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I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

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Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#121

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

dundarious wrote: post #102
est31 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Key size determines number of bytes the signature takes up, which is one of the determinants of the complexity of a QR code. I suppose if you don't know what you are doing, and want to reduce QR code complexity, you lower the key size. To turn up speculation to 100, this might also be a third world issue, because here in the west we have high quality smartphones with good cameras, but the smartphone cameras there mig…

Take a look at QR image in the post. I haven't seen a QR code in the first world that carries more data, especially not a printed one. It's doubtful they're optimizing for poor cameras or printers any more than is done in the first world, and to be clear, in the first world we still have to optimize for poor cameras and printers. Decreasing the message size while improving security would obviously be ideal and most l…

The EU covid certificates that I've seen have way more data (this one has 3x3 alignment markers, the certificates I've seen in production have 4x4).

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#122

Post by roca »

Ekaros wrote: post #116
roca wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current situation in Auckland, New Zealand provides very good evidence of vaccines reducing spread, though I don't think it has been written up in a paper yet. We've had < 10,000 confirmed COVID cases in Auckland so the vast majority of the 2M population cannot have natural immunity. Behavior restrictions have been relaxed gradually over the last two months, yet the COVID case numbers (which were increasing) have…

I wonder if seasonal variations have a effect. New Zealand is closing on summer, which my understanding was less bad in Europe.

Auckland's climate is pretty mild year-round.

Seasonality is a confounder, for sure, but I haven't heard any experts claim it as an explanation here.

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#123

Post by sushsjsuauahab »

roca wrote: post #114
d0gsg0w00f wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and this is why I have a problem with employer enforced mandates even though I'm vaccinated. The government taking away your right to work and support yourself based on some pretty flimsy data about the public good for something that should be a personal decision. Fact is, the vaccinated really shouldn't be losing much sleep over the unvaccinated other than maybe those dirty people might be taking up an ICU be…

Comparing failure to vaccinate with smoking or obesity are off the mark because it is not easy to quit smoking or overcome obesity. If there was an effective, cheap, safe and instant cure for smoking addiction or obesity and people refused to take it, societies would indeed by highly critical of those people consuming hospital resources.

It is not easy for me to vaccinate myself when I've had adverse reactions in the past.

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#124

Post by roca »

sushsjsuauahab wrote: post #123
roca wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing failure to vaccinate with smoking or obesity are off the mark because it is not easy to quit smoking or overcome obesity. If there was an effective, cheap, safe and instant cure for smoking addiction or obesity and people refused to take it, societies would indeed by highly critical of those people consuming hospital resources.

It is not easy for me to vaccinate myself when I've had adverse reactions in the past.

Sorry to hear that, but that's a small minority of people. And I hope you've talked to your doctor about it --- we're lucky with COVID to have a variety of vaccines with different makeups to choose from.

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#125

Post by sgtnoodle »

galaxyLogic wrote: post #71
sgtnoodle wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link you provided describes a simulation based on assumed vaccine effectiveness. It's also from 1 year ago. It doesn't seem to reflect any statistically backed insights into what's actually happened over the past year. Or am I missing something?

According to the following graph deaths per 100,000 people are: 18 for unvaccinated 3 for vaccinated. at the peak of the graph between July and October 2021. Doesn't that tell us that vaccinations help to significantly reduce Covid-deaths? https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-co...

Thanks for the link. For fun I downloaded the referenced CDC dataset. One thing I noticed is that the fraction of deaths per case for the vaccinated population was higher than for the unvaccinated population until July, at which point it "snapped" to match for the rest of the dataset. It seems like a curious anomaly.

https://imgur.com/a/QGJqs0S

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#126

Post by dlsa »

This kind of breach isn't possible in Australia since their laws can beat the laws of math. Countries with less powerful laws are apparently not so lucky.

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/07/prime-minister-says-the-l...

(Yeah, tongue firmly in cheek. Laws of math oddly enough seem to work just fine for taxation, depreciation, etc etc)

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#127

Post by Eelongate »

roca wrote: post #114
d0gsg0w00f wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and this is why I have a problem with employer enforced mandates even though I'm vaccinated. The government taking away your right to work and support yourself based on some pretty flimsy data about the public good for something that should be a personal decision. Fact is, the vaccinated really shouldn't be losing much sleep over the unvaccinated other than maybe those dirty people might be taking up an ICU be…

Comparing failure to vaccinate with smoking or obesity are off the mark because it is not easy to quit smoking or overcome obesity. If there was an effective, cheap, safe and instant cure for smoking addiction or obesity and people refused to take it, societies would indeed by highly critical of those people consuming hospital resources.

Nah, it's really easy to never smoke. I've been not smoking my entire life. I think his comparison is dead on the mark. If people who choose to be unvaccinated can be vilified for taking up hospital beds, then so can people who choose to pick up a smoking habit.

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#128

Post by bellyfullofbac »

bigodbiel wrote: post #51
t0bia_s wrote: post #47

It is easier to find someone who give you just papers and flush your dose out. But anyway... Proof of anything based on digital ID is pointless and should be abandoned as soon as possible.

Security theatre, like washing streets with chlorine solution

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/opinion/coronavirus-airbo...

In hindsight, the washing was overreaction, but you do have to realize there wasn't enough knowledge in the beginning, and people were assuming the virus was like the influenza virus, and we usually (at least the common wisdom was) catch influenza through touching snot-laden surfaces. It didn't help when China was saying things like they found some viruses on surfaces after 3 days. Sure, but how much virus, i.e. would they be enough to make you sick? The lack of information also made the virus like a super monster, where any trace of it could be deadly...

Now that we've figured out the virus is airborne, I'm a bit disappointed that governments haven't focused on good ventilation, but still on disinfecting and keeping distance. Where I live the bus can be full of people but it seems the governments are saying "It'll be fine to sit so close to each other if you have a mask on", and people also don't know any better...

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#129

Post by Eelongate »

roca wrote: post #115
dvt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good! Keep it up. Let things be, enough of this vaccine pass comrade BS. You're going to get heavily downvoted, but I totally agree. The vaccine pass is a complete farce. I even have non-technical friends that have faked vaccine passes. For someone even remotely technical, it's trivial to Photoshop. If only we had the same fervor when it comes to demonizing weight gain, we could save 10x more lives.

If only there was a super cheap, safe, effective and instant medical treatment that could prevent obesity or at least its negative health effects. Because if there was, and yet obese people refused to take it and consequently soaked up a lot of health-care resources, you can be sure they would be demonized just as much as people who refuse to take COVID vaccines.

> If only there was a super cheap, safe, effective and instant medical treatment that could prevent obesity or at least its negative health effects.

It's called "don't overeat" and it's cheaper than the alternative. Virtually all massively obese people eat massive portions compared to the rest of us. They always have inane excuses about "glandular problems" and "genetics" but I've seen how they eat and I believe what my eyes tell me more than I believe the claims the fatties make about themselves. I've seen people wolf down five potatoes worth of mashed potatoes "as a snack" then tell me they eat normal portion sizes. Bullshit!

Re: I faked tons of Covid passes – “Weak Key Cryptography in real world”

#130

Post by pier25 »

galaxyLogic wrote: post #63
pier25 wrote: post #28

Here in Mexico the gov issued vaccination certificates always have errors. People have resorted to downloading the PDF and "hacking it" (editing it in Acrobat). Nobody ever actually checks whether the certificate is valid or not.

I think most people who are smart enough to fake the certificate are smart enough to get vaccinated. What do you win by using a fake certificate vs. getting protected by the vaccine?

You're missing the point. They got vaccinated but the certificate has errors.
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