December 2018 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Possible timing attack in same page merging
by Ryan Carboni 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

Same page merging reportedly uses a hash to evaluate if a page is the same. While I’m unclear on what hash is used and there is some mention of SHA-1 on various things written about it, it is possible that a timing attack could be used if a colliding hash exists, but the data it self varies in the last portion of the page. A keyed hash, with a randomly chosen key at the time of evaluation, could be used. There would be no need for HMAC because the length of the data is fixed (although length extension attacks appear to be a protocol issue). It is also possible that the hash evaluation is vulnerable to a timing attack, which can be a separate issue.

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Fluoride-Based Battery Chemistry Could Leapfrog, Replace Lithium Ion - ExtremeTech
by jim bell 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/281982-fluoride-based-battery-chemistry… Just heard about this yesterday. Sounds promising. Jim Bell

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Our People-Centered Digital Future | Right now via webcast!
by Yosem Companys 10 Dec '18

10 Dec '18

Today is the "Our People-Centered Digital Future" sponsored by Constellation Research <https://www.constellationr.com/about>. By March 2019, 50% of the world will be connected to the Internet, an inflection point that marks an important moment for examining the “unfinished work” of the Internet and discussing the community norms, human rights and social contracts required in this exponential digital era. The event recognizes both the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights <http://www.unesco.org/new/en/brasilia/about-this-office/prizes-and-celebrat…> (UDHR), the event also recognizes the 50th anniversary of the "Mother of All Demos <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos>." The event is well underway. Internet co-inventor Vint Cerf and Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee have already delivered their introductory remarks. If you missed their talks, don't worry. You can click on the Livestream timeline below to view them. There are many more events to come today into the late evening. This is a simulcast of the YouTube feed at https://youtu.be/S87r9Bn058s> (which does buffer occasionally), but with added AI captions and speaker names. Below are the Livestream links: - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ourdigitalfuture/ - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/DigitalCooperation - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/coppaat20 - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/CITIDFS-ICO - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ConnectedNE - https://livestream.com/internetsociety2/js-nyc-nov18 - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/swissigf18 - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/iotsecurity2018-4 - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ukigf18 - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/routingsecurity/ - http://www.mnn.org/live/2-lifestyle-channel - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/diversity/ - https://livestream.com/internetsociety/VisionsIG For more, please see: - Event: https://www.constellationr.com/events/PCDF - Agenda: https://www.constellationr.com/events/PCDF/agenda/2018-12-10 - Livestream: https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ - SLI.DO: http://sli.do/ourdigitalfuture - #OurDigitalFuture: http://bit.ly/ourdigitalfuture - #StandUp4HumanRights: http://bit.ly/2PgVDOQ - Permalink: https://isoc.live/10734/ *** This email is brought to you via the Program on Liberation Technology at Stanford University at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech and Joly MacFie at joly(a)punkcast.com *****

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Ari Juels: Your paper on criminal contracts
by jim bell 09 Dec '18

09 Dec '18

Fw: Your paper on criminal contracts I notice that you have a recent paper published at: The Ring of Gyges: Investigating the Future of Criminal Smart Contracts | Request PDFSee the Abstract below.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310821111_The_Ring_of_Gyges_… https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/358 https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/358.pdf Google: ' "Juels" "kosba" shi ' Also see: https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2015-September/024894.html It isn't clear that you distinguish between victimless crimes (malum prohibitum) and crimes-with-victims (malum in se.) As you may recall, I am the author of the Assassination Politics essay, https://cryptome.org/ap.htm I have advocated the implementation of that system, primarily (initially) for the purpose of eliminating all governments. Naturally, such governments would likely want to label any such system as being "criminal". How else would they hope to prevent it from destroying them? You may be aware that in July of 2018, a death-prediction market was implemented on Ethereum/Augur, see the Forecast Foundation. https://www.augur.net/faq/ Google: ' "ethereum" "augur" "assassination" ' While that new system has current characteristics which make it unlikely that there will be any assassinations associated with it under its current practices, nevertheless, that does not mean that modifications won't be done to achieve the goals that my AP essay. Have you addressed this matter? I am posting this on the Cypherpunks mail list. Jim Bell × AbstractThanks to their anonymity (pseudonymity) and elimination of trusted intermediaries, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have created or stimulated growth in many businesses and communities. Unfortunately, some of these are criminal, e.g., money laundering, illicit marketplaces, and ransomware. Next-generation cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum will include rich scripting languages in support of smart contracts, programs that autonomously intermediate transactions. In this paper, we explore the risk of smart contracts fueling new criminal ecosystems. Specifically, we show how what we call criminal smart contracts (CSCs) can facilitate leakage of confidential information, theft of cryptographic keys, and various real-world crimes (murder, arson, terrorism). We show that CSCs for leakage of secrets (a la Wikileaks) are efficiently realizable in existing scripting languages such as that in Ethereum. We show that CSCs for theft of cryptographic keys can be achieved using primitives, such as Succinct Non-interactive ARguments of Knowledge (SNARKs), that are already expressible in these languages and for which efficient supporting language extensions are anticipated. We show similarly that authenticated data feeds, an emerging feature of smart contract systems, can facilitate CSCs for real-world crimes (e.g., property crimes). Our results highlight the urgency of creating policy and technical safeguards against CSCs in order to realize the promise of smart contracts for beneficial goals. [end of Abstract] ×

