Cryptography-Digest Digest #359, Volume #11 Sat, 18 Mar 00 11:13:01 EST
Contents:
Re: Any Mathematicians Surnamed _Saint_-Germain? (John R Ramsden)
Why the Little Cryptographer Wears His Hand in a Sling ("Harry J. Smith")
Re: recognizing English text (Samuel Paik)
Re: Quantum crypto and the name of god (ca314159)
Re: 64-bit Permutations ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: recognizing English text ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Cipher Contest (SCOTT19U.ZIP_GUY)
Re: Improvement on Von Neumann compensator? (Tim Tyler)
Re: new Echelon article ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
DNA steganography (Quisquater)
Re: The Breaking of Cyber =?iso-8859-1?Q?Patrol=AE?= 4 (jungle)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (John R Ramsden)
Crossposted-To: sci.math
Subject: Re: Any Mathematicians Surnamed _Saint_-Germain?
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 10:26:54 GMT
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Savard) wrote:
>
> In sci.crypt, at this moment, a mention of mine of where to obtain a
> computer program that looks for Sophie Germain primes has led to a
> thread in which the mathematical community is being charged with being
> subject to a vicious and horrible sexism.
One reason for adding Sophie to this qualifier is obviously that the word
"germaine" actually means something in English, i.e. "relevant", unlike say
"Fermat". So in speaking of "Germain primes" one might confuse the listener
(although this shouldn't be a problem in writing about them). After all, one
doesn't refer to "Emmy Noetherian rings".
These hypersensitive anti-sexist types can be such a pain. If anything they
should be delighted by the phrase "Sophie Germain primes", as this highlights
the contribution of a female mathematician in an area that is undeniably more
of a male preserve.
Cheers
===========================================================================
John R Ramsden ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
===========================================================================
The new is in the old concealed, the old is in the new revealed.
St Augustine.
===========================================================================
------------------------------
From: "Harry J. Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Why the Little Cryptographer Wears His Hand in a Sling
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 03:19:37 -0800
This is from:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/
NETSURFER DIGEST
More Signal, Less Noise
Volume 06, Issue 09
Tuesday, March 14, 2000
Why the Little Cryptographer Wears His Hand in a Sling
Edgar Allan Poe loved cryptograms and openly professed to be able to solve
any and all such puzzles. The Challenge cryptograph is one of two submitted
by W. B. Tyler that Poe never solved, although he published solutions to all
others submitted to him. Some even think that Poe himself created the two
stumpers. Although Terence Whalen solved the second in 1992, the first
remains unsolved, teasing, taunting, crying out for a solution, waiting just
for you! In addition to the daunting cryptogram itself, there are links here
to sites about Poe that might just provide clues - who knows? If
cryptography's your thing, try this one on for size, and consider the prize:
$2,500 and some crypto software. You can get a lot of Amontillado for
$2,500....
http://www.bokler.com/eapoe.html
-Harry
------------------------------
From: Samuel Paik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: recognizing English text
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 11:56:52 GMT
Eric Lehman wrote:>
> I'd like to write a program that takes a block of ASCII characters and
> decides whether or not the block is a snippet of English text. For
> example:
>
> j2fk@30v0$ -> output "no"
> ke to writ -> output "yes"
>
> My program need not be perfect, of course, but I'd like it to be pretty
> good. Any thoughts about how I could go about this? Is a hairy heap of
> horrific heuristics unavoidable?
Here's an idea: build a high order context model (say order 5 or so)
and use this to estimate the entropy of the text. If it is too high,
call it not english. See _Text Compression_ by Bell, Cleary, and Whitten
or _The Data Compression Book_ by Nelson and Gailley.
--
Samuel S. Paik | http://www.webnexus.com/users/paik/
3D and multimedia, architecture and implementation
You dont know enough about X86 or kernel architectures to argue with me.
- <38b2dc12$0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "Leon Trotsky" to Terje Mathisen
------------------------------
From: ca314159 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Quantum crypto and the name of god
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 12:15:12 GMT
Joseph Ashwood wrote:
>
> Actually the statement that Quantum Cryptography can't be
> broken has yet to be proven. The proof of Quantum
> Cryptography being secure relies on the proof on One Time
> Pad. The proof of One Time Pad relies on perfect randomness.
