- cypherpunks-legacy@lists.ogf.org

Denning and the cost of attack against SKIPJACK (fwd)
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

(forwarded from sci.crypt) On page 14 of the August 30, 1993 issue of Government Computer News Kevin Power reports that Dorothy Denning told the Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board that SKIPJACK would not be compromised by exhaustive attack methods in the next 30 to 40 years. I am reminded of a story, perhaps apocryphal. In the middle seventies Fortune magazine was working a feature on computer crime. Most of the experts that they interviewed told them that the security on most of the nation's commercial time sharing systems was pretty good. However, they admitted that one convicted felon and hacker, Jerry Schnieder, would tell them otherwise. Of course Fortune had to interview him. According to the story, the interview went something like this: Fortune: Mr. Schnieder we understand that you are very critical of the security on the nation's commercial time sharing systems. Jerry: Yes, that is right. Their security is very poor. Fortune: Could you break into one of those systems? Jerry: Yes, certainly. Fortune: Well, could you demonstrate for us? Jerry: Certainly, I'd be happy to. At this point Jerry took the reporters into the room where his "Silent 700" terminal was. He connected to the system that he normally used but deliberately failed the logon. When he deliberately failed again at the retry prompt, the system disconnected. Jerry dialed in again, failed a third time, and this time he broke the connection. He dialed a third time but this time he dialed the number of the operator. Jerry: This is Mr. Schnieder. I seem to have forgotten my password. Can you help me? Operator: Sorry Mr. Schnieder, there is nothing that I can do. You will have to call back during normal business hours and talk to the security people. Jerry: I am sorry too, but you do not seem to understand. I am working on something very important and it is due out at 8am. I have to get on right now. Operator: I am sorry. There is nothing that I can do. Jerry: You still do not understand. Let me see if can clarify it for you. I want you to go look at your billing records. You will see that you bill me about $800- a month. This thing that I am working on; it is why you get your $800-. Now, if you do not get off your a-- and get me my password so that I have this work out at 8am, by 9am there is going to be a process server standing on your front steps waiting to hang paper on the first officer through the door. Do I make myself clear? Apparently he did. Operator: Mr. Schnieder, I will call you right back. At this point he appears to have one or two things right. He changed the password, called Jerry back at the number where his records said that he should be, and gave him the new password. Jerry dumped two files and then turned to the reporters. With a triumphant smile he said "You see!" Fortune (obviously disappointed): No, No, Mr. Schneider! That is not what we wanted to see. What we wanted to see was a sophisticated penetration of the software controls. Jerry: Why would anybody do THAT? __________________________ The cost of an exhaustive attack is an interesting number. It gives us an upper bound for the cost of efficient attacks. However, it is never, itself, an efficient attack. It is almost always orders of magnitude higher than the cost of alternative attacks. The very fact that its cost can be easily calculated ensures that no one will ever encrypt data under it whose value approaches the cost of a brute force attack. History is very clear. "Black Bag" attacks are to be preferred; they are almost always cheaper than the alternatives. After those are attacks aimed against poor key management. These attacks will be very efficient when the keepers of the keys already work for you and where their continued cooperation and silence are assured. William Hugh Murray, Executive Consultant, Information System Security 49 Locust Avenue, Suite 104; New Canaan, Connecticut 06840 1-0-ATT-0-700-WMURRAY; WHMurray at DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL

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REMAIL: list
by Karl Lui Barrus 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Q1: What cypherpunk remailers exist? A1: 1: nowhere(a)bsu-cs.bsu.edu 2: hh(a)cicada.berkeley.edu 3: hh(a)pmantis.berkeley.edu 4: hh(a)soda.berkeley.edu 5: 00x(a)uclink.berkeley.edu 6: cdodhner(a)indirect.com 7: hal(a)alumni.caltech.edu 8: ebrandt(a)jarthur.claremont.edu 9: remailer(a)rebma.mn.org 10: elee7h5(a)rosebud.ee.uh.edu 11: hfinney(a)shell.portal.com 12: remail(a)tamsun.tamu.edu 13: remail(a)tamaix.tamu.edu 14: remailer(a)utter.dis.org 15: remailer(a)entropy.linet.org 16: remail(a)extropia.wimsey.com NOTES: #1-#6 no encryption of remailing requests #7-#15 support encrypted remailing requests #16 special - header and message must be encrypted together #9,#14,#15,#16 introduce larger than average delay (not direct connect) #9,#14,#15 running on privately owned machines ====================================================================== Q2: What help is available? A2: Check out the pub/cypherpunks directory at soda.berkeley.edu (128.32.149.19). Instructions on how to use the remailers are in the remailer directory, along with some unix scripts and dos batch files. The public keys for the remailers which support encrypted remailing requests is also available in the same directory. Mail to me (klbarrus(a)owlnet.rice.edu) for further help and/or questions. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLIOvDYOA7OpLWtYzAQGbDQQAvnyZ9XpGUntp483/trZQwyIb74jJEGgR ZpWwPWAlp2j3Vp1WW2JcnvHXIfVtU9r8g22JErwDalgq00NdXIrqIpf5ZllbXfQA XwNoq6hqeECeKtRG/nwc1NeLejFfi1QhA+tjL8yLbyvcZ+bawLbd58NmE7AODUK2 2vuRnYtz+WM= =xnSQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Gubment Bombmaker's Cookbook
by Reply to: hahn＠lds.loral.com 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

