From: ichudov@manifold.algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home) Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet,soc.culture.russian,news.groups,alt.security.pgp Subject: Re: About the right to be anonymous (was: Re: WHO WILL BE.....) Date: 9 Mar 1996 00:38:51 GMT Organization: Bool Sheet Software Lines: 123 Message-ID: <4hqjur$6hm@mercury.galstar.com> References: <4h8tem$ljr@kirin.wwa.com> <4h9ven$i0k@aphex.direct.ca> <4hn50g$ns1@news.bu.edu> <12345vlad6789@petersen.com> Reply-To: ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov) NNTP-Posting-Host: manifold.algebra.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: mercury.galstar.com soc.culture.soviet:122839 soc.culture.russian:32721 news.groups:181544 alt.security.pgp:47372 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Date: Fri Mar 8 18:43:18 CST 1996 Subject: Re: About the right to be anonymous (was: Re: WHO WILL BE.....) Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet,soc.culture.russian,news.groups,alt.security.pgp Vladimir Petersen (vlad@usenet.net) wrote: [TO THE READERS OF alt.security.pgp: we are discussing a proposed news group soc.culture.russian.moderated and the methods of authentification of posters, including peudonymous posters] * All this "anti-troll campaigne" was started by Peter Vorobieff (at least * I've got his name right this time) who really got what he deserved. As * to "wish to know who they are talking to", I can say, that I (and anyone * else) can dial an ISP and open a trial account under any name. That's * when the whole idea of not letting SCRM posters use nicknames and * aliases becomes senseless. Or would the moderators not limit themselves * to just emailing users and fingering them but also start checking phone * books and calling telcos operators for area codes to check who's who? There is no such idea not to let SCRM posters use nicknames. Such use of nicknames (trolls, if you want) is definitely encouraged. Moreover, the robomod that I wrote will help these trolls identify themselves with nicknames and PGP sign their messages. This will ensure that a troll created by person X cannot be impersonated by a person Y without X's consent. This is a significant improvement over the current situation. Another improvement is that impersonation of other posters will become much harder. If you simply want to create a troll and do not care about others impersonating your troll, just send yur submissions to scrm@algebra.com. Of course, if you want us not to find you, you should use fakemail and/or anonymous remailers. Look at Internet Resources/You are about to be fired... from my home page to find out more about anonymous remailers and how to use them (and how NOT to use them). Now comes a more interesting part: it is rather obvious that other people can also send us fakemail sign it with your nickname, and write something that you would not approve. There is nothing good about it. How you can protect your nickname from being used by others? Here's my solution that you can criticize. Suppose that you, Vladimir Petersen, want to post as =BORG= , but do not want me and anyone else to know your real email address. Here's what will happen: 1. You send an email to scrm-admin@algebra.com, asking me to create a nickname for you. You send me your nickname (=BORG= for example), and your public PGP key. Of course you send it to me via an anonymous remailer so that I cannot find out your return address. Somehow you have to convince me that behind this anonymous request there really is Petersen and not, say, Peter Vorobieff who wants to use your name. I am going to be rather relaxed about it, at least in the beginning. If a nickname is completely new for our group, there is no danger of impersonation and I am not going to check anything - will just create it. Your main user ID in the PGP key must be exactly as the nickname that you want - that is "=BORG= ". 2. I add your PGP key to the robomod's public keyring. You are set up. 3. When you feel like posting something, simply write a message, sign it with PGP, and send it to scrm@algebra.com (address for submissions) via an anonymous remailer. 4. When robomoderator receives a PGP signed message, it verifies the signature. If verification fails, message is rejected, period. If verification succeeds, addresses in the header are rewritten in the following way: o Address set in the From: field is stored in X-Origin: field. o From: field is set to the main user ID in the PGP key o Reply-To: field is set to [possibly overriden in the header block] Reply-To:. If it is not present, it is set to the address in the original From: field. This way, regardless of the way you send us anonymous messages, your name in the From: field will always be =BORG= . Without this rewriting, From: field would usually be meaningless and useess. Also, such rewriting prevents messing up return addresses of people with valid emails, and also prevents some subtle impersonation attacks. This feature will save many of you a lot of money: for example, I am sure that KACCAHDPA@aol.com is one of the regulars here. He/she had to spend $9.95 to get this AOL account for trolling. With the new implementation of impersonation, s/he could do this trolling from his/her real email account, with the use of anonymous remailers, not spending a single cent. I have written a more or less complete specification of the robomoderator (which actually works but lacks some important features) and put it on my www page. I will announce the URL soon, for your review. - -- - Igor. SCS&R Yellow Pages: http://www.algebra.com/~ichudov/index.html For public PGP key, send email to ichudov+key@algebra.com For SCRM Charter and ballot, email to russian-cfv-request@netagw.com The number of idiots on the Internet has reached the critical mass. It's no longer possible to get anything useful out of any unmoderated newsgroup or a mailing list. -- Who'd you think? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMUDUNcJFmFyXKPzRAQGAvAP/XmqzFyIpVfUyDH0r46bvTIRasMJb9nx5 C+AXymZZ9oeac/no62Q8PXoLDww0NzDE+PL9WGaX3Wh8uvfJlWU5KfaEw4Tkkz5z A54LYvpjPzmuryDQ49t10+yfqXkUzkKbI0AelFQS5rghPUVorTlfX/RMaxMWNTuW 2xkwm/sJCJU= =fkZ1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- - Igor. SCS&R Yellow Pages: http://www.algebra.com/~ichudov/index.html For public PGP key, send email to ichudov+key@algebra.com For SCRM Charter and ballot, email to russian-cfv-request@netagw.com "Hitherto the philosophers have merely interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."....Karl Marx