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CRYPT NEWSLETTER 18
-=Aug-July 1993=-
Editor & Publisher: Urnst Kouch
Tech Editor: Kohntark; Bureau Chief/Media Critic: Mr. Badger
CRYPT INFOSYSTEMS BBS: 818-683-0854
INTERNET: ukouch@delphi.com
------------------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE: The OBIT computer . . . Mr. Badger's fiendish
IQ test: Do you suffer from "Information Highway"? . . .
FEATURE: the National Reconnaissance Office - still secret after
all these years . . . CVDQ's King of Hearts virus . . . FACTUAL
FICTIONS: the press release from Hell and more . . . STERCULIUS
virus code and analysis . . . KOHNTARK'S virus tunneling
toolkit, advanced features for every prole replicator, regardless
of type - a demonstrator . . . IN THE READING ROOM: "Kipper's
Game" by Barbara Ehrenreich greases Gibson's latest: Long live
the new flesh . . . much more.
COMPUTERS, THE LAPD AND THE OUTER LIMITS: YOU READ IT HERE,
FIRST!
In the Summer 1993 issue of Open Forum, published by the
ACLU of Southern California, outgoing LAPD police commission
president Jesse Brewer comments on the OBITS, a computer
system which would be used to pinpoint violent officers
within the organization. According to Brewer, the Officer
Behavioral Indicators Tracking System (OBITS), costs $700,000
dollars for the complete system, or $92,000 for a scaled-down
one.
So far no money has been earmarked for OBITS by the new mayor
of Los Angeles, Dick Riordan. Brewer adds that the police union
has fought the installation of the system "aggressively," and
that currently problem officers are tracked by hand. Brewer
supports installation of the OBITS computer.
Such "computer matching" programs have been used throughout
government to try to catch tax deadbeats, loan defaulters
and others thought to be abusing the system in some manner.
Many privacy advocates consider such systems overly intrusive
and prone to abuse by bureaucracy and citizens they are designed
to serve.
Those with a mind for the weird may remember another anti-
privacy computer system called OBIT, for Outer Band Individuated
Teletracer, first unveiled in an 1963 episode of "The Outer
Limits." The script, written by Meyer Dolinsky, outlines the
OBIT as a demonical surveillance system designed to track spies
and other agent provocateurs. Instead, it cracks the will of the
government scientists and workers who think it is a good idea.
In "The Outer Limits: The Official Companion," Dolinsky explained,
"I'm very much in love with freedom . . . The political focus
of OBIT is all mine . . . These people, far from helping a
free society, are really its worst enemy, in the sense they
breed so much hostility and fear that they curiously accomplish
the very thing they are trying to prevent. Witch-hunting is
the wrong way to go about it."
It turns out the OBIT is an ingenious weapon in an invasion
plan, seeded into society by space aliens bent on conquest.
Managing OBIT is menacing character actor Jeff Corey as
mysterious g-man, Byron Lomax. Lomax terrifies his superiors and
subordinates until the climax, when he is revealed as one of
the Cyclops-like aliens. The OBIT is smashed and Lomax disappears
in a flash of light, but not before delivering a disturbing speech:
"The machines are everywhere! Oh, you'll find them all; you're
a zealous people. And you'll make a great show out of smashing
a few of them, but for every one you destroy, hundreds of
others will be built, and they'll demoralize you, break your
spirit, create such rifts and tensions in your society that
no one will be able to repair them! You're a savage, despairing
planet. And when we come here to live, you friendless, demoralized
flotsam will fall without even a single shot being fired.
You're all of the same dark persuasion. You demand, _insist_
on knowing every private thought and hunger in everyone -- your
families, your neighbors, _everyone but yourselves_!"
We now return control of your television set to you . . .
CRYPT NEWSLETTER BUREAU CHIEF MR. RAOUL BADGER ADMINISTERS
NATIONAL IQ TEST - ALL FLUNK, CITIZENRY DESPONDENT, PRONE TO
ALCOHOLISM
Readers of my regular diatribes may be relieved to know
that this is the time of year Mr. Badger abandons the highways
and byways of cultured life and retires to the piney woods of
the south east. Western Civilization can only improve as a result.
[Of course, the thought of Mr. Badger patrolling the woods with
high powered rifles in hand is not for the faint of heart, but
let the residents of the South Carolina Piedmont worry about
that . . .]
In a moment of reflection, and detoxification, I discovered a
New York Times Book Review (August 29, 1993) cover story on
hypertext works of fiction [known as Hyperfiction, doubtless a
contribution from the Bill Gates school of marketing]. As one
would expect, the emphasis is on the novels themselves, as opposed
to the medium in which they are delivered. The reviewer in
question is Mr. Robert Coover, a fiction writer and teacher
at Brown University in Rhode Island. Mr. Coover has been conducting
workshops in the use of hypertext for the writing of fiction
for the past three years, and his experience shows.
A side bar article entitled "And Hypertext Is Only the Beginning.
Watch Out!" might sound naive and sensationalistic, but I get
the feeling that shame for the headline can be laid at the editor's
feet, because the article is a well balanced and fairly thorough
introduction to everything from the what, how, and where of
hypertext to the underlying implications of a format that allows
the reader to select a plot line. A sample quote
shows Mr. Coover's obvious fondness for the medium and his
awareness of the realities of its use.
"It is the irresistible instructional power of hypertext that most
convinces me of its inevitability as a medium for art, narrative
and otherwise, for hyperfiction itself is off to a somewhat more
hesitant start. For the narrative artist, hyperspace has all the
charm of a starry sky in august: the weather's comfortable, the
twinkle's alluring, but the vista's intimidating and there are no
reliable star charts. It is pretty empty out there, too."
For those interested, look it up. It includes reviews of
a dozen hypertext works and has a follow up article on William
Gibson's "Agrippa (A Book of the Dead)". [Which no one in
IBM-clone land has actually seen because it was priced so only
the aristocracy could afford it.]
