- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Bypassing Intel Boot Guard, EdDSA
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://embedi.com/blog/bypassing-intel-boot-guard https://github.com/flothrone/bootguard https://github.com/REhints/BlackHat_2017 https://github.com/tianocore/edk2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module https://embedi.com/blog Killchain of IoT Devices Betraying the BIOS: Where the Guardians of the BIOS are Failing In recent years, there is an increasing attention to the UEFI BIOS security. As a result, there are more advanced technologies created to protect UEFI BIOS from illegal modifications. One of such technologies is Intel Boot Guard (BG) – a hardware-assisted BIOS integrity verification mechanism available since Haswell microarchitecture (2013). So-called «UEFI rootkits killer» this technology is designed to create a trusted boot chain (where a current boot component cryptographically measures/verifies the integrity of the next one) with Root-of-Trust locked into hardware. How is that possible? Let’s take a look... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15414760 https://research.kudelskisecurity.com/2017/10/04/defeating-eddsa-with-fault… How to defeat Ed25519 and EdDSA using faults This work was performed with my colleague Sylvain Pelissier, we demonstrated that the EdDSA signature scheme is vulnerable to single fault attacks, and mounted such an attack against the Ed25519 scheme running on an Arduino Nano board. We presented a paper on the topic at FDTC 2017, last week in Taipei. https://www.openbsd.org/62.html Release iminent.

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Cryptocurrency Privacy: Evolving... Zerocash (ZEC, ZCL, ZEN) vs All Other Coin
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

Rethreading these two former threads into a more General: Item... 1: Zerocash: Addressing Bitcoin's Privacy Problem GoogleTechTalks 2: Why I can't sleep soundly with blockchain, being the cypherpunk ########## https://zcoin.io/zcoins-privacy-technology-compares-competition/ > Blockchain privacy is a particularly difficult thing to achieve as a public blockchain is designed so that all transactions are transparent and the supply of coins can be publicly verified. Privacy mechanisms have to ensure that these elements are preserved so it’s a conflicting mix of protecting privacy while maintaining public verifiability. That's obsolete thinking. And to open coin comparisons with such statements misleads the reader into believing that supposedly "private" coins that retain elements of that thinking are an ok thing. The point of a cryptographically private coin is to hide everything that might permit traceability under the shield of strong crypto (including support for transport over anonymous networks). Unlike mix coins, crypto shielding is its privacy mechanism. One doesn't need to have, see, and verify for such a coin all the old traditional bits of a public ledger blockchain... transactions, utxo balances, addresses, coin supply... because the crypto should enforce those parts are working, and make them immune from attack. Provided the crypto is solid, the coins below may be better at privacy than all other in-production, non zerocash based, coins to date. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerocash https://z.cash/ - Zcash ZEC http://zclassic.org/ - Zclassic ZCL https://zensystem.io/ - Zencash ZEN Further old and misleading arguments against them... > Private transactions take a while to generate (almost a minute on a decently powerful computer) Old news is old... https://z.cash/blog/cultivating-sapling-faster-zksnarks.html > Complicated trusted setup / traceable / backdoored Don't like it? Take more time in understanding and peer reviewing it, preparing and injecting openness, reproducibility, philosophy, documentation and auditability into the process in advance... and restart. The first Zerocash ceremony is not the only such ceremony the world will ever see in the crypto space. And the first one might be as good. Add this new post to the list of links on the list / net about ceremony... https://z.cash/blog/ceremony-audit-results.html > setup that has to be done by the developers. False. It can be done by any group having any number of participants in an opensource reproducible and public fashion. The design, process, and results can all be posted and then imported by new projects as needed. Further, is it true that, in software release for current production Z coins, that new parameters can be dropped in place of old parameters for new transactions on their chains going forward? https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/2247 > Supply cannot be audited therefore forgery can be very difficult to detect. Bogus Arg. If setup is secure, and crypto enforces against forgery, then requiring blockchain be "public" about supply for auditability is moot. And even if the blockchain is not auditable, forging coin creation can still be detected by the community knowing its own real world size throwing funds into the coin, yet the price and walls aren't moving as they should over time. And a whole lot of Lambos rolling around till it gets leaked / rediscovered and fixed. > Uses relatively new cryptography Crypto was new. Bitcoin was new. Cryptocurrency is still new. Regulation is still new and is a nearly equivalent goes-to-zero threat. Get cryptocurrency out there, get it peer reviewed, get it in production. Don't put in more than you want to lose. Here are some corporate reviewers and users that are either traps and/or investing huge sums they cannot afford to allow to lose... https://www.americanbanker.com/news/worlds-collide-jpm-works-with-team-behi… https://github.com/jpmorganchase/quorum http://entethalliance.org/ >> https://steemitimages.com/DQmSzRp3XQCXwQ1Y14jTNLcBw1XQ9rZ6oNz1XbnZxHomME3/i… > Bitcoin Core Version Both ZEC and ZEN should merge back into each other some of their own improvements and fixes, including importing any recent useful stuff from original parent codebase of BTC. Normal opensource process. > Hides tx amount / Optional privacy defaults Mix vs Transparent and Shielded... Well then don't use mixes or transparent, get it migrated and committed out of the code forever... https://imgur.com/gallery/MWdwh https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/2248 > Compute time Outdated info. See sapling tech above. > Incentivised Nodes / Pruneable / Scaling These issues affect all cryptocurrencies in some way. Zencash ZEN has some work potentially evolving incentive structures https://zcoin.io/zcoin-development-update-znodes-and-scaling-zerocoin/ > Trusted setup Sly word choice. Call it "DASTp - distributed any single trust prevails" or something more technically representative like that. Here's another long debate... https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/737is9/charlie_lee_tells_s… This note isn't really meant to compare coins versus each other (they could all be shit), but to hint that the amount of FUD and outdated arguments being used out there to compare them... especially by their very own developers and communities who should know better... should be of concern and needs improved. Even an armchair reviewer could get rich starting up a site devoted solely to more objective comparisons and tracking development news and roadmaps. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/cheat-sheet-the-trade-offs-of-blockchai… "Each of these technologies solves a fraction of the puzzle, but we are beginning to see how they can be stitched together to deliver more complete privacy. A lot of the implementations take multiple different technologies and combine them together to achieve an additive result. It may well be that a combination of different technologies emerges as being a better solution." Prediction: Crypto-private coins will eventually outpace and surpass mix-private coins as knowledge of crypto continues to increase around the world. Send your wagers and comments here... btc:199WA27L4tVazpg2Bqzas2cX7nomqP4ZEp It's early days, keep your eyes open and your cryptocurrency ready.

