Cryptography-Digest Digest #520, Volume #10 Sun, 7 Nov 99 10:13:03 EST
Contents:
Re: How protect HDisk against Customs when entering Great Britain (That guy...from
that show!)
Passwords - the weak link (Raddatz Peter)
Re: Best Asymetric Key System? (David A Molnar)
Re: Passwords - the weak link
Re: How protect HDisk against Customs when entering Great Britain (Dave Hazelwood)
Re: Best Asymetric Key System? (fungus)
Re: PGP Cracked ? (fungus)
Re: addition chains ? (Paul Rubin)
What sort of noise should encrypted stuff look like? (Lincoln Yeoh)
Re: PGP Cracked ? (zentara)
Project announce: Yet another encryptor for chat (transaprent IRC and ICQ support)
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
XOR Knapsacks (Oh no! not again?) ("Gary")
Re: Lenstra on key sizes (Mok-Kong Shen)
Re: The Code Book Mailing List ("Trevor Jackson, III")
Re: Best Asymetric Key System? (Tom St Denis)
Does OpenSSL work under Windows98? ("Yuriy Stul")
Re: How protect HDisk against Customs when entering Great Britain ("Scotty")
Re: Lenstra on key sizes (Tom St Denis)
Re: Best Asymetric Key System? (Tom St Denis)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: That guy...from that show! <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.security.pgp,comp.security.pgp.discuss,comp.security.pgp.tech,alt.privacy,alt.privacy.anon-server
Subject: Re: How protect HDisk against Customs when entering Great Britain
Date: 6 Nov 1999 04:31:38 -0000
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Sat, 06 Nov 1999 02:36:40 GMT , [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Menial Roky)
wrote
>pgp651 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>To all offended by my cross posting, I'm very sorry for what you are
>>feeling.
>>My intention was & is to receive help from 2 groups of people [ Privacy
>>& PGP
>>]. I do not consider cross posting to be bad when someone need help.
>
>You could at least tell us which newsgroup you are actually reading, so
>that we can go directly to that group and be sure of reaching you without
>having to cross-post to six different newsgroups.
That would be rather stupid.
a) Others wouldn't know if the question was answered. Duplicate answers
would result in unneccessary usenet traffic.
b) If an incorrect answer is given, most people are locked out of
correcting it
c) The post was appropriate to all of the groups it was crossposted to.
d) If you wanted to be sure of reaching him, and didn't want to crosspost,
there's this new thing we call 'e-mail'. It's the latest rage. Check it
out ya bonehead.
------------------------------
From: Raddatz Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Passwords - the weak link
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 21:25:04 -0800
I'm a relative Newbie to Cryptography, but after doing some research I
seem to come full circle to the same result. - "The weak link to ANY
encryption algo is the PASSWORD."
Here, in this Newsgroup, I've always seen the quote "what if your enemy
has access to the same program that you are using...". Well, that being
the case then any algo is just as weak as any other because it is
susceptible to a password attack.
Provided that the user is using one of the AES compliant algos it should
be equally secure or insecure.
Given the same program and the cipher an attack on the password should
be able to decrypt the file in question. There is a finite number of
combinations of chars, nums & other symbols that 256 symbols can yield.
With today's highspeed computers these combinations should be able to be
explored in no time flat.
What am I missing here?
Peter Raddatz
------------------------------
From: David A Molnar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Best Asymetric Key System?
Date: 7 Nov 1999 05:38:42 GMT
Tom St Denis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I think ELGAMMA is the buzzword of the month now.
YM Elgamal HTH,
-David
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ()
Subject: Re: Passwords - the weak link
Date: 7 Nov 99 06:21:37 GMT
Raddatz Peter ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: I'm a relative Newbie to Cryptography, but after doing some research I
: seem to come full circle to the same result. - "The weak link to ANY
: encryption algo is the PASSWORD."
: With today's highspeed computers these combinations should be able to be
: explored in no time flat.
In the latest issue of Crypto-Gram, Bruce Schneier, author of the
acclaimed book "Applied Cryptography", made the same point - that
passwords of a reasonable size for typical computer users to memorize are
the weak link.
However, although "today's highspeed computers" can try every possible
40-bit key in a short time, or even, with specialized equipment, every
possible 56-bit key in a few weeks, the combinations made by even sixteen
characters - if each one could be any of 256 possible values - correspond
to a 128-bit key, which would take immensely longer to try.
But instead of trying to memorize 16 characters with arbitrary values, one
can use a pass phrase instead of a password; there are well-known
techniques to convert a pass phrase to a binary hash.
