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CRYPT NEWSLETTER 18 -=Aug-Sept 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. MITRE 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 has 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 tunneling 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. *********************************************************************