The DMZ - 2013-04-07

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TildalWave

00:02

@ScottPack No gummy bears? Or my favorite Teddy Floppy-Ear? That list isn't serious!

Xander

@ScottPack IIRC, Twitter messages typically get oneboxed.

Gilles

Bears, from most to least dangerous: (1) polar (2) grizzly (3) brown (4) black (5) Care (6) Build-A- (7) Chicago

Tweeted by AlshonFubawu on October 8, 2012 at 6:57 AM

@Xander yes, like this ^^^^

Scott Pack

I copy posted from twicca. Mobile stuff is a bit of a pair sometimes.

TildalWave

00:19

user image

Xander

00:31

@ScottPack Ah! Yeah, that explains it. And yes, it is.

Scott Pack

Fucking autocoreck.

Scott Pack

00:54

So. My wife posted this a few days ago. I want to point out that the last comment is from my mother.

user image

Seriously.

TildalWave

@ScottPack You should probably set her phaser on stun! :))

Scott Pack

01:10

@TildalWave I think you mean that I should set my blaster to stun.

TildalWave

@ScottPack That sound sooooo wrong! :))))

@ScottPack BTW what does MP stand for? You have medical professionals advising people to watch ST:TNG in Athens?

Scott Pack

01:41

That's how she refers to our daughter on the Intarwebs.

4 hours later…

Terry Chia

06:11

1

Q: SYN scan, determining scan vs large file upload

In a system attempting to detect SYN scans, one technique is to analyze the rate of change of (network packets sent from victim host per second). Processes such as uploading a large file would not be "detected" as belonging to the SYN scan because the rate of change would remain constant. But whe...

firewalls network-scanners

During a file upload, you only establish the TCP connection once am I right?

Just confirming before I drop an answer in.

AviD

06:42

Coffee Lovers: ran across a link to 9 coffee drinks with clever nicknames that you've probably never heard of while wandering around The Oatmeal. Pretty cool, really, but y'all gotta stop posting links to The Oatmeal.

Anyway, I noticed on that site that Kopi Luwak is no longer the most expensive coffee around. "You know we live in an interesting time when the two most expensive coffees on earth are basically crap."

Also this. SOMEBODY please get that!!

AviD

07:13

user image

3

3 hours later…

Lucas Kauffman

09:59

I saw a news article about a cure against almost all forms of cancer

then I saw it was foxnews

Polynomial

10:58

haha

the Daily Mail probably twisted it to "MIRACLE DRUG CAUSES CANCER"

2 hours later…

Scott Pack

13:11

@Lucas "Scientists claim cancer cure found. Thoroughly debunked when they announced it was not prayer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

@AviD I think that list of names is just being attempting to be clever. Half of those already have commonly existing names.

AviD

@ScottPack Perhaps. That said, I am awaiting the chance to order a "Dirty Chai" from a cute barrista. It sounds similar to a "Dirty Sanchez".

Scott Pack

Or order a black eye for the girl behind you in line.

imgur.com/a/urWoW

Wow. I also just realized those were intended to be nicknames. I seriously need more coffee.

AviD

@ScottPack which part of "Clever Nicknames" gave it away?

Scott Pack

13:27

Shut it, you.

AviD

@ScottPack haha, it took me 3 takes to figure out what that was.

Scott Pack

Also, it's finally warm enough to start opening windows.

AviD

I guess I don't do that kind of gaming enough.

Scott Pack

This is glorious

AviD

I'm just not really into LARP, I guess.

Scott Pack

13:27

I found it a bit much too.

AviD

@ScottPack Don't get me started. Its over 30C here today.

thats around 90F, for you merkins

Scott Pack

There is a dice tower where I game, but when I run I usually have a small note pad, the adventure book, and my Nexus.

AviD

weather here is crazy, between seasons. Supposed to drop 15-20C and have a rainstorm tomorrow. possible snow in some places. Day after that, back up to 30s again....

Anonymous must have hacked God's weather machine.

Scott Pack

scalialab.com/current.html

Ours is never that wild. We've just had an unusually long winter.

