Re: FV Demonstrates Fatal Flaw in Software Encryption of Credit

[dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr. Dimitri Vulis)]

Rich Salz <rsalz@osf.org> writes:
> >There are many ways to spread it besides a virus.  Zillions of 'em.  And
>
> There are zillions (what, more than one thousand?) ways to get someone
> to run a random piece of software that will capture their keystrokes?
>
> I don't believe you.  Name six.

I think I'll go on a tangent:

Many, many, many years ago, when I was a little kid, I wrote several "cool"
games that I uploaded to various BBS's. The games kept track of high scores
and saved them in a file. At that time there were a few popular BBS programs
for PC DOS (Fido, PC Board, RBBS, et al) which stored their passwords in
fairly standard locations. When the games saved the high scores, they also
looked in these standard locations. Invariably, when I downloaded the same
games a few days later, I would discover that the BBS's sysops played the
game, and made the archive with their high scores available for downloading.

ObCrypto: the high scores were encrypted together with the shell passwords.

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<a href="mailto:dlv@bwalk.dm.com">Dr. Dimitri Vulis</a>
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps