winning products include Chameleon, Internet Chameleon and ECCO. NetManage is a public company, whose shares are traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol NETM. Its products are sold world-wide by NetManage's direct sales force and authorized channel partners. About CYLINK ------------ CYLINK Corporation is the worlds largest provider of enterprise-wide network information security products and wireless communications. CYLINK is the exclusive holder of the fundamental patents which broadly claim the invention of public-key cryptography (Diffie-Hellman, Hellman-Merkle, and Helman-Pohling) and which were originally developed at Stanford University. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, CYLINK serves Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions and government agencies. Licensees of CYLINK technology include CISCO Systems, and other prominent hardware and software developers. # # #

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Public Key Partners Dissolved!!!!!
by Standing Turtle 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CYLINK CLAIMS SHARE OF RSA TECHNOLOGY An arbitration ruling has awarded Cylink Corp. control over two Stanford University patents on public-key encryption technology used by RSA Data Security Inc. following the dissolution of the companies' five-year partnership. Cylink says it plans to seek royalties from companies that have licensed the software code from RSA and are redistributing it. The arbitrators ruled that RSA's right to sublicense the software expired in 1990. (Wall Street Journal 19 Sep 95 B7)

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Change of address {No crypto content}
by Michael Froomkin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Just to announce that I have a new address. No more VAX/VMS, hello Unix. Donations of nice procmail files, and unix hints for the re-clueless (I last had an account on a Unix machine in 1980), most welcome. If you send me mail in the next few days and I don't reply, it's either because I fiddled wrong, or because I couldn't find a terminal in Pittsburg. A. Michael Froomkin | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) Associate Professor of Law | PLEASE NOTE NEW E-MAIL: U. Miami School of Law | froomkin(a)law.miami.edu P.O. Box 248087 | Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's hot here. A HOME AT LAST: http://viper.law.miami.edu/~froomkin

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