- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Quantum Computers for the 12th Time
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 7:00 PM 8/21/95, J. Kent Hastings wrote: >Doesn't quantum coherence require molecular precision if it >is to work on 1024 bit PGP keys? If it works, such keys can >be instantly factorized. It would be nice to follow that progress. > >If human engineered molecular nano works, we'll have much >more than PGP to worry about. Copies of copies of >replicating disassemblers could rip the Earth apart in three >days, assuming doubling every 20 minutes like bacteria, >but not limited to proteins. > >That would have a big impact on digital cash networks! I urge all those interested in quantum computers to consult the CP archives. Also, my FAQ has a couple of pages on it. Grep for the main topic, or for Shor. This comes up every 3-4 months and produces the same speculations. I think nanotech and quantum computers have even less to do with real concerns than Waco and Foster do. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net (Got net?) | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-728-0152 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Corralitos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Crack some code...
by Frank Knobbe 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Howdy folks. Who would be willing to try to crack a code that I implemented in one of my programs? The file is a simple index file containing ASCII characters besides pointers. If someone is interested in cracking that agorithm, simply send me a mail. I'm curious of how good that algorithm is... Greetings from Tennessee, Frank ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frank Knobbe: FKnobbe(a)ix.netcom.com (preferred), Frank(a)TechEx.com PGP 1024/26639025 fingerprint=7A EA FF 87 BF EA 00 CD 83 B1 89 81 7E D2 69 96 http://www.techex.com/~frank/home.html (<- Under Construction!) IPhone: Elwood(a)iphone.vocaltec.com, Ch: Tennessee ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Signature Space for Rent! Imagine your signature here. For more info contact: Don(a)twr.ite.us

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DES & RC4-48 Challenges
by hallam＠w3.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hello all, Lets face it the real challenge is DES, but those 56 bits are quite a bit harder than 40. 65536 times harder in fact. But if people broke 48 bits then maybe they might start to see 56 as being in reach. After all everyone wants to be in for the biggie. So before the NSA fobs us off with 48 bits can we crack it? Wind up the 40 bit code a tad and set to work. It sounds as if it is comparable to the RSA-129 prime that was cracked (OK its probably a touch harder but machines are faster now). So who wants to make an RC-48 and a DES challenge? Phill.

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Divide and Conquer
by monty.harder＠famend.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

O > As you may have surmised Hal has given us another challenge to satisfy O > the people who want to do a challenge to see *how fast* they can do it O > by involving as many people and their computers as possible. Here's a thought or twelve: Precompute the divsion-of-keyspace problem, in advance of the actual issue of challenge. Use whatever criteria of estimating spare mips (idle_percentage * mips_rate) and allocating slices, then issue each participant a [start..end] space (and a direction flag. More on this later). That way, when the challenge is issued, there is no fumbling about, but rather a simple: "Gentlemen, start your programs." Divide the participants into two roughly equal groups of total spare mips, so as to address reliability and trust issues. Then allocate the entire keyspace twice. Later... For more fun, if the cracker can be coded to read a direction flag from the config file, so that the main loop can go ++ or --, the lists of keyspace could alternate thusly: Red Team Blue Team 0000++ 0000++ --iiii --jjjj This method of allocating keyspace iiii++ jjjj++ puts the key in the space of 4 --kkkk --mmmm different people at once, but only kkkk++ mmmm++ increases average search time by a . . . factor of 2 to protect against holes. / --0000 --0000 since the direction flag is independent of / \ (FFFF--) (FFFF--) team, it reveals nothing to a Bad Guy. / Two ways of saying the same thing. In effect, the ranges computed by the allocator are paired up, and the two people who share the range play "meet in the middle". If there are n participants in the group, and b of them are Bad Guys, the probablity of failure would be roughly (b/n)**4. * On a clear disk you can seek forever --- * Monster(a)FAmend.Com *

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Re: DES & RC4-48 Challenges
by dan＠milliways.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Mon, 21 Aug 95 23:13:06 -0400 you wrote: > >Hello all, > > Lets face it the real challenge is DES, but those 56 bits are quite a >bit harder than 40. 65536 times harder in fact. > >40 bit code a tad and set to work. It sounds as if it is comparable to the >RSA-129 prime that was cracked (OK its probably a touch harder but machines are >faster now). > > So who wants to make an RC-48 and a DES challenge? Not having my copy of The Differential Cryptanalysis of the Data Encryption Standard handy, I'd like to know about the distributability of this type of DES attack. Done right, we could significantly reduce the time complexity. The main problem, of course, would be coordinating such an effort. I seem to recall this attack requiring lots of known plaintexts. Time to review the text, I suppose.... Does the Federal Reserve still use single-key DES? Dan ****************************************************************************** "I think, therefore I am" - Descartes Dan Bailey "I don't think, therefore I'm a moustache." - Sartre dan(a)milliways.org Worcester Polytechnic Institute and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ******************************************************************************