AviD

@ScottPack heh, OF COURSE there is an app for that.

probably one of the first ones written.

Scott Pack

13:30

App for which?

AviD

@ScottPack it's funny, winter and summer are both very well defined seasons here. never rains in the summer, never drops below 30's (except at night), and winter might be sunny but never warm (read: above 16C).

but in between, it's like dealing with a manic depressive pregnant schizophreniac.

@ScottPack GM'ing.

Scott Pack

That sucks. We're in a temperate rainforest zone, so we get gobs of rain. Usually in April/May, thunderstorms in June/July, and light rains in October/November.

@Avid For GMing I use Evernote for all of my prep, and this app for a rules reference. Pathfinder had an open license for pretty much all of the game rules but none of the fluff. play.google.com/store/apps/…

AviD

@ScottPack thunderstorms in june/july??

That is just downright confusing. Like living in Australia.

Scott Pack

Interestingly I think of August and September as the dry months

usclimatedata.com/climate.php?location=USOH0037

AviD

Not only are the seasons here so distinct, there is (almost) never any rain in the summer. There is even a dedicated word for the (easily recognizable) last rain of the season.

March/April is usually borderline, late september / October it starts again.

Scott Pack

13:40

We haven't had a "normal" weather in a few years

Last summer we rarely had nights below 70 and the days were in the 90s.

Our bedrooms are built into the roofline. It was hard top get them cool enough to even sleep comfortably.

And time for breakfast. Gentlemen.

AviD

14:00

@ScottPack Enjoy.

Speaking of which, I'm really enjoying my French Press and boutique coffees.

Scott Pack

Excellent

Terry Chia

This looks interesting: openshift.com/blogs/goodbye-powerpoint-hello-revealjs

TildalWave

14:22

G'day all! :)

@AviD re this list, can someone please enlighten me what's chai supposed to mean? I've seen it used lately as one of those hip words, but as far I can tell chai = tea, so chai tea sounds pretty redundant to me

btw, we call tea in our parts of the world čaj (pronounced... yup you guessed it: chai)

AviD

@TildalWave I believe it is a specific type of tea.

@RoryAlsop and anyone else that got the Awesome level of gift package from SE: Is your Survivor flash drive still working? Mine seems to have gone AWOL.

The media, not the drive. Everything I throw at it is reporting the drive is fine, but there is no media in the drive. Flashing blue light notwithstanding.

@TildalWave I think it's commonly used to refer to this:

Masala chai (Hindi: मसाला चाय, literally "mixed-spice tea" ) is a flavored tea beverage made by brewing black tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. Originating in South Asia, the beverage has gained worldwide popularity, becoming a feature in many coffee and tea houses. Although traditionally prepared by decoction, retail versions include tea bags for infusion, instant powdered mixtures, and concentrates. Etymology and terminology In many Eurasian languages, chai or cha is the word for tea. This comes from the Persian چای chay, which originated from the Mandarin wo...

TildalWave

@AviD I have about 20 different varieties of tea here, some are named chai (some import tea bags from the hipster Germany LOL). I honestly can't tell the difference between many of these. Plus, I really hope they don't start advertising it here as chai čaj

AviD

though I guess strictly speaking, Chai is the generic word for any tea....

TildalWave

@AviD Oh you see but that's in essence Masala tea

AviD

@TildalWave Oh, for sure. But that is the type of tea I see commonly referred to as "Chai".

TildalWave

14:31

@AviD The word chai is just how tea is called in most non-english speaking countries

AviD

I guess it's merkaner equivalent for "Hindu tea".

TildalWave

@AviD well I refer to my coffee as kava... I'm so posh :)))

Rory Alsop

@AviD yep - it is all good :-)

AviD

@TildalWave WAIT. There are more than one??

Scott Pack

@TildalWave It depends greatly.

AviD

14:32

@RoryAlsop gorramit. Any ideas how I can get the damn thing to wake back up?

Scott Pack

In the States Chai is usually marsala chai.

Rory Alsop

@AviD and @Scott - you guys haven't experienced weather until you have lived in Britain for all 18 seasons (so at least a weekend)

AviD

thought I'd pop it open, look for any loose wires and such - but no screws, its solid...

