Add inagural PLT post
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Christine Dodrill
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The Saga of plt, Part 1
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=======================
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The following is adapted from a real story. Parts of it are changed to keep it
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entertaining to read but the core of the story is maintained. I apologize that
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this issue in the epic will be shorter than the others, but it gets better.
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The Beginning of The Interesting Pain
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-------------------------------------
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It all started when I got this seemingly innocuous PM on Freenode:
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```
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2015-01-23 [18:32:48] <plt> Hello. I am writting a new ircd and can I have the
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channel ##ircd please?
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```
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This is a fairly common event on larger IRC networks, especially given the
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length of the channel name and the fact that it references IRC daemons
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specifically. At this point I had *forgotten* I owned that channel. So
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naturally I decided to give it a join and see if the person who requested the
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channel was worthy of it or had brought enough activity to it such that it was
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morally correct to hand it off.
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This was not the case.
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```
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[18:33:54] *** Joins: Xe (xe@unaffiliated/xe)
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[18:34:02] <plt> Hello xe.
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[18:35:17] <plt> Xe the project name pbircd.
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[18:37:09] <plt> Xe the project site is http://sourceforge.net/p/pbircd
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```
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In case the site is removed from SourceForge, it is the default sourceforge
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page.
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After taking a look at this and then getting off the call with my family I was
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on at the point, I decided to reply.
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```
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[20:30:49] <Xe> plt: I've decided against giving you my channel
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[20:31:03] <Xe> you have no code in your repo.
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[20:31:31] <plt> I am currently working on the project. Can I help you in the
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channel?
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[20:32:04] <Xe> if you are working on it
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[20:32:11] <Xe> I'd expect to see at least something
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[20:32:25] <Xe> for example: https://github.com/Xe/scylla
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[20:32:35] <Xe> that's mostly autogenerated code and makefiles, but it's
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something
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[20:33:31] <plt> Take a look at this http://pastebin.com/F8MH3fSs
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[20:34:04] <plt> You know it takes a while to write ircd code.
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[20:34:16] <Xe> I don't see any commits
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[20:34:20] <Xe> not even framework code
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[20:34:24] <Xe> or design
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[20:34:26] <Xe> or an outline
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[20:34:30] <Xe> all I see is that pastebin
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[20:34:39] <Xe> which is in no way connected to that git repo
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[20:35:07] <plt> I am still adding more features so its not going to be posted
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on the main web site yet.
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```
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The contents of the pastebin looked like a changelog, but that pastebin has
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since expired or was explicitly deleted. He was all talk and no game. I admit
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at this point I was pretty tired and frustrated, so I told him off:
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```
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[20:35:19] <Xe> fucking commit it then
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[20:35:52] <plt> I was going to wait until the code was completed.
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[20:36:43] <Xe> yeah good lick then
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[20:36:45] <Xe> luck*
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[20:37:14] <plt> Itgoing to get done and I am the only one working on the
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project so what do you expect?
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[20:37:29] <Xe> to be able to look at the in-progress code?
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[20:39:24] <plt> The code will do you no good because you will not be able to
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compile it.
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[20:39:51] <Xe> then you have nothing
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[20:40:06] <plt> I am not required to approve it.
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[20:41:08] <plt> I can post the run program on the web site.
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[20:42:33] <Xe> then do that
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[20:43:28] <plt> Done.
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```
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The "run program" was nothing but a wrapper around the nonexistent binary for
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pbircd and seemed to be compiled in a language that doesn't respect assembly
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functions and all of the forms of RE that I know how to do were useless. If you
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know how to better do RE on arbitrary binaries please let me know.
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```
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[20:44:12] <Xe> there are binaries
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[20:44:15] <Xe> not source code
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[20:44:25] <Xe> this is what you use git for
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[20:44:35] <plt> The source code will do you no good since you can not compile it.
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[20:52:02] <plt> In order for you to compile it you need the encryption program
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and I am not going to release the source code.
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[20:54:43] <Xe> lol
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[20:55:34] <plt> The program is freeware and I have no obligation to release
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the code under the License agreement.
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[21:00:56] <Xe> you also will get no users
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[21:03:13] <plt> The company that wrote Conferenceroom has a lot of customers.
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```
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ConfrenceRoom was a company that made a commercial IRC daemon. They have lost
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to Slack and other forms of chat like HipChat. Note here that he says "you can
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not compile it". This is true in more ways than you would think. He also claims
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it is Freeware and not full fledged open source software. As someone who is
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slightly proactive and paranoid after the Snowden bullshit, I find this highly
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suspect. However, this "encryption program" was something I was oddly most
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interested in.
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```
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2015-01-24
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[12:11:14] <plt> Xe why do you always demand to see the source code?
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```
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Curiosity? To learn from other people's ideas? To challenge myself in
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understanding another way of thinking about things? To be able to improve it
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for others to learn from? Those seem like good reasons to me.
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```
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[22:46:33] <plt> PBIRCD is a irc daemon.
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[22:46:36] <plt> Hello xe
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```
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The `PB` in that name will become apparent later.
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```
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[23:09:31] <plt> Would you like to see what I have in the updates?
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[23:09:40] <Xe> sure
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[23:09:47] <plt> http://pastebin.com/2udHPSyP
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[23:13:10] <plt> Tell me what you think about it?
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[23:16:32] <plt> I need to take a short break.
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```
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Again, the paste is dead (I should really be saving these gems) but it was
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another set of what appeared to be patch notes.
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```
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[23:22:37] <plt> Do you like what I have in the notes?
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[23:23:49] <Xe> I still think it's ridiculous that you don't have the balls to
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release your code
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[23:24:36] <plt> I understand what you telling me.
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[23:25:48] <plt> There is no way to working around protecting the encrypted
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information.
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[23:34:19] <plt> Why are you do want to see the code?
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[23:43:36] <plt> Xe The encryption is used to encrypt the Operators, Link and
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the other passwords.
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```
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This sounds suspect. Any sane system of encrypting passwords like this would be
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a mathematical one-way function. By not showing the code like this, is this
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a two-way function?
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```
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2015-01-25
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[00:05:55] <plt> Xe Question if the authors that wrote free pgp do not release
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their source code then why should I have do
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```
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