<nettime> rzcver cqs digest [oget x2]

["nettime's_sekrit_dekoding_ring" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

Re: <nettime> empire pdf (pdf empire)
     Laurent Oget <loget@zvolve.com>
     Laurent Oget <loget@zvolve.com>

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Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 11:32:39 -0400
From: Laurent Oget <loget@zvolve.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> empire pdf (pdf empire)

On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 03:40:28PM -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
> At 5:22 PM -0400 on 7/30/01, Laurent Oget wrote:
> 
> 
> > Last time  i checked  their software was  only for  windows
> 
> It's a PDF document, not an Adobe e-book document.
> 
> PDF readers are available, from adobe, or otherwise, for most platforms,
> including linux and the Mac.
> 

It is an  ENCRYPTED PDF document, which means the only  thing i can do
with it is use adobe's software to view it. I can not cut and paste. I
can not extract the text from  its layout. I can only search and index
it through  their clumsy software. I  can not pipe the  text through a
voice  synthesizer  to read  the  text aloud  to  a  blind friend  or
translate it into braille.

Do not misunderstand  me. i enjoy having an  electronic version of the
text, and i am grateful HUP did it. but it it is not a FREE version of
the text.

There is a  reason why the man who broke this  encryption scheme is in
jail. This  kind of lame  encryption scheme is  the last hope  to turn
bytes into  a commodity. Merchants  need commodity. The  government of
the US is very concerned by the well being of merchants.

Laurent

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Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 11:46:39 -0400
From: Laurent Oget <loget@zvolve.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> empire (cracked)

On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 07:45:37PM +0200, sebastian@textz.com wrote:
>          geert@xs4all.nl wrote:
>          > could you perhaps post something to nettime if it's possible
>          > to crack a pdf file? i have no idea. did people try to do
>          > this?
> 
>          loget@zvolve.com wrote:
>          > This is the encryption scheme for the breaking of which the
>          > FBI recently arrested a russian coder who came to las vegas to
>          > expose his findings. Last time i checked their software was
>          > only for windows ... who will free Empire?
> 
>          in fact it *is* possible to crack a pdf. the recently arrested
>          dmitry sklyarov (and andy malyshev, to give full credits) have
>          written an "advanced pdf password recovery" (apdfpr) tool
>          (released by the moscow-based elcomsoft.com) that decrypts
>          protected pdfs. the free trial version will only decrypt a small
>          part of any document, so you can either register for $30 (which
>          seems appropriate to me) or try to crack apdfpr itself (google

i had the feeling they were  collecting the $ through a US company who
discontinued the collaboration after the arrest..i might be wrong

>          is a good point to start, but it may take an hour or two...)
> 

well i won't  ask how you did. my  hope was to be able  to find enough
information in the slides  from defcon, which are available somewhere,
to decrypt the pdf, but since someone already did it...

>          cracked empire pdf:
>          http://excess4all.com/empire
> 
>          raw ascii version:
>          http://textz.gnutenberg.net
> 
>          clean ascii version to come...
> 
>          cheers,
>          sebastian
> 

thank you

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