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-
- Computer underground Digest Sun Jan 4, 1997 Volume 9 : Issue 02
- ISSN 1004-042X
-
- Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu)
- News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu)
- Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
- Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
- Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
- Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
- Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
- Ian Dickinson
- Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest
-
- CONTENTS, #9.02 (Sun, Jan 4, 1997)
- File 1--Re: FBI Law & Enforcement Bulletin gulled by 'Net joke (fwd)
- File 2--The First 10 Seconds After The Big Bang
- File 3--Re: File 3--EDITORIAL: Troubles On The Net...
- File 4--Re: "News.groups reform"
- File 5--Teen Takes on CYBERsitter (From NetAction Notes #10)
- File 6--CWD--Howling at the Moon
- File 7--The CyberSitter Diaper Change, from The Netly News
- File 8--[krb5] krb5 v1.0 is released (fwd)
- File 9--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 13 Dec, 1996)
-
-
- CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
- THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 12:18:48 -0600
- From: jthomas2@SUN.SOCI.NIU.EDU(Jim Thomas)
- Subject: File 1--Re: FBI Law & Enforcement Bulletin gulled by 'Net joke (fwd)
-
- Original source comp.virus newsgroup:
- From George Smith (crypt@sun.soci.niu.edu)
-
- ----------------
-
- In article <0001.01IDI7A9OVTK72PNOH@csc.canterbury.ac.nz you write:
- From the pages of Crypt Newsletter 40:
-
- Most wanderers of the Internet are familiar with the running
- joke concerning computer viruses with names of celebrities, politicians
- or institutions.
-
- The names and satirical content evoke a momentary smile or groan.
-
- For example:
-
- "Gingrich" randomly converts word processing files into
- legalese often found in contracts. Victims can combat this virus
- by typing their names at the bottom of infected files, thereby
- signing them, as if signing a contract.
-
- "Lecture" deliberately formats the hard drive, destroying all
- data, then scolds the user for not catching it.
-
- "Clinton" is designed to infect programs, but it eradicates
- itself when it cannot decide which program to infect.
-
- "SPA" examines programs on the hard disk to determine whether
- they are properly licensed. If the virus detects illegally copied
- software, it seizes the computer's modem, automatically dials
- 911, and asks for help.
-
-
- However, editors and writers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
- Law and Enforcement Bulletin, published monthly out of the organization's
- training academy in Quantico, Virginia, apparently think they are real.
-
- Writing in the December issue of the magazine, David L. Carter, Ph.D.,
- and Andra J. Katz, Ph.D., respectively professors at Michigan State and
- Wichita State, cite them as real examples of "insidious" new computer
- viruses in the magazine's feature article entitled "Computer Crime: An
- Emerging Challenge for Law Enforcement."
-
- The authors seem to genuinely believe these computer viruses are in
- circulation, even to the point of citing the "Clinton" joke
- again in an paragraph attempting to explain the motivations of
- virus-writing, would-be system saboteurs.
-
- "Some employees could be motivated to infect a computer with a
- virus simply for purposes of gamesmanship. In these cases, the
- employees typically introduce a virus to play with the system
- without intending to cause permanent damage, as in the case of
- the 'Clinton' virus."
-
- Put in perspective, this is similar to reading a scientific
- paper on the behavior of elephants and suddenly running across a
- section that straightforwardly quotes from some elephant jokes as
- proof of what pachyderms really do when wandering the African veldt.
-
- Alert reader Joel McNamara hipped Crypt News to this Law & Enforcement
- Bulletin gem and wrote:
-
- "The two researchers with the Dr. in front of their names seem to be
- totally clueless that this was a tongue-and-cheek joke that is still
- floating around the 'Net. If they did know it was humor, they made no
- effort to inform readers - [readers] I highly doubt are technically
- adept enough to recognize it.
-
- "It's really telling that the world's lead law enforcement agency
- allows these types of inaccuracies to be widely distributed to police
- departments and agencies.
-
- "Unfortunately, to me this is another example of the credibility
- problem the FBI has when it comes to dealing with computer related
- issues."
-
- Neither authors nor editors of the Law and Enforcement Bulletin could
- be immediately reached for comment.
