Hi all,

just a test, if you can properly decode this voice message,
with, for example, Richard's winhexhex program.

https://voca.ro/1gwCT60jHOA7

https://github.com/stefanclaas/bin2nato

Regards
Stefan

On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 16:32:10 +0200
Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> just a test, if you can properly decode this voice message,
> with, for example, Richard's winhexhex program.
>
> https://voca.ro/1gwCT60jHOA7
>
> https://github.com/stefanclaas/bin2nato
>
> Regards
> Stefan

You could publish the audio file in the clear instead of hiding it
behind javascript and google analytics. If I can't access with Lynx or
wget, I won't access.

Maybe encode the audio as base64 and send that to the newsgroup? Or
maybe you could push the audio file to a git repo that is accessible
via git CLI?

Many of don't open sites in browsers with javascript. I barely trust my
bank enough for that.

No Thank You wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 16:32:10 +0200
> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > just a test, if you can properly decode this voice message,
> > with, for example, Richard's winhexhex program.
> >
> > https://voca.ro/1gwCT60jHOA7
> >
> > https://github.com/stefanclaas/bin2nato
> >
> > Regards
> > Stefan
>
> You could publish the audio file in the clear instead of hiding it
> behind javascript and google analytics. If I can't access with Lynx or
> wget, I won't access.
>
> Maybe encode the audio as base64 and send that to the newsgroup? Or
> maybe you could push the audio file to a git repo that is accessible
> via git CLI?
>
> Many of don't open sites in browsers with javascript. I barely trust
> my bank enough for that.
>

Oh, sorry about that! Can you download via Tor Browser, because I just
have set up an .onion Server on my PC, which was the fastest way for me.

<http://vwz25chapbgqmbnrcadbpahwvwrnacgilgoakcxr46xeqbzlu6xvslad.onion>

wget or lynx should work fine with Tor and socat, IIRC.

Regards
Stefan

On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 18:40:58 +0200
Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> wrote:

[-snip-]

> Oh, sorry about that! Can you download via Tor Browser, because I just
> have set up an .onion Server on my PC, which was the fastest way for
> me.
>
> <http://vwz25chapbgqmbnrcadbpahwvwrnacgilgoakcxr46xeqbzlu6xvslad.onion>
>
> wget or lynx should work fine with Tor and socat, IIRC.
>
> Regards
> Stefan

The audio file deflates even more than the text of the HTML page.
That's a clue in the age of compressed audio formats.

Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:

> just a test, if you can properly decode this voice message,
> with, for example, Richard's winhexhex program.
>
> https://voca.ro/1gwCT60jHOA7
>
> https://github.com/stefanclaas/bin2nato

I don't know what you are asking, so maybe I am not in your target
audience. I don't know what winhexhex is, so I don't know if I have
anything else I should be trying.

--
Ben.

Ben Bacarisse wrote:

> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:
>
> > just a test, if you can properly decode this voice message,
> > with, for example, Richard's winhexhex program.
> >
> > https://voca.ro/1gwCT60jHOA7
> >
> > https://github.com/stefanclaas/bin2nato
>
> I don't know what you are asking, so maybe I am not in your target
> audience. I don't know what winhexhex is, so I don't know if I have
> anything else I should be trying.
>

It is just HEX value to decode with xxd, for example.

Regards
Stefan

On 29/09/2023 06:06, Stefan Claas wrote:
> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>
>> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:
>>
>>> just a test, if you can properly decode this voice message,
>>> with, for example, Richard's winhexhex program.
>>>
>>> https://voca.ro/1gwCT60jHOA7

This is just a computer-voice saying one-alpha, two-bravo,
three-charlie, etc. It's a really annoyingly slow way to post some hex.

>>>
>>> https://github.com/stefanclaas/bin2nato
>>
>> I don't know what you are asking, so maybe I am not in your target
>> audience. I don't know what winhexhex is, so I don't know if I have
>> anything else I should be trying.
>>
>
> It is just HEX value to decode with xxd, for example.

