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Starbleed: Hidden bug in FPGA chips can help hackers steal critical data
by grarpamp 21 Apr '20

21 Apr '20

On 4/19/20, jim bell <jdb10987(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > https://gulfnews.com/technology/hidden-bug-in-fpga-chips-can-help-hackers-s… https://www.digitalmunition.me/starbleed-bug-impacts-fpga-chips-used-in-dat… The Unpatchable Silicon: A Full Break of the Bitstream Encryption of Xilinx 7-Series FPGAs. https://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/73541.html https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec20fall_ender_prepub.pdf As usual, "[ir]responsible disclosure" in full effect... you have to leave your ass wide open till August for the details, so the corp and researchers can profit spin and pomp, and so the CIA NSA Mossad and every other thug on the planet with a brain has plenty of time to exploit you. Xilinx is of course wholly untrustable closed source. #OpenHW, #OpenFabs, #OpenAudit "If an attacker has access to the bitstream and breaks its confidentiality, he can reverse-engineer the design, clone intellectual property, or gather information for subsequent attacks e.g., by finding cryptographic keys or other design aspects of a system. If the adversary succeeds in violating the bitstream authenticity, he can then change the functionality, implant hardware Trojans, or even physically destroy the system in which the FPGA is embedded by using configuration outside the specifications. In their study, the researchers could successfully break the bitstream encryption of Xilinx 7-Series and Virtex-6 devices. They then broke the authenticity of the encryption too by encrypting arbitrary messages. Decrypting Bitstream Content Briefly, the researchers used MultiBoot address register WBSTAR to enable the FPGA boot with a different memory address. They then manipulated bitstream to write a single 32-bit word to the register in decrypted form. Hence, they redirect the decrypted bitstream content to the register to read it following a reset. Repeating this process allows an attacker to retrieve the entire bitstream content. Though, retrieving one word at a time may take several hours. For example, it took 3 hours and 42 minutes for the researchers to decrypt and read Kintex-7 XC7K160T bitstream. Breaking Encryption Authenticity In a subsequent attack, the researchers used FPGA as a decryption oracle to encrypt arbitrary messages. Repeating the process allowed them to encrypt the entire bitstream with legit encryption and validation."

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RE: Did Appelbaum Meet Snowden in Hawaii Before Leak?
by Lennie B 21 Apr '20

21 Apr '20

> This book does not appear to have been liberated yet... Astro Noise: A Survival Guide - for Living Under Total Surveillance I was able to obtain a copy of Astro Noise in pdf format by using sci-hub with astro noise’s doi:10.1086/694142 recently if anyone wanting to read it as well. Harcourt, B. E. (2017). Laura Poitras. Astro Noise: A Survival Guide for Living under Total Surveillance. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2016. 256 pp. Critical Inquiry, 44(1), 188–195.doi:10.1086/694142 url to share this paper: sci-hub.se/10.1086/694142

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Emperor Bill Gates: "mass public gatherings will not come back "at all" until we have mass vaccination" - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 20 Apr '20

20 Apr '20

"Our" "elite" "leaders" continue to show their true "the elites should have a bigger say in who gets elected" colours: Emperor of the World, Bill Gates, Says There Won’t Be Any Public Gatherings for Next 18 Months. Who Died and Made Him King? https://www.anti-empire.com/emperor-of-the-world-bill-gates-says-there-wont… .. Bill Gates laying down the law: In a new interview, Bill Gates authoritatively states that mass public gatherings will not come back "at all" until we have mass vaccination. Who made him king of the world? https://t.co/u2nTgFZcRg pic.twitter.com/Vmq5udBVJn — Roosh (@rooshv) April 4, 2020 .. The United States Became ‘Starship Troopers’ in Less Than a Month Edward Slavsquat https://www.anti-empire.com/the-united-states-became-starship-troopers-in-l… .. What do you have to do to fight in this "benevolent" war? That’s the best part: Nothing. All you are required to do is sit at home and tweet face mask selfies and call the cops when you see your neighbors taking out the trash. Of course, it is also your duty to trample any dissenting voices. In fact, COVID Gauleiter Anthony Fauci announced on Friday that “the Bug can actually be spread even when people just speak,” so probably all voices are highly discouraged. Keeping silent saves lives. The unspeakable self-inflicted devastation that we will all have to endure as a result of this unequaled bravery will serve as a testament to the glorious and very necessary nature of the war. After all, many, many people will have to sacrifice their lives in order to defeat the Bug. (The Bug will never be fully defeated, of course, but there will be many forthcoming victories, which will be commemorated by national holidays such as Non-Essential Shopping Day.) We’re all in this together and we must all do our part. ..

