From: Eric Hughes <hughes@soda.berkeley.edu>
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 93 12:39:02 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Real-time BBS Encryption??
In-Reply-To: <01930407174710/0005857625DC2EM@mcimail.com>
Message-ID: <9304071935.AA26846@soda.berkeley.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Re: encrypting modem links

>I'm wondering if there is a way to do this with PCs?  

Yes, with difficulty, and not transparently.

>Is there a way to encrypt a remote users entire connection with
>the BBS, so that they would have to have a special term program to access
>the system?  

For PC's, replacing the terminal software is really the best way.
There is no effective abstraction of serial port hardware in the PC
world.  The int 0x14 driver in the BIOS was rampantly defective, and
MSDOS does not provide a standard interface.

As a result, almost all comm software on PC's talks to the serial port
directly.  Now in MS Windows, there is abstraction for ther serial
ports, but I don't know how easy it is to insert a device layer.

>It would be best if the user only had to load a device driver
>or something so that they wouldn't all have to use the same comm program.

It might be possible, using a 386, to make a driver that acted as if
it were hardware but actually did encryption.  Ick.  Reliability and
cross-program compatibility would be shit.  And it would have to be
made compatible with whatever else was taking over the 386.

Remember: I hate DOS.

Eric