Cryptography-Digest Digest #566, Volume #11 Mon, 17 Apr 00 16:13:01 EDT
Contents:
Documentation Standards (Guy Macon)
Re: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill ("Trevor L. Jackson, III")
Re: Requested: update on aes contest ("Trevor L. Jackson, III")
Re: Paper on easy entropy (Guy Macon)
Re: Q: Entropy (Mok-Kong Shen)
Re: Paper on easy entropy (Mok-Kong Shen)
Re: My STRONG data encryption algorithm ("Trevor L. Jackson, III")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Guy Macon)
Subject: Documentation Standards
Date: 17 Apr 2000 15:35:17 EDT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Trevor L. Jackson, III)
wrote:
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>>
>> If I could make a suggestion, and I'm by no means a MS fan, posting
>> the actual word97 document may be friendlier for most people.
>
>... but the rest of us may consider it a hostile act. TMK there is no
>mechanism whereby a macro virus can infect a ps or pdf file.
>
I wrote a document this week that addresses this issue. I would be
most appreciative if anyone chooses to comment - especially to point
out any stupid blunders I may have made.
(Please note that section 10.0 refers to crypto - advice in this
area is especially welcome!)
*************************************************************************
THIS IS A ROUGH DRAFT THAT I AM PASSING AROUND FOR COMMENTS. PLEASE EMAIL
FEEDBACK TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] SO THAT I CAN IMPROVE THIS DOCUMENT!!
0.0
Guy Macon's Documentation Standards
Revision 0.02
Guy Macon
04/17/2000
1.0
Purpose:
1.1
The purpose of this document is to define the data formats to be used in
all engineering projects managed by Guy Macon.
2.0
Scope:
2.1
In most cases this document is advisory only. This document is mandatory
only in cases where an applicable Requirements document makes conformance
to this document a requirement.
3.0
Overview:
3.1
Engineering documentation should be usable for a minimum of twenty years
so that we can support older equipment. In the case of patent litigation,
sufficient engineering documentation to prove prior art may be required
for as long as the patent holder exists. This requirement cannot be met
if we store our documents in data formats that are proprietary to a
specific vendor, have secret file structures, or are nonstandard in any
way. Our documents must survive even if our favorite software vendors go
out of business. (Care to try to edit a document stored in Wang,
Electric Pencil, WordStar, WordPerfect for DOS. or Lotus 123 formats?
All of them were market dominators in their day...) This document was
inspired by my experience with a company that has over 30,000 carefully
worded and formatted documents in WordPerfect 5.1/DOS format.
4.0
Bad Formats:
4.1
The following formats are known to be proprietary, nonstandard, rare, too
new, or otherwise undesirable:
4.2
Graphics Interchange format (.gif):
GIF files are covered by a Unisys patent. After years of allowing free
use, Unisys/CompuServe started charging GIF users. This should be a
lesson for anyone who chooses a proprietary format as a "standard".
4.3
Microsoft Word (.doc), Excel (.xls). Write (.wri) Rich Text (.rtf),
Bitmap (.bmp), and other Microsoft proprietary formats.
Microsoft has a history of making new versions of their software that are
not backward and forward compatible with documents saved with older
versions of the same software. Converters are available for many (but not
all) older formats, but the conversions are one way. If John Doe using
Microsoft Write (.wri) under Windows 3.11 sends a document to Jane Doe who
uses Windows NT, Jane cannot edit the document. Instead, a conversion
takes place and the document is converted into WordPad format. WordPad
cannot save in Write format. This means that Jane cannot make a
correction to John's document without making the document unreadable on
Johns computer. These situations can be triggered by an upgrade to an
application or even by applying the latest Service Pack. Word, Excel,
Rich Text, etc, all lack forward/backward compatibility with older versions
of the same format. In many cases there is no apparent reason to change the
file format except as a method of forcing users to upgrade. Conversion
programs are purposely made to be imperfect and formatting is often changed
by them.
4.4
Non-standard HTML as used by Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet
Explorer.
Both corporations are attempting to fill the Internet with documents that
can only be viewed with their software. long term archivability is not a
priority for either corporation - in fact they both have a business model
that profits from forcing document authors to follow shifting standards.
4.5
Extensible Markup Language (.xml) WWW Consortium Recommendation.
This may be the format of the future, but it's too new for us to adopt it
at this time.
4.6
Standard Generalized Markup Language (.sgml).
SGML is the basis of HTML and XML, and can be used to create a wide variety
of incompatible file formats. For our purposes the HTML subset of XML will
suffice.
