• Re: random passwords

    From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 07:17:00 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 26/08/18 16:44, Michael Black wrote:
    But we saw the same thing in reverse for internet access, you used to
    own your own internet account, any ISP I've used has either required
    some ID, or I've actually interacted with someone from the company.  Now with broadband, lots of people may use the same internet account, so
    endless logging into other sites.

    wait till its IP v6


    --
    The lifetime of any political organisation is about three years before
    its been subverted by the people it tried to warn you about.

    Anon.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 07:19:54 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 26/08/18 22:09, Robert Heller wrote:
    Most normal users will provide "honest" answers.

    1/. Ther are no 'normal' users.

    2/. There are no 'facts'


    --
    The lifetime of any political organisation is about three years before
    its been subverted by the people it tried to warn you about.

    Anon.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Melzzzzz@Melzzzzz@zzzzz.com to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 06:21:27 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 2018-08-27, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 26/08/18 16:44, Michael Black wrote:
    But we saw the same thing in reverse for internet access, you used to
    own your own internet account, any ISP I've used has either required
    some ID, or I've actually interacted with someone from the company.  Now >> with broadband, lots of people may use the same internet account, so
    endless logging into other sites.

    wait till its IP v6

    I am waiting more then 20 years...




    --
    press any key to continue or any other to quit...
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 08:15:35 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 27/08/18 07:21, Melzzzzz wrote:
    On 2018-08-27, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 26/08/18 16:44, Michael Black wrote:
    But we saw the same thing in reverse for internet access, you used to
    own your own internet account, any ISP I've used has either required
    some ID, or I've actually interacted with someone from the company.  Now >>> with broadband, lots of people may use the same internet account, so
    endless logging into other sites.

    wait till its IP v6

    I am waiting more then 20 years...


    We waited longer than that for 'Unix on the desktop' :-)







    --
    "In our post-modern world, climate science is not powerful because it is
    true: it is true because it is powerful."

    Lucas Bergkamp
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Roger Blake@rogblake@iname.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 22:44:03 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 2018-08-27, Melzzzzz <Melzzzzz@zzzzz.com> wrote:
    I am waiting more then 20 years...

    I've been avoiding it for more than 20 years. I have IPV6 disabled on
    all of my systems.

    -- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.)

    NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
    Don't talk to cops! -- http://www.DontTalkToCops.com
    Badges don't grant extra rights -- http://www.CopBlock.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From not@not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 23:12:55 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    In comp.os.linux.misc Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

    https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/behind-intels-new-randomnumber-generator

    https://spectrum.ieee.org/image/MTkxMTQ4OQ

    "Uncertain Circuits:

    When transistor 1 and transistor 2 are switched on, a coupled pair of inverters
    force Node A and Node B into the same state [left]. When the clock pulse rises
    [yellow, right], these transistors are turned off. Initially the output of both
    inverters falls into an indeterminate state, but random thermal noise within the
    inverters soon jostles one node into the logical 1 state and the other goes
    to logical 0.
    "

    It's pretty conventional looking to me. No quantums were tortured on that one.

    Thanks for the link, that article was an interesting read. I'm not
    sure about no quantums being tortured though, the root of the whole
    thing is the "thermal noise", described later as "random atomic
    vibrations". As I said before, I never managed to penetrate deeply
    enough into this to understand it properly (and by now I've
    forgotten everything that I did understand), but it certainly goes
    further into physics than just electronic theory.

    The point is that _if_ you knew how to model the exact behaviour
    that causes the "thermal noise", perhaps you could predict it
    and thereby find that it isn't truly random. On the other hand,
    the general assumption seems to be that it is intrinsically
    random, and in practice I'm happy to believe that.

    The most fun kind is lava-rand. The usage of lava lamps
    (which are thermally driven by a heat source in the base),
    to generate random numbers. Cloudflare didn't invent this,
    and this is just an example.

    https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty-gritty-technical-details/

    "In the lobby of our San Francisco office, we have a wall of lava lamps
    (pictured above). A video feed of this wall is used to generate entropy
    that is made available to our production fleet."

    It's the best excuse that I can think of for building a wall of
    lava lamps. :)

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From not@not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 23:40:15 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    In comp.os.linux.misc Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

    The point is that _if_ you knew how to model the exact behaviour
    that causes the "thermal noise", perhaps you could predict it
    and thereby find that it isn't truly random. On the other hand,
    the general assumption seems to be that it is intrinsically
    random, and in practice I'm happy to believe that.

    Here's a description of a random number generator from my files that
    almost doesn't rely on deeper physics and might output data that
    is difficult (though I suspect not impossible) to predict:

    ####################################################################

    From: rbmccammon@mmm.com (Roy McCammon)
    Newsgroups: sci.electronics.components
    Subject: Re: Random Number Generators
    Date: 30 Apr 1996 20:56:48 GMT
    Organization: 3M

    Every time some smart guy thinks he has a source of cripto quality
    random numbers, some smarter guy proves him wrong, so I wouldn't
    dream of saying the following circuit can produce cryto quality random
    numbers, but you may want to try it.

    The idea is to have two oscillators that have a random relationship to
    each other, and then use one to sample the other. I would make two different types at very differnet frequencies and take care that there is no inadvertent coupling through poor ground or power supply connections. At least one
    would probably be very drifty.

    Start with an about 10MHz crystal oscilator, and a 1000Hz rc oscilator such
    as a 555 or a few cmos gates. Uses high temperature coefficient capacitors like Z5U's and even thermisters if you are so inclined for the 1000 Hz oscilator. Run the 10 MHz to a flip flop set up to toggle. Call the
    output of this flip flop T1. T1 has close to a 50% duty cycle. Call
    the 1000Hz output T2.