-
- The FBI's curious article can be found off the FBI home page on
- the Web:
-
- http://www.fbi.gov/leb/dec961.txt .
-
- This and the usual tales of computer-mediated intrigue, crime, shame and
- corporate assholio will be up for grabs in Crypt News 40, posted on my
- page sometime between Christmas and the coming of the new year.
-
- George Smith
- http://www.soci.niu.edu/~crypt
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 19:20:12 -0500
- From: PJNeal4176@AOL.COM
- Subject: File 2--The First 10 Seconds After The Big Bang
-
- The first 10 seconds after the big bang.
-
- A recient piece on The News Hour With Jim Lehrer (December 25,
- 1996) discussed the Internet, the past year and how it was
- affected by the Internet, and the growth of the Internet. The
- moderator was joined by Cliff Stoll, writer, astornomoer; A
- representative of Amazon.Com, a Mr. Beesos; Steven Levy, writer;
- and another women, who I, with much embarrassment, can not
- remember the name of and she was possibly the most intelligent
- and level minded person in the group.
-
- The host started out talking about pornography and the
- Internet, and the woman conveyed the fact that porn was also in
- the bookstores and on street coroners, and people could get it
- there. The host, in agreement, stated that it was on the
- Internet, but not thrust over the modem and onto peoples laps.
- She agreed.
-
- Next, the host started talking to Mr. Levy, and when he was
- about 10 seconds into his response, interrupted him to ask what
- E-Mail was (for those people who were unfamilure of the term...)
- I would say that was more for people who have been living under a
- rock for the last year plus.
-
- Mr. Stoll, a man who's work has taken him from the leading edge
- of technology, to the point where he is now: Left out to
- technologically die. He is now criticizing the Internet, what
- can be found on it, and what it is used for. (Because I can't
- fully portray Stolls views, I would suggest you read his book,
- Silicon Snake Oil, ISBN 0-385-4193-7)
-
- Mr. Beesos, the rep from Amazon.Com (www.amazon.com) was, in my
- view, not really needed. He seemed to distract from the main
- idea, and only offered a view into the business side of the
- Internet.
-
- One good conversation was started on the CDA, and the
- governments attempts to control free speach and the Internet. I
- feel that if the government is going to play with fire, they had
- better be prepared to be burnt.
-
- All in all, I feel that the News Hour embarrassed themselves
- and tarnished their reputations with this story, and needs to try
- harder. I will be entering the work force in a few years, and I
- hope to work in a technology-based company. If the masses fear
- this technology, which will come about from shotty reporting, I
- fear that I will not have any technology left to work with.
-
- I welcome any comments to my E-Mail address, and I will respond
- to them in full. pjneal4176@aol.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 00:26:23 +0000
- From: Joe Clark <jclark@supernet.net>
- Subject: File 3--Re: File 3--EDITORIAL: Troubles On The Net...
-
- > For instance, the Philadelphia Inquirer's article goes on to say
- > "In an ongoing investigation that has produced 80 arrests and 66
- > convictions over the last three years, the FBI last week raided the
- > homes of Internet users suspected of downloading child pornography
- > in 20 cities in its crackdown on kiddie porn that is being
- > transmitted via online services and the Internet." And for that
- > effort, I must say that this is one good thing that the government
- > is doing in respect to the Internet.
-
- I'm not sure how much of a benefit these public servants have
- provided us. I think that same "Inkwire" article compared the 'net
- community to a small country (40-50 million, I think?). One has to
- wonder how the arrest rate for this horrific crime spree -- what's
- that, 0.0002%? -- compares with that of the offline population. As
- is often the case, law enforcement goes after the high-visibility
- stuff because that keeps the public off their backs and makes great
- fodder for budget requests.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Rich Graves <rcgraves@IX.NETCOM.COM>
- Subject: File 4--Re: "News.groups reform"
- Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 23:39:48 -0800
-
- CU Digest #8.84 carried an article by Stanton McCandlish to which my
- response can be summarized as:
-
- YHBT.
-
- HAND.
-
- Stanton completely misunderstands Chris Stone's proposal for news.groups
- reform, its context, its prospects, and the reasons Paul Kneisel posted
- it to Cu Digest.
