The Exodus: Session 6

The Two Battles of Five Armies (each)...

Vadim convinces us to head north to round up the Black Crows
        before they get eaten by Nohai
    Khut notices black birds circling in the distance
        We book it full speed,
        running strait like an arrow to the circling battle-to-be
        We arrive, just in time to see the Dust sneaking up on the Black Crows
            And a cloud of small, black spikebeaks ("ripclaws")
                (trained as hunting birds by the Black Feather warblers)
            And a crew of emaciated, Empty-Circle nohai charging after the Dust,
                running on all fours
            ... Because FREE FOR ALL
    The birds dive after Ithunn, and she punches them out of the sky
        Sorquitani fires some fire over their heads...
            Ado fires a screamer arrow at them as well, scattering half the flock
    Squee jumps between the Dust and Black Crows
        screams (magically loud) "Everyone stop!"
    Vadim runs for the Black Crows and tries to steal the best-looking beast
    Barruk charges the Empty Circle nohai and swings for the fences...
        lightning falls from the sky, strikes his axe, and roasts a nohai
        ... One of the Empty Circles glares at Barruk, Sorq, and Khut
                causing us to briefly snap into the Fade from which they come...
            Another leaps at Barruk, and lands, hanging on his shield...
        The Dust turn and open fire on the empty circle...
            impaling the shield-hanger...
    The Black Crows, two-to-a-beast stare at squee but stay out of the fight...

    Khut keeps and eye on Ithunn, just to make sure she's alright,
        then scalps one of the Empty Circles with an arrow
            Ado pegs it clean through the heart...dropping it...
        Squee waxes cute, pouts at the Black Crows, points at the Empty Circle
            and the Black Crows charge into the battle...
            They crash in and send an EC Nohai flying...
        Vadim vaults onto a loose, rampaging warbeast
            turns it towards the Empty Circle...
            They scatter...
        Barruk rears up and pile drives the one on his shield flat into the ground...
            The others stare at Barruk with empty-black eyes and
                he falls asleep...and it goes for his throat...
                    the mauling wakes him up...
            Another howls and the spikebeaks turn and swoop after Barruk...
                and bounce off his shield with the sound of metal on metal...
        The Dust circle up, back to back, and train arrows on everyone...
     
    Ithunn spike-kicks the last bird on her...
        Which is apparently hilarious...
            one of the ECs starts laughing hollowly and uproariously...
                it runs out of the dust cloud kicked up by the warbeasts...
                ...and gets railed with an arrow from Khut
                    hurling it back to land at Barruk's feet...
                Barruk kicks him up into the air and impales him on his horns...
                    which is still hilarious...
                Ithunn leaps and and brings her staff down on the nohai
                    driving it down on the horns to the base...
                    the laughing finally stops...
        Vadim's warbeast rears up and crushes another EC Nohai...
            then the dust cloud parts as Vadim lights up the ECs and birds...
            One of the birds diving for Barruk dies
                with one of Ado's arrows through its throat...
            The other runs and Khut shoots it out of the sky...
        Sorq keeps talking and bowing, trying to pacify the Dust...
            Then gets hit in the face with a small sack of gray dust...

    We make friends with the Black Crows
        We head to their tribe, which is on the move...fast...
            Running in a staggered V formation,
            superior warbeasts plowing a big path for the herdbeasts...
            The biggest strongest leaders running in front...
                with the most awesome warbeasts of course...
        Khut (or mostly Ado perched on his shoulder) talk to the clan-father
                ("Khaza Shield-Breaker")...
            Fractured leadership...families come and go from the tribe regularly...
                Heavily Black-Shaman...they stay out of politics
                The war-leaders of the vanguard, lead by consensus...
                    Hellhorns (a vanguard clan) are most ferocious...
                        massive, ebony-skinned, small horns...
                        take very good care of their tusks)
            We convince the "Shield Breakers" to go south with us...
                a scouts/cadet clan of one of the "Axe-Teeth"...
                    one of big vanguard clans...
 
    Vadim, Ithunn, and Sorq run off to steal some cows...
        ...end up in "Hellhorn" territory
            Find sticks woven with tufts of grass...
                obvious shamanic magic of some kind...
            Rich and well appointed with felt yurts and
                beautiful Drowned River made rugs...
            Beasts several cuts above what we have in our herd...
                Vadim finds the Rosebud of breeding stock...
                    a beautiful young cow with turgid udders,
                    rosey hide, and the lineage of kings...
                and ... pisses off a Shaman...
                    Vadim grabs "Rosebud" and RUNS...
                    JUMPS...
                    barely avoids a lightning bolt as he books it away with the cow...
                Sorq and Ithunn slink away...
         