Rory Alsop

@AviD how odd

Scott Pack

I've also heard it used to describe a half/half mixture of hot (nearly boiling) milk and hot tea.

AviD

14:33

@RoryAlsop .... I get that a lot. :-(

Scott Pack

Though that version came from Kenya, so I don't know if it's British or African.

Rory Alsop

I had an old machine that sometimes separated the device from the storage in such a way that it could see that there was a device there but would assume it was zero size

TildalWave

@ScottPack So basically, if I get this right, in those countries that they call tea something different than chai, the word chai is more catchy and makes an ancient drink more fun to drink?

Scott Pack

@RoryAlsop People around here complain aout that being true as well. I give them The Look.

Rory Alsop

@ScottPack heh

AviD

14:34

@RoryAlsop I tried on 3 machines...

Scott Pack

@TildalWave mebbe

@TildalWave This may be useful

Masala chai (Hindi: मसाला चाय, literally "mixed-spice tea" ) is a flavored tea beverage made by brewing black tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. Originating in South Asia, the beverage has gained worldwide popularity, becoming a feature in many coffee and tea houses. Although traditionally prepared by decoction, retail versions include tea bags for infusion, instant powdered mixtures, and concentrates. Etymology and terminology In many Eurasian languages, chai or cha is the word for tea. This comes from the Persian چای chay, which originated from the Mandarin wo...

TildalWave

@ScottPack Well my padawan, then you'll be soon speaking my language because advertisers think it's more leet ;))))

AviD

@TildalWave See @ScottPack's rant about soda vs. pop vs. cola. Same story, really.

TildalWave

@ScottPack Oh dear, scroll a page up :))

Terry Chia

@ScottPack Deja Vu, it's like I seen that posted here before.

Scott Pack

14:35

Whatever

2

@TildalWave I'm not sure my tongue can move in the right undulations to make Slovenian sounds.

AviD

random starring FTW!

3

Scott Pack

Hell, even saying the word "Slovenian" just about causes tongue cramps.

Terry Chia

@AviD There you go you star-whore you.

AviD

putz.

TildalWave

@ScottPack We don't really break our tongues speaking it, it's just different spelling in most cases, many words are much the same tho

AviD

14:37

@ScottPack cmon, stop feeding these lines for @Adnan.

Scott Pack

@TildalWave Isn't Slovenian Slavic?

AviD

So, anybody else have any ideas how to get a flash drive to remember that it does, in fact, have a whole lotta media already inserted?

a clue, it does look like the drivers are crapped, it calls it something like "XXXX USB DRIVE"

Thomas Pornin

@AviD Have you tried rebooting ?

3

TildalWave

@ScottPack The name suggest is so and yes it predominately is, but with a lot bigger northern and western influences than most other slavic languages. Slavic actually means literate, where as nemci (the word for germans) means mutes (or, the ones that don't speak the same language)

Thomas Pornin

Sometimes it works.

AviD

14:40

ha!

Rory Alsop

@ThomasPornin hahahahaha

Terry Chia

@ThomasPornin heh.

Rory Alsop

AviD

@ThomasPornin fwiw, I've tried on at least 3 different computers

Thomas Pornin

@AviD Tried on a Linux, too ? Linux will not have any trouble related to Windows drivers.

And vice versa.

Scott Pack

14:41

@AviD Oh yeah, it's easy. When you partition it in Disk Utility there's an option to select a name.

AviD

@ThomasPornin hmm, thats true. I might give that a shot, sometime.

Thomas Pornin

Linux will also give you a relatively easy way to get the whole raw data (with dd), in case the partition structure was damaged.

Scott Pack

@TildalWave Literate in what? I'm not sure most of those wild language you people use over there count.

AviD

@ScottPack well duh, but not the name of the drive, the name of device.

TildalWave

@ScottPack we people had written word thousand of years before you people even had your language :P

AviD

14:43

It's probably a virus.

Scott Pack

@AviD I don't think your use case makes sense. Are you telling me that the name of the drive isn't what's used when it gets mounted?

