paveldurov
Joined 13 years ago
Karma
85
Submissions
24
Member since
Dec 18
Recent submissions
Comment · 5 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
If you'd like to join our legal team you can reply with your résumé!
Comment · 13 years ago
Not sure hiring a US security firm is a safer approach than crowdsourcing using the power of the global community.
After all, Matasano's tptacek obviously did spend some of his time inspecting and criticizing Telegram this week. However, he overlooked the 100K vulnerability that was later discovered by a Russian guy who considers himself a newbie in cryptography.
The other reason that makes me somewhat reluctant to spend money on hiring Matasano is the recent RSA-gate (and the strange role of tptacek in it).
Comment · 13 years ago
By that logic, Linux, Chrome, Android are RIP at least a hundred times.
Comment · 13 years ago
I'm excited by the insight and modesty of this guy. I will see to it that he gets a mighty prize.
It's great to see how open software can leverage the power of the community to find weak spots and become stronger.
Comment · 13 years ago
Well, when some of this "research" you promote ends up being backdoors planted by NSA (http://reut.rs/192XWwG), one has to be cautious.
Personally, I am more comfortable with 70s algorithms like Diffie-Hellman that have known and well-researched weaknesses. The "modern" algorithms actively promoted by US security firms after 9/11 are not time-tested, to say the least.
Comment · 13 years ago
> Your problem is not your crypto. Your problem is the attitude.
OK, now I can see your point. Thank you for taking the time to reply and share advice.
Comment · 13 years ago
With all due respect, nothing can be "obvious" unless it is proven. You cannot take something for granted just because a respected cryptographer says that. Not after we learned that NSA pushes backdoors using respected firms and people in the crypto-community.
Comment · 13 years ago
The wish to broaden the contest is understandable and already taken into account http://bit.ly/1htlEod
What I was saying in the comment above, however, had nothing to do with the contest. I expressed concern about tptacek's aggressive promotion of one algorithms (branded as "modern") over the other (claimed as "anachronistic") without any substantial proof. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6941934
This is really alarming.
Comment · 13 years ago
After reading tptacek's comments in the latest thread about Telegram https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6940665 I can only agree. He insisted Telegram team should abandon its custom solution without providing any actual proof that it's vulnerable. His advice was to rely only on "modern" algorithms (mostly the ones included in "NSA Suite B Cryptography"), but he provided zero evidence why these algorithms should be more secure than the ones already in use.
Comment · 13 years ago
If the advice comes from tptacek, you should probably do the opposite. He insisted this was NOT a backdoor:
Comment · 13 years ago
Scientific approach is exactly what I'm calling for here. When a cryptographer resorts to arguments like "this algorithm won't work because it is not common/modern/accepted" without providing an exact way to break it, it doesn't sound like scientific approach to me. It's more like the religious mindset of someone who rigidly worships some limited list of tools (e.g. "NSA Suite B Cryptography") and punishes anyone who is independent enough to deviate from it.
Comment · 13 years ago
> But a modern cryptosystem ... would use a AEAD mode, like AES-GCM
But really, it is funny how rigidly you stick to NSA Suite B Cryptography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_Suite_B_Cryptography
That, your fierce battle against everything unconventional and the fact that you get emotional instead of actually proving your point makes me think some "best practices" are indeed intentionally promoted in the crypto-community (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6938622)
Disclaimer. I'm not an employee or shareholder in Telegram. I support them like I support some other non-profits like Wikimedia Foundation. As a reader here I would prefer to see an actual mathematical proof of how a certain system could be hacked instead of rhetoric like "No cryptosystem in the world would use...", "the fact that you do argue it is extraordinarily damning" or "Why? Why? Why would you do that?".
Comment · 13 years ago
Alas, I am not a cryptographer and not even a member of the Telegram team. I'm just a guy who backs Telegram financially and proposed to start their contest. I described my motives behind it here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6938622
As for your contest, I will make sure the Telegram team will have a look at it once they are awake. As far as I understand, you designed it to be similar to Telegram's contest. How do you send messages that affect traffic in real-time? How large is the prize? Is there a deadline?
Comment · 13 years ago
As mentioned at http://core.telegram.org/contestfaq if more tools to interact with the traffic are needed for the contestants to crack Telegram, they will be provided in the next contest right after 1 March, 2014. The current contest has an important practical task of deciphering traffic that is being intercepted in real time. This is the basic concern of regular users like myself (me and lots of other people in Russia had to stop using WhatsApp because of easily decipherable intercepted traffic). If Telegram proves to be robust in this respect, more tools to manipulate traffic and wider contests with similar prizes are to follow. Like all startups, this contest by Telegram starts from solving a basic but most important problem, then gradually gets more complicated in functionality and scope.
Telegram will always be interested in creating incentives for the crypto-community to check its security and provide feedback. So if you are waiting for tools to try, e.g., a MITM on Telegram and get your $200К, please stay tuned. It's @telegram on Twitter.
Impossible to succeed at this level without making a few enemies.