Also, there are "privacy amplification" techniques, where a long, randomly
generated key is protected by a combination of public-key techniques and
by a short password, in a way that allows both to contribute to the level
of protection obtained.
John Savard
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dave Hazelwood)
Crossposted-To:
alt.security.pgp,comp.security.pgp.discuss,comp.security.pgp.tech,alt.privacy,alt.privacy.anon-server
Subject: Re: How protect HDisk against Customs when entering Great Britain
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 03:54:42 GMT
Ha ha no just the face of a person and some trees but it was a
remarkable feat of science yet one with sinister potential.
Anonymous <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dave Hazelwood) wrote:
>
>: Did you see the report last week where scientists actually saw through
>: a cat's eyes by interpreting its brainwaves?
>
>Cool. Did everything look like prey? Did they get sound too? Did
>everything sound like a can-opener?
------------------------------
From: fungus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Best Asymetric Key System?
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 07:11:39 +0100
Tom St Denis wrote:
>
> Pick up a free integer package and implement something as simple as g^x
> mod p, and you have a asymmetric system. I did it in peekboo, and I am
> sure you can do it in your program.
>
I'm sure you said you weren't going to plug peekaboo but seems like
you mention it in every post lately...
--
<\___/>
/ O O \
\_____/ FTB.
------------------------------
From: fungus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: PGP Cracked ?
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 08:40:46 +0100
Jim Gillogly wrote:
>
> Sounds to <me> like he already has your passphrase, and he gave himself
> until next Tuesday to make it look tough. I would expect your site's
> security expert to have lan-sniffing software available, and he probably
> used it to watch keystrokes as you decrypted one of your messages.
>
Yep...
...change your passphrase (hell, generate a whole new key pair for
him) and give him that instead. See if he can decrypt a message then.
--
<\___/>
/ O O \
\_____/ FTB.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Paul Rubin)
Subject: Re: addition chains ?
Date: 7 Nov 1999 09:08:22 GMT
In article <80167r$5vf$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
David A Molnar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>Does anyone have a pointer to code which finds addition chains for
>computing modular powers (or any other reason)? I've come across
>references which discuss how to use them to cut down on the number of
>multiplications necessary to compute g^a mod n, and am now considering
>implementation. So I'm wondering what's already out there...
It's not worth messing with this. There is a long section about
addition chains in Knuth vol 2. Two-line summary:
1) finding the best possible addition chain is NP-hard, so don't bother.
2) The best possible chain is hardly ever more than slightly better
than the obvious chain.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Lincoln Yeoh)
Subject: What sort of noise should encrypted stuff look like?
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 10:00:18 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have the impression most encrypted material look like white noise.
Why not some other noise? e.g. pink noise and so on.
Of course if there is precompression then we should make it follow the
compressed stuff.
Link.
****************************
Reply to: @Spam to
lyeoh at @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
pop.jaring.my @
*******************************
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (zentara)
Subject: Re: PGP Cracked ?
Reply-To: ""
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 09:49:15 GMT
On Sat, 06 Nov 1999 14:54:53 -0500, "Trevor Jackson, III"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>zentara wrote:
>
>> But did you ever consider that PgP or GpG are controlled
>> by very high-ranking military and government people? And that
>> at a certain security level, there are people who can generate
>> a "secret key" from the freely available "public key"? They are sworn
>> to a very high secrecy level.
>
>And they just happenned to let you know about it? Do tell.
>
>So you are wasting our time.
>No, but it certainly explains where silliness like yours originates.
Sorry, I just wanted to raise the issue of the "possibility" that it
could not be as secure as everyone likes to believe, by design
of the originators of arpanet.
Discrediting me by saying it is total foolishness, makes me suspect
that you are part of the coverup operation. :-)
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Project announce: Yet another encryptor for chat (transaprent IRC and ICQ
support)
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 09:58:06 GMT
eProxy - encrypting socks5 proxy server
eProxy is a tool to make a transparently encrypted communications in
user-oriented protocols which allows user to utilize their favorite
clients.
The idea of our product is a special version of socks5 proxy server with
small additional client programm to create secure connection for popular
software products (such as ICQ, IRC clients) without necessary security
level.
To provide secure connection eProxy use strong encryption methods:
CAST128,
BlowFish, 3DES symmetric, Diffie-Helmann key exchange, El Gamal and RSA
public key (PGP6 compatible), use Peter Gutmann's cryptlib v 2.1 (beta
0413).