    Connect T1 to the serial input of a shift register (8 stages should be fine) and
    T2 to the clock input of the shift register. Take your random bit stream
    at the output of the last stage of the shift register. If you need absolute equal percentages of ones and zeros do this. Take your bits in pairs. Then let 01 be a one and 10 be a zero. Throw away 00 and 11. You can do similar things on greater numbers of bits if you are worried about higher order correlations. Gather the bits up into numbers of the size of your choice.

    The purpose of the shift register is to suppress meta-stable outputs. Use
    only the last stage of the shift register.

    Opinions expressed herein are my own and may not represent those of my employer.

    ####################################################################

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Paul@nospam@needed.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 20:10:03 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
    In comp.os.linux.misc Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
    The point is that _if_ you knew how to model the exact behaviour
    that causes the "thermal noise", perhaps you could predict it
    and thereby find that it isn't truly random. On the other hand,
    the general assumption seems to be that it is intrinsically
    random, and in practice I'm happy to believe that.

    Here's a description of a random number generator from my files that
    almost doesn't rely on deeper physics and might output data that
    is difficult (though I suspect not impossible) to predict:

    ####################################################################

    From: rbmccammon@mmm.com (Roy McCammon)
    Newsgroups: sci.electronics.components
    Subject: Re: Random Number Generators
    Date: 30 Apr 1996 20:56:48 GMT
    Organization: 3M

    Every time some smart guy thinks he has a source of cripto quality
    random numbers, some smarter guy proves him wrong, so I wouldn't
    dream of saying the following circuit can produce cryto quality random numbers, but you may want to try it.

    The idea is to have two oscillators that have a random relationship to
    each other, and then use one to sample the other. I would make two different types at very differnet frequencies and take care that there is no inadvertent
    coupling through poor ground or power supply connections. At least one
    would probably be very drifty.

    Start with an about 10MHz crystal oscilator, and a 1000Hz rc oscilator such as a 555 or a few cmos gates. Uses high temperature coefficient capacitors like Z5U's and even thermisters if you are so inclined for the 1000 Hz oscilator. Run the 10 MHz to a flip flop set up to toggle. Call the
    output of this flip flop T1. T1 has close to a 50% duty cycle. Call
    the 1000Hz output T2.

    Connect T1 to the serial input of a shift register (8 stages should be fine) and
    T2 to the clock input of the shift register. Take your random bit stream
    at the output of the last stage of the shift register. If you need absolute equal percentages of ones and zeros do this. Take your bits in pairs. Then let 01 be a one and 10 be a zero. Throw away 00 and 11. You can do similar things on greater numbers of bits if you are worried about higher order correlations. Gather the bits up into numbers of the size of your choice.

    The purpose of the shift register is to suppress meta-stable outputs. Use only the last stage of the shift register.

    Opinions expressed herein are my own and may not represent those of my employer.

    ####################################################################

    The danger with oscillators, is injection lock.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_locking

    "When the second oscillator merely disturbs the first but does not capture it,
    the effect is called injection pulling."

    You would have to study the statistics of your
    circuit fairly carefully (like all these ideas),
    to spot trouble.

    Paul

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From William Unruh@unruh@invalid.ca to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Tue Aug 28 00:17:31 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 2018-08-27, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
    In comp.os.linux.misc Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

    https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/behind-intels-new-randomnumber-generator

    https://spectrum.ieee.org/image/MTkxMTQ4OQ

    "Uncertain Circuits:

    When transistor 1 and transistor 2 are switched on, a coupled pair of inverters
    force Node A and Node B into the same state [left]. When the clock pulse rises
    [yellow, right], these transistors are turned off. Initially the output of both
    inverters falls into an indeterminate state, but random thermal noise within the
    inverters soon jostles one node into the logical 1 state and the other goes
    to logical 0.
    "

    It's pretty conventional looking to me. No quantums were tortured on that one.

    Thanks for the link, that article was an interesting read. I'm not
    sure about no quantums being tortured though, the root of the whole
    thing is the "thermal noise", described later as "random atomic
    vibrations". As I said before, I never managed to penetrate deeply
    enough into this to understand it properly (and by now I've
    forgotten everything that I did understand), but it certainly goes
    further into physics than just electronic theory.

    The point is that _if_ you knew how to model the exact behaviour
    that causes the "thermal noise", perhaps you could predict it
    and thereby find that it isn't truly random. On the other hand,
    the general assumption seems to be that it is intrinsically
    random, and in practice I'm happy to believe that.

    The problem is that the thermal noise comes about because of the
    interaction of the device with loads of other things in the vicinity.
    Unless you knew exactly what the state of those other things are (atoms
    for example) you do not know what their effect is on the thing you are
    trying to use (the reversed biased junction for example) And there are
    so so so many other things around that their effect become impossible to predict.

    Now, it may be there are "echos" for example. Something affects the device of interest, that device affects back that something which then comes back
    and affects the device again. That can produce long time correlations in
    the output of the device. Ie, most physical devices have such
    correlations, which, if you understand the device and its environment
    well, could give you some information about the random stream. Ie,
    biases need not just be "this device produces more ones than zeros" But
    "if it produces a one now it has a higher probability of producing a one
    10 milliseconds later", even if the average probability of producin one
    of zero are equal.



    The most fun kind is lava-rand. The usage of lava lamps
    (which are thermally driven by a heat source in the base),
    to generate random numbers. Cloudflare didn't invent this,
    and this is just an example.

    Well, no. They tend to operate by heating and cooling. The blob is
    heated at the bottom, rises to the top where it cools and sinks back
    down. That process is probably in large part predictable. Ie, lava lamps
    are probably a terrible source of "random bits".



    https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty-gritty-technical-details/

    "In the lobby of our San Francisco office, we have a wall of lava lamps >> (pictured above). A video feed of this wall is used to generate entropy >> that is made available to our production fleet."