Several days ago I made a post in response to the gentleman in Hartford's difficulty with the law. His problems stem from someone's posting to his BBS recipe(s) for bomb making. I mentioned, offhand, that a federal government publication exists containing such recipes. Mike Godwin responded asking for a citation, that it might be useful to the defense. OK, here it is: TM 31-210 Dept. of the Army Technical Manual Improvised Munitions Handbook published 1969 It contains chemical recipes for about a dozen explosive materials (both primary and secondary explosives) from easily obtainable ingredients, along with designs for fusing devices and explosive booby-traps. I have never tried any of these (to paraphrase Shel Silverstein, my eyes still see, my hair's unburned, and my fingers are still on my hands -- and I'd like to keep it that way), but my knowlege of chemistry and engineering convinces me that they all work. The book contains the disclaimer "For official use only" on nearly every page. It is, however, widely available at gun shows, which is where I got mine. I'll not reproduce any recipes here, but if the defence attornies for the gentleman in Hartford contact me and can prove who they are, I will be happy to share any info with them. __ | (V) | "Tiger gotta hunt. Bird gotta fly. | (^ (`> | Man gotta sit and wonder why, why, why. | ((\\__/ ) | Tiger gotta sleep. Bird gotta land. | (\\< ) der Nethahn | Man gotta tell himself he understand." | \< ) | | ( / | Kurt Vonnegut Jr. | | | | ^ |

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Re: remailer reliability
by M..Stirner＠f28.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

Uu> C'punks, it seems to me that the anonymous pool idea is underutilized Uu> by the remailers. I suggest that a remailer variation be developed Uu> that posts to an anonymous pool (some appropriate obscure newsgroup) Uu> indicating that a message actually was sent from the final hop. I'm not absolutely clear on what you are suggesting, but I suspect that alt.test can probably be made to serve your purposes. Before the password mess on penet (which kills automagic replies, unfortunately, as they haven't passwords), I used the autoreplies that come form various US & foreign sites in response to alt.test postings as a good shakedown of penet remailer reliability. I haven't messed with alt.test in a while so have pretty much forgotten the drill, but it was definitely useful at the time. ********************************************************************* * <m..stirner(a)f28.n125.z1.fidonet.org> - PGP Key D30909 via servers * * > What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not <* * > warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit <* * > of resistance? Let them take arms!" - Thomas Jefferson, 1787 <* ********************************************************************* ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 -- M. Stirner - via FidoNet node 1:125/1 UUCP: ...!uunet!kumr!shelter!28!M..Stirner INTERNET: M..Stirner(a)f28.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG

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No Subject
by anonymous＠extropia.wimsey.com 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

> ld231782(a)longs.lance.colostate.edu (L. Detweiler) writes: >C'punks, it seems to me that the anonymous pool idea is underutilized >by the remailers. I suggest that a remailer variation be developed that >posts to an anonymous pool (some appropriate obscure newsgroup) MC> No need to change anything. Just add a pool address to the MC> "Request-remailing-to:" line. MC> Miron Cuperman <miron(a)extropia.wimsey.com> Excuse me if I am misunderstanding the "obscure newsgroup" concept, but is not the "Request-Remailing-To:" feature of cypherpunks remailers unable to post to newsgroups, but only to individual or mailing list addresses? I have been told that only Penet's remailer could remail directly to newsgroups, obscure or otherwise. Thanks for any clarification.

