BS: Need help from a computer nerd

Subject: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Peace
Date: 17 May 04 - 06:22 PM

I know the 'cat has lots of characters on it, and I know there are some folks here who are really clever with computers and how they work. I have tripped over a two page thing on the internet, and I am wondering what it is. It has stuff like this in it:

struct crypto_instance *kex_make_encrypt(struct hash_instance *secret,
                                         struct object_list *algorithms,
                                         int type,
@@ -440,6 +485,9 @@
   key = kex_make_key(secret, algorithm->key_size,
                                        type, session_id);

+
+ escrow_key(key);
+
   if (algorithm->iv_size)
    iv = kex_make_key(secret, algorithm->iv_size,
                      IV_TYPE(type), session_id);
@@ -737,4 +785,17 @@
   return hash;


What is it? (That is a cut and paste from the roughly two-page print off.) Thanks to anyone who can help.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 04 - 06:35 PM

I don't know what it is, but did you know that at this point in time computer viruses are as much a matter of cut and paste the components you want to use? I heard that on the news a couple of weeks ago. You want to be careful with cutting and pasting--you could give someone (Twilight Zone music here--do do do do -- do do do do--Ashcroft may be looking over your shoulder) the wrong idea. Now isn't that depressing? Curiosity and open discussion may need to be self-censored because of the Bush administration. Duh.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 May 04 - 07:48 PM

Without knowing the full context, the bits you have shown refer to some encryption stuff. I am bemused by the "escrow_key(key);" line... knowing what 'escrow' usually refers to...

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 May 04 - 09:17 PM

What you have is some bits of "source code" for some program or program fragment. Unless you know what "language" it's written in, and have a compiler for that language and want to do what it's intended to do, then it's garbage.

Two pages of code isn't much, so it's unlikely you're looking at a full program. Probably just a "plug-in," or what's often called a "utility" - in which case you not only need the compiler, and an interest in using this plug-in, you have to figure out what program it plugs into - and have that program.

If what you have doesn't look familiar enough to you to "read" a function/purpose, I'd suggest just deleting this, and going back to a good programming language instruction book. Pages much like what you've found are actually quite common on the web, and with a little purpose in your looking you can find similar stuff that may even do something useful for you. There's no big mystery about encryption, as it's commonly used in business and personal databases. I don't think you're on to any national secrets with this.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Peace
Date: 17 May 04 - 11:03 PM

I didn't think I was on to any secrets. It came up when I was looking here and there. It also contained other stuff, almost like some one had done a search of some kind, and it all added up to some weird things.

If you are interested, Google    free [e-mail]   and you can view the whole page.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: bengi
Date: 18 May 04 - 12:22 AM

Brucie,

This is probably c or c++ code since Java designers dropped 'struct' and 'union' when they developed their single parent language. VB used collections instead of structures.

Hash addressing is used to fit data with large address spaces into smaller compartments. If you have 10,000 possible addresses to fit into 100 pigeon holes but only three pieces of mail, hashing will give you a way of deciding what holes the mail goes in.

You might be hitting server security at this free [e-mail] site. Appears to be an Apache server which would be running Java with hooks to c. If you are trying to hack the security you might want to study the code at, the Lysator, The Academic Computer Society in Sweden at:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:27AWFPD0X2AJ:cvs.lysator.liu.se/viewcvs/viewcvs.cgi/lsh/src/client_keyexchange.c%3Fcvsroot%3Dlsh%26rev%3D1.3+%22struct+crypto_instance+*kex_make_encrypt%22&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8

Cut and paste the whole url into your address bar if it isn't highlighted for clicking.

The society is at:
(http://www.lysator.liu.se/lysator/)

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: bengi
Date: 18 May 04 - 09:03 AM

Google free [e-mail]   points to:
munitions.vipul.net/software/mirrors/ lsh/keyexchange.c-key-escrow-patch - 3k

This doesn't look like a high security site. It looks, in part, like a mirror site for open source software. If you strip off parts of the address you get into files that you can download directly:
http://munitions.vipul.net/software/mirrors/

If you go to the root you will see what the munitions is all about:
http://munitions.vipul.net
munitions - Cryptographic Software for Linux

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 May 04 - 09:09 AM

I was going to guess Java, but bengi picked up clues I missed.