    It's the best excuse that I can think of for building a wall of
    lava lamps. :)

    As a source amongst many others it might be useful. As the only source
    it is probably terrible.



    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Jean-David Beyer@jeandavid8@verizon.net to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 20:52:41 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 08/27/2018 08:17 PM, William Unruh wrote:
    On 2018-08-27, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
    In comp.os.linux.misc Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

    https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/behind-intels-new-randomnumber-generator

    https://spectrum.ieee.org/image/MTkxMTQ4OQ

    "Uncertain Circuits:

    When transistor 1 and transistor 2 are switched on, a coupled pair of inverters
    force Node A and Node B into the same state [left]. When the clock pulse rises
    [yellow, right], these transistors are turned off. Initially the output of both
    inverters falls into an indeterminate state, but random thermal noise within the
    inverters soon jostles one node into the logical 1 state and the other goes
    to logical 0.
    "

    It's pretty conventional looking to me. No quantums were tortured on that one.

    Thanks for the link, that article was an interesting read. I'm not
    sure about no quantums being tortured though, the root of the whole
    thing is the "thermal noise", described later as "random atomic
    vibrations". As I said before, I never managed to penetrate deeply
    enough into this to understand it properly (and by now I've
    forgotten everything that I did understand), but it certainly goes
    further into physics than just electronic theory.

    The point is that _if_ you knew how to model the exact behaviour
    that causes the "thermal noise", perhaps you could predict it
    and thereby find that it isn't truly random. On the other hand,
    the general assumption seems to be that it is intrinsically
    random, and in practice I'm happy to believe that.

    The problem is that the thermal noise comes about because of the
    interaction of the device with loads of other things in the vicinity.
    Unless you knew exactly what the state of those other things are (atoms
    for example) you do not know what their effect is on the thing you are
    trying to use (the reversed biased junction for example) And there are
    so so so many other things around that their effect become impossible to predict.

    Now, it may be there are "echos" for example. Something affects the device of interest, that device affects back that something which then comes back
    and affects the device again. That can produce long time correlations in
    the output of the device. Ie, most physical devices have such
    correlations, which, if you understand the device and its environment
    well, could give you some information about the random stream. Ie,
    biases need not just be "this device produces more ones than zeros" But
    "if it produces a one now it has a higher probability of producing a one
    10 milliseconds later", even if the average probability of producin one
    of zero are equal.



    The most fun kind is lava-rand. The usage of lava lamps
    (which are thermally driven by a heat source in the base),
    to generate random numbers. Cloudflare didn't invent this,
    and this is just an example.

    Well, no. They tend to operate by heating and cooling. The blob is
    heated at the bottom, rises to the top where it cools and sinks back
    down. That process is probably in large part predictable. Ie, lava lamps
    are probably a terrible source of "random bits".



    https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty-gritty-technical-details/

    "In the lobby of our San Francisco office, we have a wall of lava lamps >>> (pictured above). A video feed of this wall is used to generate entropy >>> that is made available to our production fleet."

    It's the best excuse that I can think of for building a wall of
    lava lamps. :)

    As a source amongst many others it might be useful. As the only source
    it is probably terrible.




    In the very old days, a common pseudo-random number generator was to
    take a number (in binary), square it, and take a bunch on bits from the
    middle as the random number. For the next random number, do it again to
    the random number you just produced. Those numbers look pretty random,
    and they pass some typical tests for randomness for a while but in time
    it tends to produce all zeros. Not very random.

    Computer generated pseudo-random number generators these days are much
    better than that, but of course they are not truely random: they
    eventually repeat, but not that obviously as the original.

    At one point, John von Neumann suggested using the original one, not
    because it was so good, but because its failure mode was understood.

    --
    .~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
    /V\ PGP-Key:166D840A 0C610C8B Registered Machine 1935521.
    /( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://linuxcounter.net
    ^^-^^ 20:45:02 up 12 days, 13:03, 2 users, load average: 4.74, 4.65, 4.91
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From John Hasler@jhasler@newsguy.com to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Aug 27 22:31:34 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    William Unruh writes:
    The problem is that the thermal noise comes about because of the
    interaction of the device with loads of other things in the vicinity.
    Unless you knew exactly what the state of those other things are (atoms
    for example) you do not know what their effect is on the thing you are
    trying to use (the reversed biased junction for example) And there are
    so so so many other things around that their effect become impossible to predict.

    Now, it may be there are "echos" for example. Something affects the device of interest, that device affects back that something which then comes back
    and affects the device again. That can produce long time correlations in
    the output of the device. Ie, most physical devices have such
    correlations, which, if you understand the device and its environment
    well, could give you some information about the random stream. Ie,
    biases need not just be "this device produces more ones than zeros" But
    "if it produces a one now it has a higher probability of producing a one
    10 milliseconds later", even if the average probability of producin one
    of zero are equal.

    You don't use that stream raw, of course. You use it to seed a good
    PRNG.
    --
    John Hasler
    jhasler@newsguy.com
    Dancing Horse Hill
    Elmwood, WI USA
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Tue Aug 28 10:23:49 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 28/08/18 01:17, William Unruh wrote:
    They tend to operate by heating and cooling. The blob is
    heated at the bottom, rises to the top where it cools and sinks back
    down. That process is probably in large part predictable. Ie, lava lamps
    are probably a terrible source of "random bits".

    Well William, I thought about that, and it occurred to me that there is
    a difference between deterministic, and determinable.

    There is a reason why Formula one car designers use wind tunnels.


    Because although the turbulent airflow over a car is deterministic, in
    the limit, it is not fully *determinable*. CFD* software simply cannot
    do the job adequately.

    (Any more than the same software cabn actually compute climate change
    when the atmosphere is massively turbulet which iis the case).