So why not just post xxd's output?

00000000: 4865 6c6c 6f20 576f 726c 642e 2047 7265
00000010: 6574 696e 6773 2066 726f 6d20 4765 726d
00000020: 616e 792e

Which is just "Hello World. Greetings from Germany."

</shrug>

Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:

> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>
>> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:
>>
>> > just a test, if you can properly decode this voice message,
>> > with, for example, Richard's winhexhex program.
>> >
>> > https://voca.ro/1gwCT60jHOA7
>> >
>> > https://github.com/stefanclaas/bin2nato
>>
>> I don't know what you are asking, so maybe I am not in your target
>> audience. I don't know what winhexhex is, so I don't know if I have
>> anything else I should be trying.
>
> It is just HEX value to decode with xxd, for example.

So are you asking if I can take some audio data, render it in hex and
then render that hex back into the original data bytes? I can't imagine
that this is what you are asking, but if so, yes. I am confident that I
could, in principle, do that.

--
Ben.

Ben Bacarisse wrote:

> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:

> > It is just HEX value to decode with xxd, for example.
>
> So are you asking if I can take some audio data, render it in hex and
> then render that hex back into the original data bytes? I can't
> imagine that this is what you are asking, but if so, yes. I am
> confident that I could, in principle, do that.

Yes, the idea behind it would be to transmit small binary (encrypted)
blobs via voice lines and decode them, to obtain the original message.

I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice quality
was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.

Regards
Stefan

Stefan Claas wrote:
> I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice quality
> was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.

@Richard Harnden

> This is just a computer-voice saying one-alpha, two-bravo,
> three-charlie, etc. It's a really annoyingly slow way to post some
> hex.

Sorry for not replying properly. My News Service Provider has blocked
Google Groups users, in sci.crypt, because of spam. Maybe you and other
GG regulars can use a free NNTP Server, eternal-september or individual
etc.

(I have seen your message on news.mixmin.net, but can't post from there,
because this service was also abused, a while ago.)

Regards
Stefan

On 29/09/2023 17:47, Stefan Claas wrote:
> Stefan Claas wrote:
>
>> I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice quality
>> was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.
>
> @Richard Harnden
>
>> This is just a computer-voice saying one-alpha, two-bravo,
>> three-charlie, etc. It's a really annoyingly slow way to post some
>> hex.
>
> Sorry for not replying properly. My News Service Provider has blocked
> Google Groups users, in sci.crypt, because of spam. Maybe you and other
> GG regulars can use a free NNTP Server, eternal-september or individual
> etc.

But I do use eternal-september, although with a gmail address. Google
Groups is simply unusable.

Richard Harnden wrote:

> On 29/09/2023 17:47, Stefan Claas wrote:
> > Stefan Claas wrote:
> >
> >> I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice
> >> quality was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.
> >
> > @Richard Harnden
> >
> >> This is just a computer-voice saying one-alpha, two-bravo,
> >> three-charlie, etc. It's a really annoyingly slow way to post some
> >> hex.
> >
> > Sorry for not replying properly. My News Service Provider has
> > blocked Google Groups users, in sci.crypt, because of spam. Maybe
> > you and other GG regulars can use a free NNTP Server,
> > eternal-september or individual etc.
>
> But I do use eternal-september, although with a gmail address.
> Google Groups is simply unusable.

Ah, ok. Now your posting appears here, on e-s.

Regards
Stefan

Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:

> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>
>> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:
>
>> > It is just HEX value to decode with xxd, for example.
>>
>> So are you asking if I can take some audio data, render it in hex and
>> then render that hex back into the original data bytes? I can't
>> imagine that this is what you are asking, but if so, yes. I am
>> confident that I could, in principle, do that.
>
> Yes,

Did you mean no? What you go on to say seems unrelated to what I
just guessed you were asking.