User could use his favorite client to communicate - just mention eProxy
as a socks5 firewall.
This software use newly designed protocol for multiuser conversation
adopted
to situation when any participants could disappear in any time (check
http://swsoft.mipt.ru/eproxy/details/Default.htm for detailes).
Features:
a.. ICQ message passing (off-line and on-line);
b.. ICQ multiuser chat;
c.. IRC private message passing;
d.. IRC channels and DCC chat.
Platforms:
a.. Linux;
b.. Windows 9x;
c.. Windows NT;
d.. Windows 2000.
Current status:
Free technology-preview version (socks5 on Linux, client on Windows) is
ready;
http://swsoft.mipt.ru/eproxy/state.htm - currently supported features
Home pages:
http://www.sw.com.sg/products/eproxy/ main info
http://swsoft.mipt.ru/eproxy/ - home site of the project
any comments are welcome!
contact email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Alex Tormasov, PhD, ass. prof of MIPT ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
author of StrongDisk (TorDisk) - disk encryption software for Win
(http://www.phystechsoft.com/en/StrongDisk/)
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: "Gary" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: XOR Knapsacks (Oh no! not again?)
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 11:22:21 -0000
Sorry, I know this was touched on before but I can't remember reading the
solution to it.
Given a set X={x0,x1,...,xn} of mn bit numbers where m>=2.
S is a randomly selected subset.
Z is the XOR of all elements of the subset S.
Can the subset creating Z be found?
If so what time does it take?
------------------------------
From: Mok-Kong Shen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Lenstra on key sizes
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 11:24:35 +0100
Paul Schlyter wrote:
>
> Tom St Denis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Funny, when RSA was proposed 512 bit keys were very far out of reach.
>
> It was, with the technology at that time. Then it was estimated to
> take a few billion years to factor a 512-bit RSA modulus. Today,
> 25 years later, it can be done in 7 months...
>
> This should be of great concern to anyone claiming some encryption
> will take billions of years to crack, and where it's relly important
> no-one will be able to crack it during at lest the next few decades...
The mentality of the builders of the Titanic remains with us.
>From that follows the fervent quest of one single sacared encryption
algorithm that is capable of ensuring the communication security of
the whole mankind till eternity (or at least the pretty far eternity).
A probably very stupid question concerning symmetric ciphers: Does
it cost terribly more if one uses 512 bits of key instead of 256 bits?
M. K. Shen
======================
http://home.t-online.de/home/mok-kong.shen
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 07:56:42 -0500
From: "Trevor Jackson, III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: The Code Book Mailing List
Douglas A. Gwyn wrote:
> "Trevor Jackson, III" wrote:
> > Sure. Doug Gwyn specializes in factoring primes of arbitrary size
> > into their two prime factors.
>
> Delete the "two" and you'll have it right.
I consider One a prime because it is only divisible by one and itself.
------------------------------
From: Tom St Denis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Best Asymetric Key System?
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 13:02:19 GMT
In article <803392$dup$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
David A Molnar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Tom St Denis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I think ELGAMMA is the buzzword of the month now.
>
> YM Elgamal HTH,
What does that mean?
Tom
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: "Yuriy Stul" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Does OpenSSL work under Windows98?
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 15:32:23 +0200
Hello everybody!
I use OpenSSL 0.9.3. Under Windows NT everything OK. Under Windows 98 (same
problem for 95) I have a problem even with OPENSSL.EXE application. For
example I start OPENSSL s_server. After I close I see message about system
error: "Illegal operation" and "OPENSSL caused an invalid page fault"
Is it possible to use OpenSSL under Windows 98?
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Yuriy Stul
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.tashilon.com>
------------------------------
From: "Scotty" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.security.pgp,comp.security.pgp.discuss,comp.security.pgp.tech,alt.privacy,alt.privacy.anon-server
Subject: Re: How protect HDisk against Customs when entering Great Britain
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 12:31:59 -0000
I forgot to mention you will probably also want to do something about
system.dat system.da0 user.dat and user.da0. Plus any backups of these files
saved while upgrading IE or other software. Windows has the annoying habit
of saving the names of recent files/web sites in user.dat (use regedit to
search for MRU) and you might find a configuration saved in system.dat
showing more drives than you actually have. Of course if you use IE it saves
every web site you visit (or alta vista query you do for example) EVEN if
you remove history ITS STILL THERE. If you dont believe me check index.dat
(you'll need to use the old windows 3.1 file manager with show hidden/system
files selected). Every newsgroup you have ever looked at is also recorded
even if you only looked at the headers. Basically Windows sucks. Netscape is
no better, use Opera at least it doesn't leave forensic trails everywhere.