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Hidden bug in FPGA chips can help hackers steal critical data | Technology – Gulf News
by jim bell 20 Apr '20

20 Apr '20

https://gulfnews.com/technology/hidden-bug-in-fpga-chips-can-help-hackers-s…

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Measure Pi Challenge - π as we "know" it is wrong beyond the 2nd decimal place! - [SCIENCE]
by Zenaan Harkness 19 Apr '20

19 Apr '20

π or "pi" is the ratio of the circumference of a circle, to its diameter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi The value of π, as almost universally taught, is not correct, or to be more precise, is only correct to three (as in 3) significant digits only, that is, the fourth digit (3rd decimal place) and onwards is incorrect, and significantly so. :D OK muffas, this is within the ability of many of us to actually measure, so it's time for some science - the original measure pi challenge :) We are taught all sorts of things about pi, and many of them are (and to use the excessively flowery language of the Russian MOD) "not correct". Say what?!#!?? Yes you heard correct - pi as we've all been taught since Archimedes in about 250 B.C. (B.C. already!) is wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes Oh, and a hat tip to Harry Lear who gave us all the heads up at his Measuring Pi Squaring Phi web cite ;) : http://measuringpisquaringphi.com/ Measure Pi Challenge ==================================================== To kick off this challenge, a meek and humble experiment was in order, no doubt which y'all will handily improve upon, so let's get this ball rolling: One tempered glass tabletop of an apparently circular form and ~1.2m diameter (chamfered) and with visibly extremely smooth surfaces including, most importantly, the external (beyond the chamfer) circumference surface. Also in use are some lengths of wood, set square, metal 1 meter ruler and two metal tape measures (and calculator, pen and duct and paper tape). 0) Ensure length(s) of wood are sufficient length (plus a goodly bit) for the full perimeter/circumference of the table to roll along. 1) Tape a "circumference origin" marker X at one point on the perimeter of circular glass tabletop. Do this on the left hand side of the glass/circle, not the right hand side ;) 2) Stably secure wood length(s) on floor of kitchen/hallway, e.g. with duct tape or through-floor bolts. Again, make a "linear origin" mark Y (with tape and/or pen, or perhaps a jackhammer) near one end of your length of wood on the floor. 3) With a second person to help steady the glass tabletop, carefully align circumference origin X with linear origin Y. 4) Carefully roll the tabletop along the wood, one revolution (i.e., until the circumference origin X lands back on the wood. Mark this second linear point (on the wood), we'll call this point Z. 5) Next, measure the diameter of the tabletop. Once you have measured the distance from Y to Z, you have an approximation of the circumference of your tabletop. Divide circumference by diameter, to get YOUR value of pi! Whatever your results are, they are. For bonus points, use other, better, alternative, or improved, ways to measure pi. Here's the results of tonight's measurements, and see some of reduced size vanity images of this test run. We did more than one set of measurements: - firstly with a 1 meter metal ruler - then with each of two metal tape measures The metal ruler turns out to have markings up to 1.005 meters, that is, it has an extra half centimeter beyond the 1m mark. Neither of us noticed this at first, and the circumference of this tabletop is heading for 4m, and so this extra 5mm was added into the (linear) circumference measurement 3 times when using this metal ruler - in other words, we had an extra 1.5cm on the circumference (not including margins of error), and an extra 0.5cm on the diameter (which albeit partially, but certainly not completely, cancel each other out). Terms: C = circumference D = diameter ~ (tilde) means "about" Initial bodgy (with extra half centimeters included) measurements were: C = 3836.5 mm +/- 2 mm (4 measurements, at +-1/2mm error each) D = 1219.5 mm +/- 1 mm (2 measurements, at +-1/2mm error each) and so when subtracting out the extra 1.5 and 0.5 cm respectively, we get: C = 3821.5 mm +/- 2 mm D = 1214.5 mm +/- 1 mm The assumed error margin of +/- 2mm and 1mm respectively (+/- 1/2 mm per measurement, remembering that errors are cumulative) may seem high, but at least accounts for using a metal ruler with 1mm markings, 4 times for the (linear) circumference measurement and twice for the diameter. pi is simply C/D, so we have (using the program "bc", with scale=10): 3821.5 / 1214.5 = 3.1465623713 And considering the extremes of possible error margins (not counting human error of course): 3823.5 / 1213.5 = 3.1508034610 3819.5 / 1215.5 = 3.1423282599 So the results from these measurements does appear to be above 3.14159, and converges closer to Harry Lear's value of pi 3.1446, than the traditional value of pi 3.1316: 3.1465623713 - 3.144605511 ~= 0.002 3.1465623713 - 3.141592654 ~= 0.005 Harry Lear appears to be on to something. Now using metal tape measure #1: C = 3854 D = 1226 pi = 3854 / 1226 = 3.1435562805 and with say +-0.5mm error: 3854.5 / 1225.5 = 3.1452468380 3853.5 / 1226.5 = 3.1418671015 Tape measures can be considered better, since we don't need to make multiple readings and "line up" our measurement instrument (ruler) for each additional segment, to get our final lengths. And in this case, using the first tape measure and including maximum possible errors applied in opposite directions, although we are closer to traditional pi, we still does not reach it! Comparing the two πs again, we are still closer to new pi than old pi: 3.1435562805 - 3.144605511 ~= -0.00105 3.1435562805 - 3.141592654 ~= 0.00196 And finally a third set of measurements in this test run, using metal tape measure #2: C = 3851 D = 1225 pi = 3851 / 1225 = 3.1436734693 and with say +-0.5mm error, the extremes are: 3851.5 / 1224.5 = 3.1453654552 3850.5 / 1225.5 = 3.1419828641 Again, we are much closer on average to new pi 3.1446, than to the old pi 3.1416, and apparently not reaching old pi, where, in this set of measurements, it is consistently outside our margin of error. Confirming the distance from old and new pi, with tape measure #2, we remain closer to new pi: 3.1436734693 - 3.144605511 ~= -0.00093 3.1436734693 - 3.141592654 ~= 0.00208 ---------------------------------- To be wrong about something so fundamental as the pi ratio of the circumference of a circle to is diameter (or radius), for so long, is simply stunning! The "scientific community" prides itself in its ever increasing accuracy in measurement in many domains, from the micro to the macro, and all the while this one sneaky little constant has been so taken for granted, it has slipped under the radar (intentionally?) for over 2000 years. So, 3 significant digits of pi "as we know it" are correct: 3.14 The fourth significant digit, which begins after the second decimal place, is significantly wrong (and of course, if this is so, so are all subsequent digits). Apparently.