Normal reviews of the ubiquitous "Information Highway" articles have
been suspended. One would have to be a Trappist monk to have
missed them for never in the course of human events have so
many, with so little knowledge, written so much to the annoyance
of all. Our grand and glorious nationwide data and communications
network might be coming, but in the meantime talk about it has
clogged the bandwidth in half a dozen markets.
Now, those who have dared to read such dreck know that two perilous
outcomes await the unfortunate reader:
---> BAD: Drinking too much booze and getting a killer hangover.
---> WORSE: Not drinking enough and having the recollections of yet
another insipid article haunt your sober hours.
But never fear, for Mr. Badger feels compelled to share his
personal guide to recovery from the flotsam and jetsam of
"Information Highway." Yes! With this guide in hand YOU can
safely traverse any article on the most popular non-existent
news event of the season. Yes! Follow our lead and YOU will
know exactly how much alcohol is needed to restore your sanity
and self-esteem.
But be warned, this test not only measures the weakness of
the piece in question, but your ability to handle the brave, new
cyberworld. So gird your loins and prepare to keep score.
Onward and forward! Hours of experimentation guarantee
reproducible results!
===============================================================================
>>TEST BEGINS HERE!<<
1. To read this newsletter, you are using:
-a hardcopy printout (Go to #6)
-an unregistered file utility (Go to #5)
-a commercial/registered package (Go to #4)
-a pirated commercial package (Go to #3)
-"C:>TYPE CRPTLT.R18 | MORE" (Go to #2)
2. Lamer! This test has standards, and you failed the first one.
Abort test. Reload in six months.
3. The Info Highway isn't even paved yet and you're already
speeding? I like that. Start with 0 points. Cruise on
over to #9.
4. The Info Highway don't need no blue-haired grannies clogging
up the road. Start with 20 points. Find your way to #9.
5. One of those that'll keep it within 10 miles/hour of the speed
limit, huh? Doubtless the Info Highway will be cluttered with
such as yourself. Start with 5 points. Go to #9.
6. You're kidding, right? Oh, you're not! O.K., did you:
-print it at office/school (Go to #7)
-use a friend's printer (Go to #8)
-use your own printer (Go to #2)
7. In that case, we'll cut you some slack. Anybody who's already
freeloading has his heart in the right place. Start
with 10 points. Go to #9.
8. Mooching off friends already? Nobody wants to be in a bus
line for lamers on the Info Highway. Start with 15 points.
Go to #9.
9. The article in question on the Information Highway:
-doesn't mention Mitch Kapor (Go to #10)
-quotes Kapor once (Go to #11)
-quotes Kapor 2-4 times (Go to #12)
-is an interview with Kapor (Go to #14)
-is an interview and has his
picture on the cover (Go to #13)
-I thought Kapor's were something
you found in sauces &
appetizers (Go to #10)
10. Man, did you luck out. Mitch Kapor is usually seen more
often than Elvis at a Memphis shopping mall. No additional
penalty points added. Go to #18.
11. Only once? You get out easy with 5 points added to your total.
Go to #18.
12. Ouch! Add 5 points per quote. Go to #18.
13. ABORT TEST NOW! You are now a [dis]honorary Kapor Catamite.
When the Info Highway arrives, it'll find you by some sleazy
off-ramp, dressed in high heels, torn hose, and a leather
miniskirt, you cheap cyber-slut.
14. Man-o-man! You're in trouble now. Did you:
-read the entire article (Go to #17)
-glance over it (Go to #16)
-look for laughs (Go to #15)
-buy it for the interview (Go to #13)
15. What are you trying to do, steal Mr. Badger's job?!?!?
Remember kiddies, this is a job for professionals.
Do not attempt in the home environment. You've been warned!
Go to #18.
16. You're still skating on thin, thin ice. Ten additional points
need to be added to reflect you're obvious lack of judgment.
Go to #18.
17. After reading the article, you feel,
-Kapor is a pioneer, a leader,
and a vital voice for the
future of American computing (Go to #13)
-Better Kapor than nobody else (Go to #16)
-Thank God he isn't Bill Gates (Go to #15)
18. The Information Highway is presented as:
-A total package for
the future consumer (Go to #19)
-A total package that
doesn't exist yet (Go to #20)
-An non-existent package
and nobody knows what will
be in it (Go to #21)
-The latest techno-scam (Go to #22)
19. Yeah, right. 20 point naivete penalty. Go to #23.
20. Better, but still too rose-colored not to require a penalty.
Add 10 points and go to #23.
21. Actually, probably the most accurate assessment possible. Go
to #23 with no penalty.
22. Ahh, such corrosive cynicism is fine relief from the standard
utopian pipe dreams. Subtract 10 points from your current
tally. Go to #23.
23. Add/Subtract points for each of the following:
-10 for each quote from Emmanuel Goldstein
-5 for each quote from an obscure, unknown technoid
-3 for each quote from obscure corporate CEO scum
-1 for each quote from a think tank/consultant
+5 for each quote from Vice-President Gore
+7 for each quote from Congressman Ed Markey
+10 for each quote from Bill Gates
Go to #24.
24. The article:
-doesn't mention ISDN (Go to #27)
-mentions that the Bells (Go to #26)
won't market it
-explains that the initials (Go to #25)
stand for: "It Still
Does Nothing."
25. Stop. Send article to Mr. Badger. He won't believe it unless
he holds it in his grimy little paws. Suspend test
pending independent verification of your truthfulness.
26. Subtract 10 points. Go to #28.
27. Add 20 points. Go to #28.
28. In the article, the Baby Bells:
-want to run the info
highway (Go to #29)
-want to run it and be
free to create much of the
programming (Go to #30)
-will probably get "channel
hopping" banned as "unlawful
use of a carrier." (Go to #25)
29. This is news? They want to run everything. Add ten points and
go to #31.
30. Yawn. Old news. Add 5 points. Go to #31.
31. In the article, the cable companies:
-want to charge for the info
highway (Go to #32)
-want to run it and charge
for even more channels (Go to #33)
-are in a poor position to
provide interactive services,
already gouge consumers, and
will doubtless want the public
to pay for either fiber optics
or new compression standards (Go to #34)
32. This is news? They want to charge for everything. (Compare
with #29.) Add ten points and go to #35.