    I,e do not fall into the error of thinking that because something is deterministic - like a pencil staning on it's point - it is possible to determined which way it will fall, in practice.

    Lava lamps are wonderful examples of chaotic, fully determisitic, yet
    totally indeterminable, motion.





    *Computaional fluid dynamics.

    --
    Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people.
    But Marxism is the crack cocaine.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Allodoxaphobia@knock_yourself_out@example.net to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Tue Aug 28 13:29:07 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On Sun, 26 Aug 2018 21:11:02 -0500, Robert Heller wrote:
    At Sun, 26 Aug 2018 16:40:53 -0500 John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> wrote:
    Michael Black writes:
    What I find interesting is sites that let you sign up without being
    physically present. My bank account was like that, I had to supply
    some ifnormation that they did know, but wasn't likely to be readilu
    available.

    The bank doesn't need to know "who you are" (whatever that means). They
    just need to be able to be sure that the person taking money out is the
    one who opened the account (or an agent of that person).

    Government, of course, has other ideas.

    Yeah, it is nearly impossible to actually open a "My Social Security" account.
    ssa.gov security checks ask for certain info and if it does not match *exactly*, it fails. Eg "51 Locke Hill Road" is different from "51 Locke Hill
    Rd" for example. If ssa.gov does not happen to have your phone number on file
    and you happen to enter it on the sign up form, you are screwed (you won't be
    able to create an account). And when you call them on the phone to get the system to reset itself, the person who answers the phone cannot actually fix it. It is so secure, it protects you from using (stealing?) your own identity.

    +1!

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Tue Aug 28 14:32:53 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 28/08/18 14:29, Allodoxaphobia wrote:
    On Sun, 26 Aug 2018 21:11:02 -0500, Robert Heller wrote:
    At Sun, 26 Aug 2018 16:40:53 -0500 John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> wrote: >>> Michael Black writes:
    What I find interesting is sites that let you sign up without being
    physically present. My bank account was like that, I had to supply
    some ifnormation that they did know, but wasn't likely to be readilu
    available.

    The bank doesn't need to know "who you are" (whatever that means). They >>> just need to be able to be sure that the person taking money out is the
    one who opened the account (or an agent of that person).

    Government, of course, has other ideas.

    Yeah, it is nearly impossible to actually open a "My Social Security" account.
    ssa.gov security checks ask for certain info and if it does not match
    *exactly*, it fails. Eg "51 Locke Hill Road" is different from "51 Locke Hill
    Rd" for example. If ssa.gov does not happen to have your phone number on file
    and you happen to enter it on the sign up form, you are screwed (you won't be
    able to create an account). And when you call them on the phone to get the >> system to reset itself, the person who answers the phone cannot actually fix >> it. It is so secure, it protects you from using (stealing?) your own identity.

    +1!

    I cant remember if it was Paypal or HSBC that insisted I enter something
    in a field - apartment number I think - that is never used in the UK

    After 4 hours I tried a space....

    --
    Of what good are dead warriors? … Warriors are those who desire battle
    more than peace. Those who seek battle despite peace. Those who thump
    their spears on the ground and talk of honor. Those who leap high the
    battle dance and dream of glory … The good of dead warriors, Mother, is
    that they are dead.
    Sheri S Tepper: The Awakeners.
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  • From William Unruh@unruh@invalid.ca to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Tue Aug 28 14:45:45 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 2018-08-28, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 28/08/18 01:17, William Unruh wrote:
    They tend to operate by heating and cooling. The blob is
    heated at the bottom, rises to the top where it cools and sinks back
    down. That process is probably in large part predictable. Ie, lava lamps
    are probably a terrible source of "random bits".

    Well William, I thought about that, and it occurred to me that there is
    a difference between deterministic, and determinable.

    There is a reason why Formula one car designers use wind tunnels.


    Because although the turbulent airflow over a car is deterministic, in
    the limit, it is not fully *determinable*. CFD* software simply cannot
    do the job adequately.

    The key is "fully determinable". It does not have to be fully
    determinable to be "broken". RC4 requires some billion bytes to see some
    subtle correclations in the output. It is therefor considered a broken cryptosystem. Lava lamps are liable to be correlated on a far far
    shorter scale. Yes, there is some undeterminable noise, but far too
    little.


    (Any more than the same software cabn actually compute climate change
    when the atmosphere is massively turbulet which iis the case).

    I,e do not fall into the error of thinking that because something is deterministic - like a pencil staning on it's point - it is possible to determined which way it will fall, in practice.

    Lava lamps are wonderful examples of chaotic, fully determisitic, yet totally indeterminable, motion.





    *Computaional fluid dynamics.

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From not@not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Tue Aug 28 23:00:47 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    In comp.os.linux.misc William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> wrote:
    On 2018-08-27, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
    In comp.os.linux.misc Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
    "Uncertain Circuits:

    When transistor 1 and transistor 2 are switched on, a coupled pair of inverters
    force Node A and Node B into the same state [left]. When the clock pulse rises
    [yellow, right], these transistors are turned off. Initially the output of both
    inverters falls into an indeterminate state, but random thermal noise within the
    inverters soon jostles one node into the logical 1 state and the other goes
    to logical 0.
    "

    It's pretty conventional looking to me. No quantums were tortured on that one.

    Thanks for the link, that article was an interesting read. I'm not
    sure about no quantums being tortured though, the root of the whole
    thing is the "thermal noise", described later as "random atomic
    vibrations". As I said before, I never managed to penetrate deeply
    enough into this to understand it properly (and by now I've
    forgotten everything that I did understand), but it certainly goes
    further into physics than just electronic theory.