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Audio wcn interview
by jim bell 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://m.soundcloud.com/worldcryptonet/tones-ma-93-the-bitcoin-breakout-is… Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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Amir Taaki @HCPP2017 Hackers Congress Parallel Polis 2017
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1MpJO-vlF8 https://www.coindesk.com/radical-academy-amir-taakis-new-hacker-team-spread…

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Watch "Interview with Jim Bell, Author of Assassination Politics" on YouTube
by jim bell 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://youtu.be/4KLqi1v2zSE Czech it out! Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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Chelsea Manning Snubbed via Harvard by CIA, Speaking Out
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/announcements/statement-dean-elmendorf-regardin… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/18/i-did-the-best-i-could-chel… https://www.thedailybeast.com/chelsea-manning-im-not-going-to-be-intimidate… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/15/chelsea-manning-harvard-ken… https://www.eff.org/press/releases/whistleblower-chelsea-manning-techdirt-f… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWE6YSquJ3g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIbpjsqk8eo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSx1VG8UnF8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGitzTGqA5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ-00dy6yD4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjMCfqQDn8 ‘An Historic Embarrassment for American Academia’ In a confusing statement following the CIA pressure, Harvard’s Douglas Elmendorf called extending the fellowship to Manning “a mistake.” Elmendorf said the initial invitation to her was defensible but neglected the impact of the “perceived honor that it implies to some people,” which opened up Harvard to criticism for hypocrisy in honoring, among others, Sean Spicer, who repeatedly lied from the White House podium as President Trump’s press secretary. Manning’s invitation to address students of the school’s Institute of Politics was denounced by Mike Pompeo, the CIA director who cancelled an appearance at Harvard on Thursday, and by former deputy director of the agency Mike Morell, who resigned his own visiting fellowship in protest at what the two men described as the honoring of a “traitor”. Details of the phone call were shared with the Guardian by a source who was present at the time of the conversation. Manning had just stepped off stage in San Francisco where she was receiving a global freedom of information award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). When Elmendorf reached Manning on the phone he sounded audibly nervous, the source said. He argued that Harvard had to “weigh” what each visiting fellow “brought to the table”. They noted what they suggested was the absurdity of honouring two prominent members of a presidential campaign notorious for its bending of the truth and controversial stances on race issues in America. Elmendorf further alienated the Manning team by responding that Spicer and Lewandowski “brought something to the table” and could teach the Harvard audience something. That, for the recipients of the phone conversation, implied that the whistleblower by contrast had nothing to contribute. Elmendorf’s decision to roll over just hours after the two CIA figures protested has put the dean in a tight corner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q488IYqfohQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6-3SxHV_z8

