• Memorizing a 128 bit / 256 bit hex key

    From Cri-Cri@21:1/5 to Rich on Tue Jun 18 21:38:31 2024
    On Tue, 18 Jun 2024 20:06:21 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

    And so long as one's python REPL does not save history (or you turn off history before running the above) you leave no trace behind.

    Perhaps try something like PuppyLinux that I think still keep a version
    that only runs in RAM around. You can install it on a drive, but one of
    its more interesting features was that RAM thing.

    There are other systems out there, equally small, or even smaller: http://tinycorelinux.net/ - not sure how old it is, it's like English
    speaking people who own web sites have some general allergy towards
    mentioning a date and when they do, it's in some weird, impossible to sort
    as text format with characters that on many systems are illegal to use for
    file names. Really useful. At the bottom of the front page it says 2008,
    but I don't think that's accurate.

    --
    Cri-Cri

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  • From Cri-Cri@21:1/5 to Stefan Claas on Tue Jun 18 21:48:35 2024
    On Tue, 18 Jun 2024 22:10:44 +0200, Stefan Claas wrote:

    Well, I am starting to put my binaries also on GitHub, in the respective repositories. That allows one then to download the programs, for
    temporary usage.

    Or perhaps install KeePassXC that can use a binary file as part of a
    complete key, some image somewhere, like a company logo, an mp3 file or whatever. Store your GPG private key in a KeePassXC container and lock it
    with a long key and that binary file.

    Then again, if you are a wannabe spy, you of course won't have any
    knowledge about neither KeePassXC nor linux.

    --
    Cri-Cri

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  • From Cri-Cri@21:1/5 to Stefan Claas on Tue Jun 18 21:41:22 2024
    On Tue, 18 Jun 2024 22:01:19 +0200, Stefan Claas wrote:

    alias del=">~/.bash_history;history -cw;"

    Can't you stop Bash from ever creating a history?

    https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/disable-bash-shell-history-linux/

    --
    Cri-Cri

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  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Stefan Claas on Wed Jun 19 02:54:53 2024
    Stefan Claas <pollux@tilde.club> wrote:
    Rich wrote:

    I guess, instead of an erasure program, I will only use date and
    put the output in my argon2id program, for key generation, which
    also has the option to overwrite the clipboard.

    Which means you /do/ have another program available, that could be
    'looked for'....

    Well, I am starting to put my binaries also on GitHub, in the
    respective repositories. That allows one then to download the
    programs, for temporary usage.

    In which case, one could do the same with an erasure coding program, to
    avoid issues of being "found" with a computing device containing the
    program during, say, a border crossing.

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  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Cri-Cri on Wed Jun 19 02:59:13 2024
    Cri-Cri <cri@cri.cri.invalid> wrote:
    On Tue, 18 Jun 2024 22:01:19 +0200, Stefan Claas wrote:

    alias del=">~/.bash_history;history -cw;"

    Can't you stop Bash from ever creating a history?

    https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/disable-bash-shell-history-linux/

    You can, and for a special purpose system intended for "key access"
    doing so is probably the best practice.

    Meanwhile, if one is doing key access on a system also used for other,
    general purpose purposes, fully disabling history does remove a *very*
    useful feature in the general case.

    The workaround can be to configure bash to not store commands that
    begin with a space:

    HISTCONTROL
    A colon-separated list of values controlling how
    commands are saved on the history list. If the list of
    values includes ignorespace, lines which begin with a
    space character are not saved in the history list.