    The point is that _if_ you knew how to model the exact behaviour
    that causes the "thermal noise", perhaps you could predict it
    and thereby find that it isn't truly random. On the other hand,
    the general assumption seems to be that it is intrinsically
    random, and in practice I'm happy to believe that.

    The problem is that the thermal noise comes about because of the
    interaction of the device with loads of other things in the vicinity.
    Unless you knew exactly what the state of those other things are (atoms
    for example) you do not know what their effect is on the thing you are
    trying to use (the reversed biased junction for example) And there are
    so so so many other things around that their effect become impossible to predict.

    Now, it may be there are "echos" for example. Something affects the device of interest, that device affects back that something which then comes back
    and affects the device again. That can produce long time correlations in
    the output of the device. Ie, most physical devices have such
    correlations, which, if you understand the device and its environment
    well, could give you some information about the random stream. Ie,
    biases need not just be "this device produces more ones than zeros" But
    "if it produces a one now it has a higher probability of producing a one
    10 milliseconds later", even if the average probability of producin one
    of zero are equal.

    Yes, however a circuit that relies on quantum events that
    there is not believed to be any method for calculating regardless
    of practicality should be (at least) more reliable in that regard
    than one that relies on chaotic interactions. The circuit that I
    originally referred to (reverse biased transistor) has been
    described as relying on the effect of "quantum tunnelling" and
    so, presumably, is not reliant on a chaotic system. But, like I
    also said, I failed to find out exactly what "quantum tunnelling"
    means.

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From William Unruh@unruh@invalid.ca to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 01:22:29 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 2018-08-28, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
    In comp.os.linux.misc William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> wrote:
    On 2018-08-27, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
    In comp.os.linux.misc Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
    "Uncertain Circuits:

    When transistor 1 and transistor 2 are switched on, a coupled pair of inverters
    force Node A and Node B into the same state [left]. When the clock pulse rises
    [yellow, right], these transistors are turned off. Initially the output of both
    inverters falls into an indeterminate state, but random thermal noise within the
    inverters soon jostles one node into the logical 1 state and the other goes
    to logical 0.
    "

    It's pretty conventional looking to me. No quantums were tortured on that one.

    Thanks for the link, that article was an interesting read. I'm not
    sure about no quantums being tortured though, the root of the whole
    thing is the "thermal noise", described later as "random atomic
    vibrations". As I said before, I never managed to penetrate deeply
    enough into this to understand it properly (and by now I've
    forgotten everything that I did understand), but it certainly goes
    further into physics than just electronic theory.

    The point is that _if_ you knew how to model the exact behaviour
    that causes the "thermal noise", perhaps you could predict it
    and thereby find that it isn't truly random. On the other hand,
    the general assumption seems to be that it is intrinsically
    random, and in practice I'm happy to believe that.

    The problem is that the thermal noise comes about because of the
    interaction of the device with loads of other things in the vicinity.
    Unless you knew exactly what the state of those other things are (atoms
    for example) you do not know what their effect is on the thing you are
    trying to use (the reversed biased junction for example) And there are
    so so so many other things around that their effect become impossible to
    predict.

    Now, it may be there are "echos" for example. Something affects the device of
    interest, that device affects back that something which then comes back
    and affects the device again. That can produce long time correlations in
    the output of the device. Ie, most physical devices have such
    correlations, which, if you understand the device and its environment
    well, could give you some information about the random stream. Ie,
    biases need not just be "this device produces more ones than zeros" But
    "if it produces a one now it has a higher probability of producing a one
    10 milliseconds later", even if the average probability of producin one
    of zero are equal.

    Yes, however a circuit that relies on quantum events that
    there is not believed to be any method for calculating regardless
    of practicality should be (at least) more reliable in that regard
    than one that relies on chaotic interactions. The circuit that I
    originally referred to (reverse biased transistor) has been
    described as relying on the effect of "quantum tunnelling" and
    so, presumably, is not reliant on a chaotic system. But, like I
    also said, I failed to find out exactly what "quantum tunnelling"
    means.

    A situation is which if one regarded the system as made of particles,
    all of the particles wouldbe reflected, but if one regarded it as made
    of waves, a tiny bit of the wave would get through. Loosely, the
    amplitude squared of the wave that got through, over the amplitude
    squared of the incoming wave corresponds in the quantum case to a
    probability of that small ratio of the particle coming through.
    Tunneling because for the particles it is as if there had been a tiny
    tunnel bored through that barrier to let some particles through.
    That probability is not because on does not understand everything that influences whether or not the particle can get through, but a raw
    probability that just is.



    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From not@not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 07:21:17 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    In comp.os.linux.misc William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> wrote:
    On 2018-08-28, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
    The circuit that I
    originally referred to (reverse biased transistor) has been
    described as relying on the effect of "quantum tunnelling" and
    so, presumably, is not reliant on a chaotic system. But, like I
    also said, I failed to find out exactly what "quantum tunnelling"
    means.

    A situation is which if one regarded the system as made of particles,
    all of the particles would be reflected, but if one regarded it as made
    of waves, a tiny bit of the wave would get through. Loosely, the
    amplitude squared of the wave that got through, over the amplitude
    squared of the incoming wave corresponds in the quantum case to a
    probability of that small ratio of the particle coming through.
    Tunneling because for the particles it is as if there had been a tiny
    tunnel bored through that barrier to let some particles through.
    That probability is not because on does not understand everything that influences whether or not the particle can get through, but a raw
    probability that just is.

    Thank you for that summary.

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 11:35:33 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 29/08/18 00:00, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
    a circuit that relies on quantum events that
    there is not believed to be any method for calculating regardless
    of practicality should be (at least) more reliable in that regard
    than one that relies on chaotic interactions.

    I am not sure that is in fact true.

    But I am not enough of a mathematician to tell.


