- cypherpunks-legacy@lists.ogf.org

Re: Random numbers
by jrk＠information-systems.east-anglia.ac.uk 19 May '93

19 May '93

Fallen Angel writes: >Wouldn't it be ppossible to apply the Mafia-numbers-game solution? >i.e. For your numbers (or seed for a large volume of numbers) take >a random pubically accessible number like the last 3 digits of the >attendance of a sporting event. > >I have never seen any formalizations, but that type of number should be >as close to totally random as possible. How do you know that these numbers aren't already in use as a code system, under the control of someone who may not have your interests at heart? Mafia numbers indeed! -- ____ Richard Kennaway __\_ / School of Information Systems Internet: jrk(a)sys.uea.ac.uk \ X/ University of East Anglia uucp: ...mcsun!ukc!uea-sys!jrk \/ Norwich NR4 7TJ, U.K.

1 0

BBSs under fire! (or on fire, if BATF gets into the act!)
by Stanton McCandlish 19 May '93

19 May '93

I'd like to invite discussion, either private or listwise, on: Why is the govt. targetting BBSs? I note Eric S. Raymond accuses the govt and its mouthpieces of using the largely manufactured horror of 'kiddie porn' as a "fait acompli", to yank the rug from under our feet when we take exception to the idea that the U.S. Govt. should have the authority to inspect our private lives and operations. Not to mention also using the treat of 'terrorism' and 'dangers to national security' et al. ad nauseum. I'd like to tell you a short anecdote: I frequently grep the entire disk system here for accessible .GIF files. I need them for my BBS, and even though this grepping about hogs CPU time, it is certainly less bandwidth costly than firing up a full FTP session to go hunting for such "warez". Inevitably, many of these graphics files are 'porno'. Also inevitably a few are 'illegal' porno, such as that featuring beastiality and or nude children. Most of these appear to originate from the orient and from Europe. I have no use for such materials, but apparently someone does. I did an experiment. Noting the filenames, I looked about in alt.binaries.pictures.erotica, and did an xarchie search, and many of these files are available from US educational institutions, via both FTP archives (usually in the uploads area -- I am confident that the maintainers of such sites ditch this stuff in a jiffy. There are exceptions, however) and the UseNet system. Now, maybe I missed something, but I have yet to see the secret service raid ftparchive.blah.edu, or UNM where I work, for 'pandering'. Yet BBSs get raided for SUSPICION of having such material, and get their equipment con- fiscated. I am pissed off enough that I am having a hard time even formulating my displeasure into a logical post, but here goes anyway: 1) who gave the govt the right to distribute this material, and deny others to do so (for whatever reason) - these universities ARE part of the govt. 2) why is the govt scapegoating BBSs? Are we THAT 'dangerous and subversive'? 3) why is it that people in general cannot see this BS for the BS it is? Is it REALLY so hard to see that "terrorism" and "kiddie porn" are not real threats, but that stomping all over our privacy rights IS? 4) why is nothing much really being done about these civil rights violations? The SJG case is a case in point. EFF did plenty to help out, but where was the ACLU? I see lots of NETTERS mad about clipper, but where is the media blitz? Where are the demonstrations on the White House lawn? Are the people in this country really so apathetic? Where is the outcry over the Waco massacre? For a govt to willy-nilly burn a bunch of children to death and lie like hell to the people the whole time, is enough to start a civil war in a lot of places, yet here it's just another "oh well". Well before I really get lost here, I will just finish up by saying that I became a BBS system operator with enthusiasm and happiness, and now find my self embroiled in the fringes of a bitter war, and one which the general populace seems 100% ignorant of. I don't care what Mike Godwin says, the media DO see BBSs as a threat. I just got word that the article that was supposed to be done by a local paper on BBSs in our area was nixed. I don't like conspiracy theories, but christ, it is almost impossible to get the media to do anything on the online world that is not negative; the only VR-oriented movie I have ever seen was a horror film designed to turn people OFF the idea (_Lawnmower_Man_), MTV wants to do stories about neo- nazis using BBS for their goals; the media worked hand in hand with the govt in the Waco mess, and now the media are generally silent, even supportive, about the clipper; I try to do my part in distributing crypto, and get legal threats from a govt. contractor... What gives? How far is this going to go? -- Testes saxi solidi! ********************** Podex opacus gravedinosus est! Stanton McCandlish, SysOp: Noise in the Void Data Center BBS IndraNet: 369:1/1 FidoNet: 1:301/2 Internet: anton(a)hydra.unm.edu Snail: 8020 Central SE #405, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 USA Data phone: +1-505-246-8515 (24hr, 1200-14400 v32bis, N-8-1) Vox phone: +1-505-247-3402 (bps rate varies, depends on if you woke me up...:)

2 1

Random numbers
by anon03e2＠nyx.cs.du.edu 19 May '93

19 May '93

One of the main factors in crypto seems to be a source of random numbers which most computers don't really have. Wouldn't it be ppossible to apply the Mafia-numbers-game solution? i.e. For your numbers (or seed for a large volume of numbers) take a random pubically accessible number like the last 3 digits of the attendance of a sporting event. I have never seen any formalizations, but that type of number should be as close to totally random as possible.