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Netly News Fan Mail
by Mike Duvos 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It appears that the CPAC/Sewer folks have read the recent Netly News article on their activities and were not pleased. This little blurb healines the "Sewer List" this morning. -----Begin Officer Paladino Rant----- July 29, 1997, I was told of an article that appeared on the Net. It appeared on a Netly News site. Of course, its good reading if you are a Boylover. Apparently the writer, like many reporters I have known, likes to keep the pot stirring with coin phrases like war, net.vigilantes and so on. To give the article credibility he interviewed CPAC, NAMBLA, ACLU. He also mention this writer but forgot to get a statement from me and 100's of other groups that feel that child porn, molesters and such have no place on the web. In the article he links to a few sites showing young boys but he forgot to link to the 1000's of sites showing young boys in the nude. Why is that I ask. Well to keep the pot stirring. He claims their is gay bashing going on, look on this site and others that link here and you'll find no gay bashing. You will see sites exposing young boys, as young as 4 years old, nude. I, for one, can't not justify nude pictures of 4yr old boys and girls. But the Boylovers insist this is their way of showing love. AND, of course, we always get back to the Freedom of Speech arguement. You know that gigantic excuse for expression. We still have Freedom of Speech in this counrty, while every other liberty is falling by the wayside. As I read the article, I could see the bias and I wonder why???? Maybe the reporter also has an agenda. If he writes another article on this subject, it would be interesting to see which Boylovers will be interviewed. Apparently he has never been to the Sewer or maybe he has? Freedom is a great thing and this is the greatest country in the world. I wonder how many soldiers that gave their lifes fighting for that freedom, had pictures of nude boys in their wallets, instead of their families. Think about that....................... -----End Officer Paladino Rant----- Will someone please buy this poor man a spell-checker? :) -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ enoch(a)zipcon.com $ via Finger $ {Free Cypherpunk Political Prisoner Jim Bell}

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Re: True Names and Webs of Trust
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:46 PM 8/22/95, Patrick J. LoPresti wrote: >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > tcmay> As Bill Stewart correctly claimed is my view, the "key is the > tcmay> identity." Or, more accurately, a _persistent personna_ is > tcmay> what matters. > >These discussions are missing the entire point of the Web of Trust. > >Key signatures exist for one reason and one reason only: To thwart >man-in-the-middle attacks. Whether your "persistent persona" is a >True Name (tm) or a pseudonym is irrelevant. But this is exactly what a persistent personna is. Not a True Name, but a keyholder who has not been spoofed by some other agent or entity. End to end. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Yet another self-labeling system
by Kurt Starsinic 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm in favor of a ratings system; not one which indicates for whom a given page is suitable, but rather one which identifies the subject matter. The Dewey Decimal System is a primitive example of such a system. It seems to me that, if the USG is in the business of encouraging or endorsing morally normative ratings systems (which, of course, they've done for years), they're discouraging free discourse regarding child-rearing. It's important that parents can protect their children from content which _they_ believe to be inappropriate, but providing boilerplate (such as "adult"/"non-adult") turns parents into sheeple. I could write a book, but I think I've made my point. Peace, *---- Kurt Starsinic (kstar(a)isinet.com) ------ Senior Programmer/Analyst ---* | Institute for Scientific Information (215) 386-0100 x1108 | | "It seems every politician in the country wants to enact a minute for | | school prayer these days. I'd be happy if somebody could just | | legislate a minute of science in school." -- Dennis Miller | *------------------------ http://www.isinet.com ------------------------*

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Re: C$ prize for bruting Hal's next challenge?
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 19:50 8/22/95, aba(a)atlas.ex.ac.uk wrote: >I hereby donate c$ 50 to the pot, mail me your c$. (It won't be a >good idea if you post your c$ to the lists, as the first person to >cash it gets it, you need to do it in private email, PGP it even). To >generate your payment either save it to a file, or email directly to >me via the digicash client, click on the icon which looks like a note >(is that what it's supposed to be? the one next to the bank symbol), >then choose to send via file / email toggle make payment, enter the >amount (leave the shop account ID blank, give a payment description if >you like). I like the idea, but there are two problems with it: -Not all platfoms let you save e$ to a file. You got to open a shop. -Leaving the shop ID blank won't work. You got to use @ (wildcard) for shop ID to turn e$ into a bearer certificate. Get the shop going and I'll donate e$50 -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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Re: NEXT CHALLENGE: so, when does it start?
by aba＠dcs.exeter.ac.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Well, I've got the program, and I'm ready to start sweeping > (about 35,600 keys/sec on a P5 90 Mhz NT machine - have to see > how many I can draft for this) - I even compiled for Win 3.11 (less > than 800 keys/sec on a 486/33 - don't think I'll bother). > > I've got the challenge file from Adam's messages. > > But when do we start? Have we started already? Have we completed? Soon. No. And not yet. > It's difficult to tell. There was talk of starting at 12:00GMT (about 6 > AM here on the east coast), but there was no 'start now' message to > the list. At Adam's site, I can see that 'project 11fa' has been > completed, but the key (000000001234) looks like test data. Yes confusion abound. Dead mailer for me, Piete away for a while (back now). Rest assured big announce of a deadline when it is fixed, with plenty of warning. Perhaps a start time of day which is more convenient would be better, also for people using WWW, few likely to be around at 6AM, perhaps later in the day, when the time is decided. > If I try to allocate keys, I get the 600 SLEEP 3600 message, which > suggests strongly that the seach has not started yet. Yes, correct. For people with the unix client, this means they can leave the client running already, and it will sleep in 1hr chunks, until there is something on the server to do. > Adam, when you fix a time to start the search, could you: > > 1. Send a message to the list, clearly saying so, and giving the > time. Okay will do. Adam

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