Thomas Pornin

@AviD: You might want to use ddrescue or dd_rescue (not the same software at all) in case the media is damaged.

AviD

@ScottPack well, it doesnt actually get mounted. Not all the way, anyway.

Terry Chia

@TildalWave Really? :P

Scott Pack

@AviD Oh, so you've fucked up your media. See now, that's a whole different story.

2

AviD

14:44

@ThomasPornin Seems that way, yeah, I guess. Dont know how, it's been sitting on my shelf for a few months, since the last time I used it (verified).

Scott Pack

@TildalWave You're too stuck in the paste. We've evolved beyond the need for such things. We throw languages out and replace them as we see fit.

TildalWave

@TerryChia well it's at least true for English ;) But I bet your language is even a lot older in written word than ours is

Thomas Pornin

@TildalWave It depends whether you consider "we people" geographically or biologically.

There were literate people living in the area that is Slovenia today, about 2000 years before there were literate people living in that godforsaken land where @Scott currently roams.

TildalWave

@ThomasPornin well geographically, because biologically I might as well be French for all I know :)))

Scott Pack

@TildalWave Now we have Northern American, Southern American, Urban America, New Englander. We threw away plain old English when we discovered that it wasn't good enough. Just like they did with Early Modern, and they did with Middle English, and they did with Old English, and before that with Anglo-Frisian.

Thomas Pornin

14:47

Back to weather, it is currently snowing heavily here.

TildalWave

OK, OK, let's stop this I feel uncomfortable already... it started as a tease, now we're already trying to be factual LOL

Scott Pack

@ThomasPornin That's true, I don't think either the Adena or Hopewell had written language.

Thomas Pornin

@ScottPack Duh. It's all dumbed-down Sanskrit anyway.

Scott Pack

@ThomasPornin I think my father still writes in Sanskrit.

Terry Chia

@ScottPack s/my father/@RoryAlsop.

AviD

14:49

@ScottPack @RoryAlsop is probably thinking: "Pffft, Sanskrit, those kids today...."

4

Scott Pack

@TerryChia That does make sense, he'll probably revert to the alphabet or his youth.

Rory Alsop

@AviD ;-P

TildalWave

@AviD Of course, he pronounces it as sans skirt :)

Terry Chia

Hell, I bet @RoryAlsop invented the written word.

AviD

BIGGEST WORD IS BEST WORD!

Scott Pack

14:51

@AviD Size doesn't matter.

Thomas Pornin

@ScottPack For all we know, there was no written language North of the Rio Grande before the late 16th century.

AviD

Scott Pack

Everyone knows it isn't the size of the wave, it's whether or not the wave touches the boat.

@ThomasPornin True.

Rory Alsop

@TerryChia you don't need to write when no one else will be there to read...

TildalWave

@RoryAlsop how do we know you didn't have bad memory problems long before we invented our written word?

Rory Alsop

14:54

@TildalWave I can't remember

Thomas Pornin

@RoryAlsop You should have written it down.

Terry Chia

@ThomasPornin He probably forgot the script he used.

Scott Pack

@TerryChia It was probably written in TCL.

user image

2

Terry Chia

Heh, talking about Game of Thrones, I just finished the first book yesterday.

Damn, it's long.

3

Scott Pack

Did you enjoy it?

Terry Chia

14:59

Yeah it's a good read. It's interesting to see how Catelyn views Jon. Wasn't really visible in the show.

AviD

@TerryChia ... Almost too easy. Almost.

Terry Chia

@AviD Gah...

Scott Pack

@TerryChia It's amazing how much they had to cut out, eh?

AviD

@TerryChia Choking on something?

Scott Pack

@TerryChia I forget, was Tryions' big battle at The Reach in book 1?

Terry Chia

15:02

@ScottPack Yeah. But the book is 700 pages. Can't really blame them.

@ScottPack Yeah it was. They really destroyed that scene in the show.

Scott Pack

@TerryChia But also just how much couldn't reasonably be told in a visual medium.