33. Surprise, surprise. Could only be news to a true Gomer Pyle.
Add 5 points. Go to #35.
34. Don't bother sending the article to Mr. Badger. Even reporters
know that the cable industry is run by creatures that have
cirrhosis-scarred livers for a conscience. We'd give a penalty
for old news, but we enjoy hearing the truth about the weasels
too much. Go to #35.
35. You've reached the end of our handy little guide. Compare your
running total with the chart below.
0 or below: hard to believe, but you've managed to read an
article on the Information Highway without needing
any alcohol by the time you finished. Mr. Badger
suspects that you started reading while already
heavily intoxicated and skewed the results.
1 to 10: A few glasses of champagne should elevate your
spirits. If you wish, you can substitute any of
those adjective/noun drinks. [You know, Salty Dog,
Pink Lady, etc.]
11 to 20: Beer. Drink it steadily. You should recover by
the time you have trouble opening the bottles.
21 to 30: Long Island Ice Tea. Drink a pitcher with reckless
abandon.
31 to 40: Good vodka. You're already in pain and there's no
point wasting time. Don't let the ice in the glass
melt.
41 to 50: Cheap vodka. Don't even bother with the ice.
51 to 60: Wild Turkey/Jack Daniels/George Dickel. Don't even
bother with the glass.
61 to 70: Tequila. Go until the worms start to taste good.
71 to 80: Everclear/Ouzo/Agua Ardiente. Don't worry about
where you drink it, you'll inevitably wake up
elsewhere.
81 to 90: MD20/20 -- Thunderbird. Don't worry about where
you drink it, you'll end up hospitalized.
91 to 100: Make sure your medical coverage is current. Work
your way through ALL of the aforementioned.
100+: Rubbing alcohol/Isopropanol. Don't worry, the
damage to your mind and soul are already done.
Contact Mr. Badger at Crypt InfoSystems, as he has been too
preoccupied with manufacturing ammunition for the fall deer season
to acquire another e-mail portal after being ejected from Delphi
for "anti pro-sports" attitude.
CRYPT NEWSLETTER FEATURE: THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE,
STILL SECRET AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
[Portions of this article were originally published by Times-
Mirror, Inc. in 1991. They appear with permission.]
It was just another mid-summer sunny day near Santa Barbara, this
year, when one of the most secretive organizations in the US
military screwed-up big-time in plain sight of American
taxpayers, again. A Titan-4 ICBM lifted out of Vandenberg,
carrying a National Reconnaissance Office Lacrosse radar-imaging
spy satellite. Less than a minute later, it was $1-2 billion worth
of twisted metal garbage when the Titan carrying it blew up, as
they're wont to do, in flight. For the most part, the press yawned,
well-trained after decades of being told the NRO didn't exist
and that it was uncool, maybe even unpatriotic, to rudely insist
on talking about it.
After all, it was only in September of 1992 that the Bush
administration quietly declassified the organization's _name_
and became the first presidency to publicly identify its
head, then Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space,
Marty Faga. Associated Press was the only news organization
which noticed, barely, turning out a boring paint-by-numbers
announcement.
None of this is particularly surprising, but it is eminently
depressing considering the NRO, which runs the nation's spy
satellite programs, is one of the largest intelligence
organizations in the country and controls significant taxpayer
money - at least $6 billion/year in 1993 by some estimates.
What National Reconnaissance Office, most would say?
You never heard that here, buddy - as a livid Hans Michael
Mark, one of its past chiefs told investigator William
Burrows in 1986 during preparation for the book, "Deep Black."
Founded late in the Eisenhower administration, the NRO still
operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy which has
existed for over 30 years.
Created as a joint Air Force-CIA effort to run spy satellites
for the intelligence community, the NRO was, paradoxically,
first envisioned as an unclassified operation. But operating
from offices on the fourth floor of the Pentagon, it quickly
became the holiest of secrets during the Kennedy administration,
when Cold War tensions with its target, the Soviet Union,
escalated precipitously.
It played the central role in keeping tabs on that Cold War
adversary, supplying information on everything from targets
for US nuclear forces to little-known catastrophes at defense
installations in the Russian hinterland. Even now, NRO-
controlled satellites keep watch on Saddam Hussein and
the Korean peninsula.
The Bush administration's appointee to head the NRO, Marty
Faga, inherited the organization just in time for the war
with Iraq. John Pike, a military space analyist at the
Federation of American Scientists, was quoted in The
Washington Post to the effect that the volume of data
coming down from the skies on Saddam's Iraq, was flooding
the eyes of commanders in the field.
In a rare public announcement, Faga commented in the same
article, "Every satellite that we own that has an application
of value in that part of the world is employed for that
purpose," an example of exactitude and verbosity by NRO
standards. Faga added that US forces were relying on "many tens"
of orbiting spacecraft. What he didn't add - and which has
never been widely publicized - is that Saddam and his generals
were more aware of the NRO than most Americans, having been
the recipient of some NRO largesse while the Reagan administration
was helping to prop Iraq up during its war with Iran.
Nevertheless, when Pentagon flack Pete Williams fielded a
question on spy satellites during the war he answered with
the party line, "These [programs] shall be eternally
classified."
Despite having had its name declassified, the only sop
the agency has extended to the public is an official
phone number in the Pentagon, according to Steven
Aftergood, an expert on secrecy and classification, also
at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, DC.
Now you can call the phone number and reach someone who will tell
you it's the NRO. That's progress!
So, how big is the NRO?
Well, consider the agency:
>>operates fifteen-ton infrared and visible-light
satellites the size of Greyhound buses, called KH-12'-
with KH standing for "Keyhole" - which in addition to
close-look capability, generate the digitally calibrated
terrain maps which program the Tomahawk missile's guidance
system.
>>runs orbiting radar imagers which work at night and
through bad weather, code named LACROSSE. And it blew
one up this summer, estimated bill: $1-2 billion.