    Khut, Ado, Squee, and Barruk chat with the Shield Breaker leader
        talk about how they might gain glory but crushing the Dust...
        Ithunn runs into the tent and warbles about Vadim's escapades...
            Khut yells that Nohai have stolen Hellhorn beasts
            and the Hellhorns are rushing to steal the glory...
 
    We run out at full speed...followed by three young upstart scout clans...
        "Shield Breakers" "Bentblades" and "Sureshafts"
            ride hornbeasts/scoutbeasts and are horse archers with longbows
        Khut picks an intercept path...
            Squee and Barruk give rousing speeches as we run to boost their morale
            Ithunn calls in the warbler cavalry...
        Vadim rides at full speed, then Semek's wife shows up and peels off...
            he follows...
    Sorq runs back to our nohai and
        paints them with the symbol of her tribe (to differentiate)
            "Lust" -- "The ones that breed cattle"
 

The 'Cattle-Breeders' Tribe

A weird black bird (Decoy) shows up...
    chats with Ado, and demands booze...
        Ado tells him to inform Ganbaatar that we are attacking the Dust...
            Ado threatens him and he staggers off into the wind (utterly drunk)...
 
    Still running...Khut notices a woman among the Shield Breakers...
        slows...runs along side staring up longingly...
        and stammers out "Can I ride with you"...
        She scoops him up...obviously she is from the "Sureshaft" clan...
    Ado, impatient with Ripper not running fast enough, leaps on a warbeast
        yells "Can I take over"...
        Barruk acrobatically leaps up, grabs Ado,
            manages to bring the beast under control despite the crazed warbler
    Squee...shouts directions from her perch on Khaza'a head,
        and somehow manages to point him in the right way...
    Ithunn squeels out on her flute,
        waking up all the birds behind us, sending them screaching into the air...
    Vadim, riding like hell...
        fumbles out a potion and quaffs it...or was it poison...
        nope its a potion...whew!
            HEALING POTIONS SMELL LIKE MINT or CUT GRASS
 
    Vadim leads the Hellhorns through a ravine and they burst out,
        full speed, strait into the Dust camp surprising both sides...
        Lightning streaks toward the Nohai...
        Fire-Eyes comes out hammer blazing and launching fireballs...
            Dead hornbeasts choke the opening of the ravine,
        Hellhorns storm through the fire, nohai climb over nohai to tear at them...

 
    We arrive at the top of the hill,
        Shield Breakers and Bentblades charge down...
        Khut pegs Fire-Eyes with a shrieker arrow...
            he takes it on the shield and is forced to cast the shield aside...
        Barruk charges in on a hornbeast, eyes glowing,
            leaps towards Fire-Eyes bellowing a Challenge...
        Squee whips out some bundles of grass and starts cheering Barruk on...
            Ado heaps insults on Fire-Eyes head...
        Nohai fire a volley then charge up the hill towards the Sureshafts...
            Ithunn leaps down the hill and starts beating nohai with her staff...
        A massive Hellhorn in black armor goes berserk and charges Fire-Eyes...
            Vadim casts a vine around his leg,
                but he pulls it loose without blinking...
                but wiffs on his swing at Fire-Eyes...
            Khut pegs him with an arc'd shot from the midst of a pack of nohai...
 
    Fire-Eyes swings his hammer at Barruk...missing by a mile...
        but then grabs him with a claw and savages with his teeth...
        Barruk declares a Vow of Enmity...and tags him with a great axe...
            Squee continues cheering and waving her pom-poms...
            Ado drops a heal on Barruk and
                illusions up the sound of a thunderbird...
                which lasts a little longer than he thought...
    Ithunn unleashes a flurry of blows and launches two gnolls off the cliff...
        Khut pulls out his knives and slashes,
            boots, and sends the other two tumbling down to join them...
 
    Vadim runs to the culvert and finds one hellhorn warbeast
        not-quite-dead from the initial blasts...
        he heals it up and hides the warbeast and Rosebud...
    Squee smiles at the big raging hellhorn...
        whispers that the other Hellhorns are stealing his beasts...
            and sends him raging into his own clan...
                smashing knees into the other Hellhorn's faces...
            and gets burried under his own bodyguards trying to hold him down...
                and the nohei taking advantage of the distraction...
 
