- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Still more on the Digicash protocol
by Rev. Mark Grant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Thu, 7 Dec 1995, Mark Twain Ecash Support wrote: > >Anyhow, the obvious solution is encryption. Our new observation is > >that encrypting deposits & cancellations with the mint's public key > >is not enough to solve the problem. > [Argument in support of claim elided... I am not conviced.] I think he means you shouldn't use a stream cipher like RC4 that XORs the plaintext with the generated keystream, since if you know part of the plaintext, you can XOR those bytes with (the id you want) XOR (the id being sent) and change the encrypted data so that the payment goes into your account and not theirs. This is a tough, but potentially feasible attack if you use that kind of encryption scheme. Is there anywhere that you could use a similar attack on SSL ? Mark

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Re: Solution for US/Foreign Software?
by Oliver Huf 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> or rational here.) The issue is that, unless written very carefully, > the crypto-less software is a "component of a cryptosystem", > and therefore still requires permission to export. Thanks for the hint. Oli.

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Re: Assassination Politics(tm) was V-chips, CC, and Motorcycle Helmets
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 01:45 PM 3/9/96 -0500, Jean-Francois Avon (JFA Technologies, QC, Canada) wrote: >>At 10:42 PM 3/8/96 -0800, Bill Frantz wrote: >>>(1) Assassination Politics (AP) will be most useful to a fired-up group of >>>people who want to silence a single person. Madeline Murray O'Hare comes >>>to mind. (She was a Texas atheist who challenged school prayer and won.) > >I quote this text as an example of an ongoing thought process in >the analysis of the AP scheme. A little statistical mechanics >would not hurt here. The above example shows *one* possible >interaction between two entities, each having their own charac- >teristics leading to a given inter- action. But in all theses >examples, the specific variables that is forgotten is the time >variable. > >What will be the *dynamic* characteristics of such a system. > - the above paragraph describe an interaction in a given > direction. > - what are the others interactions that could *speed up* the > above process > - what are the others interactions that could *slow down* the > above process >Any analysis of the problem that blanks out the >probability of occurence (which happens in the time domain) of >each partial reaction cannot describe the outcome of the scheme. Ever since I started publicizing my "Assassination Politics" idea, I've noticed that self-selected opponents of this idea frequently invent these hypothetical scenarios to try to criticize it. Now, I can't deny that any given scenario can happen, but I respond that I don't believe that it would occur very frequently, and I usually give reasons why. I don't normally get any kind of challenge to this: They've shot their wad, so to speak. >Proponents of such a scheme should stick a bit more to crypto... Well, I agree, but keep in mind that the text you quoted above was apparently written by a critic, not a proponent. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com Klaatu Burada Nikto -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMUH8TPqHVDBboB2dAQG68QP/Uzlblek07Fihu73pDWw/Tf50QK92x4hY j6qeP0lgnFjn4Y2k3ELYv4DbxpJi5vJM4Z/7CIZZaWJnHSeoT9QBF9D3GG88N/5q OjGN1Wwe3b4wHmuaEPen5CWEUfAFFE51zdlBknjYWUBqBKOsZ9lfqoMCKGysqshR gW9UH9zicsA= =qubI -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Who Protects Us from the "Protectors?"
by tallpaul＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Who Protects Us from the "Protectors?" The Case of Father Ritter from Covenant House (and the Relevance to the Crypto/G.A.K. Debate) The issue of the need to "protect children" is used as a major attack on quality crypto. The "kiddie pornographers" are described as one of the "four horsemen" who will, we are told, hide behind the crypto. Yet a review of the character and activities (medically, psychotherapeutically, ethically) of the very child protectors shows a tendency for some to be involved in the very activities they are ostensibly opposing. Worse, the public reputations built not infrequently serve to shield the individuals against public investigation of their own sexual activities. Father Bruce Ritter, one founder of Covenant House, is an example. Covenant House was originally started in New York City and located in the 42nd St. Times Square "porn district." The announced purpose of the organization was to protect runaway youth, arriving in NYC at the nearby interstate bus station, from sexual and other predations by the Square's denizens. Ritter soon developed a national reputation as a leading child protector. He was, for example, appointed a member of the President's Commission on Pornography ("Meese Commission.") There was only one fly in the ointment: Fr. Ritter was sexually involved with the very youth he was "protecting." So Ritter's anti-sexual persona (no sex education, "just say 'no'," anti-condom distribution, anti-birth control, anti- abortion, clerical celibacy, anti-porn) covered his sexual practices. Ritter's fundraising to protect the children raised money for his hotel rooms. Worse, his public persona served to protect him as charges of his sexual proclivities surfaced. Ritter's supporters in the "save the children" coalitions did not investigate Ritter. They attacked the youth bringing charges against their saint. Some critics were charged with being fronts for the Times Square porn industry. Others had their honesty and their sanity questioned. Only when additional charges from additional youth surfaced and journalists "followed the money" trail did the true story of Ritter's sexual proclivities and masquerade develop. Critics of quality crypto and the internet demand that supporters of these things answer questions about what the supporters are doing to fight the "kiddie porn" forces. We should ask them the same question(s) about their own movement. Equally we should demand answers to the question of what they are doing to expose forces -- like Ritter -- who use the "protect the children" industry as camouflage for the very predations the industry ostensibly exists to fight.