    Of course then one does have to remember to prefix any command that
    should not be saved in history with a space.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Cri-Cri on Wed Jun 19 02:53:34 2024
    Cri-Cri <cri@cri.cri.invalid> wrote:
    it's like English speaking people who own web sites have some general
    allergy towards mentioning a date

    It's not just "english speaking people". This mentality seems to
    perfuse across the entire web ecosystem. Something about the relative
    /ease/ of putting up a web page causes by far too many of those people
    to omit publication dates from anywhere on their page(s).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Cri-Cri@21:1/5 to Rich on Wed Jun 19 16:13:56 2024
    On Wed, 19 Jun 2024 02:53:34 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

    It's not just "english speaking people". This mentality seems to
    perfuse across the entire web ecosystem. Something about the relative
    /ease/ of putting up a web page causes by far too many of those people
    to omit publication dates from anywhere on their page(s).

    Yes, maybe you're right. I read maybe 95% English web stuff so that's why
    I notice them more.

    --
    Cri-Cri

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  • From Stefan Claas@21:1/5 to Cri-Cri on Wed Jun 19 18:22:54 2024
    Cri-Cri wrote:

    On Tue, 18 Jun 2024 22:10:44 +0200, Stefan Claas wrote:

    Well, I am starting to put my binaries also on GitHub, in the respective repositories. That allows one then to download the programs, for
    temporary usage.

    Or perhaps install KeePassXC that can use a binary file as part of a
    complete key, some image somewhere, like a company logo, an mp3 file or whatever. Store your GPG private key in a KeePassXC container and lock it with a long key and that binary file.

    I must admit I can't follow you, nor do I use GPG (I use modern 'age', available at GitHub :-)).

    In case of my GitHub binaries. Argon2id is stored there, so users can
    then use, under Windows, the program along with a an additional download
    of GNU's coreutils 'date', for Windows, to get an even stronger encryption
    key to memorize, than with 'date' only.

    --
    Regards
    Stefan

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  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Cri-Cri on Wed Jun 19 19:43:09 2024
    Cri-Cri <cri@cri.cri.invalid> wrote:
    On Wed, 19 Jun 2024 02:53:34 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

    It's not just "english speaking people". This mentality seems to
    perfuse across the entire web ecosystem. Something about the relative
    /ease/ of putting up a web page causes by far too many of those people
    to omit publication dates from anywhere on their page(s).

    Yes, maybe you're right. I read maybe 95% English web stuff so that's why
    I notice them more.

    Agreed, English is the majority language, so in sheer numbers there
    will be more that omit dates, but the "omission" itself I believe
    occurs everywhere.

    And, sadly, it even happens with websites that *should* know better,
    i.e., the traditional newspaper websites far too often have no dates on
    their articles on the web, meanwhile for their legacy paper they date
    each physical paper as of the day it was published.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Stefan Claas@21:1/5 to Chris M. Thomasson on Wed Jun 19 21:35:12 2024
    Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

    On 6/18/2024 6:55 AM, Stefan Claas wrote:
    You thoughts please, gentlemen.

    Let's say you travel and do not want to store your secret hex key on your device and recreate it from memory.

    What do you think about this proposal?

    $ printf '%x' $(date -u -d '1979-01-01 12:34:56' +%s) $(date ...) 4 or 8 times.

    One has to remember only the dates (times are optional) and then simply run the
    one liner.

    The encryption software can be downloaded when one arrives at his destination.


    Generate a hex key from a password? It seems like my site can do it:

    http://fractallife247.com/test/hmac_cipher/ver_0_0_0_1?ct_hmac_cipher=
    2bf63f8ee90dfed997b115aa711600c45a8212a1e35f4f75ccfa36ee459b3fedd8b5f477ebb8871dd94025e7731f39cf7650f864fd6d5ce6908bb2609f96e81a413ccf40b33380a569155cb79612def387c76dd1ae436bcb4fb8c9b959be255708d020d559e07492ba24aae3705ba700a5d9c857418a0050d9ad5935efbfc36
    b895329cabeacbc7cefdee04834b4d392e50501c55587361bd6ca7337083fcd16ddf95d50072ea61cf2aaeb45d4d676abf93d39ad0a386399d55f2d0dba6be91521068f1120573e96aa1d81362e62f91bf88f63fe159175c13a1abec4184aae1cadfe2e18be27cac0fbefbae0c57cec531bc71e8a86d0f15a727e98bafe0239
    c5fd06a250e7f6

    It encrypts a key using the default password. The key is generated using
    the same program. This example basically generates a key using the
    default password, then encrypts said key using a different password.