    --
    Microsoft : the best reason to go to Linux that ever existed.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 11:37:45 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 29/08/18 02:22, William Unruh wrote:
    That probability is not because on does not understand everything that influences whether or not the particle can get through, but a raw
    probability that just is.

    Well that of course is what they are arguing about over at CERN etc. :-)

    Is the apparent randomness in fact an emergent property of a deeper
    possibly chaotic deterministic system :-)

    Personally I do not know.


    --
    Microsoft : the best reason to go to Linux that ever existed.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From William Unruh@unruh@invalid.ca to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 12:25:31 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 2018-08-29, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/08/18 02:22, William Unruh wrote:
    That probability is not because on does not understand everything that
    influences whether or not the particle can get through, but a raw
    probability that just is.

    Well that of course is what they are arguing about over at CERN etc. :-)

    Is the apparent randomness in fact an emergent property of a deeper possibly chaotic deterministic system :-)

    JS Bell who believed that, then proved that there are situations in
    which you can prove that mathematically, that that cannot be the case,

    Personally I do not know.


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 19:35:57 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 29/08/18 13:25, William Unruh wrote:
    On 2018-08-29, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/08/18 02:22, William Unruh wrote:
    That probability is not because on does not understand everything that
    influences whether or not the particle can get through, but a raw
    probability that just is.

    Well that of course is what they are arguing about over at CERN etc. :-)

    Is the apparent randomness in fact an emergent property of a deeper
    possibly chaotic deterministic system :-)

    JS Bell who believed that, then proved that there are situations in
    which you can prove that mathematically, that that cannot be the case,

    I am not sure asbout that. I think it cannot be the case for SOME
    mathematical processes but all?



    Personally I do not know.




    --
    "In our post-modern world, climate science is not powerful because it is
    true: it is true because it is powerful."

    Lucas Bergkamp
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From John Hasler@jhasler@newsguy.com to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 17:46:16 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    Is the apparent randomness in fact an emergent property of a deeper
    possibly chaotic deterministic system

    William Unruh wrote:
    JS Bell who believed that, then proved that there are situations in
    which you can prove that mathematically, that that cannot be the case,

    The Natural Philosopher writes:
    I am not sure asbout that. I think it cannot be the case for SOME mathematical processes but all?

    Bell's theorem: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%27s_theorem>

    Tests of it: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_test_experiments>
    --
    John Hasler
    jhasler@newsguy.com
    Dancing Horse Hill
    Elmwood, WI USA
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From William Unruh@unruh@invalid.ca to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 23:36:56 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 2018-08-29, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/08/18 13:25, William Unruh wrote:
    On 2018-08-29, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/08/18 02:22, William Unruh wrote:
    That probability is not because on does not understand everything that >>>> influences whether or not the particle can get through, but a raw
    probability that just is.

    Well that of course is what they are arguing about over at CERN etc. :-) >>>
    Is the apparent randomness in fact an emergent property of a deeper
    possibly chaotic deterministic system :-)

    JS Bell who believed that, then proved that there are situations in
    which you can prove that mathematically, that that cannot be the case,

    I am not sure asbout that. I think it cannot be the case for SOME mathematical processes but all?


    If you want to read about the details of Bell's them, you may.
    I am not sure at all what it is that you are asking.





    Personally I do not know.




    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From not@not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Wed Aug 29 23:45:06 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    In comp.os.linux.misc The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/08/18 00:00, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
    a circuit that relies on quantum events that
    there is not believed to be any method for calculating regardless
    of practicality should be (at least) more reliable in that regard
    than one that relies on chaotic interactions.

    I am not sure that is in fact true.

    But I am not enough of a mathematician to tell.

    I said "(at least) more reliable" because I imagine that it would be
    easier for someone trying to break the system (which, as already
    noted, might only require certain relationships to be modeled) to
    start with "it could be calculated, but it's too complicated" than
    "it can't be calculated, tough luck".

    But that's assuming the latter statement isn't simply very wrong.
    Imagine how silly this would look if one day a whole branch of
    technology is based on the prediction of quantum events. :)

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Thu Aug 30 06:53:10 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 29/08/18 23:46, John Hasler wrote:
    The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    Is the apparent randomness in fact an emergent property of a deeper
    possibly chaotic deterministic system

    William Unruh wrote:
    JS Bell who believed that, then proved that there are situations in
    which you can prove that mathematically, that that cannot be the case,

    The Natural Philosopher writes:
    I am not sure asbout that. I think it cannot be the case for SOME
    mathematical processes but all?

    Bell's theorem: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%27s_theorem>

    Ah. '*Local* hidden variables'

    Thats the get-out clause.>
    Tests of it: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_test_experiments>



    --
    To ban Christmas, simply give turkeys the vote.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From John Hasler@jhasler@newsguy.com to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Thu Aug 30 07:48:38 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    The Natural Philosopher writes:
    Ah. '*Local* hidden variables'

    Thats the get-out clause.

    It's not that easy to give up locality. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_locality>
    --
    John Hasler
    jhasler@newsguy.com
    Dancing Horse Hill
    Elmwood, WI USA
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Thu Aug 30 19:07:40 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 30/08/18 13:48, John Hasler wrote:
    The Natural Philosopher writes:
    Ah. '*Local* hidden variables'

    Thats the get-out clause.

    It's not that easy to give up locality. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_locality>


    Oh yes it is!



    --
    "Corbyn talks about equality, justice, opportunity, health care, peace, community, compassion, investment, security, housing...."
    "What kind of person is not interested in those things?"

    "Jeremy Corbyn?"

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From William Unruh@unruh@invalid.ca to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Fri Aug 31 00:36:50 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 2018-08-30, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 30/08/18 13:48, John Hasler wrote:
    The Natural Philosopher writes:
    Ah. '*Local* hidden variables'

    Thats the get-out clause.

