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Where does this ' Coderman ' Jackass get off?
by professor rat 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

Every revolutionary cypherpunk is in a legit state of violent revolt against every nation-state in general the USSA in particular. " National borders are not even road humps on the information superhighway " And here comes this cuntface " Coderman " is again with the detailed technical bumf that is so boring Perry probably wouldn't print it. Mongo would barf. Fuck Telegram. Cypherpunks is a list for anarchists to discuss how strong-crypto helps ( or hurts in some cases) global anarchism - its treason to this list to do what this ' Coderman ' jackass keeps doing. Statist bores are not welcome here - kindly fuck off and let us get on with the social revolution. Tia.

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Cryptography Dispatches: The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen
by coderman 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

https://buttondown.email/cryptography-dispatches/archive/cryptography-dispa… Cryptography Dispatches: The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen 2021-01-10 Welcome back to [Cryptography Dispatches](https://buttondown.email/cryptography-dispatches?tag=header), my lightly edited newsletter on cryptography engineering. PSA: I've been doing some [livecoding on my Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/filosottile), working on [age](https://age-encryption.org), check it out! — Filippo This is the story of a bug that was discovered and fixed in Telegram’s self-rolled cryptographic protocol about seven years ago. The bug didn’t get any press, and no one seems to know about it, probably because it was only published in Russian. To this day, it’s the most backdoor-looking bug I’ve ever seen. Google Translate does a good enough job on the [original article](https://habrahabr.ru/post/206900/), which is still available on Habr, but I’m going to walk you through it along with some context. Telegram is a popular chat app that uses its own… bizarre protocol to encrypt chats, called MTProto. The protocol is used both to encrypt all messages to the Telegram server, and to encrypt opt-in 1:1 end-to-end “Secret Chats”. In text I can’t do justice to the facial expressions of cryptographers when you mention Telegram’s protocol, so just believe me that it’sweird. The current consensus seems to be that the latest version is not broken in known ways that are severe or relevant enough to affect end users, assuming the implementation is correct. That is about as safe as leaving exposed wires around your house because they are either not live or placed high enough that no one should touch them. The original version was, however, completely broken, in the most puzzling of ways. End-to-end Telegram chat sessions use [finite-field Diffie-Hellman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_ex… to establish a shared key between the two participants. The negotiation happens through messages relayed by the Telegram server. Diffie-Hellman is a fundamental building block of many cryptosystems, and it allows two parties to establish a shared secret that any eavesdroppers can’t derive. It is however only one part of a secure key exchange, because an attacker capable of intercepting the messages could simply establish two separate sessions with the two parties, carrying out a[Person-in-the-Middle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person-in-the-middle_… attack. The parties need some way to verify they derived the same secret. In TLS, they use a signature from a certificate. In most secure chat apps, there is a fingerprint (“Safety Numbers” in Signal) that the two parties can compare out-of-band. What’s important is that if the two sides derived the same secret, they can be sure no one else has access to it. The Telegram key exchange is described in [the “Key Generation” section of Telegram’s end-to-end API docs](https://web.archive.org/web/20131220000537/https://core.telegram.org/…. Concretely, Alice requests the DH parameters (p, g) from Telegram, painstakingly verifies them, computes a random a value, and sends g^a mod p to Telegram. Bob receives (p, g, g^a mod p), similarly computes b and g^b mod p, and sends the latter back (along with a truncated hash of the derived key, for some reason). Now, normally the two sides would compute the shared key as (g^a)^b mod p and (g^b)^a mod p. Instead, the original version of MTProto computed it as (g^a)^b mod p XOR nonce where nonce was an arbitrary, supposedly random value sent by the server along with the peer’s public contribution. This was a completely non-standard and useless addition, and all it did was let the server perform an undetected Person-in-the-Middle attack. Let’s see how. In a normal PitM, the server negotiates two separate Diffie-Hellman sessions with Alice and Bob, who end up with different shared keys, which they could detect by comparing fingerprints. Alice Telegram Bob a = random() A = g^a mod p -> t = random() T = g^t mod p -> b = random() <- B = g^b mod p key = T^b mod p <- T key = T^a mod p T^a mod p != T^b mod p With the nonce addition, however, the server could “fix” Alice’s key to match Bob’s by manipulating Alice’s nonce. The two parties would end up with the same fingerprint, and couldn’t tell that an attack happened, but the server (and no one else) would know the shared key, allowing it to decrypt all messages. nonce_bob = random() key_bob = T^b mod p XOR nonce_bob nonce_alice = A^t mod p XOR B^t mod p XOR nonce_bob key_alice = T^a mod p XOR nonce_alice = T^a mod p XOR (A^t mod p XOR B^t mod p XOR nonce_bob) = B^t mod p XOR nonce_bob = key_bob Why do I say this addition was useless? Because it literally had no purpose! Indeed, the vulnerability was [fixed by silently removing the nonce step from the docs](https://web.archive.org/web/diff/20131220000537/20131225140924/http:/…. [A later API revision](https://core.telegram.org/constructor/encryptedChatRequested?laye… removed the nonce parameter with the caption “Improve secret chats”. All [the original API reference](https://web.archive.org/web/20131028041748/http://core.telegram.… said about the nonce is “Random server sequence for calculation of key”. I never heard a plausible explanation for why the designers of MTProto went out of their way to add useless complexity to their protocol, with the only outcome of making undetectable interception possible. Edit (2021-01-11): [@asdofindia linked me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/asdofindia/status/1348491279798128641) to [an official statement by Telegram about this](https://telegram.org/blog/crowdsourcing-a-more-secure-future) that I couldn’t find anymore. It claims the nonce was there to protect clients with weak random number generators. Here’s what I had buried into a footnote when I couldn’t find a citation to attribute that explanation to Telegram: > This doesn’t make sense for a number of reasons: 1) clients with weak randomness are likely to be toast anyway, because Telegram’s bizarro not-a-MAC relies on randomness in the payload to avoid an offline decryption oracle (there is a plaintext hash of the payload on the wire, I told you this was weird!); 2) the API also allows clients to request random bytes from the server to XOR with their secret share; and 3) defending against weak randomness by relying on a server contribution defends against everything but the server, which is the relevant attacker in the end-to-end setting. (Said another way, anyone that can intercept client-server messages can see the extra randomness, making it moot.) Non-practitioners might think this is a reasonable defense in depth, belts and suspenders kind of thing, but in cryptography engineering adding complexity to defend against scenarios that lead to compromise anyway is simply pointless. Anyway, it’s been a while, the world is a different place now, and maybe [Hanlon’s razor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor) cuts deeper than I thought. I think there are better reasons not to use Telegram today than this old bug , but it’s still what I think about every time people talk about far-fetched “bugdoors”. The bar is high!