>>has Block 14 Defense Support Program (DSP) infrared
early warning satellites. These two-and-a-half ton
babies are responsible for detecting ballistic
missile launches and surface or atmospheric nuclear
detonations worldwide.
>>maintains telecommunications eavesdroppers operated
for the NSA, code-named MAGNUM and VORTEX.
>>administers ocean-scouring spy platforms operated by
the Naval Space Command, code-named WHITE CLOUD.
And it operates from installations that include The
Office of Space Systems in Los Angeles, the Satellite
Test Center (or "Big Blue Cube") near Sunnyvale, CA.,
the Naval Space Command in Dhalgren, VA., the Defense
Communications Electronics Evaluation and Test Activity
in Fort Belvoir, VA, Buckley Air National Guard AFB
near Denver, CO and a component within the CIA's
Directorate of Science & Technology.
Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist Tim
Weiner estimated in 1991 that the NRO draws $5.4
billion/year - an amount derived from a line cryptically
labelled "selected activities" in the Pentagon's
budget. This was slight change from the NRO's past
cover, "special activities," a name which lead outside
observers to label it the "Special Activities Office"
in the early '70's.
Other estimates now range from $6-8 billion, well in excess
of the 1991 CIA tab for $4-5 billion.
Since its inception in 1960, taxpayers have funded the agency
to the tune of about $115 billion dollars, according to
a number of unclassified sources.
And, if that isn't enough, "the public is _disinvited_ to
the debate on expenditures for the NRO," laughed Aftergood.
Although completely beyond accountability, this is not to
say there is _no_ debate. There is. But it's all secret
argument over control, down-sizing in the post-Cold War
period and who will get to do what, when and where. Such
decisions, which won't be reported, are liable to have a big
impact on the NRO's major vendors, TRW and Lockheed, centered
in Southern California, a state already hard hit by the
current depression. Ironically, when these "black budget"
workers are finally given pink slips, it will be difficult,
even uncomfortable, for them to complain about it to the
media.
Not getting the shove this year is Jimmie Hill, deputy director
of the NRO, who has been around the organization "forever,"
according to Aftergood. Nevertheless, it was only until
recently that the Pentagon would admit Hill exists, although
he's the agency's right hand until the Clinton administration
names a successor to Faga.
A call to the NRO phone number bounced me into the ubiquitous
Pentagon public information office. An NRO public-information-
officer (n.b.: alert newsletter readers will savor the subtle
paradox of this title) had to be summoned. She called me back,
confirming that Faga's successor is likely to be Robert Fossum,
former head of DARPA under Jimmy Carter and a professor of
electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas, TX.
When and if Fossum comes to power he will have to take up
the Titan 4 project, a trouble-plagued program the NRO
has been fixing, and fixing . . . and fixing for almost
a decade.
Using Titan 4's - like the one that smashed the Lacrosse this
summer - started with nation's biggest engineering
debacle, the Challenger explosion. When the Challenger went up
like a Roman candle in front of the world, it took with
it the NRO's ability to put 15-ton photo-intelligence
birds into orbit at a time when close surveillance of the
Soviet Union was of highest priority to the Reagan
administration.
During Faga's tenure at the NRO, he was forced to wrestle
with the task of restoring the capability, an effort that
had been beset with screw-ups when Titans were thrown
quickly into the breech. The missiles failed catastrophically in
the aftermath of Challenger, destroying themselves and two
Keyhole satellites, a Hexagon in 1985, and a more advanced
model known as a Kennan, the following year.
In April 1991 Faga testified before Congress on another
Titan mishap, a static test in which a booster motor
failed.
The NRO has limped along on the project, expanding its
facilities at Vandenberg, CA, and Cape Canaveral, FLA.,
so that spy satellites can be launched from either coast.
Calls to Faga's NRO office during work on the story in 1991,
netted only his mouthpiece, PIO Air Force Captain Marty Hauser.
Hauser initially asked for a list of questions, which was
sent. Although Hauser said Faga would speak briefly,
further calls handed the writer off to an adjutant mouthpiece,
who generously offered to launder my copy for content prior
to publication.
Steve Aftergood at the FAS laughed when this was recounted.
"That was to make sure you didn't get anything right," he said.
Faga, a 1964 graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA,
is now at MITRE Corp. (MIT Research & Engineering), yet another
super-secret federally-funded corporation just down the road
from the CIA which has been the Air Force's think tank for advanced
technology programs during the Cold War. It should be
comfortable to him, since he worked there in the early-70's
after a stint as a technical representative at Perkin-Elmer's
highly classified optical division in Danbury, Conn. Perkin-Elmer
developed the Hexagon spy satellite's 6-foot reflector-equipped
Cassegrain focus telescope in the early '70's. Hughes now owns
and runs the division.
The NRO remains a target rich in irony. Consider that had
the Titan destroyed a $2 billion dollar NASA satellite
this summer, the press wouldn't have hesitated to draw their
long knives on the techno-bumpkins at the US civilian space
agency, no doubt even calling into question their reason
for being. If more evidence is desired one needs only look to
the doomed Mars Explorer for an example. However, since we're
talking about the NRO, government secrecy is supposed to make it
all, somehow, OK. Are you annoyed, yet?
While squabbling over the technical lapses of the Hubble
telescope a few years earlier, the press studiously ignored
everything associated with spy satellites - even more singular
when one finally realizes that the NRO was orbiting its
predecessor of the Hubble - then called "Big Bird" - as early as
the mid-'70's. Of course, these telescopes were pointed in the
opposite direction.
When I first learned of the ultra-secretive National
Reconnaissance Office a few years ago, I thought that it had
to be doing a good, necessary job - its leaders fine men.
In 1993, this strikes me as naive, indeed. Americans, I think,
deserve better than stonewalling by a group enjoying a situation
which is the envy of all. Consider, if your boss won't even admit
your name is on the payroll, it would be mighty hard for anyone to
drag you to a public microphone and ask for a detailed explanation
on why $6 billion, maybe more, ought to be dumped in your
pocket even _after_ the evaporation of credible strategic threats
to national security. Americans are finer people than that and
have little need of hide-and-seek agencies which install
dead-end phone numbers as their sole concession to public
accountability in 1993. And until organizations like the National
Reconnaissance Office are truly brought into the light, until
idiot savant secrecy in the military-industrial complex is shown
the door, there will be no real democracy in America.