    Ithunn runs into a pack of Nohei, drawing them towards the Hellhorns...
        but gets torn up...
        Vadim rides in, grabs Ithunn...
            books it for where Ganbaatar is riding in from the South...
    Ado leaps into the fray near Ganbaatar
        unleashes a thunderwave blasting the pressing pack away...
    Khut scrambles up the hill
        fires at the back of the pack pressing Ganbaatar
        crying "Drowned River is with us" to focus the Sure Shafts
 
    Sorq and her pack of Nohai sneak into the fray
        hunt out the tent of "Hundreds of Dust" (the Dust shamaness)
        She finds a tent with heavy runic beadwork...
            with no fire or fighting near it...
            She tries to set fire to it...
            then realizes there are books inside...and..."decides not to"
         
    Vadim, still riding away with Ithunn, gets shot and slumps in the saddle...
        Ado runs after and heals them both...
 
    Barruk and Fire-Eyes keep circling and striking...
        the hammer misses, the axe hits...
        and again...
        AND...Barruk brings the axe up and under and Fire Eye's head goes flying...
        The battlefield freezes...and a howl erupts from the Nohai...
            Barruk raises Fire-Eye's head and shouts for everyone to stand down...
         
    The Hellhorns withdraw...heavily weakened...
    The Shield Breakers are super happy...and one of the strongest cadet clans...
    The Nohai gather around Barruk
        Hundreds of Dust comes out of her tent to find Sorquitani standing there...
 
And so we add the Shield Breakers, 20 warbeasts left behind by the utterly wrecked Hellhorns, and more than a hundred Nohai to our ragtag little tribe.

Justification for Your Paranoia

Heading to Black Hat and DEF CON at stupid-o-clock in the morning tomorrow, and trying to stay awake, so it seems like a perfect time to chatter about the latest round of crazy ways that your are insecure...hopefully I will return from this outing with even more things to share...

From the series Nests by Jakub Geltner.

1) Stealing Data with Radios...

In a paper scheduled to be presented at the 2015 Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, researchers from Tel Aviv university (who previously showed that you could steal encryption keys by touch), demonstrate "the extraction of secret decryption keys from laptop computers, by non-intrusively measuring electromagnetic emanations for a few seconds from a distance of 50 cm."

The attack can be executed using cheap and readily-available equipment: a consumer-grade radio receiver or a Software Defined Radio USB dongle. The setup is compact, can operate untethered, and can be easily concealed (they use the example of hiding it inside a piece of pita-bread). Common laptops, and popular implementations of RSA and ElGamal encryptions, are vulnerable to this attack, including those that implement the decryption using modern exponentiation algorithms such as sliding-window, or even its side-channel resistant variant, fixed-window exponentiation.

Obviously the two big questions are "What information gets leaked?" and "Why does this work?"

As to the first, they claim that: "In almost all machines, it is possible to tell, with sub-millisecond precision, whether the computer is idle or performing operations. On many machines, it is moreover possible to distinguish different patterns of CPU operations and different programs. ... we can, on some machines: distinguish between the spectral signatures of different RSA secret keys (signing or decryption), and fully extract decryption keys, by measuring the laptop's electromagnetic emanations during decryption of a chosen ciphertext."

To the second they claim: "Different CPU operations have different power requirements. As different computations are performed during the decryption process, different electrical loads are placed on the voltage regulator that provides the processor with power. The regulator reacts to these varying loads, inadvertently producing electromagnetic radiation that propagates away from the laptop and can be picked up by a nearby observer."

So yeah, they don't even need access to the actual data on your machine to steal the keys to your kingdom, just the EM radiation given off by your CPU running hot, and a small, cheap, easily concealed radio receiver...

2) More on the "Right" to Encrypt...

In my previous post, I mentioned how the United Nations special rapportuer on human rights recently suggested that the encryption of data and communications should be considered a basic human right. This is, however, not a new or original idea. I recently stumbled upon an article from the Fall 1997 issue of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technolofy titled The Use of Encrypted, Coded and Secret Communications is an "Ancient Liberty" Protected by the United States Constitution (it's a law journal article, of course it has a long title). The article attempts:

"to demonstrate that, from the early years of the American Republic, Americans have enjoyed a robust, free, and frequent use of codes, ciphers, and other forms of secret communication. [and ...] that Americans have long used secret modes of communication for numerous purposes, including political dissent, preservation of personal privacy in intimate matters, commerce, and criminal enterprises." 

Similarly to the UN's special rapporteur, the article makes its arguments largely from the 1st-Amendment freedom of expression angle, specifically focusing on historical precedent. An interesting (US-specific) argument that I've yet to see made centers on the fact that the U.S. government lists (and regulates) encryption as a form of munitions. So there is room yet for a 2nd-Amendment argument that the use of encryption by U.S. citizens falls under the right to bear arms (there is a paper I'd love to see).