-
- It is always sad when a respected net.personality betrays his wilful
- ignorance. Had Stanton visited news.groups, he would have known that
- Chris Stone's proposal had been retracted weeks before Paul posted it to
- Cu Digest; that Russ's alternative proposals are the subject of healthy
- discussion; that Paul's posting of Chris's proposal is best viewed in
- the context of unreasonable personal attacks on Chris Stone; and that
- Paul Kniesel doesn't exactly share Stanton's views on the
- rec.music.white-power troll.
-
- Had Stanton had an advanced level of familiarity with Chris Stone, he
- would have recognized his self-deprecatory sarcasm, where appropriate.
-
- This thread is an excellent demonstration of the folly and danger of
- blind-forwarding articles where they are likely to be taken totally out
- of context, and where the author is unlikely to respond.
-
- As a further demonstration, I'll post Stanton's article to news.groups,
- where I expect it to be ridiculed quite severely. I am also Cc'ing this
- post to Stanton prior to publication in Cu Digest, a courtesy he
- apparently did not extend to Chris Stone.
-
- If you want to discuss news.groups, I would suggest, well, news.groups.
-
- >It would have been easy for me to just ignore this whole proposition,
- >since it will never fly and I have better things to do.
-
- With this sentence I agree. You have a lot of things to do; please don't
- make a fool of yourself, because I know you're not.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 00:24:47 -0800 (PST)
- From: Audrie Krause <akrause@igc.apc.org>
- Subject: File 5--Teen Takes on CYBERsitter (From NetAction Notes #10)
-
- Source - NetAction Notes No. 10
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Published by NetAction Issue No. 10 December 21, 1996
- Repost where appropriate. Copyright and subscription info at end of message.
-
- ~~~ Teen Takes On CYBERsitter
-
- For the past couple of months, I have been corresponding with Bennett
- Haselton, the 18-year-old founder of Peacefire.org, which is a teen
- cyber-rights organizing project on the Web <http://www.peacefire.org>. The
- average age of Peacefire's membership is 15. Bennett is a junior at
- Vanderbilt University, where he is majoring in computer science and math.
-
- I met Bennett in cyberspace when he contacted me to ask what I thought about
- the IGC and NOW Web sites <http://www.igc.org> and <http://www.now.org>
- being blocked by CYBERsitter, a software program marketed by Solid Oak
- Software as a way to "protect" children from pornography on the Internet.
- Along with several other activists, I offered advice and encouragement to
- Bennett in drafting a letter of protest from representatives of the
- political and advocacy organizations whose Web sites were being blocked.
-
- When company officials learned that Bennett had posted information critical
- of CYBERsitter on the Peacefire Web site, they responded to his
- communication by suggesting he "Get a Life" and "hang out at the mall with
- the other kids." When that didn't discourage him, Solid Oak Software
- blocked Peacefire's domain and threatened to sue him.
-
- Bennett's experience is a good example of how activists can use the Internet
- for rapid mobilization around an issue.
-
- After Bennett notified me that a story about his dilemma was published by
- HotWired, <http://www.wired.com/news/story/901.html> I posted an alert about
- his predicament to several discussion lists that focused on cyberspace
- censorship and cyber-rights issues. Not long after the alert went out,
- activists from all over the United States began sending E-mail letters of
- protest to Solid Oak Software CEO Brian Milburn <bmilburn@solidoak.com>.
- The letters ran the gamut from politely-worded criticism to flames.
-
- Meanwhile, Bennett contacted attorneys at the ACLU, <http://www.aclu.org>
- the Electronic Privacy Information Center, <http://www.epic.org> and the
- Electronic Frontier Foundation <http://www.eff.org>. Mike Godwin of EFF
- quickly assured Bennett that he would represent him in the event Solid Oak
- followed through with the threatened lawsuit. And Ann Beeson invited
- Peacefire to participate as a plaintiff in the ACLU's challenge to New York
- state's version of the Communications Decency Act.
-
- Could this level of support have been mobilized as quickly without the
- Internet? Perhaps -- but it isn't likely. Free speech advocates rallied to
- the cause quickly because a community of people with an interest in the
- issue were already connected online through E-mail discussion and alert lists.
