BugTraq
[saag] Of potential interest -- Citibank tries to gag crypto bug disclosure (fwd) Feb 20 2003 11:13PM
Dave Ahmad (da securityfocus com)


David Mirza Ahmad
Symantec

0x26005712
8D 9A B1 33 82 3D B3 D0 40 EB AB F0 1E 67 C6 1A 26 00 57 12

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 14:04:01 -0800
From: Robert Moskowitz <rgm-sec (at) htt-consult (dot) com [email concealed]>
To: saag (at) mit (dot) edu [email concealed]
Subject: [saag] Of potential interest -- Citibank tries to gag crypto bug
disclosure

>To: ukcrypto (at) chiark.greenend.org (dot) uk [email concealed]
>Subject: Citibank tries to gag crypto bug disclosure
>Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 09:57:34 +0000
>From: Ross Anderson <Ross.Anderson (at) cl.cam.ac (dot) uk [email concealed]>
>
>
>Citibank is trying to get an order in the High Court today gagging
>public disclosure of crypto vulnerabilities:
>
> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/ftp/users/rja14/citibank_gag.pdf
>
>I have written to the judge opposing the order:
>
> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/ftp/users/rja14/citibank_response.pdf
>
>The background is that my student Mike Bond has discovered some really
>horrendous vulnerabilities in the cryptographic equipment commonly
>used to protect the PINs used to identify customers to cash machines:
>
> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/TechReports/UCAM-CL-TR-560.pdf
>
>These vulnerabilities mean that bank insiders can almost trivially
>find out the PINs of any or all customers. The discoveries happened
>while Mike and I were working as expert witnesses on a `phantom
>withdrawal' case.
>
>The vulnerabilities are also scientifically interesting:
>
> http://cryptome.org/pacc.htm
>
>For the last couple of years or so there has been a rising tide of
>phantoms. I get emails with increasing frequency from people all over
>the world whose banks have debited them for ATM withdrawals that they
>deny making. Banks in many countries simply claim that their systems
>are secure and so the customers must be responsible. It now looks like
>some of these vulnerabilities have also been discovered by the bad
>guys. Our courts and regulators should make the banks fix their
>systems, rather than just lying about security and dumping the costs
>on the customers.
>
>Curiously enough, Citi was also the bank in the case that set US law
>on phantom withdrawals from ATMs (Judd v Citibank). They lost. I hope
>that's an omen, if not a precedent ...
>
>Ross Anderson
Robert Moskowitz
TruSecure Corporation
Security Interest EMail: rgm-sec (at) htt-consult (dot) com [email concealed]

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