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Welcome to Belmarsh
by professor rat 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/01/16/inside-belmarsh-prison-how-many-episo… A likable journalist! We ought to have him stuffed.

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Interesting Engineering: Institute Breaks Record with 125,000 Gbps on an Optical Fiber | IE
by jim bell 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

Interesting Engineering: Institute Breaks Record with 125,000 Gbps on an Optical Fiber | IE. https://interestingengineering.com/institute-breaks-transmission-world-reco…

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New York Post : Rein in abusive Big Tech republic
by jim bell 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

New York Post : Rein in abusive Big Tech republic. https://nypost.com/2021/01/10/rein-in-abusive-big-tech-republic/ Jim Bell's comment: The article is correct. The acts of these biased media thugs is indeed a violation of Anti-Trust laws.

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BleepingComputer: Hacker used ransomware to lock victims in their IoT chastity belt
by jim bell 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

BleepingComputer: Hacker used ransomware to lock victims in their IoT chastity belt. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hacker-used-ransomware-to-lo… Jim Bell's comment: "Come again ?"

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Japanese graffiti next to my home and a curious story
by Cecilia Tanaka 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

Tried to send a curious link to you and Juan, but your server rejected my message, so I am trying to wish you a lovely life since then... :D When I was 16 years old, had very long hair and my favorite color was red. Still is red, but I love all the colors... My mom said it was a young version of me in the graffiti and, strangely, I confess I thought the same when I saw it at the first time. O.o Koi fishes brings prosperity. I need to meet Carla, the girl who did these awesome works. Japanese Graffiti Next To My Home <https://imgur.com/gallery/NKW0MPx> And this is the interesting link: < http://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2015/11/okato-take-15-year-old-murderes… > The references to myths, gods, and talismans are interesting. Bonus: a child trying to become a serial killer to protect his older brother. I love you , John. Be well, please. Do not dare to die before me! :P Ceci ---------- "Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live." - Mae Jemison

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TODO: Churches unite - Amicus Curiae and joinder applications sought - move your minister/ congregation - [ENJOY] [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

