Re: Returned post for forensicsat_private

From: Simson L. Garfinkel (simsongat_private)
Date: Mon Jan 27 2003 - 06:42:12 PST

  • Next message: Chris Eagle: "RE: MD5 Exploit Database?"

    >
    > From: "Simson L. Garfinkel" <simsongat_private>
    > Date: Sun Jan 26, 2003  8:55:18 AM US/Eastern
    > To: James.Holleyat_private
    > Cc: "Simson L. Garfinkel" <slgat_private>, "Chris Reining" 
    > <creiningat_private>, forensicsat_private, "Mark G. 
    > Spencer" <mspencerat_private>, "Matt Scarborough" 
    > <vexversaat_private>
    > Subject: MD5 Collection Project
    >
    >
    > James,
    >
    > The NIST project is very good, and they do have the largest collection 
    > of MD5 and SHA-1 codes. The codes are sold on CDROM and can be 
    > imported directly into disk drive forensic tools such as EnCase and 
    > FTK. They are pulling the data directly from CAB files, rather than 
    > doing full installs. It's very efficient.
    >
    > My idea of the MD5 collection project was similar to this, but 
    > somewhat different.
    >
    > First, I wanted to use MD5 rather than SHA-1 because, in my testing, 
    > MD5 can be calculated in roughly 1/3 the time as SHA-1 and it is just 
    > as good unless intentional subversion is taking place (and, in fact, 
    > it may be just as good in the light of intentional subversion).
    >
    > I was interested in creating two key pieces of technology. The first 
    > is the website/database backend which would have both a SOAP and a 
    > conventional HTTP/HTML interface. The database would allow people to 
    > register "sets" of MD5s and then as many MD5s in that set as they 
    > wanted. I would probably also have a query that works over DNS, since 
    > DNS goes through every firewall. (side note: has anybody created a SSH 
    > tunnel through DNS yet?)
    >
    > The second piece of technology would be an agent that people could run 
    > on a computer; the agent would calculate the MD5 of every file on your 
    > system and would then compare these with the MD5s stored on the 
    > database. This was a direct result of my hard drive project: I'm 
    > looking for "confidential" files on a computer, and, for a first 
    > approximation, anything that has been seen before is not confidential.
    >
    > The agent would also allow allow you to create your own set and submit 
    > them to the database. In this way, it would be possible to get many 
    > more MD5s over time. Some of them could be submitted with extensive 
    > details; in this way, the MD5 collection project could incorporate the 
    > other MD5/SHA-1 databases out there at this time.
    >
    > I haven't gotten as far on this project as I had wanted, the result of 
    > school work and then the blow-up of my IEEE paper. But now I'm able to 
    > focus some time on this and plan to move ahead. If people are 
    > interested, I'd be happy to set up a sub-discussing group to look at 
    > issues such as database schema, database replication, code generation, 
    > etc.
    >
    > -Simson
    
    
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