    Everybody can decrypt the generated key because the ciphertext in the
    link uses the default password:

    https://i.ibb.co/BybrYDw/image.png

    The plaintext is:

    A key:

    f65952b125ba6860e21aef9c55e69e0612b153e5fd2599ac00b67945f9bec7563d5edf8bf9fa0db27aeb78b0c8f40f0a6a69b2cd720d59ecc73a01c1ccad0933cfe9e014dda35db6eaba760c9dbdff0f4ad24c5b702baab8e225189179b8bd

    Your site says it does key generation from 64 random bytes. How do you remember the key
    when traveling, with no device? Or how can you trust your site, when your are on annual leave, out of your country, and some bad boy customized your site?

    --
    Regards
    Stefan

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  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Stefan Claas on Wed Jun 19 19:48:21 2024
    Stefan Claas <pollux@tilde.club> wrote:
    Chris M. Thomasson wrote:
    Generate a hex key from a password? It seems like my site can do it:

    http://fractallife247.com/test/hmac_cipher/ver_0_0_0_1?ct_hmac_cipher= 2bf63f8ee90dfed997b115aa711600c45a8212a1e35f4f75ccfa36ee459b3fedd8b5f477ebb8871dd94025e7731f39cf7650f864fd6d5ce6908bb2609f96e81a413ccf40b33380a569155cb79612def387c76dd1ae436bcb4fb8c9b959be255708d020d559e07492ba24aae3705ba700a5d9c857418a0050d9ad5935efbfc36
    b895329cabeacbc7cefdee04834b4d392e50501c55587361bd6ca7337083fcd16ddf95d50072ea61cf2aaeb45d4d676abf93d39ad0a386399d55f2d0dba6be91521068f1120573e96aa1d81362e62f91bf88f63fe159175c13a1abec4184aae1cadfe2e18be27cac0fbefbae0c57cec531bc71e8a86d0f15a727e98bafe0239
    c5fd06a250e7f6

    It encrypts a key using the default password. The key is generated
    using the same program. This example basically generates a key
    using the default password, then encrypts said key using a different
    password.

    Everybody can decrypt the generated key because the ciphertext in
    the link uses the default password:

    https://i.ibb.co/BybrYDw/image.png

    The plaintext is:

    A key:

    f65952b125ba6860e21aef9c55e69e0612b153e5fd2599ac00b67945f9bec7563d5edf8bf9fa0db27aeb78b0c8f40f0a6a69b2cd720d59ecc73a01c1ccad0933cfe9e014dda35db6eaba760c9dbdff0f4ad24c5b702baab8e225189179b8bd

    Your site says it does key generation from 64 random bytes. How do
    you remember the key when traveling, with no device?

    Or how can you trust your site, when your are on annual leave, out of
    your country, and some bad boy customized your site?

    A valid question -- and one that *also* applies to your argon2id on
    github. How can you be sure that some cracker did not change the
    argon2id present there while you are away on holiday.

    Or, how can you trust that a github/microsoft insider with admin level
    access did not swap out your good argon2id with a malicious argon2id.

    Or that a three letter agency, having taken interest in you for some
    reason, has not gotten a secret court order to swap the argon2id with a
    cracked one, and included a court ordered gag to prevent
    github/microsoft from informing you of the swap?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Peter Fairbrother@21:1/5 to Stefan Claas on Wed Jun 19 20:57:56 2024
    On 18/06/2024 14:55, Stefan Claas wrote:
    You thoughts please, gentlemen.

    Let's say you travel and do not want to store your secret hex key on your device and recreate it from memory.

    What do you think about this proposal?