> Perfect randomness has not been proven to even exist (at
> least not in public), let alone be present ina Quantum link.
> Until this is proven, I believe it should be considered
> little more than a self-keying stream cipher.
> Joe
>
Small potatoes considering the Kabbalists have been waiting
millenia for the quantum computer to run through the permutations
of the Torah for the name of god.
But we also know, right at the moment of critical read-out,
the Vogons destroy the Earth to make room for a Dilbert-space
bypass.
--
http://www.bestweb.net/~ca314159/
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: 64-bit Permutations
Date: 18 Mar 2000 12:46:39 GMT
Yes, my interpretation was intentionally far fetched, but unless you
specifically state whether you are mapping the 64 bits by position or value,
the interpretation is possible.
In fact, if you say that bits are permuted there are strictly speaking only
two possible maps: The identity ((0 1) -> (0 1)) and NOT ((0 1) -> (1 0)).
I might suggest that you take a crash course in basic abstract algebra. ;-)
In a previous article, Boris Kazak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>Please take a crash course in reading and comprehension.
>Original author wrote:
> **************************
>The bits in each block are simply permuted in the same
>fashion for each block. The key, then would be the bit-
>mapping.
> **************************
>And you are now trying to approach some entirely different
>problem...
>> Nope. A non-repetitive sequence of all 2^64 elements in the set of 64 bit
>> sequences is 64*(2^64) bits long. I am then talking of a permution of
64-bit
>> _values_.
>==================== Sorry and best wishes BNK
>
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>>
>> In a previous article, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> [--cut--]
>> >You're joking, right?
>>
>> Nope. A non-repetitive sequence of all 2^64 elements in the set of 64 bit
>> sequences is 64*(2^64) bits long. I am then talking of a permution of
64-bit
>> _values_.
>>
>> A permution of 64-bit _positions_ is a completely different story. I expect
to
>> unequivocally determine each such permution from 64 pairs of plain text
>> cipher text blocks (i.e. from 2x64x8 bytes).
>>
>> ----- Posted via NewsOne.Net: Free Usenet News via the Web -----
>> ----- http://newsone.net/ -- Discussions on every subject. -----
>> NewsOne.Net prohibits users from posting spam. If this or other posts
>> made through NewsOne.Net violate posting guidelines, email
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Posted via NewsOne.Net: Free Usenet News via the Web -----
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NewsOne.Net prohibits users from posting spam. If this or other posts
made through NewsOne.Net violate posting guidelines, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: recognizing English text
Date: 18 Mar 2000 13:12:33 GMT
In a previous article, Eric Lehman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>I'd like to write a program that takes a block of ASCII characters and
>decides whether or not the block is a snippet of English text. For
>example:
>
> j2fk@30v0$ -> output "no"
> ke to writ -> output "yes"
>
>My program need not be perfect, of course, but I'd like it to be pretty
>good. Any thoughts about how I could go about this? Is a hairy heap of
>horrific heuristics unavoidable?
In my experience an adequately set regular spell check component works better
and faster than any statistical test. The result would of course not be
unambiguous, but it does exclude a lot of "yes":s triggered by random strings
that match the statistical criteria you would otherwise go by.
----- Posted via NewsOne.Net: Free Usenet News via the Web -----
----- http://newsone.net/ -- Discussions on every subject. -----
NewsOne.Net prohibits users from posting spam. If this or other posts
made through NewsOne.Net violate posting guidelines, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (SCOTT19U.ZIP_GUY)
Subject: Re: Cipher Contest
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 15:21:10 GMT
In article <gZEA4.710$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Adam Durana"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> I think it would be fair to have a open catagorey where one is allowed
>> to let the block size be the size of the file to be encrypted.
>
>This suggestion wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you ScottXu
>ciphers treat the file as one block, would it? You shouldn't be trying to
>get the requirements to match a cipher you already have designed. And I
>don't see why you couldn't take your cipher and change the block size to say
>512 bits instead of the whole file.
>
It would be easy to change my cipher to fight 512 bits. since one only
has to treat each block as a small file. But I see no reson to limit the key
size to such a small space. IF you make rules I can see you saying it could
support keys of some fixed small size but it should not be eliminated just
becasue it would allow a user to use keys that are thousands of times longer
you could just use for testing and the contest a subset of the true key space.