    It's not that easy to give up locality.
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_locality>


    Oh yes it is!

    For someone who does not care about physics or explaining the work, sure
    its easy. But if I really have to know about the whole universe to
    understand my little region of it, it makes the job impossible.
    Except QM does not work that way, which makes on suspect that locality
    really has nothing to do with situation. In fact Bell used locality to
    make the classical system look as much like QM as possible, not to differentiate it. I have written a (not uncontroversial) paper on that.






    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Fri Aug 31 03:10:38 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 31/08/18 01:36, William Unruh wrote:
    On 2018-08-30, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 30/08/18 13:48, John Hasler wrote:
    The Natural Philosopher writes:
    Ah. '*Local* hidden variables'

    Thats the get-out clause.

    It's not that easy to give up locality.
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_locality>


    Oh yes it is!

    For someone who does not care about physics or explaining the work, sure
    its easy. But if I really have to know about the whole universe to
    understand my little region of it, it makes the job impossible.
    Except QM does not work that way, which makes on suspect that locality
    really has nothing to do with situation. In fact Bell used locality to
    make the classical system look as much like QM as possible, not to differentiate it. I have written a (not uncontroversial) paper on that.




    William: As you might have guessed from my mionker, Phislosophy of
    science is something of an interest for me.

    My originbal remarks were not maded in the sense of trying to challenge
    Bell, because I did not restricty myself to the class of hypotheses he disroproved. I merely said that the randmomess of quantum events might
    reflect some deeper order.

    I long ago abandoned all attempts to understand quantum physics in terms
    of classical theory using locality as an axiom. Clearly it cannot be
    done. Although I am not in Bell's class as to be able to prove it.

    Space-time-energy-matter is in some way an emergent property of some
    other [quantum?] level of reality: Or at leaast that is the hypotheisis
    that seems easiest to come to grips with.

    That is how I choose to view it. The question is whether quantum reality itself is simply a randomn dead end, or whether it too has 'structure'
    beyond the quantum events we can be aware of.









    --
    To ban Christmas, simply give turkeys the vote.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Chris Elvidge@chris@mshome.net to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Fri Aug 31 12:26:59 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On 30/08/2018 19:07, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 30/08/18 13:48, John Hasler wrote:
    The Natural Philosopher writes:
    Ah. '*Local* hidden variables'

    Thats the get-out clause.

    It's not that easy to give up locality.
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_locality>


    Oh yes it is!




    Audience: Oh no it isn't!


    --

    Chris Elvidge, England
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Ivan Shmakov@ivan@siamics.net to comp.security.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux on Sat Sep 1 13:45:39 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> writes:
    Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net> writes:

    As a concrete example: suppose your password is 8 random lower-case
    characters; suppose it uses crypt(3) with MD5 with 1003 rounds
    (which is/was the Glibc default);

    I haven't yet checked the source, but the manual [1] doesn't
    seem to mention the hash function being applied repeatedly.

    [1] http://gnu.org/s/libc/manual/html_node/

    your attacker gets the ciphertext of the password

    [...]

    I make that 3E11*3600/1003/720=1.5E9 candidate passwords per
    dollar, or $140 dollars to do an exhaustive search.

    And I gather that adding a single digit to that will increase
    the effort by the factor of 90, while each additional lowercase
    letter will (obviously) multiply that by 26.

    I suppose I can consider a 12-character password secure enough
    for my needs, even if it's composed of lowercase characters only.

    Yes; that's a fairly specific threat model, which I'd describe as
    "the attacker gets one of your passwords and uses that to deduce
    some other." That's a huge problem for those who use a single
    password, perhaps with slight alteration, across several resources.

    i. e. most people.

    If that's indeed the case, shouldn't we move the emphasis to
    using unique passwords, from the current "be sure to include at
    least one punctuation, digit, a capital letter, a kanji and an
    emoji; make your password at least 99 characters long; and never
    use a dictionary word, of any language, in all of it, ever"?

    Now, if that's not the case; the attacker getting the ciphertext
    means that the resource was compromised. And somehow, I cannot
    readily imagine a plausible scenario where the password's ciphertext
    can get leaked without the adversary getting control over other,
    more important parts of the system.

    Argument from incredulity notwithstanding, it happens all the time.

    So, the point is that instead of spending their time causing
    inconvenience to their targets, the attackers instead get the
    hashes, and can have thousands of accounts compromised at their
    leisure? That actually makes sense; not to mention that it
    makes possible to sell the data to third parties.

    Still, one another thing to recommend is to change one's
    password as soon as the leak is known.

    Yahoo, LinkedIn and Adobe are some high-profile examples from the
    last few years.

    Thankfully, I couldn't care less about these specific companies'
    leaks.

    --
    FSF associate member #7257 http://softwarefreedomday.org/ 15 September 2018 --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Rich@rich@example.invalid to comp.security.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux on Sat Sep 1 15:02:23 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    In comp.os.linux.misc Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net> wrote:
    So, the point is that instead of spending their time causing
    inconvenience to their targets, the attackers instead get the
    hashes, and can have thousands of accounts compromised at
    their leisure? That actually makes sense; not to mention that
    it makes possible to sell the data to third parties.

    This: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/25-gpu-cluster-cracks-every-standard-windows-password-in-6-hours/

    is how password attacks occur in today's world. No one serious in this
    area does an online attack (i.e., this):

    while (not_found) {
    curl http://somesite.com?username=root&password=$nextpasswordtotest
    }

    Instead, they hack some other hole until they can get the hashed
    passwords list (or, if they are lucky, they are not hashed) and they
    they proceed, offline, to let monsters like the box in the linked
    article tear through all the hashes in hours or days.

    Still, one another thing to recommend is to change one's
    password as soon as the leak is known.