4.7
Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format
PDF lacks forward and backward compatibility - you need the latest acrobat
reader to read the latest .pdf files. In many cases the latest version of
acrobat reader will not run on older hardware. Alas, there is no current
standard that will work as a direct replacement for the Adobe proprietary
PDF format.
4.8
Joint Photographic Experts Group, all implementations except JFIF
Strictly speaking, JPEG refers only to a family of compression algorithms;
it does *not* refer to a specific image file format. The JPEG committee
was prevented from defining a file format by turf wars within the
international standards organizations. In the absence of official
standards, a number of JPEG program writers have written incompatible
implementations and as a result their programs aren't 100% compatible
with anyone else's. The closest thing we have to a standard JPEG format
is JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format).
4.9
TIFF (.tff)
The TIFF 6.0 spec for incorporating JPEG is not widely implemented, partly
because it has some serious design flaws. NextStep systems are the only
ones making any significant use of TIFF 6.0 style TIFF/JPEG. TIFF is far
more complex than JFIF, and is generally less transportable because
different vendors often implement slightly different, non overlapping
subsets of TIFF.
4.10
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Specification
PNG is defined in W3C Recommendation RFC-2083 and is on a standards track
under the purview of ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 24 and is expected to be released
eventually as ISO/IEC International Standard 15948. It is intent of the
standards bodies to maintain backward compatibility with the current PNG
specification. I will consider adding it to my approved formats list when
and if the standard is approved. PNG seems to be better designed than most
other formats - if and when it is a standard, I will likely want to make it
one of my preferred standards.
4.11
Any document that contains macros, scripts, Java objects, or any other
executable objects.
Macros, scripts, etc. mean that you must not only read the file, but also
execute some code. This decreases the chances that the document will be
usable years from now. In addition, Macros, scripts, etc. are a security
problem, and may contain worms, viruses, or data bombs.
4.12
Any document that loses information when displayed, printed, or copied on
a monochrome device.
Meeting this requirement can be as simple as putting a small print "RED"
in the corner of a red colored box. Failure to make documents monochrome
friendly causes problems for users who lack color copy machines, and is a
violation of the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) act as it applies to
the colorblind and visually impaired.
6.0
Good Formats:
6.1
The following formats are known to be standard, and are acceptable for
use in engineering documentation.
6.2
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) as defined in
ANSI_X3.4-1968, ANSI_X3.110-1983, ISO-IR-99, CSA_T500-1983 and ISO 8859-1.
This is the preferred format for purely textual information, and is the
most universal of all standards. Use it whenever possible.
6.2.0 ASCII Rules:
6.2.1
The subset of ASCII to be used uses only the following characters. NULL
and TAB characters are interpreted differently on different systems and
shall not be used.
Allowable ASCII characters
Char Hex Name Char Hex Name
0A LINE FEED (LF) 0D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR)
< > 20 SPACE <!> 21 EXCLAMATION MARK
<"> 22 QUOTATION MARK <#> 23 OCTOTHORPE
<$> 24 DOLLAR SIGN <%> 25 PERCENT SIGN
<&> 26 AMPERSAND <'> 27 APOSTROPHE
<(> 28 LEFT PARENTHESIS <)> 29 RIGHT PARENTHESIS
<*> 2A ASTERISK <+> 2B PLUS SIGN
<,> 2C COMMA <-> 2D HYPHEN-MINUS
<.> 2E PERIOD </> 2F FORWARD SLASH
<0-9> 30-39 NUMBERS <:> 3A COLON
<;> 3B SEMICOLON <<> 3C LESS-THAN SIGN
<=> 3D EQUALS SIGN <>> 3E GREATER-THAN SIGN
<?> 3F QUESTION MARK <@> 40 COMMERCIAL AT
<A-Z> 41-5A CAPITAL LETTERS <[> 5B LEFT SQUARE BRACKET
<\> 5C REVERSE SLASH <]> 5D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET
<^> 5E CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT <_> 5F LOW LINE
<`> 60 GRAVE ACCENT <a-z> 61-7A LOWER CASE LETTERS
<{> 7B LEFT CURLY BRACKET <|> 7C VERTICAL LINE
<}> 7D RIGHT CURLY BRACKET <~> 7E TILDE
6.2.2
In released documents each line shall be less than 78 printable characters
long (75 is preferred), left justified, and without hyphenation. Please
note that modern text editors such as UltraEdit will convert this format
to and from long line format (no line feed or carriage return until end of
paragraph) for more convenient editing, and that the long line format is
preferred for unreleased drafts.