Get a cheap thrill. Call the National Reconnaissance
Office and grapple with a "public-information-officer," now,
at: 703-979-6472.
THE POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE VIRUS: ENTER THE KING OF HEARTS
[The following is excerpted from Mark Ludwig's Computer
Virus Developments Quarterly, Vol. No.4 (American Eagle
Publishing, Tucson, AZ) Reprinted with permission.
Address: American Eagle, POB 41401, Tucson, AZ 85717]
. . . I think somewhere in the past century, the western
world has undergone a profound moral cataclysm. Really, when
you get right down to the nitty-gritty, the only way a
government can work is if the people really believe in it.
In centuries past, people really did believe in their
governments. In the west, most people were at least nominally
Christians, and the leaders reasoned out the being of their
governments on the basis of Christian principles, i.e., "the
divine right of kings," etc. The citizens accepted this order
as good and right. That has all changed now. It would seem
that -- more and more -- individuals are buying into the
anarchism of Rousseau and Nietzsche. However, one of the
fundamental laws of history that any would-be revolutionary
must know is that anarchy begets totalitarianism. The only
way a government can function when the citizens don't believe
in it is to enact repressive legislation and turn into a
police state. Terror will keep people in line when common
faith cannot. The perfect totalitarian state is one in
which every citizen is breaking the law all the time, and has
no practical way of defending himself against arrest and
imprisonment. Then the individual can only cower,
hide and hope he is not singled out for attention. With the
myriad of laws on the books, and an impossible judicial
system, we are quickly coming to that.
All of this high-minded philosophy comes to a point in the
"software piracy" issue. Most software licenses are unrealistic.
They fail to meet the real needs of the user. They are purely
selfish agreements designed to maximize profits for the
publisher. The catch is, however, that the agreement cannot
usually be enforced unless the user enforces it himself. And
although millions of dollars might have gone into the develop-
ment of the software, it is often possible to copy it for less
than a dollar. This is the perfect set-up for totalitarian-
style repression. People don't buy into the rigid concept
of "piracy" as foisted upon them, so they must be scared into
compliance. So you find the publishers you support with
your dollars running ads that tell you you're going to go to
jail if you cross the line, and creating laws to send you
there.
So we end up with wonderful new laws like the _Software
Protection Act of 1992_. Do you have five "illegal" copies
of any combination of software packages whose retail value
(past, present or future) adds up to more than $1000? If
so, you are a felon on the loose. Are you ready to go to
prison for 5 years, and lose your civil rights forever?
Now, if you tell them you're sorry when they come, you may
get off easy, but if you don't kow-tow to the god-state and
actually maintain that you have a right to those programs, say
goodbye to your freedom.
That's a scary state of affairs. Think of all those hundreds
of floppies you've accumulated over the past ten years or so?
Are you sure I couldn't find five bootleg programs on them?
Or better yet, if you have a company with 15 employees, are
you sure I couldn't find five bootleg programs on their
combined diskettes, be they personal or company (I can't tell
which is which, after all)? And are you sure I couldn't put
you in jail for it?
>Enter the King of Hearts<
Now, if you were smart, you would encrypt all of your disks
and take the labels off. Use a good encryption algorithm and
your data is very private. That way you could sleep easy at
night, knowing that any bust planned for you would be an
opportunity for laughter. In fact, you'd probably prefer
to just encrypt everything automatically, without thinking
about it.
. . . Wouldn't it make sense to have a virus that encrypts
your system for you? It can work in the background, and just
encrypt every floppy you make, and put a copy of itself on
that disk, too, if there's room, so when you take it somewhere
you can still decrypt. And best of all, the encryption is
public domain and free.
Well, now you have the virus you need. The _Potassium Hydroxide_
virus is a friendly virus, designed specifically to solve the
problems of the average computer user who attaches some value
to the privacy of what he has on his computer -- either because
he doesn't agree with the strictest interpretation of copyright
law, or for any other reason. I say it is "friendly" because
it doesn't just go in and infect your system without your
knowledge and use some unknown key for encryption so you can't
recover. Rather, the _Potassium Hydroxide_ politely asks you
if you want to infect (Yes, it even uses the word "please"),
and it asks you for a password to use for encrypting.
As far as encryption goes, the _Potassium Hydroxide_ uses
two different algorithms. One is slow-but-good, the other
is fast-but-easy to break. And it allows you to choose which
one will be used on your hard disk. That way you can choose the
level of security and performance you like. Floppy disks are
always encrypted with the slow-but-good algorithm, since they
are already slow.
The slow-but-good algorithm used is state-of-the-art. It
is the International Data Encryption Algorithm (known as
IDEA), which was developed by someone besides the government,
(for those of you who do not trust the government to keep
your data safe) and has been the subject of intense public
scrutiny for several years.
>Using the _Potassium Hydroxide_<
Installing the _Potassium Hydroxide_ on your computer is
fairly easy. However, as with instally any cryptographic
system, I'd highly recommend you back up everything on
your hard disk first. After all, if the power fails after
your FAT has been encrypted, but nothing else, it's going to
be tough to recover without a backup.
STEP 1: Format a floppy disk and put the system files on it
so you can boot to the DOS prompt. Pull the disk out and
put it back in. (You must do this, or the virus won't infect
it.)
STEP 2: Execute the KOH.COM file . . . This will encrypt the
diskette in the A: drive and install the _Potassium Hydroxide_
on it live. Enter a password when it requests one. This
password is only temporary. Do a directory on this disk and
you will see only gibberish. That will prove to you it has
been properly encrypted.
STEP 3: Boot from the disk you just infected. The virus will
then request permission to infect your hard disk. Tell it
yes.