One thing you have not mentioned but should be addressed is how do you wish
the encryption package to handle files that donot mesh with the 512 bit block
size. Or for the purpose of your contest do you wish to limit input files to
nice lengths.
David A. Scott
--
SCOTT19U.ZIP NOW AVAILABLE WORLD WIDE
http://www.jim.com/jamesd/Kong/scott19u.zip
Scott famous encryption website NOT FOR WIMPS
http://members.xoom.com/ecil/index.htm
Scott rejected paper for the ACM
http://members.xoom.com/ecil/dspaper.htm
Scott famous Compression Page WIMPS allowed
http://members.xoom.com/ecil/compress.htm
**NOTE EMAIL address is for SPAMERS***
I leave you with this final thought from President Bill Clinton:
"The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the
truth."
------------------------------
From: Tim Tyler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Improvement on Von Neumann compensator?
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 14:23:35 GMT
Guy Macon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: Could I then conclude that the best algorithmic aproach to "improving"
: a bitstream that comes from radioactive decay or thermal noise random
: number generator (RNG) would be to make a pseudorandom bitstream using
: the best pseuodorandom generator available (PRNG) seeded with a seperate
: run of the RNG, then XOR the two together? Or is there some superior
: method of trying to remove unknown biases caused by the electronics?
If neither source is completely random, the result of XORing them
may exhibit non-random fluctuations as well.
There are superior methods to the one you give - for example:
Rather than XORing two "reasonably" random sequences together, XOR as
large a number as you can find together.
Use of multiple streams and XOR improves the entropy of the output
rather slowly as the number of the inputs to be condensed into a
single output grows.
Use of a strong one-way hash function is probably in practice one of the
best ways of condensing the entropy in a stream - despite its lack of
perfection when dealing with an existing random stream.
--
__________
|im |yler The Mandala Centre http://www.mandala.co.uk/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
You can tell a company by the people it keeps.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To:
alt.politics.org.cia,alt.politics.org.nsa,talk.politics.crypto,alt.journalism.print,alt.journalism.newspapers
Subject: Re: new Echelon article
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 15:01:58 GMT
On Sat, 18 Mar 2000 09:33:08 GMT, "Douglas A. Gwyn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>Jos Horikx wrote:
>> Another interesting echelon-article on:
>> http://cryptome.org/echelon-cia2.htm
>
>Thanks; that was a refreshing change from Duncan-Campbellism.
Made even more interesting in that Mr. Woolsey is defending himself
and his methods of industrial espionage against accusations not yet
cast.
Mr. Woolsey claims in that Wall Street Journal opinion that the EU
report accuses the CIA/NSA of using Echelon to steal technology from
non-U.S. companies. While I don't doubt that technology theft occurs,
the report by Duncan Campbell -- from my reading of it -- concerned
itself with asserting the U.S. might be using this eavesdropping
network to help specific companies _win contracts_.
There were a number of logic holes in the argument presented by Mr.
Woolsey, holes that even _I_ can find and I'll be the first to admit
I'm not that bright and I'm pretty slow on the uptake.
Fer instance ... Mr. Woolsey writes:
==========
"The Campbell report describes a sinister-sounding U.S. meeting in
Washington where -- shudder! -- CIA personnel are present
and the participants -- brace yourself -- "identify major contracts
open for bid" in Indonesia. Mr. Campbell, I suppose, imagines
something like this: A crafty CIA spy steals stealthily out of a safe
house, changes disguises, checks to make sure he's not under
surveillance, coordinates with a spy satellite and . . . buys an
Indonesian newspaper. If you Europeans really think we go to such
absurd lengths to obtain publicly available information, why don't you
just laugh at us instead of getting in high dudgeon? "
=======
Now, obviously, Mr. Woolsey is referring to the newspaper report in
The (Baltimore) Sun by Sun staffer Scott Shane ("Mixing business with
spying; Secret information is passed routinely to U.S. companies," 1
NOV 1996.), a prime source of Mr. Campbell's for his report to the
European Parliament.
Mr. Shane wrote:
=============
"But Huang, like other top political appointees at the Commerce
Department, came from and returned to a private sector where a morsel
of information can be turned into a feast of profit. Documents
released by the department this week underscore how routine the
mingling of Commerce officials and CIA analysts has become.