-
- Free speech advocates are ahead of the curve on using the Internet for
- activism because they organized around the unsuccessful effort to defeat
- enactment of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) provision of the
- Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996. But activists working on other issues
- are quickly catching up. E-mail discussion and alert lists are one of the
- most powerful tools available for mobilizing support. And as more people go
- online, it will become an even more important tool for organizing and outreach.
-
- As for Bennett, who had just turned 18 when Solid Oak threatened to sue him,
- speaking out about CYBERsitter has been a lesson in real-world politics.
-
- Bennett credits online news reports by Brock Meeks and Declan McCullough,
- and Jon Katz's article in Wired magazine on the rights of children in
- cyberspace, for sparking his interest in CYBERsitter and other blocking
- software programs.
-
- "Our organization was not founded on the principle of attacking blocking
- software," he told me when I asked what he had learned from the experience.
- "We started out as some lame 'young people for freedom of speech on the
- Internet' type of thing, and even someone on fight-censorship (an online
- discussion list) referred to us as a 'junior EFF' once -- I think meaning it
- as a compliment."
-
- When the CYBERsitter issue came up, Peacefire's members were asked to speak
- up if they didn't want to see the organization move in that direction.
-
- "In the end," Bennett said, "when we discovered the *kind of sites* that
- were blocked by Cyber Patrol and CYBERsitter, most members were convinced
- that more should be said publicly against this type of software."
-
- Thanks in large measure to Solid Oak's astonishingly belligerent response to
- this teen cyberspace activist, much more *has* been said.
-
- ================
-
- For more information about NetAction, contact Audrie Krause:
- E-mail: akrause@igc.org * Phone: (415) 775-8674 * Web: http://www.netaction.org
- Or write to: NetAction 601 Van Ness Ave., No. 631 San Francisco, CA 94102
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 11:49:41 -0800 (PST)
- From: "Brock N. Meeks" <brock@well.com>
- To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
- Subject: File 6--CWD--Howling at the Moon
-
-
- CyberWire Dispatch // Copyright (c) 1996 // December 20
-
- Jacking in from the "Your Agenda is Showing" Port:
-
- Washington -- It's a long held maxim that technology is "agenda
- neutral." Until now.
-
- As an earlier Dispatch investigation proved, the so-called "blocking
- software" industry, praised for enabling parents, teachers and
- corporations to block porn from being sucked into the computers of those
- trolling the Web, often comes with a shrink-wrapped, encrypted agenda in
- the form of the database of web sites and newsgroups these programs
- actually block.
-
- Porn sites aren't the only ones blocked. Sites with decided political
- or activist agendas, such as the National Organization for Women (NOW)
- or animal rights groups, also are blocked. Trouble is, these blocking
- software programs don't make this known to the user. For some
- companies, shedding a spotlight on their underlying agenda, makes them
- sweat bullets or foam at the ascii mouth. Such is the case with Brian
- Milburn, president of Solid Oak Software, developer of an insipidly
- named blocking program called "Cybersitter."
-
- When confronted with his agenda ridden software, Milburn isn't shy about
- it, indeed, he was outright indignant when he originally told Dispatch:
- "If NOW doesn't like it, tough... We have not and will not bow to any
- pressure from any organization that disagrees with or philosophy."
-
- So when Bennett Haselton decided to put a sharp edge on this subject by
- focusing on Cybersitter with laser like precision, Milburn went off the
- charts.
-
- Milburn wrote to Media3, the ISP that houses Haselton's website
- <www.peacefire.org>, saying he was adding the entire domain of Media3 to
- the Cybersitter blocking database, in order to keep anyone using his
- company's product from gaining access to Haselton's article.
-
- Milburn ranted to Media3 that Haselton had made it "his mission in life
- to defame our product" exhibiting "extreme immaturity," by "routinely"
- publishing names of sites blocked by Cybersitter. Milburn claimed that
- Haselton may have "illegally reversed engineered" the Cybersitter
- database. Milburn has threatened legal action. Haselton, however, found a
- white knight. After hearing about Milburn's actions, Mike Godwin, legal
- counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, decided to represent him.