STEP 4: Reboot your computer from the hard disk. Now the virus
will ask you if you want to encrypt your hard disk. If
you do, enter "Y". If you don't all floppies will still be
encrypted, and you must enter the floppy encryption password
at boot-up. I recommend you attempt to boot at least once
without encrypting just to make sure the virus installed
properly on the hard disk.
STEP 5: After booting once without encrypting, reboot and
encrypt this time. You will be asked if you want casual
(fast) encryption or strong (slow) encryption. Make your
choice. Next you'll be asked for a password for floppies
and for the hard disk. The floppy password is stored on
your hard disk in (strong) encrypted form, and the hard disk
password must be entered every time you boot. Enter them
both at this time. The initial encryption process then
begins. It is admittedly very slow. Just allocate an hour
or so for strong encryption and be patient. The virus does
not use a very large buffer for encrypting because it doesn't
want to take up too much memory.
STEP 6: After the encryption is done, you should reboot your
computer and test it. With any luck it will work just fine.
A good test to make sure everything worked OK is to run
CHKDSK, and test out some of your favorite programs. If
you experience problems, you may have to use your backup to
restore everything. That's no different than any encryption
program though.
[KOH is included as a DEBUG script with this newsletter. You
may recreate it and use it following Mark Ludwig's instructions,
above.]
IN THE READING ROOM: "KIPPER'S GAME" BY BARBARA EHRENREICH -
HOT RAILS TO HELL!
Let us now gore a sacred cow in favor of a new book
you'll not want to miss. It's Barbara Ehrenreich's "Kipper's
Game" (Farrar Straus Giroux, $22.00) and it greases William
Gibson's "Virtual Light" as it backs its way, almost by
accident, into the "cyberpunk" genre. Gibson,
despite earnest efforts, has become a cliche, right down
to the cyber shades on the cover of his new "Virtual Light." An
_OK_ read that book, but not even close to "Kipper's Game" whose
author is better known as a sharp social critic ("The Worst Years
Of Our Lives") and a prattling essayist for TIME magazine
who likes to talk about her daughter too much for the
lip-reading Philistines which make up its subscribers.
But the flogging of crap for TIME hasn't hobbled the talent
that went into "Kipper's Game," a story that pukes hackers,
epidemiology, and scheming Nazis into a future pot which, for
reasons I haven't figured out, evokes the same gray doom as
Ursula LeGuin's "The Lathe of Heaven."
"Kipper's Game" drops you immediately into a world of
petrified academics where aging blowhards perform like dancing
bears for the vacuous while their research is propped up
by cynical post-docs and graduate students. Sounds like it could
be real!
The central character, Della Markson, is a woman whose life
is crumbling, perhaps just like yours. Her son, Kipper, is
missing - on the lam from unknown evil after developing
a computer game which leaves its users wrecked.
"He would not kill another human being. But there was the
game. The game was hard to explain. She had to admit that
most people would stop if they designed something addictive,
something that could leave people stupid or dead, they would
not keep going with it, perfecting, refining," reads part
of the book.
Ehrenreich hurls a rotting disease which hotwires the brain
while it savages the body into the mix, too, something I
haven't seen done effectively since Thomas Disch's
"Camp Concentration." And, of course, no future dystopia
would be complete without a nest of Nazi masterminds gone
corporate, in this case - the "Erntegruppe," lurking behind
every rock.
By the end of "Kipper's Game," everything is hammered shit;
even the Supreme Being has shown up, blown its bugle and
disappeared, unnoticed amid the squeal of TV talk shows,
information overload and grasping bit-characters.
Don't cry for William Gibson as you give him the boot from
your library - there's always "Beyond 2000" and OMNI
magazine. Virtual, shmirtual - "Kipper's Game" is
the current hot rail to Hell.
SWITCH-HITTING VESSELIN BONTCHEV AND A CLASSIC VIRUS DISASSEMBLY
"The publishing of virus source code has proven to be the
most dangerous thing in this field."
--Vesselin Bontchev, "The Bulgarian
and Soviet Virus Factories"
(_samizdat_)
As a public service and out of pure curiosity, the Crypt
Newsletter is reprinting a copy of Bulgarian virus
researcher Vesselin Bontchev's well-commented disassembly
of one of the TINY viruses. [It is included with the
newsletter as TINY-134.ASM.]
It's a concise piece of work and was fairly common text as
early as 1992 on several American virus exchange bulletin board
systems, some of which were run by teenagers and college
students. About the same time, Bontchev's curious monograph
on the Bulgarian and Soviet "virus factories" could be found
on US on-line systems from corporate giant Compuserve to the
strangely named Cryptic Morgue BBS in Euless, Texas.
A portion of the monograph is spent lamenting the easy
accessability of the well-commented virus source code on
Todor Todorov's bulletin board system in Sofia, Bulgaria.
More recently, Bontchev appeared in the pages of The Washington
Post were he complained, once again, about the availability
of commented virus code, this time on the Bureau of Public
Debt's AIS bulletin board system.
Next month, another "classic" virus disassembly, for your
intellectual enrichment.
FACTUAL FICTIONS/FICTUAL FACTS: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH,
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HELP US GAWD
>>The press release from Hell:
President Bill Clinton announced in late August that he
would move quickly to set up a new department, to be headed
by newly appointed science and technology czars Steven
Spielberg and Michael Crichton.
"In this new age of information overload," said Clinton in
a radio address, "the United States can no longer entrust
its technological edge to scientists and engineers, alone.
For this reason, I am appointing Steven Spielberg and
Michael Crichton as heads of a superagency empowered to
do whatever it takes to keep the United States an inter-
national leader in semi-conductors, biotechnology, multimedia,
publishing, the war on drugs, cold fusion, smart nuclear
weapons, spy satellites, the war on AIDS, dinosaur
revivification, protein sequencing, information superhighway
development, virtual reality gaming and pornographic
cybersystems, and all sundry grandiloquent, meaningless
entertainments."