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[WAR] - final possibility of WW3 → the USA Israel lobby
by Zenaan Harkness 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

Well with Putin the new “Don” of the middle east with everyone from Turkey, Germany, Iran and Iraq to the Israel + Saudi twin peaks of ME stability and human rights, all racing a line to the Kremlin's front door for deals and begging rights, what we’re now left with is simply the death throws of the dying dragon of the USA's debt-funded war machine, the Mad Dog, being wagged by its tail, the Israel lobby (USA). Thus demonstrated is that Trump is completely unfit to by the USA president: “If it really is a matter of Israel ‘wagging the dog’ in respect of Donald Trump, this is proof positive that Trump is not fit to be the US President as he is no longer putting the interests of his own country, nor the collective interests of world peace, before the war mongering desires of the rogue Israeli regime.” Enjoy: >From Mad Man Theory to “Moron Theory” 3 reasons why Donald Trump is defying world opinion over Iran Whether the chaos of the Trump administration is organised or otherwise, there is a real risk of danger if the US withdraws from the JCPOA. by Adam Garrie October 7, 2017, 21:27 http://theduran.com/trump-vs-jcpoa-really-trupm-vs-world/ Those with conscience, and beholden to the whims of Israel, ought do the world a favour and unilaterally resign from their positions of demoncratic power in the USA, as a favour to the world, thus allowing a peaceful reconcilliation of the USA's excessively leveraged financial position to be balanced with a 1929 reset, WITHOUT the insisting on World War 3. That's chaos. The alternatives are Jim Bell's Assassination Politics, a truly anarchistic approach to the problem of the despotism of the world's "elites" (which may bring peace and order, or may also descend into chaos), civil war or martial war or both (certainly chaotic, and probably why we're seeing Port-Arthur style "lone gunman" shooting attack psy-ops), or perhaps a genuine direct democracy/ liberal anarchy where those in power simply resign themselves to a respect for the will of every individual in the world (unlikely). Good luck fellow humans,

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Distributed Tweet
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(software) https://github.com/yep/eth-tweet

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Noam Chomsky says something true - America "is officially committed to international terrorism, and on a scale that puts its rivals to shame"
by Zenaan Harkness 07 Oct '17