@TerryChia That's why I was complaining about it so much last week. For the rest of the series you'll see Tyrion thinking back, or being reminded, of that battle and how obviously it affects who he becomes.

I certainly get it. They couldn't have reasonably shown that battle, both in logistics and funding. I just wish they had found a way to jump cut past it without relegating Tyrion to a clumsy oaf.

He clearly earned Tywin's respect from that incident. He never would have been sent to King's Landing otherwise.

Terry Chia

@ScottPack Have you watched the first episode of season 3 yet?

Scott Pack

Yuppers

Katie was rather lost and confused.

Terry Chia

I really did not expect Tyrion to ask Tywin for casterly rock.

Scott Pack

Depending on how early we get the kid to bed tonight I may bring up the idea of doing a pause and explain viewing. Between reading the books and watching the show I remember enough to do that.

@TerryChia That's because you haven't read past the first book. :)

Terry Chia

15:09

@ScottPack heh yeah, starting on clash of kings next.

Scott Pack

It's definitely his right, he is the legal heir.

@TerryChia The book makes it more clear how much he got screwed on the defense of King's Landing.

Terry Chia

I actually asked a question about it.

16

Q: What was Tyrion's motive in asking his father for Casterly Rock?

In the first episode in Season 3 of Game of Thrones, Tyrion had a conversation with his father, Tywin, where he demanded ownership of Casterly Rock. Given how he has generally been treated with scorn throughout the first two seasons, did he really expect Tywin to grant his request? What was his ...

a-song-of-ice-and-fire game-of-thrones

Scott Pack

All of his successes get attributed to other people and all of the failings get attributed to him.

AviD

@ScottPack But did he really expect Tywin to agree? He never seemed to care about whats right, just his own honor.

@ScottPack I thought it was pretty clear on the show, unless we're missing something else?

Terry Chia

@AviD Family name actually. He made a pretty big speech on how personal honor is irrelevant.

Scott Pack

15:11

@AviD I think he had rather reached the ass end of a decision tree.

AviD

@TerryChia ha! ultra ninja'd... +1

Scott Pack

Everything else had been stripped away from him, Tywin had (so far) managed to avoid claiming anyone as his official heir.

AviD

@TerryChia sure, call it what you will.

Scott Pack

So he really had nothing else to lose.

AviD

@ScottPack hmm, intersting. That does make sense, especially considering his fear for his life. He needed some political chip, once the Hand was taken away from him.

Scott Pack

15:13

@AviD It also would have taken him a long way away. As long as he was in the capital he was a risk to Cersei, but somewhere else....?

Terry Chia

I'm actually surprised Bronn is sticking with Tyrion. He seems like the type of person to suck up to Tywin for more rewards.

Scott Pack

@TerryChia Yeah, Bronn's an interesting character. He puts himself up as the quintessential mercenary, but based on how he's acted towards Tyrion I think there's quite a bit of personal honor and loyalty there.

AviD

@ScottPack yeah, there are a few like that. Stannis's sellsail (forgot his name) seems to be of the same cut.

Terry Chia

@ScottPack That bit about how knights are worth double is quite funny.

AviD

@TerryChia yeah, made me laugh

Scott Pack

15:16

@AviD Are you talking about Davos?

@TerryChia Quite right. "If you don't even know how much you're paying me then you can afford it."

AviD

@ScottPack yeah, him.

Terry Chia

Davos isn't the same. He makes it very clear he is incredibly loyal to Stannis.

Scott Pack

@AviD He's not really a mercenary. He was a smuggler, but after he broke the siege lines to feed Stannis' people he quit being a smuggler and signed up in service.

That was, what, 17 years ago?

AviD

@TerryChia at the beginning, when he was introduced, he made it clear he was a mercenary, and was interested only in the money, friendship notwithstanding. Or so I remember.

Hard to keep track of all the characters....

Scott Pack

You're probably thinking of Salador Saan.

He is still a smuggler. He holds some flavor of personal loyalty to Davos, but not to Stannis.

Saan's viewpoint seems to be that he will respect Davos as a friend to the bitter end, but won't let that friendship get in the way of money.