1 0

Dolphin Encrypt
by Stanton McCandlish 19 May '93

19 May '93

<tried to email this, but it bounced> I too would like more info on this subject! Guess all us yokels at UNM are clueless or something. My question is, how does the recipient get the key, and how do they (she, whatever) know to use that long de command? What would happend if they didn't, just get gibberish? > > The recipient captures the entire message as, say, G.ENC, then runs: > > DE D G.ENC G.DEC /t > > (Of course, she has to know the encryption key.) Dolphin Encrypt > skips over P1 to get at C2 and writes G.DEC containing P2. Voila! > > For further info send me a snailmail address. See below for snail address... -- Testes saxi solidi! ********************** Podex opacus gravedinosus est! Stanton McCandlish, SysOp: Noise in the Void Data Center BBS IndraNet: 369:1/1 FidoNet: 1:301/2 Internet: anton(a)hydra.unm.edu Snail: 8020 Central SE #405, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 USA Data phone: +1-505-246-8515 (24hr, 1200-14400 v32bis, N-8-1) Vox phone: +1-505-247-3402 (bps rate varies, depends on if you woke me up...:)

1 0

No FTP? You can still get PGP *UTILITIES*!
by Stanton McCandlish 19 May '93

19 May '93

Due to legal threats from RSA, I cannot distribute PGP itself. I am not sure about the legalities of distributing source code for it. Anyone know? ANYWAY: if you need the latest PGP/RSA utils, likely useful for any number of encryption programs, and can't get them via FTP, try calling the BBS listed in the .sig below. Look in the CRYPTO file area. You may logon as Anonymous, password GUEST, if you wish. I have the latest versions of the utils distributed with PGP22, much improved over that release, and direct from the author. I also have Fido-tech mail utils, public key-rings, etc. Due to a corrupt user data file, the system will be down for a few days, but try calling AFTER May 20th, and get the goodies you need! Please keep in mind that after 11pm, and on weekends, tends to be the cheapest rate periods for most phone extortionists I mean companies. PS: there is no charge, other than standard phone extortion of course, for utilizing NitV BBS. Full access on first call. -- Testes saxi solidi! ********************** Podex opacus gravedinosus est! Stanton McCandlish, SysOp: Noise in the Void Data Center BBS IndraNet: 369:1/1 FidoNet: 1:301/2 Internet: anton(a)hydra.unm.edu Snail: 8020 Central SE #405, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 USA Data phone: +1-505-246-8515 (24hr, 1200-14400 v32bis, N-8-1) Vox phone: +1-505-247-3402 (bps rate varies, depends on if you woke me up...:)

1 0

REF ... GCHQ
by Clive 19 May '93

19 May '93

Ref the GCHQ question, I have posted to this group previously, ie yesterday, details on GCHQ, and I wish to take issue with >>>Duncan Frissell <76630.3577(a)CompuServe.COM> To: <cypherpunks(a)toad.com> Original Question >>>What does GCHQ stand for, and what does it do? Is it similar to the NSA? Duncan replied >> The Royal Signals Establishment at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, >> England is known as General Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ). >> It is also called 'Cheltenham' after its location. >> It performs many of the same sigint jobs as NSA. THIS IS WRONG ..... GCHQ stands for the Government Communications HeadQuarters. They are part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They have NOTHING to do with the Ministry of Defence. The Royal Signals Establishment, when it existed, it closed in about 1970 was located at Christchurch. It amalgamated with the Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern to form the Royal Signals & Radar Establishment (RSRE) with the prime site being at Malvern. They were once more reformed 2 years ago to become the Defence Research Agency, which includes the prime non-nuclear research establishments in the UK. FYI these are RSRE at Malvern, at Fort Halstead the Royal Armaments Research & Develeopment Establishment, at Farnborough the Royal Aircraft Establishment and at Portland, the Admiralty Research Establishment (They upset the monarchy about the turn of the century and as a result have never received the Royal Charter) Let me say again that GCHQ or it's groups have nothing at all to do with the MoD and that the Royal Signals Establishment (or even the Royal Signals & Radar Establishment) are not located at Cheltenham and are not associated with GCHQ!!!! Clive Walmsley Walmsley(a)ccint1.rsre.mod.uk