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Assistance and Access Bill 2018 FAQ (Australia)
by Alfie John 09 Dec '18

09 Dec '18

Hi everyone, I've been asked to compile a list of questions that will hopefully be answered by lawyers, in order to assist IT workers within Australia due to the recent Assistance and Access Bill 2018 (aka encryption-busting bill): https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/bills/r6195_aspas… While compiling this list, I thought to turn it into an FAQ. Any questions (or even answers) would be most appreciated: https://github.com/alfiedotwtf/AABillFAQ There are many ways to contribute (outlined in the above link), but if the moderators allow, questions here would be great so they can create group discussion not thought of elsewhere (then I'll sweep them up into the FAQ). Thanks everyone. Alfie -- Alfie John https://www.alfie.wtf

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Assange Journalism
by John Young 09 Dec '18

09 Dec '18

Matt Taibbi reports on Assange in Rolling Stone in a one of the more salient grasps of what journalism has missed about WikiLeaks feeding its maw. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/taibbi-julian-assange-c… A noteworthy observation is how all the risk is taken by leakers not by publishers and journalists -- nor by WikiLeaks and Assange. Nearly every major leak to WikiLeaks (and the media) has led to the leaker being hammered while the publishers are awarded prizes, as with WikiLeaks. That is evident from the number of leakers who have been severly punished while WikiLeaks and Assange is showered with glory.and repetitive news coverage. Wikipedia's WikiLeaks entry is grotesque. That's asymmetric racketeering side of leakage, to the benefit of journalists, publishers, lawyers and public interest organizations, all of whom are granted special privileges by authorities and in many cases handsome donations from fat cats through tax benefits. Its as if by overdoing lauding Assange and WikiLeaks those who have taken the highest risk can be slighted with impunity. Only fools would leak if they knew what is in store for them, not just the brief attention dispensed by outlets. Anonymity, non-tracability and comsec, always, if leak you must. Before proceeding, think twice, thrice, avoid believing the glory stories. Else you're cannon fodder for information generals.

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politically incorrect black gold! - Black TV Host Takes on David Duke with Incredible Interview
by Zenaan Harkness 09 Dec '18

09 Dec '18

Black TV Host Takes on David Duke with Incredible Interview http://davidduke.com/black-tv-host-takes-on-david-duke-with-incredible-inte… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki4izqElwaM August 3, 2016 ~1 GiB ("best") Times are changin people ... -- Certified Deplorable Fake News Nazi (TM)(C)(R) Executive Director of Vice, Ministry of Winning Shilling for buxom Russian swastika clad minxes since 1488

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Are You Ready for the 'Inevitable' Clampdown on Tech and the Media? - shared from Reason.com
by jim bell 08 Dec '18

08 Dec '18

https://reason.com/r/1wOM When Apple's CEO Tim Cook says "the free market is not working," bad things are coming.

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Saker; Stephen Cohen: USA ←→ Russia, what can be done? (book spruke) - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 08 Dec '18

08 Dec '18

Stephen Cohen lays out the bullet points of the possibility of war with Russia, spruking his newly released book War With Russia? Despite being relatively concise, it takes Cohen a good few pages to summarize the state of things - useful for those who want a regroup, not particularly new to anyone following the "elite's" ratbaggery over the last few years. ** War With Russia? http://theduran.com/war-with-russia/?mc_cid=05957c06ba&mc_eid=[UNIQID] ** By Stephen Cohen on Dec 08, 2018 01:10 pm ** Why Russia won’t invade the Ukraine, the Baltic statelets or anybody else https://thesaker.is/why-russia-wont-invade-the-ukraine-the-baltic-statelets…

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Economics: USA Racking Up $490 Billion Debt Every Quarter
by grarpamp 08 Dec '18

08 Dec '18

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-30/treasury-s-488-billion-i… https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/8g7izp/the_us_treasury_department… https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/8g26mb/the_us_just_borrowed_488_… https://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/8g2oa0/the_us_just_borrowed_4… https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/8g4g76/the_us_just_borrowed_488_…

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