07 Oct '17

Chomsky says a lot of things, and some of the things he says are actually true, such as this fact: Noam Chomsky, Emeritus Professor at MIT, said, “There are many terrorist states in the world but the United States is unusual in that it is officially committed to international terrorism, and on a scale that puts its rivals to shame”. When you've finished with the depressing facts of reality, here's a song to lift us all up: A Better Place _ Playing For Change _ Song Around The World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVHOqrw3Jks US topping polls of ‘greatest threat to world peace’ to continue http://theduran.com/us-topping-polls-greatest-threat-world-peace-continue/ by Shane Quinn October 6, 2017, 22:05 The United States will expand its already enormous military outlay, sending a clear message to the world. Last week Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described the United States as, “the most criminal empire in the history of mankind”. Whether such a statement is true, one cannot deny the US has repeatedly topped polls of international opinion on the subject: Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today? Time and again the global community have overwhelmingly http://brilliantmaps.com/threat-to-peace/ voted the US as “the greatest threat” to their existence. In one such WIN/Gallup poll from less than four years ago, the US garnered three times the votes of second-place Pakistan. Such decisive results are hardly reported in the Western mainstream, it would be ill-advised to inform unsuspecting Westerners of useless facts – instead they are disappeared down George Orwell’s memory hole. As a consequence of the predictable survey results, perhaps the question should be framed rather differently – “How can nations be secured in the face of the US threat?” Seeing as how pollsters such as the Gallup company and Pew Research Centre are headquartered in Washington, that seems unlikely. The investigative journalist John Pilger wrote of https://books.google.ie/books?id=HU0iOB0CLxEC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=pilger+%E… American aggression, “The trail of blood is endless: from the subjugation of the Philippines and Central America, to the greatest terrorist attacks of all, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; from the devastation of Indochina, such as the murder of 600,000 peasants in neutral Cambodia, and the use of chemicals and starvation against civilian populations, to the shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane, and the bombing of prisoners of war in a mud fort in Afghanistan. The documentation of American terror is voluminous”. The US is the only nation to have ever been convicted by the World Court for international terrorism (in 1986), against Nicaragua during the Ronald Reagan era, under the old “war on terror” pretext. The destruction wrought against Nicaragua by US-backed contras – terrorists – was so severe that the World Court had no other option. These unwelcome facts have again been consigned to historical oblivion. Backing up the claims Noam Chomsky, Emeritus Professor at MIT, said, “There are many terrorist states in the world but the United States is unusual in that it is officially committed to international terrorism, and on a scale that puts its rivals to shame”. In the Middle East, the perception https://electronicintifada.net/content/poll-israel-us-greatest-threats-midd… of America is even worse – with about two-thirds of respondents saying they hold a “very unfavourable” view of the US. Israel, the US’s right arm in the region, has also long been viewed negatively in the Middle East. Examining the respective grisly records, this is hardly a revelation, while Iran barely features on its neighbours’ threat scope. The US has repeatedly invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, while Israel has attacked Lebanon, Egypt and Syria, all with US support – not to mention Israel’s occupation of much of the Golan Heights (Syrian land) and Palestinian territories, and their treatment of the inhabitants there. Pilger again reveals that, “Palestinians have been denied a right to return to their homes, in breach of numerous UN resolutions and international law… The BBC refers to Israel’s policy of assassination as ‘targeted killing’, the euphemism used by Israeli spokesmen. It is rarely reported that of the hundreds killed and thousands wounded in the Second Intifada [Palestinian uprising], 90% have been Palestinian civilians, 45% have been under 18, and 60% were shot in their homes, schools and workplaces”. In November 2003, before the Iraq war’s implications became clear, Europeans viewed http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1445904/Israel-… Israel as “the No. 1 threat to world peace”. Such were the results of a survey conducted by the European Commission, which prompted “outrage” from the Israeli embassy in Brussels, and much apologising from squeamish European politicians. It is unwise to upset the master across the Atlantic. In the time since, citizens in the US, Britain and Canada often claim Iran to be the biggest threat to peace on earth – a rare insight into how successful Western propaganda has been. Across centuries Iran have no record of having outright invaded another country, nor do they possess weapons of mass destruction like nuclear warheads. Within the past century the US has attacked numerous sovereign nations, breaching international law with little respite. North Korea is another bogeyman of the West, but as with Iran, these views have little basis in reality. In the last 60 years and more North Korea have no record of having invaded another country – during the Korean War more of the North’s towns were destroyed (by the US) than either those of Germany or Japan during World War II. Despite this, most Americans currently regard the DPRK as “a very serious threat” to their country. Yet who is being threatened? There are thousands of American troops situated in South Korea, perilously close to the North’s border – along with aircraft, artillery and ships. Considering America’s foreign policy record, and past destruction of North Korea, Kim Jong-un and colleagues have every right to be agitated. They continue to act out of fear. As does Maduro, with the Venezuelan leader demanding last week that his army “have the rifles, the missiles, and the well-oiled tanks at the ready”. Maduro expressed humanity’s future “cannot lie in the threats of nuclear strikes or military invasions”. The US possesses thousands of nuclear weapons and are the only state to have used them, on Japan. In 2016, the US military expenditure was 50 times bigger than Iran’s, for example, a statistic that goes without mention. The US is away into the distance when it comes to military outlay, almost three times that of second-place China – and about nine times that of Russia. The disparity is set to widen further. Not satisfied with last year’s arms budget of $611 billion, the US Senate recently passed a $700 billion “defence policy bill” – which in turn “back[s] President Donald Trump’s call for a bigger, stronger military”. The proposed $90 billion enlargement is greater than Russia’s entire military expense for 2016 ($69.2 billion). Possessing by far the largest military machine on earth is still not deemed substantial enough. This sends a signal and the message could hardly be clearer: the US is set to increase its military operations. The world has been warned. The first major steps can be witnessed in the growing presence of American soldiers in Afghanistan under President Trump. Bob Corker, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Sunday, “But are we likely to have troops in Afghanistan for the next decade? Sure.”

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Cryptocurrency: Change.org Petition - Amazon Accept Cryptocurrency
by grarpamp 07 Oct '17

07 Oct '17

https://www.change.org/p/jeff-bezos-amazon-com-should-accept-bitcoin-and-li…

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