-
- In an Email to Wired News correspondent Rebecca Vesely, who wrote about
- Milburn's beef with Haselton, Milburn said he was swamped with
- "geek-mail" from Wired News' "loyal following of pinhead idiots."
- Milburn characterized Haselton, "an aspiring felon" and said that he had
- confirmation that Haselton was the "ghost writer" for the original
- Dispatch article that broke the story of the hidden agendas in blocking
- software.
-
- All this bluster over Haselton, an 18-year-old with too much time on his
- hands. If right about now you're thinking that Milburn should pick on
- someone his own size, well, he's already "been there, done that" and got
- his ass kicked in the process.
-
- You see, after the first Dispatch article, Milburn sent us a
- saber-rattling Email. His Aug. 15th Email claimed that "your willful
- reverse engineering and subsequent publishing of software code is a
- clear violation" of copyright law. And although he claimed he was sure
- he could win a case in civil court, he was instead seeking "felony
- criminal prosecution" by going to the FBI with his beef.
-
- I referred Milburn to my lawyers at Baker & Hostetler, who promptly
- pointed out that Dispatch hadn't been the one to hack the cybersitter
- database. Further, our article was "protected by the full force of the
- First Amendment," our lawyers said.
-
- And because Dispatch only published "fragments" of the Cybersitter
- database (a word used first by Milburn in his own threatening letter),
- such publication "fits squarely within the fair use provisions" of the
- copyright act, our lawyers reminded Milburn.
-
- Finally, Milburn was left to chew on this: "If you persist in accusing
- [Dispatch] falsely of copyright infringement and if you proceed with
- your ill-conceived threat to encourage the FBI to commence activities...
- you should understand that, unless the information you provide is
- accurate and complete, you and your firm may be incurring liability of
- your own."
-
- Not a peep has been heard from Milburn since he received that letter,
- until he decided to pick on the kid.
-
- Milburn is apparently operating in some alternative reality. His
- so-called "confirmed sources" about Haselton "ghost writing" our
- original story are utterly false.
-
- Haselton had nothing to do with our article. Dispatch obtained the
- cracked code of Cybersitter and the other programs we mentioned from an
- entirely different source. Haselton did nothing but build on the work
- of our original story, but never wrote a single word of the article nor did
- he provide us with the hacked databases.
-
- All of Milburn's heartburn has me confused. Rather than try and slay
- Haselton, he should pay him for the right to reprint his article and
- findings. Milburn makes no apologies for his agenda; indeed, he is
- proud that one of his major distributors is "Focus on the Family" a
- conservative Christian organization.
-
- And for people that brook with the conservative, straight-arrow family
- values ideals that Focus on the Family advocates, Cybersitter is the
- perfect fit. Indeed, this is the free market working at its best.
- Products spring up in direct response to demand. Cybersitter fits that
- model for a particular segment of the society. You may not like it; I
- certainly wouldn't use a product with this built in agenda, but nobody
- is making us buy it.
-
- You would think that Milburn would eat up such "negative" press and wear
- it like a badge of honor. But he is too petty; too small minded. And
- when he discovers that Haselton did nothing more than run Cybersitter
- through its paces, much the same way that a reviewer for computer
- magazine might, and then report the findings, he'll have nobody left to
- harass. I hope he doesn't have a dog he can kick...
-
- Have a Merry Christmas, Mr. Milburn. Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men.
-
- Meeks out...
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 12:53:58 -0800 (PST)
- From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
- Subject: File 7--The CyberSitter Diaper Change, from The Netly News
-
- Source - fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
-
- [From this morning's Netly News. Check out the HTML version of the article
- at netlynews.com for links to the threatening letters, etc. --Declan]
-
- The Netly News
- http://netlynews.com/
- December 20, 1996
-
- The CyberSitter Diaper Change
- By Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
-
- Brian Milburn is angry. The president of Solid Oak Software,
- makers of the CyberSitter Net-filtering software, has seen his
- company's product come under heavy fire this year. Its offense?
- Critics say that CyberSitter has reached far beyond its mandate of
- porn-blocking and instead has censored innocuous, even invaluable web
- sites.
-
- I admit I'm one of its critics. In a CyberWire Dispatch that
- Brock Meeks and I published in July, we revealed that the censorware
- bans such places as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
- Commission and the online home of the National Organization for Women.
