Date: 6 Dec 1997 05:49:19 -0000 Message-ID: <19971206054919.5142.qmail@iq.org> From: Julian Assange To: coderpunks@toad.com cc: cryptography@c2.net, cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Rubber-hose proof (cryptographically deniable) file-systems. Sender: owner-cypherpunks@toad.com Precedence: bulk Here's a copy of some correspondence in relation to my implementation of a `rubber hose proof' (cryptographically deniable) file system (actually implimented as a block device on which you can mount any file system). I'm happy with the cryptographic strength of the system (but feel free to comment anyway). That said, I'm not convinced that my avoidance of media (i.e disk surface) analysis attacks (which could potentially show the pre-sense or otherwise of cryptographic file systems other than the "duress" ones) is entirely effective. I'd like some comment from gauss-ridden declassification guru's here :) [...] Here's how I'm implementing `aspects' in Rubberhose/marutukku; `aspect' is the term I'm using to refer to the cryptographically-deniable (i.e rubber-hose-proofed) "portion", of a maru extent i.e it's a different _aspect_ (view) of the same underlying physical block extent. I decided that random split lengths don't add to the security of the scheme - only 2x from my calculations - which isn't enough to warrant the increase in memory use and complexity involved. The extent is simply divided up into n splits (say 1024 or one every 256k, whichever is smaller). Each aspect has an encrypted 32bit block remap list (which is simply a linear array because of the fixed split size). A split avoidance bit-map is created from these per-aspect remap lists on instantiation of the aspects. An individual aspect looks like so (when saved): typedef struct { m_u32 keySum; /* key checksum */ u_char masterKey[MAX_KEY]; u_char latticeCipherType, blockCipherType; u_char pad[MAX_BLOCK - (4 + MAX_KEY + 1 + 1) % MAX_BLOCK]; /* block align */ } maruCycle; typedef struct { maruCycle cycle; u_char keySalt[MAX_PASSPHRASE]; maruLatticeKey latticeKeySalt[2]; u_char blockIV[MAX_FS_BLOCK_SIZE]; u_char latticeSalt[2*MAX_LATTICE_DEPTH*MAX_BLOCK_KEY]; /* must be 64 aligned */ m_u32 remap[MAX_SPLITS]; m_u32 iterations; maruCipher keyCipherType; } maruHeaderAspect; There are an array of (8 by default) of these constructs in a maruHeader. The smap accessor macros are simple: #define SMAP_SET(p, n) (((p))[(n)/(sizeof(maruSmap)*8)] |= (1 << ((n) % (sizeof(maruSmap)*8)))) #define SMAP_CLR(p, n) (((p))[(n)/(sizeof(maruSmap)*8)] &= ~ (1 << ((n) % (sizeof(maruSmap)*8)))) #define SMAP_ISSET(p, n) (((p))[(n)/(sizeof(maruSmap)*8)] & (1 << ((n) % (sizeof(maruSmap)*8)))) By default, each unused maruHeaderAspect struct contains random noise (except for keyCipherType, which defaults to being the same for all aspects) and is of course indistinguishable from a valid maruAspect without the associated key. Instantiation example: Say you have three valid aspects, a1, a2 and a3. Arbitrarily, you have chosen a1 to be the simple duress aspect (i.e ``you expect us to believe you have solitary letter of donation to the Polit Bureau Ball in your entire encrypted file system?! Do you know what this is Nikov? <opens trench coat>. THIS is the finest cryptanalytic device known to man. THIS is a RUBBERHOSE! *thwap* *thwunk* *boink*. Now... what's the *real* key Nikov... or should we call you... Nikolay Bukharin?''), a2 to be the limited disclosure aspect ("Dear diary. Nikita, Ivan, Boris and <some more guys I feel like selling down the Lenningrad sewage system> came over today and smoked a *shit load* of hash. Not wanting to offend, I had a toke, but like that capitalist dog ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H illustious leader of the freeworld, was careful not to inhale.") and a3 has your ice-9 formula nicely tucked away. You decide one fine morning that you want to add an ATP pre-cursor as a catalyst to your ice-9 recipe of destruction (ostensibly, you plan to generate this stuff from cultures of genetically modified mouse liver cell mitochondria), and provide the a1, a2 and a3 pass-phrases. a1, a2 and a3 are decrypted. the aspect remap is parsed and used to create the physical block "avoidance" map (checking for conflicts along the way). Joyous about the frozen seas to come, you copy the ATP pre-cursor catalyst into a3 and the file system tries to write a new block - e.g b28 - to a3. b28 is translated through the a3 remap table to b-1 (unallocated). A random block remap number is generated e.g b595 and tested against the avoidance smap. If free, it is marked and chosen to be the new a3 mapping, otherwise the algorithm simply does a circular hunt for the next free entry in the avoidance smap. Naturally, reading only requires the key of the aspect you are interested in (divulging). Writing to one aspect without the keys to the other aspects will randomly trash them as new splits are assigned. Timer remaps, reads and re-writes: This would be the simple end of it, were it not but for magnetic domain leakage/disk surface wear analysis attacks. Theoretically, this sort of attack could used to demonstrate access patterns by the drive head in regions outside those used by the duress aspect blocks. What we want to do here is to make sure the non-data carrying magnetic/other properties of the disk substrate are as close to a Jackson Pollock painting as is possible. i.e totally random :) Three methods are used: 1) every few seconds, we read a random number of blocks within a split in a random location and write it back to that same location with a m-1/m (e.g 9/10) (recursive) chance of an additional write. 2) every-time there is a conventional write, there is a m-1/m chance of a full remap of the split concerned. 3) every n seconds a random full split remap. (maybe not needed given the statistical properties of the above - I need to think about this a lot more. its not simple) All aspects are defined to take up 100% of the marutukku extent from the file-system perspective - this is essential to our deniability scheme. This works fine with most file-systems - e.g UFS, because they only write to a small fraction of their addressable blocks when formatted - i.a few super-blocks and inode, rather than zeroing every block, and so split usage for a given aspect reflects population of the file system that pertains to it. Cheers, Julian. -- Prof. Julian Assange |If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people |together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks proff@iq.org |and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless proff@gnu.ai.mit.edu |immensity of the sea. -- Antoine de Saint Exupery