1 0

PGP and offline-readers
by anon03e2＠nyx.cs.du.edu 19 May '93

19 May '93

I am getting involved in networking some local BBS' and message bases. One of the primary functions of this network will be to serve as a library for PGP keys and to use PGP in sending messages. Now, if people read their messages offline, is there any offline readers that exist that integrate PGP (all this is IBM based) or is there an easy way to do this. Ideally, I want to avoid having to decrypt each message individually and would like PGP interfaced so that it could recognize a message header, apply th eright key, and output in the reader. I am probablky asking for too much. Does anyone have any experience/advice w/ this tpye of large scale implementation of PGP? I know the need to encrypt most of the messages will be small, but I think it is important to get these people so familar w/ encryption, they won't be scared and will defend it when the need arises.

3 2

Re: Question (GCHQ)
by sjw＠liberty.demon.co.uk 19 May '93

19 May '93

I live not too far away from Cheltenham, and I can confirm that the UK Government would have rather a hard job ever denying the existence of GCHQ. As you leave the M5 motorway at junction 11, taking the dual carriageway into Cheltenham, the signposts for GCHQ can't be missed. (Left at the second roundabout.) The building is visible to anyone driving into Cheltenham. (If you carry on towards the town centre for another mile or so, the Police HQ building has a rather impressive aerial on its roof, albeit comparable to other Police HQs.) It seems reasonable to believe that the various secret service agencies have reciprocal arrangements to tap each other's citizens. E.g. the American agencies tap the Royals' phones, then repeatedly rebroadcast the tapes using powerful transmitters, so they're almost certain to be picked up by some radio ham, or retired bank manager with a scanner, within a day or two. Steve Whitrow sjw(a)liberty.demon.co.uk

1 0

Mixing ciphertext and plaintext
by meyer 19 May '93

19 May '93

>Return-Path: <mdiehl(a)triton.unm.edu> >Subject: mixed plaintext and crypted text. >Date: Sat, 15 May 93 1:26:55 MDT > >Hey again, all. I've RTFM'd, and I don't even know if it can be done, but >does anyone know how I can have pgp display the un-encrypted AND the >decrypted parts of a message? Lets say my message goes like this: > >This is a plaintext message to tell you stuff that needs not be private. >BTW, can you find the subliminal message? ;^)j >-------- begin pgp block ----- >asdfkasjd;fThEjsflajslfjaslfjadfajs;flasjdaslfjasldfjalsj >asjlgfiuituqoNsAj;slkjasdifuoejrqlwfiasuokjel;rqwiuasdsii >asdfasljdflasjfdSuXsldfjalsjljeqljerwljrlejqlwjerlqwjerlq >elqrkjlasjl >134as >-------- end pgp block ------- > >Thanx a lot > >Yours virtually, >+-----------------------+-----------------------------+---------+ >| J. Michael Diehl ;-) | I thought I was wrong once. | PGP KEY | >| | But, I was mistaken. |available| If you wish to mix plaintext and ciphertext in an email message then you can use Dolphin Encrypt. Let's say your message is to consist of P1/C2/P3, plaintext/ciphertext/plaintext, where C2 is ciphertext derived from plaintext P2. What you do is put P2 into a file F.TXT, then run Dolphin Encrypt with a command such as: DE E F.TXT F.ENC /t After you give Dolphin Encrypt the encryption key F.ENC will be a file which consists of pseudo-uuencoded ciphertext (that's what the "/t" is for). Run your mailer program. Write your P1. ASCII-upload F.ENC, which is your C2. (No need to mark the beginning/end of the ciphertext block.) Finish off with your P3 and send your message. The recipient captures the entire message as, say, G.ENC, then runs: DE D G.ENC G.DEC /t (Of course, she has to know the encryption key.) Dolphin Encrypt skips over P1 to get at C2 and writes G.DEC containing P2. Voila! For further info send me a snailmail address. -- Peter Meyer

2 1

It was I
by TWEETYBIRD＠U.WASHINGTON.EDU 19 May '93

19 May '93

who was the source of the anonymous Mykotronix postings. Through certain leads I have been able to find more info and will let cypherpunks know as soon as is feasible. Please don't ask how I am doing it, I don't think I should reveal my sources. If anyone feels the need to verify my postings, please go ahead and post the results to this list. thank you, Tweetybird (Whistleblower

1 0