- Our Dispatch showed the world -- or at least our readers -- that the
- makers of CyberSitter have a clear political agenda. The article
- prompted follow-ups in CyberTimes and the National Law Journal and an
- editorial in the Washington Post with an exchange of letters to the
- editor between a NOW executive and a representative of Focus on the
- Family, a conservative group that markets CyberSitter.
-
- To Milburn's mind, our act of revealing the truth about his
- company's product was, literally, criminal. In August, he told us that
- he had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a criminal
- investigation into the publication of our article. He was particularly
- upset with one paragraph that included a fragment of his database
- demonstrating that CyberSitter expressly bans info about gay society
- and culture.
-
- He wrote: "Your willful reverse engineering and subsequent
- publishing of copyrighted source code is a clear violation of US
- Copyright law. While we would easily prevail in a civil court in
- seeking damages... we will seek felony criminal prosecution under 17
- USCS sect 503(a) of the Copyright Act, and are preparing documentation
- to submit with the criminal complaint to FBI [sic]."
-
- Milburn was upset because CyberSitter's database is scrambled to
- prevent kiddies from grabbing addresses of porn sites from it. It's
- lightweight encryption, sure, but just enough to frustrate Junior. The
- scrambled database also allows Solid Oak to add and delete banned
- sites without the user's knowledge -- something that we believe is a
- dangerous practice. Now, I should point out here that neither I nor
- Brock did the actual decrypting; we had received a copy of the
- descrambled filter list from a confidential source.
-
- In any event, Dispatch's attorneys replied to Milburn, saying
- that the article was "protected by the full force of the First
- Amendment to the United States Constitution" and fell squarely within
- the copyright act's "fair use" provisions. We never heard back from
- him or the FBI.
-
- But that nastygram from Milburn wasn't his last. As criticism of
- CyberSitter becomes more intense, he's stepped up his counterattacks,
- threatening legal action, blocking critics' sites, or both.
-
- Take Bennett Haselton, a college student who cobbled together a
- site called Peacefire in August. This fall he started an
- anti-CyberSitter page that listed some of the more controversial
- actions of the software.
-
- Milburn complained. On December 6 he wrote to Haselton's Internet
- provider, Media3 Technologies, and tried to persuade them to give
- Peacefire the boot. His e-mail said: "One of your subscribers has made
- it his mission in life to defame our product as he appearantly [sic]
- has a problem with parents wishing to filter their children's access
- to the internet." Another charge was that Haselton had linked to a
- copy of our Dispatch.
-
- Solid Oak then added Peacefire and Media3 to its list of blocked
- sites. To Marc Kanter, Solid Oak's marketing director, it was
- necessary. "The site directly has links to areas that have our source
- code decoded on it.... There's no reason that our users should be able
- to go to sites that effectually inactivate our program," he said.
-
- Milburn also accused Haselton of reverse-engineering CyberSitter
- to get the text of its database -- that is, of being the confidential
- source for the CyberWire Dispatch. "Reverse engineering had to have
- been done in order to get the information, and we believe Mr. Haselton
- was the one who did it," Milburn wrote.
-
- Note to Millburn: Haselton wasn't our source.
-
- Then there's the case of Glen Roberts. His web page giving
- instructions on how to disable CyberSitter is now banned -- as is his
- Internet service provider. That's because CyberSitter differs from its
- competitors CyberPatrol and SurfWatch, which can restrict access by
- URL; instead, CyberSitter has to block access to the entire ripco.com
- domain.
-
- So what's my problem, really? If people don't want to use
- CyberSitter or other nanny apps, they don't have to. It's voluntary.
- It's effective. It protects children, and it sure is better than the
- Communications Decency Act.
-
- I have one major objection to all of the software filters
- currently on the market: Consumers have no way of knowing what's being
- blocked. Without knowing what's on the filter list, parents can't know
- what Junior will or won't be seeing. When reporters who try to reveal
- that information are faced with potential criminal investigations, the
- press's ability to shed light on these companies is threatened.