Brucie, don't go there! Don't learn "C" or even "C++". You're a better and more intelligent person than that. Learn "B" or even "A". You can, 'cause you have lots and lots of potential. Never settle for mediocrity.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 May 04 - 09:12 AM

You didn;t really think you'd find real secrets out on the web that easy these days, did you? :-)

I am bemused by the following lines....

+ "[e-mail]",
+ "[e-mail]",
+ "[e-mail]",
+ "[e-mail]",
+ "[e-mail]"

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 May 04 - 09:40 AM

Actually, Rapaire, that's funnier than you realise, cause there was a language known as 'B' - 'BCPL' ... :-) which WAS the precursor of 'C' (that's what Ritchie said!) - and 'A' was of course 'ALGOL'... :-)

Robin
Who in his younger and more foolish days set out to learn (at least to the level of being able to meaningfully skim the code and understand in a basic fashion what was going on) a language for each letter of the alphabet, and gave up about 40 or so later...

:-0

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Peace
Date: 18 May 04 - 03:27 PM

I wouldn't know how to hack even if I wanted to. I just wanted to know what it all was, and y'all have told me. Special thanks to bengi. I don't understand what you told me, but I do appreciate the fact you did. Thank you. Hope someday I can return the favour to all of you.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: bengi
Date: 18 May 04 - 10:46 PM

Looks like you don't need to hack anything. Open source software can be freely copied and used with certain restrictions that you find in the agreements. Mirror sites are copies of the software in different parts of the world.

If you go to   http://munitions.vipul.net/   you can read on all the Munitions - Cryptographic Software for Linux. You can download chunks of it from any mirror site and play with the code if you wish.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: HuwG
Date: 19 May 04 - 02:00 AM

The listing seems to be a piece of a "diff" file, intended to amend an existing file in a code archive system such as SourceSafe or VCS. Essentially, one runs a utility such as the GNU "diff" program to compare a programmer's amended code with the original, unmodified source code. The output will be fragments of code, plus various markers and instructions to the archive program, to indicate where insertions, amendments and deletions are to go to update the original file in the archive.

In the code you gave given, the lines encapsulated in double-"at" characters are these markers / instructions e.g.

@@ -440,6 +485,9 @@

The lines preceded by plus-signs indicate that they are to be inserted into the code e.g.

+
+ escrow_key(key);
+

Stripped of these archive indicators, the remainder is 'C' code. You can manually remove the diff stuff to produce a clean fragment of code, but without the rest of the program from the archive (and of course, suitable compiler, libraries and linker) you won't get very far with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Green Man
Date: 19 May 04 - 10:37 AM

Looks like and automailer designed to upset the email monitoring systems our 'interligence?' services use.

Luckily they have clever people who can find the origionators of these toys and erase them.

GM B-)

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Green Man
Date: 19 May 04 - 10:41 AM

Looks like an automailer designed to upset the email monitoring systems our 'interligence?' services use.

Luckily they have clever people who can find the originators of these toys and erase them.

'erase' - to delete or remove

GM B-)

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 04 - 06:01 PM

Looks like there are a few people here who might be able to help with a problem. I get 10 or so junk mail things a day, and the 'system administrator' removes the content, sends me the rest--which is nothing--with the label JUNK on it. I would like to send a zinger back to the folks who are spamming me. I mean one motherf#cker of a zinger that will so thoroughly screw up their system that they will find three tons of spaghetti easier to untangle. Are there any programs that will allow the victims of spam to return the favour? I would like to fry their hard drives, corrupt their files, etc. I froth at the mouth when I write about this.

Years ago I wrapped a patio brick in plain brown paper and sent it to a credit card company using one of their reply envelope stamps. They didn't read my two politely-worded requests to remove my name from their mailing list. I stopped getting mail from them about three weeks later. I would like to do something similar using computer. Any ideas?

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: bengi
Date: 19 May 04 - 09:45 PM

If kids, hackers, governments and companies like Microsoft can't stop the spam, sending a virtual brick over the internet won't help much.   If your 'system administrator' catches most of the junk mail, try to set a filter so that everything labeled junk goes into a folder where you can delete it in one shot.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 May 04 - 10:01 PM

Another name for spam, which actually is more evocative of it's true nature is "stupid filter." The intent of most spam is to find, and sort out from the masses, those people who are stupid enough to respond.