> the idea behind it would be to transmit small binary (encrypted)
> blobs via voice lines and decode them, to obtain the original message.

Are you re-inventing steganography?

> I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice quality
> was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.

So you were just asking for the audio clip to be listened to? What does
winhexhex have to do with listening to audio?

--
Ben.

On 29/09/2023 20:05, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:
>
>> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>>
>>> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:
>>
>>>> It is just HEX value to decode with xxd, for example.
>>>
>>> So are you asking if I can take some audio data, render it in hex and
>>> then render that hex back into the original data bytes? I can't
>>> imagine that this is what you are asking, but if so, yes. I am
>>> confident that I could, in principle, do that.
>>
>> Yes,
>
> Did you mean no? What you go on to say seems unrelated to what I
> just guessed you were asking.
>
>> the idea behind it would be to transmit small binary (encrypted)
>> blobs via voice lines and decode them, to obtain the original message.
>
> Are you re-inventing steganography?

I don't think so; this is just spoken hex digits.

>
>> I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice quality
>> was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.

It's just a computer voice. Painfully slow, but it's only reading out
hex-pairs in Nato speak.

>
> So you were just asking for the audio clip to be listened to? What does
> winhexhex have to do with listening to audio?

I don't know what winhexhex is, but: Nothing

>

All the audio file is (in an xxd friendly format) is:

00000000: 4865 6c6c 6f20 576f 726c 642e 2047 7265
00000010: 6574 696e 6773 2066 726f 6d20 4765 726d
00000020: 616e 792e

Which is just "Hello World. Greetings from Germany."

Ben Bacarisse wrote:

> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:

> > the idea behind it would be to transmit small binary (encrypted)
> > blobs via voice lines and decode them, to obtain the original
> > message.
>
> Are you re-inventing steganography?

No. I would say it is like Number Stations, which broadcast
encrypted voice messages over radio.

> > I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice quality
> > was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.
>
> So you were just asking for the audio clip to be listened to? What
> does winhexhex have to do with listening to audio?

Yes. Richard's winhexhex.c can be used, like xxd, for decoding the
HEX values (written down) to it's original message.

Regards
Stefan

Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:

> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>
>> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:
>
>> > the idea behind it would be to transmit small binary (encrypted)
>> > blobs via voice lines and decode them, to obtain the original
>> > message.
>>
>> Are you re-inventing steganography?
>
> No. I would say it is like Number Stations, which broadcast
> encrypted voice messages over radio.

I see.

I was led astray because I don't click links unless they are to
obviously interesting resources.

--
Ben.

Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> writes:

> On 29/09/2023 20:05, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>> Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:

>>> I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice quality
>>> was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.
>
> It's just a computer voice. Painfully slow, but it's only reading out
> hex-pairs in Nato speak.

I see, thanks. Sorry for the noise.

--
Ben.

Richard Harnden wrote:

> On 29/09/2023 20:05, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
> > Stefan Claas <stefan@mailchuck.com> writes:

> >> I was asking for this, because I wanted to know if the voice
> >> quality was good and not to fast etc. Hence this test.
>
> It's just a computer voice. Painfully slow, but it's only reading
> out hex-pairs in Nato speak.

If your smartphone is compromised with an undetectable
Government Trojan, this is the way IMHO to go, to speak out,
slowly, or as fast as you can, small secret messages,
over voice lines.

Additionally one can use this outside too, with for example
a GPD MicroPC [1], which is not connected to the Internet and
fits nicely in a pocket.

To encrypt such messages one can use FPE [2] (Format Preserving
Encryption) to keep the encrypted text as short as the plain
text, prior converting to NATO/HEX [3], or the German Buchstabiertafel.

[1] http://www.gpd.hk/gpdmicropc
[2] an example: https://github.com/stefanclaas/adiantum
[3] another example: https://github.com/stefanclaas/bin2NATO

Regards
Stefan