AviD

15:21

hmm, yeah I probably conflated the two.

Scott Pack

Time for chores.

Gents.

Terry Chia

user image

May the Winter Be With You.

AviD

heh

3 hours later…

Griffin

18:12

Can anyone help me with my question? security.stackexchange.com/questions/33909/…

TildalWave

What's with the repeated single down-vote on many questions that @ThomasPornin (or @TomLeek LOL) answered? Looks like we have someone with an agenda. I'm going through them and rate as appropriate, so far not a single bad question. I doubt The Bear would even touch them, if they were anyway.

Specifically, I've noticed that on the three SYN questions from a single user (which I up-voted for questions being perfectly legit), but now I'm noticing on other questions as well.

Griffin

@TildalWave What?

TildalWave

@Griffin Oh nothing, it was a question for mods, nothing you could help with... I'm sure someone will be with your question in a minute, it's just Sunday and everything is a bit slow ;)

Griffin

Yea IK. I like IT Security everyone here answers with an insane amount of effort put into each answer.

TildalWave

18:28

@Griffin well you just got 2 answers ;)

Griffin

Very quickly

Gilles

160

Q: How does SSL work?

How does SSL work? I just realised we don't actually have a definitive answer here, and it's something worth covering. I'd like to see details in terms of: A high level description of the protocol. How the key exchange works. How authenticity, integrity and confidentiality are enforced. What t...

ssl certificates public-key-infrastructure

the answer is in there, but with a lot of other stuff

Thomas Pornin

@Gilles But the other stuff is worth reading, too.

TildalWave

@ThomasPornin If I only could somehow parallelize my reading abilities, things worth reading would increase in numbers exponentially ;)

Griffin

I'm still kind of confused.

What prevents me from sending the public key that any website sends to its users?

Thomas Pornin

18:45

@Griffin You can, but you don't have the corresponding private key (it is private).

without the private key, you won't be able to decrypt what the client sends.

Read this:

131

A: How is it possible that people observing an HTTPS connection being established wouldn't know how to decrypt it?

It is the magic of public-key cryptography. Mathematics are involved. The asymmetric key exchange scheme which is easiest to understand is asymmetric encryption with RSA. Here is an oversimplified description: Let n be a big integer (say 300 digits); n is chosen such that it is a product of two...

Griffin

Okay I actually that made me realize something.

But how does the client know how to properly encrypt if they don't know the private key?

Thomas Pornin

@Griffin Really, read it. Encryption is with the public key, decryption uses the private key.

Griffin

@ThomasPornin I do but I can't help but think of this youtube.com/…

Rory Alsop

19:03

Griffin - did you read the diginotar article?

Gilles

@RoryAlsop Please merge mitm into man-in-the-middle

Griffin

The one about how one of the signer guys gave out signatures to people who shouldn't of gotten them?

Gilles

I've written a better tag wiki for the long form

Griffin

@RoryAlsop So all I have to do is steer them through the "router" which is actually a server. But they're talking about me needing a real signed key when I can't understand how that works.

Thomas Pornin

@Griffin It had not occurred to me that one could explain Diffie-Hellman by starting with nuclear missiles. Yet, the explanation is good.

Griffin

19:08

I don't remember a nuclear missile part but that works.

TildalWave

19:32

@Gilles oh dang did I re-tag it wrong? I thought that mitm is the one to use, man-in-the-middle didn't even show in the list when I was re-tagging, sorry :~

Gilles

@TildalWave both tags exist

TildalWave

@Gilles yeah I see now, funny but man-in-the-middle didn't want to appear when I was editing, I removed it from the list 1st, then re-typed a few first letters from it, and it didn't show :O That's why I thought it's not the one to use (but it looks nicer than mitm) ;)

Griffin

@ThomasPornin So in that example. If I am eve and I am in between bob and alice. I mix my paint with alice and we get our secret color. then I mix my paint with bob without any connection. How is alice safe?