-
- Such programs also give parents near-complete control over what
- their children can and can't read. Traditionally, kids have been able
- to browse the stacks of a library away from parental supervision. But
- when the library is online, access can be completely controlled by
- censorware. Pity the closeted gay son of homophobic parents, prevented
- by CyberSitter from accessing soc.support.youth.lesbian-gay-bi.
-
- Finally, it's a kind of intellectual bait-and-switch. The "smut
- blockers" grab power by playing to porn, then they wield it to advance
- a right-wing, conservative agenda. Family values activists would never
- have been able to pass a law that blocks as many sites as CyberSitter
- does. Besides censoring alt.censorship, it also blocks dozens of ISPs
- and university sites such as well.com, zoom.com, anon.penet.fi,
- best.com, webpower.com, ftp.std.com, cts.com, gwis2.seas.gwu.edu,
- hss.cmu.edu, c2.org, echonyc.com and accounting.com. Now, sadly, some
- libraries are using it. Solid Oak claims 900,000 registered users.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 15:42:13 -0500 (EST)
- From: "noah@enabled.com" <noah@enabled.com>
- Subject: File 8--[krb5] krb5 v1.0 is released (fwd)
-
- From -Noah
-
- ------- start of forwarded message (RFC 934 encapsulation) -------
- From--"Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@MIT.EDU>
- Date--Fri, 20 Dec 1996 12:32:00 -0500
-
- At long last, the MIT Kerberos Team is proud to announce the
- availability of MIT Kerberos V5 Release 1.0. This release includes
- everything you need to set up and use Kerberos, including:
-
- * The Kerberos server.
-
- * A full-featured Kerberos administration system, including
- support for password policies.
-
- * Secure, encrypting versions of common network utilities:
- telnet, rlogin, rsh, rcp, ftp.
-
- * All the libraries needed to integrate Kerberos security into
- new applications: GSS-API libraries, Kerberos 5 libraries,
- cryptographic algorithms, and more.
-
- This release is available both as source code and as pre-built binary
- distributions for a number of Unix platforms. To retrieve either the
- source or binary distriubtions, visit our new Kerberos web page:
- http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/index.html. (See below for
- instructions on obtaining the source distribution via FTP.)
-
- Warning: We are providing binary distributions for this release
- as a convenience to sites that are interested in experimenting with
- Kerberos for the first time, without needing to build it all from
- source. However, in general it is a very bad idea to run security
- software that you've downloaded from the net, since you have no way of
- knowing whether someone has left any "surprises" behind. If you are
- going to be using Kerberos V5 in production, we strongly recommend
- that you get the Krb5 sources and build the Krb5 distribution
- yourself."
-
- MIT Kerberos V5 1.0 has been tested on at least the following
- platforms:
-
- * Digital Unix (OSF/1) 3.2
- * Digital Unix (OSF/1) 4.0
- * HPUX 10
- * FreeBSD 2.1 (i386)
- * Netbsd 1.x (i386, m68k, and sparc)
- * Linux 2.x (i386)
- * Ultrix 4.2
- * Irix 5.3
- * AIX 3.2.5
- * SunOS 4.1
- * Solaris 2.4
- * Solaris 2.5.1
-
- The Macintosh port is now fully functional, although the UI still
- leaves much to be desired. This will be the focus of future work on
- this platform.
-
- The Windows 16 port is also fully functional, although one major (but
- obvious and easy to correct) bug crept in at the last minute. (See
- our known bugs web page for more details.) One major difference from
- the previous Beta releases is that the DLL has been renamed from
- LIBKRB5.DLL to KRB5_16.DLL. This is to avoid conflicts with the a 32
- bit version of the Krb5 DLL.
-
- Unfortunately delays with stablizing and integrating the NT release
- prevented us from shipping this functionality with the 1.0 release.
- We are making available, concurrent with the 1.0 release, an ALPHA
- snapshot (release WINNT_ALPHA1_SNAPSHOT). This should not be used in
- production, as it has several known problems:
-
- * The GSSAPI test application doesn't work, so the GSSAPI
- library has not been tested.
- * The GINA doesn't yet work.
- * Help files are not yet available
-
- The only working applications for Windows NT are the credentials
- manager and a telnet application.
-
- In addition, we are continueing to work on this release on an on-going
- basis, so if you plan to be doing any NT work, you should contact us
- at krbdev@mit.edu, so that we can more properly coordinate our work.