The fight is for all - YOUR right to accociate, YOUR right to believe whatever the flip you wish to believe, YOUR right to express your beliefs, to communicate in public and in private. You think "the left" is going to protect you, that -you- are such a virtuous atheist that you will be exempt from their purge? You think THIS time it's going to be different, and socialism is finally, finally going to work without the bloodshed? Consider forwarding this to those who might take action in support of our foundational rights. (If you are short on time, perhaps read the last 3 paragraphs.) Justice Alito's Warning to America Leah Barkoukis @LeahBarkoukis Posted: Nov 13, 2020 4:30 PM https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2020/11/13/justice-alito-federa… During a keynote address to the Federalist Society on Thursday, Justice Samuel Alito spoke of the "unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty" that have taken place during the coronavirus pandemic. He further warned that religious liberty is "in danger of becoming a second-class right." Alito pointed to cases where COVID-19 restrictions "blatantly discriminated against houses of worship," such as in Nevada, where the state "was unable to provide any justification for treating casinos more favorably than other houses of worship." What happened in Nevada proved to be part of a broader trend, he argued. The foremost example of this disfavor in the justice’s mind was the court’s 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith, https://casetext.com/case/employment-division-department-of-human-resources… written by Justice Antonin Scalia, which “cut back sharply” on free exercise by establishing that religious groups are usually not entitled to faith-based exemptions from neutral, generally applicable laws. Alito lauded Congress for passing, with near unanimous support, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 to push back against this very decision. The Supreme Court is considering whether to overrule Smith this term in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. http://scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/fulton-v-city-of-philadelphia-pennsy… And the afternoon of Alito’s speech, the Catholic diocese in Brooklyn asked the court for emergency relief from New York’s coronavirus regulations similar to that previously sought by Calvary Chapel in Nevada. https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/11/brooklyn-catholic-diocese-asks-justices-… (SCOTUSblog) https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/11/at-federalist-society-convention-alito-s… Questioning "whether our society will be inclusive enough to tolerate those with unpopular religious beliefs," he highlighted other recent examples such as "the protracted campaign against the Little Sisters of the Poor," Masterpiece Cakeshop, and the Ralph’s pharmacy case. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/15-862.html "You can easily see the point, for many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom, it’s often just an excuse for bigotry and it can’t be tolerated, even when there is no evidence that anybody has been harmed. And the cases I just mentioned illustrate the point," he said. "As far as I'm aware, not one employee of the Little Sisters has come forward and demanded contraceptives under the Little Sisters' plan. There was no risk that Ralph’s referral practice would have deprived any woman of the drug she sought and no reason to think that Jack Phillips' stand would deprive any same-sex couple of a wedding cake. The couple that came to his shop was given a free cake by another bakery, and celebrity chefs have jumped to the couple’s defense." The First Amendment was not all that was on Alito's mind, however. “The ultimate second-class right in the minds of some is the Second Amendment,” the justice said. Looking to a case last term about firearm restrictions in New York City, Alito singled out a brief by five Democratic senators that suggested the court’s decision to take the case was evidence of its capture by moneyed right-wing interests and threatened to “restructure” the court. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-280/112010/20190812151259076_1… The justices voted to dismiss the case rather than rule on the merits. https://casetext.com/case/new-york-state-rifle-pistol-assn-inc-v-city-of-ne… Although he was “not suggesting that the court’s decision was influenced by the senators’ threat,” Alito was “concerned that it might be viewed that way” by the senators and others who want to “bully” the justices. “The senators’ brief was extraordinary,” Alito continued. “It was an affront to the Constitution and the rule of law.” (SCOTUSblog) https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/11/at-federalist-society-convention-alito-s… Reflecting on his 15 years on the court, Alito said much "good work has been done to protect freedom of speech, religious liberty, and the structure of government created by the Constitution." Ultimately, however, defending the Constitution is not in the hands of the judiciary alone. "For all Americans, standing up for our constitution and our freedom is work that lies ahead," he said in conclusion. And "it will not be easy work." Address by Justice Samuel Alito [2020 NLC Live] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYLZL4GZVbA

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The New York Times: Narinder S. Kapany, ‘Father of Fiber Optics,’ Dies at 94
by jim bell 10 Jan '21

10 Jan '21

The New York Times: Narinder S. Kapany, ‘Father of Fiber Optics,’ Dies at 94. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/technology/narinder-s-kapany-dead.html

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ZDNet: New side-channel attack can recover encryption keys from Google Titan security keys
by jim bell 10 Jan '21

10 Jan '21

ZDNet: New side-channel attack can recover encryption keys from Google Titan security keys. https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-side-channel-attack-can-recover-encryptio…

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