    $ printf '%x' $(date -u -d '1979-01-01 12:34:56' +%s) $(date ...) 4 or 8 times.

    One has to remember only the dates (times are optional) and then simply run the
    one liner.

    The encryption software can be downloaded when one arrives at his destination.


    Pravda - well, Pravda - Pravda said: (Russian double-talk) It stinks.


    Dates mostly come in 19xx or 20xx sizes, so those 19.. or 20.. digits
    are guessable. The 0 in the month 01 (I am using month first) is mostly
    an 0, or else it is a 1. The 0 of the date is either 0,1,2 or 3, so the
    entropy is lower.

    Plus people will use dates they remember - the Moon landing, their
    birthdays, their children's birthdays, and so on.

    And remembering the dates and the order is, to be pernickety, hard.

    Peter Fairbrother

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  • From Peter Fairbrother@21:1/5 to Stefan Claas on Wed Jun 19 21:02:31 2024
    On 18/06/2024 15:37, Stefan Claas wrote:
    Stefan Claas wrote:

    Stefan Claas wrote:

    You thoughts please, gentlemen.

    Let's say you travel and do not want to store your secret hex key on your >>> device and recreate it from memory.

    What do you think about this proposal?

    $ printf '%x' $(date -u -d '1979-01-01 12:34:56' +%s) $(date ...) 4 or 8 times.

    One has to remember only the dates (times are optional) and then simply run the
    one liner.

    And use that as a seed for Argon2id key creation.


    The encryption software can be downloaded when one arrives at his destination.

    Hmm, from where? Threat analysis?


    I think diceware passwords with Argon2id are the solution, because one can recreate the Argon2id hex key with with the memorized diceware passphrase. :-)

    Much better.

    Both diceware and argon2id can be improved on, but generally that would
    mostly work.


    Peter Fairbrother

    bored, just got out of hospital, and laid up with bad knee

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Stefan Claas@21:1/5 to Peter Fairbrother on Wed Jun 19 22:53:57 2024
    Peter Fairbrother wrote:

    On 18/06/2024 15:37, Stefan Claas wrote:
    Stefan Claas wrote:

    Stefan Claas wrote:

    You thoughts please, gentlemen.

    Let's say you travel and do not want to store your secret hex key on your >>> device and recreate it from memory.

    What do you think about this proposal?

    $ printf '%x' $(date -u -d '1979-01-01 12:34:56' +%s) $(date ...) 4 or 8 times.

    One has to remember only the dates (times are optional) and then simply run the
    one liner.

    And use that as a seed for Argon2id key creation.


    The encryption software can be downloaded when one arrives at his destination.

    Hmm, from where? Threat analysis?

    Well, for example from GitHub. Prior departure you write down on a piece of paper,
    which you carry in your wallet, the shasum and on arrival you download and compare
    the shasum.

    I think diceware passwords with Argon2id are the solution, because one can recreate the Argon2id hex key with with the memorized diceware passphrase. :-)

    Much better.

    Both diceware and argon2id can be improved on, but generally that would mostly work.


    Peter Fairbrother

    bored, just got out of hospital, and laid up with bad knee


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Stefan Claas@21:1/5 to Peter Fairbrother on Wed Jun 19 22:54:44 2024
    Peter Fairbrother wrote:

    On 18/06/2024 15:05, Stefan Claas wrote:
    Stefan Claas wrote:

    You thoughts please, gentlemen.

    Let's say you travel and do not want to store your secret hex key on your >> device and recreate it from memory.

    What do you think about this proposal?

    $ printf '%x' $(date -u -d '1979-01-01 12:34:56' +%s) $(date ...) 4 or 8 times.

    One has to remember only the dates (times are optional) and then simply run the
    one liner.

    And use that as a seed for Argon2id key creation.

    But Izvestia! Izvestia said: (Russian double-talk) It stinks.


    Entropy is considerably lower than 128 bits, probably around 30 bits at
    a swag..