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Filesharing: Bittorrent
by grarpamp 19 Apr '20

19 Apr '20

https://transmissionbt.com/ https://thepiratebay.org/ https://yts.lt/ https://1337x.to/ https://rarbg.to/ https://nyaa.si/ https://torrentz2.eu/ https://eztv.io/ https://www.limetorrents.info/ http://fitgirl-repacks.site/ http://tamilrockers.ws/ https://rutracker.org/forum/index.php https://torrentwal2.com/ http://rutor.info/ https://dytt8.net/ http://etoland.co.kr/

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IRA: The Dirty War
by grarpamp 19 Apr '20

19 Apr '20

An IRA Reading List Autobiographies Insider: Gerry Bradley's Life in the IRA, Gerry Bradley The Volunteer, Shane Paul O'Doherty Watching the Door, Kevin Myers MRF Shadow Troop, Simon Cursey Southside Provisional, Kieran Conway Fifty Dead Men Walking, Martin McGartland History The Dirty War, Martin Dillon https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/212.pdf

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Droplet vs. aerosol transmission of COVID-19
by coderman 18 Apr '20

18 Apr '20

it appears COVID-19 might not be spread via aerosol transmission, instead via larger droplets: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0764_article """ From our examination of the potential routes of transmission, we concluded that the most likely cause of this outbreak was droplet transmission... Virus transmission in this outbreak cannot be explained by droplet transmission alone. Larger respiratory droplets (>5 μm) remain in the air for only a short time and travel only short distances, generally <1 m ([2](https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0764_article#r2),[3](https://w…) The distances between patient A1 and persons at other tables, especially those at table C, were all >1 m. However, strong airflow from the air conditioner could have propagated droplets from table C to table A, then to table B, and then back to table C ([Figure](https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0764_article#tnF1)) """ best regards,

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OPM hack docs FOIA - appeal accepted!
by coderman 18 Apr '20

18 Apr '20

back in 2016 a request was made for: """ Records, analysis, summaries, technical reports, or any other responsive materials regarding the network compromise of OPM systems, including initial incident April 16th, 2015 when two instances of mcutil.dll named malware were discovered. All communications from Jeff Wagner, director of security Operations for OPM, regarding this incident are requested. Invoices for services provided by CyTech to OPM during this event also requested. Assessments regarding access to, and exfiltration of, the Central Personnel Data File also explicitly requested. """ given the run around, I appealed the reply. it has been accepted! let's hope by 2025 we finally have some light shone on the China hack of the OPM DB... :) best regards,

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China's Shenzen literally bans eating of cats and dogs - too little too late?
by Zig the N.g 18 Apr '20

18 Apr '20

Suprised. From the "crispy bat wing soup" and "crushed dried bird ancient remedy" empire comes a ban, after 3,500 years, and in a cynical and superficial nod to China's crumbling image in the West, on eating dogs and cats. China's Shenzen literally bans the eating of cats and dogs - is this too little too late or will China's Kung Flu decimate the world's population leading to a Georgian guidestones utopia? China's 'Silicon Valley' Bans Consumption Of Cats, Dogs https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinas-silicon-valley-bans-consumpti… .. The new law will take effect May 1, and was described as an "extension" of national laws banning the eating of wild animals. The Humane Society claims 30 million dogs a year are killed across Asia for meat. However, the consumption of dogs and cats for meat isn't that common in China, and "most" Chinese say they won't do it, according to the BBC [propaganda alert]. .. "This ban also responds to the demand and spirit of human civilization," they said.

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