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matthew9219

101 karma · joined March 30, 2023

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matthew9219··on When the Neighbors Don’t Like Your 10-Foot-Tall Transformer Statues
Do you think these statues are hate speech or obscenity?
matthew9219··on OpenAI is getting sued for being biased with Y Combinator
Not sure this is the technology at play here, but ATL Server, a C++ based Microsoft web technology discontinued in 2008 basically supported two files extensions - .srf and .dll. See e.g. https://github.com/redpower1998/ATLServer/blob/bf3fd601bf281... .
matthew9219··on When the Neighbors Don’t Like Your 10-Foot-Tall Transformer Statues
How would it hurt you? The American Heritage Dictionary gives three definitions of hurt:

> 1. To cause physical damage or pain to (an individual or a body part); injure.

> 2. To experience injury or pain to or in (an individual or a body part).

> 3. To cause mental or emotional suffering to; distress.

Does looking at them cause you mental or emotional suffering?

What if I said that it caused me the same mental or emotional suffering anytime anybody wore a tshirt? Would you also say people should only wear tshirts inside?

matthew9219··on California spent $17B on homelessness – it’s not working
They do. The problem is drug addiction. If you give drug addicts free houses, eventually the word gets out, and then even more drug addicts move to your state. Eventually you find yourself like California - spending an immense amount of money of an immense number of drug addicts mixed in with a few people who are down on their luck.
matthew9219··on California spent $17B on homelessness – it’s not working
People addicted to heroin don't achieve their potential or their aspirations. The compassionate thing to do for drug addicts is to help them stop being addicted to drugs, not give them an apartment where they can do drugs without bothering anybody. Parent commenter is saying the state is doing mostly the latter and little of the former.
matthew9219··on California spent $17B on homelessness – it’s not working
It's a bit more complex than that. At the surface, it's true - only 15% of homeless people in Seattle lived out of county before becoming homeless. But a deeper look shows as many as 30% more never really could afford housing - they had marginal housing situations, living with a friend, relative, or romantic partner without paying a proportionate share for their prior living situation.

This is part of the discrepancy - one side shoves the 15% number at everybody while the other side shoves at 45% number at everybody - we can't agree on what we're measuring.

See e.g. http://allhomekc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Updated-7.11...

Edit: not to mention that these studies are all surveys and this political issue is pretty well known, so there is a strong incentive to lie.

matthew9219··on Lessons from Washington State’s New Capital Gains Tax
I didn't quite speak clearly and so let me try to clarify. It's the opinion presented as opinion containing opinion presented as fact :).

In examples:

- "summer is the best season" is an opinion

- "summer has the highest temperatures" is a fact

- "summer is the best time to have romantic encounters" is an opinion

- "summer is the best season because romantic encounters truly only happen in the summer" is a weird amalgamation. It clearly presents an opinion, and says that opinion is based on a true fact, but in fact, the true fact the opinion relies on is not a fact at all, but merely another opinion.

matthew9219··on Lessons from Washington State’s New Capital Gains Tax
Seems specious. Democratically elected representatives said it was to encourage the investment of capital as they wrote the laws, and then got reelected by the voters. You can say the representatives were lying and the voters didn't care / are dumb - but where's the evidence?

I think the simplest explanation for why representatives vote the way they do is the public statements they themselves make before and after their votes. If you want to make a more convoluted argument and assert a conspiracy, you should bring some evidence.

matthew9219··on Lessons from Washington State’s New Capital Gains Tax
The discussion is about the quote in the article, not about what the previous commentator said.
matthew9219··on Lessons from Washington State’s New Capital Gains Tax
It's an understandable position yes.

It's not quite so understandable to me that somebody would believe that position to be an inherent truth ("truly owe") rather than just a position.

Capital gains taxes have historically been lower to encourage the investment of capital. This might be good or bad policy. Many economists say it's good policy.

It's stating opinion as fact.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
Fwiw (tangent), I don't necessarily believe either of those instances were cosmic-ray induced bit-flips. I'd have to dig up the study, but I read a study once that more or less concluded "cosmic-rays are more common in memory unsafe languages and on overclocked PCs". Or more accurately, engineers frequently misattribute memory corrupt and operating outside specification to cosmic rays.

Particularly when the software in question is running on somebody else computer, proprietary software and OS (or OS modules), unknown patch versions, etc.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
You are looking for a debate, I think. It's the whole thread. You're nerd sniping. It's classic.

You're not a fan of DNSSEC and prefer CT. When faced with examples where CT doesn't cut it, you refuse to discuss the big picture, pounce on incorrect details, and then resort to claiming your opponents are uninformed or arguing in bad faith.

The bottom line is my original big picture claim, the part that's on-topic for the article - that CT works for browsers on personal computers but not other classes of internet connected devices - it's true! And you know it! But you'd rather debate the details than inform readers about what they actually want to know (the big picture - i.e. that DNSSEC is useful).

I've observed your behavior before on hacker news, but experiencing it directly is eye opening.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
Of course it does. CT trust relies on root programs removing bad CAs and root programs and security researchers sharing information about bad CAs with root programs. The root programs, CA, and security researchers are colloquially "the CA community".
matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
Do you believe CT protects set-top boxes against surveillance from nation state actors who compromise your router? Yes or no, if you don't answer, you're not engaging in good faith.
matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
> Meanwhile if DNSSEC's vision is ever fully realized, you will lose that control entirely. There is no CT there, and even if it was build somehow it will be useless as it has no "teeth"

This is a false dichotomy. DNSSEC secures DNS records, it doesn't prevent logging certificate issuance.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
Web PKI so strong that we recommend not using it for critical scenarios.. /s

It's late and I maybe haven't been super constructive here, but I think when you try to write out the actual assumptions behind CT as the whole solution, you realize you've got something that mostly works assuming assuming assuming - and worse, we'll never do any better, because those assumptions are fundamental technical limits. DNSSec may be ugly but at least its problems (like validators failing open) are just deployment issues, not fundamental technical issues.