    Yes, this narrows the time window for exploitation.

    Yahoo, LinkedIn and Adobe are some high-profile examples from the
    last few years.

    Thankfully, I couldn't care less about these specific
    companies' leaks.

    Unless you had an account that had the hash (if it was even hashed)
    that was leaked at one of those companies, and you had reused that same password elsewhere.

    The problem with passwords are not passwords, but human nature.

    Most individuals are not security aware. So they have no idea that "downtherabbithole" is a bad password (too likely to be in a word-list).

    Because they are not security aware, and because remembering
    JskJS82^@#$!Hsk2%@ is too hard they end up defaulting to something they
    can remember, such as: "password1". Often the "1" or "!" you see is
    directly the result of an "add a punctuation" requirement and not the
    users security awareness.

    Further, due to their lack of security awareness, and directly because remembering plural different passwords like JskJS82^@#$!Hsk2%@ is much
    too difficult for all but a select few, they also tend to reuse the
    same password across plural sites.

    It is this last part that makes the "hack, get hashed passwords list,
    feed it to offline 25 GPU monster to crack them in a few days" attack so valuable to the attackers. The value is not that they got, say, the
    LinkedIn hashed passwords list. The value is that some large
    percentage of those passwords will also be reused on the same user's
    gmail, and facebook, and twitter, and banking accounts. That's the
    value factor (esp. if the LinkedIn password was also the same users
    password for their bank account) for the attackers. They don't care
    about your LinkedIn account either. But they do care that X% of
    LinkedIn passwords will also be reused on Bank Of America, or Chase, or
    Wells Fargo, or Etrade, or Fidelity, or ScottTrade, etc. And while I
    don't know a value for X in X%, I believe that it is very possible it
    is some surprisingly large X.



    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Allodoxaphobia@knock_yourself_out@example.net to comp.security.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux on Sat Sep 1 16:54:33 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    On Sat, 01 Sep 2018 13:45:39 +0000, Ivan Shmakov wrote:

    If that's indeed the case, shouldn't we move the emphasis to
    using unique passwords, from the current "be sure to include at
    least one punctuation, digit, a capital letter, a kanji and an
    emoji; make your password at least 99 characters long; and never
    use a dictionary word, of any language, in all of it, ever"?

    *Klingon passwords!!!*

    http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html

    Jonesy
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.110
  • From Bud Frede@frede@mouse-potato.com to alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.security.misc on Mon Sep 3 07:23:14 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    Rich <rich@example.invalid> writes:


    This is why all of the literature is always hammering on "longer
    passwords" and "use more of the possible letters/characters/bytes". Increasing the number of possible letters/bytes in use, and/or the
    length (updating the math above for a longer password is an exercise
    left for the interested reader) is the most effective way to thwart
    attacks. And 'random generation' of the password is the easiest way
    for humans to "use more of the possible letters/bytes" available as the password value.

    Size matters in passwords. A long password using only lower-case
    letters and spaces is harder to brute force than a shorter password
    using all possible letters and characters.

    You can certainly use a password manager to store really long and gnarly passwords that you'd probably never be able to memorize. I do that for
    some things, particularly where I know I'm going to be able to copy and
    paste from the password manager. The password manager has a built-in
    password generator that produces a string of "random" characters of a
    length you specify and also specify which character sets to use.

    However, the master password for my password manager is a long string of
    words so that I can actually remember it.

    There are also some passwords that I may need to type in rather than
    copy and paste, and for those I also use a long string of words.

    I've found this to be very useful: https://github.com/redacted/XKCD-password-generator

    It produces passwords like these:

    anyplace legwork goggles wound cabbage lucid

    barstool repose animate eatery demeanor mournful

    I'm able to memorize passwords like these, and am able to type them in
    without errors. I am not able to do the same for a password like:

    ulearj^OffemishyaxhiagsUb3

    I also have to keep in mind that there is more to security than just
    strong passwords. You could write a book on this topic and many have. (I
    always recommend that people check out some of Bruce Schneier's books
    and articles. He's good at explaining this and not prone to
    over-dramatizing things as some of the media are.
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  • From Richard Kettlewell@invalid@invalid.invalid to comp.security.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux on Tue Sep 4 07:37:04 2018
    From Newsgroup: comp.security.misc

    Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net> writes:
    Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> writes:
    Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net> writes:
    As a concrete example: suppose your password is 8 random lower-case
    characters; suppose it uses crypt(3) with MD5 with 1003 rounds
    (which is/was the Glibc default);

    I haven't yet checked the source, but the manual [1] doesn't
    seem to mention the hash function being applied repeatedly.

    [1] http://gnu.org/s/libc/manual/html_node/

    I’m not sure what your point is here. There’s a lot the manual doesn’t describe about this function. So what?

    If that's indeed the case, shouldn't we move the emphasis to
    using unique passwords, from the current "be sure to include at
    least one punctuation, digit, a capital letter, a kanji and an
    emoji; make your password at least 99 characters long; and never
    use a dictionary word, of any language, in all of it, ever"?

    Avoiding password re-use has been standard advice for years.

    Now, if that's not the case; the attacker getting the ciphertext
    means that the resource was compromised. And somehow, I cannot
    readily imagine a plausible scenario where the password's ciphertext
    can get leaked without the adversary getting control over other,
    more important parts of the system.

    Argument from incredulity notwithstanding, it happens all the time.

    So, the point is that instead of spending their time causing
    inconvenience to their targets, the attackers instead get the
    hashes, and can have thousands of accounts compromised at their
    leisure? That actually makes sense; not to mention that it
    makes possible to sell the data to third parties.

    Still, one another thing to recommend is to change one's
    password as soon as the leak is known.

    That’s been a normal part of the response to data breaches for years,
    too.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
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