    Thanks for pointing that out.

    --
    Regards
    Stefan

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Stefan Claas@21:1/5 to Rich on Wed Jun 19 23:03:02 2024
    Rich wrote:

    Stefan Claas <pollux@tilde.club> wrote:
    Chris M. Thomasson wrote:
    Generate a hex key from a password? It seems like my site can do it:

    http://fractallife247.com/test/hmac_cipher/ver_0_0_0_1?ct_hmac_cipher=
    2bf63f8ee90dfed997b115aa711600c45a8212a1e35f4f75ccfa36ee459b3fedd8b5f477ebb8871dd94025e7731f39cf7650f864fd6d5ce6908bb2609f96e81a413ccf40b33380a569155cb79612def387c76dd1ae436bcb4fb8c9b959be255708d020d559e07492ba24aae3705ba700a5d9c857418a0050d9ad5935efbfc36
    b895329cabeacbc7cefdee04834b4d392e50501c55587361bd6ca7337083fcd16ddf95d50072ea61cf2aaeb45d4d676abf93d39ad0a386399d55f2d0dba6be91521068f1120573e96aa1d81362e62f91bf88f63fe159175c13a1abec4184aae1cadfe2e18be27cac0fbefbae0c57cec531bc71e8a86d0f15a727e98bafe0239
    c5fd06a250e7f6

    It encrypts a key using the default password. The key is generated
    using the same program. This example basically generates a key
    using the default password, then encrypts said key using a different
    password.

    Everybody can decrypt the generated key because the ciphertext in
    the link uses the default password:

    https://i.ibb.co/BybrYDw/image.png

    The plaintext is:

    A key:

    f65952b125ba6860e21aef9c55e69e0612b153e5fd2599ac00b67945f9bec7563d5edf8bf9fa0db27aeb78b0c8f40f0a6a69b2cd720d59ecc73a01c1ccad0933cfe9e014dda35db6eaba760c9dbdff0f4ad24c5b702baab8e225189179b8bd

    Your site says it does key generation from 64 random bytes. How do
    you remember the key when traveling, with no device?

    Or how can you trust your site, when your are on annual leave, out of
    your country, and some bad boy customized your site?

    A valid question -- and one that *also* applies to your argon2id on
    github. How can you be sure that some cracker did not change the
    argon2id present there while you are away on holiday.

    Or, how can you trust that a github/microsoft insider with admin level
    access did not swap out your good argon2id with a malicious argon2id.

    Or that a three letter agency, having taken interest in you for some
    reason, has not gotten a secret court order to swap the argon2id with a cracked one, and included a court ordered gag to prevent
    github/microsoft from informing you of the swap?

    Prior upload and departure I can write down on a piece of paper the shasum
    and once arrived at my destination I can compare the shasum from the download with the shasum on paper. Only problem would be IMHO, if the shasum would
    no longer match and I have no plan B.

    --
    Regards
    Stefan

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Stefan Claas on Thu Jun 20 03:14:45 2024
    Stefan Claas <pollux@tilde.club> wrote:
    Rich wrote:

    Stefan Claas <pollux@tilde.club> wrote:
    Chris M. Thomasson wrote:
    Generate a hex key from a password? It seems like my site can do it:

    http://fractallife247.com/test/hmac_cipher/ver_0_0_0_1?ct_hmac_cipher= 2bf63f8ee90dfed997b115aa711600c45a8212a1e35f4f75ccfa36ee459b3fedd8b5f477ebb8871dd94025e7731f39cf7650f864fd6d5ce6908bb2609f96e81a413ccf40b33380a569155cb79612def387c76dd1ae436bcb4fb8c9b959be255708d020d559e07492ba24aae3705ba700a5d9c857418a0050d9ad5935efbfc36
    b895329cabeacbc7cefdee04834b4d392e50501c55587361bd6ca7337083fcd16ddf95d50072ea61cf2aaeb45d4d676abf93d39ad0a386399d55f2d0dba6be91521068f1120573e96aa1d81362e62f91bf88f63fe159175c13a1abec4184aae1cadfe2e18be27cac0fbefbae0c57cec531bc71e8a86d0f15a727e98bafe0239
    c5fd06a250e7f6

    It encrypts a key using the default password. The key is generated
    using the same program. This example basically generates a key
    using the default password, then encrypts said key using a different
    password.