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JEROME SCHNEIDER
by Sandy 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT Reply to: ssandfort(a)attmail.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Punksters, Just a few comments about Jerome Schneider. In addition to the piece in /Fortune/ magazine, there was also a segment done on him by "60 Minutes." During that show he did an impromptu telephone hack for the "60 Minutes" interviewer. At the end of the segment when Schneider asked if he had gone straight, he answered "yes." But when he was asked how we could be sure of that, he replied, "you can't." Such a kidder. Contrary to the mythologized version of his computer crime career, Schneider was not that technically competent. What he was good at was bribing telco employees to get equipment ordering access codes and other inside information. Because he was a juvenile when he committed his computer crimes, he was able to have his record expunged. He gets mad when anyone brings up his criminal record, because, by law, he no longer has a criminal "record." I met Schneider a few years back when he was in the business of selling offshore brass-plate banks. He was in the process of burning his bridges with government after government from the Caribbean to the American Trust Territories. I gave him a call a few months ago to see if he was still selling banks through his company WFI. He said that he was out of that business. He has a new company called American National Securities which is a brokerage firm. If you buy an offshore bank, he will be more than happy to clear your trades through his company. If Doug Merritt, or anyone else is interested in offshore banking with a Cypherpunk twist, contact me. I'm working with several other Cypherpunks on some projects in that area. S a n d y >>>>>> Please send e-mail to: ssandfort(a)attmail.com <<<<<< ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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RE: PGP features
by albertson＠attmail.com 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

My feature list for PGP are simplier. I just want an integration of PGP into a commercial email package (such as Microsoft Mail or Lotus' CC Mail). It can't be that hard to do - can it? ---------- From: Edgar W. Swank To: Cypherpunks Subject: PGP features Date: Fri, Sep 3, 1993 11:46AM Brad Huntting recently posted: Perhaps it's time we polished the edges, added a few of the features that are lacking, and wrote up up an RFC for the PGP message format. Some features I'd like to see in PGP are: I've added my comments [with these full margins] as appropriate. The ability to send an encrypted message to multiple recipients without duplicating the entire message. The most logical way to do this would probably be to encrypt the random IDEA key once for each recipient. ??? This has been implemented in PGP since at least release 2.2. (Maybe 2.1, memory fails). Just specify multiple UserID fragments in the command line when encrypting. Note that if you don't specify a UserID in the command line, you -cannot- enter multiple ID's in the resulting prompt. This is in the -h help text: To encrypt a message for any number of multiple recipients: pgp -e textfile userid1 userid2 userid3 There needs to be a facility for having multiple signatures on a single document without making the signers sign each others signatures. Besides the obvious application of removing a signature from a document, this would also facilitate things like petitions where many people could asynchronously sign a single document, and latter assemble all the signatures together. This can be done via detached signature certificates, which can be gathered together and presented with the original document. To create a signature certificate that is detached from the document: pgp -sb textfile [-u your_userid] It should be possible (though certainly not mandatory) to hide the recipient's identity entirely. Not currently implemented, but being discussed. You can acheive much the same effect by using a another key-pair with a pseudonym in the UserID, to be distributed only through remailers or otherwise anonymously. The message format needs to allow for alternate forms of encryption (besides IDEA). Furthermore, the (shared key) algorithm used to encrypt a message should be hidden in the RSA encrypted part of the message along with the shared key. Ideally, a list of algorithms could be given which would allow the message to be optionally compressed before being encrypted, or encrypted two or more times with different algorithms. Not implemented, but has been mentioned. Triple-DES is one possible alternative. You can achieve multiple IDEA encryption by just using current PGP to encrypt twice (or more). Even if you encrypt to the same public key, the IDEA key used will be different. Compression can currently be turned off, if desired, via a CONFIG.TXT option, which can also be specified in the command line. Compression is also automatically turned off if the plaintext is recognized as the output of PKZIP or other popular compressors. If I'm confused and the PGP message format already supports some of these features, please correct me. Consider yourself corrected (:} -- edgar(a)spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank) SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005 Cupertino, Ca

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Re: net.history (flashback)
by doug＠netcom5.netcom.com 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

> Today, he owns a firm that sells off-shore banking >services. Sounds like he might be interested in cypherpunk topics; there's a connection to off-shore banking that goes further than the obvious. Anyone know anything about Schneider's firm or other such firms? I've always wondered how that works, what's legal and what's not, etc. Doug -- Doug Merritt doug(a)netcom.com Professional Wild-eyed Visionary Member, Crusaders for a Better Tomorrow

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net.history (flashback)
by Anonymous 04 Sep '93