The conclusion includes a nicely hopeful tone:

"The federal government has, for only two generations, enjoyed the ability to quickly override consumer use of cryptography through powerful decryption technology. The government's superior decryption capacity is threatened (or perhaps it has practically evaporated) when average citizens can and do encrypt their communications and their records using powerful encryption products..."

i.e. Encrypt all the things!

3) Old-School Data Security...

This one is a bit of an overlap between my two biggest interests: information security and medieval fantasy. A post has been circulating in both of these circles from Medieval Books, a blog about, of course, medieval manuscripts, specifically related to the measures taken to protect books from theft. Chains, Chests, and Curses covers just that, the three most popular means of prevention of data loss in the medieval age...

It is a wonderful read and I strongly recommend it.

It also got me thinking about modern security. The first two, chains and chests, have some very obvious modern strategy equivalents: preventing data exfiltration and preventing access respectively. The third might have a more interesting corollary. Could we make the data "cursed"? Embed malicious software in the data somehow, so that if it is stolen it will do horrible things to the thief's machine (but somehow not harm the machine originally hosting said data)?  

4) More cars...

To anyone who has paid attention to this blog in the past, the Fiat/Chrysler recall should come as not surprise. If your car is connected it can be hacked. In fact, this news is so un-news-worthy that this is all I'm going to say about it, nor will I bother with links, since the entirety of mainstream media has seen fit to lay out the details of something so easily forseen...

On the plus side, I may have finally thought of my brilliant entrepreneurial scheme...an auto-shop that disables or lays encryption over vehicular communication systems...

One Character, Nine Systems: Part 2

Last week, I proposed an experiment of generating the same character in nine different editions/variations of the D&D game. In the first post we introduced Junco Eliade, now it's time to give him some crunch. For starters we'll use:

Original D&D

For this exercise we will define the scope of "Original" Dungeons and Dragons as the LBBs ("Men and Magic", "Monsters and Treasure", and "Underworld and Wilderness Adventures"), plus Supplements I and II ("Greyhawk" and "Blackmoor") and "Eldritch Wizardry".

Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric / Fighting Man

Regarding race and class choices, Greyhawk states on page 5, "Dwarf clerics are found as high as 7th level (Lama), and they can cure and resurrect their own. These clerics are also fighters." So we're good on the multi-class Dwarven Cleric-Fighter. Earned experience is divided evenly between both classes.

Level: 3rd
Minimum XP: 8000 (split evenly between to 2 classes or 4000 each)
Alignment:  Law
Hit Dice: 3d6+3
Average Hit Points:  13

While Greyhawk defines different dice-types per class, it does not describe what to do with Dwarves, Elves, or Hobbits who are more than a single class at once. For simplicity sake, we'll go with the LBB definition which uses a d6 for hit dice regardless of class.

Stats:

• Str: 9
• Dex: 16  -- Fire any missile at +1, -2 chance to be hit
• Con: 15 -- Add +1 to each hit die
• Int: 16 -- learn 1 additional language for every point above 10
• Wis: 11
• Cha: 8 -- maximum 3 hirelings

OD&D allows Clerics to trade STR or INT for Wisdom, and Fighters to trade WIS and INT points for Strength. Since Junco is multi-classed, we will not dump STR or WIS points, and since he is scholarly in demeanor, we will keep INT as is as well. There are no minimum requirements for clerics or fighters in OD&D. Since he has 11 and 9 in his prime requisite scores (respectively), Junco does not earn a bonus to his earned experience points.

Dwarf Abilities:  

1. They have a high level of magic resistance, and they thus add four levels when rolling saving throws (a 3rd level dwarf equals a 6th level human)
2. They are the only characters able to fully employ the +3 Magic War Hammer
3. They note slanting passages, traps, shifting walls and new construction in underground settings
4. They are able to speak the languages of Gnomes, Kobolds and Goblins in addition to the usual tongues.

Cleric Abilities:

1. Cast 2 1st-level spells per day, selected from: Cure Light Wounds, Purify Food & Water, Detect Magic, Detect Evil, Protection from Evil, and Light.
2. Turn Undead: Automatically turn away vs. Skeletons & Zombies, Ghouls on 7+ on 2d6, Wight's on 9+, Wraith's on 11+.

Fighting Man Abilities:

1. Able to use any weapons or armor

Attack Rolls:  As a 3rd-level Fighter, he strikes an unarmored opponent on a roll of 10+ on 1d20.

Saving Throws:

• Death/Poison:  8+ on d20.
• Wands/Polymorph/Paralyzation:  9+ on d20.
• Stone: 10+ on d20.
• Dragon Breath:  10+ on d20.
• Staves/Spells:  12+ on d20.

Skills/Proficiencies:  This is not a thing in this edition.

There is not much more to it than that, and this might be overly verbose, but since I will be comparing