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Re: Inherent Insecurity of Internet Commerce! (was RE: SecretClearance)
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"pete(a)loshin.com" "Pete Loshin" 7-DEC-1995 14:37:13.07 OK, I'll try again. First, as I recall, SECRET clearance is actually not very high: when I got it, I had to answer a bunch of questions (do you abuse illegal drugs? are you now or have you ever been a member of any organizations? have you ever been _arrested_ for anything?) ---------------------- I suspect I know what organizations they're interested in (CPUSA et al), but did they ask about any specific organizations? -Allen

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Multiple questions
by liberty＠gate.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hello again cypherpunks: [In order to conserve bandwidth, I am going to ask for 5 things at once which have nothing to do with each-other in this post. Please reply to me privately if it's at all possible. <liberty(a)gate.net> ] 1. I have searched the archives for the author/artist of the "Rose on Random Bits" logo, and I have e-mailed many cypherpunks "old-timers" with no luck. [The logo appears at the top of the archives, but I am well aware that, as an anarchy, cypherpunks has no "official logo."] I have seen a number of beautiful logos during this search, but no- body has pointed me to the author of this particular logo. Any help finding this person would be _much_ appreciated. TIA. 2. I keep hearing every once-in-a-while about PGP3.0 (coming "real- soon-now") but there's nothing specific about what's delaying it. I would urge the developers (whoever they are) to release version 3.0 *before* the upcoming US presidential election, and I am interested in finding out more. TIA. 3. I have been asked by a Libertarian Party presidential candidate for a proposed platform plank in favor of strong, private, non-"GAK" encryption. [OK! I've stopped saying "FUCKED"!<g>] Of course, I want the maximum cypherpunk input possible, so feel free to suggest. The wording must *not* be too technical in nature and should (of course) condemn ITAR. <spit!> It should explain the real meaning of "escrow" and the "Newspeak" version in as few words as possible. TIA for any help on this. I'll post my final version if there's enough interest. 4. Has anyone in France been prosecuted for civilly-disobeying their anti-strong-crypto law by using PGP? What happened? Did the French people just roll over? TIA for any pointers (in English, please). 5. [A comment] Assuming the "secret clearance" requirement, how fast could an escrow agency be decertified if the "secret" person dies or is fired or heads for Anguilla, etc.? [Of course, I would not give a secret key to such a system, considering the effectiveness of simple attacks like "the honey trap" (ask Mordechai Vanunu how this attack works).] JMR - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Regards, Jim Ray http://www.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 homepage & servers) <liberty(a)gate.net> PGP encrypted mail enjoyed, even if it's _not_ "important." IANAL - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Phil! email zldf(a)clark.net or http://www.netresponse.com/zldf _______________________________________________________________________ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Freedom isn't Freeh. iQCVAwUBMMdHO21lp8bpvW01AQEZDgP9Hw8Ymf2zHMY59+TUE6N8+v+WHSeAXsQk Kg7j3Z5jWwPSZopVL2joXolW2t41vDbFEgr5eclweGJXHkLiJdnlPEwGhr+rtf/n dqv/m/o99kBf92D7nCME3nzMxJ1c4eQcGwFBjBZRvysQZ6PU/s0sSo5xqd5g2Qku icleREE+aVc= =4NSh -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Inherent Insecurity of Internet Commerce! (was RE: Secret
by futplex＠pseudonym.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