AviD

@Gilles I got that for ya /cc @RoryAlsop

Thomas Pornin

@Griffin The video explains Diffie-Hellman against a passive-only attacker (Eve, who observes the exchanges but does not interfere)

Griffin

19:38

Exactly. But I want to be the person in between

How does SSL prevent against that

Thomas Pornin

against active attackers, there are signatures; namely, the color mixture sent by Bob is signed by the CA, and Alice verifies that signature

the video does not talk about that

Griffin

Yea I know.

Thomas Pornin

The X.509 certificate is a piece of paper on which there is a sample of Bob's mixture, and also Bob's name, and a big stamp by the CA which says "I am the CA and I guarantee that this mixture is really Bob's mixture".

TildalWave

You could also say that there is a man in the middle which is a trusted authority (CA), the issuer of the certificate. This CA verifies it for both parties involved

Thomas Pornin

Unless the CA is incompetent, Eve won't be able to get a certificate with such a stamp, and Bob's name, but her mixture instead of Bob's.

Griffin

19:43

So Bob sends Alice his certificate then Alice sends the certificate to the CA who says Yea that's bob?

TildalWave

CA confirms that the certificate that Bob sent was encrypted with Bob's private key that CA authenticated. Only the one having that Bob's private key can thus pretend to be (or actually be) Bob, as far as CA and Alice are concerned

Griffin

See that makes sense

What I wasn't getting was that fact that the CA was sent something.

Now wait. Why can't I just send the same certificate encrypted with Bobs private key to the CA.

TildalWave

Certificate authority

In cryptography, certificate authority, or certification authority, (CA) is an entity that issues digital certificates. The digital certificate certifies the ownership of a public key by the named subject of the certificate. This allows others (relying parties) to rely upon signatures or assertions made by the private key that corresponds to the public key that is certified. In this model of trust relationships, a CA is a trusted third party that is trusted by both the subject (owner) of the certificate and the party relying upon the certificate. CAs are characteristic of many public key ...

@Griffin well if you have Bob's private key then of course you'd be able to use his certificate and pretend to be him (for the domain the certificate was issued, so you'd have to take over his domain too, or otherwise make the client believe the response comes from the domain it was issued for)

I think the best is to just read more on it, as (at least that's true for me) the more I try to simplify it the less factually correct it gets. Technically, none of what I said is 100% correct, but assuming other aspects of it aren't temporarily as important, they would be. If you were a blonde woman, I'd just tell you it's complicated, now would you please take some of your kit off? : ;)))

Griffin

20:14

Okay now I only need 1 last piece of the puzzle. How does the CA talk to alice securely? How do I know that eve isn't just sending the okay to Alice by spoofing the CA's shit.

Lucas Kauffman

mmmm what was my blogoverflow address again

Rory Alsop

20:53

The sec blog? Security.blogoverflow.com/wp-admin I think

Gilles

@Griffin because your browser has a built-in list of CA (known by their public keys)

if someone spoofs the CA, they won't be able to craft a certificate that your browser accepts

Lucas Kauffman

@RoryA ty I've got the first part written

Gilles

so yesterday I posted an answer minutes after the Bear. So far I got three badges for it, and I might get a 4th tomorrow

Rory Alsop

Nice

This the hashing one, yes?

Gilles

@RoryAlsop yes

this was my first repcap on sec.se (Mortarboard), and I got Sportsmanship from upvoting the Bear's answer

Griffin

21:27

@Gilles So the CA verifies the server. But who verifies the CA?

@Gilles The server?

Gilles

21:57

@Griffin the CA generates a certificate which the server presents to the browser

the certificate means: “I, the CA, assert that the server is genuine”

The browser contains a list of CAs that it trusts

Polynomial

verification of the CA is done out of band. your browser is shipped with CA root certificates that are seen to be trusted by the community.

and/or your browser vendor.

your OS has certificates pre-installed too.

Rory Alsop

22:29

@LucasKauffman excellent :-)

1 hour later…

D3C4FF

23:36

Hypothetically, if you get a BSOD on windows, is there anything you can do about it? Magic SysRq key? :P

TildalWave

23:51

@D3C4FF A powerful kick will turn that B in BSOD from Blue to Black :P

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