The superagency, to be called the Department Of Ground-
breaking Science, High-technology & Intellectual Twaddle
(DOGSHIT) will revolutionize the scientific process, replacing
the obsolete and stupid approval of new ideas by careful
peer review, with a leaner and meaner more cost effective
approach, claim Clinton administration officials.
According to Crichton's information minister, Michael Eisner,
the author and Speilberg would meet for weekly barnstorming
sessions in which they would comb through current abstracts in
SCIENCE and NATURE as well as breaking developments in
OMNI, POPULAR SCIENCE, SPIN, COMPUTER SHOPPER and INFOWORLD.
"Michael and Steven will sift the wheat from the chaff every
week," said Eisner. "Active researchers are also invited to
send electronic press releases describing their current work
to DOGSHIT's Internet addresses. These contributions will
also be included in the gleaning process." DOGSHIT's Internet
portals, said Eisner, are: dshit@hollywood.edu;
and dshit@bevhills.gov.
Ideas, information and data deemed worthy of continued
serious study will be prepared by Crichton into "action
memos." "Action memos" can go any of four ways: into book
projects, teleplays, merchandising or to Speilberg's
nationalized conglomerate, AMBLIN/Industrial Light and
Magic for immediate world wide implementation.
"In this manner," said Eisner, "the latest in scientific
development can be fielded with maximum benefit to the
American citizen without compromising the integrity of
the scientific method. For too long, American minds
have been the laughingstock of the industrialized
nations; archetyped as scrawny and weak pencil-necked
geeks incapable of punching their way out of virtual
wet paper bags. Now, from birth until death, every American
citizen's life will become part of a continuing educational
process. Walk into any mall and cardboard standees bearing
government approved DOGSHIT books will educate the learning
citizen, no matter his or her age, race or color. Television
advertisements and shows will convey all manner of DOGSHIT
technological developments, 24 hours a day. Newspapers will
carry as much DOGSHIT science and technology as willing,
and will receive government subsidies approved by the
agency, for doing so. It will be _the_ paradigm for
intellectual excellence in the 21st century and in its
multi-media/multi-pronged strength-through-joy approach,
Americans will use it to conquer the stars and make
this a land where, truly, the sun never sets."
According to President Clinton, Crichton and Spielberg were
chosen for their continuing advancement in all areas of
key technologies; Crichton for know-how in technology
transfer issues, molecular genetics, epidemiology,
cybernetic behavior modification and making difficult
scientific concepts understandable to cabbage; Spielberg
for his work in supercomputers, optics, IR/visible spectroscopy,
high energy physics, SETI and time travel.
Crichton and Spielberg were unavailable for comment but a
Japanese man-in-the-street from the home island of Honshu,
when informed of the US's new plan for technological
dominance, screamed and said before collapsing,
"We're fucked!"
>An incredibly complicated tale of mystery and intrigue:
Former NuKE virus-programmer Talon, of Brisbane, Australia,
makes it into Fictual Facts this month for making life just
a little more brutish than it ought to be.
"Confusion to your enemies" could be TaLon's motto and
you'll agree after reading this whopper. Originally,
the writer of the PuKE/Harry McBungus viruses, Talon created
Harry McBungus and Terminator-Z as electronic beards for a
group predominatly interested in optimizing virus code and
poking fun of the NuKE virus-programming group. But, fate took a
hand and made the PuKE virus famous down under when it infected
a company and the event was publicized in a newspaper. Talon,
according to sources, saw the article, called the newspaper and
gave them an interview, perhaps thinking editors would keep his
name secret. They didn't.
Editors passed his name along to the Fraud Squad, a branch of
the Australian national crime-fighting force which focuses on
computer crime. Agents from the Fraud Squad promptly rounded
up Talon and here's where the story gets tricky. Talon, by
adroitly using the aliases of Harry McBungus and Terminator-Z,
was able to sufficiently confuse the investigation by pushing
authorship of the PuKE virus onto people, who essentially, didn't
exit.
At this point, TaLon applied for membership to NuKE and submitted
the Daeman virus. Shortly therafter, the Daeman virus infected
a PC network belonging to Australian Telecom, sufficiently
inconveniencing the company so that it summoned the Fraud Squad.
It was "round up the usual suspects" time and Talon again went
into the bag. This time, he shifted suspicion onto two other
Australian hackers and NuKE members, Phrozen Doberman and Screaming
Radish. NuKE promptly terminated TaLon's membership for this
graceless cybersocial faux pas, but did publish the Daeman source
code in its InfoJournal #7 before wishing him luck with Australian
authorities.
TaLon promptly uploaded a fakeware archive called VCL20.ZIP
into some US virus exchange bulletin board systems. Advertised
as the Virus Creation Laboratory v. 2.0, the archive was
"password protected" with the phrase "Nowhere Man Sucks."
It was a hoax.
[NuKE Infojournal #7, with the source code to the Daeman virus,
is available on most of the systems listed at the end of this
issue.]
>>Crypt Newsletters: How to get 'em, read 'em, etc.
Sysop Greg Youngblood from the Perfect Solution BBS is
carrying the Crypt Newsletter and says he supports
anonymous UUCP from the Internet:
Voila -
BBS Name: The Complete Solution
Phone number: 707-459-9058
-v.32bis (14.4) modem, 24 hours
-location of files:
info/crypltr
Anonymous UUCICO
Login: nuucp
Password: nuucp
Allfiles: ~/tcsbbs.lst
Example: ~/info/crypltr/crptlt17.zip, to get issue #17.
It's zeta@tcscs.com, for those requiring husbandry.
TimeLord of phalcon/SKISM is running a virus information
server out of Canada. It's quite popular, too, he says. Sounds
reasonable!
In addition to tons of viruses - requestable, the p/S
server carries Crypt Newsletters.
You can send one of those /dir, or is it, \dir commands,
to:
request@skism.login.qc.ca
and the machine should send you a list of files to pick from.