various people wrote: > OK, I'll try again. First, as I recall, SECRET clearance > is actually not very high: when I got it, I had to answer > a bunch of questions (do you abuse illegal drugs? are > you now or have you ever been a member of any > organizations? have you ever been _arrested_ for anything?) [and] > I suspect I know what organizations they're interested in (CPUSA et > al), but did they ask about any specific organizations? I think this discussion of background checks for clearances has gone rather far astray of cypherpunks relevance, folks.... -Futplex <futplex(a)pseudonym.com>

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Re: FW: websurfer 4.6
by Rich Graves 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Thu, 7 Dec 1995, Anonymous wrote: > Not surprising. They confuse random doodling with software, too. > > The real problem with NetManage is a severe case of brain death. My, thanks for your opinion. It may interest you to know that Microsoft recently licensed a bunch of stuff from NetManage (San Jose Merc, no real details given). - -rich - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMMdKlSoZzwIn1bdtAQGYYgF8CIf5Trt1E5YdMCna43irv5MeGgFnzSvP KXQ0ZR22U9MqbFAbrTjVKUB4ojC30lwo =+3ha -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Still more on the Digicash protocol
by Andrew Loewenstern 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

David A Wagner writes: > >Tough!? It's trivial for an active attacker, in the stream cipher case. > >He just xors some bits: no clever cryptanalysis needed. (Or did you mean > >it's tough to mount an active attack? I agree: that requires significant > >knowledge or motivation.) Rev. Mark Grant responds: > Exactly.. once you have an active attack set up, it's trivial, but > setting that up is quite hard. But setting up an active attack is probably a hell of a lot easier than breaking 128-bit RC-4 (or even 64-bit). andrew

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Re: overview.htm (fwd)
by Dale Thorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Igor Chudov @ home wrote: > Dale Thorn wrote: > > > > > Both homosexual males and IV drug users are well known to take a lot > > > > > of antobiotics, which lowers the efficacy of the immune system enough > > > > > to allow most anything to happen, ultimately leading to auto-immune > > > > > problems. > > > Jim and Dale, I agree. > > > Also shooting one's bloodstream full of fecal matter hardly helps. > > My point about the antibiotics is that the male gays take a dis- > > proportionate amount of them, which compounds their problems. It > > suggests to me that the immune system is already seriously debilitated > > or damaged before AIDS can take hold, rather than the notion that a > > healthy person can get it from the virii alone. > > One could argue that in the cases where the cures (antibiotics) add to > > a person's problems by further corrupting their immune system, that > > they should simply change their habits. Since I don't see that as a > > reasonable possibility, the only thing left is that the public should > > be made aware of *all* of the relevant facts, even those which are > > heavily suppressed now for PC reasons. > Why do they take antibiotics? Just curious. I'm not precisely sure, but remember, I'm not saying that your typical suburban, well-to-do, successful gay male falls into this category. There are, OTOH, a lot of people in the city who have lifestyles which are not represented accurately in the prime-time sitcoms, and the ones who fall into the greatest health-risk category are IV drug users and gay males (in the city, remember - i.e., Santa Monica boulevard). Remember too those ads for male sexual lubricants - you cannot use a condom with those lubricants. Safe sex, I don't think so. > Also, I haven't heard that antibiotics were bad for immune system, > has that been proven? You're kidding, yes? Anything besides good food, exercise, sleep etc. is bad for the immune system. Antibiotics (usually "dead" germs of some sort) are horrendous things to inject directly into your system. In October 1959, after lapsing into a coma from a massive sinus infection, I was given "a million units of penicillin" in the children's hospital when first admitted. I recovered OK after two weeks, so I'm certainly not opposed to antibiotics for those who really need them. OTOH, our U.S. economy today is antibiotic- and-hormone crazy, injecting cows, pigs, and chickens to name a few animals, all in the hopes of raising production. So why is the rate of cancer going up so high? It seems nearly everyone I know is getting this degenerate disease when they get older. Check out the videos by Howard Lyman, who used to be a big-time "chemical" farmer. One quote: "My soil after a few years was like asbestos".

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