[117483] in Cypherpunks
IP: Big Brother Eyes You Through Windows - Cryptonym
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Fri Sep 3 22:16:55 1999
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Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 21:49:39 -0400
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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--- begin forwarded text
From: "Dan S" <ds1999@crosswinds.net>
To: "isml" <isml@onelist.com>
Subject: IP: Big Brother Eyes You Through Windows - Cryptonym
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 20:33:36 -0400
Sender: owner-ignition-point@precision-d.com
Reply-To: "Dan S" <ds1999@crosswinds.net>
>From http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/99/135826.html
-
Big Brother Eyes You Through Windows - Cryptonym
By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A.,
03 Sep 1999, 4:43 PM CST
Imagine this scenario: While the US Justice Department tries to convince
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] holds undue
sway over the software and Internet market, the National Security Agency
(NSA) is begging Justice to cool it because the government's electronic
spies are using Microsoft's Windows operating system to watch 90 percent of
the nation while they're on their computers.
That's what the NSA is doing - if you buy the line from Cryptonym.
Cryptonym is a North Carolina-based software company that today said the NSA
can gain access to users' security functions on most Windows operating
systems.
Cryptonym Chief Scientist Andrew Fernandes told Newsbytes that he was
working through the coding innards of the security systems for WindowsNT4
when he discovered two security keys within - one for the company's use, and
one labeled "_NSAKEY."
"It... begs the question why they used the term `_NSAKEY,'" Fernandes said.
"Those three letters only mean one thing to anyone who works in
cryptography."
Microsoft, for its part, has said in published news reports that the second
key has nothing to do with the NSA, and is not being used to tap into
individuals' or business' private affairs. One Microsoft spokesman told the
Associated Press that Fernandes's claim is "completely false."
Fernandes said that he also has discovered the second key in Windows 95, 98
and 2000.
"They (may) be telling the truth but all of a sudden my warm fuzzy feeling
about them is gone," he said. "I say that's a bald-faced lie."
Microsoft officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment. The NSA,
for its part, accepts questions from the press only via fax instead of over
the phone, and was unavailable for comment.
"I'm not saying that the key belongs to the NSA," Fernandes added. "I'm
saying that the NSA in some way was involved with the key. Microsoft may not
have even wanted to do it, but everyone has to tango with the NSA if they
want to export their stuff."
One possible result of the situation is that the NSA, at least through
Windows, can ensure that exports of strong encryption cannot happen.
Newsbytes notes that the Commerce Department promulgates the rules for
exporting technology products, including the rules that limit the export of
strong encryption controls. But the NSA, which always has insisted on
limiting strong encryption exports, reviews all export applications.
Specifically, Fernandes and Cryptonym said in a statement, Windows uses
cryptographic public keys to verify the integrity of a CryptoAPI
(application programming interface) component before using it. When
Fernandes used the WindowsNT4 Service Pack 5, he debugged the public key
number, which revealed that the NSA can load cryptographic API services onto
Windows computers without authorization.
Fernandes also said that he has developed a program to disable the key,
though he stressed that he is not trying to "reverse engineer" Microsoft
source code.
He added that it is unlikely that the NSA would use this potential backdoor
to spy on individual users, "but if I'm the Deutsche Bundesbank, even though
it doesn't blow a hole open in Windows, it... makes it easier."
Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .
16:43 CST
(19990903/WIRES TOP, ONLINE, LEGAL, BUSINESS, PC/)
--
Dan S
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--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