If that's too baffling, send mail asking for someone to
hold your hand to:
timelord@skism.login.qc.ca
>>NEW CONTRIBUTORS TO THE NEWSLETTER: Alert readers may
recognize some new names on the masthead. Mr. Badger's acerbic
style has made the Crypt Newsletter a better read for some
months - in other words, he makes us seem smarter than we
really are. It seems only fitting to give him a title
commensurate with this ability, ergo Badger's now the official
media lord and East Coast bureau chief. Also working behind
the scenes has been Kohntark. Kohntark is the kind of
reader every newsletter can use: critical, sharp-eyed, and
he knows something of viruses, too! Kohntark takes over as
technical editor and he's got some ideas that are sure to
keep you glued for future issues. Welcome aboard fellows!
>>VIRUS DISINFO: The Crypt Newsletter staff has noticed with
some amusement the passing off of large numbers of P/S-MPC
hacks as complete virus collections. One which we've seen
contains 500 files, all essentially ICE'd copies of a
P/S-MPC generated virus which doesn't work. Some of these have
crept into collections by "respectable" researchers, too, even
showing up in some of the UseLess Net, er, we mean the UseNet
news groups. Some sample names are the FEGUG, FEDAx, and JAXX
series, to name just a few.
IN THIS ISSUE: EXTRA NOTES
Included in this issue of the newsletter is the Sterculius virus.
All the analysis needed is included with its source code.
In addition, you will find Kohntark's Tunneling Toolkit - an
object kernel which can be linked to DOS viruses. This confers,
at its simplest, the ability for the virus to pass through
most commercial and freeware virus activity filters completely
undetected, by returning the original address for DOS's Interrupt
21h to the virus, no matter the layers of software protection
installed.
The demonstrator virus, YB-1, is minimally network aware and is
supplied pre-linked with the toolkit and the Trident Polymorphic
Encryptor 1.4, for comparison purposes.
You will also find a stand-along demonstration program which
illustrates the action of the toolkit object by itself.
Viruses equipped with the toolkit object file also blind
F-Prot-style heuristic scanning, by dint of the toolkit's recursive
code. This gives the reader a change to safely play
around with a slow, tunneling virus - in this case, a direct
action infector which is confined to a single directory.
The toolkit is designed so that it can be added to even the
most primitive of overwriting viruses.
More notes on the Kohntark Tunneling Toolkit are supplied
with the separate file KRTT.DOC.
The viruses and code supplied in this issue presuppose a
minimal knowledge of replicating and potentially damaging
code. If jargon like "virus activity filter" is still
Greek to you, it is likely that you will not get much
enjoyment from the code samples; if you persist in working
with them completely blind, install a safety belt, i.e,
backup your valuable files. If you don't, the viruses may
escape into your system and cause trivial, but nontheless
quite annoying (depending upon your temperament), damage.
Sterculius virus infected files can easily be tagged by using a
good disk/file text-searching program to locate instances
of the string "STERCULIUS." Locating unencrypted copies
of the tunneling virus, YB, can be located in the same
manner by searching for "YB-1." Locating TridenT-encrypted
copies of the tunnelling virus can be more problemmatical
if you have NO experience with any of the common anti-virus
checksumming programs.
*CAVEAT EMPTOR*
What is the Crypt Newsletter? The Crypt Newsletter is an electronic
document which delivers deft satire, savage criticism, feature
news, media analyses, book reviews and more on topics of interest
to the editor and the computing public. The Crypt Newsletter
also reviews anti-virus and security software and republishes
digested news of note to users of such. The Crypt Newsletter
ALSO supplies analysis and complete source code to many computer
viruses made expressly for the newsletter. Source codes and DEBUG
scripts of these viruses can corrupt - quickly and irreversibly -
the data on an IBM-compatible microcomputer - particularly when
handled imperfectly. Ownership of The Crypt Newsletter can damage
your reputation, making you unpopular in heavily institutionalized
settings, rigid bureaucracy or environments where unsophisticated,
self-important computer user groups cohabit.
Files included in this issue:
CRPTLT.R18 - this electronic document
STERCULI.ASM - source code to STERCULIUS virus
STERCULI.SCR - DEBUG scriptfile for STERCULIUS sample
TINY-134.ASM - Vesselin Bontchev's disassembly of one of
the TINY viruses
KOH.SCR - DEBUG scriptfile for Computer Virus Development's
Quarterly KING OF HEARTS virus
KRTTDEMO.* - files related to the tunneling toolkit demo
KRTT41.DOC - documentation for the tunneling toolkit
KRTT41.SCR - scriptfile to recreate the tunneling toolkit
object
YB-x.ASM - source listings to YB-x viruses
YB-x.SCR - DEBUG scriptfile for YB viruses
To assemble programs in the newsletter directly from scriptfiles,
copy the MS-DOS program DEBUG.EXE to your work directory and
type:
DEBUG <*.scr
where *.scr is the scriptfile of interest included in this issue.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
So you like the newsletter? Maybe you want more? Maybe you
want to meet the avuncular Urnst Kouch in person! You can
access him at ukouch@delphi.com, as well as at Crypt InfoSystems:
818-683-0854/14.4.
Other fine BBS's which stock the newsletter are:
MICRO INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES 1-805-251-0564
THE HELL PIT 1-708-459-7267
MONDO GORDO! 1-615-791-8050
OKLAHOMA INSTITUTE FOR VIRUS RESEARCH 1-405-634-4866
DRAGON'S DEN 1-215-882-1415
RIPCO ][ 1-312-528-5020
AIS 1-304-480-6083
CYBERNETIC VIOLENCE 1-514-385-9539
THE BLACK AXIS/VA. INSTITUTE OF VIRUS RESEARCH 1-804-599-4152
UNPHAMILIAR TERRITORY 1-602-PRI-VATE
THE OTHER SIDE 1-512-618-0154
DARK COFFIN 1-215-966-3576
DIGITAL DECAY 1-714-871-2057
THE COMPLETE SOLUTION 1-707-459-9058
*********************************************************************
Editorial content within the Crypt Newsletter is (c)opyrighted by
Urnst Kouch and Crypt InfoSystems News Services, Inc. 1993, unless
otherwise noted. Republishing it without prior consent is graceless
and corrupt. Ask first.
*********************************************************************