Better still use Linux.
John Kennedy wrote in message ...
>On Thu, 04 Nov 1999 22:33:48 -0600, Piccolo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 5 Nov 1999 11:23:47 -0000, "Scotty"
>><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>>How about the following process:
>>>1)defragment the drive.
>>>2)Use scramdisk calling the file by some random name eg A22487B2.B11
>>>3)Wipe all free space,blank directory entries (hence choice of name) and
>>>file tails with BCWipe
>>>4)Use touch to set your access, creation and modify date/time on the
>>>scramdisk file to be the same as BCWipe uses when it wipes bank
directories.
>>>5)Exit windows and delete it using DOS.
>>>6)Don't do anything else to the system.
>>>7)Undelete it using DOS when you get to your destination.
>>>
>>>OK, the only clue that anything is out of place is a deleted directory
entry
>>>with a starting cluster and size and last access date. Anyone know a
utility
>>>to delete a file without setting the last access date on the deleted
>>>directory entry or delete/set cluster details? If so that would make
this a
>>>perfect solution, you would just have to make a manual note of the
cluster
>>>number and size.
>>>
>>
>> I like your idea but the risk is if someone powers up Windows "to
>>check out the hard drive" before you restore the file, Windows may
>>overwrite the data with its swap file.
>>
>>The way I'd do it is to set up a second partition on my HD. Create a
>>scramdisk partition that's the exact same size. Fill it up. Dismount
>>it. Then uninstall scramdisk from the HD and obliterate all traces of
>>it.
>>
>>Next write a DOS utility that uses direct BIOS calls to copy the SVL
>>file sector-by-sector to the new partition. This will overwrite any
>>FAT on the new partition. As far as DOS/Windows is concerned, it's an
>>unformatted partition so I suspect you wouldn't even see it under
>>either operating system. The only way it can be accessed is with BIOS
>>calls. When you arrive at your destination, a similar DOS utility
>>would use BIOS calls to read the partition and DOS calls to write it
>>back to the HD. Download scramdisk off the web, reinstall, and you're
>>all set.
>>
>>If someone finds the partition before you decode it - well, it's just
>>an unformatted HD partition containing random data.
>>
>>Another possibility is to write a virus or trojan that eats up HD
>>space by creating large files containing random data with about the
>>same distribution as a scramdisk .SVL file, release it on the world so
>>it becomes well-documented, then infest your system with it... since
>>scramdisk's source code is published it wouldn't be difficult for the
>>trojan-writer to "borrow" parts of it to create actual encrypted (but
>>dismounted and "hidden") volumes.
>>
>>This is a fun exercise but just remember, "They" are probably reading
>>this newsgroup so "They" know of everything that's suggested here.
>>
>> :-)
>
>
>Very nice job. This was by far the best answer I've seen that involves
>carrying the files in by hand.
>
>-
>
>John Kennedy
>The Wild Shall Wild Remain!
>http://members.xoom.com/rational1/wild/
>
------------------------------
From: Tom St Denis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Lenstra on key sizes
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 12:55:39 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Mok-Kong Shen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The mentality of the builders of the Titanic remains with us.
> From that follows the fervent quest of one single sacared encryption
> algorithm that is capable of ensuring the communication security of
> the whole mankind till eternity (or at least the pretty far eternity).
>
> A probably very stupid question concerning symmetric ciphers: Does
> it cost terribly more if one uses 512 bits of key instead of 256 bits?
Oh probably not. But computers have ram, why not use 32768 bit keys?
Oh wait, probably because the average cipher might be breakable in
under the effort. Like RC6 has an 'attack' at 2^118 but that's not
very realistic. But does that mean a 256 bit key is more secure then a
128bit key in RC6? Um, nope. [unless the 'attack' doesn't actually
work, can anyone fill in some rc6 details here?]
Tom
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: Tom St Denis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Best Asymetric Key System?
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 13:01:11 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
fungus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> Tom St Denis wrote:
> >
> > Pick up a free integer package and implement something as simple as
g^x
> > mod p, and you have a asymmetric system. I did it in peekboo, and
I am
> > sure you can do it in your program.
> >
>
> I'm sure you said you weren't going to plug peekaboo but seems like
> you mention it in every post lately...
>
Well gimme the names of similar programs, I will plug them as well.
My point is still valid. [sorry about the shameless plugging!!!]
Tom
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
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