Crypto Sardines

This page contains the inspired work of Alex Stewart (aka Riche), and his friend Rui Mendez. They wrote a version of the rsa-perl script which looks like a sardine! Several variations of this follow, please note they all still run, and are valid fully working non-US exportable perl scripts implementing RSA encryption. For Alex's exposition of this amazing feat in combined ascii art and perl hackery read on ...

Riche, in email:


At one point, some time back, some friends and I were conversing online about various things, and as it happened, the conversation turned to one of sardines, for some reason or other which I can't recall at this particular time.. Another, parallel conversation which was also occurring at the time happened to be discussing the RSA PERL crypto-sig, your web pages, and related issues. Anyway, as things are often wont to do when one is conversing online far too late into the wee hours of the morning, these two threads managed to merge themselves inextricably, and, well, one thing just kinda led to another, and, well..

It is my pleasure to present to you the first ever known specimen in captivity of the North American RSA Crypto-Sardine (sardina cryptographicus), captured for your perusal by myself (Alex Stewart <riche@crl.com>), and by my associate, Rui Mendez <azuki@di.uminho.pt>:


#!/usr/local/bin/perl -s-- -export-a-crypto-sardine -RSA-6-line-PERL-fish
'\~.         __......--------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------....____
 \  ~.__---~';($k,$n)=@ARGV;$m=unpack(H.$w,$m."\0"x$w),$_=`echo  "[o~~-._
  \  ]s!16do$w 2+4Oi0$d*-^1[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*La1=z\U$n%0]SX$k"[$m*]"\E[     ~.
  /  ]s!szlXx++p"|dc`,s/^.|\W//g,print pack('H*',$_)while read(STDIN,$m," .'
 /  .-~~--.._" +($w=2*$d-1+length($n||die"$0 [-d] k n\n")&~1)/2);'  __..-~
,/.~         ~~~~----........._______________________.......-----~~'

And yes, as you are no doubt pondering, the above sardine is, in fact, also a valid and executable PERL script, which is perfectly compatible with existing crypto-sig software.

But then I got to thinking.. How do we know this specimen is, in fact, actually a sardine and not some fishy imposter? Well, I cleverly devised a test. If it is indeed a sardine, then it must be possible to pack it tightly with others of its kind in traditional sardine fashion.. And so:


#!/usr/local/bin/perl -s-- -export-a-crypto-sardine -RSA-PERL-fishes
'\~.         __......--------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------....____
 \  ~.__---~ ;($k,$n)=@ARGV;$m=unpack(H.$w,$m."\0"x$w),$_=`echo  "[o~~-._
`\~.         __......--------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------....____     ~.
 \  ~.__---~ ;($k,$n)=@ARGV;$m=unpack(H.$w,$m."\0"x$w),$_=`echo  "[o~~-._ .`
`\~.         __......--------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------....____     ~.
 \  ~.__---~';($k,$n)=@ARGV;$m=unpack(H.$w,$m."\0"x$w),$_=`echo  "[o~~-._ .'
  \  ]s!16do$w 2+4Oi0$d*-^1[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*La1=z\U$n%0]SX$k"[$m*]"\E[     ~.
  /  ]s!szlXx++p"|dc`,s/^.|\W//g,print pack('H*',$_)while read(STDIN,$m," .'
 /  .-~~--.._" +($w=2*$d-1+length($n||die"$0 [-d] k n\n")&~1)/2);'  __..-~
,/.~         ~~~~----........._______________________.......-----~~'

Yes, indeed, it does in fact not only pack well with its sardinian buddies, but the above even also functions as an executable script, just like its solitary counterpart (in fact, it's even possible to duplicate the 3rd and 4th lines of the 10-line script as many times as desired (producing additional fish), while retaining its functionality). I am therefore confident in my analysis of this specimen as definitely a sardine variety crypto-fish.

At this point it also occurred to me that now we have all these verified crypto-sardines all over the place, we would undoubtedly soon need some form of container to prevent them from getting out of hand.. I therefore present to you my last development in this area to date, the crypto-sardine can:


#!/usr/local/bin/perl -s-- -export-a-crypto-sardine -RSA-PERL-fishes
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|\~.         __......--------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------....____        |
|\  ~.__---~ ;($k,$n)=@ARGV;$m=unpack(H.$w,$m."\0"x$w),$_=`echo  "[o~~-._   |
|\~.         __......--------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------....____     ~. |
|\  ~.__---~ ;($k,$n)=@ARGV;$m=unpack(H.$w,$m."\0"x$w),$_=`echo  "[o~~-._ .`|
|\~.         __......--------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------....____     ~. |
|\  ~.__---~';($k,$n)=@ARGV;$m=unpack(H.$w,$m."\0"x$w),$_=`echo  "[o~~-._ .'|
| \  ]s!16do$w 2+4Oi0$d*-^1[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*La1=z\U$n%0]SX$k"[$m*]"\E[     ~. |
| /  ]s!szlXx++p"|dc`,s/^.|\W//g,print pack('H*',$_)while read(STDIN,$m," .'|
|/  .-~~--.._" +($w=2*$d-1+length($n||die"$0 [-d] k n\n")&~1)/2);'  __..-~  |
|~-------------------------------------------------------------------------~|
|                            Crypto Canning Co.                             |
|                    http://www.cypherspace.org/~adam/rsa/                  |
`---------------------------------------------------------------------------'

So far little is known about the feeding, migration, or mating patterns of this new specimen, but tests and monitoring in these areas are continuing..

-alex
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Alex Stewart - riche@crl.com - Richelieu @ Diversity University MOO
                         http://www.crl.com/~riche/
            "Difficult answers lead to intelligent questions."

Comments, html bugs to me (Adam Back) at <adam@cypherspace.org>