6.2.3
Each line shall be terminated with one of the following sequences,
in descending order of preference:
Carriage Return followed by Line Feed
Line Feed followed by a Carriage Return
Carriage Return alone
Line Feed alone
Software developers are encouraged to write code that outputs lines with
Carriage Return followed by Line Feed, and that accepts input with any of
the above line termination sequences.
6.2.4
Two spaces between sentences and no trailing spaces are preferred but
not required.
6.2.5
If possible, ASCII documents should be printed with a non-proportional
font (10, 11, or 12 point Courier or Courier New preferred) without bold,
italic, or underline attributes.
6.3
HyperText Markup Language (.htm .html)
6.3.0
HTML Rules:
6.3.1
The approved version of HTML is the version defined in rfc1866 from the
W3C Network Working Group. HTML is an application of ISO Standard
8879:1986 Information Processing Text and Office Systems; Standard
Generalized Markup Language (SGML).
6.3.2
Nonstandard extensions and implementations such as the ones used in
in Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are not allowed
in engineering documents.
6.4
Independent JPEG Group JFIF (commonly misnamed "JPEG") as defined in
Annex B of ISO DIS 10918-1.
JPEG is not a file format. JPEG is a compression scheme. JPEG File
Interchange Format (JFIF) is a file format which allows JPEG images
to be exchanged between a wide variety of platforms and applications.
Nearly all files on the Internet that are called "JPEG" are really JFIF
files.
6.5
Computer Graphics Metafile (.cgm) as defined in ANSI X3.122-1986 and
8632:1992 Parts 1-4, Version 1 CGM only.
Computer Graphics Metafile can handle vector graphics and images. It
stores pictures in a way which is independent of any particular software,
computer or graphics device. CGM offers the first standard method of
storing a vector-based image type. Vector images allow for greater detail
and clarity at multiple zoom levels. Also, they are usually much more
compact than the equivalent bitmap. CGM is used by a number of other
standards including the Office Document Architecture (ODA) standard, ATA
within the commercial aviation industry, J2008 within the automotive
industry and the CALS (Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support)
US Dept of Defense specification.
6.0
Revision Control:
6.1
All engineering documents shall be archived on a network file server
in such a way that no single or double failure will make the document
permanently unavailable. The electronic file on the file server shall
be considered to be the current version. All paper copies are to be
considered to be out of date and obsolete at the moment of printing.
The best that you say about the paper copy is that it was the latest
version several seconds ago.
6.2
All printed copies shall contain automatically computer generated time
stamps. Any changes to a document will automatically result in a new
time stamp. Updating of revision numbers is at the discretion of the
author - readers shall consider the timestamp authoritative and the
revision level to be advisory only.
7.0
Working with nonconforming file formats:
7.1
It is inevitable that some engineers will use applications that have
nonstandard file formats. There are too many useful tools that are
proprietary. When nonstandard file formats are used, the engineer shall
do the following before releasing the document:
7.1.0
Save the file in as many formats as possible.
Use other software to make conversions that are not on the exportable
format list.
7.1.1
Give serious consideration to creating a standard document that shows the
same information.
7.1.2
Store the document on as many media as possible. An ASCII file on
an 8 inch disk formatted for Kaypro CP/M is hard to read on a PC
with CD-ROM and 3.5" floppy. Be sure to store copies on as many
servers as possible, as server data tends to be backed up and to
get transferred as new computers and media formats are added to the
organization.
7.1.3
Make nine hard copies on acid free paper (vellum or Mylar preferred) with
archive quality ink and store three copies in each of three different
locations. Make microfilm copies if you can.
8.0 Revision History:
08/10/1999: Revision 0.00 - Initial prerelease
04/15/2000: Revision 0.01 - Minor edits, put bad formats section above good format
section.
04/17/2000: Revision 0.02 - Added section of media formats and things
that I haven't decided on yet.
9.0 Copyright:
Copyright (C) 2000 by Guy Macon. Permission is granted to use this
document for any purpose, as long as proper credit is given on any copy
that is posted to the Internet. For corporate use, permission is granted
to pretend that this is your own work with or without modifications.
You also have permission to modify this in any way. I would appreciate it
if you emailed me a copy - I might want to add your changes to my copy.
10.0 Things I haven't decided on yet - discussion welcome!
Postscript and Encapsulated postscript.
Tex and LaTex
A method of enciphering data that is likely to be available 20
years from now, plus a way of not losing or revealing the
passphrase over 20 years.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678
(Guide to help me to stay below 78 characters/line - to be removed later)
THIS IS A ROUGH DRAFT THAT I AM PASSING AROUND FOR COMMENTS. PLEASE EMAIL
FEEDBACK TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] SO THAT I CAN IMPROVE THIS DOCUMENT!!