    Everybody can decrypt the generated key because the ciphertext in
    the link uses the default password:

    https://i.ibb.co/BybrYDw/image.png

    The plaintext is:

    A key:

    f65952b125ba6860e21aef9c55e69e0612b153e5fd2599ac00b67945f9bec7563d5edf8bf9fa0db27aeb78b0c8f40f0a6a69b2cd720d59ecc73a01c1ccad0933cfe9e014dda35db6eaba760c9dbdff0f4ad24c5b702baab8e225189179b8bd

    Your site says it does key generation from 64 random bytes. How do
    you remember the key when traveling, with no device?

    Or how can you trust your site, when your are on annual leave, out of
    your country, and some bad boy customized your site?

    A valid question -- and one that *also* applies to your argon2id on
    github. How can you be sure that some cracker did not change the
    argon2id present there while you are away on holiday.

    Or, how can you trust that a github/microsoft insider with admin level
    access did not swap out your good argon2id with a malicious argon2id.

    Or that a three letter agency, having taken interest in you for some
    reason, has not gotten a secret court order to swap the argon2id
    with a cracked one, and included a court ordered gag to prevent
    github/microsoft from informing you of the swap?

    Prior upload and departure I can write down on a piece of paper the
    shasum and once arrived at my destination I can compare the shasum
    from the download with the shasum on paper.

    That would work, presuming the border crossing guards do not question
    your shasum paper....

    Only problem would be IMHO, if the shasum would no longer match and I
    have no plan B.

    True, but at least you can recognize you've been targeted, and know not
    to trust the binary currently on github.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cri-Cri@21:1/5 to Rich on Thu Jun 20 15:26:33 2024
    On Wed, 19 Jun 2024 19:43:09 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

    And, sadly, it even happens with websites that *should* know better,
    i.e., the traditional newspaper websites far too often have no dates on
    their articles on the web, meanwhile for their legacy paper they date
    each physical paper as of the day it was published.

    I suppose one could pester them with questions on a daily basis, until
    they learned that it would be easier to put the date on the page already
    from day one. :)

    Then again, I also see a trend that companies that are represented on the
    web, these days seldom provide any means of contacting them. At least not
    until you provide something like a DNA sample. Then what will you receive? SPAM.

    When they allowed commercial interests onto the web in the early to mid
    1990's, it's been downhill from there.

    --
    Cri-Cri

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Cri-Cri on Thu Jun 20 15:54:30 2024
    Cri-Cri <cri@cri.cri.invalid> wrote:
    On Wed, 19 Jun 2024 19:43:09 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

    And, sadly, it even happens with websites that *should* know better,
    i.e., the traditional newspaper websites far too often have no dates
    on their articles on the web, meanwhile for their legacy paper they
    date each physical paper as of the day it was published.

    I suppose one could pester them with questions on a daily basis,
    until they learned that it would be easier to put the date on the
    page already from day one. :)

    Provided one has a /way/ to pester them....

    Then again, I also see a trend that companies that are represented on
    the web, these days seldom provide any means of contacting them.

    Yes, this is indeed the problem. Most want to "broadcast", but never "receive", any information.

    At least not until you provide something like a DNA sample. Then
    what will you receive? SPAM.

    Yup.

    When they allowed commercial interests onto the web in the early to
    mid 1990's, it's been downhill from there.