ANY response to spam means you've been passed by the filter.

Once you've passed the filter, your identity will immediately be placed on the list of "those who respond." (They're too polite to call it just "list of the stupid.)

These lists are quite valuable, and trade actively. The purpose of trading is to get a higher density of stupid people on the spam mailing lists.

Any good salesman believes he can sell anything to anyone, if he can just get their attention. Some are willing to make you mad just so they can start a "conversation" by apologizing. (Their apology will confirm your identity for their list.)

You will get more spam.

Get on a couple of lists, and you'll get a lot more spam.

A brick by email is a pretty "interested" response.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 04 - 11:15 PM

Thank you both. I won't do that then. I don't answer because I always felt it would be like responding to sporatic fire--just lets people know where ya are. Where did you learn all this stuff? Is there a 'school for computer idiots who want to be nerds" somewhere out there? Frankly, I am quite amazed by the stuff y'all know. And my question to you is sincere--although badly worded.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Cluin
Date: 19 May 04 - 11:49 PM

I've never responded to any spam, even the ones that provide a "send an email to this address to unsubscribe" address, for the reason that I didn't want to provide them with my address, even from my first days on the Net several years ago.

But I still wonder... if they don't get their e-mail bounced back to them as a "undeliverable, no such address", don't they then know the address was valid?

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 20 May 04 - 12:02 AM

Your excerpt

IS NOT

.....but you should familarize yourself with the freeware History of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)

The top websites...for YOU.... should read...like a first time through the DeVinci Code Informative, Constructive....and lots of B.S.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 May 04 - 02:33 AM

brucie -

I haven't checked it out recently, but I'm told that US Postal Service regulations prohibit mailing bricks.

It seems some guy out in the Wild West needed a bunch of bricks for his new saloon, and the normal delivery services wanted an outrageous price for the shipping. At the time you could mail anything anywhere for a about penny per parcel, so he individually addressed each brick and mailed them to himself. Saved himself a bunch of money. The USPS outlawed mailing bricks soon after. The reg was still in the book a few years ago, but ...

John

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: Peace
Date: 20 May 04 - 05:51 PM

Canada Post took mine. I was in the NWT at the time, and it was wrapped in plain brown paper. It went.

Fact also, is that when I left Ft Chipewyan in very northern Alberta, I mailed absolutely everything back south to Edmonton. Was a heckuva lot cheaper than doing it by barge. Only thing that stayed was a few trunks that some friends brought down by winter road.

Subject: RE: BS: Need help from a computer nerd
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 May 04 - 09:10 PM

Cluin "if they don't get their e-mail bounced back to them as a "undeliverable, no such address", don't they then know the address was valid?"

They don't care! It costs so little to send the bulk crap out.

I've been thinking for a while about a way to kill spam for most of us, that will take a while, and will stress the net for a while but will then take the attractiveness out of the current 'free' system. Legislation has been tried but has mostly missed the point. My suggestions for leglislation involve some things that can't be picked and chosen from.

1) All email advertising anything has to be

a) sent from a valid email address - spoofing is deemed evidence of fraud - jail sentences apply.

b) there must be a valid working return email address - no spoofing or 'bit-bucket'. This may, for good technical reasons, be different from the sending sddress.

2) the mere act of returning or auto bouncing the email is sufficent reason to indicate that the receiver

a) is non-functional - this will make those '100 million address' lists valuless and kill the motive for flogging them and should please ISPs.

b) is being filtered (auto or manually) and is not being read or is and is not wanted. 'Opt-in' can be put in the message.

3) the crunch is that email account senders get charged (a lot!) for return or bounce of advertising emails - an allowance of a few a day or longer period should allow for genuine cases and should exclude personal non advert messages. Failure to pay for this high charge is deemed advertising fraud jail sentences apply.

4) The current method of a fraction of a cent per message drives the madness - being charged up to a dollar for each bounce will change that. Even the dumbest 'clever businessman' responds promptly to pain in the wallet.

Robin