04 Sep '93

On Fri, 3 Sep 1993 02:20:00 GMT, Bill Murray <WHMurray(a)DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> writes - > I am reminded of a story, perhaps apocryphal. In the middle > seventies Fortune magazine was working a feature on computer > crime. Most of the experts that they interviewed told them > that the security on most of the nation's commercial time > sharing systems was pretty good. However, they admitted that > one convicted felon and hacker, Jerry Schnieder, would tell > them otherwise. Of course Fortune had to interview him. I remember this story, Bill, and I find this correlation interesting. It's funny how Schneider's name hasn't really surfaced in such a long time. In fact, once I think about the real parallels to Herren Doktor's lip service, I find it even frightening, given the anticipated impact with which her opinions seem to affect governmentalism. For what its worth, there was another interesting item concerning Schneider which appeared in Info Security News this issue, in their "Top Ten Events" article of the top ten info-security events since the inception of computers. I relay the pertinent portion of this article below: "Jerry Schneider was not the first computer crook, which he became at 18; nor was he the first computer security consultant, which he became at age 21. Still, his antics on both sides of the law helped bring computer crime to the awareness of the public in general and business managers in particular. Although still in high school in 1968, Schneider started a company called Creative Systems Enterprises and began selling electronic telecommunications gadgets he invented. Each day as he passed the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company office, he scavenged the firm's dumpster for discarded equipment that could be used to build his gadgets. He also collected a wide variety of documents, ranging from invoices to training manuals. Within just a few years, he became an expert on telephone company technology and business, and reportedly knew more about Pacific Telephone's telephone equipment supply procedures than any of its employees. In June, 1971, Schneider set into motion an elaborate plan to steal new telephone equipment from Pacific Telephone and resell it as refurbished equipment through Creative Systems. Eventually the scam would net him hundred of thousands of dollars worth of Pacific Telephone equipment. Scneider accessed Pacific Telephone's computerized ordering system and by using a telephone card dialer succeeded in placing orders for equipment. To complete the scam, he needed to learn the telephone equipment budgets for individual telephone company's sites, equipment inventory levels and other key pieces of information. He gathered the required information by getting access codes to a commercial time-sharing service used by the telephone company for inventory control and parts distribution. In January 1972, acting on information provided to them by one of Schneider's former employees, law enforcers raided Schneider's offices and a warehouse where they found equipment the district attorney said was worth $8,000. They also learned at that time that Schneider had stolen a total of $125,000 worth of equipment. Later, Schneider would admit that he had taken close to $900,000 worth of goods. The day after his arrest on February 8, 1972, newspapers across the country called it one of the most famous computer crimes ever. "How he Folded, Spindled, and Mutilated," one headline said. In a plea bargain, Schneider agreed to plead guilty to one count of grand theft of $5,000 worth of equipment. In July, he was sentenced to two monyhs in a minimum security corrections institution. In all, however, served 40 days and paid a $500 fine. Later that year, Schneider, then only 21 years old, formed a computer consulting firm catering to companies that did not want to get ripped off by cyber-crooks. He stayed in the business until 1977. Today, he owns a firm that sells off-shore banking services. 8<------ Gut Here --------------- Gee, imagine that. Ye olde Spooge Meister spooge /spooj/ 1. Inexplicable or arcane code <spooge(a)dev.null.net> or random and probably incorrect output from a computer program.

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Re: Gubment Bombmaker's Cookbook
by nfe＠scf.nmsu.edu 03 Sep '93

03 Sep '93

Most of the IMH has been typed in and posted on various BBS's - don't know of a FTP site for it though... IMH was originally a gvmt publication, and it's been reprinted by several of the R-wing paramilitary publisers (paladine press, desert publications, etc.) it has a ISBN number, can be found, and ordered via Books in print, however will be confiscated by customs at the canadian border as that sort of thing is contraban in canada - I don't know about england... For the address of some of the paramilitary publishers, and reviews of some of these books get a copy of the rec.pyrotechnics FAQ sheet. This includes pointers to FTP sites that have some online "bomb books"... btw: IMH is considered one of the more acurate, and safer books of this kind. The anarchist cookbook is generaly considered the most dangerous book to the prostective "kitchen chemist" in print... hope that helps ps: rec.pyrotechnics has posts of this type of formula all the time, and ANY decent library will have books on explosives. Older High School chem texts have recipies, and a good encyclopedia wil at least tell you how to make black powder. police bomb disposal, and pyrotechnics books are also good sources, as are theatrical special effect books. This type of info is widely available to anyone, anywhere! this court case is obviously pure harrasment.

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