    One could argue that "the web" might not be as big as it is at present
    without those ommercial interests. But there has been a lot lost in
    pursuit of that growth as well.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Stefan Claas@21:1/5 to Rich on Thu Jun 20 20:31:22 2024
    Rich wrote:

    Stefan Claas <pollux@tilde.club> wrote:

    Prior upload and departure I can write down on a piece of paper the
    shasum and once arrived at my destination I can compare the shasum
    from the download with the shasum on paper.

    That would work, presuming the border crossing guards do not question
    your shasum paper....

    Only problem would be IMHO, if the shasum would no longer match and I
    have no plan B.

    True, but at least you can recognize you've been targeted, and know not
    to trust the binary currently on github.

    And to notify, for example, people on Usenet I can then download
    GnuPG 1.4 Windows from my GitHub repository and use that to post,
    without nntp credentials, to Usenet, via an additional Gmail account.

    In that case it doesn't matter if this repository would be compromised
    as well, or a key logger is installed in an Internet Café.

    --
    Regards
    Stefan

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cri-Cri@21:1/5 to Rich on Fri Jun 21 01:22:57 2024
    On Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:54:30 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

    the web, these days seldom provide any means of contacting them.

    Yes, this is indeed the problem. Most want to "broadcast", but never "receive", any information.

    With email there used to be this required recipient mailbox "postmaster"
    on email servers, through which the email admin received, e.g., complaints about misuse of resources, or other things deemed "illegal", from an email
    and a general online conduct perspective.

    Although it may still be required, I don't think this mailbox is monitored
    by many admins these days. Or you need to be in on some secret usage of vocabulary to circumvent heavy filtering.

    I see the same trend in the whois protocol. Information is stripped for "integrity" and "protection" reasons, but it can't be "personal integrity"
    or "protection of the individual", since we are dealing with the majority
    being companies that own the domains which are registered with the whois protocol.

    Same trend on Usenet. One can no longer see the path to servers (at least
    not on my server). Now it just says "Path: not-for-mail." When I asked
    about it, they, of course, said "for security reasons." They are now
    protecting spammers and header fakers and they are in breach of the RFC
    "rule book." I pointed that out to them. Result? Silence.

    So, who's to blame? SPAM and script kiddies and probably what you said:
    they only want to broadcast, not receive.

    The whole damn thing is turning into old time radio!

    One could argue that "the web" might not be as big as it is at present without those ommercial interests. But there has been a lot lost in
    pursuit of that growth as well.

    "Money makes the world go around."

    --
    Cri-Cri

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Cri-Cri on Fri Jun 21 03:06:21 2024
    Cri-Cri <cri@cri.cri.invalid> wrote:
    On Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:54:30 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

    the web, these days seldom provide any means of contacting them.

    Yes, this is indeed the problem. Most want to "broadcast", but never
    "receive", any information.

    With email there used to be this required recipient mailbox "postmaster"
    on email servers, through which the email admin received, e.g., complaints about misuse of resources, or other things deemed "illegal", from an email and a general online conduct perspective.

    Although it may still be required, I don't think this mailbox is monitored
    by many admins these days. Or you need to be in on some secret usage of vocabulary to circumvent heavy filtering.

    Yeah, I feel like email to postmaster@bigsite.com just about anywhere
    will either bounce (at least you know it went nowhere) or go into an
    email black hole never to be seen nor heard from again.

    Same trend on Usenet. One can no longer see the path to servers (at least
    not on my server). Now it just says "Path: not-for-mail."

    Works fine here:

    Path: eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!panix!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!diab
    lo1.usenet.blueworldhosting.com!peer01.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!peer03.ams4!peer.am4.highwinds-media.com!news.highwi
    nds-media.com!fx05.ams4.POSTED!not-for-mail

    That's your path header from the article this is a reply to.

    So either Pan is not showing you the full header, or something real
    funky is happening with easynews's nntp feed.

    When I asked about it, they, of course, said "for security reasons."

    That's often the "we don't know, we don't care, we just want you to go
    away" answer -- and for many it does cause them to "just go away".

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)