One such document consists of minutes from an August 1994 Commerce
Department meeting attended by Huang to identify major contracts open
for bid in Indonesia in order to help U.S. companies win the work. A
CIA employee, Bob Beamer, spoke at the meeting; five of the 16 people
on the routine distribution list for the minutes were from the CIA."
=======
This is a report of just one specific meeting. Nonetheless, if, as Mr.
Woolsey claims, the assistance from the CIA was just a rehash of an
open contract published in an newspaper, why would the CIA need to be
present at such a meeting, speaking in presentation at the meeting and
maintaining five spots on the minutes distribution list? I guess
members at Commerce were illiterate and couldn't read that newspaper.
Additionally, I question why this country's intelligence assets have
their time squandered on such a mundane bureaucratic meeting as was
described. Was it that the donuts at Commerce were fresher, not
having to go through security checks and all that?
Mr. Woolsey also writes:
=======
"The Central Intelligence Agency collects other economic intelligence,
but the vast majority of it is not stolen secrets. The Aspin-Brown
Commission four years ago found that about 95% of U.S. economic
intelligence comes from open sources.
=======
Perhaps Mr. Woolsey should read The Washington Post on a regular
basis. From "A Peek at the Not-So-Secret World of the CIA; James Bond
It Isn't, Students Discover," by David Montgomery, Washington Post
Staff Writer, Wednesday, February 23, 2000; Page B03
========
The students had tough questions. "Will an agent's mission ever be to
kill somebody?" one asked.
"Absolutely not," (CIA deputy director for operations Jim) Pavitt
said.
[Note the imperative and emphatic use of the words "Absolutely not."]
"You tried very hard to kill Castro," piped up a boy.
"Those were times that are long gone," Pavitt said. "It was wrong
then, in my mind, and it is wrong today."
[Just because it was wrong then and is wrong today doesn't mean it
didn't happen and, therefore, doesn't qualify for an "Absolutely not"
answer. I guess the boy's career in public relations and cover-up is
shot.]
Pavitt told the group one of his team's main responsibilities is to
steal foreign secrets.
"Steal?" asked a girl.
"Steal, that's right," Pavitt said.
But isn't it wrong to steal? asked another girl. "We're stealing from
terrorists" and other national enemies, Pavitt said, to prevent them
from harming the nation.
================
'Nuff said.
------------------------------
From: Quisquater <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: DNA steganography
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 16:00:18 +0100
I didn't see that here:
Intel Science Talent Search $100,000
Scholarship Awarded to a 17-Year-Old Female
High School Senior from New York
Viviana Risca, who entered a computer science project in molecular
computing titled
"DNA-based Steganography," is the third youngest woman in the last seven
years to win the top prize. Viviana studied steganography, a data
encryption
technique that embeds secret messages within large amounts of seemingly
innocent information. She encrypted the message, "JUNE6_INVASION:
NORMANDY," inserted it in the gene sequence of a DNA-strand, and flanked
it by two secret "primer" DNA sequences. Then she combined the molecule
with many other similar molecules. The hidden message could be retrieved
only by someone knowing the two secret primer sequences - the keys to
the
code. Because the pair of primers provides a trillion trillion options,
she
concludes that the code is essentially unbreakable. First in her class,
Viviana
is managing editor of the school's literary magazine, and has won
numerous
science and writing awards. A native of Romania and a published poet,
she
enjoys computer programming, painting and badminton, and hopes to attend
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
See
http://www.sciserv.org/sts/press/20000313.asp
Notice that "DNA steganography" is well known (while new), see
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~reif/BMC/reports/BMC.FY99.reports/BMC.tasks/Task3.html
for instance.
I hope it will better handled by newspapers than the story of Sarah
Flannery.
Also an ethical question speaking about DNA?
------------------------------
From: jungle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: The Breaking of Cyber =?iso-8859-1?Q?Patrol=AE?= 4
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 15:12:30 GMT
the correct link is http://www.cypherspace.org/links.html
David A Molnar wrote:
>
> seifried <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > It reminds me of that database comment someone posted. I would _love_ to run
> > a service that distributes information, and when asked to provide logs/etc
> > simply say "sorry, I can't do that, they don't exist, and even if you wanted
> > me to I couldn't".
>
> Check out the projects listed at http://www.cypherspace.org/links/
> for some works in progress aimed at this exact topic.
------------------------------
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