Re: In the news: Soon to be published, Skype back-door trojan code?

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On Monday 31 August 2009, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
>On Monday 31 August 2009 00:02:26 Roberto Ragusa wrote:
>> People studied Skype:
>>
>>   http://www.recon.cx/en/f/vskype-part1.pdf
>>   http://www.recon.cx/en/f/vskype-part2.pdf
>>
>> and found that it contains tons and tons of cryptography,
>> obfuscation and countermeasures against debugging or reverse
>> engineering.
>>
>> A closed source code like that and with an explicit
>> purpose to build a crypted P2P network bypassing firewalls
>> with every trick possible is something to be nervous
>> about.
>
>But that is just one more reason to reverse-engineer the protocol, teach
> Ekiga to use it, and thus circumvent all malicious things skype is built
> do to, right?
>
>As for the firewalls, using every possible trick to bypass them is a
> feature, in my view. I typically use skype between machines both of which
> are behind some NAT, and it is a Good Thing to be able to do that. I know,
> it's ugly, I have to use third party bandwidth, but it is better than not
> being able to make calls at all. I would wish to see the same thing
> implemented in Ekiga, maybe more people would start using it.
>
>> The code constantly checks itself (this is why it uses a
>> lot of CPU) and it decides things it should not (it was
>> said that Intel convinced Skype to cripple multiconference
>> on AMD CPUs to improve the reputation of Intel CPUs).
>
>Again, if we teach Ekiga to speak skype, we would have a client that is
>faster, less bloated, open source and being able to communicate even with
>those who are ignorant about skype misbehaving.
>
>If we don't, most of us will be pushed to use that misbehaved binary
>ourselves, which is the current situation.
>
>> I'd like a good alternative to Skype, even _without_
>> Skype compatibility.
>
>I tried to convince one of my friends to use Ekiga. Other than technical
>problems he grudged about, the main argument against it was that all of his
>contacts already use skype, and don't see the benefit of switching.
> Therefore, he is better off using it as well, than trying to convince them
> all to switch.
>
>Skype has a very large userbase by now, and it seems that interoperability
> is the only viable strategy of getting Ekiga or some other open source
> client to gain decent userbase. Otherwise people will simply continue to
> use skype, with all its flaws and quirks.
>
>Best, :-)
>Marko

Skype has a signup that vz doesn't block, or cannot block.  I have attempted 
to sign up for an account with ekiga on at least 4 occasions now, also 
twinkle, and the  confirming email which must be replied to never arrives for 
any of those services, which prevents a vz sub (only game in town) from 
getting to first base.  Which is another reason skype has a liplock on this.  
Me, I'd druther sue vz for not being a common carrier, which they _claim_ to 
be.  Yeah, sure they are....

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
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