*************************************************************************
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 15:49:52 -0400
From: "Trevor L. Jackson, III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.security.scramdisk,alt.computer.security
Subject: Re: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill
Stou Sandalski wrote:
> "Trevor L. Jackson, III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> >
> >
> > Stou Sandalski wrote:
> >
> > > "Mikey B" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > > > Hash: SHA1
> > > >
> <Snip>
> > > research facilities (am not very sure about that... but by striking
> > > somethign with the "Threat to national security" stamp everything
> becomes
> > > ok)
> >
> > Actually this is false. There is no action or declaration by any
> government
> > agency that can suspend a citizen's constitutional rights. However, the
> citizen
> > can voluntarily disclaim those rights, as for example happens when you
> accept a
> > job requiring a security clearance, enroll in a school, visit an airport,
> etc.
> >
>
> Actualy its partialy true, you do have to sign something when working at a
> top security place that makes your rights go bye bye. but in the case of
> school I am right. In the US by law you are required to go to school if you
> are under 18, also by law your rights are mostly suspended while you are at
> school.
You are oversimplifying, and thus reaching a conclusion that is false. The
counter example is that you are not compelled to go to a school that requires
the suspension of the 4th amendment prohibition against unreasonable search.
You have a choice.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 15:54:09 -0400
From: "Trevor L. Jackson, III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Requested: update on aes contest
Bruce Schneier wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Apr 2000 11:39:07 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> >hi there,
> >
> >there must be a lucky attending the AES conference. today is the last
> >day. could someone give us an update as to what is happening there?
>
> I suppose it should be someone more impartial than I who gives a
> report on FSE and AES.
>
> I had a really good time.
I suspect your comments would be welcome/valued as much as any other's.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Guy Macon)
Subject: Re: Paper on easy entropy
Date: 17 Apr 2000 15:49:17 EDT
O.K. Read the paper. Let's start at the top:
"Entropy is the measure of the unknown information in a closed system".
I believe that Entropy is a measure of the disorder/randomness of
information or energy in any system. open or closed. In a closed
system entropy cannot decrease, but open systems have entropy too.
(Please correct me if I have define Enropy poorly).
------------------------------
From: Mok-Kong Shen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Q: Entropy
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 22:00:28 +0200
Bryan Olson wrote:
>
> Mok-Kong Shen wrote:
> > Allow me another question: Could one use periodic duplication
> > of a string to form an infinite string as a trick to overcome the
> > problem of finite length of a given string in the present issue?
> > I mean, starting from two finite strings, we have now two infinite
> > strings to compare.
>
> You could define the sequences, but all infinite
> periodic sequences are in the same equivalence
> class. See if you can describe an optimal
> compression for prefixes of an infinite periodic
> sequence in terms of an optimal compression for
> the integers.
I am ignorant but wonder whether a TM could determine if an infinite
sequence contains any period at all.
M. K. Shen
------------------------------
From: Mok-Kong Shen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Paper on easy entropy
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 22:00:22 +0200
Francois Grieu wrote:
>
> entropy != easy
I have the personal impression that rigorously determining the
entropy contained in a sequence obtained in practice is almost
like rigorously determining the strength of an encryption
algorithm in practice.
M. K. Shen
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 16:00:59 -0400
From: "Trevor L. Jackson, III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: My STRONG data encryption algorithm
I've heard that keeping a spell checker healthy requires an adequate diet...
Eye halve a spelling chequer.
It came with my pea sea.
It plainly marques for my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key, and type a word,
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write;
It shows me strait a weigh.
As swoon as a mist ache is maid,
It nose bee fore two long;
And eye can put the error rite.
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it.
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh --
My chequer tolled me sew.
- author unknown
"John E. Kuslich" wrote:
> Spilling and grammer should not so easily bypassed be. Pople may fail to
> appreciatte your math skills if there exist in your papers and works of
> kinds of thinkgs like this and even especially if the page and file format
> prisn tattion is clean and sort of looking very good otherwise and stuff.
>
> At a minimum, get a spiel checkker and use it!!
>
> Otherwise peoople may think when you write an arrogant critical respnse to
> someone's werk you may not even know what the hek youar talking about!!
>
> I personnelly use a spieel chekker all the time but I am constantly
> surprised to find out how many words it doesn't know how to spiell korectly.
>
> Har to get good software these days.
>
> (When you are able to snatch the spell checker from the Internet, you may
> leave the monastery and enter the world where you may be critical of others.
> Until that time, grasshopper, go gently into that dark night and do not rage
> against the dying of the light...)
>
> JK
------------------------------
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