- NT support will be folded in to the mainline release before the next
- major release.
-
- Notes and Major Changes since Beta 7
- - ------------------------------------
-
- * We are now using the GNATS system to track bug reports for Kerberos
- V5. It is therefore helpful for people to use the krb5-send-pr
- program when reporting bugs. The old interface of sending mail to
- krb5-bugs@mit.edu will still work; however, bug reports sent in this
- fashion may experience a delay in being processed.
-
- * The default keytab name has changed from /etc/v5srvtab to
- /etc/krb5.keytab.
-
- * login.krb5 no longer defaults to getting krb4 tickets.
-
- * The Windows (win16) DLL, LIBKRB5.DLL, has been renamed to
- KRB5_16.DLL. This change was necessary to distinguish it from the
- win32 version, which will be named KRB5_32.DLL. Note that the
- GSSAPI.DLL file has not been renamed, because this name was specified
- in a draft standard for the Windows 16 GSSAPI bindings. (The 32-bit
- version of the GSSAPI DLL will be named GSSAPI32.DLL.)
-
- * The directory structure used for installations has changed. In
- particular, files previously located in $prefix/lib/krb5kdc are now
- normally located in $sysconfdir/krb5kdc. With the normal configure
- options, this means the KDC database goes in /usr/local/var/krb5kdc by
- default. If you wish to have the old behavior, then you would use a
- configure line like the following:
-
- configure --prefix=/usr/local --sysconfdir=/usr/local/lib
-
- * kshd has been modified to accept krb4 encrypted rcp connections; for
- this to work, the v4rcp program must be in the bin directory.
-
- Instructions for obtaining the release
- - --------------------------------------
-
- Via the WEB:
-
- Go to the MIT Kerberos home page at:
-
- http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www
-
- and click on the link: "Getting Kerberos from MIT".
-
- Via FTP:
-
- FTP to athena-dist.mit.edu, in /pub/kerberos. Get the file
- README.KRB5_R1.0. It will contain instructions on how to
- obtain the 1.0 release.
-
- >> <<
- >> Please report any problems/bugs/comments using krb5-send-pr <<
- >> <<
-
-
- Acknowledgements
- - ----------------
-
- Appreciation Time!!!! There are far too many people to try to thank
- them all; many people have contributed to the development of Kerberos
- V5. This is only a partial listing....
-
- Thanks to Paul Vixie and the Internet Software Consortium for funding
- the work of Barry Jaspan. This funding was invaluable for the OV
- administration server integration, as well as the 1.0 release
- preparation process.
-
- Thanks to John Linn, Scott Foote, and all of the folks at OpenVision
- Technologies, Inc., who donated their administration server for use in
- the MIT release of Kerberos.
-
- Thanks to Jeff Bigler, Mark Eichin, Marc Horowitz, Nancy Gilman, Ken
- Raeburn, and all of the folks at Cygnus Support, who provided
- innumerable bug fixes and portability enhancements to the Kerberos V5
- tree. Thanks especially to Jeff Bigler, for the new user and system
- administrator's documentation.
-
- Thanks to Doug Engert from ANL for providing many bug fixes, as well
- as testing to ensure DCE interoperability.
-
- Thanks to Ken Hornstein at NRL for providing many bug fixes and
- suggestions.
-
- Thanks to Sean Mullan and Bill Sommerfeld from Hewlett Packard for
- their many suggestions and bug fixes.
-
- Thanks to the members of the Kerberos V5 development team at MIT, both
- past and present: Jay Berkenbilt, Richard Basch, John Carr, Don
- Davis, Nancy Gilman, Sam Hartman, Marc Horowitz, Barry Jaspan, John
- Kohl, Cliff Neuman, Kevin Mitchell, Paul Park, Ezra Peisach, Chris
- Provenzano, Jon Rochlis, Jeff Schiller, Harry Tsai, Ted Ts'o, Tom Yu.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 15 Dec 1996 22:51:01 CST
- From: CuD Moderators <cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu>
- Subject: File 9--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 13 Dec, 1996)
-
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- ------------------------------
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- End of Computer Underground Digest #9.02
- ************************************
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-