I'm sick and tired of using technologies that provide security or correctness subject to a long list of preconditions and ways for folks to tell me I'm using it wrong. To build secure systems, we need technology that provides correct security without so much asterisks and fine print.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
The example I gave was a router or gaming system updating itself (e.g. using CUrl) not a full browser. Don't strawman please - if my argument is as weak as you say, you shouldn't need to.

I want a version of Web PKI strong enough that I can turn off my tablet for a year, turn it back on in a coffee shop, apply automatic updates, and not have my web traffic monitored, even if I'm gay and the coffee shop is in Saudi Arabia.

From what I can see, DNSSec+CAA+.com+US CA+US hosting for the Android update server does the trick. No version of CT does.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
It's the argument I made at the top:

> The fundamental difference is that with TLS you have to trust ALL certificate issuers, but with DNSSec you only have to trust your TLD and your certificate issuer.

It's probably fair to say I've been a bit over assertive about CT, but it's all in the margin to me. No amount of technical complexity can turn community trust into direct trust. TLS is a community trust model and DNSSec is a direct trust model. The fact that CT is a pretty good community trust model and that browsers have (so far) done a pretty good job at keeping the CT community small is interesting, but it doesn't turn community trust into direct trust. So while I'd agree it's an incredibly tedious tangent, I'd say it's tedious moreso because the pro-CT folks are missing the forest for the trees than for any technical details about CT.

Edit: because community trust fundamentally relies on the notion of the community taking action against bad actors. Whether it's a CA or a CT log provider, and whether it's malicious action or a bug or just ceasing to do business, community trust has a time axis where membership in the community changes and notions of keeping devices up to date and political struggles ("too big to fail") and the like that simply aren't needed in direct trust.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
That's just not what's happening. Reread the conversation. I started from here:

> Certificate transparency is cool, but it's not clear it really works for many classes of devices

Smart TVs aren't some gotcha I'm throwing in at the end. It's literally the first thing I said about CT. CT works ok for mobile phones, laptops, and other devices where you can make certain assumptions about multiple networks and frequent updates. If you want a technology that doesn't require these assumptions, you want DNSSec.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
The crucial difference is who decides which cryptographic entities to trust. With TLS and CT, the browser defines the list of entities and if 3 or more of those entities live in a hostile country, you can be compromised. With DNSSec and CAA, the site operator gets to define the list of entities.
matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
Admittedly, the US is a bit of a special case because of ICANN. Better examples are probably Saudi Arabia, Israel, Australia, Russia, etc.
matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
That page explains that Chrome (which is best in class here - most IOT devices don't do any of this stuff) fails open:

> If the installed version of Chrome has not applied security updates and has been unable to obtain an updated CT log list from the Component Updater for 70 days or more, then CT enforcement will be disabled.

That means a global adversary need merely block the update channel to targeted devices and wait. How will a Smart TV behave?

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
> you can't fake the SCT entries without having access to the CT private keys.

So... Governments like the US and China can fake the entries by using their police forces to seize the private keys?

SCT has the same set of problems as TLS - any log will do, not just logs from countries you trust.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
> Forging a ‘fake CT log’ isn’t possible, either

Why do you think this isn't possible?

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
If you wanted to use your words to explain why you think that, that might be more constructive. I could well respond "yes, it does work" but that wouldn't be useful. I know you're an expert in the space and might appreciate learning from you, but this is not that.
matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
Clients get pre certificates (which are portions of the log) as claims in certificates. It's correct that they never download the whole log - I'm simplifying for clarity, not out of lack of understanding.

The fact remains - an adversary with a CA private key that can mitm all of the internet connections for a device can forge a fake CT log and go undetected, if that clients never uses a non-mitm network again.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
The client has to get the CT log from somewhere, like an update channel (typically TLS). An attacker would compromise both the target and the process by which the client gets CT log updates.

Such an attack would be detected if some clients reported which certs they actually saw the next time they connected to an uncompromised network (as Chrome does) but if no clients report, such an attack could go undetected.

matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
Everybody has to do business somewhere. Nobody can prevent the government in whose territory they do business from compromising them. The question is whether you can be compromised by all governments (TLS) or just your government (TLS+DNSSec).
matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
In the attack DNSSec prevents, a client is compromised by a cert that doesn't appear in the CT logs, so infrastructure monitoring is irrelevant.
matthew9219··on DNSSEC KSK rollover breaks DNS resolution for .nz domains
Somebody has got to check the logs and report violations. Chrome does, so CT works mostly for the world wide web, because all websites want to work in Chrome.

For a device like a router, if the router doesn't check the logs itself, and a global adversary compromises the TLS update channel for the router, and starts distributing malicious firmware... If the router itself doesn't report the violation, for how long might such a compromise go undetected? Is there any reason to think it'd ever be detected?

CT has a bit of an implicit dependency on heterogeneous configurations - that at least some clients report violations, and that attackers cannot easily distinguish reporting clients from non-reporting clients. For homogenous configurations (like the implementations of AWS, Azure, or GCM, or the deployment of routers, IOT devices, or gaming systems), it seems like a competent global adversary would simply figure out how to go unreported for that configuration, and nobody would particularly check.

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